Welcome to the sequel to World's Most Compact Gaming PC, the original of which
you can check out up there. But unlike most sequels, which are like bigger and
better, this one is going to be smaller,
but still better. We are going to be packing a 22 core CPU, 64 gigs of RAM, a
700 W power supply, and a GTX 1080 all
into a case about the size of a shoe
box.
Intel's Skull Canyon Nook features a sixth generation Core i7 processor and
Thunderbolt 3. You can learn more at the link in the video
description. The motherboard was a very carefully considered component for this
build. The EPC 612D4i that was generously provided by
ASRock Rack, the server and workstation
ARM of ASRock is one of the only two MiniITX motherboards capable of housing
this CPU. The other one is actually made by ASRock Consumer. And while I gave up
an M.2 two slot for a PCIe SSD along
with Wi-Fi, onboard audio and really much IO at all. I kept the essentials
like USB 3 and a PCIe 16X slot for the
graphics card. And what I gained is something that I had never seen before.
Quad channel RAM on an ITX
board. But before we get into that, let's talk CPU. This is the bee's knees,
the cat's pajamas, the Kobayashi's Maru,
Intel's Xeon E52699 V4, a
$4,000 22 core, 44thread monster that boasts 55 megs of
cache, more than my first computer had RAM. It runs anywhere from 2.2 to 3.6
GHz using Turbo Boost 2.0 0 technology
and supports the quad channel DDR4
memory that I mentioned previously. Speaking of which, we're using some
pretty badass RAM here. A data makes the
only qualified 16 gig ECC so RAM for
this motherboard. So, as a reminder, this is ECC server memory in a sodium or
usually notebook form factor. And they
were kind enough to provide us with four sticks of it. So, we could have 64 gigs
of quad channel DDR4 RAM running at 2133
MHz in our build. Something that would have been impossible with full size
DIMs. Though, even with half-length memory sticks, there is not a lot of
room left for the CPU socket and the cooler that goes on it. We chose the
Dinatron T318 full copper vapor chamber
cooler on the advice of Dan cases because the EPC
612D4i, like its consumer oriented brother, has a narrow ILM mounting hole
layout, meaning that there are not a lot of options. Since the T318 doesn't
include a fan, I pilfered a Noctua NF
A9X14 from another cooler that we had on hand, though you can buy that fan
separately and set to work building a mounting system for
it. Oh my god. with borrowed wire hold
downs and an angle grinder. You can mount the fan with zip ties, but this is
a little bit more elegant and it ended up working perfectly. for thermal
compound. Regular viewers will probably notice I'm using quite a bit more than
usual here. The reason for that is that the 2699 V4 heat spreader is really big.
And additionally, the die under it, the actual processing part of the processor
that outputs heat is much larger than a
typical CPU, meaning that the heat transfer area is much larger. Now, Luke
demonstrated, and you can check that video out in the corner there, that in a
large case anyway, cable management won't make much difference to cooling.
Here, though, everything is packed so tight, I want it absolutely perfect. So,
the fact that my case does not include any fans whatsoever won't hurt my
components over the longer term. Why doesn't my case have any cooling fans?
That's a great question. because there's no room. This is the Dan Cas's A4 SFX.
At a mere 7.25 L, it is the smallest case on the
market that can accept a full-size enthusiast gaming graphics card like the
GTX 1080 that I'm planning to use. thanks to its unique layout that uses a
flexible PCI Express riser to put the graphics card with a protective plastic
sheet right behind the motherboard, giving both of them full access to fresh
air through the perforated side panels. For my boot drive, I'll be using a
Samsung PM 863 3.84 TB SSD. We are
giving up some speed compared to a 950 Pro or other NVMe SSD, but we're also
almost quadrupling the capacity of the largest readily available SSDs at around
the time of our first compact build. Now, there were some cable management
challenges, but I was able to hide the USB3 connection and power switch
connection behind the motherboard. And thanks to one of Silverstone's awesome
CP11 lowprofile SATA cables, I was able
to hide that, too. Our power supply is
yet another piece of amaze balls technology. Last time around, we used a
full ATX 860 W unit. Now in the tiny
SFXL form factor, Silverstone was able to squeeze 700 watts with 80 plus
platinum efficiency and a slim 120 mm
fan that only spins when system load reaches a certain threshold. The
included cables are a bit bulky and long, but using Cable Mods configurator,
I picked up colors I liked and had each cable done to the exact length that I
needed to reduce bulk and give the system a really clean appearance. even
with the panels off. A lastminute inclusion was a cable mod widebeam RGB
LED strip. I actually wasn't sure if I'd
managed to get that in there since the lighting controller box is a little
bulky and even the leads that come off of it take up a lot of space in the
context of a build like this. But I managed to squeeze it in, proving once
and for all that RGB is the true herpes of modern enthusiast PC building. You
just can't get rid of it. Leading us finally then to the GTX 1080 that will
be powering our gaming experience. As the king of the hill GPU at the moment,
it really needs no introduction. Though, I will say that if you're planning a
similar build, I would strongly suggest that you opt for a rear blower design
like a Founders Edition card due to the A4SFX's complete lack of case fans. The
audio configuration of this machine will rely on the DisplayPort or HDMI output
of our graphics card. So, make sure that your monitor is equipped for that. Then,
I plan to use a monitor with a built-in hub or the front USB port with a headset
like the HyperX Cloud 2. So, that's
it. Everything is crammed inside with
barely a cubic inch to spare. So, let's
go ahead and throw it on the bench and see how this puppy performs. And there
you have it. She's rock solid stable.
I'm impressed at how cool the 2699 V4
runs on that tiny little heat sink. And I am really impressed at how much PC
hardware has progressed in the last year and how much of it Dan Case has allowed
us to cram into this tiny little box compared to last time. In summary, we've
got four more CPU cores, double the RAM
at double the bandwidth, eight times the storage capacity, a much faster graphics
card, and to put it in the appropriate context, the Razer Core external GPU
box, which contains only a graphics card, a power supply, and some IO, is
about the same size. Wow.
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