Fast Fanless ITX- no gfx- no gaming- Intel or AMD?

Curly

Curly

Curly

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Parents want a new PC, after discussion and research they decided small, fanless ITX would be nice.
They want it to last for ages, their current PC is 7yrs old so plan is to make it as fast as possible for less than £1000. Most intensive things they do are amateur photo editing in Lightroom and video streaming.
Settled on Streacom FC8WS case (with 160W PSU) which suggests limiting to 65W TDP.

Trying to choose between Intel i5-9500 and Ryzen 5 3400g which seem to be the fastest 65W TDP chips with integrated graphics.

-the 9500 has more cores, higher boost clock and seems to perform faster in various tasks but is more expensive.
-the 3400g has much better gfx performance (not sure this is an issue for my parents) but seems to be based on early 2018 architecture and only beats 9500 in a few tasks.
-both seem to require the latest mobo's Z390/ X570 which don't come cheap for mini itx. I know I can get a b450 for the AMD but sounds like it needs a bios flash using a 2nd gen processor(?).

Another alternative is to get a low power, passively cooled, low profile graphics card so i can get a cpu without integrated graphics.

Google brings up mostly gaming itx builds or budget htpc builds, found little or no info on fast, fanless with no gfx. Any advice on CPU/Mobo combo would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks,
Chris
 
AM4 is definitely way more future proof platform. For both low power and lots of CPU power.

Ryzen 3700X with its 8 cores/16 threads is also 65W TDP CPU...
Also there's 65W 12c/24t coming.
https://www.anandtech.com/show/14912/amds-ryzen-9-3900-a-12core-65w-cpu-listed-by-motherboard-maker
Pretty sure next year's Zen3s also have 65W models.
And there are ways to limit maximum power draw.

This year's APUs are of older architecture and monolithic design, but could see AMD also releasing chiplet design based higher end APU with 8 cores in the future.


There are multiple B450 ITX boards.
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/search?sSearch=b450+itx
That MSI actually has the beefiest VRM of B450/X470 ITX boards.
I think OcUK could do BIOS update.

X570 boards consume like fair 5W more because of PCIe v4 features/chipset
https://www.hexus.net/tech/news/mai...-examines-amd-x570-chipset-power-consumption/
 
You won't find a single slot, low profile, fanless graphics card worth having over integrated graphics. It could open up the basic Ryzen options to get a single slot card but I can't imagine your parents will need that extra CPU power.

I assume by streaming you mean watching streaming video rather than streaming it out.

You don't need a Z series motherboard nor X series. Like EsaT says, AMD have offerings in ITX and Intel do too:

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/asro...1151-ddr4-mini-itx-motherboard-mb-15z-ak.html

Personally I'd be tempted to go Intel for the integrated graphics, but it's worth seeing if Lightroom uses the GPU at all.

Bear in mind this PC will need to be in a ventilated space. 65W of passive dissipation isn't trivial.
 
B450 shouldn't be a problem now as boards have been shipping with an updated bios for a while. If there is a problem, AMD will ship you a chip you can use for the bios update (an old AM4 Athlon).

If your parents are likely to want an upgrade at some point, going with a fanless, low profile GPU now would open up a load of options later. For example, a 3600 and 1030 would cost around £250, and the CPU could be upgraded to a 3900 (the upcoming 65W one) or a 4000-series chip later if needed.

If not, then it's a straight choice between the best CPU available with an IGP, or the best value option. I'd be inclined to go with the Intel personally. Sure, it's only 10-15% faster for ~45% more money. But if it has to last them a long time, that extra 10-15% could matter.

EsaT said:
AM4 is definitely way more future proof platform. For both low power and lots of CPU power.
Click to expand...

Not sure that's true in this case.

The 4000-series will be the last release of chips for AM4. It's quite possible that AMD won't release an AM4 IGP chip with a processor as powerful as the i5-9500. So there may be no real upgrade, without adding a separate GPU.
 
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Curly said:
Parents want a new PC, after discussion and research they decided small, fanless ITX would be nice.
Click to expand...

Take a look at the Intel NUC boxes.

Curly said:
Another alternative is to get a low power, passively cooled, low profile graphics card so i can get a cpu without integrated graphics.
Click to expand...

Palit produce a fanless GTX 1050 ti, the KalmX, but it's not low profile.
 
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