I engaged "Dave's Computer" to build a new custom build Windows 11 computer as replacement for the Windows 10 machine. I presented my thoughts and needs to Dave about the new unit and he asked some basic questions as to my needs and want for the new unit. We touched on cost for the unit and I left...
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Mini-ITX and Small Form Factor Builds · Dave's Computers, Somerville NJ
Mini-ITX Small Form Factor PC Builds in New Jersey
You want a real gaming or creator PC that doesn't take over the desk, the living room or the dorm. I plan and build Mini-ITX and small form factor desktops at my Somerville, NJ shop, where the whole point is fitting tower-class performance into a box that heat wants to ruin. This is one of the build services under my custom PC repair and upgrades work, and it starts with a sit-down consultation, not a parts list.
⭐ 4.8 Stars · 430+ Google Reviews
🏆 On the Bench Since 2011
📍 Somerville, NJ · Drop-Off Shop
🔧 $150 Consultation, Credited Toward the Build
📞 Call (908) 428-9558
🚗 Directions to the Shop
On this page
Who Wants a Small PC, and Why
The reasons are practical, and they're worth stating before the tradeoffs.
Most people who ask me for a small form factor build have a specific space problem. A desk in a Somerville apartment already shared with two monitors. A living room where the PC sits under the TV and has to look like it belongs there. A dorm room in New Brunswick. A graduate student who moves every year and is tired of carrying a full tower down three flights of stairs. A small office in Bridgewater that wants a capable workstation on the desk without a mid-tower beside it.
A Mini-ITX build gives you the same processor, graphics card class and NVMe storage as a tower, in a case you can carry under one arm. What it doesn't give you is room to spare, air to spare and slots to spare. My job is to make those limits invisible in daily use, and I do that by treating heat as the entire problem from the first day of planning.
What "small" means here. Mini-ITX is the smallest standard desktop motherboard, 170mm square. The cases built around it range from shoebox-sized to roughly the size of a bread box. Everything on this page is about desktop towers in that size class, built from standard retail parts with a manufacturer warranty, not proprietary boards.
What a Small Case Takes Away
Every one of these is a real limit I have to design around.
Graphics card length and thickness. The card is the biggest object in the build and it decides which case is possible. Tom's Hardware notes that most Mini-ITX cases released in the last few years accept full-length two- or three-slot cards, but the smallest still don't, and thickness matters as much as length because a thick card can block the side panel or the power connector. I check the card against the case's published clearances before I order either one.
Cooler height. Many ITX cases cap the processor cooler at a height that rules out the big tower air coolers I'd use in an ATX build. That leaves low-profile air or a compact liquid cooler, each with its own clearance fight against the memory and the graphics card. My air vs. liquid cooling page covers the tradeoff; in a small box it's usually decided by what fits.
SFX power supplies. A standard ATX supply is too big for most true ITX cases, so the build uses the SFX form factor. Corsair's published spec for its SF-series SFX units lists a 100mm by 63mm by 125mm footprint, well under the depth of a standard unit. SFX supplies cost more per watt, have shorter cables and a smaller fan that works harder. A good one is quiet; a cheap one is not.
Airflow. Fewer fan mounts, tighter panels, parts stacked closer together. A tower can be sloppy about airflow and get away with it. A small case can't.
Fewer drive bays and slots. One expansion slot, two memory slots, and room for a drive or two beyond the NVMe slots. A large 3.5-inch drive collection belongs in a different build.
Harder to upgrade later. The next graphics card has to fit the same envelope, the supply has to carry it, and the memory ceiling is whatever two slots hold. I plan for that, but the box will never be as flexible as a tower.
Heat is the whole problem. A processor and graphics card make the same heat in any case. AMD's own spec sheet for its top desktop Ryzen lists a 170W default TDP and a 95°C maximum operating temperature, and the chip will slow itself down at that ceiling rather than fail. In a tower you rarely get there. In a small case, without deliberate cooling choices, you get there quickly, and the PC you paid for quietly runs slower than it should.
Mini-ITX vs. Micro-ATX vs. ATX
Where each size class lands on the things that actually matter.
| Size class | Footprint | Graphics card class that fits | Cooling | Upgrade room | Cost impact |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mini-ITX | Shoebox to bread box; fits on a desk, a shelf or under a TV | Case-dependent: many take full-length cards, the smallest take only short or two-slot cards | Low-profile air or compact liquid; every degree has to be earned | One slot, two memory slots, few drive bays; next card must fit the same envelope | Highest for the same performance: specialty case, SFX supply, compact cooling |
| Micro-ATX | Compact tower; noticeably smaller than ATX, still stands on the floor or a wide desk | Almost any card, including three-slot flagships | Standard ATX power supply, most tower air coolers, room for a radiator | Up to four slots and four memory slots on most boards; multiple drive bays | Close to ATX; often the cheapest size to build |
| ATX | Mid or full tower; needs floor or serious desk space | Anything sold | Easiest: big air, big radiators, lots of fan mounts | Most slots, most bays, easiest to reconfigure | Baseline |
Card fitment is always case-specific. Before I order, I check the case maker's published clearance numbers against the exact card class going in, plus the cooler height limit and the power supply form factor. My case sizes explained page goes deeper on each class.
How I Build an ITX PC Differently
A tower forgives mistakes. A small box does not, so the process changes.
1
Consultation: what it does, where it lives
We sit down for the $150 consultation and I ask what the machine is for, where it'll sit, how much noise you'll tolerate and whether it travels. Those answers pick the case, and the case picks everything else. The fee is credited in full toward the build when you approve the quote. Start at Start Your Custom PC Build or walk in.
2
Clearance planning before a single part is ordered
I lay the build out on paper first: card length and thickness, cooler height, memory height under the cooler, SFX supply depth, and whether the power cables have room to bend. This step separates a small build that works from one with a card that won't let the panel close.
I keep power supply headroom for one graphics card class above what goes in now, so the first upgrade doesn't also mean a new supply.
3
Assembly and cable routing
In a small case, cables are an airflow problem, not a cosmetic one. I route every run out of the fan paths, use cable lengths that suit the case instead of stuffing a standard set behind the tray, and seat the 12V-2x6 graphics connector fully and straight with no tight bend at the card.
4
Fan curves tuned for a small box
Default fan curves assume a tower's worth of air. I rewrite them for the actual case: intake and exhaust balanced so the graphics card isn't breathing its own exhaust, quiet at the desk, firm under load, and no cliff where the fans jump from silent to loud. It's the same discipline as a quiet PC build, with less room to hide noise.
5
Full thermal test under load
Every build gets a stress test, but on an ITX build I run the processor and graphics card together at full load with the panels on, the way it'll sit at your house, and log temperatures over time. If either part throttles, the build doesn't leave the bench until the cooling or the curve changes. Windows 11 goes on, the BIOS is brought current, memory runs at its rated speed, and you get a written spec sheet at pickup.
What a Mini-ITX Build Costs
Plain numbers, and the reason small costs more.
Mini-ITX gaming and creator builds start at $2,500, as of this writing. The $150 consultation is credited in full toward the build when you approve the quote. The quote gives you a performance tier and a price. You get a written spec sheet at pickup, not a parts list up front.
Small costs more than big for the same performance, and I'd rather say that plainly than have you find out from the quote. The case is a specialty item with a smaller production run than a mainstream tower. The SFX power supply costs more per watt than an ATX unit of the same quality. The cooling has to be chosen for height and fit rather than price, and the compact version of a part usually costs more than the full-size version that performs the same. Add the bench time for clearance planning, cable work and the extended thermal test, and the same performance tier lands higher than it would in an ATX build.
What you get for that premium is a machine that fits the space you have. My how much it costs to build a PC page walks through the tiers, and the custom PC build page covers full-size options.
When I'll Tell You Not to Go ITX
Some people who ask for small should get something else. I'll say so at the consultation.
| Your situation | What I'll recommend |
|---|---|
| Budget is under $2,500 | An ITX build is the wrong place to save money, because the small-case premium eats the budget that should go to the processor and graphics card. I'll point you at upgrading your existing PC instead, and my which upgrade first page explains the order. |
| You want "smaller," not "smallest" | A Micro-ATX build. It gives you most of the size benefit, uses standard parts, cools easily and costs less for the same performance. Most people asking for small are happier here. See case sizes explained. |
| You already own a decent PC in a big case | A case swap, if the motherboard is Micro-ATX or Mini-ITX and the cooler and supply fit. Far cheaper than a new build. An ATX board can't shrink, so that path needs a new board at minimum. |
| You keep a large drive collection | A tower, or a compact main PC plus separate storage. ITX cases don't have the bays. |
| You plan to swap the graphics card every generation | Micro-ATX or ATX. Each ITX upgrade is a fitment question all over again; a tower just takes the card. |
None of this is a sales tactic. A small build that runs hot or blows the budget comes back to my counter as a complaint, and I'd rather build the right thing once.
What I See on the Bench in New Jersey
Composite examples, built from the kinds of jobs that come across my Somerville counter.
A Princeton customer's living-room gaming PC. They wanted a machine on the media console under the TV that didn't look like a gaming tower. We settled on a Mini-ITX case with a full-length card allowance and a compact liquid cooler. The panels-on thermal test showed the graphics card warmer than I liked, so I reversed one intake and rewrote the curve before delivery. It runs quiet enough that the family forgets it's there.
A New Brunswick student's dorm build. A creator PC that fit a dorm desk and could ride in a car twice a year, with the budget at the $2,500 floor. The honest choice was a slightly larger ITX case rather than the tiniest one, because it took a standard-height cooler and a longer card class for the same money. It went home for the summer in a backpack.
A Bridgewater office's desktop workstation. They didn't want a tower on the floor of a small office. I steered them to Micro-ATX instead of Mini-ITX, since nobody needed the last few inches and the price difference went into a better processor. Smaller than what it replaced, sits on the desk, no small-case premium for space they didn't need.
Want a small PC, or want to know whether the one you have can shrink? Bring the tower to Somerville. The build consultation is $150 and credited in full when you approve the quote; a diagnostic on an existing tower is $75 for a Dell, HP, Lenovo or other major-brand desktop, $149 for a custom-built or boutique PC, credited toward the work when you approve it.
📞 Call (908) 428-9558Drop-off shop at 75 N Bridge St, Somerville NJ · Mon-Fri 10-5, Sat 9-2
Directions to Dave's Computers in Somerville, NJ
Downtown Somerville, one block off Main Street, behind Bank of America.
Dave's Computers, 75 N Bridge St, Somerville, NJ 08876Drop-off shop, Mon-Fri 10-5 and Sat 9-2. Street and municipal-lot parking around Main Street.
Directions to the ShopFrom Bridgewater
3 miles · about 10 minutes
Route 22 or Route 202/206 to the Somerville Circle, then Route 28 east (West Main Street) into downtown. Left onto N Bridge St.
Open in Google MapsFrom Hillsborough
5 miles · about 12 minutes
Route 206 north into Somerville, right onto West Main Street, then left onto N Bridge St.
Open in Google MapsFrom Bound Brook
4 miles · about 12 minutes
Route 28 west straight into downtown Somerville. Right onto N Bridge St.
Open in Google MapsFrom Piscataway
10 miles · about 20 minutes
I-287 north to Exit 17 (Route 202/206 south), then Route 28 east into downtown Somerville.
Open in Google MapsFrom Flemington
15 miles · about 25 minutes
Route 202 north to the Somerville Circle, then Route 28 east into downtown. Left onto N Bridge St.
Open in Google MapsFrom Princeton
18 miles · about 30 minutes
Route 206 north through Montgomery and Hillsborough into Somerville. Right onto West Main Street, then left onto N Bridge St.
Open in Google MapsTimes are typical drives outside rush hour. Call 908-428-9558 before a long drive if you want to confirm I'm at the counter.
Google Reviews
What Customers Say on Google
Live from the Dave's Computers Google listing. Tap any review to read it on Google Maps.
4.8
★★★★★★★★★★Based on 434 Google reviews
I have been going to Dave's Computers for years because he always fixes my problems. I also use his anti-virus and it is as good as any, if not better, than others that I would have to pay much more for. If you're having problems, go to Dave's. He doesn't break the bank and he solves the problems.
View on Google
Over the last decade or so, whenever I had a computer problem, I went to Dave. I recently had a very worrisome crash; the system failed to boot up. (I hadn't needed to use him for about 3 years.) I paid the "rush fee" on Saturday when dropping the machine off with the weekend agent. By Monday...
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"As a Broker of over 40 years in New Jersey I rely on my computer help", which is the artery to my success and business. Thank goodness Dave's is here for me with the messes I get into with scammers, land grabbers and just uneccesary things that I pick up. The most effective virus program have ever...
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I had previously tried to build my own PC to no success. Even though right now it is really tough to get a PC built due to the price increases with RAM’s, GPU’s and other parts because of AI, I still really wanted to get one for myself. I came across Dave’s Computers online and went in for a...
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Mini-ITX PC Build Questions From New Jersey Customers
The things people ask at the counter before they commit to small.
What is a Mini-ITX PC build?
A Mini-ITX PC build is a full desktop computer assembled around the smallest standard motherboard size, 170mm by 170mm, inside a compact case. Done right it delivers the same gaming or creator performance as a tower in a box that takes a fraction of the desk space. It needs careful part selection because graphics card length, cooler height and power supply size are all limited.
How much does a Mini-ITX PC build cost in NJ?
As of this writing, my Mini-ITX gaming and creator builds start at $2,500. The consultation is $150 and is credited in full toward the build when you approve the quote. Small costs more than big for the same performance because the case, the SFX power supply and the cooling are all specialty parts, so the same budget buys more speed in a tower.
Can a Mini-ITX build hold a full-size graphics card?
Many current Mini-ITX cases accept full-length two- or three-slot cards, but not every case does, and thickness and power connector clearance matter as much as length. I check the card against the case's published clearances before I order anything. In the smallest cases the honest answer is a shorter, slimmer card class, and I'll tell you that up front.
Does a small PC run hotter than a tower?
It runs closer to its limits. The same processor and graphics card make the same heat in any case; a small box just has less air and fewer fans to move it. Modern processors throttle themselves at a set temperature rather than failing, so the build still works, but it can lose speed. My job is to choose cooling and tune fan curves so it doesn't.
Is a Mini-ITX PC harder to upgrade later?
Yes. One expansion slot, two memory slots, fewer drive bays and tight clearances mean the next graphics card has to fit the same envelope. I plan for that by leaving headroom in the power supply and choosing a case with room for one card class larger than what goes in on day one, but a tower will always be easier to change over time.
Should I choose Micro-ATX instead of Mini-ITX?
If the goal is a smaller footprint rather than the smallest possible footprint, usually yes. A Micro-ATX build gets you most of the size savings with standard parts, more slots, better airflow and a lower price for the same performance. I recommend it to most people who come in asking for small. Mini-ITX is for when the space genuinely demands it.
Can you move my current PC into a smaller case instead?
Sometimes. If your motherboard is Micro-ATX or Mini-ITX and your cooler and power supply fit the new case, a case swap is far cheaper than a new build. A full ATX board can't go into a Mini-ITX case, so that path means a new board at minimum. Bring the tower in and I'll measure it against the case you have in mind.
Sources and further reading
- Tom's Hardware, Best Mini-ITX Cases: tested compact cases, with notes on which accept full-length graphics cards and why SFX power supplies are still required in the smallest ones.
- Corsair, SF-Series SFX power supply specifications: official dimensions and form factor for a current SFX unit.
- AMD, Ryzen 9 9950X specifications: default TDP and maximum operating temperature for a current high-end desktop processor.
Small PC, Built Right, for New Jersey
Bring your space problem to Somerville and we'll figure out whether it's an ITX build, a Micro-ATX build or a smarter upgrade to the tower you already own. The $150 consultation is credited in full when you approve the build quote, and an existing tower gets a $75 diagnostic ($149 for a custom-built or boutique PC), credited toward the work.
📞 (908) 428-9558Mon-Fri 10am-5pm · Sat 9am-2pm · 75 N Bridge St, Somerville NJ · Drop-Offs Welcome