Search the Community

Budget (including currency): (USD) $2500 Country: USA Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: general browsing and mostly low intensity 4k gaming Other details (existing parts lists, whether any peripherals are needed, what you're upgrading from, when you're going to buy, what resolution and refresh rate you want to play at, etc): my current build is: i will not be overclocking besides turning up the GPU power limit and generally letting the system decide how much it wants to boost. my main question is, am I focusing too much on CPU cooling for this build and ignoring a more gpu thermal friendly even more compact case (such as the T1, SM560/580)? ive already optimized the build so its just a cooler swap to put it in a different SFF case but I dont have the ITX building experience to know if im using the wrong case in the first place and dooming my CPU to only breath GPU heat overthinking i and should just go with the one that i like the most aesthetically which case will give me the best GPU (and CPU) thermals with air cooling (noctua swapped C7G or Black Ridge) the price of these cases doesnt really matter to me (other than deciding between the price/performance between the two sliger cases). I'm open to other case suggestions but my requirements are: 3 slot GPU compatible, at least ~310mm GPU length clearance, and reasonable CPU cooler clearance for an SFF case.

Hey everyone, I havent been on the forum in 7 years lmao. So, Considering a have a ton of free time at home these days [re:covid] I have been highly considering getting a custom pc once again for the first time in quite a few years. My life style up to this point really hasn't been conducive to being able to use one for my interests & hobies. Anyways, I have an HP 840 g1 Laptop I got from a buddy on the cheap that was working for a school board e-distrobution centre at the time. To the point, Due to my lifestyle I prefer minimalist, Cost effective, Portable utilitarian solutions. For this reason the Velka 3, Metalfish s3 etc. Cases have a ton of appeal to me; Being so lightweight and portable and (without pointless extra features). I also want something with the "umph" of a desktop that could handle creative softwares like Prmier Pro and Photoshop as well as light to midrange gaming at 1440p on a 27" display (I really like the dpi at this range) and I would happily give up 100+ fps for 60+ fps in exchange for pixel count anyways. I also run a few backround apps pretty regularly all of that being said. What I have slapped together is a quick build of what components I have found cost effective without any major bottlenecks in regards for my desires for the build stated above^: https://ca.pcpartpicker.com/list/CHfWMc Now here is my problem, As you will see I am very clearly missing a case and a modded ATX compatible Flex chassis PSU with a low noise fan. Why you ask? Because accessibility to these foregin manufactured and limited run products is garbage here in Calgary, AB, Canada. But not only that; With the Canadian dollar being weak vs the US dollar in recent end of all days times these products and their shipping costs are also grossly inflated . Not to mention none of them have a solid and stylish handle (making them a truly portable solution) or even a decent paint job for that matter. So I thought to myself I used to play around with Sketchup quite a few years ago when Custom Acrylic panels & RGB ribbon LED's & Mineral oil PC's were cool LMAO. And I remember coming up with a few designs that were not only practical but downright impressive for a 15 year old! (I even used refrence form factor bluprints to design server mobo mounting plates for these designs.) Anyways Sketchup is now a web-based free to use application (Ew) and I'm at a loss, I would really like to get back into CAD for once... But bigger than that; I would like to design & manufacture a better product and use local resources and businesses to make it a reality and maybe even start my own small buisness. And thats where i'm REALLY at a loss! I have no idea what i'm doing and ANY resources I could GET FROM YOU GUYS would be absolutely huge! I really need to know what free(ish) cad software is out there that I could pickup easily aswell as; What tips do you have for a small fry like myself that just wants to bring his product to life and what steps should I take to furfill this? (Outside of marketing TY that sh*t is easy I don't understand how it's a career) Branding & exposure is easy in todays digital world but what is difficult is navigating partnerships and the resources necessary to do something like this, because I believe I have a product in mind that I believe has a real demographic; demand and is superior and could be manufactured and distributed more cheaply than the current competition. Thanks for any tips & learning resources you guys can share!

Hi all, I would like some help/feedback on an upcoming build I’m trying to piece together. A similar build here but not quite the same components nor usage. Usage : plex for movies, tv shows and store all my data in general + regular backups of my PC & smartphone Goals : small form factor in a good case => Node 304 data integrity for as long as possible => RaidZ2 + ECC memory With these two criteria, the choice of motherboards got very small. In my country (France), it seems that the only board I could buy online is an ASRock Rack X570D4I-2T. I don’t mind the price, especially for such incredible specs (IPMI, 10GB Ethernet, etc.) Build so far : Node 304 6 x Ironwolf 4TB ASRock Rack X570D4I-2T Ryzen 5 3600 16GB (2x8) SODIMM ECC 2666MHz (Kingston KSM26SES8/8ME) Some gold or plat PSU, probably 400-500W Have doubts about: Memory : is 16GB enough or should I go 32 ? I know that ZFS eats a lot of RAM and I want my NAS to be future-proof if I ever need a VM someday or something alike. Also, I suppose that the more RAM, the more writing cache. HBA : in a video from Gamers Nexus, Wendell said that he had a bad experience with on-board sata ports on an ASRock Rack X470D4U2-2T and thus he recommended to add a HBA card in PCI-e. On the contrary, I read here that integrated Intel and AMD HBA’s are fine. Should I go for a dedicated HBA card like a LSI SAS9211-8I or plug all 6 drives to the two OCulink ports ? Caching : since there might be a NVME port on the motherboard, should I use it for caching or rely more on RAM ? What other use of the NVME drive could I have ? CPU Cooler : is apparently a pain in the butt because of the pre-installed backplate with Intel 1156-style mounting holes on a AM4 socket. Workarounds are proposed here, but I’m kinda scared of force-threading M3 screws or tearing off the plate on a 445€ mobo. I would appreciate any feedback about anything stated above, especially the doubts. Thank you ! PS: you might also see the same post in a couple other forums. Please understand I’m not spamming, but just trying to get a maximum of feedback ^^’

about 3 months ago I decided to turn my PC from a shitty ass nettop to a gaming rig with a Pentium gold G5600 and a gt 1030 with 8 GB DDR4/2GB GDDR5 RAM. the reason for the upgrade was that enough was enough with the planned obsolescence bullshit that companies do to make more money and a painfully slow Pentium j3710. I had to do a bit of case modding with buttons from an old tower my cousin gave me. there is the pic before the case mod. plus by the way it also has a red case fan to make it look more gamer-oriented. my youtube channel is here for my gaming vids. -link removed-

DIY Laptop (plans and suggestions) So, like the title says, I am planning to build a "laptop" of my own with off-the-shelf parts that anyone can get at a computer store. Now, you'll also note that in the tags it says: "Desktop" and how you'll note I put laptop in quotes, that's because I am not going to use a motherboard that has a built-in charging controller for a battery and instead substitute it with a desktop mini-itx motherboard. And, to be fair this would technically count as a desktop that you can put on your lap, but I do intend to add a battery into the build as well, a good size of the laptop's chassis/shell should be a bit bigger considering how it will hold a 17.5in. (1920x1080 resolution) screen and that will be enough room to add in the battery, cooling fans, storage devices and the other I/O ports as well. The result of the design would look something similar to this: Essentially I'll find a way to fit a charge controller and a battery charge indicator onto the diy laptop, not only for laughs but as well as to see if I can do this for a living, essentially making user-serviceable laptops that they can handle repairs on their own just in case I can't be there to do it for them, unlike Apple of course. That, and the prospect of having a less-than-$1,000.00 computer that anyone can have is a great thing, especially in terms of hardware upgrades. And, even think about it like this: For startup businesses where they have just a 2U or 3U rack full of PCI-E cards or RAID cards, all they would need is the brains and the heart of all operations. That and it will make it easier to get access to the main motherboard in the "laptop" form factor than it would be to take out a WHOLE server rack that's full of stuff like shrouds or CPU coolers just to get to the bloody thing. But, it's not to say that this idea can be perceived as "frivolous" or "unnecessary" or even "pointless", but the better question is, "will this allow me to have a higher uptime if maintenance is needed"? And the answer is yes, getting to the heart of the problem faster will allow for a higher uptime. That, and it makes transportation more easier for the DIY laptop. Or you can use it as an On-the-go multi user workstation for video editing and CAD design! Slap on an NVIDIA Grid K1 and get a AMD Ryzen APU with 8 cores, 16 threads and some virtualization and you have a bad-**s server! Then there are brands out there like Eurocom that have that aspect covered but can someone tell me how much those laptops cost again? What's that? Just as much as a new Apple computer that's not the iMac Pro 5k? Well, that proves another aspect: Price-to-performance ratio. To have a computer that allows five people to carry out intensive tasks on a mobile (and compact) server is pretty damn impressive when it costs no more than two or three grand! (two thousand or three thousand dollars USD) Just sayin'. What about kind of port are you going to use for the external PCI-E devices? Thunderbolt 3? Well, definitely not and I'll explain why. Thunderbolt is essentially a consumer's version of "PCI-E Hot plugging" and to be fair, it's pretty damn impressive that they can squeeze a lot of data through that tiny cable. Though, there are drawbacks. First of all: It's a little bit more expensive. And, it has a protocol overhead to it as well. ouch. So, the port for external PCI-E based devices will be essentially an external PCI-E port right on either side of the laptop or behind the screen. That and it will be a full x16 rather than x4 gen 3 speeds. Plus, Hot pluggable GPUs are a thing now, and PCI-E hot plugging is a lot more better than Thunderbolt 3 (mostly) and still outperforms it! So, what do you guys think? A ingenious idea? or something that has been attempted and flopped before?

Smallest case with 3 120mm rads, 2 gpus, full size psu, 3.5inch drive, ssd, and a atx motherboard (i like to run 2 fans per rad)

Hi there, my brother would like to have a new PC and I help him looking for parts. He wants to go fo a small PC, that he can transport easily if needed, so I am looking for a SFF case that can fit a full lenght GTX 1060 and adequate cooling for a Ryzen 5 2600 while looking better than your average shoe box. Thank you for your time and have a nice day.

Hey all, I am building in the Dan A4-SFX v3 (arriving in a few weeks!) and I really want to liquid cool my 1070. I thought about custom water cooling but the price was a bit too much after spending $220 on the case.. So I'm considering an AIO, and the the Asetek 545LC 92mm is the only AIO that is compatible with the case. To attach it to the graphics card (EVGA 1070) I am looking at the NZXT Kraken G12. Does the Asetek 545L 92mm attach to the NZXT Kraken G12? It isn't listed on the NZXT support page but am wondering if it will fit anyways. https://www.nzxt.com/products/kraken-g12-white https://store.asetek.com/products/asetek-545lc-92mm-performance-liquid-cpu-cooler Thanks!

Hey all, I am starting to build in my Dan A4 SFX v3 and am really intrigued by the HDPLEX 400W due to the restrictions of the A4. Only problem is I'm a complete newbie when it comes to these types of power supplies.. Does anyone know of a good external power brick that I can use to power the 400W HDPLEX? Their website says the Dell 330W works, but won't that only supply 330W to my computer and not the full 400W? Or does that not matter? Help? https://www.hdplex.com/hdplex-400w-hi-fi-dc-atx-power-supply-16v-24v-wide-range-voltage-input.html Thanks!

Hey guys I am looking forward to take my Dell Optiplex Xe small factor form and turn it into a Gaming PC for a fairly cheap price. I want to change out anything that would make a good gaming pc and general use pc it already has Windows 10 Pro. Specs 280 W power supply Intel® Core™ 2 Duo E7400/2.83GHz, 3M, 1066FSB Processor 4gb kit 2x2GB DDR3 Non-ECC SDRAM, 1066MHz/1333MHz, (2 DIMM) <<<< (4 DIMM slots ; Up to 2gb ; DDR3 Synch DRAM Non-ECC Memory 1066MHz or 1333MHz) Integrated Intel GMA 4500 graphics/video controller DVD-ROM optical drive 250GB2 SATA 7200 RPM HDD (2.5”) RAID 1 250GB2 SATA 7200 RPM FIPS Encrypted HDD 2.5" hard drive Intel Q45 Express Chipset w/ICH10DO Chipset System board connectors 1 PCI slot 1 PCIe x 16 slot 3 SATA connections Chassis size Height 3.35in. / 8.52cm Width 11.4in. / 28.96cm Depth 12.74in. / 32.36cm Please let me know what i should get to make this pc better thank you.

Hello LTT Community- This is the HTPC One- a 2.6L case designed for Ryzen APUs and the HDPLEX 160 AC-DC unit with a pico style DC-ATX unit. It’s got support for a Wraith Stealth cooler with the AMD shroud removed, right under 49ish mm of cooler height. It uses PEMSERTS to hold the motherboard in and hold the top on. It will be manufactured by Sliger Designs, the same company the manufactures the Cerebrus and Cerebrus X. It will include a machined power switch from NFC systems. Spoiler below contains renders: You can see the most up-to-date model here (it’s an autodesk viewer link): https://autode.sk/2ufuUuj My goal with this thread is to see how many are interested. If you are interested, please fill out this form, which will help judge interest and decide on what color to powder coat it. Form: https://autode.sk/2ufuUuj Cheers, Windfall HTPC One Status: CONCEPT / Community feedback Note to mods: if this is in the wrong spot, move at your discretion.

in 2018 is x299 worth it in small form factor I want the best proformance per ltr realy possible im a dell 7040 MT and its sad but have been buying forward compatible parts but want to know if the small form factor of this platform is worth the effort?

Hello, after first posting on this forum 4 years ago about creating a super compact computer case, which sadly never happened when I realized how many measurements had to be exact if everything was going to fit. I am now back here with my journey from wanting to build a super compact computer case to building a huge 54-liter case and finally ending up building a tiny 8.7-liter case that you can see here. After getting scared of the number of measurements I decided to give up on the case idea and just water cool the computer I had. So in 2015 Snow 1.0 was created. This was my first-time water cooling and I learned a lot from it. Pictures of Snow 1.0: One and a half years later in late 2016 I got access to a CNC plasma cutter and decided it was time to try again. At the time I was in love with the cases from Parvum Systems but I didn't like that they were made from acrylic and not aluminum like my previous Phanteks Enthoo Evolv. So after studying their cases, I managed to create a 3D model of the case I wanted to build. All measurements had to be eyeballed since Parvum did not provide any. Here is my final 3D model and dxf of the completed case: And some pictures: The case was cut on a CNC plasma cutter in 3mm thick aluminum. I then milled cubes from solid aluminum that I then drilled and tapped threads into. These were in all corners of the case to hold it together since I did not want to weld anything. Some final pictures of how the Snow 2.0 turned out: Fast forward to mid-2018 and I was tired of carrying around a huge 15Kg, 54 Liter computer everywhere. It was time for Snow 3.0 to happen. I took everything I learned from creating Snow 2.0 and started modeling my new SFF case. I wanted similar to the Dan case A4-SFX and the Louqe Ghost S1. I was more careful this time modeling since everything had to fit very snug this time around. Making cubes in every corner to screw it together would take too much space in the case. Since I don't own a welder for aluminum and I wanted the side panels to be magnetic I had to go with steel. The case was cut with a CNC water cutter for about 136 USD in 2mm thick steel. If you can, use a water cutter. Makes for way less sanding compared to plasma cutting. It will save you hours of sanding... trust me. Sadly I don't have many pictures of the building process of Snow 3.0 but here are some shots of the final case: In each corner, there is a nut welded onto the case and a round-head bolt that I then place magnets onto to hold the side panels firmly onto the case. The bolts make for easy adjustment so that the side panel goes flush with the rest of the case. Some specs and facts: Snow 1.0 and 2.0: Gigabyte GA-Z97 MX Gaming 5 Intel Core i7 4790K 8GB HyperX RAM Nvidia GTX 780 Ti 80GB Intel SSD 1TB WD HDD EVGA G2 Supernova 850W Watercooling Snow 3.0: Msi Z370i Gaming Pro Carbon AC Intel Core i7 8700K 16GB Corsair RAM Nvidia GTX Titan X (Pascal) 500GB Samsung 850 Evo SSD Corsair SF 600w Cryorig C1 CPU air cooler I’m more than happy to share any 3D models or dxf files if anyone would want them. If there is any questions, feedback or something I missed, please let me know and I'll try to answer it!

So, i want to build a pc for my sister (10 years old) The purpose of this machine is going to be watching 1080p youtube videos microsoft office. The pc should be as silent as possible Wich board is the better one of those? I can get them both for 15€ https://www.asus.com/de/Motherboards/AT5IONTI/ https://de.msi.com/Motherboard/E350IAE45.html Can those apus handle 1080p youtube smoothly? i could also ad a gt740 2gb that i have laying around if needed

I just got a used Dell Optiplex 7010 for a really good price. It has a Core I5, 8 Gb of ram and an AMD Radeon HD 7030. I am looking to replace the GPU with something different. The problem is that it is a Small Form Factor PC and I am having a hard time finding a GPU that will fit. Any recommendations?

Hi I have been looking around for cases for my recently built computer since I've been using my old case. Now I would like to be able to use a full profile GPU (My Asus HD 7850), A WD Blue 1TB (3.5 version not the 2.5) and a ATX PSU. Heatsink is not a problem since I alredy have a low profile 65mm Heatsink which cools very well my ryzen. I would like a portabe one (Like a PS4 type of portability), since I will be traveling lately and moving my PC a lot. I would like something like this: https://www.amazon.com/SilverStone-Technology-Mini-ITX-Computer-ML08B-H/dp/B0161UXWRA/ref=sr_1_4?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1529960718&sr=1-4&keywords=small+form+factor+case. Oh sorry so the motherboard is Micro-ATX and IF it would be possible I would like and additional third slot for my wifi card. I CAN give up the wifi so no big deal. My budget is 72 USD but I can increase it. I hope I was clear enough on the details . Specs MSi B350M PRO-VH PLUS 8GB DDR4 Ryzen 2200G Noctua NH-L9x65 SE-AM4 heatsink (65MM) ASUS 7850 Direct Cu-II (Exact specs for the card here: https://www.asus.com/us/Graphics-Cards/HD7850DC1GD5/ ) If I missed anything please tell me. Thanks in advance.

I've been on a kick customizing my ML08 case because I love the portability. I was hoping for a little more graphics performance and was thinking about cramming a water cooled card in. The problem with the ML08 is there is no place for even a 120mm radiator. However a card like the ROG Poseidon could operate with or without the radiator. I could slap a pump and 360/280 on my desk and implement QD for the water. This way I could overclock at my desk, then tune it back on the go as I won't need full power for gaming on my $60 LAN screen. The Poseidons are crazy expensive costing almost 5x the 1070 I have in there right, but with Turing around the corner... To make it work, I was thinking of mounting the male disconnects with a plate on the chassis with soft tubing back to the card. Bring a fan header off the card to a similar cut out on the back of the case. Then probably provide a 12v off the power supply via a two pin connector. I could then extend the cables for the pump and fans down the tubes. The pump res combo could sit on my desk with my rad hidden under my desk with a big snaking cable sleeved bundle with a pair of tubes, a pwm fan cable, and DC 12v pair of wires running down to my rig.

Hello, is a 650 watt PSU enough for running a Zotac gtx 1080ti, a ryzen 5 2600x, 16 GB of RAM (2833 MHz speed I think) and an AiO with 2 fans (Alphacool eisbaer LT 240)? I'm limited to 650 Watts because I'm gonna build my PC in the Louqe Ghost S1 which is an SFF Case and it only fits SFF PSU's. My PSU of choice would be the Enermax revolution SFF 650 Watt .

Guys, help me out please! Can you recommend a silent CPU cooler for an i5 8600K? I'm planning to build it in a Kolink Rocket chassis (Dan Cases sfx V1 clone). The maximum height of he cooler is 54 mm, and the case can't accept water cooling. In this config im not planning to overclock. Side dish will be 8 GB ram and probably an H370 mobo. The setup will be used primarily for games. My budget is max 70 USD Thank you Bako

I'm currently trying to build my first gaming PC on the cheap. The method I'm trying is to buy a used office PC with good base specs and to slap a mid- to high-tier graphics card into the thing to let it run games. Specifically, I've purchased an HP EliteDesk 800 G1, small form factor edition (the one with a DVD drive in the upper left corner, not the ultra-slim model or full tower) with an i7-4770 inside. Immediately upon getting it home, though, I realized an issue: while the motherboard has an available PCIe x16 slot, the power supply is custom-made for the system and doesn't have any extra cables. Worse yet, it's only 240 watts. While the TDP of the processor and most small form factor GPU's would still be below 240, almost every graphics card I've seen recommends a minimum 400 watt PSU. I've done a little research and have seen some threads claiming that upgrading the PSU in a prebuilt small form factor PC is either impossible, or not worth the hassle of rewiring all the custom power connections on the (usually custom) motherboard. I'm starting to worry that I wasted my money and should have gone with a full tower. Is it possible for me to (safely) jury-rig a 6-pin PCIe power connector onto the existing power supply? If not, is it even possible for me to upgrade the PSU of a SFF prebuilt with a custom motherboard?

Hey there mates! Linus sort of got me on the small form factor hype train, to my wallets' misfortune. Since the aforementioned wallet has a student's budget, I can't afford to upgrade my haswell system, I decided to settle on getting an LGA 1150 Mini-ITX motherboard and a compatible small case. I'm not reaallly into the cage-pure-metal-cube shaped PC's, so I would really like your recommendation on a small case (preferably with a window) that isn't very flashy and gamery, and within a reasonable budget. If you have any specific motherboard in mind, or anything you think I should know before facing this endeavor, please share those too :-) (I have a Core i5 and an ASUS 970, and I'm not planning on using SLI pretty much ever) Thanks! (I always feel so silly writing forum posts, feels like snail mail, brr)

Mid tower: Rosewill Cullinan on Amazon: http://geni.us/h8r3qI Antec HCG 620W on Amazon: http://geni.us/dlfOs Intel Core i7 8700K on Amazon: http://geni.us/6zjA Deepcool Captain 120EX on Amazon: http://geni.us/gpWAADD ASUS Strix Z370-H Gaming on Amazon: http://geni.us/Uqrf Corsair Vengeance 32GB Corsair DDR4 on Amazon: http://geni.us/mXOK GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Founders on Amazon: http://geni.us/ATBF Corsair 480GB MP500 on Amazon: http://geni.us/aQu4cK Seagate 2TB Barracuda on Amazon: http://geni.us/A1uv6 Buy Corsair One on Amazon: http://geni.us/m3AES2 DIY SFF: Corsair Obsidian 250D on Newegg: http://geni.us/Wauh8MJ Corsair RM650X on Newegg: http://geni.us/TQAJ Intel Core i7 8700K on Amazon: http://geni.us/6zjA Corsair H60 on Amazon: http://geni.us/gVZpr MSI Z370I GAMING PRO on Amazon: http://geni.us/wbfAN Corsair Vengeance 32GB Corsair DDR4 on Amazon: http://geni.us/mXOK GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Founders on Amazon: http://geni.us/ATBF Corsair 480GB MP500 on Amazon: http://geni.us/aQu4cK Seagate 2TB Barracuda on Amazon: http://geni.us/A1uv6

Hey I'd like to build an sff gaming system that can be easily moved beetwen rooms and houses , I also love to use linux hence the intel amd combo (I'd like to possibly run a vm with gpu passthrough for gaming if doable) https://pcpartpicker.com/list/2CFWcY Here's my current list , is it good/does it need any improvement?

Hi! I'm going to buy a graphics card for a PC that has a 180W power supply. I'm just wondering if a graphics card will work in there. I want to buy a GT610 2gb. Yes i know, don't judge me. It should use around 30 watts max. I don't know if it's even going to boot up or crash or something like that when i put the card in there. Please let me know! Thanks in advance. Here are my PC specs. (pretty old...) Yes I still want to upgrade it I've got a Lenovo Thinkcentre E73-10AU (SFF) CPU; Intel Pentium G3220 3GHZ Motherboard; Intel H81 Express Chipset for ThinkCentre E73 - 3X3 PCI/PCIe SFF GPU; I'm using the IGPU RAM; 1x4GB DDR3 (UDIMMS 1.5V) PSU; 180 watts (active PFC, 70% PSU) If you want/need extra info please let me know .

Hi I'd like to build a content creation / gaming RIG that can edit videos well , is very small and is pleasing to look at .I've come up with this list https://pcpartpicker.com/list/6f44gw Will this build be good for 1080p60 gaming and Adobe premiere ? ps how will this stack up against a vega m GH NUC (might get that if there isn't a major difference)?