Custom Build or NUC

[cawill]

I'm considering either building a Mini-STX or Mini-ITX (Thin) or purchasing an Intel NUC for classic / retro gaming (either old PC games or PS2 / Gamecube level emulation) and web use.

It appears that I'd get better value for money with a custom build (however I'll happily be corrected).

I'd either use a Mini-STX build consisting of:
1) Silverstone VT02, ASRock H110M-STX, External PSU
2) AS Rock Desk Mini 110

Or a Mini Thin ITX build with Silverstone Petit PT13B, Asus H11T, External PSU.

Either of the above would use Intel Pentium CPU and a custom CPU fan:
1) G4400
2) G4560 / G4600

I've left of the RAM / SSD as they're similar on both setups.

The builds above appear marginally cheaper than the NUC i3 6100U / 7100U, at the expense of a slightly bigger case.

I'd welcome anyone's thoughts on the above including:
1) Does the use of Pentium CPUs achieve better results than the i3 NUC, especially with the integrated graphics?
2) Which setup would be less noisy?
2) Should I just give in and get an NUC at the expense / fun of building it from scratch?

Thanks!

 

[cawill]

I really rate the NUC, quality bit of kit. Have built many ITX pcs over the years and never managed to get close to the NUC on size.

Thanks, I agree, I can see why they're so popular. I was wondering if people had started using Mini STX builds (as it's relatively new) as alternative to NUC as for the same price you can get a G4600 CPU vs 7100u.