Introduction

Here at The Tech Buyer’s Guru, our is goal to make building PCs easier for everyone, from first-time builders to veterans. And that means always testing new components and configurations to find the best combination to meet your needs! This is particularly important in the Small Form Factor arena, where user experience and performance come down to much more than specs alone. You can very easily put a lot of effort into a system that is most definitely less than the sum of its parts. Our aim is to show you how to build systems that are more than the sum of their parts, of course!

The system we profile in this guide is one we built for our personal use, and is especially well-tailored to run the Zwift cycling app at maximum graphics quality settings, which in combination with a Smart bike trainer makes for an awesome at-home competitive cycling experience. Of course, the system will run games and other apps very well too, so it’s a well-rounded system in every way.

With that being said, we hope you enjoy our latest mini-ITX hand-on assembly guide, featuring the following components:

1. CPU: Intel Core i5-10400 ($180)
2. Motherboard: Asrock H470M-ITX/AC ($120), Optional Upgrade Shown in Video: Asrock Z490M-ITX/AC
3. Video Card: Zotac GeForce GTX 1660 Super 6GB ($250), Optional Upgrade Shown in Video: EVGA GeForce RTX 2060 KO 6GB ($310)
4. RAM: Crucial 2x8GB Ballistix DDR4-2666 ($63), Optional Upgrade Shown in Video (for use with optional motherboard only): Crucial 2x8GB Ballistix DDR4-3200
5. SSD: XPG SX8200 Pro 512GB ($60)
6. Case: SilverStone ML08-H ($96)
7. Cooler: Included with CPU, Optional Upgrade Shown in Video: SilverStone AR06
8. Power Supply: SilverStone SX500-G ($105)
9. OS – Windows 10 on USB ($139)

The Review

And without further ado, on to the guide!

Going forward, all of TBG’s reviews and how-to guides will be released exclusively on YouTube, as video provides far more opportunity to offer details and insight into production design and functionality than a written review ever could. Don’t forget to like the video and subscribe to our YouTube channel to get in on all our content as soon as it goes live, and feel free to post all your questions right on YouTube!