The ITX Sandwich megabuild saga

SgtAwesomesauce · July 10, 2020, 10:24pm

Hiya folks!

I’m considering a somewhat unique build at the moment, and since I’ve got very little experience with ITX boards, I thought I’d ask here.

I’m looking for a small case that’s got room for a midrange GPU and a couple SSDs. This will be an AMD build, and I’m also considering waiting for the zen 2 APUs to come out, since the rumor mill has them estimated to be fairly powerful.

I’m mostly looking for something that’ll be a replacement for my 1950x system. I need 32GB (or 64, maybe) of ram, a dGPU for passthrough, and 3-4 SSDs. NVMe or SATA doesn’t matter, this is for ZFS.

I don’t have a specific volume limit, I’m just aiming for “as smol as possible”

As far as other requirements go, it needs wired networking. 10G would be nice, but is not required. It needs onboard video out, for the APU, duh. and the case must have dust filtration because I am spoiled by the Meshify C.

I have no current pricerange for this build, but I think ~~$1200~~ $2800 is a somewhat realistic aim.

Alright, I’ve got the initial build plan done, budget completely blown away, but IDGAF anymore:

The ITX Sandwich megabuild saga Build a PC

B-B-Back from the dead! It begins: [image] Alright, time to plan the cost: Purchased Component Selection Price Notes Case Sliger SM580 $320.00 Included both Pigtail and inbuilt power adapter. Hoping to not need the pigtail. Also included the PCIe 3.0 Riser. CPU Ryzen 9 3900x $429 Motherboard ASRock B550 Phantom Gaming ITX $199 [3] Memory G.Skill Trident Z RGB 2x16 3600 $164 Still trying to decide how I want to go with this one… [1] Linux GPU MSI Radeon 5600 XT MECH OC $289 Expecting this to drop in price when the 3000 series launches. If this doesn’t happen, I’m okay with it. Windows GPU RTX 2080 Ti or 3000 series equivalent $700 Considering options here… [2] Power Supply Corsair SF 600w $209 WTF!? power supply prices are a fat F SSD 1 WD Blue 500GB M.2 $0 Had this from my original build, would consider selling it for the right price and getting something faster. SSD 2 WD Blue 2TB M.2 $0 Had this from my original build, would consider selling it for the right price and getting something faster. SSD 3 Micro 2TB SATA $0 Had this from my original build, would consider selling it for the right price and getting something faster. Initial Component Total: $2310 Now, none of this takes into consideration watercooling shit yet. I’m still planning that out. I think I’ll just put some stuff in here so I can get an idea of what the watercooling will cost. Purchased Component Selection Price Notes Tubing EK ZMT $18 Good shit xD Pump/CPU Block AlphaCool Eisbaer Solo 2600 Black $60 GPU Blocks 2x whatever GPU block I need $230 I figure the Alphacool blocks are ~115 ea Radiator 1 AlphaCool 280mm XT45 x-flow 16FPI $90 Hoping this will fit as a top-mount rad in my case… If not, I’ll switch to a dual-pass and see if that works out. Radiator 2 AlphaCool 240mm ST30 dual-pass 12F…

Bryan_R · July 10, 2020, 10:27pm

I have been using an Intel NUC with an external nVidia 1080 via TB3 and haven’t looked back for a second.

If you want to stick with AMD, there are some nice similar formfactor options.

SgtAwesomesauce · July 10, 2020, 10:28pm

I’m using Linux, so I’m not really looking to have thunderbolt be an instrumental component to the build.

I had considered that though. The main issue is that my XPS 15 is proving to me that Thunderbolt isn’t fully mature on Linux yet.

nx2l · July 10, 2020, 10:34pm

That itx x570 ASRock rack MB should be available soon…

SgtAwesomesauce · July 10, 2020, 10:35pm

Each one of those words says price++ to me.

But yes, that’s definitely on my radar.

anon46267848 · July 10, 2020, 10:39pm

I built in a DAN A4 case, can highly recommend it.

Pics

Other options are Ghost loque S1 or the Zaber sentry, although all these cases are expensive and hard to aquire.

My current case is a fractal core 500, which is nice, but too big for my liking.

SgtAwesomesauce · July 10, 2020, 10:42pm

Hmmmmm…

that actually seems solid.

could I fit my 1080 in there?

checks google machine

Yep.

Sold.

nx2l · July 10, 2020, 10:42pm

These itx have 2.5Gb lan

SgtAwesomesauce · July 10, 2020, 10:43pm

B550. Forgot that existed.

Donk · July 10, 2020, 10:43pm

To my knowledge, there doesn’t exist a consumer ITX board with 10G onboard. That Asrock Rack motherboard looks crazy though.

You’ll only have vga for onboard video out with that.

You could get creative with a m.2 to pcixe4 adaptor for a 10g ethernet card on a x570 board.

But yeah, those B550 with 2,5 gbe will be much more hassle free.

SgtAwesomesauce · July 10, 2020, 10:45pm

That’s what I feared. ITX+10G might be asking too much. Honestly that’s okay though. I don’t have 10G LAN yet. When I move to my new place, I will.

Could, but probably not worth the hassle, especially considering the space requirements to make that work.

anon46267848 · July 10, 2020, 10:45pm

Easily goes into a backpack if you plan to take it places.

Donk · July 10, 2020, 10:46pm

Yeah, especially if you go for the Dan A4

SgtAwesomesauce · July 10, 2020, 10:46pm

Oh yeah, that’s gotta be great, huh.

Donk · July 10, 2020, 10:49pm

I have a Dan A4 v4 sitting in a closet, I never got around to building in. It really is a pretty case.
No dust filtration though. But popping the side panels off and taking it outside to an air compressor wont be much work

SgtAwesomesauce · July 10, 2020, 10:49pm

That’s true. Smaller case, easier clean.

anon46267848 · July 10, 2020, 10:50pm

There’s a dust filter set for it

https://www.dan-cases.com/dana4_acce.html

Donk · July 10, 2020, 10:52pm

I stand corrected.

But it kinda ruins the look of the A4 when it mounts to the outside.

anon46267848 · July 10, 2020, 10:54pm

There’s both internal and external filters available.

Donk · July 10, 2020, 10:54pm

I stand corrected again.