The Best $3,000 Extreme Mini-ITX Gaming PC Build – December 2024
Go Big, but Build Small!
If you’re looking for a no-holds-barred extreme Mini-ITX Gaming PC Build in a sleek, compact chassis, this is the one for you! Our $3,000 Extreme Mini-ITX Gaming PC Build might be dwarfed by standard towers, but it can easily keep up with them thanks to its truly extreme components. And amazingly, there’s virtually no price premium for getting a system of this caliber down to a portable size, making this PC a pretty good value too.
This Month’s Build, Powered by AMD and Nvidia!
For December 2024, the $3,000 Extreme Mini-ITX Gaming PC Build continues to feature the awesomely-powerful AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D 16-core CPU, endowed with 3D V-Cache to provide tremendous gaming performance in an ultra-efficient power envelope. Despite the release of AMD’s 9000-series CPUs, this older X3D processor remains dominant in gaming, and its low power draw makes it the perfect pick for a compact gaming system. Yes, you can get slightly more frames with a 9800 X3D at lower resolutions, but we assume you want to run at extreme resolutions, and for that, the 7950 X3D will keep up nicely, while also offering twice as many cores for all your other applications. And of course, to ensure great 4K performance, this build has the best GPU you can fit in a system of this size, Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 4080 Super 16GB. It offers simply extreme performance.
To make sure the system never hits a bottleneck, the build has an incredible 64GB of fast DDR5-6000 RAM, along with an ultra-fast 4TB solid-state drive . It all comes together in the truly groundbreaking Lian Li A4-H20 chassis, which is uniquely designed for ultra-high-end components like the ones we recommend. It can fit the specific RTX 4080 Super model we recommend, plus a 240mm liquid CPU cooler, all while coming in at just 11 liters, making it about 1/5 the size of the typical full tower!
Parting Thoughts
You’ll find our recommendations for the best accessories for this build later in this guide. For all products, we provide links to Amazon or Newegg in the US, and our Amazon links will auto-convert for our readers in Canada, the UK, and parts of the EU, with regional substitutions made automatically where necessary. To support continued development of this guide, please use the affiliate links we provide in the guide.
The DIY Build
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CPU –AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D
$704The Guru’s TipAMD did it again with the 7950X3D, blasting past Intel in terms of gaming performance thanks to its proprietary, cutting-edge 3D V-Cache technology. By adding this stacked cache on top of one of the two core complexes of the standard 16-core 7950X, the AMD has turned a multi-threaded monster into a true gaming dynamo. It gives you the best of all worlds, along with far greater efficiency and a more advanced platform than Intel.Another great feature of this CPU is its low power use, a far cry from Intel's top-end CPUs, which draw at least 100W more power at load - something you definitely don't want in a small ITX chassis.
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Motherboard –Asus ROG Strix B650E-I
$300The Guru’s TipThis is a high-end motherboard for a serious small form factor system! It features 10+2 power stages, a future-proof PCIe Gen 5 video card slot (for GPUs that probably won’t launch until 2025, LOL!), dual M.2 slots (one being Gen 5, with a dedicated heatsink, the other being Gen 4), eight USB ports (two being Type-C), Intel Gigabit LAN, WiFi 6E wireless networking, plus the high-end ALC4080 audio codec and a Savitech SV3H712 Amp.This is the perfect high-end ITX board - in fact, while Asus has an X670E version, the B650E chipset is a much better choice for the ITX format, because most of the X670E's added ports/slots can't even physically fit on an ITX board.
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Video Card –Zotac GeForce RTX 4080 Super 16GB Black
$1020The Guru’s TipThe RTX 4080 Super offers more cores and more memory bandwidth than the original RTX 4080, while coming in at a much lower price. And that means it gets even further ahead of the previous king-of-the-hill RTX 3090 Ti while using far less power. It also offers all the latest enhancements from Nvidia, including class-leading Ray Tracing performance and DLSS.At just 308mm long, this GPU will easily fit in the case we recommend. Beware... most RTX 4080 Super models will not!
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Memory –G.Skill 2x32GB Flare X5 DDR5-6000 CL30 EXPO
$190The Guru’s TipTo get the most out of AMD’s latest CPUs, you want fast RAM, and DDR5-6000 is the sweetspot not only in terms of price, but in terms of making the most of the AM5 platform. It allows for the highest overall performance thanks to running in 1:1 sync with the memory controller. And this 64GB Flare X5 kit from G.Skill is specially designed for AM5, thanks to the extraordinary 30-40-40-96 AMD EXPO timings. It offers tremendous capacity and speed in a single package!For an elite ITX rig, you want a 2x32GB kit, since you're limited to two RAM slots - this gives you a total of 64GB of super-fast RAM.
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Solid-State Drive –Samsung 990 Pro 4TB
$320The Guru’s TipFor serious storage, you don’t just want high-end, you want ultra-high-end, and that means going for the 990 Pro PCIe 4.0. It offers mind-blowing performance, up to 7,450MB/s read and 6,900MB/s, plus blistering random speeds that no other drive can touch. The 990 Pro will go down in history as the drive that truly maxed out the PCIe Gen 4 bus.While you don't really need a drive this fast for gaming, we figure that with a premium ITX build, you'd only want the best!
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Case –LIAN LI A4-H2O X4
$155The Guru’s TipLian Li has taken its design expertise and one-upped the entire Small Form Factor case industry with the A4-H20. It teamed up with the ITX design specialists at Dan Cases to create the A4-H20, which as the name suggests, supports liquid cooling despite coming in at an impossibly-small 11 liters. It uses a sandwich-style layout, putting the GPU behind the motherboard, while making room at the top of the case for a liquid cooler up to 240mm in size to exhaust all the system’s hot air. And take note: the X4 edition of this case includes a high-quality PCIe Gen 4-capable riser cable to ensure full bandwidth to the latest video cards!This case can fit video cards up to 322mm long. The model we recommend fits easily into that limit.
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Power Supply –Corsair SF750 (2024)
$155The Guru’s TipOffering a tremendous 750W of power output and Platinum-rated efficiency in an ultra-compact package, Corsair’s SF750 sets the standard for ultra-premium SFX power supplies, and this latest iteration adds PCIe 5.0 support, meaning it has cable support for all the latest GPUs!This unit will have no trouble supporting this system, which will draw about 500W at full load.
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CPU Cooler –Thermalright Aqua Elite 240
$60The Guru’s TipFor excellent performance on a budget, we recommend you go for the Aqua Elite 240. It uses two high-performance 120mm fans and a whisper-quiet pump to keep your CPU cool! Priced below many air coolers, this model offers tremendous value per dollar, plus great looks to enhance your system.Trust us when we say very few coolers will fit in this build. The key is that the pump needs to be no taller than 55mm, with a total radiator/fan thickness of under 53mm. This model's pump comes in at 54mm tall, and a combined 52mm thick, for a perfect fit!
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Operating System –Windows 11 Home (USB) @Newegg
$139The Guru’s TipWindows 11 built on everything people loved about Windows 10, and then took it to 11! It adds significant under-the-hood changes to make it faster and more secure, and of course, the interface is sleek too! Note that we’re linking to Newegg, because Amazon long ago stopped selling this physical USB version of Windows, which is the most convenient one to use.Win11 is definitely the OS you want on a PC running the latest CPU architectures!
Optional Products
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The Ultimate Gaming Keyboard –Corsair K100 RGB Optical-Mechanical Gaming Keyboard
$170 The Guru’s TipThis keyboard can be fully customized via the Corsair iCUE software.
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The Ultralight Gaming Mouse –Razer DeathAdder V3 Pro Wireless
$120 The Guru’s TipWhile there are plenty of ultra-light mice out there, Razer delivers the goods when it comes to performance like no other manufacturer can!
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The 34" Ultra-wide OLED –Alienware AW3423DW
$700 The Guru’s TipIf you want a monitor to show off the power of your new extreme PC, this is the one!
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The Deluxe PC Headset –SteelSeries Arctis Nova 7 Wireless
$150 The Guru’s TipArctis simply owns the market for high-end, performance-oriented gaming headsets.
Total Cost: $3043
The DIY Build
- CPU – AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D ($704)
- Motherboard – Asus ROG Strix B650E-I ($300)
- Video Card – Zotac GeForce RTX 4080 Super 16GB Black ($1020)
- Memory – G.Skill 2x32GB Flare X5 DDR5-6000 CL30 EXPO ($190)
- Solid-State Drive – Samsung 990 Pro 4TB ($320)
- Case – LIAN LI A4-H2O X4 ($155)
- Power Supply – Corsair SF750 (2024) ($155)
- CPU Cooler – Thermalright Aqua Elite 240 ($60)
- Operating System – Windows 11 Home (USB) @Newegg ($139)
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