Completed (pending moderation at time of posting): https://pcpartpicker.com/b/hXFgXL
Parts list: https://pcpartpicker.com/user/yakko_at_feddit.uk/saved/#view=dcMhmG
Built this to keep me doing anything I want until computing gets cheap again, riding out the AI bubble and all. Wanted to build something for decades, always ended up compromising with prebuilts. No more!
Runs on Linux Mint (basic b to my core), does everything I ask. Renders video 10x as fast as you can watch it, plays anything.
The mobo is actually a Sapphire B850M Wifi but that wasn’t in the list. Sorry!
Getting everything to fit was a nightmare. I had to use a low-profile fan for part of the AIO’s length due to a piece of the motherboard’s radiators extending into that area:
I also had to get an extender to make the GPU fit vertically, since it’s the size of a freaking cereal box. But I’ve got the GPU sipping directly on ambient air, and I’ve configured the rear fan as an intake so the motherboard gets plenty of cool air too. Everything vents out the top. So far not much dust inside, I think I’ve got the positive air pressure neatly dialed in.
The LCD cap is running my own handmade graphic. Pretty happy with that, vid: https://feddit.uk/pictrs/image/cce310aa-58f0-4867-b444-14d225a627bb.mp4
I also built a custom phone cradle for the USB retro phone I make work calls with. The stone is lapis lazuli.
Named this one Twinkling Titanite for the colours. All of my computers are nicknamed some variation of Titanite, this might be the end of that trend. Nowhere to go from here unless I build a data centre (Demon Titanite lmao).
I have an extremely similar build to yours both in terms of components and appearance.
was torn between the lian li a3 and the fractal design north for the longest time. eventually settled on the latter but was honestly disappointed in its build quality, especially having used fractal design cases for a long time, like the define and meshify series.
I may yet switch to the lian li if I can find a slightly smaller power supply to swap in.
how is the SBIOS on the asrock board by the way?
Sorry for the confusion, the mobo is Sapphire but PCPP didn’t have mine listed. I mentioned it in an aside, but it’s easily overlooked. This is the one I’ve got: https://www.sapphiretech.com/en/consumer/mb_pure_b850m-wifi - The BIOS on this board is quite nice though, it’s simple enough for a novice but has a lot of optionality a more experienced builder would have plenty to work with. Looks good too.
I was SO CLOSE to using the Fractal North XL for this build, but someone on this !c talked me into a smaller case, so I went with this one. Sorry to hear it’s not great quality, I really like that one. It seems like Fractal pioneered the aesthetic Lian Li borrowed here.
I really wanted a super solid PSU, but I didn’t realise how hard it would be to make everything fit. Measure twice and cut once with mATX!
I’ve been speaking to ed from sapphire for yeaaars about bringing these mainboards to markets outside of china. i’m glad they finally became available last september, that people are actually using them, and that their SBIOS isn’t stupid 😅 my next ask is to see whether they’d be open to directly supporting projects like coreboot, and even getting a head start on OpenSIL 🤞
I really do appreciate the notion of performance per litre. I don’t think the A3 is unreachable, I might even be able to cram my existing power supply in there if I side mount the chassis intake fan? And yeah, the cost of smaller form factor, high capacity + efficiency PSU gets to become astronomical 😅
The A3 is, if anything, even more adaptable than the advertising claims. Their schematics flatly tell you what I’ve made is impossible, even PCPP says so - but it turns out GPUs don’t mind floating upright in your case, as long as they’re snugly forced up against the perforated wall by a mass of cables… Uff da. The cable management situation is frankly beyond my skill level, it’s just a rats’ nest in there. Not stupid if it works!