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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 Amazon US readings from ScoutPrices where one exists, typical where not: the Amazon page decides.

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.

What the PC is for
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.

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.

95Fit for the job

Flagship

$9,000 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.

This build

$8,489

Budget

$9,000

Under budget

$511

Parts

9

Everything past this costs far more than the speed it adds, so the build stops at $7,978 rather than spend the rest of the budget on a bigger number. $1,022 is left for a screen, a keyboard and a mouse.

The Intel Core Ultra 7 270K Plus and the GeForce RTX 5090 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 7 270K Plus

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

97
$386Amazon US, Oct 24
Buy on Amazon
MotherboardASUS ROG Maximus Z890 Hero

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

2 swaps that still fit
98
$434Amazon US, Oct 24
Buy on Amazon
MemoryG.Skill Trident Z5 RGB 32GB (2x16GB) DDR5-6400 CL32

32 GB DDR5 at 6400 MT/s CL32; 16 GB or more is the floor for office & everyday.

4 swaps that still fit
85
$660Amazon US, Oct 24
Buy on Amazon
Graphics cardGeForce RTX 5090

32 GB of video memory, index 100 at 1080p; tuned for snappy single-core speed, quiet running, and a card that drives two or three screens without fuss.

Buying it opens Gigabyte AORUS GeForce RTX 5090 Xtreme WATERFORCE 32G, one of the boards built on this chip.

2 swaps that still fit
100
$4,830typical price
Buy on Amazon
CPU coolerArctic Liquid Freezer III Pro 360

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

4 swaps that still fit
96
$70Amazon US, Oct 24
Buy on Amazon
Power supplyCorsair HX1500i (2023)

1500 W, 80 Plus platinum; this build draws about 1100 W at full tilt, native 12V-2x6 cable.

2 swaps that still fit
98
$320Amazon US, Oct 24
Buy on Amazon
CaseLian Li O11 Dynamic Evo RGB

7 fans in the box, 7 of them lit, 5 is the least 825 W of parts needs behind a closed front. Takes EATX/ATX/MATX/ITX boards and cards up to 422 mm.

4 swaps that still fit
93
$295Amazon US, Oct 24
Buy on Amazon
StorageCrucial T705 4TB

4 TB PCIe 5.0 NVMe, 14,500 MB/s reads, with cache.

4 swaps that still fit
98
$634Amazon US, Oct 24
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
$860Amazon US, Oct 24
Buy on Amazon
Total9 parts, 8 read on Amazon US and 1 typical$8,489

Is another $500 worth it?

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

-$500$7,978 all in, fit 95 same

The same parts. The difference is money kept in your pocket.

See the step down+$500$7,978 all in, fit 95 same

The same parts. The difference is money kept in your pocket.

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.