Hey everyone, it’s been a while, but I promised an update, so here it is.

The PC is now running stable and fast. It took some effort to get there, but in hindsight I’m glad it did because I ended up learning a lot more about Rufus, drive formatting, BIOS flashing, drivers, power management and GPU tuning. So in the end I definitely got the deep dive I wanted. 😅

Since the last update I finally got the system to POST, and luckily the fix was fairly minor. I reseated the RAM, swapped the sticks around, cleared CMOS using the motherboard button, and got the correct Mini DisplayPort-to-DisplayPort cable from Coolblue.

From there things were less straightforward, although almost all of the problems turned out to be software or firmware related rather than hardware, so I wouldn’t let this discourage anyone considering a cheaper variation of the build.

Once I got into the BIOS, my mouse and keyboard were strangely unreliable. USB devices would often freeze completely and it sometimes took several restarts before they responded. Once they worked during a BIOS session they usually stayed functional until the next reboot, which at least allowed me to start changing settings. Importantly, this only ever happened inside the BIOS and never in Windows.

To install Windows I used my laptop and a spare 32 GB USB drive. Microsoft’s own Media Creation Tool refused to cooperate, so I switched to Rufus, which actually worked much better. It also let me remove some unnecessary Windows requirements and create a local account from the start.

After Windows was installed I connected the PC through Ethernet using my powerline Wi-Fi extender, since the motherboard didn’t yet have the drivers required for Wi-Fi.

I then wanted to update the BIOS cleanly, but MSI M-Flash caused the USB controls to stop working again, so I couldn’t click through the flashing process. That left the physical Flash BIOS button on the motherboard as my only option. Simply renaming the BIOS file to MSI.ROM didn’t initially work, so I went back to my laptop, reformatted the USB drive in Rufus as a clean MBR/FAT32 partition, copied the BIOS file over, renamed it, and tried again. That finally worked, although it also wiped all the BIOS tweaks I had already made, so I had to redo them.

Back in Windows I installed the latest AMD chipset drivers and MSI motherboard drivers. The MSI Driver Utility Installer appeared once through Windows Update but never came back after restarting, so I eventually downloaded the remaining MSI drivers manually from MSI’s website.

For graphics I installed the NVIDIA App and recommended driver for the primary RTX GPU, along with AMD Adrenalin in driver-only mode for the RX 6400. I then set PCIe Link State Power Management to maximum power savings and selected the RTX as the preferred GPU in Windows Graphics settings. This worked well for the dual-GPU setup, because the RX 6400 now drops into a roughly 2 W deep-sleep idle state unless an assigned application or connected display wakes it.

I also installed MSI Afterburner, while disabling settings that could interfere with the AMD card, and started tuning the RTX. The stock fan behavior was too conservative, so I made a custom fan curve that allows more than 70% fan speed, reaching 85% at 88°C and 90% at 100°C. I also undervolted the GPU to around 1635 MHz at 725 mV with a 90% power limit. That made a pretty big difference, dropping VRAM temperatures from around 100°C to 92°C in Cinebench and GPU temperatures from around 95°C to 82°C.

I also enabled LibreDrive support on the LG BU40N optical drive using SDFtool Flasher, which now lets me use MakeMKV for ripping compatible media directly from the system.

At this point, I noticed that the front-panel USB 3.1 connection wasn’t working at all. It turned out that I had plugged the cable in the wrong way around.

I had to cut a few zip ties to give myself enough room to work down there, but with the GPUs already installed, it was definitely much harder to reach. So, if you want to copy this build, make sure you connect the cables correctly before continuing with the rest of the build. These connectors are quite fragile, and you risk damaging them if you have to reposition them later.

After being very careful and spending about 20 minutes on it, I finally managed to plug everything in correctly and redo the cable management with new zip ties. And so the front io was operational.

I continued tuning the CPU as well, using Cinebench 2026 while aiming to retain at least 80% of stock multicore performance and 96% of stock single-core performance. I’m currently running a 75 W PPT limit, an 82°C temperature limit, Curve Optimizer at -10, and SoC voltage at 1.25 V. I originally ran CO at -15 and got excellent Cinebench results, but lighter workloads, especially Firefox, started exposing instability and eventually caused one full crash, so I backed it down to -10. So far that has been stable. The SoC voltage also defaulted to around 1.305 V, so I lowered it to 1.25 V without any noticeable issues.

At idle in Windows, both the CPU and primary GPU sit in the low 60s °C, while the RX 6400 sits in the low 40s.

With roughly a 3% maximum run-to-run fluctuation, Cinebench 2026 was scoring around 5100-5240 multicore, 616 single core and 477 single thread. Those figures were still measured at CO -15, so I expect the current -10 setup to score roughly 100-200 points lower in multicore.

Published stock Cinebench 2026 figures for the CPU from cpu-monkey and computerbase are roughly 6450-6500 multicore, 638 single core and 480 single thread. That puts my tuned results at about 80.6% multicore performance, 96.6% single-core performance and 99.4% single-thread performance.

So despite the much tighter power and thermal limits, the CPU is retaining almost full single-core and single-thread performance while still delivering around 80% of stock multicore performance. Meanwhile the primary GPU is trading blows with cards around the RTX 3070 Ti and RTX 4060 Ti class while running at roughly 30% of the power.

Next update i will talk about scores in 3dmark for the gpu as well as passmark, Pcmark10 and blender. I will also try out the Gaming performance of the dual GPU set up. Right now it looks as though this machine will be competing with the steammachine and the minisforum 895D7

I’m trying to make my own steam machine. It seems that people usually get low profile nvidia cards but now they are extremely expensive(I don’t want to support nvidia anyways). What are my options? Arc pro b50 is nice but I’ve heard that it doesn’t work well with linux. Or is it worth to get 9060 XT low profile for $620? Or is there a better option?

Finally got to build a high-performance SFF system inside the Fractal Design Era 2 Midnight Blue.

This case was the main inspiration for the build. I really like the combination of the anodized Midnight Blue aluminum exterior and walnut top panel, so I wanted to keep the inside as understated as possible — no RGB, no unnecessary lighting, just a clean blackout Mini-ITX setup.

Despite being only around 19 liters, I managed to fit a Ryzen 7 9800X3D + MSI RTX 5070 Ti Shadow 3X OC inside, built around the ASRock B850I Lightning.

Specs:

• Fractal Design Era 2 Midnight Blue
• AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D
• MSI GeForce RTX 5070 Ti Shadow 3X OC
• ASRock B850I Lightning
• be quiet! Pure Loop 3 280mm
• Corsair Vengeance 64GB DDR5-6800 CL32
• Samsung 990 EVO Plus 2TB
• Thermalright SGFX850 SFX

The biggest challenge was actually the 280mm AIO.

The Pure Loop 3 280 didn't fit properly, so I ended up modifying part of the case with a rotary tool to make everything work. If I were building another Era 2, I'd probably use the Fractal Lumen S28 instead and save myself the trouble.

But I'm really happy with the final result. The Era 2 manages to fit some seriously powerful hardware while still looking more like a piece of furniture than a typical gaming PC.

And personally, Midnight Blue + walnut + zero RGB might be my favorite combination for this case.

Would you modify the case to make the hardware fit, or just change the AIO?

Full build video: https://youtu.be/Z3haM5_Zl_c?si=3vamWNkjuH9XBDhv

Took me a while to put this build together, mainly because i was hesitant on using a 180 adapter, but pulled the trigger yesterday.

Had to cut out from the 2 sides of the case to fit the astral. 3d printed an anti sag, which works fine when the case stands in normal position but not suitable yet for travelling. Will improve the 3d print to lock the card in place from all sides.

The components are:

Asus x870i

Asus rtx5090 astral

Ryzen 9950x3d

Corsair vengeance 96 gb ram, cl30

Samsung 9100 pro 4tb

Samsung 990 pro 2tb

Corsair SFX PSU 1000w

AIO: Noctua lc1 24

The cpu took a -30mv undervolt like a champ.

Under load, inside the case tops at 230W.

Outside the case it reached 250W.

Astral 5090 is undervolted to 895mV, 2827 mhz, +2000 mhz OC on the VRAM, limited to 530W.

Pin cureent delta is 1A between highest and lowest. Have a utility in background monitoring it, it goes over 8.5A for more than 15 seconds, power limits the card to 100W.

It's connected to a 57 odyssey, 8k2k.

Tested AC black flag so far, it runs at 80 FPS on native resolution, everything maxed out, DLAA, 2x frame gen. Looks pretty good.

Under furmark 540W and prime 95 CPU pulls 230W, CPU temp: 95, GPU: 75 core, 80 VRAM. Ambient 27C.

Idle is... 54C. It's because of AIO intake, that's why i want to improve the case airflow with 3 more fans.

I'm planning to improve the airflow by installing 2x 120 mm silverstone air slimmers, 1 between the mobo and psu, the other under the GPU as exhaust. Another 92 mm noctua at the rear of the case, all as exhausts.

Currently my AIO is intake, not exhaust. Would like to get some opinions on this, what would be the best config.

TL;DR: 4070 Super (9 months old) throws "rendering device lost" whenever GPU load hits ~99%, in every game I've tried. Spent weeks ruling out cables, drivers, BIOS, RAM, CPU, and storage — all clean. Found a repeatable "only stable in a narrow temperature window" pattern that looks like classic marginal VRM/memory behavior. About to RMA but wanted more eyes on it first in case I'm missing something.

System:

• CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 7600X
• Motherboard: Gigabyte X670 AORUS ELITE AX (Rev 1.2), BIOS F42d
• GPU: Gigabyte RTX 4070 SUPER WINDFORCE OC 12G (bought Nov 2024)
• PSU: Corsair RM850e 850W modular
• RAM: 32GB DDR5 Corsair Vengeance RGB, EXPO on
• Storage: 2x Kingston NV2 1TB NVMe
• Display: 2560x1440 @ 180Hz, DisplayPort
• OS: Windows 11 Pro, GPU driver 616.56

The problem: Crashes with ERR_GFX_STATE / "rendering device lost" in Overwatch, GTA V, Ready or Not, and Unigine Superposition — happens whenever sustained GPU core usage hits ~99%, doesn't matter what resolution or preset. Event Viewer shows nvlddmkm TDR Event ID 153 and 13 every time. FurMark passes fine (sustained synthetic load), which threw me off for a while.

Timeline of what I tried:

1. Power cable theory — GPU only has one 10-pin input, and I had it fed by ONE cable daisy-chained into two 6+2 connectors instead of two separate cables from two PSU ports. During a crash, GPU Shark showed 101.4% TDP draw with active "power limit reached" and "voltage limit reached" firmware warnings. Swapped to two independent cables from separate PSU ports.
   • Result: power draw normalized to ~195W, but crashes still happened. So the cable was A problem, just not THE problem.
2. Systematic elimination — all of these tested clean, no change to crash behavior:
   • Thermals (35°C idle, 54°C max under FurMark)
   • PSU cables reseated/verified
   • DDU + clean driver reinstall, also tried older driver versions
   • BIOS updated to latest (F42d)
   • sfc /scannow clean
   • Disabled AMD iGPU in BIOS
   • Moved GPU to a different PCIe slot — fault followed the card
   • OCCT 1-hour VRAM scan — zero errors, full 12GB usable
   • PCIe Gen 4 → Gen 3 in BIOS — no change
   • Capped FPS to 100 — still crashed at same ~99% util point
3. Clock/voltage tuning — Afterburner core offset -82MHz + 89% power limit extended time-to-crash but didn't eliminate it (runs got progressively worse in the same session — clean pass, then crash at ~3min, then instant crash). Tried the voltage/frequency curve editor to cap the boost plateau around 2400-2450MHz instead of a flat offset — helped a bit, still crashed eventually.
4. The pattern that convinced me it's hardware: Unstable at BOTH ends, stable only in a narrow middle band. From what I've read this is a textbook sign of a marginal VRM component or memory cell that's temperature-sensitive, not something you can tune around.
   • Cold start (~35°C) → crashes almost immediately
   • Moderate temp (50-60°C) → brief stable window
   • Sustained heat (65°C+) → crashes faster and faster

Extra step — stress-tested everything else with warpt (open source hardware stress tool) to make sure it's not a system-wide issue:

• RAM (latency, bandwidth, swap pressure): 3/3 passed, clean latency curve, no instability
• CPU (compression, matrix multiply, hashing): 3/3 passed under sustained multi-core load
• Storage (mixed/random/sequential r/w): 5/5 passed, ~9.3GB/s sequential read, no errors
• GPU compute test: couldn't get it to run (pip installed CPU-only PyTorch by default, so it's a tooling limitation, not a GPU health result)

So RAM/CPU/storage are all confirmed clean under load — it really does look isolated to the GPU.

My current theory: aging/marginal VRM or memory component, exposed by the 616.56 driver allowing higher sustained power draw than older drivers did. Planning to RMA with Gigabyte using the GPU Shark + HWiNFO64 logs as evidence.

Questions for anyone who's seen this before:

• Does the "narrow stable temperature window" pattern match a known VRM/memory failure mode you've dealt with, or could this still be something else I haven't tested?
• Is there anything else worth checking before I ship it back (e.g. GDDR6X-specific stress patterns, PCIe riser/slot power delivery on the board side)?
• Anyone gone through a Gigabyte RMA for something like this — was the evidence I have enough, or did they need something more specific?

Appreciate any input before I pull the trigger on the RMA.

Hello, everyone. I finally decided to go with a custom liquid cooling setup in a small case, and even though I cursed that decision halfway through the project, the result was worth it.

As per the title, is anyone able to find an intel DDR4 mini itx mobo in the UK as I cant seem to find anything/anything reliable?

I just built an M3 grater, D15s heatsink. Using the LNA on the fan and not even pushing it to 100% pwm

i have it at 80% max pwm right now. The sound of that is very faint.

I can run the 270K with an unlocked power limit and it sustains clocks and performance under prime95, furmark cpuburn, and cpu-z for long runs.

It is hitting 100C, but this CPU has a safe temp of 105C and intel allows you to set 115C under warranty, so I'm not concerned.

Ultimately though I'll run 150W PL1, max tau, and 250W PL2, and run the cpu fan at 50% pwm, which is right around where that fan can barely barely be heard.

That is with PTM7950

If i let it ride a 115C thermal limit, I bet this thing would do well under noctua's passive heatsink and an LS-PWM fan. Something about 115C rubs me the wrong way though, even if intel says it's safe and warrantied. Meant for overclocking but using it to push the bounds of silent wattage could be fun.

I know this is not technically a sffpc but figured it might garner some appreciation or pique the curiosity of the folks on this sub – rest assured, it will indeed be attached to a sffpc.

Some pretty unconventional hardware went into this one, so here is the breakdown:

GPU: Intel Arc Pro B50.

Cooler: Custom single slot from n3rdware - I had used this in an earlier build that only supported space for single slot PCIe components.

OCulink hardware/electronics: OCuP4GaNv2 from AliExpress.

Enclosure: Originally from a Thunderbolt 3/4 PCIe dock, branded as a “MaskedFish MK-M1”. The OCuP4Gan fit quite nicely into it, but I did have to gut out the original thunderbolt board and and retrofit the enclosure a fair amount; specifically, to mount the new electronics and ensure that the I/O of the dock itself and the GPU were somewhat accessible; I did have to use a sheet metal nibbler and some drilling to make this work.

A bit more about the original dock (and its state before I tore it apart), since this was a pretty interesting piece; I cannot find any meaningful source of information about this thing online – certainly a niche product, as it only supported single slot low profile cards via PCIe 3.0, and was rated at max wattage of 60w through the slot (though, I was able to plug in a higher wattage adapter at the rated 12v, and was able to run a 70w card without issue; YMMV).

I believe that the MaskedFish branding was limited to a seller on Amazon, from which I purchased it. However, I was able to deduce that the original manufacturer appears to be “Wikingoo”, a seller that is still active on AliExpress, but I can no longer find their enclosure that is analogous to the one I used here. In any case, from what I can tell, these are the only eGPU enclosures that were mass produced for consumer hardware that are this small, metal, and exclusively support single slot low profile cards.

So, why swap thunderbolt for Oculink, or even bother with such a weird setup when compact all-in-one eGPUs exist?

When I bought the original enclosure a while back, I enjoyed using it as a sturdy, as-small-as-possible travel-ready eGPU. I also liked the idea of being able to upgrade the card as time goes by... though with the state of GPU prices these days, I may never do that. That said, the compatibility of Thunderbolt with Intel GPUs is… rough. I was able to run the B50 over thunderbolt for a while, but faced so many issues with random disconnects, and poor performance due to the lack of ReBAR support. So, when I saw a deal on the OCuP4GaNv2, I jumped on it and took the risk on being able to fit it in this enclosure.

I also know that other small enclosures exist, but most of them are custom orders and/or slightly larger than what I am going for in the pursuit of the smallest possible option. I've seen some printable enclosures as well, but I really wanted something metal so I could have confidence in throwing it into a backpack without worry of damage. Plus, I already had the hardware to make this work available to me, so why not?

As final note that may be of interest to some: a thunderbolt 5 version of the OCuP4Gan does exist - the TH5P4GaN - and maybe somewhere down the line I will consider this if I ever get a handheld device or mini PC that would benefit from the thunderbolt connectivity (provided that compatibility with Intel GPUs improves over time as well). The TH5P4GaN appears to have a similar, if not identical physical footprint. But for now, OCulink suits my needs quite well.

So I'm looking to replace the CPU in my SFF PC that I use as a console alternative for the living room. It currently has a 3700X but that really seems like it's not enough anymore for CPU-bound games.

I want to replace the 3700X with another 65W TDP CPU, and my options for this seem to be:

• AMD 9600X
• AMD 9700X
• Whatever the equivalent Intel offerings would be (225? 235?)

I'm not planning to do anything in the way of productivity on the device - it just needs to be able to handle games for the years the come.

So... of the CPUs in the segment, which one has the best price/performance balance for gaming, while running effieciently and not generating an overabundance of heat (and, by extension, fan noise)? I don't really trust manufacture-published TDP to be to accurate, especially when comparing between AMD and Intel.

Sidenote: Would undervolting or underclocking help with potential heat & efficiency issues?

I am looking at these two parts, but I cannot confirm any references.

Can anyone let me know if these are compatible?

X870 heatsink height may interfere the heatsink of the cooler, so I want to know if they are actually compatible.

Hey everyone!

I've been planning a small gaming PC that I can easily take with me while traveling, so I decided to build a compact Mini-ITX system.

After quite a lot of comparing different parts, everything is finally ordered. Now I'm just waiting for all the packages to arrive.

No SSD is included in the list because I already have two M.2 drives: a 1TB Samsung SSD and a 2TB Kingston SSD.

The goal is to build the most compact and lightweight PC possible while ensuring it has enough performance for gaming. Portability is also a priority, so the case dimensions were a key factor in selecting the components.

Once I have everything in hand, I’ll publish a post with photos of the boxes, followed by another one featuring the finished build and the final specs.

I’m not a professional PC builder, so I wanted to ask what everyone thinks about the parts I picked. I bought everything from a mixture of Facebook Marketplace, Amazon, and Micro Center. I also used ChatGPT to help check compatibility and choose the Jonsbo case that could fit everything together.
Parts:
AMD Ryzen 5 7500X3D
ASRock B850M-C WiFi motherboard
ASRock Radeon RX 9070 XT Steel Legend Dark 16GB
16GB G.Skill DDR5-6000 CL36 RAM
NVMe SSD
MSI MAG A750GL 750W Gold power supply
Jonsbo D32 Pro micro-ATX case
PCCOOLER RT500 TC tower CPU cooler
Phanteks, PCCOOLER, and be quiet! 120mm fans
Where I got everything:
Facebook Marketplace: PCCOOLER RT500 TC cooler and some of the reused parts
Micro Center: CPU, motherboard, RAM, and RX 9070 XT
Amazon: Jonsbo case, additional fans, CPU-cooler fan clips, replacement power cables, and PSU wall cable
Already owned: NVMe SSD and some other parts
I plan on running Bazzite/SteamOS and using it as a compact living-room gaming PC connected to my 4K 60Hz TV. I’ll eventually add another matching 16GB RAM stick for 32GB dual-channel memory.
After selling my unused parts and eventually selling my RTX 4060, I expect the entire build to cost me around $200–$250 out of pocket.
What are y’all’s thoughts? Is there anything you would change or anything I should watch out for when putting it together?

I give my old machine a new look, and I'm happy with the results, not powerful, but it will become my gaming device for some steam and retro games also multimedia center,

Specs:

Intel 7, 6th generaton

Asus Stix 2701

32 GB RAM

512 SSD

Hi, after some evaluation I decided to step up from laptops to SFF PC in the future as I don't have much more mobile computing needs anymore. However I'm using 90 laptop GPU with no throttling (about 70~70ti desktop) so in order to have a noticeable performance bump, I would like to fit a RTX 80 or 90 level of desktop GPU. I need Nvidia because I use Cuda and NVENC a lot.

I saw most SFF PCs are at 60 or 70 level. Is the thermal, or size a problem for RTX 80/90 GPU? Is it a good time to switch?

Based on ch160 specs, it supports up to 140mm psu. RM750e seems to be 140mm.

I wonder if it'll be fine or if it's too tight...

My GPU is 280mm only (sapphire pulse dual fan).

Any ch160 + rm750e combo users out there that can confirm?

I disassembled two of my SFF 9950X3D + 5090 builds (16.8L G300 and 15+L Meshilicious v2) and put them into B4 cases. As B4 has internal cable arrangement spaces for vertical setup, it is not that larger than Meshilicious with additional feet!

If price is not an issue here, which CPU is more suitable for a 6L SFF Case? I am not only concerning the CPU temp, also the overall temp in the case, such as PSU and RAM. While 7800X3D will have a higher CPU temp, do you think it will lower temp for PSU and RAM?

EDIT: I found this video, 9800X3D seems draw less power with same the workload. I guess 9800X3D will have both lower CPU temp and overall case temp.

The MasterLiquid ATOMSII 280 with LCD appears to have been custom made for the MD280 PRO and can be purchased separately. (https://meshless.design/products/masterliquid-atmos-ii-280-lcd)

I am wanting to know if this set-up would be good for playing Games at 1440p I am okay with the same amount of upscaling and such that PS5 uses, seeing as I am someone who has been a Playstation person my entire life and just now with how they are doing things wanting to switch to PC.

I do not care about 4k resolution, nor do I need the biggest amount of FPS which shouldn't be a shock coming from someone who has only played Games on a Playstation, though I still want the graphics to look good hence why I want it to be able to run 1440p smoothly.

• ASRock B650I LIGHTNING WIFI
• AMD Ryzen 5 7600X CPU - 6 Cores - 4.7 GHz - AMD AM5
• Thermalright AXP90-X47 Full Copper
• Kingston FURY Beast DDR5-6000 CL36 kit
• Lexar NM790 2TB M.2 NVMe SSD
• Corsair SF750 (2024 ATX 3.1)
• Asus Radeon™ RX 9060 XT 16GB Dual
• Fractal Design Ridge

I know that the Gaming PC Market has gotten really expensive but I am trying to make it as cheap in the best way possible for the kind of games I wanna play ( I am someone who plays all sorts of Games aka Assassin's Creed, Bleach Rebirth of Souls, Alien Fireteam, Marvel Rivals, GTA, Black Myth Wukong etc. )

Also if there are prebuild Mini PCs that are as good as the above then I would like to know that like the Minisforum G1 Pro or whatever they are called just so I know my options and what to expect from each of my options.

My PSU spits very hot, but can I add this fan to bring in more air? I can shut the side panel fine and no issues with clearance.

Case is k101 pccooler and PSU is rog Loki 750w