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miniITX PCs desktop power in a small package Portable computers clearly have advantages and are invaluable for people who must work while moving from place to place. I prefer desktop computers for their higher performance, lower overall cost, ability to drive many monitors and expandability, but they can take up a lot of space. Enter the Mini-ITX PC: the power of a big desktop in a much smaller package. M ini-ITX PCs have been around for some time; they are popular as “home theatre PCs”, used for playing videos and music in an entertainment centre. I had a large tower computer under a desk because it wouldn’t fit on top, taking up valuable leg room and making the desk feel cramped. So I decided to build a compact PC to replace the big tower. I didn’t want to compromise on performance. After some research, I realised that just because the computer would be smaller, that didn’t mean it needed to be slow or lacking in RAM, storage or graphics processing power. There’s even room for water cooling if you go about it the right way. In building it, I learned many of the tricks to constructing a good Mini-ITX PC. I am writing this article on that 40 Silicon Chip computer which is not only smaller and faster, it’s also very quiet and reliable. After that success, I built several other Mini-ITX computers, including one to play music and videos that is dead silent, so it doesn’t compromise music listening enjoyment. We also use one in our warehouse. This article covers building one of these mini computers from scratch, explaining your options in choosing parts and some things to watch out for. I was forced to change plans when parts I bought wouldn’t fit; that is something you’ll want to avoid. ATX vs Mini-ITX Full-size desktop computers by Nicholas Vinen Australia's electronics magazine generally use ATX motherboards and power supplies. These are based on a standard published in 1995 by Intel and updated several times since. An ATX motherboard is 305 × 244mm, and an ATX power supply is generally 150 × 86 × 140mm, although the last dimension can vary up to 230mm (usually for very high power units). Those dimensions dictate the minimum practical size of a case. ATX cases are typically around 500mm tall, 500mm deep and 210mm wide, although they can be significantly larger or a little more compact. That’s a typical volume of about 50-60 litres. Photo 1 shows a direct size comparison of a typical mid-size ATX case (left) and two of the Mini-ITX cases I used (middle & right). A Mini-ITX motherboard is siliconchip.com.au considerably smaller than ATX at 170 × 170mm, and they are often teamed up with SFX power supplies that measure 100 × 125 × 63.5mm – see Photo 2. The Corsair SFX power supply shown there works really well (it’s also available in a 750W version), although it costs significantly more than the more-powerful ATX supply on the left. Mini-ITX case sizes and volume vary dramatically, from just a couple of litres at the low end (about the size of a thick notebook) to almost as large as a mid-tower ATX case. The cases I chose, shown in Photo 1, measure 325 × 166 × 310mm and 16.7 litres. I feel that is about the sweet spot, although you can go smaller if you want to. Interestingly, case design can have more to do with what fits than the size. For example, there’s nowhere to mount a water-cooling radiator in the larger case on the left in Photo 1, while the smaller ones fit a 120 × 240mm radiator nicely. Photo 1: two Fractal Design Era Mini-ITX cases (right) and a low-cost Deep Cool Tesseract ATX case on the left. I chose the Era cases mainly for their looks, as one would be visible in my living room. I discovered they are pretty good to work with, although there are more functional Mini-ITX cases for the money. Mini-ITX limitations So, what do you give up with Mini-ITX+SFX compared to ATX? Not a lot. You usually only get two RAM slots on an ITX motherboard compared to four with ATX (see Photo 3), although you can install 64GB of DDR4 RAM or 128GB of DDR5. You also get fewer expansion slots but these days, with at least two NVME slots on most boards plus high-speed onboard USB and networking, that won’t matter to most users. You also get less space in the case, although you can still usually fit several SSDs (solid-state drives) and even a traditional hard drive or two if you need them. Probably the most significant limitations are with the graphics processor unit (GPU). While you can build a Mini-ITX PC with a high-end GPU, it is not trivial to fit anything more potent than a mid-range GPU like an Nvidia RTX 3060 or an AMD RX 6600 XT. You might also have trouble powering the beefiest GPUs, as there are few SFX power supplies above 750W. You could choose a Mini-ITX case that supports standard ATX power supplies, in which case you could get a 1000W+ supply. But dumping that much heat into something the size of a shoe box might not be a great idea! The cases I used from the Fractal Design Era series (www.fractal-design. siliconchip.com.au Photo 2: a 650W ATX power supply (left) and 600W SFX power supply (right). ATX supplies up to about 1kW are available in the size shown here (or more, but they are physically longer), while SFX supplies usually top out around 750W. That’s still plenty for most builds in a small case, though! Photo 3: the Mini-ITX motherboard I used. Note how packed it is with components and connectors! The large space at the top is for the CPU and cooler. Below that is the chipset plus NVME heatsink/ fan and the expansion slot, while the RAM slots, SATA and power connectors are on the right. The I/O plate dominates the left side, the same size as for an ATX board. Australia's electronics magazine January 2023  41 com/products/cases/era/era-itx/) are currently available from various suppliers for around $250-300 (some on sale for $120 at the time of writing). Many other similar cases are available, and most of my advice applies to them too. I will mention another great case I have experience with towards the end of the article. Choosing a Mini-ITX case I chose the Era for a few reasons. One was the support for both SFX and ATX power supplies, although I learned while building them that you have much more room to breathe (and install hard drives) if you take the SFX option. Other cases that offer that choice will be similarly squashed if you go with the ATX option. As mentioned earlier, the biggest problem with SFX power supplies is the cost; you can get some great power supplies, so you aren’t compromising much in terms of performance as long as 750W is enough. The first thing you will need to do if you want to build a Mini-ITX PC is decide on what parts you want to put into it and start shopping for cases that will fit them all. The cases vary so much in size and design that finding the right one will take a while. For a start, if you want to water cool your CPU or GPU, you’ll need a case that fits a radiator or two. The largest radiator that will fit in most MiniITX cases is 280 × 140mm, although a maximum of 240 × 120mm is more common, and some will only fit 120 × 120mm or none at all. With cases that can fit a radiator, you almost certainly give up some other capability if you install one. For example, the radiator might limit the maximum length of the GPU or the ability to use an ATX power supply. So check all that carefully. I have even seen cases where the radiator interferes with tall RAM sticks! Use low-profile non-RGB RAM if possible, to ensure it will fit (see Photo 5). Note: while we don’t recommend it, you can also consider removing the Photo 4: the Scythe Shuriken 2 costs around $100 and sits only 58mm tall. To get any more compact than this, you pretty much need a passive cooler and rely on case airflow. You might also need low-profile RAM sticks; sometimes, less tall DIMMs are required to clear other things that might be in the case, depending on its exact configuration. heatsink from the RAM if you need extra space, as most RAM does not get hot enough to need the heatsink for dissipation. Once you have found a case you think is perfect, download and read its manual. There should be a section discussing what will fit and hopefully explain any such limitations. Verify that one of your parts won’t interfere with fitting another; if necessary, download their manuals too, to determine their exact dimensions. Doing this now will save you a headache later! If you are air cooling the CPU (generally the cheaper and more sensible option), check the maximum cooler height supported by your case, which is usually limited by its internal width. Low-profile CPU coolers exist to suit compact cases, but they typically have worse cooling performance and are noisier. If you’re willing to potentially sacrifice some performance, you can also look into a passive cooling setup. I couldn’t find a standard 120mm tower cooler that would fit in the Era case, but I did find a Noctua 92mm tower cooler that fits just fine and is extremely quiet, which I used in my later home theatre build (there’s a photo of it below). Another option is something like the Scythe Shuriken 2, which also has a 92mm fan but it’s horizontal, making the whole thing only 58mm tall, so it will fit in quite compact cases - see Photo 4. Check the GPU size limitations carefully. One of the nice things about the Era case is that it will fit a “2.2-slot” GPU up to 295mm long (depending on the power supply type and location). The EVGA 3070 XC3 GPU I ended up using is a 2.2-slot design that’s 285mm long, and it just fits with an SFX power supply in there. And I mean “just” – more on that later. I suspect the considerably more powerful EVGA 3080 XC3 is the same size. So you could possibly squeeze one of those into the same case, but they were unobtainium at the time I was building this computer. Other Mini-ITX cases can limit GPU width to 2.0 slots or less, so check that. You can get two NVME SSDs onto most Mini-ITX motherboards (possibly three). They are very fast and come in capacities up to about 2TB, although the 512GB and 1TB models are much better value. So unless you need more than 4TB of storage space, you don’t need any external storage. If you need external storage, check what your proposed case will fit and whether you lose any of those slots based on other things like space for a radiator or ATX power supply. Building it Generally, it’s easiest to attach the CPU, RAM and NVME SSD(s) to the motherboard before you install it in Photo 5: these DIMMs are good value for money and perform pretty well, but their shape causes many clearance problems! This is typical of RAM with RGB LEDs, as they are usually mounted in a housing at the top of the actual DIMM. RGB DIMMs look nice (assuming you can see into the case) but cause fitment problems even in full-size ATX cases. Do yourself a favour and avoid them. 42 Silicon Chip Australia's electronics magazine siliconchip.com.au What to look for when choosing a Mini-ITX case ∎ What size/volume do you want? ∎ Do you like how it looks? ∎ What size of power supply does it accept? ∎ Will it fit your proposed CPU cooler (radiator/tower cooler)? ∎ What size GPU will it fit, considering width, length and height and choice of power supply and CPU cooler? You need to have a specific GPU in mind and check its dimensions. ∎ Does it have space for extra fans for case airflow, and if so, how are they configured (intake/exhaust/etc)? ∎ If you need off-motherboard storage, how many and what size of SSDs or hard drives will it fit? ∎ What sort of front-panel I/O does it have? USB 3.0, USB4, Thunderbolt? How many ports? the case. If using an air cooler, you can probably also mount that first. This will give you an ‘assembly’ you can drop straight into the case and then wire up. After that, it’s mainly just a matter of installing the power supply, plugging in the GPU (if you aren’t using onboard graphics), plugging in any external storage, connecting any water cooling hardware, and you’re ready to fire it up. Photo 6 shows the parts I initially chose for my first Mini-ITX computer. They all fit in the case, although I discovered later that the fit of the video card/GPU (shown at the bottom of that photo) was a bit too tight. I ended up swapping it for the slightly smaller but more powerful (and unfortunately, more expensive) EVGA GPU I already mentioned. Next to the case are the boxes for the motherboard and CPU (on top). The 240mm all-in-one (AIO) CPU water cooler is to the right, with the 600W SFX power supply box on top. The 32GB of RAM (2 × 16GB) pack is in the middle, with the 1TB NVME SSD to the right and the GPU in the foreground. I got these from a few different retailers, all of which have good prices and service. There are links to their websites at the end of the article. By now, some of this hardware is no longer cutting edge, so you will probably want to do some research. However, replicating my build is still possible, and some parts are now cheaper. The mesh panel next to the case in Photo 6 came with it, to be used in place of the (elegant) solid timber lid. The timber top is not great for high-power builds as it reduces the exhaust airflow. This case is designed to intake air into the slots around the base, draw it up past the GPU/motherboard/CPU, and exhaust it out the top – a clever configuration that works pretty well. The timber top (or glass in other colour versions of the same case) will be fine for a basic ‘office’ PC. Photo 6: all the parts I used to build my first Mini-ITX PC. The only real change was the GPU (at bottom); while I got it into the case (just!), the fans rubbed on the bottom, so I ended up swapping it for a more powerful but slightly smaller EVGA brand NVIDIA RTX 3070 that just squeezed into the available space. siliconchip.com.au Australia's electronics magazine January 2023  43 CPU choice I chose a Ryzen 5600X for this computer because of its thermal design power (TDP) rating of 65W, along with very good performance. While the cooling system chosen could handle a 105W TDP CPU, that would be an extra 50W+ that the power supply would have to deliver and the cooling system would have to remove, for only a modest increase in performance. At the time (and possibly still today), AMD CPUs were considerably more efficient than comparable Intel parts, which could pull 200W or more under full load. The GPU already draws and dissipates a lot of power, so I didn’t want to overload the system with heat. You could also build a Mini-ITX PC with a newer Ryzen 7000-series or Intel 13th-gen Core series CPU if you’re willing to spend more for higher performance. The only real difference will be in how the CPU mounts on the motherboard. Assembly Photo 7: the side panel is held on by magnets and comes off easily. You need to remove the vertical brace to do most work. This brace can be used to mount two 2.5-inch SSDs or a single 3.5-inch HDD, but I didn’t need it. The two brackets at upper right are for vertically mounting ATX (upper) or SFX (lower) power supplies. Note the small inbuilt IEC mains extension cable. Photo 8: with all the brackets removed, we now have good access to the inside of the case. It comes with one rear exhaust fan, but it’s pretty small at around 80mm across, so you’ll want to keep it running at a low speed to avoid noise. You will want to install two 120mm exhaust fans at the top, by themselves or on a radiator, as they will do the bulk of the cooling. 44 Silicon Chip Australia's electronics magazine Photo 7 shows what you see when you remove the side panel of the case, which, in this case, is easy – just pull it to the side, then up. Most other cases will not have that internal side brace; I removed it early on and only refitted it after I finished installing all the parts. You can mount two 2.5inch drives (or one 3.5-inch) on it, but I didn’t need that feature. I only kept it for rigidity. Photo 8 shows the case with the brace and both power supply brackets removed – much better! The bundle of cables on the right are for the power switch and front-panel USB ports; the wires are far too long, which is quite annoying and caused slight problems that I eventually solved after some head-scratching. One difference between typical ATX and Mini-ITX cases is that, with the former, the power supply usually mounts so that its mains input socket and power switch are externally accessible via a cut-out in the rear of the case. But most Mini-ITX cases mount the power supply internally, hence the IEC mains extension cable. It plugs into the power supply, and the external power cable plugs into a socket built into the rear of the case, visible at lower left. The ATX supply’s power switch is not externally accessible, although that isn’t a big deal. siliconchip.com.au Note how the rear of the case has three large cut-outs. These allow access to the back of the motherboard when installed, which is very helpful as most current motherboards have at least one NVME storage slot on the back. They also give you access to the CPU cooler mounting screws, which often need to be removed to install a custom bracket for a high-end CPU cooler (air or water). Photo 9 shows the parts that came in the box of the 240mm AIO CPU cooler I purchased. It’s called ‘all-inone’ because the radiator, pump, tubes and water block are supplied as a single unit, pre-filled with coolant. The pump is on the hoses near the radiator; it’s more typical to find it integrated with the water block. Two low-noise fans are supplied for cooling the radiator, along with all the necessary mounting hardware and some spare coolant, for a few years down the track, when it might start getting low. I am happy with the performance of this cooling solution and would recommend it to others. It is near-silent unless you are very close to it, and it not only cools the CPU well, it also serves to exhaust hot air from the case (more on how important that is later). Still, the air cooling solution I tried Photo 9: everything shown here comes in the Pure Loop AIO package. The fans mount on the radiator using the supplied hardware in either ‘pull’ or ‘push’ configuration. Either way will work; it mainly depends on whether you want air to flow into or out of the case at that point. The pack at lower left includes thermal paste in a syringe plus mounting brackets to suit various CPU types. later is much cheaper and probably preferable for many builders. In Photo 10, I have installed the radiator in the top of the case, with the fans underneath blowing up. That was easy, as the top of the case is removable. It is at this point that I discovered it’s impractical to use an ATX power supply in this case if you have a 240mm radiator; note how the radiator and fans occupy the space at upper right, forcing the power supply bracket to be installed on one of the lower three screw holes. I don’t believe the manual or specifications sheet mentioned that. Good thing I chose an SFX power supply! Photo 10: the Pure Loop AIO, installed in the case, with the fans blowing air up and out. The tubes are a bit too long as this cooler has to work on larger ATX systems too. Photo 11: the CPU and RAM have been installed, and the fan/heatsink has been moved out of the way to reveal one of the NVME M.2 storage slots. There’s another one on the underside of the board but this one has better cooling, plus it has a direct connection to the CPU, so it should be faster. siliconchip.com.au Australia's electronics magazine January 2023  45 Photo 12: I removed the top of the case and lifted the AIO out to give myself more room to mount the motherboard. I ran the CPU power cable under the motherboard before installing it since it would be hard later. This is a modular power supply, so you plug in the DC cables as you route them, making life easier. It also reduces clutter, as you don’t need to install cables you won’t use. Photo 13: with the remaining power supply DC cables installed and the case top/AIO refitted, the case is getting more crowded. Still, assembly is almost complete. I moved the power supply bracket down to its lowest position so air could flow freely to the right-hand upper exhaust fan. Next, I inserted the CPU in the motherboard’s ZIF socket (Photo 11) and removed the NVME/chipset heatsink/ fan to reveal the upper NVME socket. By this point, I had also installed the two DDR4 DIMMs (32GB of RAM). After installing the NVME SSD and replacing the heatsink/fan, I mounted the motherboard in the case using the supplied screws (Photo 12). However, I routed the power supply wires to the CPU power input at upper left under the motherboard first. You 46 Silicon Chip can see that I have also installed the SFX power supply via the supplied bracket and plugged in the mains input extension. In Photo 13, I have installed all the remaining power supply cables, bundled them up out of the way and plugged in some of the front panel I/O cables to the motherboard. I used spare holes in the power supply bracket to attach cable ties to keep the long power supply wires in check. Another advantage of SFX supplies Australia's electronics magazine for small builds is that they usually come with shorter cables. I discovered that after building some other similar computers using ATX power supplies, the cable slack took up a lot of the spare space inside the case and routing the wiring became quite tricky! In Photo 14, I have applied a thin layer of thermal paste to the CPU (it came with the cooler). Some people like to put a blob or two in the middle and allow the pressure from the cold plate to spread it out, but I prefer this method as it guarantees even distribution. Note the brackets on either side of the CPU – they came with the AIO and are specific to it, replacing the standard AMD brackets. In Photo 15, I have clamped the AIO cold plate down on top of the CPU, installed the GPU (visible at the bottom) and strapped all the unused captive cables to other things to keep them out of the way. The goal was to keep plenty of space for cooling air to flow past the GPU and components on the motherboard. Don’t forget to remove the plastic film from the bottom of the cooler before installing it! The cooler won’t work properly and the CPU will enter thermal throttling under load. Note the slots in the bottom of the case for cool air to be drawn in (visible in the adjacent photos). There is a chamber at the bottom of the case with a perforated section between it and the GPU area to allow fresh air intake. This is where I ran into a snag: the GPU sagged a little bit under its own weight, and its fans touched that perforated section. As soon as the computer powered up, it made a horrible noise as the fans tried to rotate against the plastic. My solution was to get some small adhesive rubber pads from Bunnings and stick them between the GPU’s plastic shroud and the bottom of the case, lifting the GPU enough for the fans to spin freely. That worked, but sometimes when I switched the computer on, the fans would still strike the case. So, I replaced the 5600 XT with the EVGA XC3 RTX 3070. I chose it because it was a hair thinner than the 5600 XT while being quite a bit more powerful. I still needed those rubber pads to prevent its fans from rubbing, but that completely fixed it, and I haven’t had a problem since. siliconchip.com.au All that was left after Photo 15 was to refit the side brace, reattach the side panels, fire the system up and install the operating system. The only other catch I ran into was that some of the front panel cables had become caught between the power supply and the front of the case, causing the power button to act as if it was pressed all the time. That threw me at first, as the system refused to power up (because the button was already ‘pressed’). But once I figured it out and freed those cables, it worked perfectly and has since. Screen 1 shows the result of a benchmark I ran shortly after building the computer, showing that despite its size and lack of ‘high-end’ parts, it was still in the 91st percentile in terms of overall CPU performance at the time. Thermal tweaks Besides the fans on the GPU, which serve only to cool it (circulating and heating the air around it), there are only four fans in this system: the small one on the motherboard that cools the SSD and chipset, a small rear exhaust fan that doesn’t do much, and the two passing air over the AIO radiator. That means the AIO radiator fans also serve as ‘case fans’ to draw air up through the slots in the bottom, past the GPU, chipset and regulators on the motherboard, then through the CPU radiator and out the top. They are vital to the system operating at a reasonable temperature. The RX 5600 XT I initially chose could draw up to 150W (about three times what the CPU does under a typical load). But the RTX 3070 can consume around 250W; I even bumped it up to around 275W to improve its performance. That leads to the air drawn in getting quite warm before it each reaches the motherboard or radiator. Along with the CPU, motherboard, SSD and other parts, the system can draw 350W or more under load. Despite that, system temperatures remain reasonable, with the CPU sitting at around 50-60°C under load, the motherboard at about 40-50°C and the GPU core around 60-70°C (at an ambient temperature of 23°C). This does have the effect of the computer acting like a small (albeit relatively quiet) space heater with all that hot air being ejected from the top. But it will run like that all day. siliconchip.com.au Photo 14: this close-up view shows some details that aren’t apparent in earlier photos and also shows how I smeared thermal paste on the CPU. I could be accused of using a bit too much, but it’s better than too little! I tied cables up to keep them out of the airflow path as much as possible and that also made my life easier when I had to plug cables into the motherboard. Photo 15: assembly is basically complete. Note how I had to loop and tie the water tubes (highlighted in yellow) and how little space there is for the GPU at the bottom. Getting it in and out was not easy, especially given the multiple power cables that needed to be plugged into it (visible at lower right). Note how the GPU heatsink occupies the entire length of the case. Australia's electronics magazine January 2023  47 Photo 16: this Noctua NH-U9S is not cheap at around $120, but it is an almost ideal solution in this style of Mini-ITX case. It provides decent cooling in nearly complete silence and will fit a small case; it’s just not suitable for super-compact jobs. There was a trick to achieving that. By default, the motherboard adjusts the CPU fan speed based on CPU temperature. Because this cooling system is effective enough to keep the CPU at a low temperature even under load with a low fan speed, the fans would not speed up, even if the GPU was dumping a lot of heat into the case. While the system never ‘melted down’, it ran hotter than I liked. The solution was to go into the BIOS and get it to use the “system temperature” to control the CPU fan speed instead. That temperature is sensed at the chipset, so when the GPU starts heating the air inside the case, that also heats the chipset. The fans will quickly ramp up and provide the airflow necessary to remove the GPU heat and keep the motherboard and regulators cool. It works surprisingly well. The other tweak I made was to replace the timber top panel with the supplied mesh panel. Again, the system didn’t melt down before, but that dropped the GPU and motherboard temperatures by about 10°C and made the system run quieter under load. So I consider it a worthwhile change. a radiator at the top of the case, I installed two normal low-noise 120mm computer fans in the top panel and again set them to be controlled by the system temperature. Because those fans are much thinner than a radiator, I could raise the power supply bracket to fit a lower-cost regular ATX power supply (it’s a different computer, but Photo 17 shows the arrangement). Other Mini-ITX cases Sometime after building these systems, I needed a new computer for my home office and decided to see how powerful a computer I could jam into a Mini-ITX case. I did a lot of research using the experience gained from building in the Era cases and settled on the MetallicGear Neo Mini V2 (https://metallicgear.com/products/ Neo-Mini-V2). It is somewhat larger than the Era, although still quite a bit smaller than a Mid-ATX case, and has a tempered-­ glass side panel so you can see the innards. It was also a lot less expensive than the Era cases at $99, although it isn’t quite as stylish. I chose this case because you can mount two radiators in it, one 120 x 120mm at the rear and one 240 x 120mm on the right side (looking at the front). Other cases can mount two radiators, with one at the top, but the computer was going under a desk, and a top exhaust would cause warm air to bounce off the desk and wash over my legs (good in winter, not so much in summer). I used similar parts to the build documented here, except the GPU is a monstrous water-cooled NVIDIA RTX 3090 putting out about 400W under full load (slightly more than its stock power level). It came with an integrated 240mm radiator, which I mounted to exhaust through the side of the case, with dual 140mm intake fans at the front – see Photo 18. Air-cooled system I built a similar system for my ‘home theatre’ using the Noctua ‘tower’ air cooler with a 92mm fan shown in Photo 16. I fitted it to the CPU/motherboard combination before putting it in the case as that was easier. As all that system does is play music and videos, this handles the CPU dissipation just fine. Because that system doesn’t have 48 Silicon Chip Photo 17: you can see how much more easily the Mini-ITX board with the Shuriken 2 fits into this Era case, despite using a much larger ATX power supply. Note also the mess of cables at lower right due to ATX supplies coming with longer cables. I used a smaller and less expensive video card in this system as it is intended for basic office tasks. Australia's electronics magazine siliconchip.com.au Screen 1: the CPU temperature is a very reasonable 62°C with all six-cores loaded due to the generouslysized water cooling system. Fresh air to cool the GPU comes into the front of the case through mesh-­ covered side slots, passes through its radiator and immediately exits the case, so it can’t heat anything else up. Similarly, some of that air coming into the front goes into the rear-mounted CPU radiator and exits the case. Airflow through the case keeps the power supply and motherboard cool. The result is a very high level of performance in a small space (380 x 355 x 190mm; 25.6L). While plenty of warm air comes out, it is blown away from me; the only side-effect I notice is that the room gets warmer after a while. If you wanted to build a similar computer to sit on top of a desk, you could choose the top exhaust option using a suitable case; that might work even better. Overall, MetallicGear Mini-ITX cases (and the related brand, Phanteks) seem well-designed and well-built and are good value for money. Still, there are numerous manufacturers of good small form factor (SFF) cases, including Mini-ITX, so it’s worth doing some research and browsing before deciding which one to purchase. Unfortunately, I can no longer find this case for sale, but similar Metallic­ Gear Mini-ITX cases are available. and came up with the following estimates for a basic but decent system: $100 for the case, $280 for a Ryzen 5600G CPU with onboard graphics, $150 for a B450 motherboard, $100 for 16GB of DDR4 RAM, $150 for a 1TB SSD and $100 for a power supply. That totals almost exactly $900 for a ‘reasonable’ system without a discrete GPU. A system with a discrete GPU will be much better for tasks like playing games or 3D rendering, but you’ll need to add the cost of that GPU to the $900 base price estimate. In that case, you might want a faster CPU, better motherboard and more RAM, adding perhaps another $200 to the total cost. While you can build a Mini-ITX system for under $900, the result will be compromised in some areas (eg, a slower CPU and less memory and/or storage). But for typical use you could likely get away with a cheaper CPU. For your average user, a Mini-ITX PC will do everything a full-size desktop will do in a much smaller package. You can put together a computer like this for around $800-2000, depending on your chosen parts. I checked the cost of parts from Umart (see below) as I am writing this Photo 18: this system built in a MetallicGear Neo Mini V2 case consumes over 500W but still technically has a ‘small form factor’! While it is a bit larger than most Mini-ITX systems, it’s still about half the volume of a typical ATX case. The motherboard ends around where you can see the top of the DIMMs; the space to the right (at front of the case) is occupied by the GPU radiator; the small CPU radiator is visible at lower left. Amazingly, it runs cool due to the carefully considered layout. siliconchip.com.au Australia's electronics magazine Conclusion Remember that those prices don’t include a keyboard, mouse or monitor, although you might already have those if you upgrade from an existing system. Where to buy parts I have found the vendors below reasonably reliable and offer fast and inexpensive delivery within Australia. Compare the prices as sometimes one will offer a product cheaper than others. Umart (NE Queensland): www.umart.com.au Scorptec (Clayton, Vic with stores throughout Australia): www.scorptec.com.au mwave (Lidcombe, NSW): www.mwave.com.au You can also find good parts deals on Amazon (www.amazon.com.au) and eBay (www.ebay.com.au – caveat SC emptor!) 49