Advice 9950x3d + 3090 watercooling

kolya13245

Case Bender
New User
Jul 23, 2026
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Hi everyone, I’m putting together a small form factor build with custom water cooling. I’d like to use a 240mm radiator for better cooling, but I can’t find any cases under 6 liters that accommodate one. Do you happen to know of any? A 7-liter case would also work for me. The internal layout doesn't matter much, as I can fabricate a custom GPU water block. If I can't find anything suitable, I'll have to build the case myself. Here are the planned components so far:
Ryzen 9 9950X3D
ASUS ROG B850-I
Gigabyte RTX 3090 Turbo + water block (Bykski N-GV3090GMOC-X, though I'll likely need to make a custom top)
PWS-804P-1R (modded by Petricor)
Alphacool Eisblock XPX 1U
 

hrh_ginsterbusch

SFF Guru
Nov 18, 2021
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Just stumbled upon this while checking for "new posts": Chances are high you wont find any cases.

There is the Luna A2 with 8.2 liters and Flex-ATX PSU, maybe the SFF Time U-ITX.
Thats pretty much it.

For measurements, the longest parts are: The GPU, and the radiator obv.
GPU block length acc. to the Bykski US site is 234.9 =~ 235 mm. Depth is 26.57 =~ 27 mm, max width is 127ish, lets assume 128 mm.

Shortest 240s I know of run at 277 mm length, so lets go with 280 mm. If we want side panels of any type, we also have to add about 2 mm per side, so that gives us 284 mm in total length (excluding any protrusions of the GPU, IO ports etc).

Height is limited by the mainboard size, so 170 at least, lets add the panel size, so its at least 174, albeit I'd round it up to 180 mm to have a bit room to spare, eg. for cable routing.

Depth: 20 mm for the MB itself with enough space on the back left for air ventilation, not scraping off any chipsets etc. The CPU block adds 25 mm, but I'm very sceptical you could use the side inlet/outlets easily, so make that maybe 45 mm. Also there is the IO height, albeit that could be lowered by removing the IO shield. Still, 65 mm of depth, maybe 60 mm at best sounds reasonable.

PSU: Is slightly longer than the HDPlex GaN 500, sitting at 220 mm length, according to the Supermicro website - aside of that almost identical dimensions (54.5 x 220 x 40.25 mm).

Lets assume you're going for slim rads with regular sized fans, so its 20.5 mm + 25ish mm, thus we assume 46 mm.

With slim fans, I'd pick the Air Slimmer 120, because of the most oomph, which sit at 15.6 mm - except if you get your hands on the unobtainium Thermalright Extrem _15 mm_ ones. So we're seeing a 20.5 + 15.6 mm = 36.1 mm, better go with 37 mm.

Sandwich layout would sit at 180 + 37 in height = 217 mm, 284 length and probably 27 + 65 + 4 = 96 mm in depth = 217 x 284 x 96 = 5916288 = 5.916288 L - but thats without accommodating the PSU.

Now lets maybe place it underneath the GPU block, that'd either result in a height increase by at least 2 mm, and a depth increase of at least 9 mm, so lets go with that: 182 + 37 = 219 mm, 41 + 65 + 4 = 105 mm depth.

As mentioned before, maybe might be possible to go with 60 mm, so that'd be at best: 219 x 284 x 100 = 621960 = 6.2196 L =~ 6.22 L.

Console layout: 170 + 128 + 41 (MB + GPU block + PSU) = 339 mm, lets assume we place the radiator on top of the GPU block, which should work because 240 rads tend to be somewhere between 118 and 124 mm in width.

Height would be at least 73 mm because there needs to be at least SOME air flow, so I assume at least 10 mm distance between rad + fans and the GPU block. Maybe 5 mm might work, too, but YMMV. That'd place us with:

343 x 77 x 284 (including side panels) = 7500724 =~ 7.5 L

An "off the shelf" console-style layout might be possible with the SFFTime U-ITX with a bit more optimization.

Traditional layout:

Depth: 127 + 20 + 4 = 151 mm, maybe 140ish because of the PCIe connector etc.
Height: 170 + 41 + 4 = 215 mm
Length: 284 mm (or 277 without panels etc.)

Even with more optimization, its sitting around 8.5L.

cu, w0lf.
 
Last edited:

kolya13245

Case Bender
New User
Jul 23, 2026
2
1
Thanks for the reply.
The graphics card with the water block is 27 mm thick and 240 mm long (including power connectors). After modification, the power supply measures 178 × 54.5 × 40.25 mm. I’ve already ordered the necessary components; the plan is to fit the custom build into 6 liters with a single 240 mm radiator, or 6.8 liters with two radiators. I’m also still considering a build in the FormD T1.
 
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hrh_ginsterbusch

SFF Guru
Nov 18, 2021
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I’m also still considering a build in the FormD T1.
Because of the unobtainium of the FormD T1, I started with modding the S396. If you are able to source some sort of top hat, eg. 3d printed or even custom CNC'ed, you could eg. pick the Midori 5L as base and just add a top hat for the radiator + fans.

Similar cases in the below 9L range:

a) PC-Cooler Hummingbird I100, 7.5L - sold under various names on Ali and Amazon; acc. to Caseend there is also a version with Mesh side panels and USB-C

b) Shiny Snake S300, 8.1L - just mentioning it albeit its already covered by the S396 :D

c) maybe the A4-SFX, 7.5L? if you can find it 2nd hand anywhere - there is this build thread of a dual-rad setup (120 + 240) that goes from Intel I7 7800 to an Ryzen 9 3950X, all hard loop with copper tubes, and at some point apparently the person wanted to do a dual-RTX 2080 ti setup. still in the A4 🤯😱. Oh, and here on SFF.net we also got someone that managed to build in it with a dual 120 rad setup :)


And if you want to really challenge yourself, you could do a dual-radiator setup in the A4-H2O. Thats how I got the idea of trying myself with a 280 side-mounted radiator in the A4-H2O in the first place :D

cu, w0lf.