The ULTIMATE Compact Sleeper PC Build
Linus Tech Tips
·Linus Tech Tips
·2018-05-06
·
1,333 words · ~6 min read
0:00
our first sleeper PC we nicknamed Danny Hubert rocked dual GTX 1080s and Intel
0:05
Core i 9 processor and hardline liquid
0:09
cooling crammed into a pretty old antic case so how do we one-up something like
0:14
that haha meet Hubert's brother Dale
0:19
sure Dale is a bit smaller and way older
0:24
but don't let his outward appearance fool you because this build sponsored by
0:28
Intel is about as fast as a gaming PC
0:32
can be in 2017
0:42
we knew that for a small form-factor sleeper we needed a really unique case
0:46
as a starting point and our good friends over at free geek Vancouver were able to
0:50
provide just that they have everything there this Morrow designs md3 hails from
0:57
1982 making it older than literally
1:00
everyone in our office and it has
1:04
clearly seen better days with its dual
1:07
floppy bass and 8-bit operating system this puppy would have cost about three
1:11
thousand dollars back in its day but it hasn't worked in years and even if it
1:16
did it is basically useless now cracking
1:20
it open other than this massive dust bunny it's really not that bad though
1:24
all things considered so with the internals removed it was time to do some
1:29
test fitting now unfortunately a full sized high end GPU is just a bit too
1:35
long to fit but ZOTAC had exactly the
1:39
right medicine this mini GT X 1080 Ti
1:44
with a water cooling block so I guess
1:48
we'll have to water cool the system now then that's not gonna be easy in such a
1:52
small space and we're gonna be limited to a thick single radiator but we're
1:57
hoping that that's going to be enough which brings us to the best part of
2:02
every mod angle grinding from the factory there's mounting for literally
2:06
no modern hardware so all of the cutouts
2:10
for i/o and mounting had to be created from scratch for the motherboard here it
2:15
was basically a case of cut a bunch out
2:18
with the angle grinder then come in with the dremel for a while and finally
2:22
finish off with a hand file this one
2:26
hole here actually took close to four hours since there was no going back if
2:31
we slipped up now in 1982 120 mil fans
2:36
for PCs were not a thing at all so we needed a new fan hole with some help
2:41
from this cable management tie we cut it out using the cannibal and then at this
2:46
stage we also drilled lots of holes for everything to mount on the bottom we
2:50
decided to position the GPU above the motherboard this ended up be a bit
2:55
tricky because originally we were going to use this 3d printed bracket but it
3:01
was really ugly and not in like a cool
3:04
vintage way so we opted to very slowly
3:08
create mounting points for the backplate and holes for the i/o to fasten it
3:13
directly to the back of the chassis instead bringing us to test fit time and
3:19
it looks good now for the front of the
3:23
floppy drives just to be sure and oh crap oh I guess that interferes with the
3:29
radiator no worries though just a little
3:32
bit of hole and viggen mint and Dale is off to get a fresh coat of paint but
3:36
only on the inside on that topic let's
3:40
talk about what's under the hood for the CPU we went with Intel's Core i7
3:45
8700 K making dáil as good as it gets
3:49
for gaming for our motherboard we chose an ASUS z3 70 I gaming with a Samsung
3:54
NVMe SSD underneath this sexy heatsink then to keep the CPU cool we're using an
3:59
ek supremacy full nickel block we decided against an acrylic block since
4:04
it'll actually have to help hold up the graphics card and also because you won't
4:08
be able to see it anyway for our radiator we went with a 120 millimeter
4:13
single rad from alpha cool that is a massive 60 millimeters thick and then
4:19
for our pump we're using an ek SPC 60
4:23
with a built in cylindrical reservoir we went with these super sexy white
4:27
fittings and black acrylic tube both provided by bits power for a sleek
4:32
monochrome look the first Bend was one
4:35
of the hardest since it needs to come around our PCI Express extender and then
4:40
make a funky Bend too so we ended up
4:43
just making a little steak out of black fittings in hopes that nobody would
4:47
notice right here the bending wasn't finished yet though next this 90 degree
4:53
from the pump to the res and after that a nice long tube from the GPU back to
4:58
the radiator both of which were made the perfect length with a bit of help from
5:02
the bench sander now we just need to do a bunch of little touch-ups to make it
5:06
perfect like splicing together the led for the drives so they can be attached
5:10
to the hard drive header soldering on the front panel connector that we
5:14
borrowed from another case so that the og power button and LED would still work
5:19
gently removing the print and modem ports massaging them with the sander
5:25
before inserting them and then finally screwing and double-sided taping the
5:29
Front's to the floppy drives back in their original positions the insides we
5:34
finished off with this sweet purple cathode from bits power and
5:38
unbelievable 800 watt 80-plus titanium
5:41
SF XL modular power supply from silverstone and some cleanup from ivan
5:46
the cable management king perfect now let's fill the loop making
5:52
sure to use a secondary power supply so that in the unlikely event that we have
5:57
a spill seriously you guys forgot a plug on the
6:03
radiator oh man I mean it at least it
6:07
wasn't out in the open
6:12
I'm an idiot yes but now you're not
6:16
alone my friend so my team of skilled
6:20
boaters remove the rad added a plug and
6:24
tightened everything down aha no I leaked it dad what are you guys even
6:29
doing this time the tubing is full no veries though what you're looking at
6:33
right now is a perfectly legitimate strategy for emptying a loop by the way
6:37
yes perfectly legitimate totally not weird so after swapping out some of the
6:42
fittings third time's a charm we were finally leak-free to see how Dale runs
6:48
and performance wise oh it runs idle
6:53
temps are in the 20s and then under full synthetic load on the CPU and GPU for
6:59
half an hour with the lid closed Dale
7:02
held steady at 80 degrees with the CPU still turbo Eng - 4 gigahertz on all six
7:09
cores though it should be noted that he did get a little loud in this scenario
7:13
as for games though here things got even
7:16
more impressive Dale in spite of his looks can drag race with it any
7:22
Challenger he is one of the fastest small form factor computers on the
7:27
market with frames per second in the hundreds on ultra and even during heavy
7:32
extended gaming sessions he stayed reasonably quiet with GPU temperatures
7:37
maxing out at 53 degrees so let's bask then in the glory of Dale
7:43
and look out for our next addition to
7:46
the sleeper family Margaret
8:19
so thanks for watching guys if you dislike this video you can hit that
8:22
button but if you liked it hit like get subscribe maybe consider checking out
8:26
where to buy the stuff we've featured how about a core i7 processor even if
8:31
you can't get this case to put it in at the link in the video description also
8:35
down there is our merch store which has full shirts like this one and our community forum which you should totally
8:39
join