Hello all, new to this Forum. I wanted to post about my first SSF build.
I've been dreaming about buying this case for a long time. I wanted this for the portability between my work room and my living room. I want to be able to game on my television from time to time. I've wanted a small build for a very long time, but only recently (last couple of years) I've felt like I could do so without compromising to much on performance and full size gpu's. OptimumTech's youtube channel really convinced me that now is the time to finally go fully mini-ITX!
Full specs:
DAN A4-SFX mini ITX case
Ryzen 3600 CPU with Alpenfonse Black Ridge CPU cooler
Gigabyte GTX 1070 G1 rev 2.0
ASUS B40-i STRIX Motherboard
Crucial Ballistix Sport LT Ballistix BLS2K8G4D30AESBK
Crucial P1 M.2 SSD1GB
Corsair SF450 Gold Power Supply
Noctua 9mm fan for CPU (blowing towards the CPU)
Noctua 9mm fan for the case (intake)
Gallery
Comments on building
General
Honestly in general, it was much easier than I expected it to be. Attaching the GPU riser cable to the motherboard and GPU was pretty easy, and so was attaching all the PSU cables. I was told that it would be easier with the Platinum corsair (I got gold) because of the sleeved cables but I found no issue.
CPU Fan
I followed Optimum Tech's advice to replace the stock fan of the Black Ridge with a Noctua one so I did. At first, the fan direction was towards the heatsink, since that was the default on the black ridge. I had issues with temps after this, so I reversed the direction (towards the CPU). Now, I'm quite content with my CPU temps (around 51c idle and 62c during gaming, with some spikes to 70). Sadly, it does make a lot more noise this way, and I needed to play around with fan curves a lot in my bios to be less annoying by the fluctotation.
I used the same screws that came with the Black Ridge to attach the Noctua fan to the CPU.
Chassis fan
I had issues with fitting this in beneath the riser cable and Power connector cable, as you can see in my pictures. I believe because of the way it's positioned now, it makes more noise. I didn't attach the fan properly to the case, it's just stuck. I also installed it as intake, but I've read comments here that blowing air to the outside is better so I might try that.
M2 SSD
My SSD was not detected by my bios, because I didn't install it properly. A bit annoying, I had to remove the complete CPU cooler to be able to wiggle the SSD in the slot. Apparently, you really need to push that SSD in there.
Black ridge
Easy to install, but I don't like that I needed to remove the m2 SSD from my heatsink to make it fit. I also don't like that I have to remove the cooler each time I need to replace RAM or the m.2 SSD. It's performing well though but the noise levels
GPU
I made the mistake not to check the thickness of my GPU. I assumed I only needed to check the length. My r9 390, which I still had from my previous ATX build, stuck out of the case. It did fit, but I couldn't close the case. This is why I bought an RTX 1070.
R9 390:
The 1070:
Issues
Sadly, I have some instability issues that are driving me crazy: https://smallformfactor.net/forum/threads/instability-on-new-ssf-build.12992/
I'm still happy with my new build, but I'm a bit stressed out honestly. Troubleshooting above issue is taking a lot of time and I still have no idea what's causing it.
I've been dreaming about buying this case for a long time. I wanted this for the portability between my work room and my living room. I want to be able to game on my television from time to time. I've wanted a small build for a very long time, but only recently (last couple of years) I've felt like I could do so without compromising to much on performance and full size gpu's. OptimumTech's youtube channel really convinced me that now is the time to finally go fully mini-ITX!
Full specs:
DAN A4-SFX mini ITX case
Ryzen 3600 CPU with Alpenfonse Black Ridge CPU cooler
Gigabyte GTX 1070 G1 rev 2.0
ASUS B40-i STRIX Motherboard
Crucial Ballistix Sport LT Ballistix BLS2K8G4D30AESBK
Crucial P1 M.2 SSD1GB
Corsair SF450 Gold Power Supply
Noctua 9mm fan for CPU (blowing towards the CPU)
Noctua 9mm fan for the case (intake)
Gallery
Comments on building
General
Honestly in general, it was much easier than I expected it to be. Attaching the GPU riser cable to the motherboard and GPU was pretty easy, and so was attaching all the PSU cables. I was told that it would be easier with the Platinum corsair (I got gold) because of the sleeved cables but I found no issue.
CPU Fan
I followed Optimum Tech's advice to replace the stock fan of the Black Ridge with a Noctua one so I did. At first, the fan direction was towards the heatsink, since that was the default on the black ridge. I had issues with temps after this, so I reversed the direction (towards the CPU). Now, I'm quite content with my CPU temps (around 51c idle and 62c during gaming, with some spikes to 70). Sadly, it does make a lot more noise this way, and I needed to play around with fan curves a lot in my bios to be less annoying by the fluctotation.
I used the same screws that came with the Black Ridge to attach the Noctua fan to the CPU.
Chassis fan
I had issues with fitting this in beneath the riser cable and Power connector cable, as you can see in my pictures. I believe because of the way it's positioned now, it makes more noise. I didn't attach the fan properly to the case, it's just stuck. I also installed it as intake, but I've read comments here that blowing air to the outside is better so I might try that.
M2 SSD
My SSD was not detected by my bios, because I didn't install it properly. A bit annoying, I had to remove the complete CPU cooler to be able to wiggle the SSD in the slot. Apparently, you really need to push that SSD in there.
Black ridge
Easy to install, but I don't like that I needed to remove the m2 SSD from my heatsink to make it fit. I also don't like that I have to remove the cooler each time I need to replace RAM or the m.2 SSD. It's performing well though but the noise levels
GPU
I made the mistake not to check the thickness of my GPU. I assumed I only needed to check the length. My r9 390, which I still had from my previous ATX build, stuck out of the case. It did fit, but I couldn't close the case. This is why I bought an RTX 1070.
R9 390:
The 1070:
Issues
Sadly, I have some instability issues that are driving me crazy: https://smallformfactor.net/forum/threads/instability-on-new-ssf-build.12992/
I'm still happy with my new build, but I'm a bit stressed out honestly. Troubleshooting above issue is taking a lot of time and I still have no idea what's causing it.
