Low footprint gaming PC

[stuckinasquare3]

I was thinking of the possibility of building a super low footprint/lightweight high powered gaming PC. I've seen some "shuttle" pc's and I'm wondering if they can get smaller and if you guys can recommend any good cases.

Here are my thoughts:
1) An Ivy Bridge mATX board with high powered CPU and single GPU
2) PCI-Express SSDs seem to be becoming a thing so possibly I could save room on a case that didn't require drive bays
3) No optical drives

Basically the case needs to be able to fit the board, the PSU, the cards without any drive bays or optical drives (and still be able to cool the thing). Anything come to mind?

EDIT: Perhaps even a mini-ITX board with an external PSU. Although do mini-ITX come with multiple PCIE slots?

 

[dma0991]

Doesn't get much smaller and more convenient than a Shuttle. Or a Silverstone SG05 if you'd like the challenge of sourcing out rare or expensive parts(PSU - SFX size, motherboard - mITX, GPU - length). Doesn't make much difference whether you have a 2.5" SSD or a mini PCIE/mSATA SSD, it still fits in the dimension of a mITX motherboard.

 

[stuckinasquare3]

All the mITX boards I've found only have one slot for a GPU. Where would the PCIE-SSD go?

 

[stuckinasquare3]

I just saw the ibuypower revolt. Are there any custom cases like that? Looks like they do something interesting with the gpu

 

[Wuzup101]

All the mITX boards I've found only have one slot for a GPU. Where would the PCIE-SSD go?

The Mini-ITX standard only allows for one expansion slot (16x PCI-e on newer boards). That being said, a m-ITX system with a traditional SSD (1.8 or 2.5 inch) would likely have a smaller footprint than a m-ATX system using a PCI-e based SSD (as the m-ATX board is quite a bit larger). I believe some m-ITX boards also have mSATA connectors which would give you yet another option. There may also be performance trade offs, but I'm just considering size here (I think the mSATA SSD options generally have less channels and the interface is slower, but you would have to do your own research).

Note: drive bays aren't required for standard SSDs. You can practically mount them anywhere with some good double sided tape, zip ties, etc... They have a minimal footprint (and some are thinner than others). Depending on the case, you may be able to secure one to the back of the motherboard tray, top of the case, etc...

 

[stuckinasquare3]

Good point! Do you have any good case recommendations? Do they use pci risers for gpu?

 

[2timer]

So-called Thin Mini-ITX boards with an external power brick only have x1 PCI-E slots, currently. So that would severely limit your GPU options. Also, a 2.5" SSD takes up almost no space relative to other components. And it's much cheaper than any PCI-E SSD.

My suggestion is the SG05. It's pretty small yet still very customizable. I don't like Shuttle cases because they are usually proprietary and don't fit ATX PSUs, and that's unacceptable to me.

 

[2timer]

The Mini-ITX standard only allows for one expansion slot (16x PCI-e on newer boards). That being said, a m-ITX system with a traditional SSD (1.8 or 2.5 inch) would likely have a smaller footprint than a m-ATX system using a PCI-e based SSD (as the m-ATX board is quite a bit larger). I believe some m-ITX boards also have mSATA connectors which would give you yet another option. There may also be performance trade offs, but I'm just considering size here (I think the mSATA SSD options generally have less channels and the interface is slower, but you would have to do your own research).

Note: drive bays aren't required for standard SSDs. You can practically mount them anywhere with some good double sided tape, zip ties, etc... They have a minimal footprint (and some are thinner than others). Depending on the case, you may be able to secure one to the back of the motherboard tray, top of the case, etc...

+1. He said it better than me. No drive bays required! 🙂

 

[Wuzup101]

Good point! Do you have any good case recommendations? Do they use pci risers for gpu?

I personally like the looks of the bitfenix prodigy; however, it's not exactly a super small case like you are describing (and I assume wanting). Silverstone and Coolermaster also have options out there, and there are plenty of others. Hopefully someone can chime in with some first hand experience. building a smaller footprint gaming machine also interests me; however, even the prodigy would be much smaller than my current computer and would be much more portable.

I'm not aware of any cases that use a 90 degree riser card like the ibuypower system that you were looking at (at least that you can buy to build a custom system).

Edit: The SG05 that 2timer recommended above was the other one I was thinking about. That's actually the one that I would probably buy given my limited knowledge on the subject. I think the Coolermaster is the CM 120.