Honey I shrunk the rig. The true Mini Me...

[ALXAndy]

OK so the last project you saw from me was this. About a year back, IIRC. I was having issues with the 2080Ti on the air cooler. Bad VRAM. It wouldn't run on the air cooler, hence this build.



It was all going well until about three months back when I fancied a play through of FO4 with the new textures. Well, I say new, but by that time they were old. I had to down clock the VRAM by over 600mhz just to get it stable. I have struggled through several issues with the game I play more than anything (PUBG) and as every update for it rolls out I have to down clock the VRAM more and more to cope with it. Well the latest update with the new lighting engine and etc make the card crash on Erangel (one of the maps) no matter what frequency the VRAM is at. And it isn't a typical PUBG crash, I get coloured orbs all over the screen so I am quite used to it being a VRAM crash.

At first I was going to replace the GPU. Thing is I am tired of buying blocks that are supposed to fit but don't, and the price of blocks and etc. I'm sick of very expensive GPUs needing even more money spent on them. So, I bought this. 6700XT Strix, £350.



As I say, if I spend £130 odd on a block I kick all of the value out of it. So now I need a new case. Because the GPU won't fit in the front with the glass on. And even if it did (it won't, the 2080Ti wouldn't either) I would have to completely redo all of the tubing just for the CPU. CBA. I think this is the end of my water cooling days tbh.

So that rig you see above it at my mother's. She's getting on a lot and I have to do lots for her. So I am over there a lot, probably about 50% of my life. At home? I have my baby. This.



So I wanted something sleek and stylish for mum's too. This was the perfect choice.



I got the PCIE 4 version on OCUK B grade. It cost me £150...



Along with this (so £150 all in).



Checked it over, it is still sealed.



The rest of the parts will be taken from the red rig above.3950x X570i Strix, two 1tb NVME (in the board) 16gb Dom Plat, 600w EVGA Supernova etc.

This here is a genius touch. My hands are literally clapping because this is the bit where they get absolutely torn to pieces in a ITX build.

 

[random_matt]

Q58 is my current case, seems like a waste not using a 280mm radiator, may as well buy something else.

 

[ALXAndy]

I'm not sure I get that reasoning.

The CPU I have doesn't need a 280mm AIO. So why on earth would I spend X on that and then X on a beefy enough SFX PSU? And how does using a different PSU and cooler amount to making it not worth using?

You've lost me mate.

 

[ALXAndy]

I don't know how I managed this. According to many it is not possible. Funnily enough the last guy who had this case couldn't do it either. That is why most of the internal parts were removed, screws were bent and put back into the incorrect holes and etc etc.



It's not coming out. That said it does not need to, as nothing else happens in that sde.

 

[Cenedd]

All things are possible with enough leverage! The key question is whether it'll work now it's in!

 

[ALXAndy]

Bah screw you hippy don't say things like that

I didn't have to force it much. There is foam on the PCB for the IO, so I did have to press into that a bit.

 

[ALXAndy]

Oh yeah, tired. Forgot to say.

There is a removable panel in the bottom that is stepped down about a cm. It is for a intake fan. Now IDK if a regular width fan will fit in there with the ATX PSU in there. Gawd only knows. As such I have a pair of Arctic slims left over. The new type. The one thing I know would happen and drive me insane though is one of the cables coming out of the bottom of the PSU making its way into the fan. We all hate that noise. It means you have to pull everything apart to find it, and usually you think you got it but put it all back together only for it to continue doing it. So, to eliminate that issue I got this for two quid.



Other things. When I bought the X570-i I got it for half price. So £170. This was because it was a fully tested customer return (and it has worked flawlessly for a year) but also because it was missing the IO shield and antennas. Someone sent me a set of antennas, but it still didn't have an IO shield. Now in the water cooled rig that doesn't matter because you don't use one due to the orientation of the board. Here however? it would look gash.

So, Mr Cenedd just above me up there is printing me one, so it can look slightly less gash, but keep dust and spiders oot.

I am so glad I bought that board now. Because it has lots of NVME slots meaning there are no spinning drives in it AT ALL which will massively help me with cabling.

 

[ALXAndy]

Really wasn't looking forward to using the cables that came with the PSU. Found this set for a Superflower PSU on here that was a good price. Not an ideal colour, but whatever. I can set the RGB to whatever I like.



Listed support all the way up to G3. Mine is a G5 Supernova (EVGA) but they didn't change. So they are probably just an older set OCUK have knocking about and at the time my PSU did not exist.

 

[ALXAndy]

I got some of the stuff in today. I was more focussed though on the front. I want to make it look as much like my big PC as possible.







After putting the word out a fellow forum pal offered up this.











And I just got done cutting the Lian Li logo in various sizes. I think the smallest one will work best.







The fan grille has arrived, as well as the cable ties and RGB neon. The PSU cables and intake fan arrive tomorrow.

 

[ALXAndy]

OK so smaller one it was.







Thankfully the hoses are not stupidly long. They don't need to be.







RGB only fits here.







That said I am happy, given it is the glory side. It looks like it is part of the case too.







More parts coming tomorrow.

 

[ALXAndy]

I'm seriously, this is hands down the best ITX case ever. Don't get me wrong it has been a pain in the ass, but most of that was my fault for not spending £140 on a SFX PSU I just did not need. I took my old rig apart last night, and was amazed to see that the PSU did not have one spec of dust in it. I just didn't get it, until today. The "Eco" button runs it totally fanless. Meaning it did not pick up one grain of dust. So I have left it that way. I mean, it has done a year with a overclocked 2080Ti and 3950x on, so what is the point in just making more noise and circulating more dust?

So by the time I hit the sack last night my back was done. I had spent 8 hours on the floor ffs. I hate this room for that. Just no space. Any way, when I got up today these were waiting for me.



I got the cables, IMO, dirt cheap. £58. I had a look last night and Cablemod wanted £140. Now sure, the colour is not the best.



But beggars can't be choosers. And besides, it gave me a really funny idea. It was at this point I remembered my PSU was actually green any way. God knows why, but it's kinda nice. The reason I needed custom cables was not because of the length or braiding. The cables that came with the PSU are braided once, and are thick AF. Meaning I already knew all of the cable places yesterday, and I had an inkling this was going to be the case, hence the custom cables. Otherwise I would have had to cut the stock ones free, and be confronted with lots of ketchup and mustard for my troubles.

I will cut out the hours and hours this took me. What I will say is it is not only the best ITX case ever because of the looks. It's stunning. It is for two reasons. Firstly the flip down RGB and fan hub. This allows you to work outside of the rig. Which in a tiny case is a god send. The second reason? is the offset fan "pan". Again, this comes out completely and allows you full access to the bottom of the PSU where all of the cables connect. Again, this allows you to put them in when you want, instead of having them all getting in the way whilst you are trying to work out the best places for them to go. Not an option on the Jonsbo I did, so it looked gash at the end because you can't do it any other way. Any way, pics.



I did have to make one minor mod. It seems that the EK AIO's hoses hit the mid plate. I had this issue with my 012. The fix? insert some rubber grommets to give you another 3mm space. This allows the AIO to go in in a wedgie, but without squashing the hose in the GPU side as it passes into the CPU chamber.

Sadly because of the large sound card and NVME stack one hose was not long enough to wrap like I wanted it to. Oh well, couldn't give a F.



The "Strix Game on" thing is a magnet that came with my Strix PSU. It hides the junction where the cables were the most messy. It also allows the intake fan to push air into the CPU area too, instead of it all ******* out the side. So that was good.



There you can see the "fan pan". Bear in mind you do need a slim fan, and even then you will be stuffing it all in at the end. Hence why I used a grille on the fan. Dust filters in situ.



These were taken earlier during testing.



You can see I had an issue there. See, I managed to keep the 2.5" hot swap bay intact. The only downsides? I had to cut off the USBC cable at the IO because my case didn't use it, and tucking it was not an option. This is also why I hacked off the FP audio cable. Because I am not using them, and stuffing them in was not an option. They pushed the PSU into the mobo part and the board would not fit. More testing.



BTW going back to the GPU side? I had to depin the SATA run and chop off all but one. It was just too cramped in there, and that connector kept popping out under the GPU which would have stopped me from getting the panels back on.

Eventually... Seriously it is so gorgeous I could actually cry right now.







Now I have done a lot of testing. Mostly because the GPU was new to me and ex mining. So I have had it benching for hours. Even overclocked using AMD Adrenaline it did not pass 62c. The cooler is the same one they used on the 3080 FFS. It's absolutely wonderful.



Now onto the elephant in the room. How does the 3950x cope on the 120mm AIO?



That was after a 10 minute Cinebench run. You know? the one that runs over and over and over. It was stuck solid at 3.9ghz. That said, I do not have PBO on, but I am amazed at how bloody good the AIO is. More than good enough !

Of all of the upgrades I have ever made I think I am most pleased with this one. Mostly because it was not a nightmare, I had to mod very little, and it all worked first push of the button.

 

[Cenedd]

Nice. Well, I got 5647 in Time Spy....but the non-extreme version. Did get the "Keep a cool head" 'achievement' though for keeping the CPU below 55° during a CPU profile benchmark and "Cool under pressure" for the same on the GPU. I'd say it's evidence that it needs an upgrade...but there's only so much power Roblox and Minecraft need for the kid

Cold cathode for the top green light? Do they humm/buzz/whine as much as I always feared they would?

 

[ALXAndy]

I just ran it again. Overclocked.



Was the hottest it got. That is with all of the panels on, so I can only imagine it is now getting more air because of that. The 120 intake sits right under the fin stack on the second half of it. That is cooler than the 2080Ti I had ran on water. Had a tough time believing it, but I think it may have something to do with that absolutely HONKING great heatsink assembly. It's the same one they used on the 3080Ti Strix LOL. The GPU only pulls 230w so far, and I will be leaving it there. I did not want to beat the performance I had. I just wanted it to work.

God am I glad I did not buy that 3080 now.

 

[ALXAndy]

Here, this is why. This is the "Fan pan" flipped out. I put a grille on it, or I would have heard the boozoop of doom.



But look what sits directly above it.

 

[Vidar]

Very nice work mate! I love these SFF builds and this looks clean as hell

 

[ALXAndy]

Thanks man. In PUBG it didn't even get as hot. 52c. Can'tr believe it tbh, that is cooler than the 2080Ti was running it under water.

Did all of the final stuff last night. Update bios to enable REBAR, PCIE4 and SAM. Runs like a champ.

 

[Vidar]

That 2080ti is so frustrating mate I'm sorry, still can't believe after it was rma'd it was sent back as is with no detected issues despite all my screens and videos of problems

 

[ALXAndy]

Ah, it was cheap so it is what it is. It got me through Covid and the great GPU drought, so I can't complain

I'm also pretty sure now that my loop wasn't running properly. It had plenty of flow, but the temps were far higher than I am used to. Could have just been the rad placement, and how it was all stuffed in. The CPU actually runs cooler now, as does this GPU. I also never got my head around PWM either, and the 6 fans in it used to ramp up like crazy. Like, jet levels. That said I always had headphones on, so it wasn't a huge problem I guess.

What's funny is I was playing PUBG last night with the boys mostly to test it out. I then had to go to update the BIOS so I could enable PCIE gen 4, rebar and SAM. Any way, I said to the boys "Man I hate these maps (referring to Taego and Deston)" and "I hope they bring back Vikendi with the snow for Christmas !".

Got up and the first thing in my YT sub feed was this.

VIKENDI REBORN FIRST LOOK - HUGE CHANGES! - TORNADO & SNOW STORMS, JUMP TOWERS, SNOWMOBILES and more

I can't wait to play this!!!!6th of december guys. Will share more info when I have it!Get 12 % off on all SteelSeries products when using the code "Wacky12"...

www.youtube.com

The funny thing is they have done the exact same enhancements they did to Erangel, so it too would have made the Ti cry LOL. Ah well, everything happens for a reason.

I still have it, and will drain and dry it properly at some point. I can then chuck it away, as it mostly works sorta kinda.

I think what made me smile the most was when I did some digging into the case and getting a Strix in there. It's not supposed to be possible. Any way, I found a video of a Chinese guy spending hours trying to get one in. It was so funny. It just needed to be sped up and have Benny Hill music over it he never did get it in there.......

Oh yeah, almost forgot. Due to me being able to keep in the 2.5" hot swap bit and get it connected I treated myself to a 480gb SSD for £26.99. It's probably completely crap, but my spinners both died during the last upgrade and I have nowhere to put music now.



It really doesn't need to be faster than a spinner, as it is just literally for some music to listen to.

 

[ALXAndy]

Finished. First thing to do was to fit this.



Important info. If you have one of these cases don't push the drive in. It is incredibly difficult to get it out, as it is held captive by a sprung body. The trick is to put some tape on it, like this. Which gives you a pull tab to get it out.



You can then fold it over and tuck it in.

IO shield V1. Obviously I didnt fit it inside. So I had to make it smaller to slot in. It might have got a bit warm (belt sander) and turned into a bit of a banana lol. Ah well, V2 may come one day but the antenna hold it down and with everything plugged in now it's doing its job.



The badge came today. What I did not realise was it's tiny ! in the photo it looked the same as the one I had. But oh god, it's just PERFECT.



VS the rig I have at home....





I'm actually scared to leave it on, might try and take over the world or something







I really don't think I have ever been so happy with a build before. It just totally fills me with joy.

 

[Cenedd]

How far back from the panel does the surface of that IO shield sit? Just thinking that the model was in STEP format so it's quite easy to edit it. I could make you one that is designed to be fitted from the outside and has a flange round the edge (or not if you prefer) to stop it going too far in.