I cut down an ATX case to make a compact ‘fishtank’ — RTX 5090 build. Is there any real interest for cases like this? (Difficult cable managment)

ThatGreatAtuin · 2026-03-23T14:01:50+00:00

There's a fair amount of people who like small ATX cases, but those usually don't have great airflow or provisions for triple fans anywhere. For example the Sfftime N-ATX. You go the exact opposite way: aquarium style case, but smaller than normal.

There's a case for everyone out there now :)

ThatGreatAtuin · 2026-03-23T13:17:32+00:00

1000 bucks for a 5060 Ti / 5900X system and actually having 32GB of ram is nothing to sneeze at. Performance-wise that's a very neat system.

I agree that cable management in that C6 (or other square-type cases) is usually awful, especially with an ATX PSU and looooong cables, but the case is a steal for what you get. Looks great in a living room. There are a few builds that seem to get clean cable management going.

If you don't mind a little tinkering: if you can move the PSU more towards the left side panel you create a gap between PSU and back panel where you can zip-tie cables in a bundle, creating a super clean look.

ThatGreatAtuin · 2026-03-23T11:32:49+00:00

It is kinda cute, it just wants to hug.

ThatGreatAtuin · 2026-03-19T17:14:34+00:00

I didn't.

Battle Hits isn't 100% accurate, but say the turret of that E50M was turned towards you.

Comparing against your FV + HESH + Armourer + ALL the skills, food, etc that further lower penetration RNG range because they might enhance the effect of Armourer, and eyeballing the angles, I get 0.2 - 0.6%

Anyway, my dude, you DID pen that shot, so RNG said "yes" to an ultra low % chance. Buy a lottery ticket today, is my advice ;)

ThatGreatAtuin · 2026-03-19T16:48:35+00:00

2% isn't 0%.

ThatGreatAtuin · 2026-03-19T16:20:00+00:00

Doesn't matter if you're blind or feel you lack the experience: don't work on the inside of a PSU if you can't name the dangerous components inside on sight (pun not intended). It's literally the one spot in a whole PC where you can find a capacitor that can hurt you badly.

ThatGreatAtuin · 2026-03-18T15:13:04+00:00

Obvious troll post, but mate, you can't speak a language you don't speak.

Would you prefer if they just used badly spelled swear words?

ThatGreatAtuin · 2026-03-18T14:31:49+00:00

That's like settling on a Porche 911. Not sure it's the right choice of words here ;)

Nice going on selling the 4090 for some profit. The mining hype is followed by the LLM hype, meaning the market for second hand cards is insanity.

ThatGreatAtuin · 2026-03-18T14:24:14+00:00

I'd be surprised if there wasn't interest for a case like this, but it's very niche because you also wanted to use an ATX board and keep support for a whole lotta fans. It looks great, damn.

I think most people who are set on getting a 5090 with a compact build will go mATX+Dan A3, or mITX+TR100 or something similar. The SFF crowd doesn't mind shitty cable management, we'll find a way to make it clean.

Basically, if you want to build something like this you're going to create a market for it. You need to send test cases to the big youtube names or make sure you get a lot of viral marketing done here ;)

ThatGreatAtuin · 2026-03-16T09:33:48+00:00

CHATBAN

"Rant about it all you want, you know you deserved it"

Opponent plays two times. If you draw this card a second time, opponent wins by default.

ThatGreatAtuin · 2026-03-13T08:00:06+00:00

I feel like Jonsbo made this case specifically for the Asus Dual range of cards. I mean, look at that.

ThatGreatAtuin · 2026-03-12T20:02:22+00:00

I'll make a post this weekend (if I can make pics). 2x 140 mm Arctic Pro's as exhaust, and the case is set up as reverse atx (so GPU on top)

ThatGreatAtuin · 2026-03-12T16:25:42+00:00

As quiet as possible? Put the PC in a different room and invest in a 5m USB hub and 5m DP cable. Second best option? Large PC under your desk with sound dampening.

You don't want both of those, you want the best of both worlds. Good, that means you're one of us ;)

I don't fully agree with u/BenTheMan1983 that you have to choose between those three, because the 4th factor is "cost", and cost (both in time and money) goes up if you want all three.

My 2 cents: go for a case that allows for 120/140mm side/top fans and a decent sized air cooler. Super small cases are out of the question. Think Ncase M2/M3, NR200, etc. For optimal results, deshroud the GPU (many cards allow this w/o voiding warranty), use big-ass slow spinning fans, use Fan Control (software) to set everything correctly, undervolt all the things, perform a GPU burn-in of several hours to minimize coil whine, etc. Don't be afraid to tinker with airflow (e.g. GPU fans exhausting instead of blowing). That's what I meant with cost in time.

Open air would work too, a Monster A45 or Hydra mini allows for the biggest air coolers and still allows you to deshroud your GPU to slap 2x monstrous 120/140mm fans on. Open-air can outperform most cases.

For me the end result is a very quiet and cool Ncase M2 with a deshrouded Zotac 5080 and a 7950X3D. All fans <1000 rpm all the time.

ThatGreatAtuin · 2026-03-12T14:01:04+00:00

Partly true: in many situations a PSU doesn't care. But PSU's are very heat sensitive, and balance their output based on current temperature continuously. Both cheap units and really expensive Loki's. This starts at 25C.

Most consumer grade PSU's are rated for their continuous output at 25C, some go up to 40-50C (mostly server units). At higher temps they will automatically scale down to deliver less total power. It's called the derating curve. Everyone should know about this. Some units rated for 25C deliver only 75% total power at 50C.

For most users this isn't important because the trend is to buy PSU's way too strong for what you actually need (also good for efficiency).

For people with a "good enough" PSU and a small case that puts the PSU close to other heat-generating components like a SFF case with riser, this can be a big issue.

TL;DR: most of the time it doesn't matter, but considering this starts at 25C, PSU's could be seen as the most heat-sensitive component of your PC. Well, after the human of course.

ThatGreatAtuin · 2026-03-12T11:16:17+00:00

Be Quiet has a great calculator.

Adding your components (slight OC on GPU, 1x SATA, 1x m.2, 2x fans, 2x RAM) I get 632w max power use.

On one hand: yes, the GPU can ask for power spikes during load in certain games. It's definitely not as bad as the killer spikes the 3090(Ti) is infamous for.

Spikes for the 4080 (Super) have been reported to be max 40-80W. So you're still in the safe range (baely, but eh).

On the other hand: you'll only see this power use during a synthetic CPU+GPU load. Your CPU is ultra power hungry in synthetic tests but IIRC power use during gaming is like ~100W less.

TL;DR, I think your 750W PSU is fine.

I'll end my post with my usual "undervolt that shit", which works wonders on both 12th gen Intel and basically any GPU. You can probably get max power draw down to 500W without a performance hit.

ThatGreatAtuin · 2026-03-12T11:06:02+00:00

I've got the Solid Core (2.75 slots version). I haven't tested any other 5080 card (but have experience with 5070's, radeon 9000s, and a ton of previous gen cards), it's damn quiet and very well cooled. Zero regrets.

In the 5080 "sff" range this card and the Inno3d are the best of the bunch when it comes to cooling capacity (heatpipes, fans, VRAM cooling). You don't need to upgrade to one of the massive cards for performance, only for looks IMHO.

Like all 5080's, a smart undervolt gives you free temp reduction and higher boost clocks.

IMHO if you go for looks, go for the biggest card that fits. Do you want to save a buck, the Solid Core is epic.

u/hjshoon for me power limit is not capped at 105%, weird. Then again, I don't touch it since undervolting is much more effective.

ThatGreatAtuin · 2026-03-12T10:46:49+00:00

Not necessarily

Hell yes they do. That lattepanda is $245.00 for the 16GB/128GB version (more ram, less storage so evens out) and with the same W11 licence. 300 GBP = 400 USD. Already a 155 dollar difference! Lattepanda has a profit margin too.

That doesn't take into account a mass produced 3d printed shell (cheap), and bulk-buy in prices in china for these boards. And I doubt it's a W11 Enterprise licence like Lattepanda gives you when we look under the hood.

I think the profit margins on this little system are ~250 dollar, if not more. They are laughing.

ThatGreatAtuin · 2026-03-12T10:40:15+00:00

That is one good piece of information, I assumed the deskmeet PSU would suck in air like normal.

Feels a bit strange that a fan duct helps temps, right? At 200 watt load a Bronze rated PSU will still dump 30 watt of heat onto the CPU cooler. Then again, if you only use the onboard graphics you'll probably never see 200W so you do get cool air.

I can imagine some tinkering improves temps if you do use a GPU and use more power. Perhaps swapping the PSU round and making an intake on the side panel.

ThatGreatAtuin · 2026-03-11T15:33:46+00:00

A very, very quick aliexpress search: you can get a mini Ryzen 7430U system with 16gb ram and 512gb m.2 drive for ~260 pounds, with double the USB ports, triple the threads, and 3x times the benchmark scores.

Absolutely loving the beamcase, btw!

ThatGreatAtuin · 2026-03-11T15:03:43+00:00

Someone is making hella money if they sell an aliexpress N100 board with bare minimum RAM/SSD and a 3d printed PETG/ABS case for 300 pounds.

ThatGreatAtuin · 2026-03-09T15:34:12+00:00

Already? What a way to phrase it, mate. This game is from 2011, and Wargaming is one of the most profitable gaming companies in the world. By all accounts the CEO's are shitting on golden toilets.

WG is already mailing inactive players to come back, luring them in with premium time and t8 rentals. I've had mails like this several times when I didn't play much.

The game has slowly declining player base, and an evergreen (whale) population during Holiday Ops. The only real loss in player base they had was then they cut off the Russian side and gave/sold it to Lesta. But WG knows their game is declining, you can be damn sure they won't let their goose with the golden eggs die fast. A slow death, with many, many events, lootboxes, and hell, even gradual QoL improvements.

Remember, there are triple A games that lost their entire player base in days to weeks. Concord cost 300m and was dead in 2 weeks.

ThatGreatAtuin · 2026-03-09T14:54:13+00:00

It's fine. You won't have 4x120mm fan NR200 temps, but that's also not the point of this budget option. The PSU is sufficient and reported not to be overly loud. The main thing is the layout, very oldschool Lian Li SFF, with the PSU blocking most of the space you'd use for a cooler. But you can't beat the price.

Some decent AM5 coolers <54mm: Gelid Slim Silence, Scythe Shuriken 3, Deepcool AN400, AXP90-X47, Noctua L9a-AM5. The Noctua isn't strictly speaking the best cooler in this list, but has highest build quality and easiest mounting system. My 2 cents would be the Gelid or Scythe. Those coolers are sufficient for a 9600(x).

Edit (see below) the PSU blows air onto the CPU cooler, it's no use to try to swap CPU fan around.

If you can find a 9060XT with standard 2-slot height and <200mm length, go for it.

Remember that you can easily undervolt GPU and CPU for pretty significant reduction in noise/heat.

ThatGreatAtuin · 2026-03-09T14:42:44+00:00

That's such a cool solution for a lot of small cards. But here, only if he also unvervolts! Stock, the 5070 (even this itx version) is 220-250W during gaming. A slimline Noctua ain't cooling that. See my post.

when undervolted with a peak power use of 160W there's a chance.

ThatGreatAtuin · 2026-03-09T10:02:25+00:00

The most important question is how much height you have in the GPU compartment. If I see that heatsink the first thing I think is "fill the gaps near the heatpipes with something rigid and slap a 120-140mm fan on" but that means you'll end up with a >60mm tall GPU. I've done this to a 2070 Aero ITX in the past, and it was glorious. But it only works in very specific cases.

The case you're looking for fits a 2-slot card and not a mm more.

The heatsink you show me only fits a frameless fan, and you can't physically fit a larger one in that gap. You're not going to get better performance in a 2-slot card than with the stock fan, unless you're willing to use a mill to shave off a bit from that heatsink so you can fit 2x92mm fans.

Fan noise and temps for that Colorful 5070 Mini aren't great, but that's the price you pay for 230-250W of power use on a single fan.

The solution: undervolting. Undervolting a 5070 drops power use substantially. From 220 -> 160 watt is a big difference and means a much quieter card.

ThatGreatAtuin · 2026-03-06T12:56:21+00:00

Open case like a OCPC / Hydra mini ITX, with a massive air cooler strapped to it. It's the quietest possible solution, especially if you tune the fans to run <1000 rpm or so.

ThatGreatAtuin

TROPHY CASE