SFF PC

I primarily play Destiny 2, CS:GO, Apex Legends, and The Division 2. Prices shown for items I can't find on Micro Center's website are what I paid back in 2018 when I originally built this system.

This build is a couple years in the making for me. I started out finally deciding to get back into PC gaming after nearly 6 years off. During college I bought and gamed on an old Gateway FX gaming laptop, purchased new in 2008. I used that up until it eventually died (GPU gave out) in 2014. Between 2014 and March 2019, I made due with an old PS3 and borrowing my girlfriends laptop when I needed a PC at home.

So, tax season 2019 rolled around and I had a modest return that I decided to put towards PC components. This build hasn't changed for the most part since its inception with the exception of the case, GPU, and PSU. My original build was in a Thermaltake Core V1 with an Asus ROG Strix RX 570 and EVGA B3 550W PSU.

SFF PCs had intrigued me for a while (hence the original "small" 22L case), but when 2020 came around I knew it was time to upgrade the case and go even smaller - enter the Sliger SM550.

Case This case is extremely well made and the attention to detail made building inside of the small enclosure a pleasure. Cable management was definitely helped by changing to the EVGA GM 550W PSU, which comes with shorter than standard cables. I did quite a bit of digging around on the internet prior to building in this case, so that helped immensely when it came time to execute. Everything has a specific place and orientation to fit in, so as long as you follow the correct sequence of part assembly, it really isn't any more difficult than a larger case. The current setup I have is vented side panels on both sides and the case fans configured to exhaust.

CPU This was, and still is, a great value CPU for a variety of tasks. Aside from gaming, I generally use my PC for work or internet browsing. This CPU provides more than enough power for these tasks, and overclocks quite nicely.

Cooler I used the original cooler (Wraith Stealth) for quite some time, including in my initial build in the SM550. While it could mostly keep up with my 4.0GHz overclock, I ultimately decided to upgrade to the Noctua NH-L9a. The Noctua cooler is much better at handling the 2600 than the stock Wraith Stealth cooler. With a mild undervolt (1.250VRM,1.200SOC) the peak temps never go above 76C.

RAM Unfortunately, this RAM has not aged well. Not to say it doesn't still work the same as on day one - but the price I paid back in March 2019 was significantly higher than current prices. I may upgrade this in the future to a faster kit.

MOBO The ASUS B450-i Gaming is a great motherboard. All of the connectivity and features I needed and wanted, plus WiFi for when the new smaller size PC travels with me.

Storage This build started out with just the 250GB M.2 drive. This filled up much faster with 2019 games than my old drives did back when I was gaming in 2010. I had a temporary fix by harvesting the hard drive from my old laptop, but I ultimately replaced that HDD with a 512GB SanDisk SSD I picked up on sale at Micro Center. No complaints here.

GPU Yes, the RX570 is an old card. It works fantastically for the gaming I want to do (1080p60) for my couch gaming setup. I am looking into a moderate upgrade to the 1660ti or similar in the next few months to try to get into 1440p or reduced settings 4k gaming.

Since originally finishing this build, I've upgraded to a Sapphire RX 5600 XT.
This upgraded turned out to be much less straightforward than I anticipated - everything said this GPU should fit in the SM550, but ultimately there was contact between the side panel mount and the shroud on the GPU. I'm disappointed I didn't notice before I scuffed the shroud a bit, but it is hidden when the PC is assembled.
Once I got the GPU in place and attempted to put the side panel back on, I found that the pins for the side panels protruded beyond the mount by about 1/8". This required a quick update to the shroud to add some clearance in the form of a well placed 13/64" hole. Once that was complete, the GPU installed without issue! After running several performance tests, I found that I was receiving very low performance from my GPU, as well as my SSDs. Ultimately, I had to completely wipe and reinstall windows to achieve proper performance.

I have paired this system up with an Anne Pro 2 in black, a Corsair Dark Core RGB mouse, Corsair HS70SE wireless headphones, and an AOC CU34G2X 1440p Ultrawide monitor.

CPU temp at idle: 41.0C
CPU temp under load: 76.0C
CPU OC to 4.0GHz
GPU temp at idle: 40.0C
GPU temp under load: 68.0C