Very compact office PC

[MoVo]

Budget (including currency): 450€ (exkl. Windows 10)

Country: Germany

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: The PC is mainly used for office work with the standard apps like Word, PowerPoint as well as some specialized applications.

Other details:

The PC is a replacement for an old notebook. My friend bough a notebook because he thought he might could need it otherwise. However, the notebook did not leave the room once, so we figured a desktop system would be a better replacement, especially when it comes to price/performance.

Since the PC is located in a space with costumers, the PC should be as compact as possible in order to hide it relatively easy (or make the setup look clean)

My main issue is regarding the case. I figured, a CPU with integrated grapics should be enough for the kind of workload and should last long enough. So I was searching for micro-ATX cases, but all of them were still quite big since they all had enough space to fit a medium to large sized dedicated GPU inside. Do you have any recommendations for a very small for factor case (thats preferably relatively easy to build in) that doesn't break the budget?

 

I appreciate your suggestions!

PCPartPicker Part List

Type	Item	Price
CPU	AMD Ryzen 3 3200G 3.6 GHz Quad-Core Processor	€89.90 @ Amazon Deutschland
Motherboard	MSI B450M PRO-M2 MAX Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard	€74.89 @ Mindfactory
Memory	Crucial 8 GB (2 x 4 GB) DDR4-3200 Memory	€47.99 @ Amazon Deutschland
Storage	Samsung 860 Evo 500 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive	€82.90 @ Amazon Deutschland
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total	€295.68
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-05-11 15:46 CEST+0200

[Statik]

From my understanding pretty much every case is going to offer GPU support, because motherboards offer it.

 

 

Any MicroATX case should be completely fine. I've never gone into a business and been upset because their computer was too big, nevermind it being a SFF build that was too big.

[fordy_rounds]

If you're looking to go very compact, I'd suggest going mini-ITX rather than micro-ATX. There are a few mini-ITX cases that don't include GPU space, and are basically only enough room for the motherboard (and maybe a PSU, though to go very compact you might need to go with a pico-PSU and external power brick). The downside is that it'll cost more.

 

But as @Statik said, as long is it's not blocking sightlines between your friend and their customers, it'll probably be fine, as long as your friend is ok with the size.

[boggy77]

Antec VSK10

Fractal Design Core 1000 USB 3.0

Fractal Design Define Mini C

Silverstone ML03B

Silverstone GD09B

 

 

 

 

[Streetguru]

19 minutes ago, MoVo said:

 

Just get a NUC type of thing, there's some AM4 options in them as well.
 

 

[iBabySlapper]

I would recommend a DeskMini A300. I built one for my dad a year ago or so with a 2200G, and it's a pretty solid little thing. It won't fit the stock cooler, so you'll have to get a lower profile cooler. I ended up going for a Noctua L9A. Stick a NVME SSD like a Sabrent Rocket inside, and it'll be a good office PC.

[MoVo]

19 minutes ago, fordy_rounds said:

If you're looking to go very compact, I'd suggest going mini-ITX rather than micro-ATX. There are a few mini-ITX cases that don't include GPU space, and are basically only enough room for the motherboard (and maybe a PSU, though to go very compact you might need to go with a pico-PSU and external power brick). The downside is that it'll cost more.

 

But as @Statik said, as long is it's not blocking sightlines between your friend and their customers, it'll probably be fine, as long as your friend is ok with the size.

It doesn't need as compact to not be able to house a PSU. The main concern is just that the PC shouldn't be too big to be able to fit on a relatively small desk. So they were looking into a very compact system, that I'm trying to deliver.

At first we were looking into just using a thin client, but they're too limited in their resources to be a good pc, so thats not really an option. Another alternative are compact PCs like HP Prodesk, but they are pretty expensive, so I thought about self-building. I know that its quite challenging if not impossible to buy standard parts as small as a ProDesk, but I want to get it as close as possible in order to make the prices more comparable. It can be a little bit bigger, but it also should be quite a bit cheaper.

20 minutes ago, Streetguru said:

Just get a NUC type of thing, there's some AM4 options in them as well.
 

 

NUCs are not really an option, they are just too expensive with comparable specs.

 

17 minutes ago, iBabySlapper said:

I would recommend a DeskMini A300. I built one for my dad a year ago or so with a 2200G, and it's a pretty solid little thing. It won't fit the stock cooler, so you'll have to get a lower profile cooler. I ended up going for a Noctua L9A. Stick a NVME SSD like a Sabrent Rocket inside, and it'll be a good office PC.

that seems like a really interesting option. Do I understand correctly that this is a Case + Motherboard combination? The only problem is that it is only available with an A300 chipset which doesn't support 3rd Gen Ryzen iirc?

[Streetguru]

2 minutes ago, MoVo said:

It doesn't need as compact to not be able to house a PSU. The main concern is just that the PC shouldn't be too big to be able to fit on a relatively small desk. So they were looking into a very compact system, that I'm trying to deliver.

At first we were looking into just using a thin client, but they're too limited in their resources to be a good pc, so thats not really an option. Another alternative are compact PCs like HP Prodesk, but they are pretty expensive, so I thought about self-building. I know that its quite challenging if not impossible to buy standard parts as small as a ProDesk, but I want to get it as close as possible in order to make the prices more comparable. It can be a little bit bigger, but it also should be quite a bit cheaper.

NUCs are not really an option, they are just too expensive with comparable specs.

 

that seems like a really interesting option. Do I understand correctly that this is a Case + Motherboard combination? The only problem is that it is only available with an A300 chipset which doesn't support 3rd Gen Ryzen iirc?

https://www.newegg.com/asrock-deskmini-a300w/p/N82E16856158064?Description=AM4 barebones&cm_re=AM4_barebones-_-56-158-064-_-Product&quicklink=true

Supports RYZEN 3200G and 3400G

 

just needs storage/RAM/CPU

[iBabySlapper]

Just now, MoVo said:

It doesn't need as compact to not be able to house a PSU. The main concern is just that the PC shouldn't be too big to be able to fit on a relatively small desk. So they were looking into a very compact system, that I'm trying to deliver.

At first we were looking into just using a thin client, but they're too limited in their resources to be a good pc, so thats not really an option. Another alternative are compact PCs like HP Prodesk, but they are pretty expensive, so I thought about self-building. I know that its quite challenging if not impossible to buy standard parts as small as a ProDesk, but I want to get it as close as possible in order to make the prices more comparable. It can be a little bit bigger, but it also should be quite a bit cheaper.

NUCs are not really an option, they are just too expensive with comparable specs.

 

that seems like a really interesting option. Do I understand correctly that this is a Case + Motherboard combination? The only problem is that it is only available with an A300 chipset which doesn't support 3rd Gen Ryzen iirc?

It's a Case+Mobo+PSU combo. It supports Ryzen 2000/3000 series (Zen+/Zen2), but who knows if it'll support 4000 series (Zen3). I'm guessing it won't. If AMD comes out with a A500 chipset, they might make an updated Deskmini, but who knows.