30 centimetres, by 30 centimetres, by 10 centimetres. That’s how big this 4K-friendly, Intel Core i7-toting, dual SSD-booting, Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 SLI-ing gaming rig is. The only problem? The case itself cost more than the $US3500 of high-end PC components inside. Built for an Australian hardcore PC enthusiast and engineer, it’s a prototype for what could well be the smallest 4K gaming PC that money can buy.
This particular PC build was shared on Reddit and Twitter by Protocase, the Canadian company that created the prototype small form factor enclosure. Despite containing Intel’s most powerful consumer-grade CPU — the overclockable Core i7-6700K with a not-insignificant 90 watt TDP — and not one but two top-end Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 graphics cards, the machine is smaller than a couple of stacked pizza boxes. It’s almost smaller than a particularly chunky gaming laptop.
With the CPU air-cooled by a super-low-profile Noctua L9i, the PC is built on the micro-ATX form factor, using an Asus Maximus VIII Gene motherboard and a 32GB complement of Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4 RAM. It uses a Samsung 950 Pro M.2 SSD, which plugs directly into the motherboard for faster speeds and less cable wastage, and a larger Sandisk Ultra II 2.5-inch SSD for bulk data storage. These are all impressive pieces of PC hardware.
It’s the graphics cards that are the biggest ask in any small machine, though, and the two GTX 1080s are custom-mounted on PCI-Express risers and moved to the rear of the motherboard tray — where they have dedicated custom-drilled air intakes through a clear acrylic side panel. Three 90mm fans at the front of the case draw fresh air in. The 700-Watt power supply is, after the case, the most customised part of the gaming rig, with a 700 Watt FSP PSU altered to fit the one-off form factor.
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Importantly, both the CPU and GPUs are able to draw in cold air from outside the case, according to Protocase. The “as small as possible, yet elegant and functional” design apparently does a very good job of keeping operating temperatures down despite the power-hungry components inside. And, of course, you have to remember that this is a machine that can handle some serious computational load, whether it’s high-res gaming, video editing or general-purpose number crunching.
Built for Australian IT consultant and IBM technical specialist Lukasz Dyjakon, the case is functional first, but has a straightforward kind of beauty to it. Prototype design, metal and acrylic manufacturing came to a total of $CAD4025, eclipsing even the $CAD3500 spent on the internal components, but Protocase says that Dyjakon plans to approach “a number of high volume manufacturers” to gauge interest in a mass-produced model for the mainstream. I know that I’d buy one if it ever made it to market.
From Protocase: “Today, engineers who design custom PCs and electronic devices understand that the more powerful a computer is, typically, the larger it will need to be in dimension due to the cooling requirements that are needed for the hardware components. Inside a standard computer case, it’s usually the graphics card and CPU that are craving cold, fresh air, and this is compounded by the fact that in a typical design, the two are close together.”
“The case is designed so that the 2 hottest components in the case, the CPU and graphics cards, are separated and have access to fresh air directly from outside the case. As you can see from the photos below, the CPU is accessing fresh air from the left side of the case, and the dual graphics cards are accessing fresh air from the right side of the case.”
It’s a nearly identical setup to the PC I’m running here at Gizmodo, and I can attest to its flawless performance for high-frame-rate 4K and VR gaming. It’s also all extremely conducive to overclocking, although the small form factor means exhausting all that extra waste heat would be a big ask. It’s small enough to be taken onboard an airplane as carry-on luggage, which has to be its crowning glory. Sure, you won’t exactly be able to plug it into the in-flight entertainment monitor in the back of the seat in front of you, but you’ll be able to do some serious gaming at your destination. [Reddit / Protocase]
Full system specs:
CPU: Intel 6700k
Cooler: Noctua NH-L9i
CPU Fan: Scythe Kaze Jyu Slim 100mm
Motherboard: ASUS Maximus VIII Gene
RAM: 32GB (4 x 8GB) Corsair Vengeance LPX 3200 MHz
GPU: 2 x nVidia GeForce GTX 1080 Founders Edition
SSD1: M.2 SanDisk 950 Pro 256GB
SSD2: SATA SanDisk Ultra II 1 TB
Fans: 3 x Noctua NF-B9 PWM
Power Supply: Based on FSP 700 Watt Platinum with braided cables.
Other Cables: Custom Riser & SLI Cables
Front Panel I/O: 4 x USB 3.0 and HDMI pass through for VR headsets.
This story originally appeared on Gizmodo
Comments
24 responses to “Here’s The Tiniest And Most Powerful 4K Gaming PC”
Need a banana for scale please.
That is really nice. I’d be interested. I’m surprised that 700w is enough juice for 2 1080s and an i7
We have been sold BS psu’ for years. I got away with two 780’s (notoriously greedy consumption) on a 800w back in the day; its more about consistency than anything else.
So long as its a quality piece it will be fine.
I’ve been using this site for a long time.
http://outervision.com/power-supply-calculator
What do you think of it?
If it was last gen (ie. 980ti or TitanX), then yes there’d definitely be concern. But this new gen has a decently low power draw compared to last gen, so 700 should be perfectly fine. Just don’t try overclocking. 🙂
One does not simply buy high end hardware and not OC. ;P
Do want. Running an Obsidian 250D right now because I’m currently loving the Micro ATX form factor
Whenever the time comes for me to rejoin the PC gaming fraternity, my build will be similar, albeit not quite as small as this.
Thinking about it though…with a wife and a kid that’s unlikely hah!
There are one or two things you can get rid of that will dramatically improve the affordability of the build with no real performance hit.
I would start with the kid.
You get it good sir.
I’d get rid of the wife. As if the kid is going to complain about playing games…
Does child support count as a performance hit?
I lol’d in the line for coffee so I logged on just to upvote this comment. It’s the least I could do.
The corsair bulldog can only do 1 GPU, but a lot cheaper and already exists.
You got me excited, then I realised it’s the size of a VCR like the Raven RVZ01 I already have 🙁
I think the Dan A4 Is the only thing close to this for single GPU.
Aren’t cpu’s and gpu’s becoming more efficient these days. So less heat and power.
Top of the line stuff always uses a fair bit. They are better than they were though.
That’s really impressive.
When I saw the headline and the first couple of sentences (mITX, i7 and 1080 SLI) my initial thought was “wow, have fun with dat heat soak”. But seeing the setup with the PCI risers and the drilled fan holes, that’s actually very clever.
seeing as laptops now come with desktop GPU’s and CPU’s, i just don’t see the point – for that sort of cash your could easily get a stupidly powerful laptop. and yes i know the laptops only have 980s atm, but it shouldn’t be long.
They do? Which ones.
Big money, but the MSI GT80S for one, desktop 980 SLI
The MXN ones are slightly slower though just a tiny bit. Some internal clocks and voltage rails are lower than on desktop models. But yeah 95% of desktop. Maybe less overall power draw is lower than the desktop cards.
I think you might be mistaken.. laptops (as far as I’m aware) that have dedicated GPUs have a mobile series GPU, not a desktop one. The naming convention is similar, so it’s a bit misleading.
eg laptops come with GeForce GTX 980M (M denoting mobile). But it’s nothing like a desktop GTX980 in terms of performance.
edit: as lunetouche pointed out, there are indeed laptops with desktop gpus with ridiculous pricetags attached.
They’re modified desktop GPU. They are close but not quite.