Frequently Asked Questions

VantaSpec is a free UK price comparison site for PC hardware. Each product page puts the prices from UK retailers, the full specifications and the price history in one place, so you can see what a part costs today and whether that is a good price.

We currently compare AWD-IT, Scan, Overclockers UK, CCL Computers, Currys, Box, Novatech, Corsair, Ebuyer, Chillblast, Stormforce Gaming, Razer, MSI, SteelSeries, HyperX and Endgame Gear. We add retailers as they become available to us. Where we hold no price for a product, we say so rather than showing an empty comparison.

The most popular parts are re-checked at every shop each night, and the full lists of most shops (Overclockers, CCL, Box, Ebuyer, AWD-IT, Chillblast and Stormforce) are swept every night. Scan limits how many pages we can read, so its older prices are worked through a bit at a time, and Currys and Novatech are read on alternate nights. Every price shows when we read it. A price read more than 7 days ago is marked as possibly out of date, and past 14 days it is left out of build totals, deals and alerts. Prices are not live. Always confirm the price at the retailer before you buy.

Because prices change between our checks. Each price on VantaSpec shows when we last read it; if the retailer has changed it since, theirs is the one that counts. If a price looks wrong rather than just out of date, please tell us.

Not every retailer stocks every part, and we only show a price we have read from a retailer's own product page for that exact product. We would rather show one real price than pad the list with search links or guesses.

Every time a retailer's price changes we record it, and that price holds until the next change. The chart shows each retailer and, in bold, the cheapest price available at each moment. The lowest-price figures only count a price that held for at least six hours, so a momentary glitch is not quoted as a deal.

Not in the main price list or the price history. Refurbished, used and open-box offers are shown separately on the product page, so a second-hand price is never presented as a cheaper new one.

Some of our links to retailers are affiliate links: if you buy after clicking one, the retailer may pay us a small commission. It does not change the price you pay, and it never changes the order: prices are always listed cheapest first. The retailers page shows which shops pay us commission.

Give the build planner a budget and what the PC is for, and it puts together a complete build from parts we can price today. It tries every graphics card and processor against each other and fills the rest with the cheapest parts that fit: matching socket, memory type, case size, cooler and a power supply sized for the system. If nothing compatible fits the budget, it tells you the lowest budget that works.

The PC builder lets you choose each part yourself. It keeps a running total and checks compatibility as you go, including socket, memory type and power. With a free account you can save builds and share them.

Measured scores for processors and graphics cards come from Blender Open Data: real runs of the Blender benchmark, published into the public domain. Each product shows the median for its chip or processor model, beside the models nearest it. Some products also show figures we estimate from their specifications; those are always labelled as estimates, and every chart names its source.

We build specifications from manufacturer and retailer product pages, open product databases and a large public dataset of PC parts, and check them against each other. When two sources disagree about a product, we take it down until it is fixed rather than guess. If you spot an error, please let us know.

With a free account you can set an alert on any product, with or without a target price. We check alerts every 30 minutes against the cheapest current price and notify you in your notifications, and by email if you have turned that on. You will not be notified about the same alert more than once a day.

Yes. You can compare up to four products at once, with their specifications, prices and benchmark scores side by side.

Yes. With a free account you can submit a missing product from the Submit a Product page. Every submission is reviewed before it is published.

Use the contact page and tell us the product and what is wrong: a price, a specification, a photo or a link. We check every report.

Yes. Browsing, comparing, the build planner and the PC builder are all free. A free account adds saved builds, favourites, price alerts, the forum and product submissions.

No. We compare prices and information; when you click a price you go to the retailer's own site and buy from them.

19 categories: processors, graphics cards, motherboards, memory, SSDs, hard drives, PC cases, power supplies, CPU coolers, case fans, monitors, keyboards, mice, headsets, webcams, game controllers, microphones, complete prebuilt PCs and gaming laptops.

The prices we track are from UK retailers, in pounds. Changing the region in the navigation bar adds search links to retailers in that region, with our UK price converted as a rough guide; we do not track those retailers' own prices.