Here's a few things that a lot of people do with a dual system build like this: 1 - Use the ITX system as a NAS with a 10GB ethernet or ThunderBolt 3 (if possible) connection to the main system. 2 - Use the ITX system as a capturing or streaming PC with a capture card installed in it, which reduces stress on the main system. 3 - Use the ITX system as a rendering node, so that you can work on other projects on the main system. A good example of this would be when you are trying to make a lot of videos before you go on vacation or holiday. Again, this would include 10GB ethernet or ThunderBolt 3 (if possible) cards to quickly transfer files from system to system. 4 - Have two separate OS's, much like the mentioned Hackintosh idea (Perhaps something like a Vega 7 would be cool to see when it comes out) 5 - Use this for two people. The power user gets the main system, and the secondary user gets the ITX system. This works well in places such as smaller apartments or office spaces. The ITX system could also just act as something such as a guest PC for a small Lan party. 6 - Have the main system be a full on workstation (Quadros, xeons, ThreadRipper, etc.) which is dedicated to work, and have the ITX system be for home usage or gaming. A good example of this would be that massive build which LTT did in the Corsair 1000D. This is a great solution especially because you basically never have to worry about getting work and home files mixed up. 7 - Simply save space. It's honestly easier to have two PC's in one case, rather than having to tote around two separate ones, assuming that the 2-in-1 doesn't get heavy.
StorybookBus03 ITX???, why you need low power home PC's??? ITX thunderbolt 3 Display, small desk? This is for gamers, ATX, RTX intel k only? AMD Zen too, forget Vega AMD navi ITX please......Thunderbolt on AMD, muwahwahahawahahhaha...
@@lucasrem Yes, the second system is an ITX system. Each of the 7 recommendations is separate from the other. Furthermore, it is possible to use Thunderbolt 3 on x399 with the right motherboard, and I said "if possible".
@@storybookbus0314 Thunderbolt 3 = intel! forget ITX, office low volt! Gamer need the heavy gear, AMP + Volt = heat gear, the Tu101 cards, some intel k enough! Need ITX sizes, you better play games on PS4!
My idea for a dual setup like this seems to be the opposite of most people, the mini ITX system would purely be my gaming machine, while the ATX would be for productivity/storage. I need the extra PCI slots for capture cards and such.
My use case would be to maintain my workflow during renders. I work in 3D, so when I'm rendering with my GPU, the entire system gets slammed. Having a space efficient and accessible second system to continue working on in the meantime would limit downtime and increase productivity
You could probably use a dual system for young children. It could be locked down with only the software that the parents want the kids to use, and not necessarily need the same system resources that an adult might need. For example, the smaller system could require a password to get online, keeping the kids from accidentally buying things online. They could also use it for learning without messing up any settings on the main system.
i do a lot of 3d previsualisation. the ability to have a separate dedicated system to just handle 3d pre-vis, while the other system is dedicated to control and automation software is absolutely amazing and game changing.
I have a brother and we share the same room because we have a small house. That's the only reason I have for wanting a dual system. We could share the same custom desk, each with their own monitor. Even if we were to put our PCs on the living room, I would prefer it to be a dual system to save space, and I think that's the main reason you'd want to have this configuration even in an office, to work with someone else. You can use one to stream too and the other to play if you are a content creator. I think that was your main problem trying to figure out why someone would want a dual system, you were thinking as if both systems were for the same person all the time, and from that I guess you may not have a brother. Thanks for your videos, I really love Phanteks design, quality and innovations, it's just a shame they aren't in Chile. For example to buy a power supply from them (the Revolt Pro) I had to buy it from Amazon, even though I could buy another one in my country and I would receive it in less than a week. Surprisingly, even considering the shipping and the import fees it's almost the same price I would pay for another A tier PSU in my country, which shows you how expensive is gaming on PC over here.
I've been toying with a dual-system for when friends come over to play games. Most times, we aren't playing on the same PC so having two separate systems is what I have now: one main machine and one machine on a shelf that I drag out and hook up to my second monitor when I have those guests. It would be much cleaner to just be able to boot up a second machine without having to take up any more desk space or set a PC on the floor.
An excellent use case would be to run Linux if you are a developer. WSL2 (which is virtualized Linux within Windows) has some issues and is not a true Linux server experience. However, a headless Linux system only needs to be connected via Ethernet (no graphics card needed), can be interfaced with via SSH and web interfaces, and can remain online even if the primary system gets rebooted.
this is great tbh for those who want dual systems like a hackintosh system for them people who use stuff like finalcut pro and a windows based system for gaming
I think separating gaming from video editing, etc is a good idea even for just all the 'startup' programs that adobe uses for photoshop, etc. This could apply whether you use a hackintosh or even 2 windows computers. The gaming pc could be used for just that.
My wife and I often travel to demoparties bringing one overpowered desktop and one underpowered laptop, a dualsystem like this would be our perfect solution
Here is a simple reason for this. Work from home and have a separate work and personal PC without needing the space for 2 PCs under your desk. The Work ITX system doesn't need to be a beast for gaming- use integrated graphics.
It's kind of cool, to be able to put the two systems in one case. Once it's put together and all working I would be like, now what did I need two systems for?!
Great content as usual HWC! To me this is really one of the main channels to push a very high level of sophistication into PC case analysis. Keep it up!
I feel like streamers are never considered. Having a dual pc setup to game / stream is really, the holy grail. Yet this isn't even mentioned. There are a lot of streamers who don't have the space for that kind of setup, that this would be amazing for. If I had the money, I jump on this setup in a heart beat.
This is perfect for a Streaming system, even if your main pc has amazing components most people dont realize that the stream will takeup quite a bit of GPU performance as soon as you add an overlay. The more the is going on in SLOBS the worse your stream will be while gaming. The only two solutions are limit your ingame framerate so that your GPU has headroom for the Stream or using a second PC.
If I'm not mistaken maybe you could've use it as a rendering node to speed up those rendering even more. Great video, loved how you tackled all the problems you encountered the first time
My thoughts exactly.. Linux for browsing the dangerous web and productivity , windows for productivity and and gaming ideal deal for a dual largescreen setup
A dual system is perhaps the quickest way to do that, perhaps with an APU (no discrete graphics) in the ITX system. It is not the cheapest way, however. Virtualization on Linux is really good these days, to the point that you can actually export whole hardware devices like graphics cards to a virtual Windows instance. You just need a processor and motherboard which supports virtualization and IOMMU. Both AMD and Intel CPUs can do this. There is a bit of configuration work involved, but once you have it figured out you can have Linux running on one graphics card, and Windows on the other, sharing the same CPU.
@@666Maeglin yeah i got linux as my secondary pc / monitor for browsing and music and reference materials and the main pc for graphic designing, why run dual monitors on 1 pc if you got older pcs laying around anyway
@@gunnar6674 I have vfio setup for years and amd system, one thing really annoyed me is how I can’t find a decent android emu on linux for playing game, while installing those android emu on the windows vm will not work as the nested virtualization doesn’t work really well. Another thing to note, if you play online games, some games have anti cheat system that might be tricky to overcome to avoid vm detection.
Omg that color scheme is gorgeous. I'm going to buy the gunmetal version of the P600S that was just released and keep my green lighting aesthetic just like you did.
Dmitri. Noctua makes black fans using literally the exact same molding. Exact same performance. The Noctua Chroma Max line up are by far the best fans on the market.
One thing you could use the second system for is as a high-performance router. In many cases the hardware in your router is actually the bottleneck in your throughput. So even an old cpu you have lying around can outperform your existing router. Dual system would allow you to have your pc and your router in the same box. The downside would be if you reset one system does it reset both systems? That would mean when your main pc resets windows every 6 hours for an update it will knock out the internet for everyone.
the second system would be nice for a home server with various apps running on it (nas, plex, security camera server, web dev server, steam cache and many more!!)
I have just started my dual system mission. I went with a Thermaltake Core W200 case which will allow 2 x full sized ATX motherboards. My main system is a 5950X, X570, RTX3090 and 128gb of DDR4 memory. My second system is a i9 9900k, Z390, RTX3060 and 64gb of DDR4 memory system. I do alot of video editing and of course AAA gaming with the idea of starting streaming. There is a total of 20 PWN fans to move air around that huge case, both systems have a 360 AIO for the CPUs. My goals is to use the 5950 as my gaming/main rig and the i9 9900k as my rendering, banking, streaming and backup machine. I have also gone full RGB on the 5950 system (my first time) as there is a window on that side of the case and the i9 system is not visable so its full black and hides all of the cables. In terms of controlling the 2 systems, I will use remote desktop to access the i9 system instead of a KVM. Mainly due to my 3 monitor setup which consits of 2 x 27"curved monitors and a 34" curved monitor all 3 are 1440p. Would love to hear what else I can use the 2nd system for? I already have a NAS, home server for downloading torrents mainly and a pc for my CCTV system. you could say I am a tech junkie for sure ... lol
Gotta say, I love the look of having just the ITX system installed. I'd be tempted to do that for the fun of it :) And I'm digging the green look - always loved the Borg cube look.
Good use of secondary systems for people who actually use their computer for work is the larger unit is for pure grunt CPU power to do workloads such as video rendering or other high power usage, with a good professional GPU. Then the other board usually smaller one is for gaming, it does not need to be connected to lots of harddrives only enough for games and system, its got a mid range CPU like Ryzen 5 or Intel i5 but a grunty GPU for that gaming performance.
There's a very real need for this type of system. Maybe a single guy in an apartment doesn't have a lot of need but I have 4 adults and upto 5 kids in my house. I just don't have the space for three maxed out gaming rigs and an office spec rig for the adults and a bunch of Roblox/Minecraft spec kid rigs. I need something to fix a large family of gamers.
I cut up a Black BitFenix Prodigy M case, put an Intel Micro ATX motherboard onto the Mobo Tray and stuffed it into another BitFenix Prodigy M with an AMD Micro ATX System, and have them both running on 1 550W power supply. Together they both use about 430w Uses: AMD w/ EVGA 960: Chrome, video editing, soon to be OBS Streaming PC when I get a capture card, and the option for a friend to play when I have friends over Intel w/ EVGA 1060 SC 6GB: Mian computer for digital art creation, 3d modeling, Minecraft All the mods 3 remix (300+ mods), other video games Both systems are on the same network, so file storage goes on the AMD build. Mouse and Keyboard (when no friends are using the other) is handled over the network by Input Director. Audio is output from the AMD system and input to the Intel. The Intel has that microphone port set to "listen" so the audio actually plays from the other computer to the main output from the intel. Pictures can be seen on my Twitter, right now the build is very crude but I have ideas for the second generation, including a drawer pull out for the second motherboard. Both systems use stock coolers, and only 1 fan is in the system.
I'm going to put one of these systems together. This would be ideal for trading overseas where you need a VPN in order to trade from the states. VPNs typically slow down your internet speed. I don't need all of my other internet based tasked slowed down by the vpn connection, so this setup would be perfect. Use the mini ITX pc for VPN/Trading and use the larger pc for other tasks and "local" connections. The best of both worlds, all in one pc.
Only reason this interests me is to make the ITX a streaming PC and the ATX the gaming system. So much more convenience than having two separate PCs, which is what some full time streamers do.
i run wireless VR on the main system and then have a second person playing cabled from the ITX. When the ITX isn't in use, I NVLink my two GPUs. I could also put a capture card onto the ITX, but at the moment the NDI output settings in OBS work well enough for me to send video to the ITX for streaming. For KVM I use a Dell monitor that has it. For anyone thinking about doing this, my only advice is make sure you've got lots of money before you start because the components are all really expensive.
Iv'e got a Thermaltake Core W200. Main reason for this dual system is a high end custom watercooled workstation/gaming PC + a NAS/Virtualization Server. Definitely a workhorse.
I think the streaming use is the most practical one, that's a case where one person might want to use two systems. Hackintosh is a good suggestion, too. The banking/security one is a decent suggestion, but that's usually tackled by virtualization--I'm not an expert, but I think a virtual solution is actually more secure than two hardware ones? And, I think you make a good point about the gaming/editing one, most people who can afford this kind of setup can afford a system that's going to render most projects in very, very little time. For a lot of the suggestions, like the NAS, it's kind of clunky. This powerful of a system could "just" be a NAS without a second motherboard/CPU in most cases. And if you were wanting to have a second computer to be a server, you "should" (though I'm sure it's not always an option) try to put the NAS somewhere else in like a sever racket or a closet where it can have noisier fans and not bother anyone. All that said, I think this case and a dual system setup is mostly an aesthetic choice. It can save space, like you mentioned, but that case is way bigger than two (actually small) ITX cases, which can house capable machines in their own rights.
for my my interest is having an apu system for when im just watching videos or browsing the internet and then a more powerful system for gaming and editing so im not running such a high end system just to watch anime all day
Provided the hardware is relatively the same generation, watching videos or browsing the internet will not use more power on the higher end system in any way that you'll notice. A computer doesn't use it's full power draw for every process, it only uses what it needs when it needs it. Try installing HWMonitor to check your "power draw" in Watts when you are using it. You'll find it stays really low for the majority of your tasks. Dual systems are really meant for streaming. One PC for gaming, the other for processing the stream. Both functions are very intensive so having two machines is better so neither experiences a performance drop.
Great video. I’d love to do this. The second system would be my NAS and media streamer, I’d keep my full loop, transplant my system and put in an ITX with something like an 8700k with an AIO for encoding in VLC Streamer Helper and backup compression. I think you did a great job here man. We all have different tastes and requirements, and I think you achieved a nice, and beautiful, balance. I was one of the people who called for a custom loop. 1) Because I’m bias 😏, and 2) because we simply don’t see water cooling builds from you, and I’d really like to. I could be wrong, but my feeling is you aren’t really that comfortable or experienced with watercooling. To me, that’s totally fine if that’s the case. It would be fantastic to watch you go through the journey, overcome the obstacles. Maybe see you start with flexy and move into hardline, maybe dual loops. It would be great to have an ongoing series watching you experiment with this build, evolving the solution and the application as time went on. Just my tuppence, much love as always.
This system is the next step for when virtualization just isn't enough. Even with IOMMU and GPU passthrough. Sometimes you just need two separate systems ... to still somehow interact as if they are one system.
Thats exactly what i'd do - Hackintosh in the top. I currently use a Mac for my daily driver (docked MBP) next to my Gaming PC. I am pretty much sold on two rigs vs one-rig-two-monitors. The benefits are immense if you can afford it.
Instead of a KVM switch I used the Synergy 1 Basic software which allows you to use one mouse and keyboard for up to 6 PC at once with no buttons you can also get a PRO version which allows you to click and drag files and windows and copy and paste between the different computers it is defiantly worth the small amount of money I spent on it.
I would have a cheap ITX system, like a R3 3xxx that has a good M.2 WiFi adapter for serving WiFi to mobile devices at home, and use an x8 riser cable to put a nice dual 2.5Gb NIC for serving Ethernet to the main system. It would be a firewall as well of course. All of the above can be had for around $250 used right now in 2024.
I came back to watch this because my gf and I game next to each other on a large desk but we both have mid tower ATX cases that take up a lot of space on the desk and thinking that two systems in one Evolv X would take up less space and be cheaper than converting both systems to ITX/SFF. In addition the Evolv X should have better cooling with the option for custom loop
mini-ITX with Unix for everydays use + coding scientific programs EATX Threadripper to run said scientific programs This case is the more compact build I could think for this specific use
I'm sorry, this is a largely pointless and compromising feature. It makes far more sense just to build your second system in another case and tuck it away.
@@illfox240sx6 And that is the exact reason you don't water cool a NAS, streaming capture PC or really any secondary "work" device. To the other guy, just because you can and that that makes you an enthusiast is an awful argument. End of the day, you buy a computer to do something. Sure you want it to be cool, fast, quiet and look sweet... but none of those things are accomplished by jamming an ITX system into an ATX case. Then there is the hit to aesthetics, cooling capacity, component choice as well as cable management, and ease building experience. There is nothing "enthusiast" about using a poorly conceived and poorly implemented feature. One isn't an "enthusiast" if you get an all glass case with no airflow... you are an idiot buying a bad product with superior alternatives If you want to be an "enthusiast", do something more productive like deliding, custom water cooling, or case modding.
I will buy the Evolv X at the end of this month. I just love the way it looks and it really suits my needs. I have a Noctua NH-D14 and two Inno3d GTX 1070 dual fan in SLI , so my space is really tight. I also have a separate ASUS Soar audio card. This is the reason I need this case besides many other things. It's wider than any other cases with vertical GPU mounts and so the audio card won't interfere with the graphics cards - I already bought the raiser/ITX combo . Initially I wanted to buy the Cooler Master H500M but for a few degrees loss - I can live with that, Evolv X is about 5-7 degrees hotter. Thermals also depends on what fans you install for intake. I will use the factory ones at first just to see how they perform and if they really need to be exchanged. I will move the 140 mm fan from the back to the front and replace it with another. As for what thermals should I expect - my graphics cards are somewhat factory forced at 83 degrees max. PS: I can't even overclock them properly without them going in some crazy fps lockout at around 20 to 30 fps while the base frequencies get stuck at 139 MHz ( Yup crazy as f#*&). But hey when they get to overclock to 1999 MHz they can match a RTX 2080. Also I payed such a low price for the second card it's stupid hilarious. And don't worry about the SLI 'thing' my games, all of them support SLI and also I cand fiddle with the SLI profiles quite well - I scored 6553 in one of the runs without OC but I have my non k i5 6600 overclocked at 4.5. So is with the games some of them can be manipulated trough SLI profiles using NVIDIA Profile Inspector. Caution though, I messed up Shadow of the tomb raider so much so that the game couldn't load anymore. I was trying to force it in 'manual' SLI mode plus other SLI features.
Linux box/Hackintosh/Streaming PC for the 2nd PC seems viable, for a NAS or a server you'd be better off building it in another rig I think, more room for drives. Good build though!
I'm considering the idea of dual system like this. I don't do streaming anymore (at least right now), but first system would obviously be the game system, second as either the stream or capture system (thinking of going G series Ryzen for second system). The other use case is as a Parsec console game dedicated host for friends. You use a Capture card, a Titan One, and Parsec to achieve this. Having a dedicated system means that while I host said console game, I still have access to my real PC so I can still PC game if I want. Not the most practical use case, but hey. If I can, why not? 🤷🏾♂️
As far as dual system consumer cases go, I've had the best experience with the Phanteks Enthoo Mini XL, and not simply for the ability to have an ATX and a Mini ITX system in there, but because it has 3X5.25 inch drive bays, it's sad to see the consumer industry pushing some enthusiasts into server grade cases to build what one wants, some of us believe in local storage u know ! in my case it's absolutely essential to have 4X 3.5/2.5 inch drives ACCESSIBLE AT ALL TIMES FROM THE OUTSIDE, and the only solution is having a hot swap HDD enclosure that fits in 3X5.25 inch drive bays, as for the BEST hot swap enclosure to have in my opinion is the Rosewill RSV-SATA-Cage-34 for 2 reasons: 1 - Critical - the use of NON PROPRIETARY fan in the back, so u can be sure that those are getting the Noctua treatment as soon as they're unboxed, plus the possibility of EASILY changing it if it dies 2 - Personal Choice - individual HDD leds are blue, which I prefer, but more importantly the absence of green leds that light up green-orange when something is happening, which discriminates against color blind people, making it as hard to discern as a quiet talker's point in a noisy night club, This is blasphemy for some enthusiasts and a religion for others, I do understand how some people want to have a board, an M.2 drive attached that's IT !!! but really there are other people out there
I have a dual system in my Phanteks Elite case while I use the main atx board for my games machine, I use the itx system as a server which hosts my mail server, discord server, media server etc.
Gaming PC and a Plex/media server - Thats what I use for dual-systems. Both can be CPU intensive tasks and this way when the wife is watching a movie and I'm gaming, neither activity is competing for resources.
This looks like a good use case for the Galax GTX 1070 Katana. A single slot 1070 GPU would work wonders for space efficiency in a setup like this though they do run a bit hot.
This dual system could be used for Blender rendering with the Crowdrender plugin. It's the only useful usecase I could see. And the other is if you want to conserve energy by using a low powered ITX build.
I use two systems, one is strictly for gaming (windows), the other is for productivity/watching videos/streams (Linux). I really dislike Microsoft's direction with Windows 10, so I wanted to get used to Linux as much as possible for when I eventually switch over to it full time, even for gaming. Gaming on Linux is getting better and better, so it's just a matter of time for me.
I thought about trying to do a dual system a while back for my NAS. I decided against it because it doesn't make any sense in my opinion to build a NAS that is a critical backup for your stuff because if my power supply breaks or there's a power surge and all the files are corrupted or whatever on my main system, it might just happen to the backup too. It might be practical to try and fit two power supplies in a single case, but then you need to find a small power supply and probably a really huge case, which defeats the purpose again because I don't want a computer the size of a fridge just so I can save space. Basically it's probably just better to build the NAS separately and put it in another room. I wish it weren't the case because dual system builds look really cool...
You can actually build your NAS and your main system in one case . make sure you use a surge protector and a UPS so even if the power goes off, your UPS is still on to enable you shut down properly without any loss of data.
I'm rewatching this just to get more ideas but I do plan to do this someday and it's more for having just two computers, main one for me, second one for my girlfriend.
The Noctua specifically states that the NH-L9i can't handle the 8600k (95W TDP) WITHOUT OCing since it's rated for 65W TDP or less, and then you're surprised that a 4.8GHz OC overwhelms the cooler? Yeah...
Make the ITX system a secondary render system using Adobe media encoder or something like that...? Send the signal from your main system to have the second render using the settings you've selected and then have it output in a specific folder on your network somewhere. You can see a large scale version of this on LinusTechTips. All of their high-end systems send commands to a separate server (ITS system in your case) and have it export to a specific folder on their storage server (NAS in your case)
This video changed my life because I've never heard of a kvm switch and it's exactly what I needed for my current setup... THANK YOU
Here's a few things that a lot of people do with a dual system build like this:
1 - Use the ITX system as a NAS with a 10GB ethernet or ThunderBolt 3 (if possible) connection to the main system.
2 - Use the ITX system as a capturing or streaming PC with a capture card installed in it, which reduces stress on the main system.
3 - Use the ITX system as a rendering node, so that you can work on other projects on the main system. A good example of this would be when you are trying to make a lot of videos before you go on vacation or holiday. Again, this would include 10GB ethernet or ThunderBolt 3 (if possible) cards to quickly transfer files from system to system.
4 - Have two separate OS's, much like the mentioned Hackintosh idea (Perhaps something like a Vega 7 would be cool to see when it comes out)
5 - Use this for two people. The power user gets the main system, and the secondary user gets the ITX system. This works well in places such as smaller apartments or office spaces. The ITX system could also just act as something such as a guest PC for a small Lan party.
6 - Have the main system be a full on workstation (Quadros, xeons, ThreadRipper, etc.) which is dedicated to work, and have the ITX system be for home usage or gaming. A good example of this would be that massive build which LTT did in the Corsair 1000D. This is a great solution especially because you basically never have to worry about getting work and home files mixed up.
7 - Simply save space. It's honestly easier to have two PC's in one case, rather than having to tote around two separate ones, assuming that the 2-in-1 doesn't get heavy.
StorybookBus03
ITX???, why you need low power home PC's???
ITX thunderbolt 3 Display, small desk?
This is for gamers, ATX, RTX intel k only? AMD Zen too, forget Vega AMD navi ITX please......Thunderbolt on AMD, muwahwahahawahahhaha...
@@lucasrem Yes, the second system is an ITX system. Each of the 7 recommendations is separate from the other. Furthermore, it is possible to use Thunderbolt 3 on x399 with the right motherboard, and I said "if possible".
@@storybookbus0314
Thunderbolt 3 = intel!
forget ITX, office low volt! Gamer need the heavy gear, AMP + Volt = heat gear, the Tu101 cards, some intel k enough!
Need ITX sizes, you better play games on PS4!
@@storybookbus0314 Nintedo good enough, then you need low power?
Most people need the Tu101 models, some intel k!
@@storybookbus0314 Volt + AMP = heat, gamer's need the big cases, to fit cooling solutions.
Or stay on the nintendo levels!
I'm really trying to find an excuse to build a dual system build. It's hard, but I'm trying.
_What about triple system?_
What about vm ware.
Build 3 PCs using node cases and tape them together :)))
haf stackers
Yesssss....
im currently using 3 seperate pcs for gaming on each cos they lagg/microstutter eachother no matter how good the hardware is.
People do dual system according to their needs
This man figures out his needs after building a dual system 👏👏
He is the man who give himself up for the collective goods :')
It’s cool and kinda a dream for PC builder like me
My idea for a dual setup like this seems to be the opposite of most people, the mini ITX system would purely be my gaming machine, while the ATX would be for productivity/storage. I need the extra PCI slots for capture cards and such.
My use case would be to maintain my workflow during renders. I work in 3D, so when I'm rendering with my GPU, the entire system gets slammed. Having a space efficient and accessible second system to continue working on in the meantime would limit downtime and increase productivity
That's HUGE, very good point!
Same
You could probably use a dual system for young children. It could be locked down with only the software that the parents want the kids to use, and not necessarily need the same system resources that an adult might need. For example, the smaller system could require a password to get online, keeping the kids from accidentally buying things online. They could also use it for learning without messing up any settings on the main system.
i do a lot of 3d previsualisation.
the ability to have a separate dedicated system to just handle 3d pre-vis, while the other system is dedicated to control and automation software is absolutely amazing and game changing.
I have a brother and we share the same room because we have a small house.
That's the only reason I have for wanting a dual system. We could share the same custom desk, each with their own monitor.
Even if we were to put our PCs on the living room, I would prefer it to be a dual system to save space, and I think that's the main reason you'd want to have this configuration even in an office, to work with someone else. You can use one to stream too and the other to play if you are a content creator.
I think that was your main problem trying to figure out why someone would want a dual system, you were thinking as if both systems were for the same person all the time, and from that I guess you may not have a brother.
Thanks for your videos, I really love Phanteks design, quality and innovations, it's just a shame they aren't in Chile. For example to buy a power supply from them (the Revolt Pro) I had to buy it from Amazon, even though I could buy another one in my country and I would receive it in less than a week.
Surprisingly, even considering the shipping and the import fees it's almost the same price I would pay for another A tier PSU in my country, which shows you how expensive is gaming on PC over here.
I've been toying with a dual-system for when friends come over to play games. Most times, we aren't playing on the same PC so having two separate systems is what I have now: one main machine and one machine on a shelf that I drag out and hook up to my second monitor when I have those guests. It would be much cleaner to just be able to boot up a second machine without having to take up any more desk space or set a PC on the floor.
1:14 Yes, more RGB.
Yeah, RGB make it faster 2.5% 🤘
For anyone thinking about a dual system- some monitors have the ability build it. My Dell 34'' monitor does.
An excellent use case would be to run Linux if you are a developer. WSL2 (which is virtualized Linux within Windows) has some issues and is not a true Linux server experience. However, a headless Linux system only needs to be connected via Ethernet (no graphics card needed), can be interfaced with via SSH and web interfaces, and can remain online even if the primary system gets rebooted.
this is great tbh for those who want dual systems like a hackintosh system for them people who use stuff like finalcut pro and a windows based system for gaming
I think separating gaming from video editing, etc is a good idea even for just all the 'startup' programs that adobe uses for photoshop, etc. This could apply whether you use a hackintosh or even 2 windows computers. The gaming pc could be used for just that.
why not dual-boot?
My wife and I often travel to demoparties bringing one overpowered desktop and one underpowered laptop, a dualsystem like this would be our perfect solution
Here is a simple reason for this. Work from home and have a separate work and personal PC without needing the space for 2 PCs under your desk. The Work ITX system doesn't need to be a beast for gaming- use integrated graphics.
It's kind of cool, to be able to put the two systems in one case. Once it's put together and all working I would be like, now what did I need two systems for?!
I haven't even built my duel system PC yet and I'm still trying to figure out what I'm gonna use each system for.😂
Great content as usual HWC! To me this is really one of the main channels to push a very high level of sophistication into PC case analysis. Keep it up!
I feel like streamers are never considered. Having a dual pc setup to game / stream is really, the holy grail. Yet this isn't even mentioned. There are a lot of streamers who don't have the space for that kind of setup, that this would be amazing for. If I had the money, I jump on this setup in a heart beat.
This is perfect for a Streaming system, even if your main pc has amazing components most people dont realize that the stream will takeup quite a bit of GPU performance as soon as you add an overlay. The more the is going on in SLOBS the worse your stream will be while gaming. The only two solutions are limit your ingame framerate so that your GPU has headroom for the Stream or using a second PC.
If I'm not mistaken maybe you could've use it as a rendering node to speed up those rendering even more. Great video, loved how you tackled all the problems you encountered the first time
I salute how humble you are Dmitry every time you point out things, Great Video
Linux system and Windows system. I thought that would be an intuitive choice.
My thoughts exactly.. Linux for browsing the dangerous web and productivity , windows for productivity and and gaming
ideal deal for a dual largescreen setup
A dual system is perhaps the quickest way to do that, perhaps with an APU (no discrete graphics) in the ITX system. It is not the cheapest way, however. Virtualization on Linux is really good these days, to the point that you can actually export whole hardware devices like graphics cards to a virtual Windows instance. You just need a processor and motherboard which supports virtualization and IOMMU. Both AMD and Intel CPUs can do this. There is a bit of configuration work involved, but once you have it figured out you can have Linux running on one graphics card, and Windows on the other, sharing the same CPU.
@@666Maeglin yeah i got linux as my secondary pc / monitor for browsing and music and reference materials and the main pc for graphic designing, why run dual monitors on 1 pc if you got older pcs laying around anyway
Arch is superior
@@gunnar6674 I have vfio setup for years and amd system, one thing really annoyed me is how I can’t find a decent android emu on linux for playing game, while installing those android emu on the windows vm will not work as the nested virtualization doesn’t work really well. Another thing to note, if you play online games, some games have anti cheat system that might be tricky to overcome to avoid vm detection.
Omg that color scheme is gorgeous. I'm going to buy the gunmetal version of the P600S that was just released and keep my green lighting aesthetic just like you did.
Dmitri. Noctua makes black fans using literally the exact same molding. Exact same performance. The Noctua Chroma Max line up are by far the best fans on the market.
This is like a decent setup for streamer that uses another pc to offload the encoding from gaming system.
One thing you could use the second system for is as a high-performance router. In many cases the hardware in your router is actually the bottleneck in your throughput. So even an old cpu you have lying around can outperform your existing router. Dual system would allow you to have your pc and your router in the same box. The downside would be if you reset one system does it reset both systems? That would mean when your main pc resets windows every 6 hours for an update it will knock out the internet for everyone.
I use a second system for a lower power workloads. It cuts down on energy bills a little bit.
the second system would be nice for a home server with various apps running on it (nas, plex, security camera server, web dev server, steam cache and many more!!)
I have just started my dual system mission. I went with a Thermaltake Core W200 case which will allow 2 x full sized ATX motherboards. My main system is a 5950X, X570, RTX3090 and 128gb of DDR4 memory. My second system is a i9 9900k, Z390, RTX3060 and 64gb of DDR4 memory system. I do alot of video editing and of course AAA gaming with the idea of starting streaming. There is a total of 20 PWN fans to move air around that huge case, both systems have a 360 AIO for the CPUs. My goals is to use the 5950 as my gaming/main rig and the i9 9900k as my rendering, banking, streaming and backup machine. I have also gone full RGB on the 5950 system (my first time) as there is a window on that side of the case and the i9 system is not visable so its full black and hides all of the cables. In terms of controlling the 2 systems, I will use remote desktop to access the i9 system instead of a KVM. Mainly due to my 3 monitor setup which consits of 2 x 27"curved monitors and a 34" curved monitor all 3 are 1440p. Would love to hear what else I can use the 2nd system for? I already have a NAS, home server for downloading torrents mainly and a pc for my CCTV system. you could say I am a tech junkie for sure ... lol
oh you don't like the brown fans well there's this cool stuff called paint it can change the color of anything.
Honestly, if I were using this, I'd probably use it for livestreaming. Gaming on the ATX system, encoding on the ITX system.
Thats what im thinking of doing.
Gotta say, I love the look of having just the ITX system installed. I'd be tempted to do that for the fun of it :)
And I'm digging the green look - always loved the Borg cube look.
Gaming+streaming/rendering for youtube would be a good use for 2 systems in a single system
Good use of secondary systems for people who actually use their computer for work is the larger unit is for pure grunt CPU power to do workloads such as video rendering or other high power usage, with a good professional GPU.
Then the other board usually smaller one is for gaming, it does not need to be connected to lots of harddrives only enough for games and system, its got a mid range CPU like Ryzen 5 or Intel i5 but a grunty GPU for that gaming performance.
My use case. ATX, my home server, NAS, docker containers,etc.
Mini itx, dedicated pfsense router/firewall.
That's my ideal build. My main PC will be running on Kubuntu and the secondary will be on Windows.
This looks like the Spagehtti Monster, Custom Watercooling is a must there!
There's a very real need for this type of system. Maybe a single guy in an apartment doesn't have a lot of need but I have 4 adults and upto 5 kids in my house. I just don't have the space for three maxed out gaming rigs and an office spec rig for the adults and a bunch of Roblox/Minecraft spec kid rigs. I need something to fix a large family of gamers.
What a phantekstic PC!
I cut up a Black BitFenix Prodigy M case, put an Intel Micro ATX motherboard onto the Mobo Tray and stuffed it into another BitFenix Prodigy M with an AMD Micro ATX System, and have them both running on 1 550W power supply. Together they both use about 430w
Uses:
AMD w/ EVGA 960: Chrome, video editing, soon to be OBS Streaming PC when I get a capture card, and the option for a friend to play when I have friends over
Intel w/ EVGA 1060 SC 6GB: Mian computer for digital art creation, 3d modeling, Minecraft All the mods 3 remix (300+ mods), other video games
Both systems are on the same network, so file storage goes on the AMD build. Mouse and Keyboard (when no friends are using the other) is handled over the network by Input Director.
Audio is output from the AMD system and input to the Intel. The Intel has that microphone port set to "listen" so the audio actually plays from the other computer to the main output from the intel.
Pictures can be seen on my Twitter, right now the build is very crude but I have ideas for the second generation, including a drawer pull out for the second motherboard. Both systems use stock coolers, and only 1 fan is in the system.
Kingsidorak what’s your Twitter
@@qkg6297 @Kingsidorak
I'm going to put one of these systems together. This would be ideal for trading overseas where you need a VPN in order to trade from the states. VPNs typically slow down your internet speed. I don't need all of my other internet based tasked slowed down by the vpn connection, so this setup would be perfect. Use the mini ITX pc for VPN/Trading and use the larger pc for other tasks and "local" connections. The best of both worlds, all in one pc.
Only reason this interests me is to make the ITX a streaming PC and the ATX the gaming system. So much more convenience than having two separate PCs, which is what some full time streamers do.
Second system besides storage the only think that comes to mind would be a server to run smart home options.
benefit: keeping sibling from fighting when sharing is caring becomes an obsolete value
This system is really good for an all in one streaming gaming PC.
Congratulations on getting both systems running well. Do you really feel that having that High End of a GPU helps your productivity, Dmitry?
Take your front and top panel to a metal cutting company that owns a water jet cutter. to make openings on both panels.
i run wireless VR on the main system and then have a second person playing cabled from the ITX. When the ITX isn't in use, I NVLink my two GPUs. I could also put a capture card onto the ITX, but at the moment the NDI output settings in OBS work well enough for me to send video to the ITX for streaming.
For KVM I use a Dell monitor that has it.
For anyone thinking about doing this, my only advice is make sure you've got lots of money before you start because the components are all really expensive.
Iv'e got a Thermaltake Core W200. Main reason for this dual system is a high end custom watercooled workstation/gaming PC + a NAS/Virtualization Server. Definitely a workhorse.
I think the streaming use is the most practical one, that's a case where one person might want to use two systems. Hackintosh is a good suggestion, too. The banking/security one is a decent suggestion, but that's usually tackled by virtualization--I'm not an expert, but I think a virtual solution is actually more secure than two hardware ones? And, I think you make a good point about the gaming/editing one, most people who can afford this kind of setup can afford a system that's going to render most projects in very, very little time.
For a lot of the suggestions, like the NAS, it's kind of clunky. This powerful of a system could "just" be a NAS without a second motherboard/CPU in most cases. And if you were wanting to have a second computer to be a server, you "should" (though I'm sure it's not always an option) try to put the NAS somewhere else in like a sever racket or a closet where it can have noisier fans and not bother anyone.
All that said, I think this case and a dual system setup is mostly an aesthetic choice. It can save space, like you mentioned, but that case is way bigger than two (actually small) ITX cases, which can house capable machines in their own rights.
for my my interest is having an apu system for when im just watching videos or browsing the internet and then a more powerful system for gaming and editing so im not running such a high end system just to watch anime all day
Provided the hardware is relatively the same generation, watching videos or browsing the internet will not use more power on the higher end system in any way that you'll notice. A computer doesn't use it's full power draw for every process, it only uses what it needs when it needs it.
Try installing HWMonitor to check your "power draw" in Watts when you are using it. You'll find it stays really low for the majority of your tasks.
Dual systems are really meant for streaming. One PC for gaming, the other for processing the stream. Both functions are very intensive so having two machines is better so neither experiences a performance drop.
Great video. I’d love to do this. The second system would be my NAS and media streamer, I’d keep my full loop, transplant my system and put in an ITX with something like an 8700k with an AIO for encoding in VLC Streamer Helper and backup compression.
I think you did a great job here man. We all have different tastes and requirements, and I think you achieved a nice, and beautiful, balance.
I was one of the people who called for a custom loop. 1) Because I’m bias 😏, and 2) because we simply don’t see water cooling builds from you, and I’d really like to.
I could be wrong, but my feeling is you aren’t really that comfortable or experienced with watercooling. To me, that’s totally fine if that’s the case. It would be fantastic to watch you go through the journey, overcome the obstacles. Maybe see you start with flexy and move into hardline, maybe dual loops.
It would be great to have an ongoing series watching you experiment with this build, evolving the solution and the application as time went on.
Just my tuppence, much love as always.
Gamer servers hosted on ITX system and Gaming on Main ATX System is also a good use
YESSSSSSSSSSSSSS finallyyyyyy u listened NZXT LET's F**** gooooo boiiiisssss!!!!!!!!!! I love this case!!
This system is the next step for when virtualization just isn't enough. Even with IOMMU and GPU passthrough. Sometimes you just need two separate systems ... to still somehow interact as if they are one system.
Thats exactly what i'd do - Hackintosh in the top. I currently use a Mac for my daily driver (docked MBP) next to my Gaming PC. I am pretty much sold on two rigs vs one-rig-two-monitors. The benefits are immense if you can afford it.
I love the idea of a small linux system and a bigger windows 10 system in one box
Instead of a KVM switch I used the Synergy 1 Basic software which allows you to use one mouse and keyboard for up to 6 PC at once with no buttons you can also get a PRO version which allows you to click and drag files and windows and copy and paste between the different computers it is defiantly worth the small amount of money I spent on it.
I just wanted to give extra props on that color configuration!!! :)
I would have a cheap ITX system, like a R3 3xxx that has a good M.2 WiFi adapter for serving WiFi to mobile devices at home, and use an x8 riser cable to put a nice dual 2.5Gb NIC for serving Ethernet to the main system. It would be a firewall as well of course. All of the above can be had for around $250 used right now in 2024.
I came back to watch this because my gf and I game next to each other on a large desk but we both have mid tower ATX cases that take up a lot of space on the desk and thinking that two systems in one Evolv X would take up less space and be cheaper than converting both systems to ITX/SFF. In addition the Evolv X should have better cooling with the option for custom loop
Starting to consider this. I have two big desktops, a windows and a linux system. would save a lot of space.
This open some possibilities for streaming... Unlike the Enthoo, this case can acomodate two systems without looking like a behemoth 😂... Nice
mini-ITX with Unix for everydays use + coding scientific programs
EATX Threadripper to run said scientific programs
This case is the more compact build I could think for this specific use
I'm sorry, this is a largely pointless and compromising feature. It makes far more sense just to build your second system in another case and tuck it away.
paskowitz it’s called being a pc building enthusiast
@@jacobander3239 I can only imagine the enthusiasm one may have when having to replace any component on the ITX board when it's jammed in the case.
I mean it,s about as annoying as working on a computer with a custom loop
paskowitz it’s not really about practicality it’s more about building it cuz he can
@@illfox240sx6 And that is the exact reason you don't water cool a NAS, streaming capture PC or really any secondary "work" device.
To the other guy, just because you can and that that makes you an enthusiast is an awful argument. End of the day, you buy a computer to do something. Sure you want it to be cool, fast, quiet and look sweet... but none of those things are accomplished by jamming an ITX system into an ATX case. Then there is the hit to aesthetics, cooling capacity, component choice as well as cable management, and ease building experience.
There is nothing "enthusiast" about using a poorly conceived and poorly implemented feature. One isn't an "enthusiast" if you get an all glass case with no airflow... you are an idiot buying a bad product with superior alternatives
If you want to be an "enthusiast", do something more productive like deliding, custom water cooling, or case modding.
Daymm i really would love to do a build in this for streaming.
In the days of the Western Digital Raptor drives...I used to bring two rigs to lans so that I can leech while I game.
It could be used as a stream and gaming pc because a lot of big streamers use two pc's one for streaming/recording and one for playing the game
It's best for streamers. Use the mini itx pc for rendering live streams and the other for gaming
I will buy the Evolv X at the end of this month. I just love the way it looks and it really suits my needs. I have a Noctua NH-D14 and two Inno3d GTX 1070 dual fan in SLI , so my space is really tight. I also have a separate ASUS Soar audio card. This is the reason I need this case besides many other things. It's wider than any other cases with vertical GPU mounts and so the audio card won't interfere with the graphics cards - I already bought the raiser/ITX combo . Initially I wanted to buy the Cooler Master H500M but for a few degrees loss - I can live with that, Evolv X is about 5-7 degrees hotter. Thermals also depends on what fans you install for intake. I will use the factory ones at first just to see how they perform and if they really need to be exchanged. I will move the 140 mm fan from the back to the front and replace it with another. As for what thermals should I expect - my graphics cards are somewhat factory forced at 83 degrees max.
PS:
I can't even overclock them properly without them going in some crazy fps lockout at around 20 to 30 fps while the base frequencies get stuck at 139 MHz ( Yup crazy as f#*&). But hey when they get to overclock to 1999 MHz they can match a RTX 2080. Also I payed such a low price for the second card it's stupid hilarious. And don't worry about the SLI 'thing' my games, all of them support SLI and also I cand fiddle with the SLI profiles quite well - I scored 6553 in one of the runs without OC but I have my non k i5 6600 overclocked at 4.5. So is with the games some of them can be manipulated trough SLI profiles using NVIDIA Profile Inspector. Caution though, I messed up Shadow of the tomb raider so much so that the game couldn't load anymore. I was trying to force it in 'manual' SLI mode plus other SLI features.
I think the biggest use case for a setup like this is to run a server on the small computer that can be on 24/7.
Hmmm im wondering if you could use the 2nd system as an small server?
Or ad blocker
or i mean use synergy ? so you could use 1 set of peripherials
Just what I was thinking.
Input Director all the way
While that would work here, synergy also supports linux and macos.
I don't think you can use software to switch since each mobo has its own IO?
@@Vinchucca1984 synergy is meant for using 1 set of peripherals doesnt matter the io u can use it on mulitple computers at a time too
Love the Noctuas - good man.
such a beautiful build
Linux box/Hackintosh/Streaming PC for the 2nd PC seems viable, for a NAS or a server you'd be better off building it in another rig I think, more room for drives. Good build though!
I'm considering the idea of dual system like this. I don't do streaming anymore (at least right now), but first system would obviously be the game system, second as either the stream or capture system (thinking of going G series Ryzen for second system).
The other use case is as a Parsec console game dedicated host for friends. You use a Capture card, a Titan One, and Parsec to achieve this. Having a dedicated system means that while I host said console game, I still have access to my real PC so I can still PC game if I want.
Not the most practical use case, but hey. If I can, why not? 🤷🏾♂️
As far as dual system consumer cases go, I've had the best experience with the Phanteks Enthoo Mini XL, and not simply for the ability to have an ATX and a Mini ITX system in there, but because it has 3X5.25 inch drive bays, it's sad to see the consumer industry pushing some enthusiasts into server grade cases to build what one wants, some of us believe in local storage u know !
in my case it's absolutely essential to have 4X 3.5/2.5 inch drives ACCESSIBLE AT ALL TIMES FROM THE OUTSIDE, and the only solution is having a hot swap HDD enclosure that fits in 3X5.25 inch drive bays,
as for the BEST hot swap enclosure to have in my opinion is the Rosewill RSV-SATA-Cage-34 for 2 reasons:
1 - Critical - the use of NON PROPRIETARY fan in the back, so u can be sure that those are getting the Noctua treatment as soon as they're unboxed, plus the possibility of EASILY changing it if it dies
2 - Personal Choice - individual HDD leds are blue, which I prefer, but more importantly the absence of green leds that light up green-orange when something is happening, which discriminates against color blind people, making it as hard to discern as a quiet talker's point in a noisy night club,
This is blasphemy for some enthusiasts and a religion for others, I do understand how some people want to have a board, an M.2 drive attached that's IT !!! but really there are other people out there
Make a push/pull config on your front radiator and it will lower your cpu core temps and will also lower the ambient temps of your PC components.
To me this is best if you want a dedicated streaming pc but dont want a second pc case in your setup
A streaming and gaming pc in one case could be another option for something like this.
You do know that noctua sells colormax fans that arent brown right?
Still not have the new fans The ones he's using.
Can you try a full system watercool with custom bent tubing?
Seems like a setup like that could serve dual purpose as a standard PC and an NVR in one box.
I have a dual system in my Phanteks Elite case while I use the main atx board for my games machine, I use the itx system as a server which hosts my mail server, discord server, media server etc.
i just dont get the point of this trend. Why not just virtualize?
Instead of a KVM, I would suggest using something like Synergy by Symless. It will be much less expensive and works great. I use it all the time.
Gaming PC and a Plex/media server - Thats what I use for dual-systems. Both can be CPU intensive tasks and this way when the wife is watching a movie and I'm gaming, neither activity is competing for resources.
I wonder if, over time, gravity would affect the system from above. Any thoughts?
This looks like a good use case for the Galax GTX 1070 Katana. A single slot 1070 GPU would work wonders for space efficiency in a setup like this though they do run a bit hot.
This dual system could be used for Blender rendering with the Crowdrender plugin.
It's the only useful usecase I could see. And the other is if you want to conserve energy by using a low powered ITX build.
I use two systems, one is strictly for gaming (windows), the other is for productivity/watching videos/streams (Linux). I really dislike Microsoft's direction with Windows 10, so I wanted to get used to Linux as much as possible for when I eventually switch over to it full time, even for gaming. Gaming on Linux is getting better and better, so it's just a matter of time for me.
I plan to build a computer for me and my wife to both game at the same time with a dual system.
I thought about trying to do a dual system a while back for my NAS. I decided against it because it doesn't make any sense in my opinion to build a NAS that is a critical backup for your stuff because if my power supply breaks or there's a power surge and all the files are corrupted or whatever on my main system, it might just happen to the backup too. It might be practical to try and fit two power supplies in a single case, but then you need to find a small power supply and probably a really huge case, which defeats the purpose again because I don't want a computer the size of a fridge just so I can save space. Basically it's probably just better to build the NAS separately and put it in another room. I wish it weren't the case because dual system builds look really cool...
You can actually build your NAS and your main system in one case . make sure you use a surge protector and a UPS so even if the power goes off, your UPS is still on to enable you shut down properly without any loss of data.
I'm rewatching this just to get more ideas but I do plan to do this someday and it's more for having just two computers, main one for me, second one for my girlfriend.
The Noctua specifically states that the NH-L9i can't handle the 8600k (95W TDP) WITHOUT OCing since it's rated for 65W TDP or less, and then you're surprised that a 4.8GHz OC overwhelms the cooler? Yeah...
Make the ITX system a secondary render system using Adobe media encoder or something like that...? Send the signal from your main system to have the second render using the settings you've selected and then have it output in a specific folder on your network somewhere. You can see a large scale version of this on LinusTechTips. All of their high-end systems send commands to a separate server (ITS system in your case) and have it export to a specific folder on their storage server (NAS in your case)
Dimitri, why do you always use these founders cards? Do you not like AIBs like STRIX Aurous or EVGA.
I think its just what he has on hand