First build in 7 years, first forray into SFF (Raijintek Metis Plus)

ilyfrankh · June 13, 2019

Well here it is. The first build I've completed since my 2012 budget PC (Phenom x4 955 + GTX 460, later upgraded to an FX-8320 + HD 7870). The jump is insane. Overall, I'm super pleased with how it all turned out. I opted for a SFFPC for the ability to haul it to/from a studio I work at, friends' houses, several upcoming StarCraft LANs, and the a e s t h e t i c s. My main use case is light gaming (StarCraft 2, CS GO, etc), photo editing, and light video editing.

PCPartPicker Part List

Type	Item	Price
CPU	AMD - Ryzen 5 2600 3.4 GHz 6-Core Processor	Purchased For $148.00
CPU Cooler	Noctua - NH-U12S 55 CFM CPU Cooler	Purchased For $60.00
Motherboard	MSI - B450I GAMING PLUS AC Mini ITX AM4 Motherboard	Purchased For $120.00
Memory	Corsair - Vengeance LPX 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3000 Memory	Purchased For $70.00
Storage	SanDisk - Z400s 256 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive	Purchased For $0.00
Storage	ADATA - Ultimate SU800 1 TB 2.5" Solid State Drive	Purchased For $80.00
Storage	Western Digital - Blue Mobile 2 TB 2.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive	Purchased For $80.00
Case	RAIJINTEK - Metis Plus Mini ITX Tower Case	Purchased For $60.00
Case Fan	Corsair - ML120 75 CFM 120 mm Fans	Purchased For $23.00
Custom	Silverstone ST45SF-G 450w Gold	Purchased For $35.00
Custom	Nvidia GTX 1070 (OEM)	Purchased For $180.00
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total	$856.00
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-06-13 00:39 EDT-0400

Some parts were bought used from friends as they upgraded, and everything else was bought on sale. It totaled to a bit over $900 after taxes.

Temperatures:
CPU (3.7GHz @ 1.1v, Thermal Grizzly): 42c idle, 67c load (AIDA64 CPU/FPU/Cache)

GPU (repadded, Artic Silver 5): 45c idle, 72c gaming load (Battlefield V)

Pictures:

Fitting a 269mm GPU into a '267.5mm MAX LENGTH' case.

Front panel IO: ✔

Back 2.5" media drive.

The mess of cables as I figured out how to route everything.

You'll notice I removed the dual ML120 fans on the Noctua heatsink and added a default NF-F12. I found the dual fan setup to have a pretty neglible effect on temps and it just added noise.

The finished station.

Full build notes:

I tried a bunch of different configurations (rebuilt this thing 3 times), so I got a really good feel for the case and what it can do.

GPU

-My GTX 1070 is a no-brand OEM that I shucked from a prebuilt... If you look at the PCB markings and the cooler design though, you can see it's actually just a no-branded MSI Aero. I was initially unsure if the GPU would fit because the length of the card is officially listed at 269mm and the max GPU length for this case is supposedly 267.5mm, but I read on some forum posts and a Dutch (?) review that you could actually fit a 270mm GPU. So I went ahead and risked it... it's tight, but it does indeed fit.

-Other posts warn that if you're using a 267mm+ card, the front IO won't fit. I found this to be untrue. It's tight and you have to kink the cables a bit, but I did get all the front IO plugged in and working. The best way to do this was to remove the IO, install the GPU, then rescrew the IO in after angling the cables. YMMV though because cables might not reach the headers depending on your mobo's layout. The USB 3.0 and power pins were especially difficult, but you can see how I ended up routing it (under the GPU).

-I had no trouble whatsoever with the GPU's temperatures. I found out that even without the top intake fan it peaked at 79c which is acceptable. My GPU is a blower-type though.

PSU + Cable Management

-I chose to orient the PSU leftwards so the intake isn't fighting with the CPU cooler for air, then I oriented my Silverstone SFX-to-ATX adapter so the mesh-holed side was on the same side as the intake fan (giving the PSU a bit more fresh air). This also give you more room between the PSU and case allowing you a space to stash cables.

-I saw a bunch of reviews and posts where people cut a hole into the SFX-to-ATX adapter to get the power cable routed through. You don't need to do this. The case comes with a little "riser" that has a gap for the power cable to route through. It's hard to explain this part (didn't get any pictures), but the best way to attach the PSU is to remove this little 'riser part' (there are 4 screws holding it), attach the SFX-to-ATX bracket to the 'riser,' attach the PSU, then finally attach the 'riser'+ SFX-to-ATX bracket + PSU to the case.

-Can't really recommend anything special on cable management. Just try to remove as much excess length on the cords as possible with zipties.

Drives

-I have 3 2.5" drives in this thing. I stashed one behind the motherboard tray and velcro'd the other two onto the PSU. I like the velcro'd method because it hides a lot of the cable management.

-I did initially try putting two of the drives on the bottom tray, but I don't necessarily recommend it. It becomes a tight fit with a tower CPU cooler (some CPU coolers won't fit at all if drives are down there) and it adds more headaches with the cable management (it's another different 'area' you have to route the cables to). Also, the rubber standoffs for the 2.5" aren't thick enough IMO and it becomes difficult to plug in the SATA/power cable.

Fans + Cooling + CPU cooler

-The top fan is set to intake and the rear fan is set to exhaust. The CPU cooler is exhausting rightwards, expelling heat out the rear. The idle temperatures are high with this setup, but the load temperatures aren't.

-Pretty sure the second fan on the CPU cooler doesn't do much, so I'll probably remove it for decreased noise.

-I did run this build for a while with the stock Wraith Stealth cooler and it got unacceptably hot with the above fan setup (85c+ CPU under load). This is because this setup has a lot of 'dead spots' with no airflow and the ambient case temp just climbs. With the stock cooler, I found it better to use the rear fan as intake, then flip the PSU around so its fan acts as an exhaust. Not ideal for the life of the PSU, but it knocked temperatures down a full 10+ degrees.

CiBi · June 13, 2019

Hahaha can't have been easy to get that GPU in there. Nice build man!

Bojie07 · February 2, 2020

I really like your build and I am happy to see somebody that actually made another computer using the Raijintek metis. It is a really nice case for its price and a lot of people have given it negative reviews due to how difficult it was to accomplish a decent build.

Sorry for the thread hijack but I just wanted to point out another option when building with these Metis cases. There is another option that will allow you an optional "reverse" configuration for component clearance. Granted, it's not going to allow you a bigger or longer video card but will allow fitment of a full sized non-modular PSU and even a thick radiator all-in-one. The key is to disassemble the case and flip everything over. The holes will line up with the exception of 1 screw that you can either ignore (or in my situation), I drilled a small hole then tapped threads into it. I had these builds around late 2013-early 2014 so these machines have been on constant duty for around 6 years now without any issues.

I made a "twin" build with the Metis case. Everything I used were full-sized components. The two 2,5" drives were later replaced as I will soon explain.

This was the first build. Processor was an i5-4570 on an Asus H81 motherboard. Corsair CX-500 non-modular power supply. 16GB of DDR3 and a Sapphire dual fan 230mm length GPU. This is not a gaming build. This is more of an office/work computer that my GF uses when she works from home. The Yellow arrow shows airflow. Fan no 3 works as an intake. Fan 2 is actually just a shell. I hollowed out the fan so it will serve as a funnel for fan 3 to direct air into the CM Hyper 212 plus heatsink. Fan 1 is in a pull orientation and the PSU pulls the air out and down out of the enclosure. Temp is constant at about high 20s at idle. Mid 30s when in use. I ditched the raijintek included case fan and replaced Fan 3 with a silverstone fan. Fan no 1 is the orig fan that came with the Hyper212. A 2.5" SATA SSD sits under the CM heatsink, while a 3.5" WD 2TB is on top of the GPU (in the default location).

The second build was a little bit more gaming oriented. Processor was a Xeon E3-1231V3 (essentially an i7-4770 without onboard video). 16GB of RAM. Asus H97i motherboard, Thermaltake Water 2.0 All in one (with two fans push-pull). A full sized Corsair TX650 power supply, At the time this picture was taken, the computer had a 2.5" SATA SSD and a 2.5" WD Black HDD. The GPU in the picture was an Asus DCU2 mini GTX670. This was later on replaced by a nearly identical looking Asus GTX970 and then finally a Gigabyte GTX1060. The two 2.5" drives were removed from the bottom and the boot drive was replaced with a SATA M.2 behind the motherboard, while more storage was provided by a 3.5" WDBlue 4TB drive.

Airflow direction is similar to the Silver Metis build. The rearmost fan serves as the intake, the second fan is set to pull and the PSU serves as the exhaust. CPU Temperatures are a little higher at idle (high 30's) but rarely goes beyond 50 at high loads. The 1060 runs relatively cool at around 41-43C at idle and 65C max when in heavy use. This was an improvement over the 670 and the 970 which both peaked at around 72-75C when gaming. This wasn't my main gaming rig but rather, a portable build that I could carry and move around when needed.

Here you can see the cutout I made for the SATA M.2 SSD. If you notice the blacked taped area, these are the antenna wires coming from the mSATA wifi card.

Finally, here is a look at how much power cables I had to tuck and hide with the TX650. This was only possible with the Metis in reverse configuration.

Overall, props to you for getting a successful build with the Metis. I am actually in the planning stages right now (early 2020) to build a more recent Ryzen rig using the same case.