Anyone else constantly torn between building a tiny ITX and a massive EATX system?

Vengance_01 said:
baller...

My servers are old and cheap:
NAS: HP micro NL-36 server with 5 4TB running freenas. It's 8 years old and it's still does what I need it to do :)

Plex/downloader
5 year old ITX system with a haswell Celeron and 8gb ram. Have a nice 4450s upgrade I got off of eBay to add a true quad core. To many remote ppl accessing my Plex server remotely now
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I'm in the same boat right now... making do with what I can scrounge up and it's working better then I expected :)

My current little PLEX server is an ancient HP Micro (1.5Ghz AMD dual core in it, not even sure what it is exactly), 4GB RAM with an old used 128GB drive + 2TB WD Red Platter. Streams 1080p stuff just fine, but certainly not up to the task of ARK server hosting, the main rig does this when me and the buddies want to play.
 
Never EATX but certainly between ITX and ATX. I've never been brave enough to leave the ATX corn factor though, someday.
 
Yes, but then I end up cramming a full ATX build into the smallest case I can find instead...
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I get that to an extent, but I hate working on smaller machines. Even installing RAM in cases like that is a pain in the ass.
 
it's only a pain due to the lower 120mm radiator I added that obscures one of the dimms, but it's really not an issue. I have 16GB in and don't need to swap that out any time soon.

I went with all quick disconnects, so it's not hard to pull components if I need to.
 
Its all built but I'm getting terrible frame drops / stuttering. Temps are fine all around, clean Win 10 install, all new drivers, etc.

Has me worried my 1080ti might be failing...
 

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DoubleTap said:
Tony, I was all set to buy an M1 (but they are out of stock for a while), when I saw the RL08 - obviously bigger than the M1, but still a very nice size to sit on a desk and let me use my DH15s and 600W fanless PSU and it looks to have solid airflow and filtration.

Are you guys still planning on the version with the little OLED screen in the bezel?
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It's on the cards, but development for it is on hold at the moment so there is a chance the custom OLED version of RL08 won't come out.

DoubleTap said:
Its all built but I'm getting terrible frame drops / stuttering. Temps are fine all around, clean Win 10 install, all new drivers, etc.

Has me worried my 1080ti might be failing...
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Thanks for eventually choosing the RL08! That was a huge surprise considering you had given up on Micro-ATX when you started the thread! Hopefully you get the stuttering issue resolved soon.
 
Tony Ou said:
It's on the cards, but development for it is on hold at the moment so there is a chance the custom OLED version of RL08 won't come out.



Thanks for eventually choosing the RL08! That was a huge surprise considering you had given up on Micro-ATX when you started the thread! Hopefully you get the stuttering issue resolved soon.
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Hey Tony, thanks for checking in!

The RL08 is a fantastic case and I absolutely love it - even if the OLED never comes out :)

I wanted to downsize from the giant Cougar Panzer Max but the Ncase M1 was not open for sale and it would have required me to replace my PSU and cooler and I wasn't sure if the M1 might end up being louder (the Panzer Max is completely silent).

The RL08 is 3x the volume of the M1, but for me, the issue isn't volume, it's the footprint and the RL08 isn't that much bigger on the desk.

I'm running an ITX board, but it lets me keep my Seasonic PSU and my Noctua DH15 and my Noctua 140mm fans.

The GPU issues were because I mounted the fans to the top of the case instead of directly on the heatsink and that 2 inch gap and loss of static pressure was causing issues with the card. I mounted the fans directly on the Arctic Accellero Xtreme III heatsink like they were in the previous case and it's working perfectly.

You guys did a great job on this one, but I think it's under the radar and could use more exposure.
 
I have this great vision of easily being able to bring my PC to LAN parties -- then I remember my friends have like 3 a year, one of which I host.

If the mITX build sits on the desk 363 days of the year I'm not sure what the advantage is other than it looking cool and being different.

I do have an mATX build now in a case that has great 140mm fan support (phanteks evolv matx) but the airflow still sucks and the case is as large as some ATX. So I guess you could say I'm getting the worst of both worlds, plus getting limited to crappy mATX motherboards.
 
Insomniator said:
I have this great vision of easily being able to bring my PC to LAN parties -- then I remember my friends have like 3 a year, one of which I host.

If the mITX build sits on the desk 363 days of the year I'm not sure what the advantage is other than it looking cool and being different.

I do have an mATX build now in a case that has great 140mm fan support (phanteks evolv matx) but the airflow still sucks and the case is as large as some ATX. So I guess you could say I'm getting the worst of both worlds, plus getting limited to crappy mATX motherboards.
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I brought my massive machine to LAN parties even when that was a thing. These days, they just don't happen very often so I wouldn't even bother. For me, mini-ITX is a hassle and not worth the restrictions. I built one for my girlfriend because that's what she wanted.
 
Dan_D said:
I brought my massive machine to LAN parties even when that was a thing. These days, they just don't happen very often so I wouldn't even bother. For me, mini-ITX is a hassle and not worth the restrictions. I built one for my girlfriend because that's what she wanted.
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Yeah but on the other hand, I think I could get by with only 1 m.2 drive and 1 GPU so why ATX? Its a form factor from back when people actually needed weird add in cards, sound cards, multiple 3.5 inch hdd's, multiple drive bays etc.

Lets say if we never knew ATX existed and it was only mITX -- an ATX sized case would look RIDICULOUS given many peoples' hardware needs these days. Even my mATX case looks nearly empty. The cooling/noise issues are overblown imo, its just enthusiasts on this site that are worried about temps 10 degrees above what is optimal.

Now of course if you are still running multiple gpu's, have 50 terabytes of porn and every game you ever owned still installed on 10 hdds, and are running everything at max overclock sure extra space is required. But you can build a pretty top of the line PC in a well thought out mITX case without much compromise in anything these days.
 
I'm running custom cooling, heavily overclocked hardware and 6x HDD's, two SSD's, and all of that. Besides that, I'd still probably use a fairly large case just because they are easier to work in. I don't like cramped cases.
 
Dan_D said:
I'm running custom cooling, heavily overclocked hardware and 6x HDD's, two SSD's, and all of that. Besides that, I'd still probably use a fairly large case just because they are easier to work in. I don't like cramped cases.
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Agreed. I like a tight box, but a small case is terrible to work in.
 
Randall Stephens said:
Agreed. I like a tight box, but a small case is terrible to work in.
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There are some better, some worse. The SG05 I cut my teeth on is rather annoying, and has a puzzle-box like assembly process. Same with similar cases (I also have the SG06 and FT03 mini). The SG13 may be better, but I don't have one.

Other cases, like the DAN A4 SFX and the Ncase M1 are easy and quick to work with.

I'd have to assume Silverstone's newer cases are also easy to work on, though I don't have any hands-on experience with anything newer than the FT03 mini. The difficulty of the SG05, I'd have to assume, is from being an early, pioneering case.
 
I don't know, I built an Azza Z CSAZ-103 Mini-ITX Gaming Case, Black (Doesn't seem to be available anymore) and it wasn't to much more difficult to work in than my full ATX tower honestly... the only pain was the HDD due to its location. I just bought another ITX motherboard (B450 Fatal1ty Gaming ITX) and am looking into building another small box. Thinking about building something like the CyberPowerPC Syber C SCCB100 Mini ITX Gaming Case, although I haven't settled. I was looking at something that could fit easily and be somewhat portable. It's a little bigger than an XBox One or PS4 (non thin). Should be a perfect match for on the go and plenty powerful with a 6/12 Ryzen, SSD and a lower end GPU. Only issue is the SFX power supply for the CyberPower one, the Azza took a full size ATX so it was very easy to find one with enough power at a good price. SFX is a bit harder to come by for reasonable prices.
 
No but I am constantly torn between building the smallest mITX possible or getting a Dell or Lenovo that is a lot smaller. I think that stanard PC parts are still too big. All these ITX cases are concerned with being able to fix a huge f---ing GPU inside of them. I think the actual market of people like me who just want a portable computer that is more powerful than a NUC or Dell Optiplex micro is being ignored.

I think the Dell SFF is the perfect size. 11.5x11.5x3.7. Dell, Lenovo, HP and probably others have been making these for many years and there really isn't a build yourself alternative to this form factor. You are limited by power and size for the GPU but that isn't something that I or a lot of people care about when they are going to such a small form factor.

I have two PCs at home but I am getting tired of maintaining both of them. I do all kinds of production work on both so I have to mirror everything on each. I'd like to just unplug my computer and bring it to the other room where I can plug it in the monitor and USB hub. Lots of people do this with a laptop but I'd like something a little more powerful that doesn't throttle after 20 seconds.
 
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Staples said:
No but I am constantly torn between building the smallest mITX possible or getting a Dell or Lenovo that is a lot smaller. I think that stanard PC parts are still too big. All these ITX cases are concerned with being able to fix a huge f---ing GPU inside of them. I think the actual market of people like me who just want a portable computer that is more powerful than a NUC or Dell Optiplex micro is being ignored.

I think the Dell SFF is the perfect size. 11.5x11.5x3.7. Dell, Lenovo, HP and probably others have been making these for many years and there really isn't a build yourself alternative to this form factor. You are limited by power and size for the GPU but that isn't something that I or a lot of people care about when they are going to such a small form factor.

I have two PCs at home but I am getting tired of maintaining both of them. I do all kinds of production work on both so I have to mirror everything on each. I'd like to just unplug my computer and bring it to the other room where I can plug it in the monitor and USB hub. Lots of people do this with a laptop but I'd like something a little more powerful that doesn't throttle after 20 seconds.
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A machine I can't get the most powerful GPU on Earth into isn't useful to me in the slightest. Unfortunately, even if you like mid-range offerings, most of the decent GPU's are as large as the ultra-high end cards. I think that's why you end up with something that's basically a NUC or an mITX system that can hold a GeForce RTX 2080 Ti.
 
Never between mITX or EATX, but in the past often thought about and built in SFF <20L mITX , ~27L mATX and ~40L ATX. Those were the targets I felt allowed the smallest size without any major compromises to thermals. The Cerberus-X 24.4L ATX has since silenced that internal argument.

Staples said:
No but I am constantly torn between building the smallest mITX possible or getting a Dell or Lenovo that is a lot smaller. I think that stanard PC parts are still too big. All these ITX cases are concerned with being able to fix a huge f---ing GPU inside of them. I think the actual market of people like me who just want a portable computer that is more powerful than a NUC or Dell Optiplex micro is being ignored.

I think the Dell SFF is the perfect size. 11.5x11.5x3.7. Dell, Lenovo, HP and probably others have been making these for many years and there really isn't a build yourself alternative to this form factor. You are limited by power and size for the GPU but that isn't something that I or a lot of people care about when they are going to such a small form factor.

I have two PCs at home but I am getting tired of maintaining both of them. I do all kinds of production work on both so I have to mirror everything on each. I'd like to just unplug my computer and bring it to the other room where I can plug it in the monitor and USB hub. Lots of people do this with a laptop but I'd like something a little more powerful that doesn't throttle after 20 seconds.
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NFC S4 or S4M Skyreach.
 
Vittra said:
NFC S4 or S4M Skyreach.
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Thanks, those are exactly what I am looking for. Even if they have a power brick (like the NUC and other micro form factors), you can buy two bricks and easily move the computer from place to place.
My only nit is that these things cost a fortune (I assume it is because they are made on such a small scale) but at least in this case, you do not have to order them from some foreign international website that is not even in English (I've seen a few like that on /r/sff).

The common (and cheaper for the most part) mITX cases that you find at newegg or amazon are the way to big to be portable ones I was talking about above.

Right now I have a mITX system but using the mATX Thermaltake Versa H17 from the previous system and I have become annoyed with the challenge it is to find a decent looking SMALL mITX enclosure. I am willing to sacrifice my GPU.
 
You don't have to use a power brick, things like the HDPLEX 400 exist and all you'll need is a standard power cable. There are many variants of these style of PSU, with PicoPSU's being one of the more notable and earliest type, albeit much lower wattage.

NFC's own Youtube has a vid about the HDPLEX 400 in particular:



I suggest smallformfactor.net for further information on a lot of this stuff, or at the very least checking out the SFF subform on [H].
 
Not torn between mITX and eATX but am torn between mITX SFF and standard mITX cases. I'm currently using a Silverstone ML08B which is an awesome LAN case but the CPU cooling is extremely limited. I wanted a M1 and then a Sliger but that's $300 for a case and then another $90-$160 for CPU cooling which seems excessive so now I'm leaning towards the NZXT H210 but it's practically ATX mid-tower sized....
 
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