COMMENTS
> ITX Cases > Not All Gamers > Labrador Love
April Mini ITX Build
Christian built a mini ITX system that I wanted to build because I am retired and spend time visiting my kids around the U.S. But when I priced the mobo and the Ryzen CPU the costs have gone up dramatically. Is it because the hardware is now aged, or is it because of the COVID-19 pandemic?
If I wanted to upgrade to a later-gen Ryzen and mobo, what would you recommend, and have the costs been inflated there also?
–Dave Earls
STAFF WRITER CHRISTIAN GUYTON RESPONDS: I’m pretty sure the CPU in question was on sale when I assembled this build. For now, a decent alternative might be the Ryzen 5 3600; at the time of writing, it’s available for $175 on www.newegg. com. The COVID-19 situation has impacted component availability, so we’re seeing a lot of sold-out products right now, but getting a decent chip for under $200 is possible.
ITX motherboards have been hit worse, since they’re typically in less demand than CPUs and as such aren’t a production priority. They’re now in very short supply, so
I’d be inclined to simply get whatever you can. Any typical 400-series AMD board (such as the MSI B450I Gaming
Plus AC) should do the trick, but bear in mind that you may need to update the BIOS to support a 3rd-gen Ryzen processor. Do your research first; some manufacturers are updating the boards prior to sale, which would be ideal if you don’t have a 2nd-gen Ryzen chip lying around to update the BIOS with.
Regarding price inflation: Prices aren’t so much rising across the board so much as they simply aren’t dropping in the usual trend. There are fewer sales on, too. If you buy brand-new now, you shouldn’t be paying an inflated price, but you likely will be paying the full price. Avoid buying second-hand right now unless you’re confident it’s a good deal; third-party sellers are taking advantage of stock shortages to ramp up prices, so shop with caution.
Welcome Back!
Just wanted to say that I’m glad to see Zak back at MPC. I always liked his columns, and to have him lead the future of this beloved magazine is even more exciting.
The icing on the cake is the main cover story of the May edition. I have been watercooling my rigs for almost a decade, but I haven’t kept up with new developments in recent years. So this month’s cover story couldn’t be more timely, as I am starting a new build using an HTPC case. –Tom
EDITOR ZAK STOREY RESPONDS: Thanks for the kind words, it’s a pleasure to be back. I missed this place like you can’t possibly imagine. I’m glad you brought this up as it’s something I’m trying to find a good excuse to talk about. I'm dying to build myself a liquid-cooled ITX PC again. The Phanteks build was an awesome project, but it’s got faults that I’m just not happy with—the main one being airflow (and to be honest, performance).
I have a soft spot for the
ITX form factor. In fact out of the majority of non-dream machine liquid-cooled builds I’ve done, three out of five of them have been ITX.
For me it’s the perfect form factor, and a weird sort of challenge—like sticking a 3.2L V6 engine in a frontwheel-drive Volkswagen Golf Mk2. You just don’t expect such a small system to have that kind of power, and to take advantage of it so effectively. That’s the appeal: Doing a dumb thing in something small.
My problem is finding the right chassis. ITX isn’t the most popular, and there’s this debate among purists as to whether a case is ITX or not, so manufacturers typically lean more on the smaller size, rather than catering for liquid-cooled support. For instance a lot of folk don't consider the NZXT Manta—one of my favorite cases of all time—small form factor at all, because you can fit two 240mm rads in it. In fact, there’s a fantastic mod someone did where they actually converted it to a micro ATX build instead.
That said, I’ve got some ideas. EKWB’s been teasing me by suggesting it might give me its long EOL Vulture chassis that it still has at its HQ, which features support for a 360mm front-mounted rad and an inverted case layout (another favorite feature of mine). Antec, meanwhile, has a case called the Striker, which blurs the edges between outlandish style and openair ITX awesomeness. Both are tempting, but it saddens me that there’s not more choice for the liquid-cooling enthusiast. If I was handy with a CNC machine and CAD/CAM tech I’d love to build my own case, but that’s a pipe dream.
Labrador Love
Hello MaximumPC! I’ve been a reader for over a decade, but it's my first time as a writer. This one’s for Zak. Zak, you haven’t been around long, but I have really enjoyed your subjects and writing prowess! Thank you. But what got me to respond is that great chocolate lab you were smart enough to get (besides that Google Home Mini).
As you can see, your chocolate looks like my Boomer. Mine are both crate-trained, and there are many advantages, sans the Hershey squirts! About that, you cannot change foods without gradually mixing with old food—usually a week of gradually mixing in new food until they are on 100%
of the new. Also, some labs need sensitive-stomach food. However, if a puppy, the first two years should be “large breed puppy food." One of my two, Mattie, needs sensitivestomach food. Boomer will inhale anything!
I am 72 years young and cut my teeth on a Packard Bell 286 PC. My first journey into hardware was getting up the nerve and $179 to buy and install a whopping 2MB RAM stick, doubling the RAM!
That extensive experience led to me having a second career in ATMs, as they were converting from firmware to software-based. Zak, keep writing about tech and I’ll keep being your lab advisor. Glad you're back!
EDITOR ZAK STOREY RESPONDS: Hi Bob! Thanks for the email, and the advice. I know we had to cut some of it out here, but rest assured, I’ve taken it all on board.
Like you, I've poured hours into researching what’s best for my little pupper. Inje’s around one year and five months old as I type this, so she’s getting up there. We’ve certainly discovered she can
eat (we had a nasty run-in with rat poison while she stayed at a dog-lodger’s when we were on vacation), but she’s not got a sensitive stomach fortunately. She shares half my lunch most days, and has a fondness for apples and carrots—the latter of which we use to clean her teeth, and as a treat. That was mostly because the vet complained that the chews we were giving her were making her fat.
That particular poop session was caused by a stomach bug that seemed to be going around a lot of the dogs in my area. We think she picked it up from going on a walk and eating another dog’s poop…. The vet popped her on some antibiotics and she was back to her usual bounding self within three days.
I can’t tell you enough, though, just how fantastic she is for my mental health. I’m fairly introverted at the best of times, but I started working from home in January 2019 and quickly realized it’s a lonely existence, so she keeps me company and keeps me sane. It’s perhaps the best WFH tip I can give anyone: Buy a dog, they’re great company.
Oh and get out of the house once a day, even if it’s just to go to a coffee shop,or pick up some groceries.
Also, the Packard Bell 286 is similar to the first PC I ever used in elementary school!
We’re Not All Gamers
Gentlemen, I subscribe to MaximumPC and enjoy a majority of the articles. But I am not a gamer. If you judge that I belong to a significant minority of your readers, please consider devoting a set of Build Its to top-quality machines well-suited to a range of systems, spanning a budget build for simple home use to a high-end, versatile, robust system suited to a thriving small business.
If inclusion of build instructions for the latter unit is not deemed worthwhile, perhaps you could direct your readers to resources that would assist in that regard. With any luck your knowledgeable staff might find responding to this request a novel challenge and address it with gusto! –G Stevens
EDITOR ZAK STOREY RESPONDS: This is a very good point. Now, obviously myself and Christian are big into gaming—it’s what drew us to this passion of ours—so naturally it’s bound to eek across into what we build and how we write.
However, I’m trying to take care of some of the balancing issues in MaximumPC as a whole, and I totally agree with you. We haven’t been doing enough to address all of our audience, and that’s something I’m looking to rectify. Going forward, our intention is to produce two builds an issue. Next month, for example, I’m working on an Intel Cannon Lake gaming PC, and on the flip side Christian’s building a noiseoptimized audio-recording studio build, with a GTX 1650.
And this issue we have that home office PC with 16GB of DDR4 and a 1TB PCIe SSD, all for just $535, which genuinely blows me away.