In my opinion the MK3S and the Smallest One are two fo the best quality. But they are not sandwich layout tho. In fact you can easily customize one with around 1000RMB, which is now 140 US dollars.
@@MrTeetec I'm currently using a K77 for my gaming system. NCASE M1 style layout but 20-25% smaller (and less functional because of it). Only cost me $86 shipped to US from Ali Express, although they're not always in stock there.
I have the Velka 3, and used Silverstone's FX350-G. Hopefully soon we'll see more options with 80+ certification for modular Flex PSU's. I went to quite a bit of trouble to cut out the mass of wires coming out of the FX350 so it wasn't such a pain to close it. I even did the 24-pin mobo connector, shortening every single one. I don't want to do that again....
This little case looks so small, sleek and a modder’s dream with all the types of creative avenues to tackle! It’s amazing how much power you can cram in there, even as a home office PC.
I just love this video. Watched it 6 times. Want me to make this build for all of my friends and family who are looking to purchase a new system. Modding the PSU will take some more RnD. A big thumbs up for such small cases build which are available world wide.
i will likely never move my desktop from one location to another, but i still love itx cases so much, been rocking the fractal design node 202 for the past 3 years and probably going to get something smaller for my next build for no reason other than the visual appeal
You know you can buy delta, fsp and other brand flex psu on Amazon right? Highly efficient and safe. Just loud AF unless you mod or get a specific model.
these B roll shots are insanely good. I know you get this message alot but everytime I click on a video the quality is always top notch. thanks for helping me build my first N case M1 build
Great review man! Thanks for bringing to light such an awesome and underrated case. It's been around for maybe 2 years. I've been building in them for about a year for clients. Which should make it older than the Velka? They are great for people that still take their rig to mates place for gaming/sleepover or like most of my clients that get them, audio engineering/stage audio guys. I sure there are lots of use cases for this, especially when you factor in the capabilities Ryzen can unlock. Although no longer made, you can get the R9 nano in here with a flat 8 pin adapter to make a great little workstation machine. If you want a PSU with modded cables specifically for this build or want to try a 500w 80+ Platinum 1U with custom silver teflon cables let me know, I'd be happy to post one up for you to review. Oh last point, putting an SSD (especially on the GPU side) has no negative impact (unless you had really long sata cables). It's hidden by the side panel and shouldn't interfere with anything.
What power supply are you talking of? One that I could go buy or a custom solution of your own design. I'm interested in a build like this for college dorm and travel
@@mitlanderson I believe they are delta 1U units that have been modified with a PCB to be modular then custom cables to suite. Not many places to buy them I have a direct source in China. You might find one on Ali Express or the likes. The 400w 80+ gold units are quite a bit cheaper.
For anyone considering buying this, I ordered this at the end of April and got it two weeks ago. But I'm very happy with it since building in it, so if you're patient it's worth!
I have one of these, they're great! The build experience is a bit of a pain stuffing all of the cables in, and Flex-ATX is not my favorite.. I had an Aliexpress PSU fail on me at a LAN before. Ended up with a 500W Platinum FSP unit (had to do 2x molex to GPU adapter). Haven't done the Noctua fan mod on this one yet, so it's a bit loud, but overall it's pretty sweet to have a backpack-sized build for my occasional work travel and LAN events.
Glad to see some MIC product to be reviewed in your channel (finally)...There are some studios making modified cases in Taobao, or Aliexpress. Build quality of those cases may vary. Anyway, have fun shopping in Aliexpress and would like to see more of your videos and comments~ Great vid!
It's exciting that China is having a go at things like this, their motherboards have gotten surprisingly good, I've been using an x79 board from them for 5 months for gaming and I've had no issues, hopefully they'll do more things like this
I have this case, this is one of the cheapest itx case on taobao.com, only costing 200 rmb (around 30 us dollars) including the pcie extention cable if you buy it in China. Two points worth sharing are: 1. sourcing a quality flex power supply and modding the cables to the proper length. Once you solve this, you will need to switch the tiny 40*20 fan on it. Because typically the factory ones are quite loud since they are usually designed for server use. P.S, don't use the noctua ones. They are quiet but don't move enough air. 2. The lack of exhaust fans on the top side kinda traps heat inside the case. To improve this, manually force your gpu fan to run on idle so the heat doesn't built up and makes you case hot.
Yeah, the Zotac 2070 Super came out a while ago, and it’s too big. It’ll fit in the Skyreach 4 Mini, but you can’t go brickless with it unless you get really creative. I’ve been waiting for some time for an ITX branded 2070 Super from MSI or GB or even an eGPU gaming box that I can shuck, but no dice. I’m hoping there’ll be an ITX 3070 when it releases.
i love your posts and follow you. i love the way you present them. i managed to get this case and build my own system... what i like about this case is the simplicity and ease of build. also the power psu is so tinyy
I have a larger case from the same seller, the K55. It's an alternative to DanA4, very affordable, but also comes with several compromises. It's going to be interesting to see you reviewing it if possible!
Also, since you discovered Aliexpress... There's actually tons of stuff you can get your hands on, which are currently unavailable in other regions, I think. For example the AXP90 cooler from Thermalright etc. Nevertheless, shipping always hurts. No matter how cheap they were in China, adding the shipping cost makes all of them much expensive thus losing their competitiveness. Man I'm just getting way toooo excited that you are reviewing stuff from Aliexpress, there are just too much interesting stuff, both good and bad :3
K39 has been available in the China market since 2017, but more importantly they do have a few competitor that makes sub 4L cases that are better built. I went with a TBOX M41 in 2018 after comparing it with K39, just overall a better case.
I've been using a 3700X with the black ridge, a 2 fan Galax 2070 mini and an enhance 7660 600W in the K39 since Jan, its pretty quiet when undervolted. Even if its not, you won't hear any of the fans when used as a gaming console replacement in the living room.
He did review the Cerberus. Unfortunately there aren’t a whole lot of microATX cases that are also sub-20L. The only ones I know of other than the Cerberus are a few on AliExpress/Taobao.
@@mattpenguin3030 Same, when I finalized my build I ended up going with the Silverstone Precision PS15. It's fairly space optimized for MATX (smaller than the h400)!
I love my k39! I have a 2 pc setup, with a DAN A4 i7 9700k, 1080ti for gaming, and the K39 with a ryzen 5 2600x and a 1650super to encode my streams. I move a lot, so both PCs can fit inside of my carryon or backpack, and I dont have to worry about them in my checked luggage
J-Hack makes an affordable 3D printed 92mm fan mount for the cryorig c7 so you can easily swap a noctua fan for the stock one to reduce the noise generated from cooling your cpu.
The case is actually slightly larger that 4L, around 5L or so...that's the reason it can fit coolers larger than Noctua L9, like Velka 3. It can also fit some modded FLEX PSUs (with added modular cable connectors), unlike Velka 3. The difference in size is very marginal, though, and it's worth it for better CPU cooling. Speaking of coolers, Thermalright AXP-100-Full Copper is another decent cooler that fits into K39 and I'd get it over the Cryorig, if you can get your hands on it (the Black Ridge is still better)...
Ali! I just did build a Metalfish S3. I've had the Velka 3 but the fan clearance is just awful. (Velka 3 I have allows 80x10m fans and the S3 allows one 80x15m fan) I absolutely LOVE this new S3 and I think it's actually better than the Velka 3 and the K39. Do a review on it! My S3 Build: * AMD Ryzen 5 2600X 3.6GHz 6-Core * GIGABYTE RTX 2060 ITX 6GB GDDR6 * HyperX Fury 16GB 3200MHz DDR4 * Silicon Power 1TB NVMe M.2 SSD * Noctua NH-L9a Chromax CPU Cooler * Asus PRIME A320I-K Mini-ITX (no overclocking so 320 is sufficient) * Metalfish S3 case with riser cable * SilverStone 350 Watt Flex 80+ Gold + Noctua NF-A4x10 PWM Quiet Fan * Cooler Master 80x15mm Silent fan 189 FPS at 1080p in Unigine Heaven Overlcocking, imo, not worth the trouble. Instability, more heat, more power, more points (probability) of failure, etc. and for a 7% increase in performance... it won't be noticed anyway. Check out the S3! It's king.
There have been many pundits who say that the use case for a system this small is minimal, but I disagree. I have had a mac mini on my desk for years and the size and performance is great for anything outside of games. I've had larger PC's w/ discrete graphics (my first discrete was a Voodoo 3dfx for quake open GL and later I could even play Crysis with GPU upgrades -i'm old). My background is in BSD and Unix so the move to macos was actually pretty sweet over Win8/10, but the lack of discrete graphics is lame. Now my son is 12 and he wants to play games (and I, as a loving a caring dad, want to destroy him in real games while still can). I don't see a liter or two on a desk that looks nice, that run good games at a reasonable FPS to be niche use case. (old dude warning) In the day, I bought little fan controls to turn down the RPM on three pin Noctua's well over a decade ago; a 4L case isn't niche, it's what we should all work towards and expect. I'm currently building my first PC in years (a K39, Ryzen 7, and a 2060 and i'm exited). It's going to be overkill on xcom, civ, and silent hunter but I'm pretty excited for my first DIY in years. This post depresses me, I haven't been to a LAN party in years....
I would highly recommend trying the graphic cards taken from the Gigabyte Gaming Box eGPUs (which has a HUGE 13cm fan, and is sometimes available from second-hand markets). I tried a RTX 2070 and its thermal & acoustic performance is amazing (peak at around 60 ℃ with RT of 25 ℃, and hardly audible even at full load). Try and you would not regret it. Also, this applies ONLY to such ITX cases with riser cables, and would NOT work for cases like NCASE M1. Because its 13cm fan will certainly strike the motherboard if you plug it DIRECTLY into the PCIE slot of the mobo.
I already have an NH-L9i on my 1600AF and a Gigabyte 2070 itx in my Node202 but I was looking to downsize. It seems like my components would fit, so I might give this a try. Also, for anyone else looking for a super portable build, consider checking out the MC600. It's essentially an industrial version of the Skyreach 4 Mini. Portability ftw.
Now all itx builders need is a case that sells with a laptop screen, keyboard, webcam, speaker mounts. A true portable diy desktop computer that spits in the face of laptops.
I've builded my pc with this case right last week. Good video, all the facts that he talk about is true (I watch him from a while, nice guy). Just a suggestion, I've builded it with the SilverStone SST-FX350-G that for my build (ryzen 3600 + GTX 1660 ) was good enough, and I have guaranteed the build quality by SilverStone. Thanks Optimum Tech ! Keep do this type of good videos
Highly recommandation with K55 by SGPC. I bought this case in this Feb by just 259RMB (40 dollar). It is well designed and built and capable of 55mm height heat sink and a 305mm graphic card. I put an Ryzen 5 3600 and 5700XT founder edition inside of it. while gaming, the CPU temperature is around 60 degree C and the temperature of 5700XT is around 80 degree. K55 is quite a deal for budget itx PC building and I m going to put extra fans onto its top to lower the temperature furthermore.
Cool build Ali! Just word of advice, next time you want a chinese sff case I'd recommend using superbuy. It's a little more expensive but shipping takes about a week and a half to Australia which is way faster than the shipping usually provided with aliexpress. Looking forward to more of these reviews :)
finally, an available case!!!! quality is .... not good, but I managed to get it into a good condition using 3d printed panel~~ original one is curved and contact with cpu fan
Loved the review, but again I'd really recommend trying out the Enhance 600W Platinum Flex-ATX power supply! Only one I know of that is actually near silent out of the box, no modding required. Even for people who don't need a 600w PSU, I would recommend it for the quietness alone.
I'm sure it its great but its kinda expensive though. AliExpress kit comes with the Metalfish 500w and a noctua 40mm is really cheap... Do you really think it worth paying that much?
Every time I see one of these cases, I want to mod it so that a would have a huge air-cooler on the CPU sticking out the side. Of course, most of my computer use is browsing the internet and running Roll20.
Hey you could take a look at the Smol X1. I Saw it on Reddit recently. I believe it was around 6.5L and it can accomodate the noctua Nh-u9s. Seems like a nice case.
Thanks for this review! My ordered case (red version) from your link arrived within 3 weeks, but it turns out to be 11 cm (not 10) so the total size is 11x18,5x22=4,5 liter. Nevertheless i like it a LOT and i hope it will work the same as your version. Which one is the Arsylid you suppose? And what length riser cable do i need?
Ultimately great review, but the back panel should not be bent for motherboard side, not sure why it happens to you, mine works perfectly, maybe using a modular PSU can help as cables won't push? It also makes installing 2.5'' hard drives much easier, especially if you use slim SATA cables
If you are using stock amd am4 cooler go with the wraith stealth with top ring removed to fit under the panel. If you want to put 2x 2.5 inch drives in this case get the 7/9.5mm drives. Also swap out the cpu fan from the wraith spire cooler and remove the ring and the drive will just fit under the fan. Keep the same screws with the respective heat sink, it might just be my combination but they were not the same.
