Mini ITX / PC Console Build

chapplejc · 2 Jan 2019 at 10:56

Hello all - long ago OcUK buyer, somehow only today forum user. The laptop I bought from OcUK remains the best tank I've ever owned so I thought I'd come back for some advice.

Now, I fully expect a whole load of groans of despair about this, but hear me out - my current set up is I have a Mac laptop which I use for internet, music, travelling, work, etc. I also have a NUC for some TV, a few very light PC games and old games, and a PS4 for some more heavy duty games (GTAV, NMS, probs RDR2 shortly and some other sports/racing games).

Atm, it's all a bit unwieldy, and it feels like a bit of a waste of time/space having a PS4 and a NUC when I could combine the two. So what I'm looking for is a console size / form factor gaming build. I'm not looking for anything out of this world (some improvement on a base PS4 would be ideal), but what is important is size. I simply do not have room for a big tower set up and frankly, I don't want one.

I was looking around for off-the-shelf solutions and the MSI Trident looks pretty ideal (as below), but I'm certainly not already sold on that as the solution, although it seems to make sense. I'd like a sleek machine along those lines but if there are other solutions/builds, I'd love to know what my options are. Upgradeability / future proofing as best possible in a small form factor would be immense too.

*** Please read the rules regarding competitor linking ***

As ever, minimum cost for max performance preferred, although I don't mind a bit of leeway to get the right form factor.

Thanks all!

chapplejc · 3 Jan 2019 at 23:34

Thanks @orbitalwalsh, much appreciated. I totally forgot you could dig pretty deep into the configurator here. Second config looks pretty juicy :eek:

. Albeit a touch beyond what my sanity will allow me to spend. I used to be super up-to-date with specs but I've fallen behind in recent years. Quick bit of reading and it seems I have completely missed AMD coming back. Do the Ryzens hold up to Intel? What sort of longevity do they offer? The processor would presumably be upgradeable down the line, albeit if newer chips fit the mobo.

Also, I hate to harp on about the form factor, but are there any more compact options? 375x174x290mm still seems huge to me, although that's probably partially to do with not having (regularly) used or owned a tower for more than a decade and gaming on a PS4. I'd really like the option to be able to set it up, use it and store it as out the way as possible.

Thanks again for your help - anyone else with suggestions, advice or wisdom, please put me straight

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chapplejc · 13 Jan 2019 at 20:31

Thanks @orbitalwalsh, sorry for late reply. I've been chatting spec with OcUK and I'm going to go with the Dan Cases A4. I know it sounds like I'm splitting hairs over what is about 5cm/6cm width, but I want something as small as possible.

I'm pairing a Ryzen 5 2600X with a GTX 1060, 16GB 3000MHZ RAM and a Samsung Polaris 500GB M.2 as my primary drive. I should really have said from the outset I'm only shooting for 1080p. How does that sound for spec?

chapplejc · 15 Jan 2019 at 07:29

Top end budget is £1300. Re the case, again, it’s just size / preference. I want and need a small build.

My build currently comes in at around £1250 so if I was to scale the process back to a Ryzen 5 2600, I’d probably still have £100 leeway to go a bit more powerful on the GPU.

But as I said previously, I’m only aiming for 1080p and I’ll be using a TV so I felt like the GTX 1060 was ample in the first instance.

Perhaps in 18 months to two years, I’ll look at my options to switch to a monitor instead and upgrade the GPU once some of the new cards and tech come down in price.

On that basis, it seems logical to go for the Ryzen 5 2600X for a touch more future proofing, as if my reading and research around the Ryzen range is correct, the Ryzen 5 shouldn’t bottleneck any low to mid-range cards in the next few years.

Also, the RTX 2060 isn’t much of an upgrade on the GTX 1060, if I recall correctly, besides adding ray tracing, etc, which I probably won’t be able to utilise particularly effectively, if at all.

In short, a Ryzen 5 2600X / GTX 1060 build would appear to be the best option for me right now, with scope to improve the GPU and monitor further down the line.

Only question is whether the RX 570/580 is a better buy at this time, general benchmarking and percormance at 1080p seems pretty equal, albeit with fluctuations between the two title by title.

I’ve read AMD is a little ahead on DX12 performance, is that still the case? Or had Nvidia caught up?