Mini iTX: Two approaches

[scole of TSBT]

I think he has his heart set on a dual E5-2697 v4, 72 thread system. Slap 8x 16GB sticks of Corsair DDR4, a couple SSDs and a couple Tesla P100s. DO IT!

Now how you gonna keep that mess cool during the summer? Maybe we need to move this a separate thread and keep Dirk's on topic.

[Bryan]

I think he has his heart set on a dual E5-2697 v4, 72 thread system. Slap 8x 16GB sticks of Corsair DDR4, a couple SSDs and a couple Tesla P100s. DO IT!

Now how you gonna keep that mess cool during the summer? Maybe we need to move this a separate thread and keep Dirk's on topic.

That's pretty much the description w/o the Teslas. I'll probably put in a non-crunching GPU

Zombie did a dual Xeon build a few months back. He used the HAF X chassis and has a H100i water cooler mounted on the top and a single (but thick) Corsair water cooler mounted where you have the normal chassis exhaust fan.

I'm seriously giving this some thought .... that doesn't mean I will actually pull the trigger.

Last post .... the thread is yours Dirk!

[Dirk Broer]

I think he has his heart set on a dual E5-2697 v4, 72 thread system. Slap 8x 16GB sticks of Corsair DDR4, a couple SSDs and a couple Tesla P100s. DO IT!

Now how you gonna keep that mess cool during the summer? Maybe we need to move this a separate thread and keep Dirk's on topic.

HPC (as in High Performance Computing) also means HPC (as in High Performance Cooling), I think we all agree on that, no matter what the size of you casing is. My first iTX board died on me due to cooling related causes. This would not have happened in the Thermaltake Core X1, which even seems to anticipate upcoming 180mm fans and related radiators.

[Dirk Broer]

Well, the possibilities for an iTX build have increased significantly over the last year.

An AMD iTX Socket AM4 system can now have at max an eight core, 16 thread Ryzen 7 2700X (is that rumoured ten core, twenty thread Ryzen 7 2800X vapoware? Or AMD's next surprise?) and as there is no IGP that might conflict, driver-wise you can stick in the biggest GPU that will fit your iTX case -which in the case on a Thermaltake Core X1 is bigger than my budget. The boards and CPUs are reasonably priced though, having just one GPU means any B350 or B450 iTX board will do -even the Asrock A320 iTX -not for sale here- is enough. The 2700X is just over 250 Euro's (the only slightly less capable 1700X has dropped to around 150-170...)

Intel offers you now a choice of no less than three platforms for an iTX build: Sockets 1151, 2011-33 and 2066.
The last is the most interesting as it supports the Intel Core i9-9980XE, 18 cores and 36 threads. A tad more expensive than the AMD solution though: The i9 is some $2,000 and the board is some $400. What board? The Asrock X299E-ITX/ac.
Warning: You can have three of the above AMD iTX systems running for less than the costs of the Socket 2066 powerhouse, and have more cores/threads running too.

Socket 2011-3 then? Only two boards in the $300 range, one (the more expensive) with the by now ancient X99 chipset -so only core i7- and one with the Intel C612 chipset, allowing a 22-core Xeon E5-2699 v4. Pity that is costs around $4,500 here, making the Intel iTX 2011-3 solution twice as expensive as the 2066 soloution.
Warning: You can have three of the above AMD iTX systems running for far less than the costs of the Socket 2011-3 powerhouse, and have more cores/threads running too.

So in the end only Intel's Socket 1151 platform can hope to be price-competitive for an iTX build. The Core i7-9900K has double the cores/threads of the old i7-6700K and is equal the the Ryzen 7 2700X, just more than twice as expensive though at around $550 (tray)-630 (boxed -both here). Socket 1151 iTX boards are priced at same level a AM4 iTX boards.
Warning: You can have two of the above AMD iTX systems running for the same amount of money as the costs of the Socket 1151 iTX system, and have twice the amount of cores/threads running, too.

[Dirk Broer]

What do I write that you do not understand? What is confusing?
If you want to build an iTX system because you do not have enough space for a full-sized system you can either make the system as small as possible or as big as the limits of the iTX format will permit.
There is a choice between socket AM4 for AMD CPUs and 1511, 2011-3 and 2066 for Intel CPUs for the 'big' iTX approach, while the 'small' approach will have the choice between AMD and Intel onboard solutions -of which AMD presently has no good alternative.

Me personally I run four 'small' iTX systems: three AMD Socket AM1 systems (comparable to the onboard AMD A5-5000, but just a bit faster) and an Intel Pentium J5005 system.
All four costed next to nothing when compared to a mATX or a full-size ATX system. All four systems run four cores/four threads and have inbuilt GPUs (IGPs) -it is just that three of them run Linux that presently does not see IPG GPUs from AMD or Intel. Maddening, because they did work in the past.

If I want more 'bang' out of my present small iTX boxes I would buy AM4 itx boards and fill them with Ryzen 5 2400G's. The number of cores stays the same, but the threads are doubled and the IGP recognized by Linux -hopefully. And for my bigger iTX cases like this one
I can go all-out as described before: Ryzen 7 2700X plus whatever card is best/affordable.

[davidbam]

Anyone going the Socket 2011-3 route might want to consider the Xeon E5-2696 v4 instead of the Xeon E5-2699 v4 - they seem more reasonably priced for very similar specs

[Dirk Broer]

Presently the Bitfenix Prodigy iTX case holds an Asrock B550 Phantom Gaming-ITX/ax, rocking a Ryzen 7 5700G supported by 2x 32GB 3600 DDR4 sticks, cooled with a Noctua NH-U12S -Yes, it has the space for that. It is one of two replacements for my three AM1 systems -the other being an Asrock Fatal1ty X370 Gaming-ITX/ac that presently holds my Athlon A12-9800GE, but will be replaced with my Ryzen 5 2400G next tax return.