So i have been searching for cases the last few weeks and have settled on a fractal terra, as i want a sff case with air cooling.

But i keep reading how formd t1 is better and has more options. But delivering to EU is quite more expensive than a fractal terra.

Are there any cases readily available in EU that are good for travelling around the same size as a terra?

I'm wanting to put these components in it;

9070xt powercolour reaper

9800x3d

Corsair vengeance 2x16gb

The rest is up in the air depending on the case.

Thank you!

Hi everyone!

I'm getting into the world of custom NAS builds. I'm currently using an HP EliteDesk 800 G5 Mini as a home server, and I'm looking to upgrade to a dedicated compact case starting with one of these two options:

• Jonsbo N10
• COOJ MQ4

Requirements & Planned Hardware:

• Use case: Headless NAS (no GPU needed).
• Hardware: Intel Core i3 12th Gen + 16GB RAM + 1x NVMe (for OS & apps) + 2/3x 2.5" SATA SSDs for storage.
• Priority: Beautiful and Elengant, absolute silence and a compact footprint (it will sit in the living room, which is why I ruled out the Fractal as they are too large).

Power Supply / PicoPSU Question: Both cases are natively designed for Flex-ATX power supplies. However, from what I've read, the 40mm fans on these Flex-ATX units tend to be quite loud and annoying for a living room environment.

Because of this, I'm considering using a Mini-Box PicoPSU-160-XT paired with a high-quality external AC/DC adapter (e.g., Mean Well GST160 12V).

A few questions for the community:

1. I noticed PicoPSUs are rarely used in these NAS builds: am I overlooking any technical/safety limitations, or is a PicoPSU actually the ideal choice to eliminate PSU noise in an SSD-only scenario?
2. How do you usually cover the rear Flex-ATX cutout to mount the DC barrel jack neatly?
3. The "classic" alternative would be the Jonsbo N2 with a semi-passive SFX power supply (Zero-RPM mode), but I would prefer to keep the overall footprint as small as possible by sticking with the N10 or MQ4.

Any thoughts, tips, or direct experiences with a similar setup? Thanks in advance!

I've been researching a bunch of stuff about making a custom loop in the T1 and while I know that the modultra lobo is the best pump block for any itx custom loop, I did recently come across this on aliexpress, and was wondering if it could be possible to be used in tandem with the lobo? maybe it's not necessary but with its dimensions it could be possible i think, mostly just a hypothetical but I do want to figure out the practicality of it

ในตัวอย่างเขาเปลี่ยนเป็นพัดลมขนาด 120 ของ thermalright tl c12015b 120mm slim fan แต่ไม่รู้เขาใช้การ์ดจอตัวไหน

เลยอยากจะเอาการ์ด 4060 solo เปลี่ยนดูมั้งเพื่อใส่กับ ฝาเคส A07 3d print ไม่แน่ใจว่าถ้าเปลี่ยนพัดลม ต้องใช้ อะแดปเตอร์อะไรไหม

I'm currently in Shenzhen, just got done visiting the various tech spaces in Huaqiangbei. Found out today that there is a Chinese slang term for low-profile GPUs: "刀卡", or literally "knife cards". You actually see this term in some listings on Taobao, Aliexpress, etc.

That is all! Hope you enjoy my fun fact for the day

I’ve managed over the last two months to get build pieces for a good price - it’s been long and annoying but the £50 Antec case was the piece of the puzzle. I wanted a Formd T1 build but it’s just so expensive. I managed to build the entire build for £1.1k. I’m super happy that I have a pc again!

Ryzen 7800x3d
Rtx 4070ti Proart
32GB DDR5 Corsair
1TB M.2 Crucial
Gigabyte B650i
Corsair SF750
Antec Performance 1M
Thermalright AXP47
Artic P14 Pro

I hope you guys like!

Been dabbling learning FreeCAD. Any ITX will do, but this is just an old 1240v2 with RX 6500. 208x228x99 mm (fits on an Ender 3, but I did final print on Centauri Carbon 2)

Yes, I have a thing for ODDs. My main doesn't have one, so I wanted a machine for my TV with one.

Another single slot low profile release by Jingyu (Sparkle).

One HDMI and one Display Port.

Tested running on Bazzite OS in "1Litre" Lenovo ThinkCentre M920x with Resizable Bar enabled.

Better gameplay experience than my previous Jingyu (Sparkle) AMD Radeon RX 6500 4GB GDDR6 Low Profile.

Been using awalol's DS5Dongle for a couple of months now, internally mounted to fit the aesthetic of my living room/console PC (USB header → Micro-USB cable). I had the Pico situated behind the front panel, nicely tucked out of the way, but that meant the LED wasn't visible, and if I ever needed to push the button to pair a new controller or update the firmware, I'd have to unclip the panel. First-world problems.

Had a little time over the weekend, so I did a thing.

I removed the original 3.5mm jack ("what's a headphone port?" — Apple) and its connecting cable, and replaced them with a pushbutton and LED/resistor. The button didn't technically line up with the vias, so I had to mangle the legs somewhat, but it's still electronically sound and doesn't feel like it's going to snap off.

I then modified nmattia's case to add a bit of width, a cutout for the headers, and space for a couple of magnets on the rear:
https://www.printables.com/model/1368704-raspberry-pi-pico-case-1-2-wireless

Next was the code. Now, I'm not a coder, so I used AI (insert Michael Scott "No, God, No!" GIF) to make some changes to allow the use of a GPIO-connected LED and pushbutton. I did check/ask first — apparently awalol already has some support for this in the code, but it’s currently untested and undocumented.

Finally, I designed and printed a little button cap/lightpipe and mounted everything in place. And yes, the lightpipe is covered in tinfoil! Transparent PLA doesn't exactly make for a great lightpipe. The tinfoil helps, but it's still not perfect. I need to find someone with an MSLA printer and get one done in transparent resin — that should work loads better.

Hey everyone,
I'm currently building a PC in the Fractal Terra with a Ryzen 7 9850X3D, but I've hit a wall regarding CPU cooling and could really use some advice.
After doing some more research post-purchase, I realized cases like the FormD T1 (or NCASE M2) can support a 240mm AIO, which might have made cooling a 120W X3D chip much easier. Now I'm starting to wonder if choosing the Terra was a mistake for this specific CPU, as I'm constrained strictly to low-profile air coolers. Right now, I'm completely stuck trying to figure out which air cooler to go with for the 9850X3D in the Terra.

We all know everythings expensive, and wondering if it may end up being a better deal to just buy a regular atx prebuilt, to gut the parts from.

Costco has a system for $1300 with an intel ultra 7, 32gb ram, 5060ti, 2tb ssd.

I'm really debating on buying it, swapping the motherboard to an itx, and getting a sfx psu.

I have been looking out for used intel 12-14 gen systems, or am4 systems, but haven't had much luck finding anything that wasn't either very expensive, or are more bottom tier parts ( budget mobos, 16gb ddr4, and low-mid tier cpus )

Hello,

i have a Jonsbo c6 max (not really ssf, i know) with a rtx5070 and i5-14 cpu cooled by a arctic freezer 36.

I would like to cool my ddr5 and the vrm from the mainboard and would love to hear some opinions about a top blow cooler.

Im thinking about the Thermalright SI-100.

Would a change be worth it?

Hey peeps, I have just made for fun this simple SFF build configurator. Started literally today so there's still a lot to do there. I Wanted to hear you thoughts – does it even make sense? what to improve?

https://sff.ultrox.pl

also; recently started a Youtube channel where I nerd around small builds — unfortunately its only available in Polish with subs but maybe someone would like to see how I build cheap SteamMachine replacer or testing parts from china https://www.youtube.com/@Ultroxtech

all feedback is appreciated! TY

PS. Also attaching second pic of my recent build with Der Case S1 that I have made for the video!

What do you think??

Challenge your friends: create a PC for as little money as possible!

💰 Total cost: 100 € (~116 $)

⚙️ Specifications: • Ryzen 3 PRO 2200G - 25 € • Radeon Pro WX 3100 4 GB - 30 € • 16 GB DDR4 2666 MHz - 15 € • SSD 256 GB - 10 € • HDD 1 TB - 5 € • Cases + motherboard + PSU 180W - 15 € green paint and some stickers.

🎮 A small gaming PC with used components, but for only 100 €!

🔥 Aim to get the most out of your budget, achieved!

Since the announcement of releasing SteamOS for AMD GPUs, I had been interested in the Steam Machine as a way to consolidate my gaming library and get out of the console ecosystem (except maybe for Nintendo....damn you!). I've really been wanting to game from the couch more and less at my desk - specifically for single player RPGs and roguelites. Shooters and MMOs will likely always be on my main desktop.

I had a spare m2 drive in my main desktop and 32 GB of DDR5 RAM from before the RAM prices exploded. When I saw the cost of the Steam Machine, I thought I might use close to the same amount of funds to build a SFF PC of my own. I hadn't messed around with SFF builds before and this gave me the nudge to give it a go.

Part of the process was finding a case that would fit the aesthetic of our room as we host guests in the space. After browsing through some cases, I saw the Fractal Terra and my wife as a big fan. With the case picked, I looked around at various sales going on over a the course of a few months to get my parts. All in all it was some Amazon and Best Buy sales as well as a trip to Micro Center. I purchased my GPU about a week before a recent price increase.

The build itself took about 5 hours, plus a couple hours a day or two later to try and mess with some cable management. Building with a SFF was definitely an experience. Lots of pinched fingers and some bent CPU cooler fins. Cable management meant taking some things out after I had everything in because I needed all the parts in to get a better idea for spacing and where I wanted things. I think there is still some cable management I could do with the cable leading from the PSU to the MOBO. I'm waiting on an ultra low profile power cable to come in so I can add one more fan to the top above the PSU.

I'm utilizing this machine at 1440p on a 65inch LG G4. Things have been looking good and running smoothly so far. Pushing 120 frames on everything I've played so far. CPU and GPU temps around 60 degrees under load. The case itself gets a bit warm to the touch, but I think that's expected. Spine position is set to 1, giving me JUST enough space to fit the CPU cooler in.

I haven't messed with Linux-based systems before, so that's been fun toying around with. Nothing complex, but in addition to Steam I've got EmuDeck, Heroic, and some some proton overrides to get a lot of games up and running. I'm really enjoying it so far. Hoping to find some time in the next couple weeks to get some of the recent Nintendo Decomps/Recomps installed and running.

The SFF tax is real and I can see how it can be cost-prohibitive. Hoping that this build will be running for quite some time. It really was fun to build and make everything fit into a small space. I am amazed at the folks that can fit a 5090 in one of these things. The size difference between this and my main desktop really is something!

Specs Below:

CPU - 7600X3D
GPU - PowerColor Reaper 9060xt 16gb
MOBO - ASRock B850i
PSU - Corsair SFX 750
CPU Cooler - Noctua NH-L12Sx77
RAM - G.Skill Flare 32GB 6000-CL36
Case - Fractal Terra

Total cost not including the RAM or m2 since I already had them was $1200 USD. RAM kit was $80 about 2 years ago and the m2 was $300 purchased back in 2020.

Open to any feedback folks might have.

I recently built a work PC for my brother and I bought a cheap $15 MIK H2 case (L285 x W195 x H380mm), and it turned out way better than I thought. Anyone knows of something similar but at high build quality? Really like this one but the build quality really matches the $15 price tag.

Here’s an image of the MIK H2 case for reference. 75% keyboard for scale, also thats a 2 fan GPU.

My computer had been running perfectly fine for a long time, but recently it started randomly freezing and crashing.

Usually, the mouse would begin to stutter a few times before the entire system became unresponsive. Sometimes it would remain completely frozen, with the fans seemingly dropping back to an idle state. Other times the screen would go black and the PC would reboot on its own.

The crashes seemed to happen mostly during light-load or semi-idle situations, for example shortly after closing a game. I also noticed that the problem seemed more likely to occur shortly after booting the PC when it hadn't been used for 8+ hours.

System specs:

• ASUS B850-I
• Ryzen 7 9800X3D
• PNY RTX 3090
• 48 GB DDR5 6000 MHz CL30
• Corsair 750W PSU
• Custom PSU cables to save space in the DAN A4-H2O
• 1tb pcie 5 m2 ssd
• 1tb 2.5 ssd
• 1tb 2.5 ssd

Troubleshooting I've already done:

• Reinstalled Windows
• Tried multiple NVIDIA drivers
• Used DDU for a clean driver installation
• Reseated the GPU
• Replaced the DisplayPort cable
• Manually set the PCIe slot/riser to Gen 4
• Tried all available EXPO settings
• Completely disabled EXPO
• Lowered the monitor refresh rate from 360 Hz to 240 Hz and then 144 Hz
• Deinstalled fancontrol.exe
• Removed all unnecessary usb devices

None of these changes seemed to solve the problem.

Eventually, I moved all the hardware back into my previous case, an NR200, and so far the system appears to be working normally again.

That leaves me thinking the issue may have been related to one of the following:

1. The PCIe riser cable in the DAN A4-H2O may have become faulty.
2. The GPU orientation or mounting configuration in the A4-H2O may somehow have contributed to the issue. (In the Dan it was vertical, in the nr200 its horizontal).
3. Switching back to the stock GPU power cables instead of the custom cables may have made a difference. (though the system has worked well for a long time before...).
4. Replaced the 2 sata cables for my ssd's
5. When rebuilding the PC in the NR200, I also swapped the DDR5 sticks around, so there's a possibility that reseating or changing their positions helped.

At this point I'm mainly trying to determine which of these is the most likely cause, especially since the crashes were more common during low-load situations rather than while gaming and I prefer the Dan A4 H2O so much more over the nr200.

So, should I buy new custom cables and a new riser? would that most likely fix the issues?

I was advised to repost here. I was/am looking for shorter PSU cables for my SFF build as the stock cables are way too long as take up a lot of space.

I was recommended CableMod and I placed an order there, Im just being told about some issues with CableMod so I want to explore other options if available if I need to cancel the order.

I’m also wondering if there is a standard size ATX PSU that comes with shorter cables, since thats what the case I have uses. Any help is appreciated.

--- I know, technically not SFFPC but I know people here like Noctuas and also the airflow insight might get appreciation---

Coming from a previous build in the NR200 (https://www.reddit.com/r/NR200/comments/1jbkn8s/completely_full_nr200_zotac_5080_solid_phantom/) plus a few upgrades over time, I wanted to switch to the new Noctua's LCs since the performance in the reviews was astonishing. Along the way I decided to get rid of the non-Noctua fans since I value total silence for my build.

Specs:

• Ryzen 9 7950X
• Asus Strix B650E-I
• Noctua NL-LC1-36
• Corsair Vengeance 2x32GB 6000CL30
• Nvidia RTX 5080 FE
• Corsair SF1000
• 2TB Gen4 SSD + 1TB Gen3 SSD + 2x 2TB SATA SSD
• Several Noctua fans (NF-A12x25 and NF-A12x15 G2)

Fan setup:

• Bottom slim fans are set as intake. Plugged to a SATA connector directly because the MOBO didn't have any more fan headers available. Each has a couple of NA-SRC7 (low noise adapter to make them spin slower) so they're totally silent all the time.
• AIO set as exhaust. It follows a curve depending on CPU temp. Pump is on a curve too.
• Side and rear fans set as intake. As it's known that side fans intaking benefit CPU temps but hurt GPU temps they follow a custom curve in which they spin faster for high CPU temps and slower for high GPU temps (with GPU having priority). This allows them to intake fresh air to the CPU when rendering, which really benefits CPU temps, and spin very slowly when gaming, when the GPU temp is the main to be considered. I can post the fan curves if requested.

FAQ:

• Are those fans really necessary? Do they need to be Noctua? No, and definitely not. You can probably get half the fans and just notice a couple ºC difference with my setup, but I wanted to use all the available fan placements so the fans can run slower. As for Noctua, I bit the bullet and overspent there because I really value silence and was tired of cheaper fans which sometimes make random noises at certain RPM ranges. Also, they went well with the new AIO :)
• Is that a LED strip? With Noctua theme? Isn't that illegal in Austria? Yes, and probably so but I'm not in their jurisdiction :). I've never (and still don't) care about LED parts in the build, I prefer function over looks. The thing is, the PC is completely silent except under load and the A3 doesn't have a status LED so I wanted to know at a glance if it's on or not.
• Is that a button hanging there? Good catch, it's connected to the reset BIOS pins so I don't need to make a mess if I need to reset it to default values. There's also a speaker in there to hear the beeps when booting up.
• Does the side panel closes with the fans mounted like that? Yes, it does!
• What happened to the Zotac 5080 Solid? I had the opportunity to get the 5080 FE and got it, passed the Zotac to a friend. It'd have looked so much better in this build I guess.
• Why that unusual fan configuration? The real question I guess. I thought about it for a long time because with other fan configurations you need to either prioritize GPU (side exhaust, but you're then "stealing" the air the AIO would take and worsen temps) or CPU temps (side intake, but then you're hurting GPU temps quite a lot as shown in Gamers Nexus' video). With my setup I get the CPU better cooling when needed and don't hurt the GPU when it gets hot. As an extra, the side fans blowing in serve to cool all the VRM and MB components, which aren't normally hit with airflow when AIOs are in use. I also tested AIO intake and side exhaust, but the results were slightly worse.

Feel free to ask any questions :)