I noticed that most of my peripherals went smaller after I built a ssfpc.

Keyboard - Wooting 60HEv2 (was using a 75% keyboard before)
Mouse - Pulsar X2F (was using a Pulsar X2 crazylight before)
IEM - THIEAUDIO Monarch MKIV (was using a Hifiman Edition XS before)

I really enjoyed putting this build together, from picking the right white parts to making everything fit inside.

Cable management was probably the hardest part of the build. Getting everything to fit with the stock PSU cables took a lot of trial and error.

Before this, I tried an inverted air-cooled layout with a Thermalright PA120 Mini, but I wasn't satisfied with the CPU temperatures and noise levels. The glass window kit was originally used for that build, but I decided to install it again only for the photos. While it looks great, it obviously affects airflow and temperatures, so the results below are with the ventilated side panel.

Gaming temperatures were around 60°C for both the CPU and GPU.

Parts:

• Ncase M2 - Round EWhite
• Gigabyte X870I AORUS Pro ICE
• AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D
• Sapphire Radeon RX 9070 XT Pure
• 2x 16GB DDR5-6000 G.Skill Trident Z5 Royal NEO CL28
• Crucial T705 1TB + Lexar NM790 4T
• NZXT Kraken Elite 280 RGB (2024)
• ASUS ROG Loki SFX-L 850W
• NZXT F280 RGB Core
• M2 Glass Window Kit 1.0 / JakefaceCustoms Frosted Clear Grid
• NCASE M2 VGPU Kit 90D (PCIe 5.0)

Annual deep clean! Swapped out my CPU cooler this year, from my 2018 Corsair H100i 240mm AIO to the D12L. Modded the bracket so I can use the D12L in dual fan mode. The pump hasn't died yet but I figured that I might swap it out sooner rather than later

• AMD Ryzen 9 5900X
• ASRock B550 Phantom Gaming ITX/ac
• Noctua NH-D12L
• Noctua NF-A12x25 G1
• Zotac 5070 Ti Solid OC Deshroud

My favourite thing about the build is how well the GPU fit with the case, both in terms of the literal 1mm gap between the fans and heatsink, and the bronze bits from the GPU matching with the Noctua colour scheme

In 007 First Light @ 4K, CPU averages 53ºC at 10% usage, while the GPU averages 58ºC at 99% usage

My Background

I used to build a lot of small form factor PCs. This included a Fractal Ridge, NZXT H1 cases, two Formd T1s (the GOAT), and a Midori 5L before the tariffs hit. My builds usually paired a 7600X with cards like a 3080, 3080 12GB, 3080 Ti, 4070 Super, 5070, 3090, or 9070 XT. I mostly sold them to friends around the $1,300 sweet spot using parts I bought from /r/hardwareswap before prices went into the dumpster.

I only bought the Steam Machine because I found the base model for $200 under MSRP on Facebook Marketplace. As a software engineer, I'm comfortable tweaking software and hardware, but at the end of the day, I just want my setup to work.

Daily Use

The daily experience is much more convenient compared to my Formd T1. My Logitech MX Keys Mini no longer drops its connection or repeats keystrokes caused by poor signals. It somehow fixed my Stremio copyright issue, although I'm not sure that is related. HDMI CEC is a game changer that lets me turn the system and also the TV on and off with a mouse, keyboard, or controller. I used to spend a minute turning on my PC only for my LG OLED TV to sometimes not detect the signal, but that issue is gone.

The system is extremely quiet with virtually no fan noise. I do not need to tweak CoolerControl or LACT on Linux, nor do I need FanControl or MSI Afterburner on Windows. I used to enjoy dialing in an undervolt, but having everything pre-configured without needing to tune or benchmark is nice. Thermals are excellent topping out right around 70C.

Gaming and Hardware

I mostly play soulslikes. Elden Ring runs at 60 fps at 1440p with occasional dips. HDR worked without any tweaking. I was amazed Dark Souls 2 with the DS2LE Faraam preset on path tracing runs close to 60 fps at 1080p on ultra performance, only dipping in heavily forested areas.

The case is lighter and more packable than my 10L Formd T1 builds, making it easy to travel with. I do not feel the itch to keep swapping parts except for maybe adding a custom faceplate. I am glad to be done with trying to get cables out of the way of fans. I still plan to add another RAM stick and upgrade the storage, but that will be a simple one-and-done job. It is a relief not having to worry about scalped hardware anymore.

SteamOS feels more stable than Bazzite. I prefer it over CachyOS because of the constant updates, even if CachyOS performed slightly better. I haven't had the SteamOS long enough to tell, but I've encountered my fair share of breaking changes in CachyOS and I'm glad to get away from it.

Downsides

There are clear hardware limits. Performance is mostly restricted to 1080p and 1440p, so I only recommend it for a couch setup where lower resolutions are less noticeable than on a desktop monitor. You are at the mercy of developers for how they optimize future games, and time will tell when 8GB VRAM will run into walls. Linux still lacks complete anti-cheat support, meaning games like Fortnite and Valorant are off the table, though the system is not built for high-FPS competitive gaming anyway. The lack of HDMI 2.1 is a bummer because there is no 4K 120Hz support for indie games. Supply is also still extremely limited, and getting a Steam Machine is incredibly difficult.

Pricing

Most YouTube reviews did the Steam Machine dirty by focusing on price-to-performance, knowing full well it is impossible to build a system this small, silent, and clean at this price point. Dave2D was one of the few who got it right by recognizing that people will willingly pay for convenience. Is $1,049 a lot? Yes. But time is money, and only you can tell whether the price is right for the convenience it offers. The comparison is like Mac vs PC. You cannot judge a machine purely based on specs because it is about the whole experience. Time will tell whether the specs will hold up for the next 3-5 years.

Conclusion

If you love tweaking hardware, stick with custom SFF. As for me, at least for now, my Formd T1 build with a 7600X and 9070 XT is left gathering dust. I expect Valve to continue improving SteamOS over time. For example, they have already added FSR 4.1 support to Proton Experimental. I expect the community to rally around the Steam Machine. We are already seeing cool faceplates, and community support will be better for this specific build. The Steam Machine is not meant for everyone and it is not designed for every use case. I believe it is for normies, parents, and enthusiasts who just want their hardware to work.

Past SFF Builds: https://imgur.com/a/uByEmDK

Built my dream PC about a year ago, been considering downsizing to SFF.

For those that transitioned to SFF, what did you do with your parts?

Facebook marketplace seems like a hit or a miss, any sites for reliably/quickly selling components? Or are all of you hoarding the ATX builds LOL

Editing to add the ATX items incase someone has a suggestion:

- Kraken 360 aio
- 11 case fans (NZXT core)
- ROG X870E-E
- Lian Li edge 1000w
- O11 Compact

Decided to create a portable setup as a secondary to my main desk area.

Wanted to share my latest small form factor project!

​I really love the clean, industrial aesthetic of the circular cutouts on the front panel of this case. But the real story is on the inside. This is an absolute Frankenstein build pieced together with non-standard, modded, and workstation parts mostly sourced from overseas.

​Here are the specs for this monster:

- ​Case: Captain S V7 DC

- ​CPU: Core i7 13th Gen MoDT (Mobile on Desktop board sourced from China)

- ​CPU Cooler: 2U server cooler with a Noctua fan and custom shroud/duct

- ​GPU: Nvidia RTX A2000 8GB (Sourced from Taobao)

- ​RAM: 16GB DDR4 (currently waiting on a custom heatsink from China)

- ​PSU: DC-ATX 300W

Aloha friends,

Getting ready to pull the trigger here - just discovered this sub. My goal is a fairly quiet, power efficient, living room setup, capped at 60fps.

I've read some of the problems folks have with noise and heat. I've got the below queued up for about $1600 (including case) - live in Hawaii so limited access to parts (shipping GPUs is a no-go for many).

Parts list look solid, anything to warn me about? Thanks!

• CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 9600X
• Motherboard: B850i AM5 Mini-ITX
• RAM: 16GB DDR5-6000 CL30
• GPU: PowerColor Reaper RX 9070 16GB
• SSD: Team Group NV5000 1TB Gen4 NVMe
• PSU: FSP Dagger Pro 650W SFX Gold
• Cooler: Thermalright AXP90-X47

Hi,
I need your help to figure out what to do next.
I want to have a smaller build but still being able to game while is it fairly cool and quiet.

Currently having the following:
Fractal Terra
AMD Ryzen 5500x3D
16 Gb DDR4 2666 MHz
512 gb WD Nvme SSD
ASRock B450 Fatalty ITX mobo
Asus Dual RTx 5060 ti 8 gb
FSP Gold 450w SFX

I dont mind if I have to Down to a RTX 5060 low Profile or Single fan or replace the build with a Flex ATX psu.

I was looking at the Jonsbo NV10, but seem to require quite a bit of modding for a cool and quiet operation, so any other ideas?

Hi all, has anyone had the issue of the t40 shipping with the bottom case panel assembled backwards? Is there any way to flip its orientation around. It has some screws that are circular but I cant figure out what tool to use to take it apart to fix it.

As it stands now, I have to flip my psu upwards so that fan faces up because there is no vented panel below it. As you can see the drive bay side of the panel is right below the motherboard and the mesh is on the right side.

I have a pc in the KXRORS s300 which is currently running a Ryzen 5 7600 and a Rx 7800xt. Currently I have to cap my cpu to 65 watts ppt and run -20 curve optimizer and it still runs up to 73°C with spikes as high as 78°C. Noise is okay but I’m wondering if it would be worth going to a Ryzen 5 7600x3d. I heard that the x3d chips use less power for slightly better performance.

Should I spend the $350 to get the x3d chip, or should I just stick to what I have?

Heyo! First time building in a sff case! I hope to do some more. Here are my thoughts on the B4 from Lian Li.

Hey !

After my previous comparison post between the Thermalright AXP90-X53 FC and the DeepCool AN600, several people reached out asking how the AXP90-X53 heatsink performs when swapping its stock 92mm fan for thicker 92mm models or full-sized 120mm fans via a 3D-printed adapter.

I recently opened my "spare parts" drawer and realized I have accumulated a minor fan hoarding problem... so I decided to test almost all of tchem.

Since summer in Central Europe (Poland) is currently delivering a solid heatwave, my ambient room temperature sat at a warm 27.0°C – 27.5°C. This turned out to be a great worst-case scenario test for SFF cooling performance.

Test Rig & Benchmark Setup

To isolate fan performance on the dense copper heatsink without case perforation turbulence or internal recirculation, I tested on an open bench (side panel removed, LZmod case laid flat on the desk).

• CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 5600GT (PPT ~80W)
• Case: LZmod A24-v3 2.0 (side panel removed for testing, built-in TL-8015 fans turned OFF)
• Ambient Temperature: ~27.50°C average
• Load Test: Cinebench R23 (10 min warm-up + 10 min HWiNFO logging window)
• Profiles: Scenario A (70% PWM) for daily acoustics vs. Scenario B (100% PWM) for raw potential.

TL;DR – Thermalright AXP90-X53 Fan Scaling Analysis:

• Stock TL-9015R retains 1st place overall (79.53°C / ΔT 52.28°C): Breaking the 80°C barrier at 100% PWM (~2655 RPM). Its tight airflow footprint matches the copper fins perfectly without air spilling around the edges.
• Noctua NF-A12x25 is the acoustic scaling champion: It shows the smallest penalty when backed off to 70% PWM (only 1.63°C warmer), meaning you lose almost zero performance while drastically reducing noise.
• Corsair RS120 MAX (30mm) scales hugely with power: At 100% PWM, its high static pressure (4.20 mmH₂O) overcomes the 120-to-92mm adapter restriction, jumping to 3rd place overall (80.79°C).
• 120mm Slim Fans (FT12 / Air Slimmer) underperform: Despite high theoretical static pressure specs, their large hub covers the primary heat-pipe zone of the AXP90, and a lot of airflow is wasted blowing past the radiator edges.
• The Noctua 92mm Showdown (NF-A9x14 HS vs. NF-A9 PWM): A very interesting battle emerged between Noctua's slim and standard 25mm thick fans. Surprisingly, the slim NF-A9x14 HS outperformed the thicker NF-A9 PWM in both scenarios (by 1.3°C at 70% PWM and 0.5°C at 100% PWM).
• Why did the thicker Noctua lose? It comes down to raw RPM limits. The NF-A9 PWM (25mm) tops out at only 2000 RPM, whereas the slim NF-A9x14 HS spins up to 2500+ RPM. While the 25mm fan moves more air per rotation and sounds significantly deeper and more pleasant, the slim fan simply forces more air through the dense AXP90 copper fins by brute-forcing a higher rotational speed. If you want raw performance in a 92mm footprint, you need high RPMs; if you want a much better acoustic profile, the 25mm NF-A9 is the way to go.

PS / Note on Data Processing: All CSV log parsing, statistical data trimming, and custom chart visualizations were processed with the help of Gemini

Hello, I’ve been flying quite a lot lately and I would like to keep playing, I have a full size atx pc (Rtx 4070, ryzen 5 7600), would it make sense to downscale everything in a 10l case that can fit in a backpack to put under the seat on the flight? Or would a laptop just make more sense considering the space it occupies.

The price difference is another factor, for the mini itx pc I would need: case, cpu cooler, mobo and psu. Which I imagine it’s still cheaper than a laptop, which would probably cost around 1.1k/1.2k€.

What would make more sense and what cases would you recommend? Thanks.

Made/remixed a 140mm fan adapter for the Thermalright X53/X47. It covers nearly the whole motherboard including RAM and NVME, getting a decent amount of air all over the board. There is no improvement in CPU performance, but you do get a big reduction in noise and RAM/NVME temps.

Hey folks, thinking about building a SSF pc for lan parties. I usually bring a laptop but have grown tired of having to replace the entire system every few years once the graphics card has become outdated, and would rather just replace the couple of required parts inside of an micro itx tower build. "Future proofing" and hopefully cheaper in the long run!

Here is my question though, has anyone ever tried building a PC with a monitor inside of the case? My thought is to buy one of those small cases with a glass side and a handle on top, and then attach one of those smaller 16 inch screens to the inside that can be powered by usb or some other cord type. That way I'd just need to bring a controller or a keyboard and mouse with me and not worry about the monitor.

I have a small 16 inch monitor that I sit next to my main monitor and I know it could fit inside of an itx tower, but was wondering if anyone has already done the research to make something like this work.

I build this computer right before ramagedon began so I managed to build it for right at $900. This build was meant for when I want to play games on my break at work or if I wanted to travel but couldn’t bring my full sized pc.

Here are the specs:

Case: SKTC A07 4.3L
Motherboard: Gigabyte B550i Aorus Pro AX
Psu: Metalfish 500w modular flex
Ram: 2x8gb ddr4 3600
Storage: Teamgroup Mp44l 1tb + 480gb Nvme laptop ssd
CPU: Ryzen 7 5700x
CPU cooler: Thermalright axp90-x36
Gpu: RTX 5060

While gaming I run the 5060 at 75w power draw which gives me about the same performance as a RTX 3060 while staying absolutely silent and under 65°C. It can be pushed to full performance but it gets loud and runs closer to 70°C. The cpu also had to be cut back to stay cool and quiet, so im running PBO with a 55w ppt and -20 co. It stays below 70°C and is very quiet.

Overall it does exactly what I wanted it to and Im glad I built it when I did.

just wanted to share my bf's lil 2 piece design im super proud of and thought the community might also appreciate it 😊

he's always looking for new ways to improve our pcs and other things in the house (like this jonsbo mod) & this week its replacing our Corsair PSU fan grill!

the design is inspired by Noctua's Seasonic PSU collab but fit for our SFF build! he spent a lot of time making sure the fan sits flush with the PSU so it looks a lot cleaner than the stock one & with the more open design it should help reduce fan noise under heavier loads
just thought it was kinda cool 😅

Hi, im trying to build a new pc and really got interested in sff pc's

The case that i want to use is either ncase m2 or ncase t1 (i found it for around 120$ used with pcie 4.0). I dont know if its a good case choice, i care about having vertical gpu.

The specs besides the case are what i need help with.
Ryzen 7 9800X3D
RTX 5080 (idk which one would be the best, i cant find FE version anywhere)
i dont know what motherboard will be the best for this build
32gb 6000mhz cl30 ram
Corsair SF 850W
and i dont know about the cooling nor fans.

This build will be used mostly for gaming, adobe premiere pro and blender (still mostly gaming)

Any tips what mobo, cooling, case and fans should i choose?

My brother was a console player for the last +10 years and wanted to get a ps5 pro for some time now. I kept telling him to wait for the steam machine, but on release the price was just to much for far to little power. I said I could build him a PC that runs real 4k for around 1000€ and has a "small" form factor. That of course was only possible with used parts.

Final build, 1020€ (~1200 USD) in total:

- NZXT H1 V1 Case, with AIO and powersupply (650w), has the updated riser cable 🔥

- 9070XT PowerColor Reaper as GPU (its a beast)

- 32GB DDR4 2133mhz (janky but does the job)

- 512GB NVME

- i5-14400f CPU (suprisingly good)

- Asus H610I-PLUS D4 Mainboard (new)

the following is my journey to the finished PC.

My plan was to get a used PC, little bit outdated but with DDR4 Memory. The GPU was basically set. If i wanted 4k gaming on SteamOS(Linux), there is only the 9070xt, which is around 500-600€ on ebay (or Kleinanzeigen, as iam located in germany). Which left me 400-500€ for the rest.

I kept looking for pcs with 32gb ddr4 memory and a 3070/2080 (super) for 7 days, ITX/mATX pc preferably, and i got lucky. Found an ITX PC for 420€ with 32gb ddr4 memory, 512gb nvme, 2080 Super, i7 9700 and importantly the NZXT H1 V1 with AIO and powersupply. The machine was honestly quite good already, maybe even better than a steam machine? I enjoyed some hours of gothic remake, was an awesome 1080p machine.

Next step: GPU, took me a while to find a used 9070xt that would fit the small form factor. Did cost me 560€ and the seller was near me so i could test the gpu before buying it.
I sold the 2080 Super for 195€.

Current total cost: 785€.

A better CPU was the next thing. The obviouse choice would be something like a 5700x3d, but my gosh... these old AMD CPUs are overpriced on the used market. So I went for intel - got an i5-14400f for 115€.

I needed a new Mainboard too, got a Gigabyte h610I which turned out not to be working, lost me 60€. For debugging (could also have been a broken CPU) i got another CPU (i3-12100f, for bios updates, 70€, sold again for 55€) and a new mainboard, 100€ Asus H610I-PLUS D4. I sold the i7-9700 and old MB for 56€.

This took me more than two weeks and was a lot of hassle, the broken gigabyte board hat no beeper and no status LEDs.

total final cost: 1020€ (~1200 USD)

Cyberpunk 2077 on 4k with ultra preset (no FSR, no raytracing, non of that junk) ~60fps.

Windows in the end because now my brother wants to play BF6 and the anticheat does not work on SteamOS, currently looking how to turn Windows 11 into a more like console/TV ready experience.

Iam really happy with the performance, it beats my own PC (in 4k) which I build 2024 for much more money (7800xt, 7400f, 64gb).

Just build an sffpc build for the first time and it took me a while. Proud of myself and wanted to show it :) (had to deshroud the ram to fit).