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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 typical, not live: the Amazon page decides.

Start from a build people pick

Live from the catalogue
  1. Office & everyday for $1,000AMD Ryzen 5 5500Radeon RX 6600$993 all in, 8 parts, fit 53 of 10053fitOpen this build
  2. Gaming for $1,500Intel Core i5-14600KFRadeon RX 7700 XT$1,498 all in, 8 parts, fit 62 of 10062fitOpen this build
  3. Content creation for $3,000Intel Core Ultra 7 270K PlusGeForce RTX 5070 Ti$2,989 all in, 8 parts, fit 82 of 10082fitOpen this build

Every row is worked out from today's catalogue. Open one, then change anything.

  1. 1Pick a budget from the rail, in steps of $500
  2. 2Say how it should look: black or white, with RGB or without
  3. 3Say what the PC is for; a processor or graphics brand is optional
  4. 4A whole PC appears, the case with its fans; open the swaps or buy each part

A demonstration with example parts. Hover to pause.

Budget, in US dollars

Steps of $500. $2,000 is the least that buys every part a coding & development PC needs; past $7,000 the catalogue has nothing faster to add. A screen, keyboard and mouse come on top.

How it should look

Every part white, and nothing in the box lights up. 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.

What the PC is for
78Fit for the job

Enthusiast

$2,000 for coding & development

Tuned for cores for builds and containers, plenty of memory, fast storage, and a card for several screens or a local model.

$1,984 for 8 parts, $16 under budget

The Intel Core Ultra 7 270K Plus has headroom to spare. The Radeon RX 7700 XT sets the frame rate at 1440p, so a faster card is the upgrade that shows.

Lian Li Lancool 216RX 7700 XT750 W

Build order

Eight steps, the way a builder works through the case. $1,984 all in.

  1. ASRock B860 Challenger WiFi White on the tray
  2. Core Ultra 7 270K Plus in the socket
  3. Arctic Liquid Freezer III 240 on top
  4. 2 sticks of memory
  5. Crucial T705 1TB on the board
  6. RX 7700 XT in the x16 slot
  7. 750 W supply in the basement
  8. Panel on, power on
PartScore for the jobTypical priceBuy
ProcessorIntel Core Ultra 7 270K Plus

Highest coding & development score the budget allows next to this card: 24 cores, boosts to 5.5 GHz.

4 swaps that still fit
97
$324
Buy on Amazon
MotherboardASRock B860 Challenger WiFi White

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

68
$190
Buy on Amazon
MemoryCorsair Vengeance 32GB (2x16GB) DDR5-6000 CL30

32 GB DDR5 at 6000 MT/s CL30; 32 GB or more is the floor for coding & development.

2 swaps that still fit
80
$550
Buy on Amazon
Graphics cardRadeon RX 7700 XT

12 GB of video memory, index 43 at 1440p; tuned for cores for builds and containers, plenty of memory, fast storage, and a card for several screens or a local model.

4 swaps that still fit
39
$430
Buy on Amazon
CPU coolerArctic Liquid Freezer III 240

Rated 280 W for a chip that turbos to 250 W.

2 swaps that still fit
88
$51
Buy on Amazon
Power supplyCorsair RM750e

750 W, 80 Plus gold; this build draws about 700 W at full tilt, native 12V-2x6 cable.

2 swaps that still fit
80
$90
Buy on Amazon
CaseLian Li Lancool 216

3 fans in the box, 3 is the least 495 W of parts needs behind a mesh front. Takes EATX/ATX/MATX/ITX boards and cards up to 392 mm.

4 swaps that still fit
90
$99
Buy on Amazon
StorageCrucial T705 1TB

1 TB PCIe 5.0 NVMe, 13,600 MB/s reads, with cache.

4 swaps that still fit
92
$250
Buy on Amazon
Total, typical prices8 parts$1,984

Is another $500 worth it?

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

+$500$2,487 all in, fit 84 +6
  • Graphics cardRadeon RX 9070 XT instead of Radeon RX 7700 XT
  • CPU coolerArctic Liquid Freezer III Pro 360 instead of Arctic Liquid Freezer III 240
  • Power supplyLian Li Edge 1000W instead of Corsair RM750e
  • CaseFractal Design Torrent instead of Lian Li Lancool 216
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.