Asus offers dual M.2 on its B450, X470 and X570 motherboards- the B450 would have been my first choice but it was always out of stock with long lead times. X570 offers PCIE 4.0 when used with a 3rd gen Ryzen processor as well as better power delivery and greater RAM capacity (B450 and X470 max out at 32GB RAM.) I wanted to be able to use dual M.2 hard drives and that limited my choice to either Gigabyte or Asus. Sometimes X470 offers a bit more power delivery for higher core count processors. X470 isn't really that compelling since it only really allows for running dual graphics cards, which isn't used in the min ITX format. With Ryzen your choices are B450, X470 and X570 series. With mini ITX motherboards choices are a bit limited. Motherboard- I chose the Gigabyte X570 Aorus Pro Wifi. Higher speed RAM does offer an advantage with Ryzen but you get to the point of diminishing returns quickly. I used 16GB (2x 8GB) G.Skill Flare X from my old PC build. Memory- RAM is highly dependent on the motherboard you choose (be sure to check the manufacturer's QVL sheet) but with Ryzen I've had good luck with G.Skill. For 3rd gen Ryzen the Ryis a great all around buy. If you need PCIE 4.0 for fast hard drive access then you want a 3rd gen Ryzen. The Ryzen 5 1600AF is another awesome deal since it's essentially a Ryfor under $100. For a while these could be purchased for $150 or less, which is pretty fantastic deal. With that in mind here is the hardware breakdown: I do enjoy occasional gaming but that wasn't a priority for me. My requirements for hardware were primarily based around content creation, 3d modeling, photo editing, and CAD work. I also really liked the idea of an open frame test bench style chassis- something that would allow me to easily remove/replace components. I've been wanting to build a small desktop PC for quite some time.
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