Small Form Computer Build

[mpsparrow]

I am looking to buy/build a small form factor computer for tasks such as giant Excel sheets (100K+ rows and such), multitasking with 30+ tabs open, video chatting, Microsoft Office stuff, etc. May not sound like it needs to be too powerful, although I would like/need at least a quad core CPU of some sorts for some or the tasks that will be done. No GPU is needed.

 

My main question is should I build a small ITX build or should I just buy a small computer (something like a Zotac MAGNUS or something similar in size). Reason being it needs to be able to fit in a bag to be brought overseas on a flight.

 

Any suggestions? I don't really know where to start with this.

[Imbellis]

I'd recommend building it yourself. You'll get better bang-for-buck if you build it yourself as well as the ability to change out parts at will, but you'll be compromising on portability more. If you want to go as small as possible, a NUC / prebuilt will be better. If you want to go as small as possible, you could opt for an Intel Compute Stick, but I'm not sure what the performance in your case.

 

Example: CS125 Intel Compute:

Quad Core @ 1.4 GHZ

2 GB DDR3

32 GB storage

[mpsparrow]

1 minute ago, Imbellis said:

I'd recommend building it yourself. You'll get better bang-for-buck if you build it yourself as well as the ability to change out parts at will, but you'll be compromising on portability more. If you want to go as small as possible, a NUC / prebuilt will be better. If you want to go as small as possible, you could opt for an Intel Compute Stick, but I'm not sure what the performance in your case.

 

Example: CS125 Intel Compute:

Quad Core @ 1.4 GHZ

2 GB DDR3

32 GB storage

Need more power then that wimpy stick... lol

 

So if I built one myself, what specs would you recommend? Mainly what case and motherboard as that is sort of the big factor of this build. Besides case I would think something like a Ryzen 3 or 5 along with 8GB of memory and an SSD would do.

[Mira Yurizaki]

If you're traveling a lot, why not get a laptop? You still have to take peripherals with you with a desktop unless you can guarantee they'll be at your destination.

 

But if you really need to have a desktop, I recommend something pre-built. The smallest you can get in the DIY market is mini-ITX, which means at the minimum you'll need to carry something that big around. And tiny cases are kind of limited.

[Imbellis]

1 minute ago, mpsparrow said:

Need more power then that wimpy stick... lol

 

So if I built one myself, what specs would you recommend? Mainly what case and motherboard as that is sort of the big factor of this build. Besides case I would think something like a Ryzen 3 or 5 along with 8GB of memory and an SSD would do.

The smallest you'd be able to get with one you can make is ~4 L volume - like the S4 Mini or the L4. The problems that you may have is that they require DC PSUs, (I'd guess external for the L4) and they leave room for a GPU - which isn't needed in your case.

 

The more I look at it a NUC or prebuild would probably work better.

[mpsparrow]

5 minutes ago, M.Yurizaki said:

If you're traveling a lot, why not get a laptop? You still have to take peripherals with you with a desktop unless you can guarantee they'll be at your destination.

 

But if you really need to have a desktop, I recommend something pre-built. The smallest you can get in the DIY market is mini-ITX, which means at the minimum you'll need to carry something that big around. And tiny cases are kind of limited.

You must of misunderstood the traveling part. It is going to sit on a desktop all the time which is why a laptop would just be a waste. The only traveling that it is going to do is go from my house in Canada to Europe in a suitcase once. So in that case it has to be small so that it doesn't take up an entire bag. And the reason why I am not building it in Europe is because the person it is going to needs to have it built for them.

 

2 minutes ago, Imbellis said:

The smallest you'd be able to get with one you can make is ~4 L volume - like the S4 Mini or the L4. The problems that you may have is that they require DC PSUs, (I'd guess external for the L4) and they leave room for a GPU - which isn't needed in your case.

 

The more I look at it a NUC or prebuild would probably work better.

Yeah, so perhaps it is better if I just went for a NUC.... let me look into it....

 

Are there any other good small form factor pre-builts out there that I can check out while I am at this?