First PC: ITX or NOT

[BbqGoomba]

What's up community!

I'm specking out my first pc build and I need help with deciding whether to do a Small Form Factor build. Right now, my biggest decider is whether to use an ITX motherboard or not. Is that smart? Is ITX a good option for by first pc?

I could use the help. Thanks!

(Btw, I haven't fully decided, but my pc will be either 12th gen Intel or recent Ryzen 5, and hopefully a 3060)

[Alex Atkin UK]

6 minutes ago, BbqGoomba said:

What's up community!

I'm specking out my first pc build and I need help with deciding whether to do a Small Form Factor build. Right now, my biggest decider is whether to use an ITX motherboard or not. Is that smart? Is ITX a good option for by first pc?

I could use the help. Thanks!

(Btw, I haven't fully decided, but my pc will be either 12th gen Intel or recent Ryzen 5, and hopefully a 3060)

ITX can really limit your options if you are air cooling and personally I do not trust water cooling, they just don't last as long and in the unlikely event it leaks the damage is so much worse than air cooling where your system will just throttle or shut down.

 

I was ITX for many years but moved back to towers as its so much easier to build quiet ones at larger sizes, watercooling is pretty much mandatory to make a quiet ITX build.

There's also the fact ITX is more fiddly to build in general, so probably not ideal for a first build.

[Dukesilver27-]

SFF builds are usually more expensive than comparable mATX, harder to build in, and less upgradability. 

Judging by your chosen parts, I'd advise against it. 

[Jimkirk363]

I would avoid ITX if u plan on upgrades or putting it in a hot room.

[dizmo]

What's your reason for wanting to go ITX?

I built my first truly ITX system last year. It was fun, but a little challenging and greatly reduced the list of parts I had to choose from. It's also quite loud due to air flow restrictions. If you plan on putting your PC on your desk, ITX is the way to go, but I don't think I'll make another ITX system (I also don't mind just having my tower sitting on the floor). It's also a pain if you ever need to change something out. My next PC will definitely be a full tower.

 

Welcome to the forum.

[BbqGoomba]

9 minutes ago, dizmo said:

What's your reason for wanting to go ITX?

I built my first truly ITX system last year. It was fun, but a little challenging and greatly reduced the list of parts I had to choose from. It's also quite loud due to air flow restrictions. If you plan on putting your PC on your desk, ITX is the way to go, but I don't think I'll make another ITX system (I also don't mind just having my tower sitting on the floor). It's also a pain if you ever need to change something out. My next PC will definitely be a full tower.

 

Welcome to the forum.

Thanks. I am interested in ITX and SFF for the smaller footprint on my desk and such. I am feeling open for either though.

[GuiltySpark_]

17 minutes ago, BbqGoomba said:

Thanks. I am interested in ITX and SFF for the smaller footprint on my desk and such. I am feeling open for either though.

I don't agree with a lot of what's been said as if done correctly, ITX systems can be incredibly compact, power dense, quiet and reliable. The problem for new builders is just not having the experience to do SFF well or underestimating the increased cost. My suggestion is to first head over to reddit.com/r/sffpc and see what people are doing. I ran a 5800x/3090 in a Meshlicious for two years just fine, super quiet and incredibly powerful. 

 

Its certainly not for everyone but if you have no use for expansion cards it's a real fun subset of the PC building hobby. Something about power density is incredibly appealing so some, not all. 

 

Join us.

 

..just to get you excited..

[Kinda Bottlenecked]

9 hours ago, BbqGoomba said:

What's up community!

I'm specking out my first pc build and I need help with deciding whether to do a Small Form Factor build. Right now, my biggest decider is whether to use an ITX motherboard or not. Is that smart? Is ITX a good option for by first pc?

I could use the help. Thanks!

(Btw, I haven't fully decided, but my pc will be either 12th gen Intel or recent Ryzen 5, and hopefully a 3060)

 

it used to be that ITX was much more expensive but not so much these days. You have cases like the nr200 and the SAMA IM01(this can accommodate an MATX) which are not expensive. 

 

I had an easier time building in my nr200 because it was really compact and there isn't much to lug around. Of course the complexity here is to make sure that all your components can fit. 

 

You also have  really good compact dual tower coolers like the thermalright silversoul 135. 

 

Maybe a good starting point for you would be the SAMA IM01/IM02 since those can accommodate matx motherboards and 4slot GPUs.

 

With the mesh side panel, it can fit really good performing coolers.