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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 9600XASRock Intel Arc B580 Challenger 12GB OC$997 all in, 8 parts, fit 65 of 10065fitOpen this build
  2. Gaming for $1,500AMD Ryzen 5 9600XSapphire Pulse Radeon RX 9070 XT 16GB$1,487 all in, 8 parts, fit 72 of 10072fitOpen this build
  3. Content creation for $3,000Intel Core Ultra 7 270K PlusGeForce RTX 5080$2,984 all in, 8 parts, fit 85 of 10085fitOpen 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. $1,000 is the least that buys every part an office & everyday PC needs; past $10,000 the catalogue has nothing faster to add. A screen, keyboard and mouse come on top.

How it should look

Whatever the budget buys best, 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.

What the PC is for
88Fit for the job

Enthusiast

$3,000 for office & everyday

Tuned for snappy single-core speed, quiet running, and a card that drives two or three screens without fuss.

A desk that never stutters: browser, documents, calls and 1080p video, on two or three screens. Judged by the processor's single-thread index, with a card only for the screens; no frame-rate target.

$2,948 for 9 parts, $52 under budget

The Intel Core Ultra 7 270K Plus and the Sapphire Pulse Radeon RX 9070 XT 16GB are well matched at 1080p.

An estimate of the parts at typical US prices read on 2026-09-09, not a live checkout total: an operating system, shipping and tax are not in it, and neither are a screen, a keyboard and a mouse.

Fractal Design TorrentSapphire Pulse Radeon RX 9070 XT 16GB1000 W

Build order

Eight steps, the way a builder works through the case. $2,948 all in.

  1. ASUS ROG Strix Z890-A Gaming WiFi on the tray
  2. Core Ultra 7 270K Plus in the socket
  3. Arctic Liquid Freezer III Pro 360 on top
  4. 2 sticks of memory
  5. Two drives on the board
  6. Sapphire Pulse Radeon RX 9070 XT 16GB in the x16 slot
  7. 1000 W supply in the basement
  8. Panel on, power on
PartScore for the jobTypical priceBuy
ProcessorIntel Core Ultra 7 270K Plus

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

3 swaps that still fit
97
$324
Buy on Amazon
MotherboardASUS ROG Strix Z890-A Gaming WiFi

Z890 board for the LGA1851 socket, DDR5, 5 M.2 slots, Wi-Fi.

2 swaps that still fit
92
$290
Buy on Amazon
MemoryCorsair Vengeance 48GB (2x24GB) DDR5-6000 CL30 White

48 GB DDR5 at 6000 MT/s CL30; 16 GB or more is the floor for office & everyday.

81
$139
Buy on Amazon
Graphics cardSapphire Pulse Radeon RX 9070 XT 16GB

16 GB of video memory, index 77 at 1080p; tuned for snappy single-core speed, quiet running, and a card that drives two or three screens without fuss.

4 swaps that still fit
69
$720
Buy on Amazon
CPU coolerArctic Liquid Freezer III Pro 360

Rated 330 W for a chip that turbos to 250 W.

3 swaps that still fit
96
$70
Buy on Amazon
Power supplySuper Flower Leadex VII XG 1000W

1000 W, 80 Plus gold; this build draws about 750 W at full tilt, native 12V-2x6 cable.

4 swaps that still fit
92
$140
Buy on Amazon
CaseFractal Design Torrent

5 fans in the box, 4 is the least 554 W of parts needs behind a mesh front. Takes EATX/ATX/MATX/ITX boards and cards up to 461 mm.

2 swaps that still fit
92
$205
Buy on Amazon
StorageSamsung 9100 Pro 2TB

2 TB PCIe 5.0 NVMe, 14,700 MB/s reads, with cache.

4 swaps that still fit
97
$400
Buy on Amazon
Second driveWD Black SN8100 4TB

4 TB for games, footage or models; the budget had room once every other slot was at its best.

99
$660
Buy on Amazon
Total, typical prices9 parts$2,948

Is another $500 worth it?

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

-$500$2,224 all in, fit 88 same
  • CaseLian Li Lancool 207 instead of Fractal Design Torrent
See the step down+$500$3,397 all in, fit 90 +2
  • MotherboardASUS ROG Maximus Z890 Hero instead of ASUS ROG Strix Z890-A Gaming WiFi
  • MemoryCorsair Vengeance 128GB (4x32GB) DDR5-6000 CL30 White instead of Corsair Vengeance 48GB (2x24GB) DDR5-6000 CL30 White
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.

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