Morning all! I'm after some advice re: parts for a new build. I'm going to go for mini-ITX this time around, but am going to source second hand parts, so happy to go back a few generations to keep the cost down. Only thing is that I've lost track of Intel/AMD chipsets and defnitely no clue on the better Ryzen stuff. Can anyone suggest some good motherboard/CPU combos from either AMD or Intel (not fussed either way) for a general/gaming PC? Probably at 1920x1200 resolution, DDR4 (of course) but I've been looking at 7th gen Core as a lower limit, in terms of age. Budget is "cheap as possible", but no other requirements as far as I can think. Thanks in advance!
You may want to ask some of the SFF crew last seen salivating on ITX in https://forums.bit-tech.net/index.php?threads/itx-anonymous-club.305165/page-17 There's a few thinITX/ITX obsessives
There’s generally a lot of love for the Asus Strix ITX boards for both Intel and AMD platforms. I guess you’ll want a quad core minimum and 16GB RAM but, TBH, pairing any such chip with relevant mobo will net you a decent system. if you want to keep it cheap, a B450 board and Ryzen 2600 would work. With the Ryzen 4000 series expected out soon, if you can hold off, you should be able to pick up a 3000 chip second hand. I think the MSI B450i was also well regarded for its VRM quality and was a good chunk cheaper than the Strix when new, not sure if that will translate to 2nd hand sales though. A key thing to think about though is how small you want to go with the case. Goatee has a very small ITX rig on the MP, great for travelling with but that’s less important if it’s going to sit on your desk all the time. Smaller cases will limit you on GPU compatibility and you’ll generally struggle to cool a monster CPU in them.
Aha! Cheers both - appreciated! If I can wait a few months (which is extremely probable, given my skill at procrastinating) is a 3700X and the MSI board the way to go? I'm thinking not much point in going higher up unless I can find a good deal, of course. The idea for the build is to squeeze it into some old bookshelf speakers that have had their day...
It would certainly be a decent option. There may well be some bundles going secondhand when the 4000 series come out. Those chips won’t generally be compatible with the B450/X470 chipsets, so anyone upgrading will probably be buying a B550/X570 Mobo alongside it.
