Small form factor help

[SneakyBeach]

Budget (including currency): 2500

Country: USA

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: Baldur’s Gate, RE4, Cyberpunk

Other details Upgrading from skylake i7 and a 1070 founders. Have all peripherals currently. Wanting to have a living room PC build that is not too obtrusive. Would like to play with decent frame rates at at least 1440p with occasional 4K. Wanting to build ASAP. Here is what I have spec’d from PC Part Picker. 
 

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/9qmDKq

 

[Why_Me]

That RAM is overpriced. There's cheaper sets that are just as good.

[FrostyyTech]

1 hour ago, SneakyBeach said:

Budget (including currency): 2500

Country: USA

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: Baldur’s Gate, RE4, Cyberpunk

Other details Upgrading from skylake i7 and a 1070 founders. Have all peripherals currently. Wanting to have a living room PC build that is not too obtrusive. Would like to play with decent frame rates at at least 1440p with occasional 4K. Wanting to build ASAP. Here is what I have spec’d from PC Part Picker. 
 

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/9qmDKq

 

Yeah this looks great! Have fun with your new build, this will be awesome! Also, welcome to the forums man!

[ThousandBlade]

Good choice on the case, I use the same one, so here's what I think:

 

That NH-L9x65 is barely enough cooling, I've done that, went to bare die & liquid metal to get just that tiny bit more. Then I switched to AXP-120-x67, It cools better than NH-L9x65. Bigger cooler and use 120mm fan instead.

Also cooler fin direction matters in this case, best to have it vertically. I have high profile rams so I run it heatpipes pointing out the back, had to twist the cooler by force just a tiny bit to clear the power cable extension plug. With low profile ram it should be fine with heatpipes pointing the PSU.

 

Good luck buddy.

[SneakyBeach]

8 hours ago, ThousandBlade said:

Good choice on the case, I use the same one, so here's what I think:

 

That NH-L9x65 is barely enough cooling, I've done that, went to bare die & liquid metal to get just that tiny bit more. Then I switched to AXP-120-x67, It cools better than NH-L9x65. Bigger cooler and use 120mm fan instead.

Also cooler fin direction matters in this case, best to have it vertically. I have high profile rams so I run it heatpipes pointing out the back, had to twist the cooler by force just a tiny bit to clear the power cable extension plug. With low profile ram it should be fine with heatpipes pointing the PSU.

 

Good luck buddy.

Thanks!

[SneakyBeach]

On 4/15/2025 at 11:36 PM, ThousandBlade said:

Good choice on the case, I use the same one, so here's what I think:

 

That NH-L9x65 is barely enough cooling, I've done that, went to bare die & liquid metal to get just that tiny bit more. Then I switched to AXP-120-x67, It cools better than NH-L9x65. Bigger cooler and use 120mm fan instead.

Also cooler fin direction matters in this case, best to have it vertically. I have high profile rams so I run it heatpipes pointing out the back, had to twist the cooler by force just a tiny bit to clear the power cable extension plug. With low profile ram it should be fine with heatpipes pointing the PSU.

 

Good luck buddy.

Hey quick follow-up. So the only GPU I can get right now WILL FIT, but only if I remove the 140mm fans. Is this a good idea? I feel like with a 9070xt and an x3d chip I might need all the fans I can get. Thoughts? If it's a terrible idea, I'll grab everything but the GPU for now and wait to snag one that will fit better.

[ThousandBlade]

12 hours ago, SneakyBeach said:

Hey quick follow-up. So the only GPU I can get right now WILL FIT, but only if I remove the 140mm fans. Is this a good idea? I feel like with a 9070xt and an x3d chip I might need all the fans I can get. Thoughts? If it's a terrible idea, I'll grab everything but the GPU for now and wait to snag one that will fit better.

It's fine, blow through coolers work better since this case is open on both side where the GPU is.

That GPU doesnt look too thick, I don't think need to remove the 140mm fans to fit it.

also which side are you planning to have it be on top? GPU side or CPU side?

[SneakyBeach]

9 hours ago, ThousandBlade said:

It's fine, blow through coolers work better since this case is open on both side where the GPU is.

That GPU doesnt look too thick, I don't think need to remove the 140mm fans to fit it.

also which side are you planning to have it be on top? GPU side or CPU side?

Oh really? According to the measurements the sapphire pulse (the only one in stock) will not fit without removing the fans. I’m fine with either side being on top, I suppose. 
 

So your recommendation is to go ahead and go for the sapphire? 
 

Thank you again for your help. 

[ThousandBlade]

That card is 61.6mm thick right?

I'm currently running 3090ti founders, which is 61mm thick. There is a 2mm gap left between the fans and card.

 

If the measurements are correct there should be no problems 

[ThousandBlade]

Do double check my numbers tho.

Worst comes worst, you might need to replace those 2 fans with thin ones.