Mini-ITX gaming a bad idea?

[Feliks]

I constantly see people on forums saying "yeah you shouldn't go mini-ITX unless you just want a more portable PC, it won't be able to game you'll need a bigger PC"

Is there any validity to these claims? I'm not talking "bigger cases allow for better watercooling" (because there are cases like the Elite 130 that support watercooling anyways) I'm talking purely objective here )

 

[TofuLion]

its an objective question that is based completely on subjective circumstances. mini itx is good in certain situations, albeit there are limiting factors. but as far as raw specs, theres no reason an itx build cant be as powerful as a simple (single gpu) atx build.

 

[rhysiam]

Ultra-compact builds tend to cost a little more, the cheapest gear is normally mATX stuff. Also, you need to be much more careful about compatibility and spacing constraints. Those points are especially true if you're going for a genuinely small mini-ITX build. SFX PSUs particularly have limited options and high prices.

While there are plenty of mini-ITX cases that take full sized ATX PSUs and are pretty flexible, it's always worth looking at the size carefully, because some of them are about the size of mATX cases anyway, making the mini-ITX mobo a little pointless.

So I'd question the merit of a large mini-ITX case... why not just go mATX and retain the flexibility?
If you really want small, go a proper mini-ITX case, but just be prepared to do a bunch of research to check everything will fit, be prepared to pay a little more (not necessarily a lot more though), and accept the limitations of mini-ITX, which is 2 RAM slots and 1 PCIe slot ONLY... future upgrades will be more limited. If you're happy to do those things, there's no reason why a mini-ITX build is a bad idea, or won't perform every bit as fast as a larger build (with the exception of multi-card monster rigs).