Advice Dan A4-SFX v4.1 First SFF Build

[lost_in_spice]

Hi,
This is my first PC since I had one with Riva TNT2 16MB, and VooDoo3 was the thing every one wanted. I'm a minimalist, so when I've learnt about SFF community I knew that's something for me. I'm currently preparing for CompTIA A+ so decided to have a go and build my own PC. I don't have much time for gaming so would like to keep this build on a low-end, as I decided to spend few extra hours a week of overtime to fund it. I will be also focusing on second hand market components.

Requirements:

• low power consumption
• quiet=low temps
• able to edit 4k footage (simple stuff like speed ramping)
• able to play Cyber Punk: 1080p 60fps medium setting.

Components:

Case: Dan A4-SFX v4.1 (own)​

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PSU: Corsair SF600 (own)​

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Motherboard: I've chosen B550i's as they are usually sold for £20 more than B450i's. And for another £20 I can have new one. I like the ports they provide and from my understanding they also give me more options for undervolting.​

• Gigabyte B550I - It is the coolest one (according to optimumtech review). It's still few of them around new or used. I will be loosing front type-C 10Gbps (but should be able to get type-E header adapter and run it with 5Gbps)
• ASRock B550I Phantom Gaming - running the hottest but I can undervolt the CPU. It is also the only one mobo with 10Gbps USB-C header. Would need L-shaped power cables.

CPU: Ryzen 5 3600 or 5 5600 - I didn't chose X versions as from my understanding they are factory overclocked, so I can do it myself. Also 3600X is running hotter at 95W TDP​

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Hard Drives: Crucial MX500 1TB 2.5" SSD (own)​

Samsung MZ-JPV2560/0A4 (own) - but it has Apple proprietary connection so I would need to use 110mm adapter and do some modding to fit it.​

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Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory, I was looking for VLP but they are: slow, ECC, expensive and hard to get.​

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Cooling (intake): Alpenföhn BLACK RIDGE 47.1 CFM CPU Cooler (will replace the stock fan with Noctua later).​

Bottom (exhaust): Noctua A9x14 HS-PWM chromax.Black.swap 33.84 CFM 92 mm Fan​

Noctua A9 PWM chromax.black.swap 46.44 CFM 92 mm Fan​

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GPU: Here is where I struggle. My biggest concern is about some cards that cause air turbulence or they get too hot in this case. And I don't wan't to do offset trick as my OCD does not allow for such. Also looking for those information is pain in the back. They are spread over here, Hforum, and reddit in over myriad of posts. I've already spend couple of weeks trying to filter trough all of them.​

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My top pick would be:​

• ASUS ROG Strix GTX 1080 OC
• Inno3D GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Gaming OC
• MSI GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Armor 11G OC
• Gigabyte GeForce RTX 3070 Eagle 8G OC

Please advise.

 

[Snerual]

Most of your choices sound solid, however:

• B450 and B550 offer the exact same advantages in terms of undervolting. Only true advantage of B550 is PCIe Gen4 for the GPU. So B550 is only needed if you buy a GPU with 8 PCIe lanes I think.
• Ryzen 5 5600 is definitely worth it over the 3600
• Your GPU choices seem very strange? An RTX 3070 is way more powerful than the other cards you listed. Also the 1080 and 1080Ti are really old by now.
• If you want to play Cyberpunk at 1080p Medium, and you care a lot about noise and power consumption, you should probably go with either an RTX 4060, 4060Ti or a Radeon RX 7600. Those are all rather affordable sub 150W cards. You can just buy one with the biggest possible cooler that fits in the DAN Case. Something like a Gigabyte RTX 4060 Aero. Only 115W TDP, true dual slot cooler, 281mm long. Will ron super quiet and can easily play Cyberpunk at 1080p High/Ultra.

 

[lost_in_spice]

Your GPU choices seem very strange?

I have now 750Ti. 1080 and 1080Ti are around £100-150 where 3070 is around £320-400 used on eBay in the UK. It's a hobby project and I don't plan to play very often therefore im leaning towards low budget cards that cane eventually run CP (this is not essential, but it would be nice to play it since im building "new machine"). I might upgrade later whenever I have some spare quid.

I was sceptical about 4060 as per Optimum Tech comparison where he points our 30% more efficiency on 3070 side against 4060 for the same price. But i had another look now and 4060 are £130 cheaper (maybe because of this comparison mentioned above), so I'll think about that again.

All that point's in the requirements are bounding. Just needed some starting point to help me plan my build.

Thanks a lot for your input.

 

[nightshift]

What matters is to undervolt that Ryzen 5 (strictly 65w) as in their case, it does not result in performance loss (only temp derease) + have the gpu that's dual slot, not flow-through and not more than 160-200w tdp (4060 is pretty good in my book) with a long heatsink and many fans. You could route the riser between the middle plate and the plastic sheet on the gpu side for a better bend and more space behind and below the mobo (example). Might as well drop in a 25mm thick NF-A9 under the psu to help get rid of the excess air from below the gpu (requires good cable management).

If you're bent on going AM4, then you could totally get an ASRock b550m-itx/ac board instead, as that will be perfect as well while being significantly cheaper, it has a lower M.2 slot and lower VRM heatsink too that does not block airflow of a cpu cooler with horizontal finstack (like an L9a with the official fan duct). Without the IO, warm air can leave the case even better. While with all the other boards, it's just a big, wall-like VRM immediately blocking air.

Good luck and post your build once it's done!

 

[lost_in_spice]

Thanks for this enlightening information. Must say it set me back as I started to compare those two mobos (Gigabyte B550i and ASRock B550M-ITX).

I like the idea that B550M-ITX is cheaper (-£50) and has better airflow, but has slower ports and what's worse their QVL list is very short (even shorter then ASRock B550i) and I'm afraid that once I get VLP RAM it won't work with it (even though it works with some that aren't listed).
On the other hand I've seen in VLP RAM thread that Gigabyte usually work's fine with some weird purple ADATA and other server RAM's. That's my main concern. Any experience with this?

lower VRM heatsink too that does not block airflow of a cpu cooler with horizontal finstack

What temperature gain I'm looking to get? Also, I will be getting Black Ridge so does the VRM height matters then?

About GPU: lets forget for now about Cyber Punk (and CD-Project inability to optimise their code) can you advise something few generations older? I spoke with my friends and their both pro gamers with their 4090's and they told me to absolutely stay away from 4060 as this is the worst GPU on the market currently. So im just more confused now. I'll probably start with 750Ti (as I have one) and then look for something around £100.

 

[nightshift]

I think you should either go and check this board on pcpartpicker and see what RAM are the existing builds are using. It should be fine. You could buy a nice RAM kit with that £50 you save. The airflow is only useful if you use an L9a as it has horizontal finstack. THAT is what pushes the warm air to be blocked by the VRM of most boards. Aside from this, Gigabyte is good board as it's more suitable for higher core cpu's and it's stucture is fit for large tower coolers, so it's potential is paid, but not used here. If you grab that' you'll be happy still, it's just that the ASRock here in my opinion paired with an L9a is better value overall and I see the idea of not investing too much into AM4 nowm, but fully utilizing it as the better step.
Still, grabbing a cheap LGA 1700 board with a 12-13400 can also be a solid choice as they run even cooler according to the post a few pages back here.
As for the Blackridge, I would most probably not use it due to it's compatibility issues with large VRM's and M.2 heatsinks + mostly due to it completely blocking the fan, s owhenever you feel like cleaning it (since removing the side panel is easy with this case), you can't - unless you tear down your build completely. And I mean take out the psu, mobo and the cooler from it then clean and repaste - all just to be able to unscrew that fan. Oh, and you have to buy a noctua fan in addition to swap it.

 

[lost_in_spice]

So I went for:

• Gigabyte B550i - it was £127 on Black Friday so £10 cheaper than Asrock B550M-ITX
• Alpenfohn Black Ridge with Arctic P9 120mm Slim. This combo is way cheaper than Noctua with fan duct.
• Kingston 2 x 8 GB2 DDR4-2666 CL19 VLP Memory £34
• RTX 3070 Eagle OC LHR £380

I want to fallow the advice to route riser cable between middle plate and GPU, but I don't have the plastic sheet (as my A4-SFX is second hand).
Therefore I would like to ask if this is still doable? From my understanding the plastic sheet is to prevent from shorts. I have seen somewhere on the forum Dan saying it is okay to take plastic sheet off if GPU has plastic backplate, but mine has metal backplate so I'm bit scared. Also would it be wise in this scenario to route riser cable there?

I was trying to get some plastic sheet and make one by myself but I've got lost. There is too many different plastics. There are static dissipative or antistatic and many other specifications.
What plastic would be the best to use? What is the thickness of the original plastic? What to do if I won't get any.

Thanks!

 

[Macco_Pe]

Hi,
(new to forum and first post)
I have the same case and run the following:
AsRock b450 Fatal1ty m-itx
AMD 5800x3d
Inno3d 4070 (think not available in US but great card since it is a true 2-slot. Even their 4070ti fits)
Corsair SF450
Noctua NH-L9a-AM4
32Gb 3200MHz RAM
2Tb m.2. SSD

No issues with thermals so far. If I run into issues I will go the ”undervolt” path!

I know a lot of people are considering 450w too weak a psu but with a max tdp of 305w for cpu and gpu it is absolutely no issues.