I’d like to do my first system build to use higher quality components and a longer lifespan than what one gets from Dell or Lenovo. I have worked inside Dell desktops to add graphics cards, RAM, etc so I feel competent to do it. The PC would be used for office productivity tasks, not gaming or video editing. My preference is for a small form factor case, such as one using the mini-ITX motherboard. My question is if there is anything I should be aware of when building an SFF PC. I’m concerned about overheating and whether a the stock heat sink and fan that comes with, say, a Ryzen 7 or Core i7 would fit in a small case. Integrated graphics are OK. Are there any cases and motherboards you recommend?
Advice for first time builder
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For a system that seems just general office tasks (or even enthusiast class use) the stock heatsink included in the retail box CPU is just fine. Many ITX chassis can fit much larger heatsinks but then you have a size trade-off and you imply you'd prefer a smaller system if making such a trade off? Overall system thermals are necessarily very chassis dependent as well.
Have you any specific cases you've looked at already that you liked or didn't like so we can have a starting point? Because if I'm going to start from pure random recommendations the Phanteks P200A is one, but it's definitely on the larger side as it can take a full sized GPU. NCASE M1 EVO I think is out of stock, Formd T1 also one that gets mentioned a lot.
That's a great first post, welcome to Ars!
Have you any specific cases you've looked at already that you liked or didn't like so we can have a starting point? Because if I'm going to start from pure random recommendations the Phanteks P200A is one, but it's definitely on the larger side as it can take a full sized GPU. NCASE M1 EVO I think is out of stock, Formd T1 also one that gets mentioned a lot.
That's a great first post, welcome to Ars!
Thanks for your reply. The Lian Li ITX cases look very nice as does the Fractal Design Terra. I guess if thermals are a concern, I can use a 65-Watt processor.
If I was building a SFF PC right now I'd go with the ASUS Prime AP201 case. Micro-ATX but very much on the small side for that form factor, compatible with mini-ITX but has the space to stay cool and not make the build too difficult. Trying to build something really tiny might lead to headaches with airflow or a really cramped build for a first-timer.
For office productivity something like a Core i5-13500 would be more than enough and last a long time. Could even save some money and go 12th gen
For motherboards I've always stuck with Gigabyte and ASUS. Don't need anything too high-end, just make sure it's compatible with the CPU you choose. For example, my recent build the motherboard was only compatible with 12th gen Intel with the off the shelf BIOS, and I had to flash the BIOS with no CPU. Simple enough task and it worked fine, but for your first build probably best to stick with parts that are compatible off the shelf.
Like continuum said, stock heatsink will be fine. I would suggest getting a mobo with two M2 slots for NVMe drives. DDR5 is still pretty expensive relative to DDR4, for your needs the latter is fine.
For office productivity something like a Core i5-13500 would be more than enough and last a long time. Could even save some money and go 12th gen
For motherboards I've always stuck with Gigabyte and ASUS. Don't need anything too high-end, just make sure it's compatible with the CPU you choose. For example, my recent build the motherboard was only compatible with 12th gen Intel with the off the shelf BIOS, and I had to flash the BIOS with no CPU. Simple enough task and it worked fine, but for your first build probably best to stick with parts that are compatible off the shelf.
Like continuum said, stock heatsink will be fine. I would suggest getting a mobo with two M2 slots for NVMe drives. DDR5 is still pretty expensive relative to DDR4, for your needs the latter is fine.
Stick with cooler components if you can, and try to use a case that takes at least 120mm fans. Small fans are much noisier for the same amount of airflow, and modern CPUs and GPUs can emit enormous amounts of heat.
I did some SFF builds in 2005-ish, and then again around 2010, but I ended up going back to towers, because keeping those quiet is a lot easier. The whole point to the SFF idea was to make HTPC machines, but those should be silent, and doing that in a tiny case was difficult.
I did find one HTPC case I liked pretty well from Silverstone. It was pizza-box style, sized, shaped and colored about like an AV receiver, took all standard ATX parts, and had pretty good airflow from side intakes and back exhaust. (I think, anyway, it's been a long time.) It wasn't really SFF, but could serve in many of the same roles. It was attractive and understated. That model was discontinued long ago, however, and I haven't shopped for anything similar.
If you pick the high end SKUs and don't impose any sort of power limits, sure. But an office / productivity PC such as the OP wants to build, with no need for a dGPU or huge amounts of CPU horsepower, will not have this problem.
Sure, but the "if you can" part of that implies that building an office PC with low power parts would be a struggle, which it really wouldn't be. Heck, you could go fully passive pretty easily - look at the i3-N305, for instance.
I don't think we (or the OP) need to get so extreme here. Going with a 65W PL1 (aka TDP) processor instead of say a 125W PL1 processor should be reasonable enough for the OP's context.