1 00:00:00,160 --> 00:00:05,279 Have you ever gotten a delivery you totally weren't expecting? Well, that 2 00:00:03,439 --> 00:00:09,440 happens here, too. This was supposed to be a video about an unusual motherboard 3 00:00:07,520 --> 00:00:12,719 that we ordered from China and had been eagerly tracking as it made its way 4 00:00:11,040 --> 00:00:19,439 across the ocean. Imagine our surprise when instead of this, we got this. 5 00:00:17,199 --> 00:00:24,720 Surely, this level of packaging makes no sense whatsoever for a motherboard. But 6 00:00:22,160 --> 00:00:29,279 for a full system, where did this come from? What is inside it? Can it play 7 00:00:27,039 --> 00:00:32,000 Doom? Can you get one of your very own? We're going to answer all these 8 00:00:30,320 --> 00:00:37,120 questions and more after this word from our sponsor, Build Redux. Imagine 9 00:00:34,559 --> 00:00:41,840 building your dream gaming rig and then actually buying it. Customize your build 10 00:00:39,840 --> 00:00:45,600 any way you want and let Build Redux do the heavy lifting. All at a price 11 00:00:43,440 --> 00:00:50,160 competitive to building a PC yourself. Check out Build Redux at the link below. 12 00:00:47,520 --> 00:00:54,480 Step one is to not slice myself open on this packing crate. This is freaking 13 00:00:52,320 --> 00:01:00,879 dangerous. Actually, before we do that though, our first clue is on the lid. 14 00:00:57,520 --> 00:01:03,039 This was sent to us by Siki, a maker and 15 00:01:00,879 --> 00:01:08,080 Billy Billy creator who started his own design studio in China to make 16 00:01:05,280 --> 00:01:12,400 mechanical keyboards back in 2019. Shiki was inspired by a small custom form 17 00:01:10,479 --> 00:01:16,080 factor motherboard that another Billy Billy creator whose name translates to 18 00:01:14,000 --> 00:01:20,640 something like Ancient Ape made in partnership with Maxon, which moves many 19 00:01:18,560 --> 00:01:24,960 of the internal connections to the back of the motherboard. Kind of like we saw 20 00:01:22,560 --> 00:01:28,479 with that concept from Gigabyte. That was cool in theory, but in practice left 21 00:01:27,119 --> 00:01:32,040 a lot to be desired. Yeah. Yeah. 22 00:01:32,320 --> 00:01:38,400 Oh yeah, it's going to pry off. 23 00:01:36,640 --> 00:01:42,960 You can't tell me what to do. You're not my real dad. The main innovation here 24 00:01:40,799 --> 00:01:47,520 then is that they sought to build a more cohesive version of that product. And 25 00:01:45,200 --> 00:01:51,759 they're calling it DIY Ape. Because you see, on previous iterations, we'd seen 26 00:01:50,000 --> 00:01:59,240 that even though the cables could no longer be seen, they would take up extra 27 00:01:54,720 --> 00:01:59,240 space, whereas this 28 00:02:00,079 --> 00:02:08,720 is amazing. Wo! This side panel has no side panel. 29 00:02:05,840 --> 00:02:17,360 This is sick. This is the perfect marriage of an open air test bench style 30 00:02:11,760 --> 00:02:19,920 case and a case. No way. Look at this. 31 00:02:17,360 --> 00:02:24,640 They even have machining on the case itself that matches the machining on the 32 00:02:22,400 --> 00:02:32,400 So, this is a completely custom motherboard. Then, what else is in here? 33 00:02:29,599 --> 00:02:36,319 Uh, not a PC power cable I'm familiar with. I'm familiar with the connector. 34 00:02:34,400 --> 00:02:40,000 We use it for our lights in the studio. I've just never seen it used for a 35 00:02:37,840 --> 00:02:44,400 computer. The benefits of this are clear. Compared to the standard C13 36 00:02:42,160 --> 00:02:47,599 power cable that we use, it has a lock, which means it'll never accidentally 37 00:02:45,840 --> 00:02:52,239 become unplugged. But because the other end is uh for China, and because I don't 38 00:02:50,319 --> 00:02:59,200 have studio lights at home, the odds of me actually having of this are zero. 39 00:02:55,760 --> 00:03:01,360 Just kidding. I think we got this. But 40 00:02:59,200 --> 00:03:05,120 before we plug it in, I want to talk a little bit more about how this came to 41 00:03:03,360 --> 00:03:08,239 be because there are two things that make the motherboard in particular 42 00:03:06,879 --> 00:03:12,959 different from others on the market. There's the fact that the connectors are on the back. We talked about that. But 43 00:03:11,200 --> 00:03:16,959 what we haven't talked about is that this shape of motherboard is one you 44 00:03:14,720 --> 00:03:23,760 have probably never seen before. It has the same number of PCIe slots, that's 45 00:03:19,599 --> 00:03:26,640 one, as mini ITX, but it's as wide as a 46 00:03:23,760 --> 00:03:30,680 full-sized ATX board, giving it a ton of room for well, what? 47 00:03:31,360 --> 00:03:37,440 Let's find out, shall we? ltstore.com. A 48 00:03:34,640 --> 00:03:41,440 calls this form factor YTX. And in the absence of any official explanation, 49 00:03:39,360 --> 00:03:46,799 we've got two theories as to why that would be. First of all is why TX because 50 00:03:44,879 --> 00:03:52,159 it's really weird and different. And second is that in opinion, Ape's name 51 00:03:49,599 --> 00:03:56,560 apparently sounds like Yuan or something pretty close to Y. So it could just be 52 00:03:54,640 --> 00:04:00,720 his name. Any whatever it is, I've got this open now, giving us a look at 53 00:03:58,000 --> 00:04:05,360 what's going on inside. We've got two M.2 slots. One of which is populated 54 00:04:03,040 --> 00:04:11,680 with a 1 TB SSD, I assume. And the second one, ooh, this is cool. Can 55 00:04:07,360 --> 00:04:14,640 accommodate up to 110 mm M.2 drives. So 56 00:04:11,680 --> 00:04:18,959 you could put an uh Optane drive in here or something, for example, if you really 57 00:04:16,160 --> 00:04:22,639 wanted to. We've also got an M.2 for a Wi-Fi module. It's nice that you can 58 00:04:20,880 --> 00:04:26,479 swap that out, even if it's only in the event of a failure. And that's about it. 59 00:04:25,120 --> 00:04:31,759 I mean, it seems like the sort of thing that could have been put on the back of the board, unless the back of the board 60 00:04:30,000 --> 00:04:35,199 is already full. We're going to have to keep going. Before we do that though, I 61 00:04:33,680 --> 00:04:40,800 want to fire it up. Let's put this heat sink back on. Man, just everything about 62 00:04:38,160 --> 00:04:47,199 this thing just feels so good. You know, it's small, but it's 63 00:04:44,240 --> 00:04:51,840 it's thick. I like it, man. This thing is wild. To give you a proper idea of 64 00:04:49,120 --> 00:04:57,280 how small it is, the entire back is taken up by just our power input. Love 65 00:04:54,800 --> 00:05:01,120 that. Our GPU IO, and then our motherboard IO, which I would describe 66 00:04:58,880 --> 00:05:06,880 as not extravagant, but certainly adequate. You've got five USB 2 ports, 67 00:05:03,600 --> 00:05:09,840 one of which is USBC, DP HDMI, four USB 68 00:05:06,880 --> 00:05:12,880 3s, two and a half gig LAN, nice Wi-Fi and audio. And I haven't even talked 69 00:05:11,360 --> 00:05:18,639 about the front IO yet. We get another USBC, this time USB 3, more audio, two 70 00:05:16,160 --> 00:05:22,759 more USB 2s, and two more USB 3 type AA's. Okay, ready? 71 00:05:25,600 --> 00:05:34,160 This is really cool. Obviously, it's not cheap. Thermal right for the CPU cooler. 72 00:05:31,600 --> 00:05:38,800 Custom motherboard. This case has got to be worth a fortune, but it is so cool. 73 00:05:36,800 --> 00:05:43,440 Few things are as universal as Windows updates showing up at the worst possible 74 00:05:40,639 --> 00:05:48,240 time. Nope. All right, I missed it. 75 00:05:46,720 --> 00:05:53,759 I guess I don't technically have to run Cinebench since you've already got scores here, but let's do it anyway. Uh 76 00:05:51,840 --> 00:05:57,199 oh. Did we actually plug in the keyboard? Well, that explains why we 77 00:05:55,600 --> 00:06:01,759 didn't manage to get into the BIOS. Okay, that's definitely audible. But the 78 00:05:59,840 --> 00:06:06,240 good news is that these lowprofile coolers can handle modern CPUs as long 79 00:06:04,639 --> 00:06:09,600 as you're not going for a top tier Core i9 or something like that. It's just 80 00:06:07,759 --> 00:06:12,720 that they usually operate under such challenging conditions that they get 81 00:06:11,280 --> 00:06:18,400 overwhelmed because they're in small form factor cases that are stuffy. In 82 00:06:14,960 --> 00:06:21,280 this case, it's always drawing. In this 83 00:06:18,400 --> 00:06:26,880 case, it's always drawing completely fresh, cool air from the room around it. 84 00:06:23,520 --> 00:06:28,960 Just ow. Be careful not to do that. 85 00:06:26,880 --> 00:06:34,160 12490F. What the devil is a 12490F? 86 00:06:31,600 --> 00:06:40,240 You know what? Bing. Yeah, we're going to B. Oh, 87 00:06:36,880 --> 00:06:41,919 Chinese Bing. Okay. A cherry chip. Blah 88 00:06:40,240 --> 00:06:46,880 blah still suck more power than blah blah blah blah. Hybrid architecture blah 89 00:06:43,840 --> 00:06:48,720 blah gaming chip. What is this thing? 90 00:06:46,880 --> 00:06:55,520 Intel hasn't publicly announced this chip, but it is in their public facing 91 00:06:52,000 --> 00:06:57,919 database now. Turbos to 4.6. six cores. 92 00:06:55,520 --> 00:07:03,520 The 12490F has the same number of cores and threads as a 12400, but it turbos oh 93 00:07:01,680 --> 00:07:08,000 substantially higher. It only boosts a little bit higher, but its base clock is 94 00:07:05,759 --> 00:07:11,680 a lot higher. It also has additional level three cache, which is part of what 95 00:07:09,520 --> 00:07:15,840 makes it a gaming chip. I guess it's still 12th gen Alder Lake, so 12,000 96 00:07:14,080 --> 00:07:20,960 points in Cinebench is not going to be, you know, breaking any records. But in 97 00:07:18,800 --> 00:07:26,479 actual games, what are we looking at? 3060 Ti. That's not bad. I don't know 98 00:07:24,639 --> 00:07:31,759 why, but I kind of expected it to be something more modest, like a 1650 or 99 00:07:28,880 --> 00:07:35,599 1660. It's so small. Oh, now we get to see our other fans kick in. This is 100 00:07:33,599 --> 00:07:41,680 hilarious. I don't know why this is so cool to me, but just the GPU and CPU 101 00:07:38,800 --> 00:07:46,160 fans being case fans just tickles me. I mean, why not, right? Oh, we should do a 102 00:07:44,240 --> 00:07:51,199 duct mod. I can't believe we've never done a duct mod. That's where you use 103 00:07:48,240 --> 00:07:57,199 ducting and you just take it and run it straight to like a either 3D printed or 104 00:07:54,080 --> 00:07:58,800 just DIY duct taped shroud over top of 105 00:07:57,199 --> 00:08:01,759 your GPU intake and you just run that to the front of the case. Do the same with 106 00:08:00,400 --> 00:08:07,680 the CPU. That way you're bringing fresh air to everything. Duct mod. Yeah. 107 00:08:04,720 --> 00:08:13,840 Subscribe. How surprising. A micro USB port failed. 108 00:08:10,240 --> 00:08:16,560 Like the CPU cooler, the GPU cooler is 109 00:08:13,840 --> 00:08:22,560 certainly audible. However, if I'm gaming at 1080p, I'm pretty stoked right 110 00:08:19,199 --> 00:08:25,039 now. 250 FPS. I mean, it's only 1080p, 111 00:08:22,560 --> 00:08:29,759 but still, wow. I take back one of the things I said earlier. Our CPU is 112 00:08:26,879 --> 00:08:34,719 sitting at anywhere from 75 to 80% utilization in game. Now, this is with 113 00:08:33,120 --> 00:08:38,719 OBS recording in the background, but that's not an entirely unrealistic use 114 00:08:36,479 --> 00:08:42,240 case. It's possible that our CPU could thermal throttle under those conditions. 115 00:08:40,560 --> 00:08:46,640 Well, we're not having any such issues in Doom, so that's good. But I do have 116 00:08:44,800 --> 00:08:50,000 to say, sitting here gaming next to it, open air cases are one of those 117 00:08:48,160 --> 00:08:54,000 categories of products that I love to love, but I don't think I would ever 118 00:08:51,680 --> 00:08:58,240 daily drive. Because while the drawbacks of cases are pretty clear, I mean, they 119 00:08:56,880 --> 00:09:04,880 suffocate all your heat generating components in this enclosure. What the heck, the benefits are also pretty clear 120 00:09:02,399 --> 00:09:09,040 cuz they also suppress noise. Another thing that's unusual about it is how hot 121 00:09:06,720 --> 00:09:14,560 it gets. A lot of the heat from these components seem to be sinking into the 122 00:09:12,640 --> 00:09:18,480 giant aluminum block sitting around them. I think it's time for us to tear 123 00:09:16,720 --> 00:09:23,320 it down and take a closer look. Oh, shoot. OBS. Ah, it's probably fine. 124 00:09:23,360 --> 00:09:30,720 I guess we start on the GPU side. I cannot believe how tight they got the 125 00:09:28,320 --> 00:09:34,880 tolerances on this case. I mean, it looks like this GPU was made for this 126 00:09:32,880 --> 00:09:40,160 system. Another thing that I'm not sure how they did was get rid of the excess 127 00:09:37,200 --> 00:09:46,880 heat from the GPU. Are these the only ventilation holes? Got this here 128 00:09:43,519 --> 00:09:48,640 and this here. That's it. I guess that 129 00:09:46,880 --> 00:09:52,800 would explain how the case itself managed to heat up so much. This does 130 00:09:51,040 --> 00:09:57,440 not seem to come off without the front panel also being removed. Oh, wow. 131 00:09:55,920 --> 00:10:03,200 Different head screws. That kind of makes sense, does it? I don't know, 132 00:10:00,080 --> 00:10:06,480 actually. Wow. 133 00:10:03,200 --> 00:10:08,880 Like this thing is wild. 134 00:10:06,480 --> 00:10:14,800 Okay, how do Oh, wow. It's packed tight. First things 135 00:10:12,000 --> 00:10:20,160 first, no, the GPU is not designed for this system. This is just an ASUS RTX 136 00:10:17,200 --> 00:10:24,720 3060Ti Snow Leopard. And the main reason that it was chosen is apparently for the 137 00:10:22,000 --> 00:10:29,040 orientation of the fin stack. It goes this way, which allows the heat to more 138 00:10:27,360 --> 00:10:35,360 effectively be pushed out the back of the case and out this little vent here. 139 00:10:31,920 --> 00:10:38,079 And I guess also into our power supply, 140 00:10:35,360 --> 00:10:40,880 which is what is this? A flex ATX. Yep. 141 00:10:38,720 --> 00:10:45,040 These are typically found in oneu rack mount machines, so servers, but I have 142 00:10:42,959 --> 00:10:51,760 seen them in small form factors before. Usually not this tightly packed. No way. 143 00:10:48,800 --> 00:10:56,880 It's screwed into the case through the screws that originally attached the PCI 144 00:10:54,240 --> 00:11:02,399 back plate. With the power plug here, one piece of 145 00:10:59,279 --> 00:11:05,519 which appears to be 3D printed. 146 00:11:02,399 --> 00:11:08,079 Oh, whoops. There goes my CPU fan. Uh, 147 00:11:05,519 --> 00:11:12,399 one moment, please. Uh oh. Oh, and this side piece came off, 148 00:11:10,640 --> 00:11:15,440 too. Okay, that makes sense cuz I took off the front panel. Things are wo 149 00:11:13,760 --> 00:11:20,160 things are really happening now. See, the thing about small form factor is 25% 150 00:11:18,320 --> 00:11:25,120 of the job is engineering a case that can fit all your stuff. The other 75% is 151 00:11:23,279 --> 00:11:27,920 figuring out how you will get all the stuff in there. What is the build 152 00:11:26,560 --> 00:11:35,839 process for this thing? You know, is this the top panel or the bottom pan? This is the top panel. 153 00:11:31,920 --> 00:11:37,200 The PCIe riser. Okay. I was looking I'm 154 00:11:35,839 --> 00:11:42,560 trying to pull on this so that I can get this GPU out of the riser so I can get a 155 00:11:39,360 --> 00:11:45,440 better look at this. But the riser 156 00:11:42,560 --> 00:11:52,399 itself is stretched so tight from the PCIe slot on the motherboard over here 157 00:11:49,279 --> 00:11:54,800 that I cannot remove this pedal. Um, one 158 00:11:52,399 --> 00:12:03,040 moment please. Hey, there we go. No way. 159 00:11:59,360 --> 00:12:05,440 This power supply is modular because of 160 00:12:03,040 --> 00:12:09,760 course it is. Not a lot of points for upgradability of the system, but 161 00:12:07,600 --> 00:12:14,079 absolutely ingenious the way everything is packed in here. Look at how tight 162 00:12:11,920 --> 00:12:17,120 this is. I believe it now. There is no room on the back to put your M.2s or 163 00:12:16,000 --> 00:12:23,200 whatever. And you wouldn't even want them there because how on earth would you get at them? But there's all your 164 00:12:20,320 --> 00:12:26,560 IO. 24 pin power for the motherboard. 8 pin power for the CPU is way over. Oh 165 00:12:25,279 --> 00:12:32,959 yeah, that's the top. Okay. Yeah, there's our front USB. SATA other front 166 00:12:29,600 --> 00:12:35,120 USB. Third front USB. Front power 167 00:12:32,959 --> 00:12:38,720 connectors. Yeah, there's some RGB headers, none of which are used because, 168 00:12:36,959 --> 00:12:42,560 you know, this is like tasteful and classy, right? What do you need RGB for? 169 00:12:40,560 --> 00:12:46,800 Front audio connector is here, which makes sense because the audio chip on 170 00:12:45,120 --> 00:12:50,800 this board would probably be right near the back panel and it would be right 171 00:12:48,480 --> 00:12:55,519 here. Let's see if we can get it a little more disassembled for you guys. 172 00:12:52,480 --> 00:12:57,680 All right. Oh, there we go. It's all 173 00:12:55,519 --> 00:13:01,120 coming apart. Apparently, he's only made about a hundred of these things. So, 174 00:12:59,600 --> 00:13:04,880 it's not quite oneoff, but it's certainly not mass production. The 175 00:13:02,959 --> 00:13:08,720 amount of work that went into it to make so few units is just you got to admire 176 00:13:07,360 --> 00:13:12,320 it, you know. Oh, yeah. This looks extremely challenging to massproduce. 177 00:13:10,880 --> 00:13:17,920 Even just the fact that you have to be locked into one and only one model of 178 00:13:16,000 --> 00:13:22,480 GPU really tough because GPU manufacturers 179 00:13:20,720 --> 00:13:27,120 just on a whim, they discontinue this stuff. They bring out a new one that's 180 00:13:24,160 --> 00:13:30,320 like.1 mm bigger because that saved them whatever, won't fit anymore. Now, I 181 00:13:28,959 --> 00:13:35,440 don't know how much deeper we need to go here. We've got all the pieces of the case apart. We can see our 80 plus 182 00:13:33,600 --> 00:13:40,000 platinum enhanced power supply. But I'm sure you guys want a better look at this 183 00:13:36,880 --> 00:13:43,680 board. Wait a second. The board isn't 184 00:13:40,000 --> 00:13:46,720 screwed in. There's It just screwed in. 185 00:13:43,680 --> 00:13:48,560 Screwed to what? Nothing. How is it in 186 00:13:46,720 --> 00:13:55,440 here? Oh, shut up. It's just slotted in. Or is 187 00:13:54,079 --> 00:14:00,480 there like one screw? Two screws in the riser. Oh, I see. Well, how on earth am I 188 00:13:59,199 --> 00:14:04,560 supposed to take that out? Oh, I see. I see. I see. I see. I got this. 189 00:14:02,880 --> 00:14:12,320 Yeah. I mean, if upside down's good enough for the computer, it's good enough for me. Shut up. 190 00:14:08,560 --> 00:14:15,199 It just slots in here. It's not screwed 191 00:14:12,320 --> 00:14:21,199 in at all. Oh, the lock for the eight pin power connector had to go. That's 192 00:14:17,680 --> 00:14:23,920 been melted off. There it is. YTx. The 193 00:14:21,199 --> 00:14:30,000 power supply isn't screwed in either. No way. Okay, I have to ask. How much does 194 00:14:27,120 --> 00:14:34,800 this nightmare of an upgradability system cost? 195 00:14:31,680 --> 00:14:37,279 The case MSRP is about 350 US. 196 00:14:34,800 --> 00:14:44,639 350 US for the case. You know what? That's high, but lower than I thought 197 00:14:40,959 --> 00:14:47,279 given the just I mean this thing is 198 00:14:44,639 --> 00:14:53,360 beautiful. This looks like it's machined out of a single block of aluminum here. 199 00:14:49,199 --> 00:14:55,360 Wasteful, but very beautiful given the 200 00:14:53,360 --> 00:15:00,720 shape of small form factor machines. Anyway, how they're typically longer in 201 00:14:57,680 --> 00:15:02,639 order to accommodate GPUs, 202 00:15:00,720 --> 00:15:05,760 why not just extend the motherboard this way instead of doing what some 203 00:15:04,240 --> 00:15:10,720 manufacturers have been doing these days and, you know, piling up these wild 204 00:15:08,079 --> 00:15:16,880 towers of M.2s and audio chipsets and stuff like that. It kind of makes sense. 205 00:15:13,680 --> 00:15:18,880 I'm no longer asking why TX. I'm asking 206 00:15:16,880 --> 00:15:22,800 why haven't I told you about our sponsor, delete me. In a time when 207 00:15:21,040 --> 00:15:26,639 companies are constantly sharing your personal info online without your 208 00:15:24,480 --> 00:15:29,519 consent, it's easy to get discouraged. Feels like there's nothing you can do 209 00:15:27,920 --> 00:15:33,519 until you hear about the sponsor of this video, Delete Me. 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