Hi, this is Wayne again with a topic “Portable Powerful 4K Gaming PC in the size of a Lunch Box!”.
So this over here is my lunchbox PC, a custom modded portable, powerful 4K gaming and editing rig that I’m able to easily travel with. So we just finished building a PC and you’re greeted with this horrendous message on your screen. Well, fear, not because I have an easy solution for you, guys head on over to your cdkey.com and pick up a Windows, 11 or Windows 10 Pro CD key for around 15 bucks just put in the code ts20 to get that extra 20 off and afterwards they Will email you the CD key and all you have to do – is go into your activation settings on Windows and put it in afterwards. The Watermark will disappear and you can enjoy all the features from Windows. This whole thing started when I was building The Last of Us, PC and soon after I realized that I’m just getting tired of building inside of traditional ATX cases, I want to focus more on small form factor builds because this is what challenges me the most and, As a result, I have way more fun with it now there are a lot of really good case choices for this build like the Dan C4 meshlicious and even The Cooler Master nr200p, But ultimately decided to go with the c26.
With that distinctive look, something you don’t see that many of so I picked this case specifically because it’s stood out to me the most now you guys probably remember me, building in something similar in the AliExpress video a while back. Well, this is pretty much the same case, but with better airflow, it’s the sonic wave c26, a 17.9 liter Micro ATX Tower with a tempered side panel. I wanted to go a completely different route than I normally take with my videos and build a one-of-a-kind, unique system, and I think I achieved it with motherboard. I decided to go with the strix x670ei since I had one laying around but more importantly, it has the features that I’m looking for like built-in Wi-Fi on board USBC and a crap ton of m.2ss these slots. The CPU I picked up is the ryzen 7 7800 X 3D, which is the fastest consumer grade gaming CPU in the world right now, beating out the 1300k and practically matching the 7950x 3D, which has double the cores and threads, but consumes much less power. In fact, that’s one of the reasons why I went with the CPU. It doesn’t draw a lot of power thanks to the 3D V cash, allowing me to go with a low profile cooler. My First Choice was the alpen foam Black Ridge, but I would have ran into clearance issues with the motherboard I’m using.
So I settled with the next best option: the noctua NHL 9A for the am5 socket. Now this was small enough to fit on the socket while providing enough cooling to keep the CPU temps down, which I will go over later in the video the memory I went with the Corsair Vengeance, RGB 32 gigabyte kit clocked at 7200 megahertz the frequency of the Ram makes a huge difference while gaming on ddr5 platform, so I wanted to max out the speed as much as I can, but sadly, the motherboard doesn’t even support high speeds with a current BIOS version. The Corsair memory is not on the motherboard’s qvl and the highest speed it supports is only 6 400 megahertz, which means we will have to down clock the frequency manually until we eventually get support in future through a bios update for storage, I’m starting off with a Simple four terabyte m.2 SSD from Corsair: this is PCI Gen4 compatible, so you can take advantage of the crazy high transfer speeds while not taking up additional space.
In the case in the near future. I will add another four terabyte m.2 SSD for mass storage. Since we do have the space for it and for the graphics card, I was able to fit in an RX 7900 XTX, which is the second fastest gaming card currently available as much as I want to throw it in RTX 4090.
That’S just not possible. With this case, regardless, the semi-900 XTX is plenty for 1440p and 4K gaming, while keeping overall temps and power consumption low, which is the main goal here. Luckily, the case made it very easy to install all the components, since you can practically remove all the panels and that’s what I did for the rear panel. So I can install the motherboard. Then I hooked up the power supply. 750 watts was more than enough to power the entire system, while leaving a ton of extra Headroom for a faster graphics card in the future.
At this point, it was time to install the fans I wanted to maximize all the slots in the case for better cooling, so I picked up a total of five fans. Three knock two to a 90 millimeter fans and two 120 millimeter slim fans. I replaced the rubber inserts with the yellow ones for obvious reasons and installed the two slim 120 millimeter fans on the bottom for intake two of the other 90 millimeter fans went to the top for exhaust and I was able to squeeze in one more 90 millimeter Fan in the front for additional intake, I soon realized that the PC looks hideous with all those cables noticeable in the back. Sadly, the case doesn’t have enough space to hide the cables or to even properly manage them.
So I just hated the way it looked. So I decided to make my own custom cover. I picked up a black acrylic sheet from Amazon, measured and marked where I want to cut it to make sure that it only covers the power supply and the cables in the back. Then I used a band stop to cut the vinyl sheet to my desired size, but before I can install it, I have to hook up the gravis card.
The GPU was a very tight fit. There was probably only about one centimeter of clearance between the front of the GPU and the front fan, but there was a much bigger problem. The PCI cables from the graphics card were sticking out way too much, not allowing me to lay the acrylic sheet flat on the power supply, so I had to go on Amazon once again and purchase a 180 degree adapter.
With this, I was able to reroute the cables towards the top freeing up additional space. I was then able to easily place the sheet down, but I still didn’t like the look of it. I wanted to somehow make it blend in with the design of the case. So I had a patron of mine print, these really cool vinyl stickers out. For me, in the shape of the front grille of the case, I then started to wrap the sheet in the same pattern for a bit of continuity, and although it’s not perfect by any means, I think it came out looking okay now this can’t be a lunchbox Pc without a handle up top making it convenient to carry it around well, this was supposed to come with one, but AliExpress didn’t send one.
I think I got scammed, no big deal. I went on Amazon picked one up separately and then I hooked it up to the top of the case with a nut and bolt and ladies and gents I was done or so I thought I still wasn’t happy with the PC. Something was bothering the crap out of me, something so minimal so trivial that you guys are going to be like Ed. What the hell, the three tiny red fins on the side of the heatsink, were sticking out way too much for me, and the perfectionist in me wanted to do something about it. So naturally I thought, let’s paint it in yellow and it came out looking good. I’M not gon na lie um. I should have stopped there, but I didn’t. I thought it would be a genius idea to paint the rest of the heatsink yeah.
I mean it didn’t exactly come out the way I hoped, but it didn’t ruin the build either. Sometimes I just don’t know when to stop. I always overextend and then these things happen, but you know it is what it is. I learned a very valuable lesson, also AMD why the hell did you think it was a good idea to paint three random fins in red, which makes no sense anyways.
Let’S talk performance, I was able to achieve well over 200 FPS in 1440p. Ultra settings playing Modern Warfare, 2. buttery, smooth, gameplay, no stutters, no lag and, more importantly, no thermal throttling. The fans were able to keep all the components cool enough to a point where the system wasn’t experiencing any throttling.
In fact, I got the 7900 XTX down on its knees with a hundred percent load, it’s putting in good work just as expected, even though the GPU is maxed out 100 usage overall power consumption is really low, maxing out less than 500 watts in 1440p gaming. That’S 200 watts of extra Headroom that I still can work with for future upgrades later down. The line. Temps are a bit toasty for the CPU, peaking at 86 degrees and averaging more around 84.
But that’s to be expected. I mean we’re running a low profile, cooler and a mini ITX, build with high-end components as long as it’s not hitting over 90 degrees. I’M content, you know a lot of people seem to freak out when they see high temps in their system. Like guys, these CPUs are built to take the heat, it’s not the end of the world. The only times you should be concerned is, if it’s causing issues with your system. If it’s crashing stuttering frame drops through the thermal throttling, in fact, you can download Hardware info and check the sensors for your CPU yourself near the bottom. It will tell you if it hits the thermal limit or if there is any thermal throttling present. As far as the GPU that remains slightly cooler than the CPU maxing out at 72 degrees Celsius, it seems like the 90 millimeter fan in the front is putting in the work now as far as the noise levels.
Let’S just say it’s louder than my wife: on the weekend nights, all the fans are working at Max RPM during full load to keep the temps down and, as a result, we are hitting 56 decibels. This is definitely a PC. You don’t want to play in the library on idle, it’s a bit quieter, but the temps are much cooler as a result of not putting stress on the CPU and the GPU. I could mess with the fan, curves and lower the fan speed for a more silent system, but it doesn’t really bother me, especially since I have my headphones on while gaming, so I can’t hear anything anyways all in all, I’m very happy with the build.
I think the case looks awesome, it stands out and it performs just as expected without any limitations, I’m able to run any game. I want on this bad boy with the settings cranked up and I can take it with me anywhere. I want I’m definitely going to be doing more small form factor build on the channel, and if this is the type of content you guys are interested in, please consider subscribing I’ll drop a link to everything I use in the build down below. If you guys want to check it out thanks so much for watching and I’ll see you in the next one .