Hi everyone.

I’ve been nursing the idea of building a small-form-factor file server for a while, with just enough capacity (around 6-8 TB) to store truly important documents, files, and some photos as a local backup for my Google Drive. Recently, I also discovered self-hosted game streaming and wondered why not combine everything into one SFF PC?

So, my main rig is a 9950X3D + 5090 for work and gaming, but sometimes I want to play something more lightweight (indie titles or older games) while lying in bed. I still have an old laptop and my wife has one too (both are perfectly fine for web browsing or older games) plus a smart TV.

I made a short list of requirements for the mini-PC I want:

• Small form factor (something in a 5-6L case);
• NVMe file storage with Nextcloud;
• Windows 11 game streaming with GPU passthrough + Apollo;
• Low power consumption at idle (the lower the better);
• Possibly Jellyfin for media.

I was thinking which platform would suit this best. My first thought was AM5 and something like a B650I with an 8700G/8600G. But after some deeper analysis, I realized I could get roughly the same price (in my country) for a Z890I + Intel Core Ultra 7 265K or 245K and limit the TDP to 35W. In theory, Intel’s hybrid architecture might even perform better under full-core pinning, i.e. pinning 6 or 8 P-cores without HT could be better than pinning 4 or 6 cores with HT, avoiding potential SMT contention and leaving more free resources for other VMs/containers, at least in theory.

But still not sure if it’s worth it. Has anyone tried something similar for game streaming and can recommend which direction to go? Of course, there’s also the AM4 option, which would be cheaper.