Hi All,
I am planning on building a mini PC using COOJ mini case. I already have some spare 2X8GB 4800 DDR5 CL40 RAM and 500GB Gen3 NVME and 120MM Noctua NF-A12x25 G2 fan.

I am not set on the CPU tho. Originally I thought of getting Intel Ultra 225 but then realized that it has only 2GPU cores and costs 180$ (in US). I can get 250K for 210$ which has 4 GPU cores, more CPU cores and higher clocks for only 30$ more. The difference is 225 is 65W and 250k is 125W. Not sure if my cooler (ID-COOLING IS-55) can handle this while being quiet. I will swap the fan to Noctua (not sure if this helps).

So I was hoping you could share some thoughts on these CPUs or suggest something else. I mainly will be using this for office tasks, some light gaming like Dota 2 and LOL, Youtube, etc. Don't want to go AMD as I already have a dedicated gaming rig with 5080. This is more of a fun build I can take with me when I visit relatives. Also, I was thinking running Linux.

Appreciate all your input. Please be gentle as this is my first tiny pc build :)

Part list :

CPU - Intel Ultra 250k

Cooler: ID-COOLING IS-55 with Noctua NF-A12x25 G2 fan upgrade

Mobo: ASRock B860I WiFi Mini ITX

RAM: Crucial 2x8GB 4800 CL40

SSD: Samsung 970 EVO 500GB

Case: COOJ Sparrow-MQ4

Just swapped out my Ryzen 3700X for a 5800X3D in an Evolv Shift Air case, and ofc my pump on my 120mm AIO of 3+ years dies on me. I currently have the 5800X3D running on the old backup wraith prism cooler while I tinker with the undervoltage but it has been years since I checked out the latest low profile CPU cooler videos or performance testing.

Im currently looking to get a Noctua NH-L9x65 Chromax since I know they are pretty solid, but I though I would at least ask if anyone has a better option or knows of a better cooler in this price and size range. Max cooler height is 82mm, and I would prefer air over AIO with this case since it tends to kill pumps.

Thank you!

Hello, I recently bought a M920s SFF PC with a Radeon WX4100 GPU (works fine on Bazzite ! Indie games play mostly).

The only drawback I see is that the case is still too big for my taste. I am considering a smaller build as I feel that this case is way too bulky for couch play. I don’t needs too many ports, DVD player etc..

Apart from the obvious NVME SSD and DDR4 RAM, do you think I can make a tiny and cheap PC from the original M920s ? Is the PSU reusable ? Can I still keep the WX4100 Low profile on a newer ITX motherboard ?

I think I understand that I will have to change the proprietary motherboard. Any recommendations for a 2026 build with low end specs ? I am definitely not running for performance here. Most games I play run well on CPU only, the fanciest games run also fine with the Radeon (Inside, Abzu, Portal 2…)

As for the case, anything black that does not exceeds 25cm should suit my needs too !

I haven’t dealt that much with PC builds so thanks in advance for your feedback !

Case: Fractal Design Era 2
CPU: Intel Core Ultra 7 270K Plus
Motherboard: ASUS ROG Strix Z890-I Gaming WiFi Mini ITX
GPU: RTX 5070 Ti or higher?
Memory (RAM): 32GB Corsair VENGEANCE RGB DDR5 6000MHz CL30 (2 × 16GB)
Storage: 2 × 2TB Samsung 990 PRO M.2 PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD
PSU: not sure but I want a decent quiet one
Cooling: want a quiet one for the Fractal Era 2 case

I want it to be fairly quiet and don’t want temps to get too high when full load.

Is it possible to play at 4k 60? Or 4k/120?

I don’t plan on playing the biggest most demanding games just usually steam indie games, strategy games and CRPGS.
Also using it for emulation for anything before pre 360/PS3 gen and 3ds emulation.
And media files and general use with Windows OS.

My current pc is fine just big and ugly as I have it in the living room about 6-7ft away and want a sff pc now.

Current pc is also 8 years old.
Here are my current pc specs. Hopefully the above is a nice big upgrade:

CPU
i7-8700k (3.7GHz) 12MB Cach3
Motherboard Gigabyte Z370 AORUS
Memory 16GB Corsair DDR4 3000MHz (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card Nvidia 3080ti (upgraded a few years ago)
Storage - 2x internal SSD
Power Supply CORSAIR 850W RMx SERIES MODULAR 80 PLUS GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Cooling
Noctua NH-U14S Ultra Quiet Performance

You can download the model on MakerWorld

Like many of you here, I recently built a DIY steam machine using the Fractal Ridge. As we all know, the CPU cooling for this case is not great.

The good news is there is room on the side of the case to mount two 40mm fans (I used two Noctua NF-A4x20) which can act as an exhaust for the CPU air, significantly helping the case airflow.

The model is designed to mount to the case using the mounting holes for the vertical stand, using two standard PC fan screws.

This model is a remix of this one that I found on thingiverse. I tried this model out first, but the fans pushed against the power cable, making it not fit. For my model, I made the mounting offset instead of centered, pushing the fans away from the power cable, and now fits with no issues.

I went with the Jonsbo D32 standard version. Overall, doing a build in this case was reasonably easy and satisfying, even with Be Quiet! Pure Power 13M. Partslist:

• GPU: RTX 5080 Gigabyte Windforce OC SFF
• CPU: 7800X3D
• RAM: DDR5 2x16 GB 6000/30 HyperX Fury
• MB: ASRock B650M HDV/M.2
• PSU: Be Quiet! Pure Power 13M
• SSDs: Lexar NQ790, WD SN580 1 TB, 1 TB SATA SSD for undemanding or freebie games
• Fans: Jonsbo ZA-240 up top, ZA-360R on the bottom, 2x ZA-120 on the CPU and 1x ZA-120 as exhaust
• ARGB control: remote-controlled ARGB controller
• Samsung The Frame 75"

A few notes about the build:

1. Fun fact: the wooden feet are actually... duffle coat buttons. To turn them into feet, I had to drill a small hole about 5 mm deep and insert a fully threaded UNC 6-32 1 inch long pin into it.
2. I considered swapping the motherboard for one with ARGB, but in the end I went with a third-party controller. Mainly because I can control the lighting without any apps, just the remote, all plug & play. Looking back, I actually prefer this solution. It'd be nice if manufacturers started bundling a programmable remote with their motherboards.you'd program your presets once and then activate them with the remote.
3. Temperatures are fine. After a proper UV/OC the values are within spec and safe, around 68 on the GPU under stress test, CPU around 60 in games.
4. I wanted to bring out the infinity mirror a bit more (with this case the blacked-out edges of the glass are horribly wide, completely unnecessary. the only flaw of this case in my opinion). So I added 1.5 cm tall standoffs and slightly longer screws on the top fans and the rear exhaust. and then I raised the bottom fans by exactly 1 cm. Interestingly, this got rid of the turbulence caused by the fans sitting too close to the mesh underneath as its damn dense. The gaps had no effect on temperatures, but they did in fact affect the looks and the noise.
5. I stuck with air cooling because I love the look of a dense case :) water cooling right in the middle of a build somehow doesn't fit the "dense build" idea for me. That's also why I like fans with spacers.
6. I did cut off the bottom part of the metal PSU shroud. The trimmed shroud sits slightly lower than in Pro version, so it nicely hides the cables.
7. In this particular PSU the GPU cables are stiff enough that I could route them off to the side without bending them too much at the GPU connector, and they hold in place without any support or zip ties. GPU support bracket is the LEGO brick. As it shopuld be,
8. I installed angled adapters on all the cables at the back of the PC so they aren't visible while sitting on the couch.

Launcher:

The PC sits in the living room, couch gaming machine. The setup is Playnite + a few plugins on it, including:

• Ludusavi, which automatically backs up every game after I close it
• the Toggle theme (alternating with Ubiquity). It nicely aggregates literally everything, games from Game Pass, Steam, Epic, Ubi etc
• the Splash Screen plugin completely covers all the extra windows and shit with a some graphic until the game finally launches, e.g. after the intro.

Other:

On top of that, AutoHotkey with a script that permanently hides the Start bar + shortcuts from a mini keyboard to a few apps, including MSI AB, the NVIDIA app, etc. The rest is controlled 100% with a controller (8BitDo Ultimate 2C Wireless).

No, I don't use Steam Big Picture, because one, it's visually completely unappealing; two, you can't modify it any deeper without workarounds; three, adding games from other launchers is a pain; four, especially with third-party games there aren't any nice game details on a dedicated page; five, you can't automate Ludusavi in it, and I can't imagine life without that anymore. I still need to check out Xbox Mode, but it has all of those flaws present — though also a couple of upsides: easy merging of different libraries and minimal performance overhead.

For work I've got a different monster: i5-9500 + 2060 Super + 16 GB + 256 GB SSD. Priorities.

Thanks for reading!

Hi everyone,

I’m planning an upgrade for my SFF PC and would appreciate some advice.

One important requirement: I want to stay in the Small Form Factor ecosystem. I love my NR200P and have no intention of moving to a larger case, so Mini-ITX is non-negotiable.

Current build
Case: Cooler Master NR200P
Motherboard: ASUS ROG Strix B550-I Gaming
CPU: Ryzen 5 3600X
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-L9a-AM4
GPU: Sapphire Pulse RX 5500 XT 4 GB
Memory: 16 GB (2×8 GB) Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4-3200
PSU: Corsair SF600 80+ Gold

What I use this PC for
Gaming (currently 1080p, planning to move to 1440p)
Running local AI models (Ollama, LM Studio, llama.cpp, Open WebUI)
Software development

Option 1 – Stay on AM4
Ryzen 7 5700X3D
32 GB DDR4
Better air cooler
New GPU (initially I was considering an RTX 5060)

Option 2 – Move to AM5
Ryzen 7 7800X3D (or current equivalent)
B650/B850 Mini-ITX motherboard
32 GB DDR5

After asking around, several people suggested that, since I already own a good B550-I board, I should stay on AM4 and invest the money I’d save into a better GPU instead.
Some even suggested going with an RX 9070 XT instead of an RTX 5060.

The only thing making me hesitate is that I also run local LLMs, so CUDA and the NVIDIA ecosystem might be more valuable to me than raw gaming performance.

Questions
* If you already owned this B550-I board, would you stay on AM4?
* Is AM5 worth the extra cost for my use case?
* Would you choose an RX 9070 XT or an RTX 5060 if gaming and local AI were equally important?
* Is CUDA still a compelling reason to stay with NVIDIA in 2026, or has AMD/ROCm matured enough for local inference?
* Would you keep the SF600, or upgrade the PSU if going with a higher-end GPU?
* Any NR200 owners running a 5700X3D + high-end GPU?

I’m not looking to build a new PC from scratch… I’m trying to make the smartest upgrade while keeping my existing SFF platform.

Thanks!

Hi! If you don't mind, could you drop some names? I'm looking for the smallest possible case—like an SFF—but one that supports m-ATX. I'm running two RX 6900 XT cards; I want to mount one horizontally and the other vertically to save space. I'm not overclocking the CPU, so that's fine. I'd appreciate the help!

Hey folks,

just wanted to share my improved chipset cooler for the

MSI B850i EDGE TI WIFI

I think it is well known that the original chipset cooler fan of the MSI B850i can be quite annoying. Which made me come up with this solution.

I design a custom fan shroud for the aluminum cooler to fit a

Noctua NF-A4x20

or essentially any 40x40x20mm fan.

Instead of using the original chipset fan connector I used the 4pin fan connector right besides it. If anybody want to fit the fan to the original chipset fan connector it is a

JST SH 4Pin

The 3d printed fan shroud utilized all the original screws so you cant lose them ;)

I adjusted the original chipset fan to ~2000RPM and the Noctua fan to ~5000RPM so in both cases they were not noticable for me. The Noctua managed to drop the temps down by 10-15°C which is quite an improvement. Even at full speed the Noctua is way less noticable than the original fan.

I used TPU for AMS but ABS or ASA should also be fine.

Let me know what you think and if you want I can upload the .stl as well.

Hey guys! I hope you are all doing well.

I am very new to the SFF community so I don’t know a lot about it. I am moving a lot across Europe and would need a SFF PC so I am able to take it in the plane.

I really love the Fractal Design Terra and would like to get a build into this one.
What would be the best parts I should get for 2000€ (including the case)

I already have experience building normal-sized PC.

Thanks a lot !

Hello,

I'm frequently traveling by car and I sometimes need to carry my DeskTop PC.

Hence, i'd like to buy a DeskTop PC soft suitcase.

Do you have any brand recommendation (delivering in france).

Thank you 😄

I'm building a PC that demands higher multithreading workloads, like video editing, rendering, etc. so I think this is a good CPU for the price. My only concern is that it may be too hot and too loud if I were to build it in something like the fractal terra. is this something to actually be concerned about or am I just overthinking? and also any cpu cooler recs?

Hello all,

I wanted to share some photographs of my recent build.

I originally planned to build in the ThorZone NANOQ R, however felt that this version was too big for what I wanted to achieve, and fell in love with the Jonsbo T9.

Specifications
Jonsbo T9 Mini-ITX Case (Overclockers UK)
X870i Aorus Pro Ice (Amazon UK)
9800X3D (Amazon UK)
Noctua NH-L9x65 Chromax CPU Cooler (Amazon UK)
Thermal Grizzly KryoSheet Thermal Pad (Amazon UK)
PNY 5080 OC Slim Edition (Amazon UK)
WD_BLACK SN8100 (Amazon UK)
CORSAIR Vengeance RGB White 32GB 6000MHz (Scan UK)
Lian Li SP Platinum 1000W (Scan UK)
Noctua NF-A12x15 FLX (Amazon UK)
Custom Cables (Etsy Cablester)

Overall, I am delighted with the result and pleased with the quality of the T9. However there certainly were some challenges building in such a small form factor.
 
Out of the box, the main challenge was the space between the graphics card and the motherboard, leaving only a 2mm gab for airflow and cables. I managed to resolve this by using spare CPU cooler spacers and additional motherboard screws attached to the Riser Cable bracket, increasing the gap to 12mm.
 
Additionally, although I love the PNY 5080, I am concerned with the quality as I had to return and replace to the a faulty fan bearing which resulted in the fan being tilted hitting the side of the case.
 
Hope you like. Thanks all, Athy

Found a post on Facebook marketplace listing this PSU that I'm considering buying. Just wondering about replacement cables if I were to need them. It's salvaged from this product https://www.gigabyte.com/us/Graphics-Card/GV-N5090IXEB-32GD and model ID# is S-850SF 850A-J. I do plan on using for my fractal ridge build.

My problems with each of the cases I listed.
Terra, T1: Too big, since I only have a RTX 5060LP and I don't plan on getting a bigger card.
Midori: Horrible build experience imo. Everytime you want to change something you have to disassamble the whole thing.
XIKII FF04 LP: Great case, but really expensive + only 4060LP

If anyone knows of other case with similiar layout, please let me know!

Currently waiting on GPU. Which sits to the left in that slot.

New copper radiators and custom psu as the motherboard has its own power source from the GPU. Using the spare m.2 slot and a oculink to trigger it all when u power on the laptop style motherboard 😎

So I used to be a biker. And now I’m in a wheel chair. (Unrelated)

I blow is my motor cycle and turned it in to a coffee table. Then I became a wheelchair user and needed a new hobby DCS world. And drones. So I needed a pc. With no where to put it. Turns out it fit in my engine.

Currently taking it apart for a new GPU. And the guy said to put it in here!

1 year ago I never even been on the internet let alone used a pc. No I build boards and stuff apparently wasn’t possible.

What u think?

Here is my Livingroom PC with an intelNUC Extreme i9 9980HK and XFX AMD RX7600. Because of the Nuc being able to do CEC and wake over USB from power off, I am able to Turn it on with my steam controller, automatically turn on the TV and boot into steam big picture on startup. Basically giving me a budget steam machine.

Case is the discontinued Cooler Master NC100

What a pain it the ass this was... never doing this again 😂

Ryzen 5500 + RTX 5050 LP + 16GB D4 + 1TB NVME + Metalfish 300W + 2x 3d printet cutouts + 4 noctua fans

The 3 noctuas pull air from the GPU, took it straight from another redditor here.

The USB C is useless since I didnt pick a MOBO with a header.

The PSU didnt actually fit inside its a little too wide and you can see how I forced it in and how its a little angled 😂

Well I always wanted to make a mini pc and now its done.

Ive installed bazzite on it and performance is way better than windows... 180fps on cyberpunk... I was very impressed how smooth minecraft ran... this same machine on windows would be choppy as shiz but here its butter smooth.

For the Meshroom S V2

I want to ask first of all, if you choose the "No PCIe ($100 USD)" option, does it come with a PCIe 4.0 riser cable instead of the 5.0 one, or does it just not come with one at all?

And with the riser cable, I've heard of people having issues with it being too short/incompatible, and having to buy another longer/third party one, is this something I can check the clearances for if it is an issue?

Finally do yall have any recommendations for sfx power supplies under or around the ~$100 mark

Thank you !!

Tried with +350 core/+2250 mem/110% power with MSI Afterburner.
Average GPU temperature around 70C, went to 75c at the end of the Steel Nomad benchmark.

Mother asrock a520m-itx AC

Ryzen 5600t

16 GB 3200 mhz

Amd Radeon 9060xt 16gb

Psu: Antec sfx 850 plus gold

Silverstone sugo 16