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The original was posted on /r/sffpc by /u/desppar on 2023-09-05 23:15:01+00:00.

Greetings SFF Aficionados,

I’m diving into my inaugural post here, navigating the labyrinthine process of crafting a high-end, yet portable, rig. Given my occupational demands, I’m attempting to strike an elusive balance between performance, thermal management, and SFF constraints.

Context and Present-day Hurdles:

Mobility Constraints: With a multi-regional project pipeline, I need more than a static desktop setup; I require a potent and portable battlestation. Let’s not sugarcoat it—we’re talking about a system that can pass TSA without a hitch.

Cooling Quandaries: I’ve raised thermal management concerns, especially when eyeing the AMD Ryzen 7950X3D with its known thermal proclivities.

Component Shortlist: I’ve hit a quandary with motherboard and chassis selection. An m-ATX board offers latitude for component real estate and could better house a behemoth like the GPU 4090. I’m all ears.

Chassis Dimensions: My insistence on case dimensions—55 x 40 x 21.5 cm—is non-negotiable, thanks to airline carry-on stipulations. This isn’t a “nice-to-have”; it’s a mission-critical spec.

Suggested Trajectories:

Potential Builds for Scrutiny:

I’ve been in the trenches with some proposed loadouts, pivoting based on component accessibility and thermal nightmares. Below are the prospective configurations:

SFF Iteration (Sub-15L):

  • CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D Raphael AM5
  • Motherboard: ASUS B650E-I ROG Strix Gaming WiFi AMD AM5 Mini-ITX
  • RAM: Corsair Vengeance RGB 96GB DDR5-5600
  • SSD: Inland Performance Plus 4TB
  • PSU: Cooler Master V1100 1100W
  • GPU: Gigabyte NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090
  • Cooling: Deepcool LT520 Premium 240mm
  • Chassis: SSUPD Meshroom S PCIe 4.0 Mini-ITX

Now this was previously planned at Micro Center but there were some issues with them who said this build could not work. So I just to keep looking for other solutions. The following is what I’ve seen available at my country, still not being able to pass the TSA test given its just a tad wider than what it should be :

m-ATX Contingency:

  • CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 7900X3D
  • Motherboard: Aorus Micro-ATX B650M Elite AX
  • RAM: Corsair Vengeance RGB DDR5 5600MHz
  • SSD: Kingston 4000GB Fury Renegade
  • GPU: Gigabyte GeForce RTX 4090
  • Chassis: Asus Prime AP201
  • PSU: Asus ROG Loki SFX-L 1000W
  • Cooling: ASUS ROG STRIX LC II 280 ARGB

And my most recent chat with the guys at the store (called digital life) who suggested the following, however im not quite sure about it and again, like the build from the meshlicious, even if the case might fit the build its quite more expensive due to the FE (selling for 300 more USD than the other GPU) more expensive and i am a little worried about the cooling:

SFF Plan B:

  • CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 7900X3D
  • Motherboard: Aorus Mini ITX B6501 Ultra
  • RAM: Kingston FURY Renegade DDR5, 6000MHz
  • SSD: Kingston 4000GB Fury Renegade
  • GPU: RTX 4090 Founder Edition
  • Chassis: Lian Li con Ventana Q58X3
  • PSU: Asus Ro Thor 1200W
  • Cooling: Asus Rog Ryujin 11 240

I’ve been ping-ponging with the storefront techs on these configurations. There are contradictions, like an SFX PSU in the m-ATX loadout but not in the others; this was justified by stock availability. Additionally, a pivot to Intel CPUs was suggested for purported performance gains. For context, I juggle applications that capitalize on both faster single cores and broader core counts.

The crux of the issue lies in casing—existing SFF options appear anemic, and the quest for a mesh case within airline dimensions (21.5 cm width) has proven elusive.

Eagerly awaiting your expert insights. Apologies for the tome; the devil’s in the details, as they say.

Best,

Desppar