Skip to content
ScoutSpecs

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.

Budget, in US dollars

Steps of $500. $1,500 is the least that buys every part a light gaming PC needs in full rgb; past $7,500 the catalogue has nothing faster to add. A screen, keyboard and mouse come on top.

What the PC is for
How it should look

Every part that can light up does, in whatever colour it comes. The case, the cooler, the board, the card, the supply and the memory follow the colour; the case's fans, the cooler, the board and the memory follow the lighting. A drive has no colour and a supply does not glow, so neither is asked to match. A look costs money, so the budget rail moves with it.

Checked for fit before it reaches you.

Start from a build people pick

Live from the catalogue
  1. 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
  2. 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
  3. 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.

76Fit for the job

Enthusiast

$2,000 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

$2,102

Budget

$2,000

Over budget

$102

Parts

8

The Intel Core Ultra 5 250K Plus and the PowerColor Hellhound Spectral White Radeon RX 9070 XT 16GB 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.

PartScore for the jobPriceBuy
ProcessorIntel Core Ultra 5 250K Plus

Highest light gaming score the budget allows next to this card: 18 cores, boosts to 5.3 GHz.

2 swaps that still fit
79
$217Amazon US, Oct 24
Buy on Amazon
MotherboardGigabyte B860 Aorus Elite WiFi7

B860 board for the LGA1851 socket, DDR5, 3 M.2 slots, Wi-Fi.

76
$170typical price
Buy on Amazon
MemoryTeamGroup T-Force Delta RGB 32GB (2x16GB) DDR5-6000 CL30

32 GB DDR5 at 6000 MT/s CL30; 16 GB or more is the floor for light gaming.

80
$495Amazon US, Oct 24
Buy on Amazon
Graphics cardPowerColor Hellhound Spectral White Radeon RX 9070 XT 16GB

16 GB of video memory, index 77 at 1080p; tuned for 1080p frame rates per dollar.

1 swap that still fit
77
$850Amazon US, Oct 24
Buy on Amazon
CPU coolerThermalright Peerless Assassin 120 SE ARGB

Rated 250 W for a chip that turbos to 159 W, with lit fans.

1 swap that still fit
84
$33Amazon US, Oct 24
Buy on Amazon
Power supplyCorsair CX750

750 W, 80 Plus bronze; this build draws about 650 W at full tilt.

1 swap that still fit
58
$80Amazon US, Oct 24
Buy on Amazon
CaseNZXT H7 Flow RGB (2024) White

3 fans in the box, 3 of them lit, 3 is the least 463 W of parts needs behind a mesh front. Takes EATX/ATX/MATX/ITX boards and cards up to 410 mm.

1 swap that still fit
87
$100Amazon US, Oct 24
Buy on Amazon
StorageKingston NV3 1TB

1 TB PCIe 4.0 NVMe, 6,000 MB/s reads.

58
$157Amazon US, Oct 24
Buy on Amazon
Total8 parts, 7 read on Amazon US and 1 typical$2,102

Is another $500 worth it?

Same job, same brand choices, only the budget moves one step. These are the parts that change.

-$500$1,462 all in, fit 59 -17
  • ProcessorAMD Ryzen 5 9600X instead of Intel Core Ultra 5 250K Plus
  • MotherboardASUS ROG Strix B650-A Gaming WiFi instead of Gigabyte B860 Aorus Elite WiFi7
  • Graphics cardASRock Intel Arc B580 Steel Legend 12GB OC White instead of PowerColor Hellhound Spectral White Radeon RX 9070 XT 16GB
  • Power supplybe quiet! Pure Power 12 M 750W instead of Corsair CX750
See the step down+$500$2,468 all in, fit 85 +9
  • ProcessorAMD Ryzen 7 9850X3D instead of Intel Core Ultra 5 250K Plus
  • MotherboardASUS ROG Strix B850-A Gaming WiFi instead of Gigabyte B860 Aorus Elite WiFi7
  • Power supplySuper Flower Leadex VII XG 1000W instead of Corsair CX750
  • StorageCrucial T705 1TB instead of Kingston NV3 1TB
See what the step up buys
Already own some of these?Take this build's processor and board into the matcher and fill only the gaps.Upgrading instead of starting over?Check the PC you have first; the one part holding it back may be the only one worth buying.

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.

PC for local AI models

Running language and image models on your own card.