Building Small
SFF Office Desktop Beast: 7800X3D + RTX 4090 in 11.1L After downsizing from my previous full tower build, I wanted to prove to myself that I didn't need a massive case to run high-end hardware. Here's how it turned out.
Why SFF?
I previously ran this hardware in a much larger case with a 360mm AIO and tons of fans. It worked great, but took up half my desk. Moving to the living room setup, space became a priority without sacrificing performance.
The Hardware
The big question: can a 47mm tall air cooler handle the 7800X3D in this tiny case? Temperature comparison:
Idle: 48°C → 60°C Gaming load: 65°C → 72°C
That's a 12°C increase under load and about the same at idle, but still well within safe operating temps. Zero performance loss in actual gaming. The 7800X3D's lower TDP (120W) makes this possible—trying this with a higher-power CPU would be a different story.
Build Notes The A4-H20 A4's layout is tight but logical. The AXP90-X47 is one of the few coolers that fits the 47mm clearance while still providing adequate cooling. Cable management required patience, but the SFX PSU helps significantly. The only reason I swapped the stock fan is I already had the Noctua lying around from a previous build. Temps were the same in testing, I preferred the Noctua sound profile.
Three Noctua fans keep airflow moving through the compact chassis—the industrial iPPC-2000 as exhaust does heavy lifting moving hot air out. The MSI SUPRIM LIQUID X's AIO rad mounts to the side bracket (technically the top but I'm using this in a vertical position), which is the key to making a 4090 work in this form factor.
4TB of NVMe storage means I'm not making compromises on my game library, and 64GB of luxurious DDR5 RAM purchased before the dark times handles anything I throw at it.
Final Thoughts Going from a giant case to 11.1 liters was worth the modest thermal trade-off. Performance is identical where it matters, and I gained a ton of usable space. If you're considering SFF with high-end components, it's absolutely viable—just do your homework on cooler clearances and airflow.