Advice with building a small form factor Gaming PC

Lankoss

Lankoss

Lankoss

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I work offshore so spend a lot of time travelling, but predominantly I am on an Oil Rig. My current Gaming Laptop is really starting to show it's age now so i am toying with the idea of building an ultra portable gaming PC that I can either stick in my bag or even better in my rucksack and do away entirely with the gaming Laptop.

Am I right in thinking I would be able to build a decent mid range for less than what it would cost for a lower spec Laptop, but still keep it travel size? The laptops I have been looking at are the 1660ti/2060 models, so £1000-£1300 pretty much, which is a bitter pill to swallow seeing as I have a Gaming PC sat at home worth more than that.

Can anyone offer any advice on where to start, or even share their experiences with building their own? I don't have a set spec in mind yet, but seeing as it's a second PC used only for travel, I'm more concerned with getting best bang for buck without too many sacrifices as aposed to building an all out gaming rig.
 
I would decide what type of games you want to play (and screen res etc), and buy "just enough", as its secondary pc.

For me, Im building a tiny cheap ryzen 2400g, chinese ram/storage/heatsinks etc - i know the games i want to play (roms/indie games and few year old titles) and can avoid overkill. Knowing the res of tv being the would be used on, 720, also helped me decide.
 
Linus Tech Tips on youtube recently did a console case style build. Case was a bit dear, but you might look into something like a Fractal node 202, that might fit in a small hand luggage suitcase. Dunno what you'd do regarding a screen though.
 
Pulseammo said:
Linus Tech Tips on youtube recently did a console case style build. Case was a bit dear, but you might look into something like a Fractal node 202, that might fit in a small hand luggage suitcase. Dunno what you'd do regarding a screen though.
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Linus is a bit like Jeremy Clarkson, entertaining, but not really the best reference point for actually buying something. If you want cheap, ITX with GPU then Cougar QBX would be the obvious choice. Not quite DAN levels of space optimisation, but 1/3 the price, other decent options also exist, but it really depends on how big you are willing to go, or how much of a premium you want to pay to get smaller.
 
 
AIO... in a build that’s going to be potentially lugged all over including flights to/from rigs, it’s not like the cabin crew hand out free drinks on those you know :D A traditional heatsink will do the same job, usually for less money and much less chance of failure. Also drop the x570 ITX and go B450 ITX, you only have one PCIe, it’s not like paying over twice the price will get you anything significantly beneficial in this case. Obviously B350/B450 or indeed X370/470 would require a BIOS update for a 3rd gen chip.
 
Avalon said:
Linus is a bit like Jeremy Clarkson, entertaining, but not really the best reference point for actually buying something. If you want cheap, ITX with GPU then Cougar QBX would be the obvious choice. Not quite DAN levels of space optimisation, but 1/3 the price, other decent options also exist, but it really depends on how big you are willing to go, or how much of a premium you want to pay to get smaller.
Click to expand...

He was showing off the Dr Zaber Sentry case: http://zaber.com.pl/sentry/ which is a 7 litre case, seems to me that it would fit the bill for the OPs requirement to fit in hand luggage. The only sticking point is the price, so I suggested the Node 202, which is a similar form factor but a 10 litre case and also on r/sffpc's beginners list: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet...1_3cLXCPvMkPmIPv28D7Cr7s8/edit#gid=1094936222

The cougar QBX is a very nice case, great price and looks nice, but it's almost double the litres of the node 202 or there about? (19L I think?)
 
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Pulseammo said:
He was showing off the Dr Zaber Sentry case: http://zaber.com.pl/sentry/ which is a 7 litre case, seems to me that it would fit the bill for the OPs requirement to fit in hand luggage. The only sticking point is the price, so I suggested the Node 202, which is a similar form factor but a 10 litre case and also on r/sffpc's beginners list: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet...1_3cLXCPvMkPmIPv28D7Cr7s8/edit#gid=1094936222

The cougar QBX is a very nice case, great price and looks nice, but it's almost double the litres of the node 202 or there about? (19L I think?)
Click to expand...

As I said, op has a choice, cheap and portable is a Cougar QBX, if you go with a 202 it’s twice the price and needs an SFX PSU, if you’re familiar with f/sffpc, you’ll be familiar with ITX tax concept, the smaller you go, the more you pay for the privilege.
 
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