Log NFC s4 mini brickless build; 2070 super and 5600X; some modding

tonkasuh

Minimal Tinkerer
Original poster
New User
Jul 28, 2020
4
3
Here's my S4 mini brickless build. just swapped out the cpu with an AMD 5600X so thought I'd post some pics

specs
Zotac 2070 Super; 2010 MHz 8000 Mem
AMD Ryzen 5 5600X currently at 4.4GHz 1.2V (stability not confirmed yet)
G Skillz 16GB RAM 3600 16CL
1TB NVME M2 SSD & 1TB SATA M.2 SSD (both mobo mounted)
HDPlex 400W brick and psu
Blackridge CPU cooler
Custom cables made by me (first time trying it and no problems. better than the hassle of ordering and getting custom cables that are slightly too long or short)

I'm very comfortable with fabricating and using my workbench to make things happen during this build. I got a lot of use out of my dremel, angle grinder, drill during this build.

here's the front cover; drilled some holes for the gpu to exhaust, not the prettiest, but 100% functional and it works, gpu would have miserable temps without this mod.
The power switch is a 12mm low profile push button from ebay. doesn't fit the 16mm default hole on the front cover so i added a washer to size down the hole and mount this push button. I needed the 12mm smaller pushbutton to fit in the small cavity and still fit with the zotac GPU with shroud.






side cover mod, I opened up some of the sky slots to allow more surface area of the cpu cooler to be exposed. This improved the CPU temps by alot. I wish i had some solid data for you, but all I remember was before it, I thought this build was a total fail due to temps, but as soon as I opened up these below areas, the temps dropped dramatically and allowed me to start cranking up the CPU without too much undervolting. The random jumper cable sticking out is to reset my bios without having to open the case, and I'll tuck it back into the skyslot when not needed.


custom cabling with some sleeves and some without. I ran every individual wire to avoid unneccessary cable bunching and maximize the space. i removed part of the case to allow my self to service the AMD CPU and cpu cooler without taking the mobo out. the original hole appears to be intel centric only and didnt accommodate for AMD screws


custom low profile wiring for the GPU. used a hot glue gun to tack the wires on the backplate. works fine, doesn't melt even when GPU is running around 74 degrees C. It was a tight fit, so i had to angle grind part of the HDPLEX heat sink away. close up on next pic.



here it is, grinded away part of the heat sink to avoid any compression of wiring here. the wires just sit in there nice and cozy, but not pressing against the heatsink.


GPU placement mod. i shifted the entire GPU towards the backplate side as far as possible. reason is the gpu was stupid loud with the fans close to the s4 mini case cover, so when i shifted the fans as far as possible from the cover, the decibels were GREATLY reduced and better cooling performance as well. I also tried every combination of deshrouding and 92mm fans, and 120mm noctua fans, etc.... they all performed significantly WORSE than the original ZOTAC fans and SHROUD. The GPU shroud seemed to have the biggest impact on my build to the best performance as to how they seem to shape the air turbulence and focus it on the GPU heat sink. My findings are contrary to alot of other users, but i spent alot of time and money trying every combination just to circle back to the original zotac fans and shroud as being the best efficiency and performance. volume was acceptable after shifting the bracket.







there it is, max performance I could squeeze from this S4 mini, no wasted space and no SATA drives either.
I plan to put in a 3060 ti once i can get my hands on one that will fit. I highly recommend learning how to custom psu cable yourself, and upgrades will be a cinch.