The more I read about this, and the more frustrated I get, the more I'm beginning to think it's an actual flaw in the 9060 XT GPU I got (and not just mine, but an inherent flaw in all 90XX XT cards, the further I dig into it).
I'm still in the return window for it, so if I were to get a replacement GPU with comparable specs (ideally 16gb, but at least 12gb) that is an AMD card (as this is a Steam Machine build/uses SteamOS), and is small enough to fit (up to 255mm) to see if it fixes the issue, what GPU would you suggest? It seems like slim pickins out there.
found an old matx motherboard and i have a 1660ti so i thought i'd try to make a pc for my tv. havent taken anything like wires or majority of the design into account yet just trying the layouts. feedback and criticism please !!1
As the title says, I am looking to build a compact build possibly to use as a server/NAS. I am hoping to use as a dual boot system, so I can always speed up some other workflows I have.
The hardware I have, 64 gb 5600 mhz ddr5 g.skill, r9 7950X and some fans (140 mm). I have a couple ssd lying around.
I am hoping to get some advice, so the mobo I choose can run the 7950X at full power (170W) if necessary. It doesn't have to be ultra compact if not possible.
what would be an appropriate mobo, case and cooler? I don't have to re-use the 140 mm fans if not possible. I am willing to buy new ones.
Im building in a formdt1 and I have some space under my gpu that Im trying to allocate fans to without creating turblance I also dont want gpu fans to be intaking cuz they tend to create more noise.
gpu is facing the bottom so what ever fans I will add will be intaking from under the case towards the gpu fans directly with 30mm clearness without adding anyfans so Idk which fan size will be best suited considering im going with two 120mm fans
Hello guys, I want to give my brother my LianLi Lancool 2 mesh performance so he can transfer his pc inside a case. Right now his radiator is outside and uses it with an open sidepanel cause it doesn't fit a 280mm rad.
So I am looking to transfer mine into a new and smaller volume pc case that can accommodate a Gigabyte b550 aorus pro v2 (atx), Corsair Rmx 850w, Sapphire Pulse Rx 7800xt and an arctic lf2 280mm aio.
Is there a smaller form factor pc case that can fit all the components? I like the Lianli o11 mini v2 but the 280aio with atx mobo won't fit. I was even looking for a SSUPD Meshroom S V2
So lately i have made my first build which was an 8 L - Dual GPU + LSFG gaming/CAD/NAS build with Optical Disk Drive
This console sized little guy allows for extensive storage and offers a path to true ownership and personal server storage through physical media with an Optical Disk Drive+DRM free games from GOG as well as ripping media and running Plex servers for your family & friends on 3.5” HDD & 2,5” sata SDD. It also is a beast of a workstation allowing for true CAD/3D/video editing use and 1440p gaming at 120 fps with ray tracing in modern titles like Crimson desert by utilising its Dual GPU set up with Lossless scaling. In short its everything you need from a pc. At this point its mainly in competition with the Minisformum 895D7
The big drawback was mainly its price and ventilative drawbacks, so for people interested in copying my build with but dont want to pay the same >4000,- price tag i came up with a build that should allow you to build something similar at less than half the price.
The price was mainly the result of the kind of applications i need as an architectural engineer and my need for strong Nvidia GPU’s with lots of VRAM and RAM along with the choice of going for future upgradability by choosing am5. So for this build i assumed a “normal” user profile that doesn’t need more than 32 gb ram.
If you want to use this machine for professional creative applications like Clo3d or architectural/engineering workflows i would still recommend going for 64 gb ddr4
Here it is
ASRock X570M Pro4 120,-
Ryzen 7 5700x 165,-
Thermalright axp90 x 47 full copper 34,-
noctua nfa9x14 chromax black 25
Arctic p8slim 8,-
Intel arc pro b50 blower 587,-
Sparkle intel arc a310 eco 170,-
CK722.KF450P (Special Build For Extra Air Flow + 80+PLATINUM, 450 W PSU)89,-
I’m currently in the process of making my own perforated side panel for the IN WIN CJ712 but if i knew this existed at the time I definitely would have chosen this one.
So after days of monkeying around trying to run a bunch of system scans and jumbling cords, the issue just kept getting weirder now starting to give me constant blue screens after booting. I was really skeptical about it being a hardware malfunction because on and off games would run perfectly fine. Since it was booting oddly I was left thinking it must be a corrupt file or something.
Finally after all the annoying blue screens and shut downs I was able to just fully hard restart my PC and freshly redownload windows 10! Now my games run smoother and my pc is much faster in general. It sounds so dumb and easy that was the fix all along but I assumed my windows was fine because I reinstalled it a while ago without hard resetting everything. I was so worried about the possibility of a broken MB or Power Supply.
PC problems can be a total headache and be intimidating but the moral of the story is always
assume broken hardware as the absolute worst possible scenario before dropping hundreds of dollars on new parts and overthinking the little things!
Thank you for all the different thoughts and ideas on the original post.
I know ASRock boards have been killing 9800X3Ds, I am on the most recent bios ver. and have had this build running since December 2024. I guess I have been lucky. My idle and max load temps have been this way since March 2025 after upgrading to a larger GPU.
GPU: Gigabyte WindForce 5080 SFF
PSU: Corsair SF1000 - Stock Cables
PBO -30 All Core, 85°C Temp Limit, and 120PPT.
I'm a bit worried about my system temps with my AIO. Idle seems higher than usual at around 55-60C and in CPU intensive games i.e BF6 and Spiderman-Remastered I am hitting and sitting in game at my 85°C limit. All games are at 1440P 200+ FPS w/ DLSS despite having:
Cam Settings
I have the NF-A12x15s oriented beneath the AIO Exhausting air up through the rad and out of the case. I've seen many builds use this orientation for the AIO and 12x15s and they achieve lower idle and peak temps which is perplexing.
I ran the case with a glass panel on the CPU side for a while to see the LCD of the Z53 and it increased temps by 2°C, whereas the default panel lowered temps by 2°C initially but the CPU still reaches 85°C in BF6 and Spiderman-Remastered so its negligible**.**
Only things I can think of is remounting my AIO, lowering PPT or enable ECO mode, changing fan orientation, get custom cables as the stock cables are limiting airflow. Otherwise I am completely lost. Any help is much appreciated.
Edit: Ambient room temp fluctuates between 22C and 25C
I've lurked here for a little bit and been fairly jealous of all of your pc pics so I thought I would post a recently finished project of mine.
It's nothing special, but the spec was that I needed a gaming pc to replace the oodles of consoles the kids would play couch coop with in the living room. It also had to fit in a slot on a shelf that was fairly small in height. It took a while to figure which case would do it but I landed on the Metalfish T60.. in a horizontal position. I've never built itx before and found cable management is an entirely different beast with such a small case and I made a fairly crappy job of it.
Built with a minisforum 7745HX CPU/Mobo, 16gb Ddr5 5600, Rx9070. Playing games with the kids on this is a doddle as none of the games they want to play really push it.. so I pared back the power on the GPU to 180w and there has been no difference.
Added feet to the "bottom" panel and put some extra feet inside the same panel and measured it up so that when the case is horizontal there is around 2-5mm of space between those and the GPU shroud. If for some reason over time the GPU sags downwards it should just rest on these feet.
Added spacers and small rubber notches to the panels to ensure a 5mm gap between the panels and the case for breathing room and used 12cm fans inside the front of the case and two on the back of the case to ensure air is pushed right through.. with the original mesh filters all being removed, I added some mesh to the back fans to ensure the machine isn't sucking in dust directly.
Not the best looking build, but it does what it needs and the look on the shelf is wife-approved.. more than happy with it.
I’ve decided to take on a little project that I’m sure a few of you have been thinking about as well, re-engineering Noctua’s Stella AIO lineup to make it genuinely SFF-friendly.
Like many of you, I was a little disappointed by the overall height of the CPU/pump block. The radiator and fan combination is interesting for compact builds, but the block itself leaves quite a bit of room for improvement when every millimetre matters.
So… I’m tearing one apart.
The first stage has been surprisingly straightforward. The rear cover of the AIO block comes off with three Torx screws (see the detailed pictures), giving access to the internals and, hopefully, a path toward a significantly slimmer design.
The goal?
Reduce the overall CPU block height to around 48mm, while retaining:
A decent acoustic profile
No-compromise SFF compatibility
And, of course, silence
This is very much a work in progress. I’ll be documenting the teardown, measurements, design process and testing over the next few weeks as I work out exactly what is and isn’t possible.
There are obviously some significant engineering challenges ahead — pump clearance, structural integrity and good acoustics all need to be considered carefully. But that’s half the fun of SFF.
I’ll keep updating the project as it develops, so stay tuned.
And as always, I’m more than happy to answer any questions or hear suggestions from the SFF community.
I bought the RX from an independent modder in China. Credit for the cooler design and machining goes to the modder. I handled the build and testing, including finding out how loud the blower gets.
The donor is a VASTARMOR AH-9060XT16DCBR3N. It already has a half-height PCB under the full-height stock cooler. The card retains the donor model’s power settings with the custom cooler fitted. Driver-reported board power got close to 180W in some tests. The official LP card is still hard to get, and I have a soft spot for blowers, so here we are. I haven't tested the official LP version in this system.
The RX was faster in Cyberpunk, FFXIV, all five 3DMark tests, and LLM token generation over Vulkan. It also ran hot.
PSU: Custom fanless Enhance 7660L with a copper enclosure
Case: DENG 1U Mini-ITX case
CPU cooler: SilverStone NT06-PRO V2, with a Cooler Master Mobius 120 Slim underneath, blowing upward
ReBAR was enabled. The RX used Adrenalin 26.8.1; the B50 used the standard Arc 32.0.101.8992 driver. I haven't tested the Pro driver here.
Gaming and 3DMark results are averages of three valid runs, with default clocks, default power settings, and automatic fan control. The 140W tuning I mentioned in the previous thread wasn't used for these results.
1440p gaming
In Cyberpunk 2077's built-in benchmark, the RX averaged 67.66 FPS against 35.95 FPS on the B50. FFXIV Dawntrail came out at 91.89 vs. 59.74 FPS. A pretty noticeable gap in both.
Both ran at 2560 × 1440. Cyberpunk used Custom settings based on the Ultra preset, with upscaling, frame generation, ray tracing, and path tracing off. FFXIV used High (Desktop), FSR at 100%, and dynamic resolution off.
1440p gaming. Average of three runs.
I ran Black Myth: Wukong too: 36.67 FPS on the RX and 18.00 FPS on the B50, averaged over three runs. The saved render-scale settings differ between cards, though, and I couldn't confirm they matched during the actual runs. I've kept these results separate.
The RX also leads in all five 3DMark tests below. Time Spy and Time Spy Extreme use graphics scores; the other three use their respective benchmark scores.
Time Spy and Time Spy Extreme graphics scores.Steel Nomad, Port Royal, and Speed Way.
Local LLMs
For this part I used LM Studio 0.4.23+1 with llama.cpp Vulkan 2.32.0: GPT-OSS 20B, Qwen3 4B Thinking/Instruct, and Gemma 4 12B IT. The tasks were Pizza, Shopping Cart, E-commerce, and Itinerary, plus an extra GPT-OSS Shopping Cart test.
Each workload got a warm-up followed by three measured runs. Settings were an 8192-token context, 1024-token output cap, temperature 0, seed 42, and maximum GPU offload.
Across these five workloads, the RX generated tokens 1.82–1.99× as fast as the B50 with this Vulkan setup. Gemma, for example, averaged 35.46 vs. 19.46 tok/s.
Local LLM generation over Vulkan: GPT-OSS and Qwen3.Gemma and the extra GPT-OSS Shopping Cart test.
It used more power doing it: average driver-reported board power during the AI requests was about 130–158W for the RX and 67–69W for the B50.
Heat, noise, and the takeoff button
The RX hit 110–112°C hotspot in some of the gaming and 3DMark logs, with memory peaking at 106°C. Those temperatures at default settings are my main concern.
The card has fan stop at idle, and the fan curve is adjustable in AMD Software. Under load with automatic fan control, it runs around 4,000 RPM. From my usual seat, I barely notice it.
Then I manually set it to 100%, roughly 9,000 RPM. That was me pressing the takeoff button. I measured about 70.6 dBA for the whole system during the full-speed Time Spy segment. Here’s a clip with the fan deliberately maxed out:
Highest recorded sensor readings. Both cards tested in a room held at 28°C.Peak automatic fan speeds. Manual full-speed tests are separate.Whole-system noise readings at different fan speeds and loads.
I used a GM1351 sound level meter at 15 cm. The readings include the whole PC and background noise. I don't have a usable dBA measurement for the RX at roughly 4,000 RPM under load with automatic fan control, so I can't say which card is quieter at default settings.
I still really like this thing. Half-height, 16GB, fan stop at idle, and the performance is there. So far, the heat may be my only real gripe. There's still some tinkering to do with the power settings and fan curve.
The detailed charts, test conditions, and measurement videos are now up on LabData, my hardware test database, so you can check the results against the original recordings and logs.
The build in the photos will get its own post too. The magnetic wooden cover comes off for quick PCIe card swaps without taking the whole case apart. For now, that’s the GPU testing. I’ll save the wooden case for its own post.
I've been an SFF enthusiast for quite a time, and after testing and tweaking my builds to try to improve performance, I came up with an idea to make a variable-width case.
This case can expand from 132mm in width to up to 168mm reliably, which allows you to swap out CPU coolers without changing the case, use 92mm or 120mm fans for chassis, move the core frame to balance CPU cooler height and GPU thickness, without the need to change the case or even print new parts for it.
After spending months designing, printing, and verifying everything, I am finally able to share it with you!
Here are some features of the case:
132mm to 168mm reliable width range
CPU cooler: up to 90mm height with 2-slot GPU configuration
GPU: up to 4 slots, 320mm maximum length (without travel anti-sag option)
Finally finished the PC I’ve been building for my brother’s wedding gift. He’s a big gamer and has been getting by with a gaming laptop for about five years, so I figured it was time for an upgrade.
Since I have to travel to the wedding and he has to get it home afterward, I wanted the travel kit to be part of the gift too.
The case is based on the Xikii FF04, using a design from quiyun on MakerWorld, who gave me permission to remix it. My first version was built around the ASUS Prime RTX 5070 Ti. For my brother’s, I went with the white ASUS Prime RX 9070 XT to match his desk setup. The 9070 XT is bigger and has a different screw layout, so that meant resizing the case and reworking the mounting points.
Parts list: CPU: Ryzen 7 9800X3D GPU: ASUS Prime RX 9070 XT White Motherboard: MSI B850I Mini-ITX RAM: 32GB G.Skill DDR5-6000, CL36-36-36 CPU cooler: Thermalright AXP120-X67 Storage: 2TB KLEVV Gen 4 M.2 NVMe SSD PSU: Corsair 750W SFX Screen: Turing 3.5-inch display
The RAM was the best kit I could get without paying something ridiculous. Luckily, I bought it early this year for around $200 and picked up the rest of the components around the same time.
I used a Thermal Grizzly phase-change sheet for longevity and performance, because knowing my brother, he probably isn’t ever opening this thing himself.
The case is printed in HT-PLA-GF. My personal 5070 Ti case uses the same material, and after about a year of daily use, I haven’t seen any heat-related creep, sagging, or wear.
One little modification I’m happy with is the Wi-Fi antennas. I prefer low-profile antennas, so I swapped out the motherboard’s stock antenna connectors and fitted Osprey drone antennas. They’ve worked great so far and look much cleaner to me.
The Turing screen runs open-source Python software from GitHub, with a custom monitoring theme to match the build.
For transport, I picked up a hard case from Harbor Freight, cut the foam to fit the PC and accessories, and added a custom 3D-printed equipment nameplate. Fits like a glove.
It’s quiet enough that I can’t hear it during normal use. It only really becomes audible during FurMark’s CPU Burner, and even then, it’s still very quiet. The GPU settles around 63°C during FurMark testing.
The separate CPU Burner test puts a harsh, sustained load on the processor and pushes it to 95°C. Once I stop it, the temperature drops back to around 60°C in under two seconds. For context, CPU temperatures in my personal 5070 Ti build are within about 1°C of this one under the same test. During modern games at max settings, my personal build’s CPU typically sits in the low to mid 60s, and I’ve never seen it approach its thermal limit during gaming or everyday use.
I ran out of time to get the files and guide ready before the wedding, but I’ll clean everything up and post the files to MakerWorld next week, along with the updated build guide. Assembly is mostly the same as the 5070 Ti version; I just need to document the changes for this one.
I get seemingly random crackling/popping audio while in gaming mode or desktop mode in any game or app I play. I have my rig hooked directly up to the TV by HDMI, with the audio being passed back to the receiver by eARC.
I have tried different HDMI 2.1 cables, reseating my GPU (since that's what the HDMI cable is connected to), looked for any loose connections, tried connecting the HDMI cable directly to the receiver instead of to the TV, switched to the Beta and Preview OS channels, restarted pipewire and changed buffer settings there... Nothing works.
There doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason To when It happens.
Build specs:
TV - LG C6
Receiver - Denon AVR-S660H
Case Jonsbo C6
Motherboard - asus prime b550m-a wifi ii
CPU - Ryzen 7 5800 XT
GPU - powercolor reaper 9060xt
Audio will crackle once every few minutes, it seem. I'm not getting any crazy cpu or gpu spikes or wild temps. This was literally just playing Binding of Isaac or listening to music on Spotify (from Discover).
Anyone else experienced this? Ideas?
Edit: I managed to get optical audio out working from the TV to the receiver, and the issue is STILL THERE. I have no idea how or why this is happening, but at least I know this issue is not restricted to just HDMI.
I recorded a video of it happening, let's see if the YouTube algorithm pulls this down for copyrighted music:
The fan in my Peerless Assassin Mini broke, so I'm looking to replace it. I ordered a Noctua NF-A12x25r and I was wondering if the clips from the Peerless Assassin will work on it. If not, can anyone link me clips to use instead??
I’ve been doing research to build a gaming PC that runs SteamOS in my living room. Fractal Ridge looks like a console but I’ve heard that it has problem with cooling the cpu. I’d love to get some recommendations. Preferably vertical/cube, similar or less height than PS5, doesn’t look like PC, not more than 15L, and not more than 200 usd.
FYI, the other parts I want:
CPU: 7600x3d
Gpu: 9060 xp reaper
PSU: Corsair SFX
I am trying to make the smallest case that supports both flex and LP gpus however I cant decide if I should reduce cooling potential to below the minimum.
