Build a PC
A budget and a purpose. Every part is chosen for the job, checked against every other part for fit, and explained. Prices are Amazon US readings from ScoutPrices where one exists, typical where not: the Amazon page decides.
Start from a build people pick
Live from the catalogue- Office & everyday for $1,000Intel Core i3-14100FASRock Intel Arc B580 Challenger 12GB OC$1,000 all in, 8 parts, fit 56 of 10056fitOpen this build
- Gaming for $1,500Intel Core i3-14100FSapphire Pulse Radeon RX 9070 XT 16GB$1,497 all in, 8 parts, fit 62 of 10062fitOpen this build
- Content creation for $3,000Intel Core Ultra 7 270K PlusGeForce RTX 5070 Ti$2,979 all in, 8 parts, fit 82 of 10082fitOpen this build
Every row is worked out from today's catalogue. Open one, then change anything.
Capable
$1,500 for light gaming
Tuned for 1080p frame rates per dollar.
Esports and indie titles at 1080p, high settings, well past 60 FPS. Judged by the card's 1080p index, floor 30, at the job's own resolution.
This build
$1,553
Budget
$1,500
Over budget
$53
Parts
8
The AMD Ryzen 5 8400F and the ASRock Intel Arc B580 Steel Legend 12GB OC White are well matched at 1080p.
A part marked Amazon US shows ScoutPrices' reading of the listing its button opens, with the day it was read; a part with no reading shows its typical price. The parts were chosen on typical prices, so a total can land a little over the budget when the shops move. Not a checkout total: an operating system, shipping and tax are not in it, and neither are a screen, a keyboard and a mouse.
Highest light gaming score the budget allows next to this card: 6 cores, boosts to 4.7 GHz.
B650 board for the AM5 socket, DDR5, 3 M.2 slots, Wi-Fi.
32 GB DDR5 at 6400 MT/s CL32; 16 GB or more is the floor for light gaming.
12 GB of video memory, index 35 at 1080p; tuned for 1080p frame rates per dollar.
Rated 250 W for a chip that turbos to 88 W, with lit fans.
750 W, 80 Plus gold; this build draws about 450 W at full tilt, native 12V-2x6 cable.
3 fans in the box, 3 of them lit, 3 is the least 278 W of parts needs behind a mesh front. Takes EATX/ATX/MATX/ITX boards and cards up to 410 mm.
2 swaps that still fit
- Fractal Design Pop Air RGB Whitesame price, -10 ptsBuy on Amazon
- Corsair 4000D RS ARGB White+$5, -3 ptsBuy on Amazon
Is another $500 worth it?
Same job, same brand choices, only the budget moves one step. These are the parts that change.
Every ready build
The list this page works out, at every step of every job, each on a page of its own. Nothing here is a suggestion from a magazine: the parts are checked against each other and priced.
Office PC
Browsing, documents, video calls, streaming films.
PC for programming
IDEs, compilers, containers, a few virtual machines.
Budget gaming PC
Esports and indie titles at 1080p, high frame rates.
Gaming PC
Big titles at 1440p, high settings.
4K gaming PC
4K, ray tracing, or 240 Hz at 1440p.
Video editing PC
Video editing, photo work, motion graphics.
PC for 3D and rendering
Blender, CAD, simulation, long renders.
Streaming PC
Playing at 1440p while encoding a live stream.