Hades Canyon NUC, ASRock Deskmini, or gaming laptop?

[warfreak131]

Warning: wall of text incoming

Hi everyone, I am looking to downsize my total collection, which involved parting out my current system and going for something a little more pre-built. I am debating between the Hades Canyon NUC, ASRock Deskmini, or a gaming laptop, and I see upsides and downsides to each, and I wanted to hear your opinions. From my research, it seems that for each option, a GTX1060 or equivalent model will cost roughly the same, perhaps to within $200 of eachother. The NUC and Deskmini are cheaper than a laptop, but you'll have to buy your own memory and storage for the NUC, and additionally a CPU+cooler for the Deskmini.

As it stands, here's what I see:

Hades Canyon

• Pros

1. About as small as you can reasonably get
2. Considerable power for the size (~GTX 1060 Max-Q performance)
3. According to SimplyNUC, very quiet under load

• Cons
  1. No CPU/GPU upgradeability, so it cannot necessarily be considered future proof IMO

Deskmini

• Pros
  1. Very small
  2. Power relative to its size
  3. Upgradeability to different CPUs/GPUs

• Cons

1. Upgrade path is very expensive for MXM cards, expecting to pay a hefty premium for upgraded GPU
2. Lack of space for CPU cooler (only around 2 inches from CPU to roof of case)
3. GPU cooler reportedly becomes very loud under load.

Gaming laptop

• Pros

1. Small-ish
2. Power relative to its size
3. No wires other than the power cord
4. I can replace my desktop + current laptop with just 1 laptop.

• Cons
  1. Upgrade path is very expensive for MXM cards (assuming it has one, which it should)
  2. No CPU upgradeability (although I did see one Ryzen-based laptop with a socketed CPU)

Here are my thoughts on each type of pro/con

Size and performance relative to size: Basic requirement of SFF

Upgradeability: I don't necessarily want it, and I know that sounds weird, but hear me out. I'm sure as many of you know, PC building can get expensive very quickly. A few years back I was really into photography. I had a nice DSLR (that allows you to swap lenses). As long as there are lenses out there to buy, I wanted to buy them, and made a few less-than-intelligent purchases on expensive lenses that I didn't get a lot of use out of before selling them at a loss. So eventually, I sold everything I had and bought a bridge camera (think of it like a high-end point-and-shoot that doesn't allow you to switch lenses). It still takes nice photos, and I don't have the desire to spend thousands on lenses. In essence, I purposely limited my myself in order to save lots of money in the future, and I don't regret it.

Noise: Considered to be a medium priority. If I'm in the middle of an intense game, chances are I probably won't even notice it. I'm not giving it carte blanche to be as loud as it wants, but if the fan's gotta work kinda hard, so be it.

CPU cooler space: If there isn't adequate space to cool the CPU, it may become too hot and throttle, defeating the point of performance relative to size. Or, the fan could spin really fast to keep it cool, defeating the point of keeping the noise low enough.

Number of wires: I love the idea of having as few wires as possible. The bottom of my desk looks like a spider web, and the fewer wires the better.

Replace my desktop + current laptop with just 1 laptop: Would be nice, but I can live with having a desktop/laptop instead of 1 to replace both.

(BONUS) Storage space: Typically, every component (CPU/GPU/memory/chassis, etc) comes in a box, and those boxes must be stored somewhere. In my little apartment, space is at a premium. The less room occupied by boxes the better!

 

[nipsip]

I am going with the Hades Canyon after deciding whether to build or buy. I am going for the $999 version.

 

[Petano]

I suggest you include one more variant in your equation and that is if you need portability like no portability at all / only around rooms like bed room and living room / relatively frequent (business trips, weekend house, LAN parties)

I have at home ITX build and decided for Hades Canyon to be my travel mate. I will use it on business trips as system which I can hookup to hotel TV. Until now I have compute stick with core m3 which is awesome machine but cannot cope with more recent games. I also hope I would be able to share powerbrick between hades canyon and business laptop.

And I agree that block upgrade-ability will at the end safe money. Machine will last for few years and it will stop you from constantly checking if I could have different CPU, GPU or cooler or PSU or... It is fun but pricey ;-)

 

[warfreak131]

I suggest you include one more variant in your equation and that is if you need portability like no portability at all / only around rooms like bed room and living room / relatively frequent (business trips, weekend house, LAN parties)

I have at home ITX build and decided for Hades Canyon to be my travel mate. I will use it on business trips as system which I can hookup to hotel TV. Until now I have compute stick with core m3 which is awesome machine but cannot cope with more recent games. I also hope I would be able to share powerbrick between hades canyon and business laptop.

And I agree that block upgrade-ability will at the end safe money. Machine will last for few years and it will stop you from constantly checking if I could have different CPU, GPU or cooler or PSU or... It is fun but pricey ;-)

Thanks for the reply. True, portability is something I could include but in the end, I don't think it's going to leave my room. My laptop barely ever leaves my room and that's made to be portable lol. I just don't like taking expensive stuff out of the safety of home.

I think I'm leaning away from a gaming laptop, partly because of price, partly because so many of them are gaudy. There are simpler-looking ones but those are usually less powerful. Like the MSI ones w/ GTX 1060's and up look like they came straight out of Area 51 and are pretty bulky. The GTX 1050 ones are simpler, but at the same time, less powerful, so it's a matter of finding a trade off I'm comfortable with.

 

[Morris]

What’s your use case for these? How much gaming? What games?

It’s easy to make a case for any of those options. For me, VR is something I really enjoy. It’s stupid expensive and unnecessary, but I’m at a point where I can afford it and it still feels like magic. I have an ITX machine because want the option for GPU expansion and mild portability.

Without that kind of itch, I’d stick with a nice laptop that has a decent gaming potential, or even pick up a Nintendo Switch and a laptop that’s just for work.

 

[warfreak131]

I intend for this to be ready to tackle Battlefield 1 on ultra-high everything at my TV's native resolution (1366x768), as well as future proof myself for the upcoming Battlefield 2018 game.

A 1080 is overkill for such a low screen resolution, but I like to future-proof it as graphics improve.

 

[Morris]

In your shoes I’d go for a nice gaming laptop that is professional enough to work as a daily driver at work/school. The bonus here is that once it starts to lag behind in gaming in a few years you’d be ready to upgrade to a new laptop anyway.

 

[ChainedHope]

I'm also going to vote for laptop. But only because you are gaming on a 768p TV which is second worst next to 1366p. Get the laptopp which could have a 1080p or 1440p IPS or VA panel.

 

[Reldey]

I'd go with the laptop just for the case that the display and keyboard are all in the same package, and it is much easier to set up. I travel with an ITX system with me, and breaking it out can be a hassle.

 

[warfreak131]

Before I said I was leaning away from a gaming laptop but now I'm leaning back towards it lol. Id be able to basically get rid of my computer, every component, every box, every accessory, etc as well as my current laptop and get only 1 laptop as a replacement. Sounds pretty good too me. Although I've decided to wait until laptops that feature 8th gen processors to start coming out before making the jump.

 

[Nightblade]

If you aren't going for the ability to upgrade really, but you aren't going to use the portability, getting a gaming laptop would be a waste of money. They are designed for portability, which is why they are small and also expensive. Honestly, since you aren't planning on building a pc, you should at least go for a desktop. In the long run, the desktop will save you money.

My vote is for the Deskmini, its what I would have chosen had I not gotten my S4M. All the laptops I've had in the past were slow and cumbersome to use since it was all one unit and could not arrange my peripherals how I wanted. Not to mention, you would need a cooling pad, which is another thing to carry around. Then again, you said you wouldn't be moving it around, so I would just get either a straight pre-built, a barebones unit or something like the Deskmini. The Hades canyon NUC is nice, but will still be pretty limited in terms of gaming for the price.