PC configurator
Tell us your budget and what the PC is for — we'll pick the parts and check they work together.
Budget
How much do you want to spend on the computer?
What will you use this computer for?
Your answer decides which part gets the largest share of the budget.
Size
Should the computer be as small as possible?
Assembly by the store
Should the store put the computer together for you?
Summary
What this configurator does
The configurator picks a complete set of parts for the figure you give it, and checks that those parts work together. We aren't a store — we hold no stock and set no prices of our own, so we have no reason to steer you towards a more expensive build than you need.
What you get is the full list: processor, graphics card, motherboard, memory, drive, power supply, case and cooler. Each line shows a price and the store that price applies at.
What you need to know before you start
Two things: what you want to spend, and what the PC is for. Everything else is optional.
You don't need to know part names or how much memory you need. If you do have specific requirements — a particular graphics card brand, a small case, air cooling rather than liquid — you can state them, and we'll treat them as requirements rather than hints.
What the PC is for changes the split of your money more than people expect. In a gaming build the largest share goes to the graphics card, because that is what draws the picture in games. In a video editing build, more goes to the processor, memory and storage. The same budget therefore produces two different computers, and both are right — as long as you tell us which one you need.
You can also name parts you already own. They don't count against your budget, so the whole amount goes to the rest of the build — which is how you plan an upgrade to an older machine.
What a PC costs
This is the most common question and it has no lasting answer. Part prices move from week to week, graphics cards most of all, so a figure from a guide written six months ago rarely still holds.
Rather than quote a number that will age, we keep ready builds at successive budget levels and recalculate them as prices move. You can see what a given figure buys today.
In practice the graphics card decides which level you are at. Below a certain figure a machine without a dedicated card makes more sense than a weak card bolted onto everything else — and there we offer a home and office build instead of pretending it is gaming hardware.
What you don't have to check yourself
Parts that don't fit together usually reveal themselves after delivery, when returning them is late or awkward. A graphics card longer than the case, a cooler taller than the side panel, memory of a generation the board doesn't take, a power supply without the right connector.
We check those relationships on every build — from the processor socket, through card length and cooler height, to the clearance above tall memory modules. The checks are mechanical and they run every time, not on request.
Where a specification isn't available, we don't guess: we skip that check and list it with your build, so you know what is left for you to confirm before ordering.
What you end up with
We work the build out separately for each store, and again as a mixed version. You can see what one delivery from a single place costs against the cheapest possible combination of parts.
Where the budget has room for sensible substitutes, we add alternatives, so you can swap a single part without recalculating the whole build.
If money is left over that there's nothing sensible to spend it on, we say so plainly instead of adding a pricier part just to round the total up.
Do you have to assemble it yourself
No. Some stores will assemble a PC from parts bought there, and you can tell the configurator you want that — we'll then show only the stores that offer it.
There is one limit, and it comes from arithmetic rather than from us: a mixed build, with parts from several stores, has to be assembled by you. No seller will put together a machine from a competitor's components.
Sticking to a single store usually costs a little more, and buys you one delivery and the option of paying for assembly. Which way is worth it shows in the two prices — we put them side by side.
How this differs from a store's configurator
A store's configurator shows one seller's range and works in that seller's interest. Ours compares offers across several large stores and takes the cheapest one actually in stock — not the lowest figure visible somewhere, because an offer you can't buy isn't a price.
We earn a commission from the store when you buy through our link, and your price doesn't change because of it. Commission doesn't affect which parts we pick or how builds are ordered — no store can pay for a higher position.