Introduction
I’ve been traveling most of the year, so I bought a gaming laptop earlier in the year. It has been great for gaming on the road, but it’s ultimately not what I want. The fans get so loud, it’s difficult to hear games over them.
I want to get back to gaming on a desktop PC, and I’ve been shopping around ahead of finally finding where I want to live so that I’ll be ready to buy when I get there.
Considerations
- I loved my last gaming PC, but it was large (NZXT H7 case). I could not find an affordable packing solution in time to take it with me. It was just to large to fit in my large luggage.
- I may want to consider a smaller PC for better portability.
Smaller PCs
- This seems a little silly because I will need to buy other much larger furniture. If I’m going to have to transport or sell that, I may as well just lump a large gaming PC in with that.
- On the other hand, I may not spend as much on other furniture as I’ll be spending on the gaming PC. It will be pricey.
- I will be buying a nice TV. It will be pricey… but still probably not as expensive as my gaming PC. Definitely much larger though and impossible to take on an airplane.
- Smaller PCs offer less performance for more money. It’s just the way it is.
- The cost difference can vary from a few hundred dollars to over $1,000 dollars.
- Should weigh this against the cost/hassle of packing and checking a PC at the airport. If I keep the original box, the cost would be just the cost to check. It would mean having more baggage than I’m able to carry, so I would require a cart at the airport and a car from the airport.
- The cost difference can vary from a few hundred dollars to over $1,000 dollars.
- If I buy a very small PC, packing could be trivial, but performance would suffer much more. I could theoretically get a Zotac Magnus One ERP74070C and stuff it into pretty much any bag.
- These are not yet available to purchase in the US best I can tell, but I assume they will be soon. Previous comparable model is 500 of that price.
- I want high performance, so I don’t think this is ultimately the best option for me unless they are very cheap and I think I can live with it. The size is attractive.
- Amazon reviews say they are loud, so I may be just as well off keeping my laptop and hooking it up to the TV.
What I Want
- Smooth 4K gaming with high details and all the bells and whistles
- This probably requires an RTX 4080 or 4090 graphics card and a high-end processor.
- Relatively quiet
- Doesn’t need to be whisper quiet, but I want to be able to hear game audio without competing with fan noise.
- Understated look
- No RGB explosions… or at least the ability to disable the RGB lighting
Options
- HP OMEN 45L Gaming Desktop GT22-1455xt, Windows 11 Home, Intel® Core™ i9, 16GB RAM, NVIDIA® GeForce RTX™ 4090
- ✅ Currently the cheapest option I’ve seen with a 4090. It’s 2,880 with a coupon. It would need immediate upgrades for storage and memory, but it would still likely be a pretty good deal.
- ❌ Larger even than my old computer.
- MAGNUS ONE ERP74070C (Barebone) | ZOTAC
- ✅ Very small. Would fit in any luggage
- ❌ Price unknown
- ❌ Not sure when it will be available
- ❌ Performance will not be as good as I’d like
- ❌ Fans may be loud, although probably not as loud as the gaming laptop
- Falcon Tiki
- ✅ One of the smaller SFF PCs — smaller than a PS5
- ✅ Would offer good performance
- ❌ Incredibly expensive for what you get — 3,300 HP Omen
- AVADirect Small Gaming PCs
- ✅ Many case options for SFF gaming builds
- ✅ Reasonable prices
- ✅ Lots of component choices
- ❌ Have never used them before; not sure of the quality, although Redditors recommend them
- Could be a nice compromise pick for small but still quiet/performant
- AMD X670 Chipset Custom SSUPD Meshroom S Gaming PC | AVADirect
- CHRONOS | ORIGIN PC
- ✅ Nice SFF build from a builder with a great reputation
- ❌ Not the most expensive, but still pricey
- ❌ No 4090 GPU option
- H1 Compact Mini ITX Gaming PC Case | NZXT
- ✅ Highly regarded compact case
- ❌ No longer does custom builds with this case, which means I have to build it
- ❌ Expensive for a case
- ❌ Includes some additional components that help justify the cost, but those are not always the best components for a small and quiet build
- Currently half off ($200) at Best Buy
- NZXT BLD
- ✅ Trusted brand and builder
- ✅ Can build in a slightly smaller case
- ✅ Prices are reasonable
- ❌ Still would be difficult to transport
- ❌ Somewhat limited build options
- ❌ Small case is only available windowed and loaded down with lights
- Lenovo Legion Tower 7i @ B&H
- ✅ Great value for money
- ✅ Save taxes through B&H Payboo
- ❌ Case is large
- ❌ Currently no 4090 option
- ❌ Less RAM than I would like
- ❌ Need to upgrade SSD
- HP Omen 45L @ B&H
- ✅ Great value for money, especially for a 4090
- ✅ Save taxes through B&H Payboo
- ❌ Case is very large
- ❌ Need to upgrade SSD
- Alternative Intel build