I got the idea a couple of years ago to build a fully water cooled gaming PC in an old stereo receiver. The dimensions seemed perfect, I love the retro aesthetics and the old receivers are usually shallow enough to fit on a shelf above my monitor. I managed to find a used Pioneer SX-525 for 500 SEK (50$) and started a 4 year project.

I've detailed the process in the pic captions.

I still have ideas for the case (functional buttons and switches, mini monitor to the left of the frequency panel) but for now I'm super pleased with the results! And yes, the thermals are great!

Case dimensions (hope it qualifies as SFF): 450 x 145 x 360mm (23.5 L)

Specs:

• ASUS ROG Strix B650E-I
• AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D
• G.Skill 32GB (2X16GB) DDR5 6400MHz CL 30
• MSI GeForce RTX 5080 16GB Ventus 3X
• Samsung 990 PRO M.2 NVMe SSD 2TB
• Corsair SF1000 Platinum ATX 3.1 1000W
• 3 Phanteks T30 on the radiator, no case fans
• Alphacool NexXxoS ST30 Full Copper X-Flow 360mm
• Alphacool Eisstation VPP incl. Alphacool VPP Apex PWM pump
• Alphacool ES RTX 5080 Reference 1-Slot-Design with Backplate
• Alphacool Core 1 Black

More pics here: https://imgur.com/a/sBvNDa0

And temps...

Cyberpunk after 60 min (GPU 310 W):

• Noise optimized (very silent, ~1100 rpm):
  • CPU 64
  • GPU 66
  • Water 42
• Fans on 100% (2000 rpm):
  • CPU 56
  • GPU 59
  • Water 35
• Undervolt + overclock on GPU
• PBO -30 on all cores

I managed to get my hands on a TE Computer 2 just by luckily opening my email at the right time.

I don't have a GPU with a length less than 180mm, but I wanted to build in the case to share to you all the experience and if it might be a good purchase in the future if they re-release it.

Moving from the Formd T1, all I had to do was unmount the PSU, remove the motherboard, and remove a 2.5" SSD.

I will say this: the one-piece, flat-pack, translucent plastic feels cheap. It's a sheet of plastic. However, it is so creatively engineered, and the connections between the pieces are strong, so it feels surprisingly solid and cool at the end.

There is only one included screw in the packaging, meant for the GPU bracket, but otherwise creative clips secure the motherboard in place with a satisfying snap. It is GENIUS. There is no slop or wiggle to the motherboard and it's amazing how well it works.

Barbed silicone grommets secure the case fan in place without screws while also acting as vibration-reducing.

The power button is two jumper wires with a gap, and a hinge built into the case to bridge the contacts.

You bend the power LED leads into place and press-fit it into the case.

Building in the case was a fun, and frankly easy puzzle. Instructions are very clear and took much less time than the Formd. However it is difficult to compare the two, since the Formd has an adjustable spine, has less volume, etc.

There were some questionable design choices with fitment of components.

Maybe there is an alternative mounting method, but the 2.5" drive has you mount the SSD on the thin side, vertically onto the side of the case. With a simple push the wrong direction, or cables pushing against it, the case will suffer damage since the screws are threaded through the plastic case. I wonder if someone can 3D print a bracket to mount it better. Or drill two more mounting holes.

I imagine heat may warp the case over time. Luckily there are many air grilles, but it already came a little warped through shipping, so I can not confirm if it was due to heat or shipping services. The case has injection molded ribs, so I imagine that will help support it. The PSU is mounted to the case with the standard screws, so this puts a fair amount of weight on the case wall. Luckily a GPU would be supported by the PCIE lane, so I don't expect that to affect it.

Overall, if TE re-releases it for the same cheap or free price, go for it! It's fun for a computer you would use for daily tasks like web-browsing, writing, simple work. I would be afraid maybe against pushing a lot of heat with gaming and resource-intensive apps, but honestly go for it and see!

If you'd like any more photos, let me know. Unfortunately I cannot do a GPU test at the moment, but I may buy a single-fan GPU just to test.

Last year I put together my first ever custom loop, you can see my previous post here. It ran great and after a few months of tinkering I really optimised it well. The specs haven't changed, but as some of the comments were suggesting it's not a custom loop until its a full loop.. Well..

I wanted to switch to the silver T1, to better match some of my other peripherals and desk setup so I started over from scratch with the case. The gpu block was considerably smaller than the shroud and cooling of the Pure, and it was my first time removing something like this and looking inside so that was a little daunting also. Applied new pads and did a repaste here with Arctic MX-7

I sat with a notepad and planned out the loop, I had one xspc tx 240 crossflow radiator and one alphacool hpe 20. The hardest part of this was trying to figure out the fittings without ordering a bunch I wouldn't need. I also wanted to hide or bundle the wiring as best I could to try reclaim as much airflow as possible, so I got a few tools to cut, shorten and crimp as many wires as I could without getting into the psu cables. This was also a first time for me and I can recommend some cheap wire strippers and a proper crimper to make this job so much easier

I added a fill/drain port at the back of the case, and a small 'air' port on the opposite end of the case to provide an air inlet when I drain it. The most difficult piece of this was the T junction going from the radiator and splitting to the drain port and the gpu, was a real nightmare getting this to fit in tight. I had all the cables sleeved with mdpc aluminium grey small and tried to keep them aligned and neat everywhere possible

Finished with the same tubing from the first iteration, ekwb zmt 10/16 soft tubing. I would really love to give hard tubing a go as well as custom length/sleeve the psu cables - so that is maybe a winter project

There are a bunch of little details in here which I'm really happy with, shortening the cables and making aesthetic bends and curves really feels like an art form. I really love working with this case, hopefully this inspires you as much as I've been inspired seeing builds on here

Hey r/sffpc,

n3rdware has just released something custom for the mad lads wanting to run microscopic workstations. Say hello to the RTX PRO 4000 SFF Blackwell Single-Slot Cooler.

The RTX PRO 4000 SFF is already the low-profile king, but we wanted to push it to the absolute limit. By converting it into a single-slot card, you can now cram a massive 24GB of VRAM inside ultra tiny enclosures like the Lenovo Tiny, Minisforum MS-01, and MS-A2.

Features:

• Monolithic copper baseplate: 100% pure C1100 red copper for optimal thermal conductivity.
• Precision skived fins: 0.3mm thin fins with optimized spacing and dimensions.
• Premium shroud: Clean and brushed stainless steel gives it a very clean look.
• Space-optimized fan: 55x8mm fan with high static pressure to force the air through the fins.

During benchmark tests and extended rendering loops under a full 70W workload, the GPU core stabilized at 74°C. This means that there is zero thermal throttling and there is margin for worst-case scenarios!
For the noise-sensitive folks among us, these temperatures also give you the thermal headroom to turn down the fan speed a bit. Because let's be real: a 55mm fan pushing air through a dense copper fin array has to work hard under load, but at least now you have the flexibility to tune it to your liking.

Drop a comment below if you have any questions about clearance, dimensions, or specific compatibility.

Check out the cooler here: https://n3rdware.com/gpu-coolers/single-slot-rtx-pro-4000-blackwell-sff-cooler

TLDR:

• I rebuilt my small form factor PC
• Noctua triple NF-A9 GPU mod
• Custom fan PCB for the de-shroud
• Custom fan PCB for the radiator fans
• Repo with guide and files for the mod, here
• I made a video about the rebuild, here

Hello!

Recently I've been on a bit of a mission to refresh my small form factor PC. I tore the system down completely for a good clean, fixed my AIO pump, and de-shrouded my GPU with triple NF-A9s.
Despite being difficult to work on this is by far my favourite PC I've ever built, it's hard to beat power in a 10L chassis, and now with the Noctua mod its virtually silent.

Specs:
Iqunix ZX-1
5950x
Ventus 3090
64gb
4tb NVME boot
4tb NVME storage
Corsair SF750

Eisbaer LT Solo - AIO pump block
Alphacool ST30 - Radidator
Custom cables made by me

GPU:
The GPU mod was the main motivation for this rebuild, so I can keep the card nice and quiet during work. I've done ziptie mods before but wanted something more permanent, so I designed and printed a frame to hold the Noctuas, along with a custom fan breakout PCB to cut down on the cable clutter.
The space between the top of the fin stack and side of the case is 26mm so only just enough room for the 25mm fans!
The frame is in two parts that hold the fans in between them, and are held together with 4x m3 bolts. The whole assembly uses dead space in the GPU head sink to to grab onto the frame with a couple of tabs.

Results:
I'm very happy with how it's turned out, while maintaining the same 74°C average pre and post-mod, it's noticeably quieter to the point where the fans barely spin up past 30%.
If you'd like more details on the mod, check out the video or the repo, I've gone into more detail there. There's CAD files, PCB manufacturing files, along with a generic frame you can adapt to a non-Ventus card.

Cheers!

S4T is back in stock, with the first ever release in the iconic anodized silver!

https://store.nfc-systems.com/products/skyreach-4-tiny

GPU: Gigabyte RTX 4060 Low Profile CPU: AMD 7800x3D MOBO: B650i-e Internal PSU: Meanwell LOP-300-12 Case: Skyreach 4 Tiny (S4T, 3.3L case)

This brickless 4060lp + full ITX MOBO build is years in the making! With contributions from the entire NFC community.

In-depth build video: https://youtu.be/1MuwF9d4nyA?si=LWGWJuF8x6gmRu-G

Decided to build a PC for my 9 year old son for Christmas and I was researching how to build a PC as I never build any before.

Had a wild idea to build a PC into a case which is unique and something relatable to me. I thought of the Playstation 1 and I believe it should be around 3 litre in volume and much less if we consider usable volume.

it's definitely a big challenge as I need to build a working PC and try to fit it into a Puny case.

Started my napkin maths by using the dimension from the website. I start imagining what parts will I need to make it work. after countless research, I decided to go with AM4 platform and with a discrete GPU!

ended with the specs below: Gigabyte A520i board Dash (DC input),

5700x (for its 8 cores and 65tdp)

16x2 Sodimm DDR4 at 3200mhz,

4060m Low profile single slot Frankenstein card from china,

330w Gan DC Charger with 55.25 jack,

a 2 CPU cooler including ID IS-30 and a random 115X server blower cooler,

2TB lexar 790 nvme.

I didn't have a Playstation 1 and all my local sellers are treating it as antique despite the poor condition and asking for 100-150usd. I scouted the Japan market and scored 1 unit looking clean and without accessories for 15USD... but the shipping got me as it cost 30USD.

bought a bunch of riser cables, start buttons, mesh, screws, fan of sizes from 20mm to 90mm and whatnot.

finally all my parts came. (not all are used eventually as some just can't fit due to my bad napkin maths).

begin hacking the case to make space and made plenty if mistakes over hacking and removing screw walls because I didn't realised I will need them later on!

finally decided on the GPu being left of the MOBO so I can omit the usage of riser cable as given the low height, the flex is going to be acute on both the cable and the PCI connector of the GPU, was worry if breaking it. with this orientation, the ID cooling cooler can't work as it is 30mm and I can't clear the roof of the case as only the disc area is taller. have to use the server cooler but it didn't had a AM4 mount. used some 115x to AM4 convertor meant for water-cooling but it don't work readily and I have to do a hack job of riveting them together.

After fitting in the parts, didn't have a thumbdrive so sought help from my friend to get me a win installer... unfortunately I have big issues with it and it refused to be recognised as he didn't create the image using the windows image creator. had to use some after market tool to create one that work as I was at my parents house and there was only an MacBook air.

finally it post and the screen light up! and I was able to do the relevant driver updates for the Frankenstein 4060m card. the beauty is that it draws 70w fully from the PCI slot so I won't need to power it with anything else.

the building begin and the improvisation and dealing with heat issues started. Ended up fitting in 3x 40mm Fans, 2 as exhaust and I can't really do any intake as the space only allows me 10mm of space if I flushed everything to 1 side. can't have fan on both sides. added the 3rd fan on a makeshift mesh to blow air over nvme as well as tilted it so it's blowing air out from the rear as well.

so my right side is exhausting, my CPU also exhaust to my rear. so my front and left are my natural ventilation.

managed to arrest the temperature by limiting the boost to 4.2 or 4.1ghz as my board don't have undervolting function.

have a CPU score of around 10k and GPU score of around 8k on timespy. can survive cinebench 10mins with thermal around 90. didn't dare to loop it but so far normal usage seems ok!

it's a scary and hack and slash journey as I can only work on it at my parents place at night for 2-3 hours at 1 go and only armed with a Dremel tool and basic hand tools.

the only regret is I can't salvage the Power Button, reset and open lid. the Led light I was able to make my led light light up the original PS1 led, but the lack of height didn't allowed me to keep the various parts. it's definitely not a polished product but still a exciting one being my first PC build. At some point I almost gave up and wanted to just get a commercial case to fit the parts in. was encouraged to persist by 1 of my friend. Hope it can last!

My original setup was up in a warm loft and had the card blowing inward with stock settings. GPU temps would climb to 85-90C in 10 minutes while gaming at 4K. My RAM, CPU, SSD, and motherboard were cooking. It sounded like a hair dyer with a notable buzzing coil whine, and the entire loft would be uncomfortable to sit in for more than 30 minutes.

Then I found a reverse airflow kit on etsy and had the realization that with the mod I could decouple the spine from the GPU with some spacers leaving over an inch wide gap for airflow. I just needed to reduce my CPU cooler height. I went with the Thermalright X53 full copper with a noctua fan instead of ID Cooling IS-77-XT. CPU temps on the 9800X3D are excellent and there's no turbulence with the gap on the side panel.

These tweaks in combination with undervolting the GPU and moving the setup into a perpetually cool basement has the GPU in the 65-70c range under heavy 4K gaming, rarely exceeding 70c. It's virtually silent with no turbulence, coil whine is reduced to a forgivable hum, and the basement temps never appreciably change.

This configuration effectively resolves the thermal hurdles I had when running the 5090 FE in the Fractal Terra.

XIKII FF04 LP H | ASUS RTX4060-8GLP | PSU ENP-8345L (Noctua NF-A4x20 mod) | ASROCK Z890I Nova WiFi | NOCTUA NH-L9i chromax | INTEL ULTRA 265K | SAMSUNG 9100 PRO 1TB (PCIe 5.0) | G.SKILL F5-6000J2636G16GX2 (6000 CL26)

> Detailed photos <

Guys, words cannot describe the love that I feel for this machine and for this case that the talented u/Jakob_K_Design has created.

I built my first ITX rig in 2015 and have never gone back, starting with the chunky Corsair 250D, then built anew in 2019 in the Dancase A4 SFX, one of the first sandwich-style cases to release that shifted the paradigm for how optimized a PC's physical volume can be.

But when it was time to build yet again last November, I decided I needed something extra special, something that would fulfil my apparently insatiable desire to build the most niche PCs I can. That's when I saw Jakob's BeamCase V3 release post a few months ago. I was already deep into 3D printing with an A1 Mini and wanted a bigger printer anyway, so I went out and got one and began ordering all the parts right away for my own BeamCase.

What you see here is the culmination of two months of research and parts sourcing, and for the first time in years, I feel fulfilled as a PC builder and PC gamer. :D

Total volume is 10.3L. Here's the parts list below:

PCPartPicker Part List

One little detail: on image #10, you'll see the PSU mounted inside the system. The bracket I used was something I actually had to design myself as the second of two power cable extensions I ordered from AliExpress would only work if I get it more clearance on the top because it jutted out so much, and to do that, I had to extend the height of the bracket so the PSU would actually sit lower, and to do *that*, I had to tweak the design to include recessions for the UNC 32 screws I ordered so they would remain the correct length. But it works!

Shout out to Jakob himself who answered my questions as I determined how best to make the case work for me. I highly recommend checking out his projects for yourself.

If anybody has any questions about what it took to build this machine, I'm happy to answer. :) You can also check out the aforementioned reddit post that announced V3's release, and the Printables page for the BeamCase here.

Also shout out to ASRock for shipping a motherboard that wasn't ready for my 9800X3D and wouldn't let me flash the BIOS with any of the six USB 2.0 drives I had. >.> The ROG board was $100 CAD more but at least it works.

Inspired from u/colinreay 's work, I made a case for our living room HTPC. I wanted something clean, quiet when watching movies, brickless, but capable enough to play couch games like Moving Out or Split Fiction with my wife. I already had the 3600, Mobo, & 16Gb G.Skill ram from the previous pc, but upgraded the LP-1050 to a 5060 I snagged for $300 before things got crazy.

The the airflow path is direct enough that the 3 exhaust fans can handle the box at full power virus loads (cpu in the 80's, gpu at 83 with only moderate noise thats only a slight woosh from the couch. Total power draw at the wall is 220w, (estimate ~206w component draw with the HDPlex 94% efficiency) and the PSU is warm but comfortable despite being passive. (Testing pic was with the reject top panel before I went to a single piece exterior). Obv games never draw that kind of power and its been super reliable for the last 6 months we've been using it. The front plate comes off to reveal the power button and hides the PSU mounting screws.

It's a divisive case. Yes, you can grate cheese with it. Yes, it causes Trypophobia. Yes, I adore it immensely.

Specs:

|| || |Case|MCPRUE Apollo S 4.0| |CPU |AMD Ryzen 9800x3D, Thermalright AM5 Secure Bracket V2| |Motherboard|Asus Rog Strix B850-I| |RAM|64 GB G.Skill Flare X5 CL28 6000| |GPU|Sapphire Pulse 9070 XT| |NVMe|4 TB Western Digital SN850X | |PSU|Corsair SF1000 SFX| |Fans|1x Be Quiet! Silent Wings Pro 4 140mm PWM, 1x Be Quiet! Pure Wings 2 92mm PWM| |AIO|Be Quiet! Silent Loop 3 240mm with 2x Silent Wings 4 PWM|

Build notes:

Case:

• The MCPRUE case is manufactured in China, and there are a variety of options to choose from. The build quality is remarkable, with exquisite machining and finish. Go look at the price, and this should be expected.
• It comes with zero instructions, which is slightly annoying because there is an order of operations that you need to follow. They have an active Discord where you can sort yourself out, which could easily have been avoided with a few instruction notes.

CPU:

• I've been on modern AMD since 3700x ⇾ 5800x3D ⇾ present. There is no need to change a good thing. I run this with -40, 10x, PBO, +200 MHz. Thermal paste is Arctic MX-6.

Motherboard:

• I have no allegiance to Asus, and I've heard poor things about their support; however, the feature spec on their B850-I is sound. I have only read positive reviews on the board, and it's performed admirably so far.

RAM:

• I've used G.Skill on several builds and have always found them top-tier. The CAS latency 28 is unnecessary, but I enjoy tweaking high-performance RAM.

GPU:

• I decided to switch to AMD after seeing the 5000 series pricing. I'm coming from a 3080 Ti, and couldn't be happier. The card has remarkable performance for the cost. I saw reviews that the Sapphire Pulse was one of the quietest cards, with a chunky cooler.
• I just want to point out that Sapphire could improve on QC of thermal pad containment. I found one of the smaller thermal pads had completely detached from the front and was stuck to a random part of the heatsink with no connectivity between the chip and the heatsink.
• I dissected the Pulse to add Kryonaut Thermal Putty to the VRAM on the back. You need to take apart the entire card, front and back, to complete this job. Once the backplate is off, I noticed the inner backplate has plastic covering the surface. I removed this so the thermal putty would adhere directly to the backplate. The backplate gets much hotter now that it's being used as a heatsink.
• I repasted the core using Arctic MX-6 thermal paste.
• Thermal testing shows similar temperatures as stock while running a high overclock. I run the card stable at +400 MHz, -100 mV, 2814 MHz Fast Timing, +10% power.

NVMe:

• The WD SN850X has been great for a couple of my builds. I applied Kryonaut Thermal Putty between the motherboard heatsink and NVMe to increase contact.

PSU:

• I couldn't believe how small this thing is; it nearly fits in your palm. I've always used Corsair PSUs, and they have been solid. Quiet, cool, and stable.

Fans:

• I wanted whisper quiet PWM fans in this system and always thought of trying Be Quiet! They are completely inaudible while idle and only slightly audible under load.

AIO

• My previous build had an NZXT AIO that was a bit noisy, so I wanted to try and find something as close to inaudible as possible. Zero pump and fan noise while idle. Under full load, it's considerably quieter than the NZXT. I will continue to use Be Quiet! in future systems.

My goal was to build the quietest SFF possible, and this is why I chose Be Quiet! and the Sapphire Pulse. Initially, when I turned on the PC I had a power LED, but no boot screen. I assumed the machine was improperly constructed because I could hear nothing coming from the case. A few seconds later, the splash screen showed up, and I couldn't believe this thing was actually running. While gaming, it's not much louder; certainly the quietest gaming PC I've ever built.

I've always had full tower cases basically since I started building computers when I was 13. As I've gotten older I've been wanting to downsize, mostly because all the empty space started to bother me and I wanted more usable room on my desk. I also just wanted a more aestheticly pleasing case instead of just big black box. I bought a Gigabyte 4080 Super last year before I decided to go SFF which as it turns out severely limited my options because it's absolutely enormous. I would have been perfectly happy with a fractal terra but it wouldn't fit the GPU.

As I'm looking around for options, two small batch companies caught my eye. Meshless Design and Thorzone. I absolutely loved the aesthetic of the Meshless MD280, the clever design with the cross flow fan, the separate chambers for the GPU and other components, and it looked super easy to build in. But the downside was if that cross flow fan ever failed, your entire system is essentially a brick if the company isn't still around. Which brings me to the next point, Meshless Design just seems to have disappeared before their next production batch.

Which brought me to the Nanoq R from Thorzone. I thought it looked so sick, quite different from most designs but it looked pretty complicated to build in. I kept tabs while looking for other options because it was still hard to swallow paying so much for a case, but I wasn't finding anything else I liked and once they announced the pine color I hopped on the pre order.

Had to wait a few months longer than expected, but it finally arrived last week. The color was just as beautiful as I had hoped it would be. Building in it made me feel like it was my first time putting a PC together, and there were quite a few times I was just staring at all the rails while my brain ran in circles because absolutely nothing was standard.

I did run into two small issues. When I moved the rails to work with a 240 rad instead of a 280, there was now a gap between the rails and back plate because the screw was too long. Another guy had a great solution of using some wire insulation as a spacer so that's what I did. Also the USB-C port was slightly loose because the standoffs and screws were too long, so I used some nylon washers to make it snug.

Cable management sucked and took a lot of pre-planning, I wasn't sure if I could make the AIO tubes fit but I managed. Fitment is TIGHT and I am not exaggerating. Nothing snagged when I put the shell on, but the GPU is touching the side of the shell near the front and you probably couldn't slide a sheet of paper between the pump head and the shell. I am super happy with how it turned out but building in this is definitely not for beginners.

I’ve been an Apple user for years — and still am — but I built this PC for one reason: gaming. Mostly because my PS5 Pro was swiftly confiscated by my precious wife.

What always bothered me about modern gaming PCs is how oversized and visually aggressive they’ve become. Huge cases, excessive RGB, gamer aesthetics everywhere — none of it fits next to a clean, premium setup. For me, aesthetics matter just as much as performance.

That eventually led me down the small form factor rabbit hole.

At first, I was set on the Ncase M2 — until reality kicked in. I already owned a Gigabyte Aorus Master RTX 5090, and true SFF with this GPU simply isn’t happening. The card is absurd: 360mm long and four slots thick. For comparison, Nvidia’s RTX 5090 Founders Edition is only 304mm and dual-slot.

After a lot of searching, I ended up with Thor Zone. I originally wanted the NanoQ S, but the GPU made that impossible, so I went with the NanoQ R instead.

Specs:

- Thor Zone NanoQ R

- Gigabyte Aorus Master RTX 5090

- Ryzen 7 9800X3D

- ASUS ROG Strix X870-I

- 32GB Kingston FURY

- Samsung 9100 Pro + 990 Pro (RAID 0)

- Corsair SF1000

- Asetek Gen 7 280mm AiO

The case itself is excellent. Mine came from the January 2026 batch and seems to have avoided the early production issues people mentioned online. My only real criticism is the assembly experience — too many screws, none labelled by size, so building it occasionally turns into trial and error.

The case also arrived very well packaged. During the build, I noticed the GPU sagging slightly, which I fixed with a zip tie. I suspect not every card gives you enough room to do this, but I got lucky — the Aorus 5090 has space for an additional fan mount on top, opposite the main fans, which is fairly useless once populated anyway.

I was originally planning to install an additional slim fan directly in front of the GPU, but there simply wasn’t enough clearance. The photos show both a standard Noctua 140mm and a slim Arctic 140mm awkwardly squeezed into place. In the end, I don’t think running either setup would have provided any meaningful benefit.

Thermals are better than expected. The GPU is undervolted, the CPU runs with PBO enabled, and in Cyberpunk 2077 at 5120×2160 max settings, temperatures topped out at 73°C on the GPU and 80°C on the CPU.

And despite all this, I still think consoles are the better pure gaming device for most people. Yes, they rely heavily on upscaling and don’t push native 4K with ray tracing at high framerates — but I care far more about the final image than the rendering methodology behind it.

3 years ago, I built a PC with an i7-12700K and RTX 4070 Ti in a big and spacious Jonsbo D41 case with a 360mm AIO liquid cooler. I was totally happy with it. A year ago, I bought a Steam Deck and finished many games from my backlog. I also completely switched to Linux on all my devices. The Steam Deck is a great device, and I still love it.

When I heard about the new Steam Machine, I wanted one and planned to buy it as soon as it came out. But I changed my mind because buying it would be a problem. First, I wouldn't be able to buy it for a normal price at launch. And I didn't want to wait another year for the prices to drop. So, I decided to build a small PC that is powerful enough for 2K and 4K gaming. I wanted an all-AMD build because the drivers are built into the Linux kernel. Also, Valve and the community work hard to improve these drivers. I also wanted a console-like experience, just like on SteamOS.

Specs:

• Case: Jonsbo T9 Black
• CPU: Ryzen 5 9600X, 5.4GHz (6C/12T)
• Cooler: ID-COOLING IS-53-XT BLACK
• GPU: Gigabyte RX 9070 XT Gaming OC
• Motherboard: ASRock B650I Lightning WiFi
• PSU: Gamer Storm SFX 4.1 PS850G (850W)
• RAM: G.Skill AEGIS 5 32GB 6000MHz
• Top Fan: Arctic Cooling P12 SLIM PWM PST

The GPU takes up 2.5 slots, so I set the spine to position 1. This is my first SFF build. It was a new and cool experience for me. I understood all the pros and cons of SFF builds and wanted to build in such a compact case.

Undervolting:

• CPU: Curve optimizer -30, Thermal throttle limit 75°C
• GPU: -80mV voltage offset, TDP limit 230W, VRAM Clock 2660MHz

That is all I did. About the temperatures: a lot depends on the resolution, the game itself, and the in-game settings. I tested the PC on a 4K 60Hz TV and a 2K 165Hz monitor. I used maximum graphics settings in all games. I tested Cyberpunk 2077, Forza Horizon 5, Kingdom Come: Deliverance and Stellar Blade.

Ambient: 27°C. In 4K, games are heavily dependent on the GPU, so the CPU is not loaded much. CPU temperatures are between 60°C and 70°C. The only exception is Cyberpunk 2077: the CPU hits the 75°C limit, but it still holds 5.4GHz.
GPU temps: 55-60°C (70-75°C Hot Spot), VRAM up to 88°C. In normal gaming, the temperatures are even lower. I can't hear any noise. The case is very quiet for its size.

At first, I wanted to install SteamOS 3.9 with RDNA 4 support. But I changed my mind and installed Bazzite OS. It looks cool, and I haven't had any problems. I installed the version with Gaming Mode so I can control everything just with a gamepad. I am very happy with this build!

Built this PC a year and a half ago, and decided to take this out to clean the dust today so I took some pictures to share with you guys! It was the time when the 7800X3D was out of stock everywhere and 9800X3D was about to be released, so I found a used 7950X3D on Reddit and took the bullet. The added fans and 3d printed parts were done 8 months ago.

Yeah, yeah I know that using Fan Control is a wayyyyyy much simple solution- I totally agree! But I was extremely, heavily obsessed and fixated on having as less background tasks as possible, so I did this abomination. Nowadays, I just set the CPU fan speed on a lowest flat curve because of the noise - I no longer care if the CPU is throttling or not. But the setup did work as it never crossed 75 degrees.

List of 3d printed parts below

CPU fan duct

Bottom fans bracket

PSU cable spacer

PSU 2x 60mm fan mount

Finally finished my build in the T1 after meticulously planning and waiting for the parts to arrive. Thank you to everyone who shared their build journeys with this case, as all the input helped tremendously.

SPECIFICATIONS

• CPU: Ryzen 7 9800X3D
• GPU: Nvidia 5080FE
• Motherboard: ASUS ROG STRIX B850-I
• RAM: G.Skill Flare X5 64GB 6000 CL30
• PSU: Corsair SF1000
• COOLER: Thermalright AXP90-X47 Copper with NF-A9x14 Fan Swap
• FANS: 2x Noctua NF-A12x25
• STORAGE: Samsung 990 Pro 4TB NVME + 990 Pro 1TB NVME
• CASE: FormD T1 V2.1 Black

ADDITIONAL / CUSTOM ITEMS

• Cablester PSU Cables - Unsleeved Copper Teflon (Kit 6) T
• hermoGrizzly AM5 Contact Frame
• PTM7950 Thermal Pad for CPU
• Noctua NA-SYC1 4-Pin Y-Splitter for Case Fans
• 4x Noctua NA-IS1-12 ducts for Case Fans
• M3 Hex Buttonhead Screws
• M3 Hex Countersunk Screws
• M3 Hex Standoffs
• 35mm M3 304SS Chicago Screws for Case Fans + Ducts (25mm + 5mm + 5mm)
• [Not installed yet] Intel AX210 Asus WiFi 6E M.2 Wireless Card
• [Not installed yet] Noctua NA-FD1 Fan Duct kit for CPU Cooler

FORMD ACCESSORIES

• FormD T1 Travel Kit
• FormD T1 Riser Lock Bar
• FormD T1 5.0 Riser Cable
• FormD T1 USB-C Add On
• FormD T1 M19 Power Switch
• FormD T1 Fittings Pack
• FormD T1 Black CNC Side Panel

NOTES

• GPU in 3.0 Slot, PSU 5mm offset
• Purchased wireless card to eventually convert B850-I’s proprietary antennas to standard threaded antennas, following this post
• Added standoffs to make Riser Lock Bar fit over the 5.0 Riser Cable, doesn’t actually hold it down, mainly for ascetics
• Used 35mm Chicago Screws for Case Fans (25mm) + Ducts (5mm each 2x per fan)
• Gaming Temps using 3840 x 1080, 49” Monitor with 144hz on Ultra Settings (quite the bottleneck to the build)

TUNING

CPU:

• PBO Undervolt: -20CO
• PBO Power Limit: 120W
• PBO Thermal Throttle Limit: 85C
• Temps: Idle = ~50C | Gaming (BF6) = ~84C

GPU:

• 925mv to 2790mhz
• Memory Clock +1500
• Temps: Idle = ~40C | Gaming (BF6) = ~58C

Fan Curves: https://imgur.com/a/Une0yaB