Ok here me out. I know that I am pushing every boundary there is but you gotta dream right?
Background:
I am a software developer by day and a game enthousiast by night, and a tech geek overall! For the last years I always did my development on laptops like Dell XPS's and such. I hate laptops, I hate the lack of horsepower and the thermal-problems. I am not buying laptops anymore so I am thinking about going the SFF route! I want an absolute beast of a PC to get my development work done. But when I am done for work and go home, I would like to re-purpose that hardware for gaming. It would be a shame to have a 5950X-machine in your backpack and build a separate rig for gaming, right!?
Usecase:
So let me share the idea: I want a 5950X inside a very tiny case like the 'Inwin Chopin' or more reasonable ' NFC S4 Mini'. It has to be very portable because it will travel with me everyday on and off work. I want two NVME's so I can get a dual boot setup; one for work and the other one for gaming. At home I will build a GPU enclose for a 6800XT. My plan is to use a PCIE riser extension to connect both 'rig' and 'epgu' without any performance loss (like you get with Thunderbolt3).
I must also add that I don't want to plugin in a bunch of cables when I get home or at work. At work I just want to plug the power into my PSU and one Thunderbolt3/USB-C for my triple monitor / mouse / keyboard / etc. (I have a docking station at work). At home I also have to plug the power into the PSU, 1 USB for all the peripherals and the PCIE Riser for the eGPU.
Planned hardware:
MOTHERBOARD: ROG Strix X570 I Gaming
CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 5950X
CPU-COOLER: Noctua NH-L12S (or Alpenföhn Black Ridge) with 120mm fan
RAM: Corsair Vengeance LPX CMK64GX4M2E3200C16 (64gb / 2 sticks)
PSU: HDPLEX 400W HiFi DC-ATX
CASE: NFC S4 Mini ?
Problems:
A. Thermals are gonna be a thing. I know the NH-L12S can somewhat handle the 3950X. Maybe cram some cute 80mm fans in there to increase airflow? Although I am not that concerned about the thermals compared to following issues.
B. The 5950X has no integrated graphics which brings me into alot of trouble. It means I need to have a dedicated GPU in the system just to get it running at work. But I also need the possibility to use the eGPU at home. And ofcourse I don't want to swap GPU's all the time. As far as I know I have two solutions for this:
1. Go for micro-ATX instead of mini-ATX.
This would be the most easy solution. I would just add a very low profile GPU (tiny ZOTAC 1050?) for work. And also plug in a permanent riser-extension-cable (dangling on the outside the case) for the eGPU at home. However finding sub 5l cases for micro-ATX feels impossible. Especially because I don't want it too big. I want to use a flex PSU but most cases have large spaces for full-blown GPU's and normal PSU's. Maybe you guys have any suggestion about small micro-ATX cases?
2. Explore the realm of PCIE-bifurcation.
This sounds really cool. But I have my doubts about this solution. I would need a small PCIE 4.0 'splitter-card'. I would need an ITX motherboard with: X570, PCIE 4.0, 2 NVME slots ánd bifurcation enabled. That really limits the amount of boards; IF one exists at all... And how would it work with a dual boot setup? I would just enable one GPU and disable the other? How would it work with CPU lanes? Bifurcation would mean that x16 lane port would be splitted into 2x 8 lanes. Would 8 lanes of PCIE 4.0 bottleneck the 6800XT eGPU? As you can see alot of questions are raised when choosing the bifurcation path so I am a bit hesitant.
C. PCIE ports / risers aren't build to be plugged in and out daily. You can wear out the slots easily that way and I don't want to damage the eGPU board or motherboard. After seeing this video of linus where you can extend riser cables without performance loss I am convinced I could just add 2 riser cables to both systems (eGPU and PC). And just a third one to connect them both. In case I wear out the slots I would just mean 1 new riser cable instead of a new board.
D. In order to get a NH-L12S (or Black Ridge) to be efficient I need to a 120mm fan. But for both fans the RAM is in the way. I would need 64gb of VLP ram. And I don't really have knowledge about RAM, timings and efficiency. But I know the Ryzen CPU's depend heavily on fast RAM. Does 64gb VLP even exist or is this a fairytale aswell?
And most likely I am forgetting a ton of other problems which make this build highly unlikely. What do you guys think; should I be sent to a lunatic asylum?
Background:
I am a software developer by day and a game enthousiast by night, and a tech geek overall! For the last years I always did my development on laptops like Dell XPS's and such. I hate laptops, I hate the lack of horsepower and the thermal-problems. I am not buying laptops anymore so I am thinking about going the SFF route! I want an absolute beast of a PC to get my development work done. But when I am done for work and go home, I would like to re-purpose that hardware for gaming. It would be a shame to have a 5950X-machine in your backpack and build a separate rig for gaming, right!?
Usecase:
So let me share the idea: I want a 5950X inside a very tiny case like the 'Inwin Chopin' or more reasonable ' NFC S4 Mini'. It has to be very portable because it will travel with me everyday on and off work. I want two NVME's so I can get a dual boot setup; one for work and the other one for gaming. At home I will build a GPU enclose for a 6800XT. My plan is to use a PCIE riser extension to connect both 'rig' and 'epgu' without any performance loss (like you get with Thunderbolt3).
I must also add that I don't want to plugin in a bunch of cables when I get home or at work. At work I just want to plug the power into my PSU and one Thunderbolt3/USB-C for my triple monitor / mouse / keyboard / etc. (I have a docking station at work). At home I also have to plug the power into the PSU, 1 USB for all the peripherals and the PCIE Riser for the eGPU.
Planned hardware:
MOTHERBOARD: ROG Strix X570 I Gaming
CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 5950X
CPU-COOLER: Noctua NH-L12S (or Alpenföhn Black Ridge) with 120mm fan
RAM: Corsair Vengeance LPX CMK64GX4M2E3200C16 (64gb / 2 sticks)
PSU: HDPLEX 400W HiFi DC-ATX
CASE: NFC S4 Mini ?
Problems:
A. Thermals are gonna be a thing. I know the NH-L12S can somewhat handle the 3950X. Maybe cram some cute 80mm fans in there to increase airflow? Although I am not that concerned about the thermals compared to following issues.
B. The 5950X has no integrated graphics which brings me into alot of trouble. It means I need to have a dedicated GPU in the system just to get it running at work. But I also need the possibility to use the eGPU at home. And ofcourse I don't want to swap GPU's all the time. As far as I know I have two solutions for this:
1. Go for micro-ATX instead of mini-ATX.
This would be the most easy solution. I would just add a very low profile GPU (tiny ZOTAC 1050?) for work. And also plug in a permanent riser-extension-cable (dangling on the outside the case) for the eGPU at home. However finding sub 5l cases for micro-ATX feels impossible. Especially because I don't want it too big. I want to use a flex PSU but most cases have large spaces for full-blown GPU's and normal PSU's. Maybe you guys have any suggestion about small micro-ATX cases?
2. Explore the realm of PCIE-bifurcation.
This sounds really cool. But I have my doubts about this solution. I would need a small PCIE 4.0 'splitter-card'. I would need an ITX motherboard with: X570, PCIE 4.0, 2 NVME slots ánd bifurcation enabled. That really limits the amount of boards; IF one exists at all... And how would it work with a dual boot setup? I would just enable one GPU and disable the other? How would it work with CPU lanes? Bifurcation would mean that x16 lane port would be splitted into 2x 8 lanes. Would 8 lanes of PCIE 4.0 bottleneck the 6800XT eGPU? As you can see alot of questions are raised when choosing the bifurcation path so I am a bit hesitant.
C. PCIE ports / risers aren't build to be plugged in and out daily. You can wear out the slots easily that way and I don't want to damage the eGPU board or motherboard. After seeing this video of linus where you can extend riser cables without performance loss I am convinced I could just add 2 riser cables to both systems (eGPU and PC). And just a third one to connect them both. In case I wear out the slots I would just mean 1 new riser cable instead of a new board.
D. In order to get a NH-L12S (or Black Ridge) to be efficient I need to a 120mm fan. But for both fans the RAM is in the way. I would need 64gb of VLP ram. And I don't really have knowledge about RAM, timings and efficiency. But I know the Ryzen CPU's depend heavily on fast RAM. Does 64gb VLP even exist or is this a fairytale aswell?
And most likely I am forgetting a ton of other problems which make this build highly unlikely. What do you guys think; should I be sent to a lunatic asylum?