Having a huge gaming desktop tower is sexy. I love staring at my gaming rig at night with all its RGB lights on, sitting quietly beside me while I stream my Cyberpunk 77 gameplay on Twitch. It is a shame I cannot take all that power with me when I visit my parents upstate. Or can I?
Up until recently, taking your gaming rig for a ride required you to grow some muscles and make space in the back of your truck. The only option was to buy an expensive gaming laptop that would never match the performance of a nicely put-together gaming PC pushed to the max.
The industry of mini portable gaming PCs made an entrance a few years back to give gamers the best of both worlds. Small Form Factor PCs offer the right mix of power and customization, combined with portability.
I recently put together a CLX Scarab, and it was able to give me all the juice I needed to run many of my games on ultra settings and I never noticed any frame rate deterioration. The chassis is robust enough to be furnished with enough thermal protection to keep things quiet.
The case is still heavy, but its small form factor makes it easier to carry it around without a problem. I now take my mini portable gaming PC everywhere with me and I don’t miss my tower when I´m out. In fact, this one is even prettier than the hulk on my desk.
I was afraid I would feel limited by the Mini-ITX board. I thought the single PCI slot and only two DIMM slots would force me to settle for a lackluster build. But it wasn’t the case. I was able to stick in a 12-core Ryzen 9 5900x, a nice RX 6800, a closed liquid cooler, and an 80PLUS Gold PSU with enough headroom to light my house without a problem.
It is hard to believe that all that power fits in such a little box. So far, this little tank has been able to outperform some of my friend´s high-end gaming laptops without increasing fan noise. It is surprisingly portable and takes up a lot less space than any other PC I have had. The best part is that it does not impose any limits on customization. I am thinking about increasing the RAM and upgrading the GPU as soon as AMD unveils its RDNA 3 cards next year, to give it an edge in competitive eSports.
If you are looking for a customizable solution to the eternal problem of PC portability, and don’t know where to start, stop by CLX and check out their CLX Scarab series. These are state-of-the-art mini portable gaming PCs with enough power to give any tower a run for its money. Visit their website and see why they are the best custom system integrator for PC gamers online.
