The Best $3,000 Extreme Mini-ITX Gaming PC Build – February 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!
For February 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, which makes it the perfect pick for a compact gaming system. Also on board is the best GPU you can fit in a system of this size, AMD’s Radeon RX 7900 XTX 24GB. It offers simply extreme performance.
Also on board is an incredible 64GB of fast DDR5-6000 RAM, along with a high performance 2TB PCIe Gen 5-based 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 RX 7900 XTX 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
$599AMD has done it again, 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
$312This 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.
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Video Card –
Sapphire Radeon RX 7900 XTX Pulse 24GB
$930AMD broke new ground with its RX 7900 series, and the 7900 XTX is a perfect showcase of that. Matching Nvidia’s more expensive GeForce RTX 4080 16GB while offering 50% more VRAM and a lower price, it’s an easy choice for serious gaming. And this awesome model from Sapphire, AMD’s premium board partner, features a fantastic, low-noise cooler.At just 313mm long, this GPU will easily fit in the case we recommend. Beware... most 7900 XTX models will not!
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Memory –
G.Skill 2x32GB Trident Z5 Neo RGB DDR5-6000 CL30 EXPO
$210To 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 Trident Z5 Neo 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 –
Crucial T700 2TB PCIe Gen 5
$300For primary storage, you don’t just want high-end, you want ultra-high-end, and that means going with a PCIe Gen 5.0 solid-state drive. And while there were a few early Gen 5 drives based on a hybrid of new and old tech, the Crucial T700 is the real deal, ripping out 12,400MB/s in sequential read and 11,800MB/s in sequential write, making it about 67% faster than any Gen 4 drive. It makes the best use of the PCIe Gen 5 bus in the modern system you’re building.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
$156Lian 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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CPU Cooler –
DeepCool LS520 SE 240mm
$72For this build, we recommend you go for the LS520 SE. It offers up two high-performance 120mm fans, along with awesome ARGB lighting.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 54mm. This models comes in at exactly those specifications!
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Power Supply –
Corsair SF750
$170Offering 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!This unit will have no trouble supporting this system, which will draw about 500W at full load.
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Operating System –
Windows 11 Home (USB) @Newegg
$139Windows 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
$200 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
$143 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
$1200 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
$140 The Guru’s TipArctis simply owns the market for high-end, performance-oriented gaming headsets.
Total Cost: $2888
The DIY Build
- CPU – AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D ($599)
- Motherboard – Asus ROG Strix B650E-I ($312)
- Video Card – Sapphire Radeon RX 7900 XTX Pulse 24GB ($930)
- Memory – G.Skill 2x32GB Trident Z5 Neo RGB DDR5-6000 CL30 EXPO ($210)
- Solid-State Drive – Crucial T700 2TB PCIe Gen 5 ($300)
- Case – LIAN LI A4-H2O X4 ($156)
- CPU Cooler – DeepCool LS520 SE 240mm ($72)
- Power Supply – Corsair SF750 ($170)
- Operating System – Windows 11 Home (USB) @Newegg ($139)