Drew Duncan – SFF.Network

System76 – Thelio. A chassis that thinks outside the box.

This is going to be a unique article for us in that this is more of a showcase and not a review. This sample was paid for out of pocket and like all our articles, will remain unbiased to a fault. As far as I am aware, there are only two ITX computer case manufactures in the USA (R.I.P. Caselabs), one of them is Sliger Designs out of Sparks, Nevada and the other is System76 from Denver, Colorado. And while System76 both designs and manufactures their own chassis, they are not available for sale without the purchase of one entirely …

Cases Feature Reviews

Fractal Design’s ERA Chassis Review

We would like to thank Fractal Design for providing us with a review sample of their ERA ITX chassis. Without their generosity, this case review would not be possible. Way back at CES 2019, representatives at Fractal were quick to quell our disappointment in their case lineup by asking that we to stay tuned, and to rest assured that the ITX audience had not been forgotten. Immediately, I expected Fractal to simply take the easy route and refresh their wildly popular Node 202 chassis with some brushed aluminum variant but I am very glad that I was wrong. Available in …

Cooling Reviews

Scythe KazeFlex low-profile fan review.

We would like to thank Scythe for providing us with a review sample of their KazeFlex 120mm Slim fans. Without their generosity, this review would not be possible. Scythe, the heavy hitting underdog of the HSF world, has once again hit us with another surprise entry into the SFF market with their low profile 120mm fan linup. At just 17mm thick, it will be interesting to see how they compare to the competition. Packaging The packaging is compact and straightforward. All the specifications you could ever want to see on a fan are listed in great detail on the back. …

Cases Other Reviews

Battle of the Boutiques Part 2: A4-SFX | S1 | SM550 | SM560

The following article is for Part 2 of our multi-part review. If you haven’t already seen it, you can view Battle of the Boutiques Part 1 here. We had originally intended to release the 2nd and final part of this review back in July but due to immature BIOS issues with Ryzen’s latest CPUs, we experienced some questionable voltage results and instability, so we decided to wait it out. Finally, on the 15th of August, ASUS provided a BIOS update(1.0.0.3 Patch AB, still not perfect) to their ROG STRIX X470-I GAMING motherboard, so I decided to crank through this in …

Cooling Reviews

The Scythe Big Shuriken 3. Big performance at a small price.

We would like to thank Scythe for providing us with a review sample of their Big Shuriken 3 heatsink. Without their generosity, this review would not be possible. Scythe, the heavy hitting underdog of the HSF world, has once again hit us with another surprise entry into the SFF market with their Big Shuriken 3. At just 70mm tall, it will be interesting to see how this cooler compares to the competition. Packaging The packaging looks exactly like we have come to expect from Scythe. There is not much else that can be said besides it doing a adequate job …

Cases Reviews

Battle of the Boutiques Part 1: A4-SFX | S1 | SM550 | SM560

With the tremendous success of the Dancase A4 from community member Dondan, we now have several boutique cases that feature that iconic sandwich hardware layout. For anyone unfamiliar with the terminology, the sandwich layout is MOBO/CPU/RAM/PSU on one side and GPU on the other. This layout is made possible by the use of a flexible PCIe riser cable that plugs into the PCIe slot on your motherboard and relocates that slot to the backside of the motherboard. This layout is extremely efficient not just for space savings, but it also provides hardware with the ability to pull in fresh air …

Cooling Reviews

Noctua NH-U12A heatsink review. Will it SFF?

We would like to thank Noctua for providing us with a review sample of their NH-U12A heatsink. Without their generosity, this review would not be possible. Fresh off the heels of our NT-H2 Thermal Paste shootout, we have a compelling new heatsink from Noctua, the NH-U12A. This model is more compact than some of Noctua’s larger offerings but offers unparalleled performance for its size due the quality of fans being used. It’s still a little on the larger side and may not fit in most of our cases but for those that have the room, you may not find a …

Cooling Reviews

Noctua NT-H2 Thermal Paste shootout. Does SFF benefit?

We would like to thank Noctua for providing us with a review sample of their entire thermal interface material suite. Without their generosity, this shootout would not be possible. Noctua’s latest NT-02 thermal paste has been available in retail channels for a few months now but after playing around with it, I’ve been reluctant to post this review. Not because Noctua’s proposed gains are in any way false, but because it doesn’t appear that the small form factor community can measurably benefit from its usage. Before I proceed and come off as biased to any of our readers, I just …