Gaming PCs don’t always have to be bulky boxes. MeinMMO editor Benedikt Schlotmann explains why even high-performance hardware can fit into a compact system.
Computers don’t always have to be large and bulky. That’s at least the prejudice against PC gamers that I regularly encounter. For a lot of performance, you definitely need a big gaming PC. A lot of performance in a small format? Then you might as well go for the PS5 or Xbox.
And instead of placing a fat PC in the living room, you’d rather lay long cables, use streaming, or just buy a console.
I believe that this prejudice is long outdated. For fast hardware, a small, compact case is sufficient.
A compact system can be large enough for fast hardware
What kind of system do I have? I bought the Jonsplus Z20 for my system back then. It’s an ITX case that can still accommodate larger hardware (up to Micro-ATX). This made me more flexible when planning and I didn’t have to buy an overpriced ITX board.
The case holds about 20 liters on paper and is about the size of a six-pack of 1.5-liter bottles that you can buy at any supermarket.
And my very compact system can accommodate powerful hardware: a Ryzen 7 7800x3D, a Radeon RX 9070 with 32 GB of RAM, and several SSDs for my data and games. Unfortunately, the case was too small for the XT variant of the RX 9070.
With this performance, I can easily run my UWQHD monitor, edit videos, and play games at maximum performance without my computer becoming a heater.
What I want to say is: Even for a modern gaming system, you don’t need a huge showcase case, as you often see with streamers, on YouTube, or Reddit.
Before the Jonsbo case, I had a larger case with the Be quiet! Pure Base 600. In my opinion, that was almost perfect – aside from the too loud fans that were installed – but I wanted to have a slightly smaller case.
Can I recommend such a small system to everyone? Yes and no. Such a small ITX system is quite a hassle in most cases: You have significantly less space to adjust compared to a spacious ATX case. If you’re building your first gaming PC, I would always recommend a larger case because you have more space, and mistakes are easier to correct. Once you’ve gained experience and know what to pay attention to during installation, an ITX system is also advisable.
And there are also differences: Some ITX systems can be completely disassembled, making it easier to access every component, which simplifies the installation and makes it less fiddly. But such cases often cost a lot of money.
I’m constantly optimizing anyway, swapping fans, changing cable management, and I actually already have another small case in mind: the A3 from Lian Li & DAN. It’s a bit larger, but it would also fit an RX 9070 XT. By the way, it’s not unusual for me to constantly rebuild my system. You can read more about it on MeinMMO: There is no perfect gaming PC, that’s why I completely rebuild my computer every 3 months
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