Advice Tips on a Velka 3 build

[NIL]

My current rig is almost a decade old so I'm looking to upgrade, that said I've been out the pc building world for so long that I have no idea what the market is like now. My current case is a dan a4, however I wanted to go smaller since I travel quite often and the Velka 3 seemed like the perfect fit. My primary use case is 1080p gaming and streaming via parsec. Here's what I have so far

• CPU: AMD Ryzen 7600 or Intel i5-13500
• Cooler: Noctua NH-L9A or NH-L9i
• GPU: RTX A2000
• Motherboard: Depends on which CPU I pick, but would appreciate suggestions for AM5 and LGA1700 boards
• Memory: G.skill ripjaws or flare ddr5 depending on the CPU
• Storage: to be decided but would like at least 2 M.2 SSDs
• PSU: Enhance ENP-7660-B 600W

Notes/Concerns

• From what I've seen the 7600 and 13500 will be some of the better CPUs heat wise, would appreciate any suggestions on which of these two to pick or if another cpu would be better. Primary concerns are power consumption and heat. Budget is $350 max
• There is currently a deal on micro center to get a 7700x and 32gb ram for $295ish. This seems like a really good deal but I'm worried that I cannot sufficiently cool a 7700x even with eco mode. Would appreciate any insight on this
• I'm interested in the RTX A2000 due to it not needing an 8pin power connector, currently have a 1050ti which also lacks a 8pin and it's very nice for cable management
• Thinking of going ddr5 ram since it seems like a lot of motherboards are going ddr5 only
• ENP-7660-B seems to be the gold standard for flex atx power supplies, not sure if 600W is too much and if I should go for something lower like 400W.
• I also saw that overtek offers the ENP-7660-B with noctua fan mods, would that be worth doing instead of getting it from Velkase?
• I've heard things about the velka 3 riser cable coming straight and needing to manually fold it yourself, is there another riser cable that is recommended where I won't have to do that?
• Suggestions/advice on any other part of the build I haven't mentioned are welcome

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[Snerual]

- The easiest to cool CPU for the performance is probably the Ryzen 7 5700G. It is based on a monolithic laptop die so the heat spreads much more evenly than on typical Ryzen CPUs and the lck of I/O die means significantly lower idle power consumption. That being said, I suspect a 13th gen i5 limited to 65W is probably also easy to cool and could outperform it in games. However we haven't seen any Ryzen 7000 series APUs yet, it could be worthwhile waiting for those.
- Considering the case has space for full-height cards, I think it is a bit of a waste to put an A2000 in there... I love that card but if the case and take a bigger card, put a bigger card. It will run quieter and you get more bang for the buck. Really, cable managing an 8 pin is not THAT hard when you think about how many other cool and interesting GPU options it unlocks. (upto a 4060Ti, RTX A4000 with cooler swap, or something as simple as an ITX sized RTX 3060 or RX6600)
- For most hardware the 600W is overkill yes, but since the Noctua swap reduces the cooling capacity, it is probably good to have that headroom. That being said, if you plan to go for an RTX A2000, the Noctua fan swap is a waste of money.

Edit: and regarding the motherboard, considering the low power CPU, no need to overspend. Get the most basic motherboard that supports undervolting and setting custom TDP.

 

[DrummerMuppet]

My two cents as a Velka 3 owner:

• In my experience the ENP-7660-B Noctua mod is unnecessary. The PSU isn't as noisy as people make it out to be, plus if you use over-ear headphones while gaming you won't even notice it (at least not to a level that it'll bother / distract you).
• The riser that Velkase currently sells (VC-S290G4) is very easy to install / fold. The one I got when I bought my Velka 3 case a couple of years ago was a bit stiff and it was a bit nerve wracking to fold as it felt like I was going to damage it but it turned out OK and had zero issues with it. The VC-S290G4 riser cable -which I bought afterwards- isn't like that at all.
• If this is your first SFF build in a while (or ever), you'll find building the Velka 3 a bit challenging (it was for me haha). Just be patient and take your time with it.

 

[NIL]

- Considering the case has space for full-height cards, I think it is a bit of a waste to put an A2000 in there... I love that card but if the case and take a bigger card, put a bigger card. It will run quieter and you get more bang for the buck. Really, cable managing an 8 pin is not THAT hard when you think about how many other cool and interesting GPU options it unlocks. (upto a 4060Ti, RTX A4000 with cooler swap, or something as simple as an ITX sized RTX 3060 or RX6600)

Thanks for the advice!

I was considering the 6600XT or the 3060TI, however the itx versions of those cards seem to be really hard to find right now for a reasonable price. The normal 3060 however seems to be fine, I just saw a lot of people recommending against getting a 3060 since the TI version is "so much better" but for my use cases it probably won't matter

I'll definitely keep it in mind

My two cents as a Velka 3 owner:

• In my experience the ENP-7660-B Noctua mod is unnecessary. The PSU isn't as noisy as people make it out to be, plus if you use over-ear headphones while gaming you won't even notice it (at least not to a level that it'll bother / distract you).
• The riser that Velkase currently sells (VC-S290G4) is very easy to install / fold. The one I got when I bought my Velka 3 case a couple of years ago was a bit stiff and it was a bit nerve wracking to fold as it felt like I was going to damage it but it turned out OK and had zero issues with it. The VC-S290G4 riser cable -which I bought afterwards- isn't like that at all.
• If this is your first SFF build in a while (or ever), you'll find building the Velka 3 a bit challenging (it was for me haha). Just be patient and take your time with it.

Cool good to know that I don't have to worry about a stiff riser cable.

Yeah I haven't built a PC in a long time so I'm expecting the building to be a bit of a learning curve again

 

[nightshift]

The 3060 can be a good candidate as 12GB will last you very long ahead and it's significantly cheaper than the A2000 while providing better gaming performance as well. The new 4060's or possibly the upcoming 4060Ti 16GB could potentially be okay if the latter actually comes in ITX form. ALternatively, there are also 12GB 2060's out there within ITX form and even them gives you a little better performance than the A2000 while being the cheapest - while still at 160w.

The 7660b psu that Velkase offers are surprisingly quiet, but even without that I would not recommend the noctua fan mod as that cannot push enough air through the psu to properly cool it compared to the original one. However the psu is not modular, so you will end up having a pcie 8pin cable for your gpu regardless if you use it or not. Also one for a SATA SSD. These are still fine btw, yet Densium or Geeek could supply you with modular versions. Cable management in the Velka 3 is not easy, but can be done.

Regarding the cpu, I would probably not use anything higher than a 1X400, with leaning towards the 12400. The performance difference between Alder andRaptor lake 1X400's are barely even measurable in games, but Alder has lower tdp. ASRock has it's z690m-itx/ac for DDR4 and z790m-itx/ac for DDR5 that can accomodate two M.2 drives with BOTH being on the front. Which is amazing for sandwitch-style cases and I don't even know why it's unique to ASRock.

For cpu coolers, I would stay clear of the L9i this time. It's absolutely amazing on previous Intel sockets and AMD boards as it actually has a backplate and very good mounting. With LGA 1700, it has neither of those. No backplate and the legs of the cooler doesn't even touch the board, it only stays on the top of the screws coming from the other side directly going through the mobo. Since it doesn't reach the pcb, it's easily possible to screw it unevenly (leading to uneven pressure) and even bend the board. The AXP90-X36 is a better choice here, yet you do need to grab the LGA mounting kit separately. It also has vertical fins, so the air can better be led towards the top of the case.

Also, if you're really going mobile with this build, there are some great camera bag options. like the Hama Valletta 140 or the Rivacase 7503.

 

[NIL]

Thanks for the in depth reply, nightshift.

I'm starting to lean more towards the 3060 12GB the more I think/hear about it, so unless I find a good deal on something better that may end up in the final build.

Didn't realize that the velkase 7660b wasn't modular, how much would you say that matters and do you think it would be worth shelling out the extra $50ish to get a modular one? I don't really plan on getting a non m.2 sata drive, and I know sometimes modular PSUs have more bulk due to needing to plug in the cables.

Did some research into the temps and power draw on the 1x400 series cpus and seems like the 13400 actually gets 5-10 C lower than the 12400 and 13500 on average which could be a big point in its favor

Thanks for the heads up on the cpu cooler, can sometimes be hard to find this kind of information if you don't know what to look for. Seems like the AXP90-X36 has slightly lower temps than the L9i as well so definitely seems like the best option

Was already looking into camera bags so good to get some recs, I currently just stick my DAN A4 in a backpack or suitcase padded with clothes but would prefer something nicer for this build.

 

[NIL]

Can't edit posts yet so gotta make another, but forgot to mention those ASRock boards look great. Looking at some reviews the main thing people seem to mention is the not so great VRM. However I assume this doesn't matter all that much since I'm not going to be overclocking

Would also like to hear more about AMD cpu and motherboard options as well if anyone has experience with them in a velka 3 or similar case

 

[nightshift]

Most board have way too much VRM since 2020 and unless you're not going to use 13900K's, it's fine. With a 13400 is more than enough.
As for the Dan A4-SFX, there's the Tenba BYOB 13 case that is literally perfect for it.
They also have the BYOB 9 DSLR for cases like the Velka 3.

 

[vlad1966]

If you like the L9i, there is a version specifally for LGA1700, all black:

NH-L9i-17xx chromax.black

The NH-L9i-17xx chromax.black is an all-black version of Noctua’s award-winning NH-L9i-17xx low-profile quiet CPU cooler for Intel LGA1700 (LGA17xx family) based HTPCs and Small Form Factor (SFF) builds. Thanks to the same proven heatsink design and NF-A9x14 PWM fan, it stays true to the...

noctua.at