Ultimately, in terms of raw CPU performance, this hands the advantage to Intel. AMD has a fantastic-value series of Ryzen CPUs, of course, but you can only use the subset of them that have integrated graphics. (The most powerful ones don't.) The strongest possible CPU that the DeskMini X300 can accept is AMD's mid-2020 Ryzen 7 Pro 4750G, a "Renoir" -class chip that has eight cores that top out at 4.4GHz turbo speed. Unfortunately, the Ryzen Pro chips with integrated graphics, like this one, are only available via grey-market sources; they are OEM-only chips, meant for makers of PCs, not consumers. The top processor for the comparable Intel-based DeskMini, the DeskMini H470, is Intel's Core i9-10900, which has 10 cores that can reach 5.2GHz at their boost peak. Continuing round, behind the rear IO, is the CPU VRM section. From the right, the three larger chips are an unknown chip marked “3532 GABB 120”, a Richtek RT3628AE Intel IMVP9.1 compatible PWM controller, and an ITE IT6516BFN Displayport to VGA converter. The results? An increase over ambient of 61.2 degrees Celsius, and drawing 109 watts from the wall (~230V, 50Hz, 100% wind/hydroelectric for those wondering). Power! VRMs! Yeah, this is a pretty basic setup, a given considering the board is rated for 65w TDP chips and no K spec processors. Four more Vishay SIC654 integrated power stages make up the remainder of the VRM section, with a pair of ON Semiconductor FDPC5030SG chipsets playing support. We’ve already seen one of these helping power the chipset!

The SATA power connector includes two connectors, with the furthest one being at 500mm from the power supply. During testing, I did find this cable to be annoying – as I did not use any 2.5 or 3.5″ devices. PCIe 3.0-riding Ryzen 7 5700G is powerful enough for everyday tasks. We look for at least 1,000 marks in the single-core Cinebench test and 10,000 for multi-core. The eight-core, 16-thread chip makes easy work of those baseline standards, and more than decent performance is underscored by solid results in PCMark 10 and Geekbench 5. The two 2.5-inch drive mounts sit below the motherboard on the other side of a steel tray. Screwing drives into place here is as simple as adding 2.5-inch drives anywhere, but it is easiest to attach the cables to the drives prior to mounting. You can attach them after you mount the drives, but doing it beforehand is a little easier.On the top of the case are two more cutouts that can be used to add two additional USB 2.0 ports. This system doesn't ship with the necessary cable and port mount, however, so you won't be able to use these without locating a compatible USB 2.0 adapter. The rest of the top panel, as well as much of the rear panel, are peppered with holes for ventilation. The space inside the chassis allows for multiple configurations - with or without a discrete GPU, ability to mount multiple 3.5" drives etc. The DeskMeet aims to provide as many features and flexibilities as possible within the constraints dictated by the chipsets. Installing a SFX power supply gains us a load of space, at the expense of removing the only intake fan in the chassis. It’s possible that you could reverse the orientation of your SFX(-L) power supply’s fan, but that carries significant risk.

The power button and status LED is on a separate PCB. The power switch is a high quality unit with a brass actuator – this should last a long while. The integrated LED is a bright white, however it is markedly subdued once the shell is installed, leaving a nice subtle white status light. First up, Prime95 in Blend mode. Whilst a lot of people are a fan of small FFTs mode for thermal testing, I find Blend mode to be more realistic of a heavy real world workload – as it stresses not only the CPU, but the RAM and chipset too. x SATA3 6.0Gb/s ports (RAID 0/1), 1 x Hyper M.2 (2280) PCIe Gen4 x4 & SATA3 6.0Gb/s slot 1 x Hyper M.2 (2280) PCIe Gen4 x4 slotFirstly, the product itself. The idea of extending the M-ITX form factor to add in support for more memory, and a fixed front panel, has merit. With most SFF cases having limited, or altogether eschewing front panel I/O, the DeskMeet breaks the rules with 5, count em, 5 USB ports on the front panel. A creative user’s dream – all the easily accessible USB without needing a USB hub. The addition of two extra DIMM slots versus the usual two on M-ITX is a great feature, as many of us now have 1, 2 or more pairs of DDR4 DIMMs from SFF builds. Combining a couple sets to get 32, 64 or even 128GB of memory really does extend one’s system. It’s a little tight after the power supply is installed, I’d suggest installing the EPS 8 pin connector prior – Although I did manage to squeeze it in when setting up for this photo. The ATX 24 pin connector is also a tight squeeze, but more accessible. Let’s slap a card in there, now that I can’t cover the expansion slot holes. An EVGA GTX1060 will do nicely. Records the default button state of the corresponding category & the status of CCPA. It works only in coordination with the primary cookie. End-users have the flexibility to choose their own CPU, storage device, RAM, and optional discrete GPU. Space constraints impose some limitations on these, though. The 8L system can support liquid cooling if a PCIe add-on card is not used. CPU coolers up to 54mm in height can be used (anything higher would end up bumping into the underside of the PSU). Processors with a TDP of up to 65W can be safely used in air cooling. While select 125W TDP processors are supported, it requires the use of liquid cooling (ruling out the PCIe add-on card usability). F-series SKUs can be used, but it requires the compulsory installation of a video card, as the native display outputs of the B660-ITX require a CPU with an integrated GPU.

And 20.7mm more CPU cooler headroom. Again, the designed airflow in this chassis is for the power supply to be used as an intake fan – so this configuration may cause issues. Any and all suggestions, short of throw it away and start over, will be greatly appreciated! (Also, I wasn't sure if I should have posted this here in the Cases topic or in the PSU topic?)

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Squeezed into the rear IO is the super small M.2 slot for WiFi adapters. The chip marked 2.02 is the CMOS/BIOS chip, with v2.02 on board, the latest at time of review. The small chip nearest the screw standoff is a G9661M (PDF Link), a voltage regulator. The traces disappear into the multiple layer PCB, so I can’t be sure as to what it powers. I can't find much info on the PSU inside that case, but is there a reason to believe that 500W is insufficient? I can't think of any ITX GPU that'll pull enough wattage to threaten a 500W PSU. Naked silicon! Here lies the Intel SRKZX, better known as the Intel B660 chipset. The 45 degree rotation of the chipset heatsink versus the chip itself is likely a result of just having to find a spot amongst the many PCB layers to have two holes for retention clip mounting, but I have to admit it does look a little odd with the four green corners poking out when the heatsink is installed. It’s a tidy-looking thing alright. The side casing is aluminium while the front plastic. Ventilation holes on the top and right-hand side provide plenty of opportunity to exhaust hot air. Triple SATA3 6.0Gb/s (a 13 year old standard at this point! – I really guess NVMe drives have become the future of system storage), a standard FP_Header for front panel buttons and LEDs, a USB2.0 header for even more connectivity and a UART header. It’s not mentioned in the manual, so I figure this is a factory use only header.

Ryzen 5700G uses GCN 5th Gen GPU technology that’s now been superseded by RDNA 2 in mobile-only Ryzen 6000 Series. If you’re sensible and play older games, the baked-in IGP delivers acceptable results at a FHD resolution. In fact, newer games such as Forza Horizon 5 are just about playable at high-quality settings, though an entry-level discrete card can double framerate with ease. On the reverse side of the board is a second M.2 Key-M slot and two ports that work as both power and data lines for SATA drives. The case is also able to house two 2.5-inch drives, so between these two drive mounting points and the two M.2 solid-state drive mounts, you can outfit this little box with a really substantial amount of storage. Both of the M.2 SSD slots support PCI Express drives only, up to 80mm long. You'll get four PCIe Gen 3 lanes on each drive, unless you install an Athlon 200GE series CPU, which will limit one of the slots to two lanes. Ok, let’s throw a GPU load in. How about Unigine Valley? Running this at high settings at 1080p raised the power draw to 205 watts, about what I’d expect as a realistic maximum load for this configuration. With this load, the CPU reached a maximum of 59°C over ambient, and the GTX1060 6GB SC sat happily, and obscenely loudly, at 68°C above ambient. No thermal throttling was observed. The power supply rests against a little folded ledge, aiding in some rigidity towards the front of the chassis. The box is a greasy fingerprint magnet – sorry! I guess I was super excited to unbox this new concept in SFF.

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The memory kit I have used is comprised of 2 pairs of G-Skill F4-3600C18-8GVK, making up 32gb total. A not inexpensive configuration, but definitely affordable. As the score shows, this is a good configuration for this system. However, it does seem like users may not be using the correct speed for this model of memory, with a few benchmark results for this kit running at 2133mHz. Temperature levels are decent, too, with the CPU averaging 83°C during a 10-minute all-core burn test, and with only the GPU and PSU fan to contend with, noise is comfortable, registering a peak 42.2dB on our meter. Conclusion Another gaming simulator, Unigine's Superposition, also showed mixed results, but illustrated the higher graphics performance of AMD's iGPUs...