Nzxt H1 Vs Xbox Series X
In my Xbox Series X review last calendar week, I said Microsoft's new diddy 4K powerhouse console was probably the best and cheapest way of bringing a PC-like gaming experience into your living room equally a second machine. While it doesn't provide all the luxuries we're used to on PC, there'south no denying that it'south an impressive bit of kit for its size and price.
But and then I got thinking. While the Xbox Series 10 is certainly a lot more convenient than the full-sized belfry PC plonked next to my Television, was information technology possible to build a similarly tiddly PC that could rival the Series 10'south 4K gaming chops? Readers, it is. It will cost you considerably more than Microsoft'due south £450 / $500 console box, simply throwing price to the current of air for the moment, I hereby present: how to build an Xbox PC.
At its heart, this PC is substantially a mini-ITX build inside the most Xbox-like case I could find. Initially, I was going to try and put together a list of components that toll the same amount of money as the Series Ten, but as you may accept already surmised from the header prototype of this piece, I quickly realised that was going to exist pretty much impossible.
Afterwards all, about mini-ITX motherboards cost at to the lowest degree £100 these days, if not slightly more, as do most 1TB NVMe SSDs - if not considerably more if you're afterward ane with PCIe 4.0 support. That's one-half your console toll gone already, and then at that place's however the matter of a 4K capable graphics card, a decent CPU, RAM, a ability supply and a case to call up about, too. In short, matching the Series X on toll only isn't possible. Matching it on power, however, that we can do.
A big thank y'all to the kind folks at Overclockers Britain and MSI for providing me with the NZXT H1 instance and MPG B550I Gaming Edge Wi-Fi motherboard for this feature. The rest was pilfered from other test systems I have in my home part.
I've tried to match the Series 10's spec as closely equally possible, but fifty-fifty I'm willing to admit that it's far from perfect and there are plenty of substitutions I would make if I had more than components to manus. For case, while the custom AMD Zen 2 CPU inside the Xbox Series Ten doesn't have a completely identical desktop counterpart, its 8 cores and three.8GHz clock speed probably put information technology closer to AMD'southward Ryzen seven 3700X than the Ryzen 5 3600X. Still, the 3600X is the only Zen 2 I've withal got kicking around.
Similarly, I probably would have called AMD'south cheaper Radeon RX 6800 instead of the more expensive Radeon RX 6800 XT, merely I don't currently accept one in for testing. I did endeavor putting an RTX 3070 in at that place, but it was just as well gosh-darn large to fit inside the example. Become figure.
Likewise, my choice of storage likewise leaves a lot to exist desired. The closest equivalent to the Series X'southward 1TB PCIe iv.0 drive would probably exist something like Samsung'south 980 Pro, but my review sample from last month has long since been returned to the folks at Samsung. Instead, I settled for my trusty (if immensely slow) primary WD Green SATA drive for Windows, and my 1TB WD Blackness 3D NVMe PCIe three.0 SSD because that's the one with all my benchmark games on it.
There are also considerably cheaper mini-ITX cases available if you wanted to try building your own tiddly Xbox rival, but as I was going for the most Series X-like design I could find, in that location was really merely one pick: NZXT'due south H1. Non simply does it stand up upright in a very Series 10-like mode, but the hundreds of holes on its sides and rear also mimic the Xbox's top concave vent. Yeah, it costs a whopping £300, merely it does come with its own built-in power supply and all-in-one cooler, making things nice and easy from a building betoken of view.
There are likewise cheaper mini-ITX boards available, too, especially if you opt for a B450 AM4 chipset instead of a newer B550 board. Nevertheless, from a future-proofing perspective, B550 is definitely a more sensible choice overall. While I haven't used a new Ryzen 5000 CPU in this particular build (the Series Ten is, afterward all, based on AMD's Zen 2 CPU compages from their Ryzen 3000 CPUs, not their newer Zen 3 architecture for their Ryzen 5000 series), the Zen 3-compatible B550 chipset gives you a lot more flexibility for futurity upgrades, and I also wanted a lath that had built-in Wi-Fi half-dozen support, as well, and so I didn't accept to run a LAN cablevision to information technology, In this respect, MSI's MPG B550I Gaming Edge Wi-Fi was a great fit.
How to build your own Xbox Serial X PC:
Only enough component chat. Here'south how I congenital it. In gild to get the centre of NZXT's H1 case, I first had to remove the front end and dorsum panels by lifting them upwards and popping them off their lilliputian attachment nodules. I was then able to slide off the top and two remaining sides, all of which was very helpfully signposted by a handful of purple stickers.
Next, I had to open up up the H1'south cooler compartment. Fortunately, all I had to do was undo two piffling screws and and then the bulk of the cooler flipped out toward me thanks to a handy swivel mechanism on the bottom of information technology. Once I'd removed its accompaniment box and untangled all the cables, information technology was time to slot in and adhere my motherboard.
I popped in the CPU and RAM beforehand (I didn't take to worry about changing the cooler mountain as the H1 already has i), and slid the motherboard in through the side so it rested on the mounting points. And then it was just a example of screwing information technology downwardly and connecting up the power cables. Fortunately, NZXT had already routed nigh of the cables to sensible positions on either side of the H1, then information technology took inappreciably any time at all to slot them all into place.
Of course, the hawkeye-eyed amid you may have noticed that the RAM in the pictures isn't the aforementioned RAM listed above. That's because I was really planning to use my usual pair of Corsair Vengeance RGB Pro sticks when I started building my Xbox PC, but when I came to closing the case support again I found they were besides alpine(!) to shut it properly. Luckily, it wasn't besides much of a hassle to swap them out for the shorter TeamGroup TUF sticks, equally they were still easily attainable fifty-fifty once I'd fastened the libation to the CPU.
Adjacent, I slotted my SATA SSD into 1 of the two bays at the pinnacle of the example next to the power supply, and I secured my WD NVMe drive to the One thousand.2 slot on the back of the motherboard. Technically, in that location'south a PCIe Gen 4.0 Grand.2 slot underneath the MSI MPG B550I Gaming Edge Wi-Fi's heatsink plate for connecting up a proper PCIe four.0 NVMe drive, simply for ease of access I decided to stick with the PCIe 3.0 one on the back.
Finally, it was graphics card time. Obviously, plumbing fixtures a total-sized graphics menu in its usual horizontal orientation is nigh-on impossible inside such a minor instance, but another do good of the H1 is that it comes with its own congenital-in PCIe riser menu and then y'all tin mount it vertically on the other side of the motherboard. One side connects into the motherboard's PCIe x16 slot, and the other wraps round the back plate then you can connect it upwards behind.
As I said earlier, I did effort and fit an Asus GeForce TUF Gaming RTX 3070 OC in here first, just the H1's clearance limitations of 305x128mm (or 265x145mm, according to the specs sail) prevented me from doing so. Not merely was it too tall, but its 2.vii slot size was as well also thick. I was worried AMD'due south rather phat RX 6800 XT wouldn't fit either after my attempts with the RTX 3070, but thankfully information technology did thank you to its shorter bill of fare length and 2.5 slot size. It's non the platonic partner for the H1's 650W power supply admittedly - AMD recommend you pair with a 750W one - but I would have put a regular RX 6800 in there if I had one bachelor.
After that, all that was left was fitting the libation and endmost it all back upwardly again. The H1'due south all-in-one libation has an Intel mount by default, so I had to pull that off and adhere the bundled-in AMD one, only that all took less than a couple of minutes. Once I'd hooked the mounts in place and screwed them onto the motherboard, it was time to screw the main fan back into place and seal it upwards - after making sure there weren't any errant wires in the way, of course. So information technology was just a matter of sliding the sides and top dorsum on, followed by the front and back panels.
So, in one case I'd turned information technology on its side to attach my display cablevision, Wi-Fi antennas and the power plug, we were ready to go. Voila! One Xbox Series 10 PC at your service.
As the pictures make articulate, the NZXT H1 is still quite a lot taller than the Serial X, so Microsoft'south console nonetheless wins out on overall size. Similarly, the hundreds of holes on the side and back of the H1 besides brand my PC build disproportionately noisy compared to the whisper quiet Series X. If anything, my Xbox PC is more akin to the Xbox Ane X of yore when it comes to dissonance levels, if not slightly louder. This is another downside of opting to build your ain PC every bit opposed to only going down the console route, but in terms of ability, it definitely puts in a pretty good functioning.
As our friends at Digital Foundry have since discovered, Assassinator's Creed Valhalla isn't really running at native 4K on the Serial X (non that my feeble eyes could tell on a large telly), just with an RX 6800 XT under its chugalug, my Xbox PC was able to hit a smoothen 60fps on Very High at proper 4K without trouble. I was likewise able to match Watch Dogs Legion's locked 4K 30fps frame charge per unit with ray tracing switched on at High settings, and Yakuza: Like A Dragon ran beautifully at both 1440p and 4K, hit a smooth 60fps+ on max settings at both resolutions - chirapsia the 1440p 60fps and 4K 30fps options you get on the Series Ten.
Yeah, you are paying considerably more to go the same kind of performance here, but as I said right at the starting time of this feature, matching the Xbox Serial Ten on price was never the true goal here. Instead, I merely wanted to see whether information technology was possible to match information technology on power in a (roughly) like grade gene, and in that respect I call up I made a pretty skilful fist of information technology. It was as well merely a fun affair to try and build a mini-ITX PC for a change, every bit that's not something I've actually covered at RPS earlier.
So there yous take it. Our Xbox Serial X PC. A big cheers again to Overclockers United kingdom and MSI for their help with providing some of the components used in this build. At £300, NZXT's H1 case is expensive, just I found it very easy to build in (not a unmarried cut finger in sight) and I cannot understate how great information technology was to have a built-in 650W SFX power supply and an all-in-one cooler. That certainly made my life a heck of a lot easier putting it together.
MSI's MPG B550I Gaming Edge Wi-Fi motherboard likewise had everything I needed to get the PC up and running. It's a solid performer, has the same number of M.2 slots as most full-sized motherboards, and its extensive range of USB ports (including i USB-C) means at that place's enough of options for connecting up all the peripherals I could ever want or need. Alas, Overclockers Britain don't stock that detail model, but Ebuyer have information technology for £180 (which tin exist reduced to £153 after MSI'southward Black Friday cashback promotion, plus you get a gratis copy of Assassin'southward Creed Valhalla with it, too, making it even meliorate value.
Would you have done it differently? What sort of components would you have chosen if you were going to build a mini-ITX PC for your living room? Would you have chosen a different instance or gone with a unlike CPU and GPU combo? Maybe you've got your own mini-ITX stories to share. If you exercise, please do share them in the comments below.
And if you lot're wondering almost the actual total cost of what my system would cost, here are some numbers for y'all. While information technology's not possible to actually buy all the components listed in my build (either due to age or being out of stock), here'due south a rough judge of how much money you'd accept to ready aside to build one yourself:
Case: NZXT H1 - £300
CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3600X - £215
RAM: 16GB TeamGroup Vulcan TUF Gaming Alliance 3200MHz - £60
GPU: AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT - N/A, but around £600
SSD: WD Green (250GB), WD Black 3D NVMe (1TB) - £30 + £105 (sort of, if you swap it for the newer WD Blackness SN750)
Motherboard: MSI MPG B550I Gaming Edge Wi-Fi - £180That gives you lot a total of £1490, a whole £1040 more the Xbox Series 10.
Source: https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/we-built-our-own-xbox-series-x-pc
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