I’ve got 2 even smaller form factor Lenovo mini PCs:
ThinkCentre M900 and an older ThinkCentre M73. They both are cute as buttons and powerful enough for distro testing and mom n pop computing and tough as nails. Got them cheap from a Lenovo outlet center as they came back from leasing contracts. The M900 is still astonishingly fast with its i5 CPU, 8 GB RAM and an SSD I put in myself. The M73 only has an i3 and is a bit slower but still beats all the ARM chips and Pentiums and Celerons n stuff.
Oh, and they both are mostly whisper quiet. Smart engineering and super duper build quality!
If ITX is small enough, I highly recommend Fractal Design Node 202 or NZXT H1 (Rev2). Both fit regular-size components and won’t make a huge footprint on the desk.
If you want something even smaller, maybe AsRock DeskMini?
As I wrote before, I haven’t been using this machine that much and that often and I am not a gamer so my perspective is that of a “regular” day-to-day user.
I have installed Archlinux on it and everything worked as expected. The performance is pretty decent. I have set the fan control to performance in the UEFI settings, so it tends to kick in when under medium load but it is rather quiet. You have some possibility to upgrade the storage and ram if you wish so. I will be using this machine now more often and make it my workstation when at home. But its form factor and size permits to take it with me to my workplace and hook it up wit a monitor, keyboard and mouse if I need to. All in all, I am quite happy with it so far.
As you see I have no talent in reviewing hardware stuff Here is a review of the same model though with Ryzen 5 5500U from a YT channel I use to watch occasionally. Unfortunately the tests are run under Windows but hopefully it will give you an idea:
I would say, if you have a return policy with your retailer, you could definitely give it a try.
I bought one according to these guides a year ago:
It “sadly” seems the mini-itx-gaming thread is being worked on right now. Also it’s in german, but in general I always was pretty happy with what these guys worked out as being the best possible hardware for a certain price.
For gaming PCs in general I often refer to their price guide. Pick a certain price range and they’ll give you the best possible hardware you can get for that money.
As in the desktop world, it probably is best, if you put together your own hardware, instead of buying something pre-assembled.
That is big for a mini-PC. Make sure you examine the dimensions.
A power hungry desktop CPU is going to generate a lot of heat. In a small enclosure like that, it will likely turn into quite a bit of fan noise.(Most mini-PCs use mobile CPUs)
That is expensive, is that the going rate for a PC in your part of the world?
the fan noise should not be loud:
“The special features of this Mini-PC are the minimal noise development of only 18 dB at low load”
considering the specs, it seems not more expensive than other mini pc
an Asus mini PC with R7, but no SSD and no memory costs around 650 euro
Notice the last part of the sentence. What do they consider “low load”, idle?
I guess it is only a 65W CPU so it isn’t as bad as some of the more powerful CPUs but it still is going to generate some heat which has to go somewhere.
That being said, all machines come with some compromises. Just wanted to raise it as something to consider.
This is a good point, what is “low load”, and how loud is it under load?
Also another thing to keep in mind that how loud this is will also be relative to the noise floor in your environment. Most people have a noise floor over 30db of plain ambient noise.
share any thought on this … i think about get 5700U model. Any personal thought will help 
Here is a review of the same model though with Ryzen 5 5500U from a YT channel I use to watch occasionally. Unfortunately the tests are run under Windows but hopefully it will give you an idea:
No worry I noooo gamer . i watch video now . 
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