Want to build a NUC-like mini PC

[deadline]

Hi, y'all!

Due to different priorities in life (work) I sold my beefed up Dan A4 and replaced it with a Mac mini + a Razer Core X eGPU with an Asus ROG Strix Radeon 5700 XT OC (those names). As you all know, Mac is not a gaming machine, and I'm looking to build a small PC for gaming with the eGPU.

So what I need is:
Small enclosure (mini ITX will do fine), without space for GPU. It also have to look nice on my desk.
A decent Mini ITX motherboard with support for TB3. As there is only one supporting AMD (Asrock X570), I might be better off looking at Intel solutions?
16GB RAM, and a small M.2 SSD.
Air cooling

Any suggestions on where I should start? App budget is 1000 euros.

Thanks!

 

[ermac318]

Dumb question - why not just... buy a NUC? There are ones with Thunderbolt 3.

Otherwise, you could buy a case that's designed not to house a GPU and throw either AsRock motherboard (Z390 phantom ITX or X570 ITX/TB3) in it with a CPU Cooler. This CustomMod case is less than 4L and supports 65mm tall coolers. There's also J-Hack's Pure X and the Lone Industries L5.

Word of caution - the Z390 ITX's Thunderbolt 3 port is only 2 PCIe lanes wide, so your performance will be worse vs. the X570 board (which does wire 4 lanes to TB3).

Other option: Grab something like this which is an 8-core 45W laptop chip instead of the U-series chips, then use an M.2 -> eGPU bridge.

 

[DemLep]

First off I would ask if you want to overclock or run the CPU at stock speeds and are you going to be doing anything else demanding on the this computer (streaming, video editing, etc.)

If you are just gaming I think the 9700K - https://www.newegg.com/core-i7-9th-gen-intel-core-i7-9700k/p/N82E16819117958
That runs about 400 USD. You can save some money on the F series (They don't have integrated graphics) or a non K series (K can be overclocked). Just depends on the features you want/need.

2x8GB (16GB) DDR4 high speed RAM will be good and will depend on the motherboard. I would also make sure it is low profile.

I'm assuming that you will be using Windows 10 for the OS. If so I would go with a 500GB M.2 drive with larger SSD for storage. If you are doing a Linux OS you should be able to go with a small M.2 drive, but make sure the games you want to play are on Linux.

For cooling Noctua is a good place to start with low profile coolers, though there are other brands that have good low profile coolers. I don't have a lot of experience with low profile coolers, so maybe someone else will have another recommendation.

When it comes to the case what are you looking for? Space efficiency, looks cooling, RGB? Are there any features that are a make/break for the case?

Hope this will help.

 

[scope]

I wonder if the Mac Mini is actually better in this regard as in being more custom and they're wiring the 4 PCIe lanes for TB3 directly to the CPU lanes.

Otherwise for an ITX board the AMD one looks to be better, having full bandwidth TB3 and maybe they also have the TB3 controller on the CPU lanes?

 

[ermac318]

...maybe they also have the TB3 controller on the CPU lanes?

Negative, it's connected via the chipset lanes:

 

[scope]

And the chipset has PCIe 4.0 x4 uplink to the CPU which should have similar performance to x8 PCIe 3.0? So in theory there should be more bandwidth available for TB3 than on the Intel boards. The controller is Titan Ridge on this AMD board, the Intel ones have the older Alpine Ridge.

The Mac Mini looks like it has 2 Titan Ridge controllers on the CPU lanes. https://egpu.io/forums/desktop-computing/mac-mini-review-heedlessly-renovated/

As much as I dislike the soldered down SSD in the Mac Mini, which I think is not just a jerk move but also questionable engineering, if you wan't to build a similar sized system, the compactness and thermal performance of the Mini (vs. processing power) won't be that easy to match, if you want your system to be quiet as well.