ANTONY LEATHER’S
Customised PC
Case mods, tools, techniques, water-cooling gear
and everything to do with PC modding
MODDING / OPINION
L
ikemanypeopleworking
fromhomeintheUK,I’ve
hadtocontendwitha fairly
limitedamountofspaceuntilrecently,
resultinginmereducingthesizeofmy
PC.However,thishasn’tresultedin
slowerframeratesorlackofpower
inotherdepartments.Thankstothe
smallformfactorscenereallytaking
offoverthelastdecade,thechoiceof
PCcases,motherboardsandother
compacthardwarehasgrown,andI
honestlyhaven’tmissedthegiantPCs
I usedtoownatall.
Mini-ITXhasmeantthat,despite
owninga PCwitha smallerfootprint
thana shoebox,it’sbeeneasytofind
waysofusinghigh-enddesktop
processorsandgraphicscards,along
withthelateststoragetechnology.
MycurrentPCis morethancapableof
handlingthelatestgamesonmyultra-
wide1440pmonitorand,asit’smine,it’s
water-cooledandsuper-quiettoo.
Buildinga smallformfactormachine
mightmeananextrahourortwodealing
withcabletidyingin thetightconfinesof
a mini-ITXcase,butit’sdefinitelyworth
it andsavesa hugeamountofspace.
Thesacrificesare,formostofus,non-
existenttoo,aslongasyouonlyneeda
singlePCI-Ecard.Manymini-ITXcases
canhousefull-lengthgraphicscards,
ATXpower supplies and hard disks too.
More recently, though, I moved
house and now have a much bigger
room where my PC is based. With the
launch of AMD’s fantastic 3rd-gen
Threadripper CPUs and the power that
can be had inside an ATX PC now, I’ve
been seriously tempted to go back to
a full-sized system. Admittedly, I was
hoping there would be a micro-ATX
TRX40 motherboard, as I’ve had my eye
on several micro-ATX cases recently,
but sadly it looks as though ASRock isn’t
planning a follow-up to its spectacular
X399M Taichi board.
Building the front cover water-
cooled Threadripper PC a few issues
ago inside Phanteks’ gorgeous Evolv X
case made this proposition even more
tempting. The PC was quieter than
my current mini-ITX PC, and it fittedWhy I still love mini-ITX
ASRock’s X570
mini-ITX board is
more than capable
of handling AMD’s
Ryzen 9 3950Xsnugly under my desk without taking
up too much space, thanks to my new
house’s extra room.
However, even though a bigger PC
is easier to maintain than a small one
(my current system needs half a day
to strip down and rebuild if something
goes wrong, which is certainly not
ideal), I’m still as obsessed as ever
with mini-ITX. For me, it’s by far the
most interesting form factor of cases
and motherboards, and for one clear
reason. It forces manufacturers to