J.A.R.V.I.S. - SFF ITX ENDGAME

DailyProcrastinator · August 22, 2020

Welcome J.A.R.V.I.S., J.A.R.V.I.S. welcome to the LTT forum. Named after JARVIS from... Yeah no explanation here (Just A Rather Very Intelligent System).

#lttstore.com

INITIAL PLANNING:

This is my work PC that moves around a ton, so the AI assistant name is fitting. Superseding my previous ITX Work PC in my Silverstone SG13, this system represents what I would consider my SFF ENDGAME, at least the case that is, the hardware is likely to be upgraded in the very near future.

This SFF ITX case arrived just the other day and the excitement was real. I have long long long been looking for my ENDGAME SFF case. For a while nothing satisfied my wishlist so the Silverstone SG13 was my answer as the non premium price point was an easy justification and it fit the hardware I had. It is close to a no compromise SFF ITX case, at 13L, however there is wasted space that could be used more efficiently, and it's not exactly the last word in premium build quality, although not bad. While I had considered a heavy mod to fit a 240mm AIO in my SG13, I decided I wanted a more premium enclosure so I left the idea a the drawing board.

Also, I just learned yesterday that this case has finally received a long overdue refresh, but the new SG14 is larger (19L), however much more compatible with hardware, and is a direct competitor with the new Cooler Master NR200.

Now, to be fair the market is not totally stagnant, over the past 3 years the premium SFF ITX case market has grown by leaps and bounds. But all options personally fell just short of my requirements, which were:
- Case under 12L (realistically I wanted a sub 10L case though)
- Fits a 120mm AIO (Corsair H60) at a minimum, ideally a spot for a second 120mm fan as well (240mm AIO/rad would be considered a bonus for custom loop potential)
- Good airflow with a TG panel option (if I wanted to go that route)

- Ultra premium build quality

- Room for at least 1x 2.5" drive (I need storage)

- SFX PSU (not FLEX ATX etc.)

A few cases met most of these requirements even when looking a few years back, but I personally did not like the Ncase M1, it felt to big (lol SFF case is to big). The Louqe Ghost S1 was so close to perfect, but the top hat required for liquid cooling killed the clean look in my opinion, and it was unnecessarily large, I would want something that just fits a 240mm rad with slim 15mm fans. I also considered the Streacom DA2, but this also was to large, and did not call to me.

CASE SELECTION:

Thus, after finally settling on the SG13 almost 2 years ago I just stopped looking at the SFF case market almost entirely. However we are now in different times, COVID times, this meant more free time in my lair, stewing over more PC hardware to spend money on (my keyboard collection is getting out of hand and its only been 2 months lmao), so the SFF case hunt was back on!

If I knew how much time I actually spent on research I'd probably have a crisis, but lets not dwell on the past. After many hours I had a shortlist.

5. Raijintek Ophion, this was ultimately out of stock everywhere and not premium enough, and with 'poor' airflow compared to other options. Size and hardware compatibly was perfect though.

4. Nouvolo Steck, basically a Ghost S1, maybe slightly more optimized in some ways, but there might be a sacrifice on the ultra premium quality of the S1. TG option is nice, but the top hat design killed this option for me.

3. Thorzone Mjolnir, this basically was ENDGAME material (the irony of the name is great), ultra premium, but the lack of stock (not even available for pre-order yet), and higher overall weight was the only downside.

2. Sliger SM570, not as premium as my #1 choice, not quite as space optimized, but very close, and it ticked ALL my requirements. Had I not found my fist choice I would have bought this case.

1. But the true winner was the FormD (Sidearm) T1, this case literally ticked every single box with no compromises at all (in my opinion). And watching this absolutely sealed the deal for me.

Now this all said, I had a small issue with the seemingly unavailable stock. However after another 2 weeks of scouring Reddit and other forums I learned that on every Friday at 10am they have an open order option with VERY limited stock. The site goes down prior to the order opening window, but at the crack of 10am get ready to order because these go FAST, my first two attempts were unsuccessful, but on August 7th I struck gold. I successfully ordered my T1, and two days ago it arrived in my mailbox! Much faster that I had anticipated so I am a happy camper!

CONCLUSION:

This case is everything I expected, although cable management is a royal PAIN in the A$$ (as expected though), but I have custom cable sleeving arriving and I will be cutting cables to exact lengths. So, while it is a bit of a mess now this will change in the near future. For the time being I was lazy and everything coming off the PSU was just stuffed into the little extra space the case has to offer. The overall quality and design is just so well thought out, this is exactly the case I wanted all those years back. Hardware compatibility is very good (within reason of an SFF case), and most importantly the quality is truly premium. The Optimum Tech videos on this do a very good job of displaying the T1, I highly recommend watching.

Feel free to follow the build log as things change! In the coming months this system will likely go through some upgrades as well, getting my GTX 1080 from my Torrent build, and either my R7 3800x or R9 3900XT, as a hand-me-down from my other builds. This case is by far the most expensive I have bought, but it will be here for the long haul so I see it as an investment. Funny that it out prices some key hardware though.

BUILDING:

Photo dump, enjoy!

This case comes flat packed so full assembly is required, overall an easy experience and very rewarding! All parts are made of CNC aluminum, and quality is A++.

Assembled with panels on. I really like the clean looking silver panel.

Next to my old SG13, notice how the white plastic in the front has discolored over the years.

Panels off again and ready for hardware!

It is evident that a ton of planning went into this case, nothing was overlooked. This is one example, cutouts for the included PSU cable were made in either orientation.

Now, unfortunately I swapped the orientation as I wanted the two fans to exhaust air out of the top of the case and not the bottom, this means that the beautiful silver panel has to go on the bottom

Forgive me cable management gods! Custom cable sleeves are on order, I waited for the case to arrive in order to measure cable lengths.

Another example of the amazing case layout, the tolerances for this 2.5" drive mount are insane. And here I was planning to 2-way tape this to the back of the PSU, Linus style.

Fully assembled, 21oz water bottle and, screw driver for size reference. The T1 comes in at just 9.5L!

PARTS:

CPU -   R7 1700
GPU -        Asus RX 580 8GB OC Edition
Mobo - Asus Strix ROG B450-I
RAM - Corsair Vengeance LED (Blue) 2x16GB 3000MHz CL15
Storage -    WD Black 500GB NVME, Crucial P1 1TB NVME Seagate, Firecuda 2.5” Hybrid HDD
Cooler -   Corsair H60i
Fans - Noctua NF-F12's Chormax Edition
PSU - Corsair SF 450W 80+ Gold
Case - FormD T1

Feel free to comment thoughts or just general discussion, I love hearing what others have to say!

Duckson McQuack · September 4, 2020

Anything bad about the case? I might buy this but if the difference to an NR200 is not that huge for $150 more I might just go with the CM

Check my sig for current system.

DailyProcrastinator · September 4, 2020

22 minutes ago, Duckson McQuack said:

Anything bad about the case? I might buy this but if the difference to an NR200 is not that huge for $150 more I might just go with the CM

Check my sig for current system.

Nothing bad IMO. Just hard to cable manage but at sub 10L this is to be expected.

akio123008 · September 4, 2020

On 8/23/2020 at 1:56 AM, TheDailyProcrastinator said:

And here I was planning to 2-way tape this to the back of the PSU, Linus style.

Haha like in the OG sff build.

DailyProcrastinator · September 4, 2020

Just now, akio123008 said:

Haha like in the OG sff build.

Yup haha, but this case design is beyond that, no 2-way tape required they thought of everything!

September 4, 2020

Been liking what I've seen with this case.

Can't wait to see it with it with proper cables.

DailyProcrastinator · September 5, 2020

3 hours ago, Den-Fi said:

Been liking what I've seen with this case.

Can't wait to see it with it with proper cables.

Yeah I've been really impressed with it! This week it launched in 3 new colors and is now available for regular orders. They were still doing pre-orders at the beginning of August but mine shipped within a few days of ordering. So it seems they got through their backlog of orders.

Ironically the sleeving is taking much longer to arrive than the case did. But the end result should will be really nice.

September 5, 2020

3 minutes ago, TheDailyProcrastinator said:

Yeah I've been really impressed with it! This week it launched in 3 new colors and is now available for regular orders. They were still doing pre-orders at the beginning of August but mine shipped within a few days of ordering. So it seems they got through their backlog of orders.

Ironically the sleeving is taking much longer to arrive than the case did. But the end result should will be really nice.

Don't tell me that! I just finished an S1 build, but am not beyond ordering one of these to do a custom loop. lol

DailyProcrastinator · September 5, 2020

Just now, Den-Fi said:

Don't tell me that! I just finished an S1 build, but am not beyond ordering one of these to do a custom loop. lol

You could have it at your door in less than 2 weeks.... I will say no more

Ghost S1 was one of my considerations as well, really solid case. I'd definitely get it for an all air cooled SFF build.

I already ordered a Barrow FBLTPRK block+pump combo. I have some ideas in the pipeline for this build but it may take until the end of the year for everything to fall into place. Just patiently waiting for new hardware from both team green and red to decide what I want to do, I'm in no rush.

Duckson McQuack · September 5, 2020

I have NR200 ordered can't be bothered to wait for the T1 Lol

Maybe one day.

MSI B550i Gaming Edge Wifi
Cooler Master NR200 ITX Case - Black
Corsair SF600 Platinum SFX PSU

Anything else I need? I just bought the board and case, PSU has to come in stock

DailyProcrastinator · September 5, 2020

6 hours ago, Duckson McQuack said:

I have NR200 ordered can't be bothered to wait for the T1 Lol

Maybe one day.

MSI B550i Gaming Edge Wifi

Cooler Master NR200 ITX Case - Black

Corsair SF600 Platinum SFX PSU

Anything else I need? I just bought the board and case, PSU has to come in stock

That is all you would need!

Duckson McQuack · September 5, 2020

8 minutes ago, TheDailyProcrastinator said:

That is all you would need!

Noctua fan time?

DailyProcrastinator · November 4, 2020

UPDATE #1:

Well this build is now fully gutted, BIG changes coming.

Basically starting from square one, this motherboard is going to another build as well.

However, the core parts (CPU, GPU, PSU, AIO, & RAM) have moved on to a new build I put together for my younger brother in the Lian Li TU150.

Spoiler

DailyProcrastinator · December 7, 2020

UPDATE #2:

Well some changes have come! Not all I was hoping for at this point but that is okay. Still waiting on regular availability for the R5 5600x (R7 3800x is going to another system), and the RTX 3070 or RX 6800.

UPDATED PARTS:

Spoiler

PCPartPicker Part List

Type	Item	Price
CPU	AMD Ryzen 7 3800X 3.9 GHz 8-Core Processor	Purchased For $0.00
CPU Cooler	Corsair H100i PRO 75 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler	Purchased For $0.00
Motherboard	Asus ROG STRIX B550-I GAMING Mini ITX AM4 Motherboard	Purchased For $0.00
Memory	G.Skill Ripjaws V 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3600 CL16 Memory	Purchased For $0.00
Storage	Western Digital SN750 500 GB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive	Purchased For $0.00
Storage	Crucial P1 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive	Purchased For $0.00
Storage	Seagate FireCuda 2 TB 2.5" 5400RPM Hybrid Internal Hard Drive	Purchased For $0.00
Video Card	EVGA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti 11 GB SC Black Edition Video Card	Purchased For $0.00
Power Supply	Corsair SF 750 W 80+ Platinum Certified Fully Modular SFX Power Supply	Purchased For $0.00
Operating System	Microsoft Windows 10 Pro OEM 64-bit	Purchased For $0.00
Case Fan	Noctua A12x15 PWM chromax.black.swap 55.44 CFM 120 mm Fan	Purchased For $0.00
Case Fan	Noctua A12x15 PWM chromax.black.swap 55.44 CFM 120 mm Fan	Purchased For $0.00
Keyboard	Corsair K63 Special Edition (MX Red) Wireless Gaming Keyboard	Purchased For $0.00
Mouse	Corsair IRONCLAW RGB WIRELESS Wireless Optical Mouse	Purchased For $0.00
Custom	Corsair K63 Wireless Gaming Lapboard for the K63 Wireless Keyboard	Purchased For $0.00
Custom	FormD T1	Purchased For $0.00
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total	$0.00
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-12-07 14:38 EST-0500

I ended up pulling the plug on my other ITX build as I have too many systems. I had big plans, but the system would not get the use it deserves, plus I am trying to trim down. So most of those parts ended up in this system.

PICS:

Finally a worthy gaming PC for my TV!

Fitment tolerance is very minimal on the T1, I had to place some tape to keep the fans in place as they sandwich right against the top panel, no room for screw heads.

I give myself a B+ for cable management, I have custom sleeving but I have yet to find the time to get around to it. And I might tear it down for a custom hardline loop.