Small form factor computers have always intrigued me, from my first computer build I’ve always thought to myself “how can I get this to take up less space on my desk?”. Over the years I’ve built in many different computer cases, building smaller computers year after year. These computers provide unique challenges which you rarely face when building full or mid-tower desktops, from power consumption to heat dissipation.

One of the main reasons for building this PC was because my laptop wasn’t fairing well against the games I play and often overheated. There isn’t much you can do to stop overheating on a laptop, however on a sff pc you have many options for ensuring a cool and quiet build.

In my build I’ve gone with:

• • Amd ryzen 5 3600
• • Alpenfohn blackridge
  • -With Noctua NF-A9x14 chromax
• • 16GB Corsair vengeance Low profile 3200mhz DDR4 Ram
• • WD Blue SN550 1TB NVMe SSD
• • Palit Geforce RTX 2060 6gb
• • SilverStone fx350 small form factor Power supply
• • K39 4.7L mini itx case

Some unique challenges I’ve encountered:

• • The tiny flex atx power supply I’m using is only 350Watts so I’ve had to under volt both my CPU and GPU for better power efficiency and less heat output
• • I’ve had to flip the PCB for the power switch as the graphics card didn’t fit while the power switch was right side up.
• • Noisy build; I’ve swapped both the power supply fan and cpu cooler’s fan
• • Cable management; a modular flex atx power supply would be God sent; this would not only make the PC look tidier on the inside but free more space for airflow.