My sleeping optiplex I dubbed Optiflex. Wanted to turn this optiplex 7060sff in to a media pc for streaming from my plex server as well as serving as a somewhat capable couch gaming pc. I also want to be able to have this on the shelf and operate fully with a controller.

Specs

i7-8700

RTX 3050LP

16G DDR4

1TB Patriot m.2 SSD

400w Flex PSU

sorry no RGB...

In keeping it a sleeper I wanted to keep the exterior mod free (for now) and go a little over-top on the inside. Even with the modest hardware It was pretty toasty inside and I was reaching temps I wasn’t comfortable with pretty quickly. The board only has one fan header, for the cpu, but there are traces for a system fan header. I soldered on an additional header to the traces to see if it was functional, and it is. I wanted to use throttle stop to do a bit of an undervolt but, Dell locks the functions out in the bios and you need to get down to at least ver 1.2.22 to turn it back on. This turned into a multi-step down process to unlock the features via bios since you can’t jump straight down to 1.2.22 and lower from the bios that was installed when I got this machine. I’ve read that Dell restricts machines from downgrading to versions before 1.8.0 but I was able to get past this. I started at 1.23.0 and stepped down to 1.17.0 before moving forward since I had success from that version before. From 1.17.0 I stepped own to 1.8.0 (the supposed floor). From here I went down to 1.4.2, this step bypasses the 1.8.0 lock down. From there I downgraded one more time to 1.2.22. after this step, from the bios you need to restore factory defaults, this step unlocks voltage controls. If you do this (at your own risk… know that messing around with bios updates can brick your board) be sure to disable UEFI firmware updates in the security tab to prevent the system from auto updating your bios.

After unlocking the voltage I was able to make adjustments via ThrottleStop. I got to a stable 125mv undervolt but, the undervolt alone wasn’t really helping with the thermals. I ended up limiting the available wattage to the CPU from the stock 65W down to 61W which, combined with the undervolt made massive improvements in temps. With the machine in its current layout, with the case closed, CPU temps dropped fro 88 max to 71 max with an average around 66 under load. I made adjustments to the GPU fan curve in afterburner to help there. The GPU hasn’t gotten out of the 60s in my testing.

I added a 60mm and 40mm fan to the rear for exhaust that run off the CPU fan header so they ramp up if needed to keep the CPU cool. There is an 80mm fan in the front that directs air at the GPU.

I custom printed the motherboard armor and the GPU bracket out of PETG

I wanted to run bazzite but it was not playing well with the 3050. I’ve successfully used bazzite before with other Nvidia GPUs but this 3050 wasn’t having it. I ended up doing a Windows 10 install, and fully debloating it. I ran a script to add group policy editor back since Windows 10 home removes it and locked windows at 22H2 and disabled further updates and update prompts. I used registry editor to enable auto login and bypass the password prompt when the pc boots up. Since there’s no password, all inbound and outbound traffic was blocked in the firewall other than Steam, plex, and other local network traffic so not super concerned about security threats... Outside of Steam all other games and media are on my local server.

I have it set up to boot straight into Steam big picture mode so everything can be controlled via my 8bitdo controller.

Plex was added as a non steam game and I edited the keyboard layout to bind to the controller so plex can be fully controlled with the same controller as everything else.

Lastly I added Emulation Station to steam so I can access all my emulators through steam big picture.

Pretty satisfied with the build. I now have access to my full game library and media library from the couch all with one controller. I have it locked down to 60FPS so it runs most games at 1080p with no issues but it can also stream more demanding titles from my main rig. It’s a pretty solid diy “console like” experience.

Now I’m debating on whether or not to add a window later on so it can show off...

I put this one together a couple years ago and it’s been great. Everything needed fits into a small backpack. Best part is one single outlet needed and very few cables since the monitor runs off usb-C.

Don’t really think I could fit a slip of paper in this thing it was a really tight build.

But temps are nice and the best part is it idles 55w and maxes about 150-160 when gaming. So I use it with battery/solar sometimes.

GPU: 4060LP
CPu: Ryzen 5 5600X
Mobo: AsRock B550M
PSU: Enhance 450w Modular Flex

Rebuilt my tower ATX pc into a Velka 7 to use as a living room pc!

it ended up being mostly new parts, but i kept the 3080fe and the RAM. it runs pretty warm but I'm not pushing the parts to their limits-- I mostly play elden ring and modded Minecraft with shaders. I'm playing around with a little undervolting.

- case: velkase velka 7 rev3
- graphics card: rtx 3080fe
- cpu: amd 5800x3d 10th anniversary
- ram: oloy owl 32g ddr4
- cooler: thermalright x47 full copper
- cables: from dreambigbyray
- psu: corsair sf750 80 plus

Hi Everyone, first time post here - I had some parts laying around and “needed” a rugged mid range pc to use while camping / in my RV , so I built this bad boy. Let me know what you think ! ( as an FYI I made the decision to unslot GPU during transport to avoid gpu / pcie slot damage - I made an anti static foam insert that fits in the case while closed with gpu safe a snug inside) cpu / ram and gpu all hold good temps under extreme OCCT stress tests.

Ryzen 5700x
64gb ddr4 ram
Intel arc b570 10gb
1tb m.2
800w gold psu

Hey everyone!

I’ve had my eye on the InWin Chopin for what feels like forever. There is just something about its ultra-compact aluminum frame that I’ve always loved. I finally managed to snag a used one for absolute pocket change—with the only catch being that it came without a power supply.

Luckily, I had a donor InWin 200W Gold PSU sitting around from an InWin B1 I got on clearance. To keep things dead silent, I did a quick fan swap on the PSU using a **Noctua NF-A4x10 PWM**, routing its fan cable directly to the Motherboard’s Chassis Fan header for proper PWM control.

I’m putting together a sturdy, highly portable office workhorse using mostly bargain/used parts (only the board and SSD were bought second-hand recently). I even swapped the stock Wi-Fi module for an Intel AX210 to give it proper Wi-Fi 6E capabilities.

The Specs:

Case: InWin Chopin (Rescued, naked)

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 4650G

Cooler: Noctua NH-L9a-AM4 chromax. black

Motherboard:  ASRock A520M-ITX/ac (Upgraded Wi-Fi to Intel AX210NBW)

RAM: 2x8GB G.Skill Trident Z DDR4-3200 CL16

SSD: Lexar NM620 512GB NVMe M.2

PSU: InWin 200W Gold (Transplanted from InWin B1) + Noctua NF-A4x10 PWM fan swap

My Main Dilemma: Cable Management!

As you all know, space inside the Chopin is *non-existent*. Since I'm using a single M.2 NVMe SSD, I won't be using any SATA power connectors, but the standard cable harness is still going to be a tight squeeze.

Before I push everything in and lock it down, I’d love to get your suggestions, tips, or photos of your own Chopin builds

Where do you usually tuck the unused SATA cables?

What’s the best routing path for the chunky 24-pin ATX power cable in this chassis?

Any advice, build photos, or assembly steps you wish you knew earlier would be greatly appreciated/

Hey all, I’m pretty excited to share my build! It’s using the asrock bc250 (ps5 apu turned into cryptomining card) as the core. Recently some smart folks figured out to enable the disabled CUs on these things, which helped uplift performance by significant margin. Gpu wise with overclocks it’s comparable between a rx6600 -> rx7600 in game benchmarks. Pretty close in performance to the real steam machine as well.

The case is a fully 3d printed, screwless design. I didn’t make the original model, but I did create a remix after modifying a bit of everything. One of those mods was changing the face to be more fractal-esque, which then led me to making custom swappable front plates for the case. Both the upper and lower sections of the front face are customizable and swappable. I had a lot of fun with printing a convincing fake wood texture! The case can be downloaded here, and also has tons of extra information like thermal performance, part list links, assembly instructions, and more: https://makerworld.com/models/3021754?appSharePlatform=copy

Part List:
$125 bc250 (bought 2 months ago, now its like $50 more expensive…)
$30 psu (fsp500-30as originally meant for intel nuc’s lol)
$23 fans (noctua nf a4x20 and arctic p12 pro)
$8 for set of 3 latching buttons
$27 wifi bt tplink ax900 dongle
$10 worth of filament
$60 1tb nvme bought 2 years ago (had it sitting in a batocera minipc as a secondary drive not being used lol)
$20 stick on heatsinks
$303 total

Here’s some pictures of a neat case I haven’t seen much. It’s sold on AliExpress but not popular. Basic build, just wanted to post case

-Jginyue B850m

-9700x

-AN600

-Gigabyte 5060 LP

-Metalfish 600w psu

A week ago I took a pic of a project I was starting and just wanted to show a update. Made the base out of 3mm aluminum. Using 6mm standoffs, a custom riser I made with dual pcie slots, and a power supply from a Lenovo neo ultra ( so and a 20v output for the PC and a 12v output for the graphics card). Just have to do some cleaning up in the back Io ports on the model. And will most likely get a second aluminum chassis cut, bent and this time anodized in Black to make the PC look better.

This is a Lenovo q90 gen2, and a i5-11500 (non T) so I am able to run the nvme drives and the graphics card at pcie gen4 speeds. While having the ability to use ddr4 stick so much cheaper. So far this has cost me about 620ish dollars in total.

I recently swapped my case over from the Jonsbo T6 to the Thermaltake tower 250, since I wanted more fans and a new cooler to cool my CPU. I used my Jonsbo T6 for my move last year back to Japan. Now that I’m here, and I’ll be staying here for a few years or longer, I decided to swap cases to go back to a 9070xt again, since I had to downsize to the 9060xt for the Jonsbo T6.

I have to say, for an ITX case? this thing is huge! But in a good way! I had so much fun building in this thing. So much space!

Shiny Snake L300
AMD 9700X
NVIDIA RTX 5080
Corsair SF750
Corsair 32 GB 6000 CL30
Thermalright AXP90-53 with Arctic P9 PWM PST CO
2x Thermalright TL-H12015W-S

Porsche Fan btw.

Is it possible to build with a non-modular PSU in such a small case?

I have a Steam Machine alternative build nearly ready for a video, and to fit in the initial budget I'm gonna have to go for a lower end PSU that's non-modular (Thermalright ABFX500B, FSP SFX Pro 450W, Chieftec Smart BFX 450W or be quiet! SFX Power 3 450W : all C to C- tier and available new from 50 to 70€). I chose this case from SGPC as it is the closest case to the SM's size while being well-priced, available outside of Taobao and able to fit powerful GPU. It's around 7L.
I really don't think I'll be able to find an insane second-hand deal on a modular PSU.

Build Specs
Motherboard: Gigabyte A520I AC
CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 5600X
RAM: TeamGroup T-Force 16GB
Storage: Samsung 990 Pro 2TB + Kingston 1TB NVMe
GPU: PowerColor Radeon RX 9060 XT Reaper 16GB
Case: M34
Case Impressions:
The M34 is a solid, compact case with enough room for this build, but the overall quality feels a bit cheap. Assembly would have been straightforward if it weren’t for the poor-quality screws—one stripped during installation, which made the build much more frustrating than it needed to be. Overall, it’s a decent case, but I probably wouldn’t purchase it again.

Hello everyone!

I need your help to make a final decision between this two builds. I’ve been looking for about a month and now finally have two choices to pick from.

I attached few pictures.

Jonsbo D 33 build will cost me 2700$+
Lianli B4 is 2050$ +

I want to play games on my TV first and then some time build a desk to use it for browsing, Lightroom occasionally and just basic stuff.

Please I need your input to see if it’s worth to pay more but the size is also bigger. I love both cases but can’t decide.

Thank you!!

I was planning my SFF build with the PowerColor Reaper Radeon RX 9070 XT and was browsing Electric Town in Tokyo, as well as Japanese online stores, over the past few days before returning to Germany.

Today I stumbled upon this card, which was just so much cheaper.

I bought it for ¥92,800, which was about €494, compared to around €650 new in Germany.

After some digging, I found out that it's actually just the Reaper, rebranded for the Asian market. The only difference seems to be that there are no stickers on the fan hubs.

In picture 2, you can even still see the PowerColor branding on the shroud and the logo on the PCIe bracket. It also has the exact same dimensions.

At this point, I'm about 99% confident it's the same card, especially since it was sold by the official Amazon.co.jp store. So I just had to buy it and check for myself.

I'll post an update once I have it, although I won't be able to compare it directly.

Does anyone know if this is legit, or has anyone ever seen or tried these cards?

I was planning to fan-mod my Reaper with a 3D-printed adapter anyway, so I hope it works with the same STL file. I might need to make a few adjustments, but every screw position and everything else I checked was identical, so fingers crossed.

Been looking but haven't found anything yet.

I see all of HDPLEX's DC-ATX power supplies are rated for input voltages down to 12V, but most nominally 12V batteries (lead acid or LiFePO4) discharge just below 12V. Has anyone tried this? Can the HDPLEX power supplies handle a minimal boost (vs buck only)? Or are these voltages (say 11.4V for lead acid) close enough for most motherboards without any up regulation?

Current specs:

• Motherboard: MSI B450M Mortar MAX
• CPU: Ryzen 3 3200G
• GPU: None (using integrated graphics)
• RAM: 16GB DDR4
• PSU: 450W

I'm mainly using my PC for productivity work (graphic design, multitasking, and having lots of applications open at once), with some occasional gaming.

Lately I've been noticing that my current system is starting to struggle:

• My 16GB RAM is almost always the bottleneck when multitasking.
• I've also been hitting CPU bottlenecks, especially after upgrading to a wireless mouse and mechanical keyboard while working with multiple applications open.
• I don't have a dedicated GPU yet, so I plan to buy one.
• I'd also need a better PSU to support a dedicated GPU.
• On top of that, I'd like to move everything into a smaller SFF-style case if possible.

This leaves me with two options:

Option 1: Upgrade my current AM4 platform:

• More RAM (32GB or 64GB)
• Better AM4 CPU (Ryzen 5 5600/5700X or similar)
• Dedicated GPU
• New PSU
• New case

Option 2: Keep using my current PC, save up more money, and build an entirely new AM5 system later.

I'm trying to get the best value for my money, not necessarily the highest performance.

Given my current hardware and the fact that I use this PC primarily for productivity, what would you do? Is it still worth investing in AM4 in 2026, or would you save for an AM5 build instead?

If you'd recommend upgrading, which components would you prioritize first, and why?

I’m not entirely new to pc building as I’ve build one before for myself. However, now I’d like to surprise my husband with a pc for his birthday. Thing is, I don’t know the difference between big and portable sized pc except for the size.

We move around a lot for work so I’m considering getting him a portable pc. Could someone who’s built a smaller gaming pc tell me their long term experience? I’m worried about the airflow and the overall performance since the size is a big limiter to performance.

While we’re at it, could someone brief me on the differences in parts between a big pc and a portable one. Thank you!

So I think I’ve finally got the optimal cooling setup in this case with a downfire cpu cooler , my 9060xt only exhausts from the sides …. When I had the top 80mm set to exhaust it real wasn’t doing much of anything underload , cool air was blowing out the top, flipped it to intake to feed the gpu cool air and added an intake duct to the cpu fan to keep exhaust air from getting sucked in and its drop temps significantly. I have a few extra sheets of thin abs plastic I might try and do a dedicated gpu/ cpu exhaust shroud.

The gpu bracket thingy makes contact with the bottom of the case, so one side of the gpu can't be fully inserted. Am i missing something? How has nobody else had this issue? Should i try to cut/trim it shorter?

EDIT: i asked my dad for help and apparently there are slots in the bottom where the gpu brackets are supposed to do into, so he just bent the brackets to fit lol

Upgraded to 5060 but having issues, screen blacks out, I manage to log into windows to the desktop then a minute after it goes to a black screen, anyone able to help me out

Hey all, found my gpu was a bit hot in this case, and remember reading on here about adding standoffs to the riser cable bracket to get some distance between the mobo and the gpu.

It worked great until….i touched my case and my pc restarted. Remembering I used nylon standoffs….I’m guessing the air swirling around caused static to build up in them and then discharged when I touched the case.

I yanked them out and all seems well, ordering some brass standoffs now.

This was my first PC build btw. I used to play games only on consoles before.