Small Form Factor Build Idea

[Jojo0607]

Budget (including currency): $3,500

Country: USA

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: Modern AAA, Compatibility with older games, Blender use later down the line

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):

 

Current List Idea: 

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/st4Kfd

 

Resolution mainly is 1080-1440p and refresh rate minimum 60fps at the highest graphical settings. Current System is an i9-14900k with an RTX 4090 but in a full desktop case. May swap 4090 into this small system because I want to downsize for traveling. I'm well aware it's overkill but I want it to last upwards of 5-10 years before another upgrade.

[Failure 101]

8 minutes ago, Jojo0607 said:

Budget (including currency): $3,500

Country: USA

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: Modern AAA, Compatibility with older games, Blender use later down the line

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):

 

Current List Idea: 

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/st4Kfd

 

Resolution mainly is 1080-1440p and refresh rate minimum 60fps at the highest graphical settings. Current System is an i9-14900k with an RTX 4090 but in a full desktop case. May swap 4090 into this small system because I want to downsize for traveling. I'm well aware it's overkill but I want it to last upwards of 5-10 years before another upgrade.

Dawg how much SSD storage does one need.
Also I WOULD NOT recommend amd for blender

[Jojo0607]

6 minutes ago, Failure 101 said:

Dawg how much SSD storage does one need.
Also I WOULD NOT recommend amd for blender

A lot.

 

I am already using 5TB for my games and OS. That's not including my downloads. And I want to make sure I have more than enough for storage for later games as they are only going to get bigger. Better to plan ahead then scramble when I find myself with no storage remaining.

 

And I am well aware AMD GPU's are not for blender so that's why I am considering throwing my RTX 4090 into this system and put a different GPU into my i9 system.

[Failure 101]

4 minutes ago, Jojo0607 said:

A lot.

 

I am already using 5TB for my games and OS. That's not including my downloads. And I want to make sure I have more than enough for storage for later games as they are only going to get bigger. Better to plan ahead then scramble when I find myself with no storage remaining.

 

And I am well aware AMD GPU's are not for blender so that's why I am considering throwing my RTX 4090 into this system and put a different GPU into my i9 system.

Personally, I don't see how you even get to that much, but if you want 12tb you can have 12tb. I would do this instead imho

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D 4.3 GHz 16-Core Processor  ($679.99 @ B&H) 
CPU Cooler: Thermalright Aqua Elite ARGB V6 70.84 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler  ($44.90 @ Amazon) 
Motherboard: ASRock B850I Lightning WiFi Mini ITX AM5 Motherboard  ($169.99 @ Newegg) 
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws S5 96 GB (2 x 48 GB) DDR5-6400 CL32 Memory  ($339.99 @ Amazon) 
Storage: ADATA XPG GAMMIX S70 Blade 4 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive  ($237.49 @ Amazon) 
Storage: Western Digital WD_Black SN850X 8 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive  ($639.99 @ Amazon) 
Video Card: Gigabyte WINDFORCE SFF GeForce RTX 5080 16 GB Video Card  ($999.99 @ B&H) 
Case: HYTE REVOLT 3 Mini ITX Tower Case  ($130.00) 
Power Supply: Lian Li SP850 850 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular SFX Power Supply  ($134.00 @ Newegg Sellers) 
Case Fan: ARCTIC P12 Pro PST 77 CFM 120 mm Fans 5-Pack  ($36.99 @ Amazon) 
Total: $3413.33
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2025-11-03 16:40 EST-0500

[Jojo0607]

3 minutes ago, Failure 101 said:

Personally, I don't see how you even get to that much, but if you want 12tb you can have 12tb. I would do this instead imho

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D 4.3 GHz 16-Core Processor  ($679.99 @ B&H) 
CPU Cooler: Thermalright Aqua Elite ARGB V6 70.84 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler  ($44.90 @ Amazon) 
Motherboard: ASRock B850I Lightning WiFi Mini ITX AM5 Motherboard  ($169.99 @ Newegg) 
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws S5 96 GB (2 x 48 GB) DDR5-6400 CL32 Memory  ($339.99 @ Amazon) 
Storage: ADATA XPG GAMMIX S70 Blade 4 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive  ($237.49 @ Amazon) 
Storage: Western Digital WD_Black SN850X 8 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive  ($639.99 @ Amazon) 
Video Card: Gigabyte WINDFORCE SFF GeForce RTX 5080 16 GB Video Card  ($999.99 @ B&H) 
Case: HYTE REVOLT 3 Mini ITX Tower Case  ($130.00) 
Power Supply: Lian Li SP850 850 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular SFX Power Supply  ($134.00 @ Newegg Sellers) 
Case Fan: ARCTIC P12 Pro PST 77 CFM 120 mm Fans 5-Pack  ($36.99 @ Amazon) 
Total: $3413.33
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2025-11-03 16:40 EST-0500

ASRock I have been hearing is having issues with AMD X3D Cpus blowing up, Granted 9800x3D but still. My SATA 4TB is for my older lighter games like Borderlands 2 (which with PhysX will not run very well on the 5080 so highest I will go on Nvidia is 4000 series) and it also may get switched around in other systems for different needs.

 

I chose the fans to replace as I did is for the static pressure. Overkill rpm sure but I don't need to run them very high to get that static pressure. PSU I want to have at least 1000w and platinum

[daygeckoart]

With that budget you should be gaming in 4K. Trust me, you will notice a huge difference.

[Failure 101]

2 minutes ago, Jojo0607 said:

ASRock I have been hearing is having issues with AMD X3D Cpus blowing up, Granted 9800x3D but still. My SATA 4TB is for my older lighter games like Borderlands 2 (which with PhysX will not run very well on the 5080 so highest I will go on Nvidia is 4000 series) and it also may get switched around in other systems for different needs.

 

I chose the fans to replace as I did is for the static pressure. Overkill rpm sure but I don't need to run them very high to get that static pressure. PSU I want to have at least 1000w and platinum

The P12 pro has very good static pressure performance.
I meant to click this ASUS board below for 179 but I did a misclick.

platinum doesn't really matter that much, because you are only drawing like 5 less watts from the wall. Theres the Thermaltake Tough power for 175 that's pretty good if you really want 1kw which you don't really need

[Jojo0607]

7 minutes ago, daygeckoart said:

With that budget you should be gaming in 4K. Trust me, you will notice a huge difference.

Yes I am aware this is more for 4k, but I rather be overkill to run than to not run because of something stupid. Am I stupid for this... Probably.

[Jojo0607]

8 minutes ago, Failure 101 said:

The P12 pro has very good static pressure performance.
I meant to click this ASUS board below for 179 but I did a misclick.

platinum doesn't really matter that much, because you are only drawing like 5 less watts from the wall. Theres the Thermaltake Tough power for 175 that's pretty good if you really want 1kw which you don't really need

I chose the Gigabyte board that I did because of more NVMe spaces. Although I did consider that ASUS board with it being a little cheaper, but storage I want to keep open as much as possible. For psu's I was going based off of the tier list from ZTT for SFX as that's the size of PSU this case takes. The Corsair one matches what I want and is one of the highest rated for SFX. I will keep those fans in mind for when I finalize the build.

[daygeckoart]

8 minutes ago, Jojo0607 said:

Yes I am aware this is more for 4k, but I rather be overkill to run than to not run because of something stupid. Am I stupid for this... Probably.

More that it's a waste to have that much power and be gaming in 1080p or 1440p. Those were the resolutions off monitors in 2004, and monitor tech has stagnated for such a long time. 4K isn't even that high res and should at least be the baseline now in 2025!

[Failure 101]

2 minutes ago, Jojo0607 said:

I chose the Gigabyte board that I did because of more NVMe spaces. Although I did consider that ASUS board with it being a little cheaper, but storage I want to keep open as much as possible. For psu's I was going based off of the tier list from ZTT for SFX as that's the size of PSU this case takes. The Corsair one matches what I want and is one of the highest rated for SFX.

I don't think you will need more than 12tb of SSD storage on your second PC for travelling. The toughpower SFX is A- rated which is pretty good enough and I do not think the corsair one warranted the cost increase, considering that hot take, the PSU tier list doesn't matter that much. The ranking doesn't really matter past B+ and is only really useful for deciding between 2 similarly priced power supplies

[Failure 101]

11 minutes ago, Jojo0607 said:

Yes I am aware this is more for 4k, but I rather be overkill to run than to not run because of something stupid. Am I stupid for this... Probably.

@GuiltySpark_ It would be a waste to use this PC at 1080p or 1440p

[Jojo0607]

7 minutes ago, daygeckoart said:

More that it's a waste to have that much power and be gaming in 1080p or 1440p. Those were the resolutions off monitors in 2004, and monitor tech has stagnated for such a long time. 4K isn't even that high res and should at least be the baseline now in 2025!

As of right now those are the monitors I already have on hand. I will upgrade them when I have a system that can actually push those kind of monitors. Sure I do technically have that now with the i9-14900k and RTX 4090, but before that I had a i7-990x with a GTX 1080Ti and before that was a Core 2 Quad Q9650 with a GTX 780Ti that I turned into my Windows XP machine.

 

Whether I got upgraded monitors then, now, or later, I will still be wasting something.

[Failure 101]

13 minutes ago, Jojo0607 said:

As of right now those are the monitors I already have on hand. I will upgrade them when I have a system that can actually push those kind of monitors. Sure I do technically have that now with the i9-14900k and RTX 4090, but before that I had a i7-990x with a GTX 1080Ti and before that was a Core 2 Quad Q9650 with a GTX 780Ti that I turned into my Windows XP machine.

 

Whether I got upgraded monitors then, now, or later, I will still be wasting something.

I mean yeah. But an expereince on those upgraded monitors and getting a worse PC would still be better then getting a better PC and keeping your old monitors

[Jojo0607]

6 minutes ago, Failure 101 said:

I mean yeah. But an expereince on those upgraded monitors and getting a worse PC would still be better then getting a better PC and keeping your old monitors

I guess so. Even then all my systems are built to be in one place. I am changing this to better align with my needs. That's why if I need to upgrade my monitor, I can use any remaining money from my budget to put to a monitor that can be taken on the go cause in the end I would still need a monitor as non of my current ones are portable. My only portable one is an Artist Pro 10 from X-Pen that is 1080p 60hz that I don't really use as I now have a foldable laptop dedicated to drawing which replaced my old laptop that I had using that as secondary display for such tasks.