Metalfish S5, Dethroning Linus' Smallest MATX Build in the World 😗🎵

[HolyNoob]

**Update 15 Oct 2020

Current specs:

- Ryzen 3600 with CTR @ 4.1GHz 1.25V

- Maxsun RTX 2070 Super Jetstream (Same as Palit Super JS)

- MSI B550M MORTAR

-32GB (2x16GB) Trident Z RGB 3466MHz CL16

- Silverstone SX650-G with custom sleeved custom length cables

- Coolerman 92mm Dual Tower 6 Heatpipe Cooler

- Noctua NF-B9 Fans 

- Scythe Kaze Flex 1212 Slim Fans

- Metalfish S5 Casing

 

Planned Upgrade:

- Thermalright Silver Arrow 130

- Arctic P12 PWM

------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Hi there, I've been wanting to make a very small MATX build for a long time but the price of the Kimera Cerberus+ shipping to Asia has put me off for years because I'm still a university student. But when I watched Linus make that video upgrading his living room PC with my dream case I once again scoured the internet for an alternative MATX case that is just as small or even smaller than the Cerberus. Hence, I just wanna share a dream build I've wanted to do for years and an awesome, and possibly the smallest MATX case I found off Taobao for around USD60 measuring at only 13.5L

It can house a full-sized MATX motherboard as well as supporting even oversized graphics cards like my RTX 2070 Super Jetstream. (My favourite carbonated drink can for scale)

 

 

My Specs:

-Ryzen 5 3600

-Maxsun RTX 2070 Super Jetstream (It's an RTX 2070 Super, Palit is their OEM)

-16GB Corsair LPX 3000MHz CL15

-MSI B450M Mortar Max

-Cryorig M9a Cooler

-Silverstone SX650-G with custom sleeved modular cables

-Noctua Redux NF-B9 fans

-ID-Cooling NO-12015 120mm slim fans

-Metalfish S5 Casing

 

My Setup:

-Acer XV272U P 27' Monitor

-AOC q2963pm 29' Ultrawide Monitor

-Cooler Master Masterkeys Pro M with doubleshot PBT keycaps

-Logitech G403 Lightspeed Wireless

-Razer Goliathus WoT Limited Edition (Used it since 2015, still love it till this day )

-Klipsch Promedia 2.1 Speakers

-MassdropxHifiman HE350 Headphones

-Finally wanna feature my old and broken dBrand-ed HTC 10 as a webcam and microphone

 

 

Temperatures:

I have the airflow configuration at bottom and rear intake with top-front exhaust near the PSU area.

CPU - 70-80 degrees under load @ stock settings

GPU - 75-80 degrees under load @ 139% power limits and 80 degrees target temp

*CPU turbos up to 4.2GHz when single core load and 3.7-3.8GHz when using more than 2-ish cores.

 

Some quirks to know when building with this case is that if you use normal 25mm thick 120mm fans at the bottom, you will be blocking the entire bottom PCIE slot, even by using slim 15mm thick fans you will be blocking around half of the slot. So no fancy quad 16x NVME expansion card with a heatsink, not even soundcards with tall capacitors; only Wifi adaptors, Ethernet/USB expansion cards etc. Another thing is that if you use full-sized MATX boards like mine, high chance the internal USB header will be blocked by the bottom fans due to the robust USB3.0 cable, so a right angled internal USB header adaptor may be required. And pelase only install the cooler after you've screwed the motherboard in to save yourself from frustration, but do install the cooler backplate first as only the front and left side panel comes off.

 

I plan to order another kit of 16GB Corsair LPX Whites, totaling it to 32GB. Also plan to try out this cool little dual tower 92mm cooler I found off Taobao as well to hopefully improve the CPU temps. https://item.taobao.com/item.htm?spm=a230r.1.14.57.3e39165fT3a2I5&id=610348890581&ns=1&abbucket=14#detail

 

Link to the Metalfish S5 PC case: https://detail.tmall.com/item.htm?spm=a230r.1.14.3.63d02dd8v9Z2QF&id=611316826534&ns=1&abbucket=14

[TVwazhere]

Interesting. Top and bottoms are ventilated to be intakes which alleviates most airflow concers I'd have. 

 

I did manage to find a lot of good info on AliExpress's page

AliExpress

[HolyNoob]

1 minute ago, TVwazhere said:

Interesting. Top and bottoms are ventilated to be intakes which alleviates most airflow concers I'd have. 

 

I did manage to find a lot of good info on AliExpress's page

AliExpress

Yep, but the English translation of these Chinese products still have a lot to improve. I'm personally a Chinese as well although not from China, so I actually want to share this and help give you guys more accurate info on the product. Because this is still quite a sick case for the price.

[TVwazhere]

Just now, HolyNoob said:

Yep, but the English translation of these Chinese products still have a lot to improve. I'm personally a Chinese as well although not from China, so I actually want to share this and help give you guys more accurate info on the product. Because this is still quite a sick case for the price.

A quick google search brought up a decent Reddit post, but the photos were nowhere near as good as the ones you have!

[BigRecoiilz]

2 hours ago, HolyNoob said:

Spoiler

 

Hi there, I've been wanting to make a very small MATX build for a long time but the price of the Kimera Cerberus+ shipping to Asia has put me off for years because I'm still a university student. But when I watch Linus make that video upgrading his living room PC with my dream case I once again scoured the internet for an alternative MATX case that is just as small or even smaller than the Cerberus. Hence, I just wanna share a dream build I've wanted to do for years and an awesome case I found off Taobao for around USD60 measuring at only 13.5L

It can house a full-sized MATX motherboard as well as supporting even oversized graphics cards like my RTX 2070 Super Jetstream. (My favourite carbonated drink can for scale)

 

 

My Specs:

-Ryzen 5 3600

-Maxsun RTX 2070 Super Jetstream (It's an RTX 2070 Super, Palit is their OEM)

-16GB Corsair LPX 3000MHz CL15

-MSI B450M Mortar Max

-Cryorig M9a Cooler

-Silverstone SX650-G with custom sleeved modular cables

-Noctua Redux NF-B9 fans

-ID-Cooling NO-12015 120mm slim fans

-Metalfish S5 Casing

 

My Setup:

-Acer XV272U P 27' Monitor

-AOC q2963pm 29' Ultrawide Monitor

-Cooler Master Masterkeys Pro M with doubleshot PBT keycaps

-Logitech G403 Lightspeed Wireless

-Razer Goliathus WoT Limited Edition (Used it since 2015, still love it till this day )

-Klipsch Promedia 2.1 Speakers

-MassdropxHifiman HE350 Headphones

-Finally wanna feature my old and broken dBrand-ed HTC 10 as a webcam and microphone

 

 

Temperatures:

I have the airflow configuration at bottom and rear intake with top-front exhaust near the PSU area.

CPU - 70-80 degrees under load @ stock settings

GPU - 75-80 degrees under load @ 139% power limits and 80 degrees target temp

*CPU turbos up to 4.2GHz when single core load and 3.7-3.8GHz when using more than 2-ish cores.

 

Some quirks to know when building with this case is that if you use normal 25mm thick 120mm fans at the bottom, you will be blocking the entire bottom PCIE slot, even by using slim 15mm thick fans you will be blocking around half of the slot. So no fancy quad 16x NVME expansion card with a heatsink, not even soundcards with tall capacitors; only Wifi adaptors, Ethernet/USB expansion cards etc. Another thing is that if you use full-sized MATX boards like mine, high chance the internal USB header will be blocked by the bottom fans due to the robust USB3.0 cable, so a right angled internal USB header adaptor may be required. And pelase only install the cooler after you've screwed the motherboard in to save yourself from frustration, but do install the cooler backplate first as only the front and left side panel comes off.

 

I plan to order another kit of 16GB Corsair LPX Whites, totaling it to 32GB. Also plan to try out this cool little dual tower 92mm cooler I found off Taobao as well to hopefully improve the CPU temps. https://item.taobao.com/item.htm?spm=a230r.1.14.57.3e39165fT3a2I5&id=610348890581&ns=1&abbucket=14#detail

 

Link to the Metalfish S5 PC case: https://detail.tmall.com/item.htm?spm=a230r.1.14.3.63d02dd8v9Z2QF&id=611316826534&ns=1&abbucket=14

 

 

Love the setup!!

Edited June 2, 2020 by TVwazhere
Moderator added spoiler

[wall03]

looks great

[HolyNoob]

Update:
So I've changed the cooler from the Cryorig M9a to a Coolerman (awesome name) M-X6 dual tower 92mm cooler I found off Taobao:

https://detail.tmall.com/item.htm?spm=a230r.1.14.9.5b0f2197v44y6O&id=593901112577&cm_id=140105335569ed55e27b&abbucket=2

 

 

After testing of the two, the Taobao cooler fared on average 5 degrees cooler in open air and 2 degrees cooler while inside my case. So I guess its now a permenant member of my build. 

 

My right angled USB 3.0 connectors also arrived, and as expected I needed two different types to make a "z-shaped" adapter to plug the USB 3.0 cable in, which makes it now wedged just millimetres between the bottom 120mm slim fan and the graphics card.

 

 

Let me know if you guys need anymore pictures of this case, I'll try to satisfy them in bulk because taking or maneuvering any components around is a pain in such a tiny M-ATX case 

[kkpatel87]

Looks good.

 

Is it just me or is the power supply tilted forward?

[HolyNoob]

17 hours ago, kkpatel87 said:

Looks good.

 

Is it just me or is the power supply tilted forward?

It's definitely not you. One of the main issues of all these cheap cases from China is that their fit and finish are always a bit off. 

 

Like, on the outside they always looks immaculate and premium. But once you've worked with it or used them their low cost nature starts to show. 

[Drama Lama]

Impressive 

[Nicnac]

i love the cerberus cases and this one looks great too! thought about getting one myself... great build!

[Nena Trinity]

Never seen a PSU mounted that way before...

[Tacocat4642]

Got this case a month ago, can't wait for it to arrive! I've gotten 3 noctua redux fans for the top and back as exhausts (I will be using the AMD stock cooler). How are the temps without the bottom fans? I really don't want to crowd the bottom pcie slot, so I am reluctant to add fans there, but if I have to, I will.

 

Thanks!

[Deuteronomy93]

I like it but I don't know how yu can use a mouse and keyboard like that though!

 

You're using an old mobile as a webcam? How do you find the quality? I'd considered something similar but still using my second phone when travelling/calls from my home country.

 

Do you get as lot of use out of the diagonal monitor? I haven't seen many of those unless it's for drawing.

[HolyNoob]

On 7/5/2020 at 1:38 AM, Deuteronomy93 said:

I like it but I don't know how yu can use a mouse and keyboard like that though!

 

You're using an old mobile as a webcam? How do you find the quality? I'd considered something similar but still using my second phone when travelling/calls from my home country.

 

Do you get as lot of use out of the diagonal monitor? I haven't seen many of those unless it's for drawing.

I guess I've just gotten used to balancing and pivoting my wrist on the edge of the table while typing on the keyboard and using the mouse since young. For the webcam I use DroidCam to connect it to Windows and the quality is directly affected by the camera quality of your phone but I found that it only goes up to 1080p maximum. Overall quality though it is what you expect from an old flagship phone minus the postprocessing done.

 

For my second monitor, I usually use it most when I'm just playing a separate video while I'm gaming, putting my video timeline or colour sliders when using Premiere etc, as well as putting my car's dash down there when I'm playing Project Cars 2. Basically it's quite flexible and the sky's the limit on its use, at least for me

[HolyNoob]

On 7/2/2020 at 11:46 PM, Tacocat4642 said:

Got this case a month ago, can't wait for it to arrive! I've gotten 3 noctua redux fans for the top and back as exhausts (I will be using the AMD stock cooler). How are the temps without the bottom fans? I really don't want to crowd the bottom pcie slot, so I am reluctant to add fans there, but if I have to, I will.

 

Thanks!

Not really sure on how the temps are without the bottom fans, as I've never run it without. But I managed to get a pair of Scythe Kaze 12mm (3 whole millimetres slimmer than even Noctuas) slim fans that are only available in Mainland China, but you can get them on Taobao or Aliexpress easily. With these fans I've managed to fit a tall soundcard in, but I think it still can't fit a full single slot GPU down there or an NVME card with a heatsink.

 

Product link: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4000959937656.html?spm=a2g0o.productlist.0.0.3adb2b97HblWcv&algo_pvid=810e7fb9-c95d-4be2-b44a-d2b8a797cf9d&algo_expid=810e7fb9-c95d-4be2-b44a-d2b8a797cf9d-8&btsid=0ab50f6115940174801876961e377b&ws_ab_test=searchweb0_0,searchweb201602_,searchweb201603_

Edited July 6, 2020 by HolyNoob
Add product link

[Tembaekai]

If i use the angle connector for the 3.0 usb connector, does a 120mm fan fit it? im planning to use a standar 120mm fan rather than a slim one 

 

[booest]

the NH-D15 will not fit right?

[booest]

I am planning my next rig and wanted something compact with a punch.

 

something like this

 

CPU - AMD Ryzen™ 5 3600 or maybe push it to R7 3700X
MB - Asus ROG Strix B550-I Gaming Wifi or a Gigabyte
RAMs - 3600MHz DDR4 (16GBx2) CL16 Crucial Ballistix
PSU - CORSAIR SF750 80+ PLATINUM SFX (7 YRS)
HSF  - Noctua NH-D15 chromax.Black with FAN
GRFX  - Probably a 30XX

Case  - LIAN-LI TU150WX BLACK WINDOW TG (ITX)

or this MetalFish S5?

 

I have the NH-D15 so it would be good it it fits

[HolyNoob]

On 7/28/2020 at 12:58 PM, Tembaekai said:

If i use the angle connector for the 3.0 usb connector, does a 120mm fan fit it? im planning to use a standar 120mm fan rather than a slim one 

 

Nope, it won't fit. You have to get a motherboard that doesn't have the USB 3.0 connectors at the bottom if you don't plan to use slim fans

[HolyNoob]

On 9/3/2020 at 10:12 PM, booest said:

I am planning my next rig and wanted something compact with a punch.

 

something like this

 

CPU - AMD Ryzen™ 5 3600 or maybe push it to R7 3700X
MB - Asus ROG Strix B550-I Gaming Wifi or a Gigabyte
RAMs - 3600MHz DDR4 (16GBx2) CL16 Crucial Ballistix
PSU - CORSAIR SF750 80+ PLATINUM SFX (7 YRS)
HSF  - Noctua NH-D15 chromax.Black with FAN
GRFX  - Probably a 30XX

Case  - LIAN-LI TU150WX BLACK WINDOW TG (ITX)

or this MetalFish S5?

 

I have the NH-D15 so it would be good it it fits

Nice looking built, but the NH-D15 definitely won't fit. Kinda a waste though not putting a MATX into this case, as this is the main draw of the Metalfish S5

 

So my take is grab the Lian Li, because the best cooler that you can fit into this case is either a Scythe Katana 5 or Thermalright Silver Arrow 130 (which I'm testing out soon)

 

Sorry for the late reply, haven't been on the forums for a while 

[HolyNoob]

Update:

So I've swapped out the B450M Mortar Max to a MAG B550M Mortar. So this negated the need for a 90 degrees USB 3.0 adaptor, as the B550M Mortar's USB 3.0 header is already positioned at the right angle at the lower right side. So you can see the cable management is much more ordered now.

 

Another thing to note is a plastic phone stand that I cut in half because it was the perfect height to hold the GPU up to prevent it from sagging haha. It's only crooked in this picture as I was moving the cables around, it's usually nice and straight holding the GPU up to fix the sagging issue of such a THICC card.

 

 

Managed to get a pair of Scythe Kaze-1212 Slim as well that are only available in Mainland China, sadly one of them rattles at high rpm (bad QA or shipping probably?). So I had to waste more $$ to buy a third one and pay for  shipping for only a single fan, because returns back to China are always so much more of a hassle and it's just easier to buy another one and cut my losses  Note: Don't screw the fans in to the case too tight if you're using as intake, the fans are slim that they will easily hit the case if you do. Or you could stick on both layers of the vibration dampeners that they include onto one side of the fans and increase the spacing between the blades and case, like I did.

 

 

Finally, nice clearance underneath the GPU and the fourth PCIE slot is freed up (but not quite able to fit a full thickness card. But it is manage to fit 80% thick PCI-e cards like my spare Xonar DSX with tall capacitors that I have lying around.

 

Probably won't do anymore modifications to this case for a long time until a few more generations later and I need an upgrade haha. This build has been super fun, I would just sit in my study and marvel at my PC for a whole quarter hour at how much horsepower such a tiny case can pump out nowadays. Not to mention it looks beautiful as well.

 

 

Though I did notice that Thermalright released the Silver Arrow 130, maybe I buy that and swap in Arctic P12 fans; jam that heatsink in (top 92mm fan might need to be removed) and see how it performs. (Itchy enthusiast hands hehe)

[HolyNoob]

 

[HolyNoob]

Update: Slipped my mind to mention that I've swapped my RAM modules, upgrading from 2X8GB Corsair LPX 3000MHz CL15 to Trident Z RGB 2x16GB 3200MHz CL16. Which I OC-ed to 3466MHz CL16

 

Current specs:

- Ryzen 3600 with CTR @ 4.1GHz 1.25V

- Maxsun RTX 2070 Super Jetstream (Same as Palit Super JS)

- MSI B550M MORTAR

-32GB (2x16GB) Trident Z RGB 3466MHz CL16

- Silverstone SX650-G with custom sleeved custom length cables

- Coolerman 92mm Dual Tower 6 Heatpipe Cooler

- Noctua NF-B9 Fans 

- Scythe Kaze Flex 1212 Slim Fans

- Metalfish S5 Casing

 

Planned Upgrade:

- Thermalright Silver Arrow 130

- Arctic P12 PWM

[arakeen_sandstorm01]

can anyone recommend an alternative mATX case with the same volume and similar features that's sold anywhere else other than Alibaba? I need to buy this for a public university institution and I can't buy from Alibaba, only from Amazon business, Newegg business, IT supply stores in the USA and such.