Almost five years on and I'm finally saying hello

I've been a member since 2019, but I guess I've never made a proper introduction!

I guess I'm a midgrade enthusiast: I like seeing where low end hardware can get you. I've been an avid computer lover ever since I was five, that magical Windows 98 startup has had me hooked ever since.

Despite my longstanding registered lurker status, I do have a history with SFFPCs, I'll list it below(because I recently talked about it on another website).


Attempt 1, circa 2019

• Morex 557 (2.3L)
• AMD Ryzen 5 2400G
• Noctua L9a
• Gigabyte B450i
• 120W picoPSU

This was my first attempt at SFF, the Ryzen APUs were neat but after some routine maintenance shorted out my motherboard, the components got transferred to a ATX board. I ended up getting a 1660Ti, Asus B450F Gaming, and a Corsair Carbide 175R and iterated on the standard midtower. The PSU being uninsulated always kind of skeeved me out. Very easy build otherwise. I learned I don't like bricks if I can help it.

Attempt 2, circa August 2023

• Velka 7(5.9L)
• Intel i3-12100F
• ID Cooling IS-47-XT
• AMD RX 6800
• Corsair SF750
• AsRock H670/m ITX

This was a dedicated build to properly get back to SFF. It was dense, and a great little showpiece. In traveling with it however, I left the wifi antenna attached, and they ended up bending the retaining bracket around the card, which made it unsuitable for travel. I transplanted the system into my Coolermaster HAF XB EVO. My Velka 7 sits disassembled(A lot of screws, IDK if I will rebuild in it). I learned I don't like risers either if I can help it.

Giving up my Ryzen 7 3700X was not so bad. Having multicore performance don't really matter all that much if you don't play the latest games and don't do media creation. 12100F smokes it in single thread anyhow, and it's a surprising little chip. The 3700X will have a good life in the hands of one of the kids I used to babysit.

Attempt 3, circa October 2023

• HP Slim Desktop s01-pF2013w(7.8L)
  • Intel i3-10105
• AMD Sapphire RX 6400 LP

In a Walmart last Friday(end of September), I found some old new stock of a HP desktop for 53% off its normal price. I had some spare hardware to swap into it, bought the GPU and a fresh SSD and now it runs Arch Linux. A lot of things work out of the box now, I've had to do the most minimal of configuring(nothing major, just QoL aesthetic things). I like the austerness of it, so unassuming, yet surprisingly capable if you can temper your expectations. It's also ridiculously quiet, so much that I can sleep with it next to me with no concern. I learned that I do like low profile graphics cards that are single slot and don't require external power. HP chose a motherboard design that forgoes having a two slot GPU because of the placement of the PCIeX16 slot, which is largely unforgivable.

If I do build another SFF system, I'd want something with no riser or external PSU. If I could find something like the Velka 3 sans riser, that'd be mint. Then again, I am looking at transplanting my HP system components into something like the LZMod DC-RLY V2(despite the riser, maybe it was the extremely funky bends I had to do on the Velka 7's riser that had me uneasy).

 

[Phuncz]

Thanks for taking the time to tell your story ! Interesting builds !