Too much heat for a small case?

[Matt London]

I would appreciate some opinions. I am clueless about PCs.

I don’t have room for a tower PC but would like a very powerful gaming PC. It would primarly be for DCS and I will probably get a VR set for it too.

I have specced up a mini ITX unit on Computer Planet’s site. It looks like this:

Storage Drive #2 : 1 x 1 TB Seagate FireCuda (1000 GB) SATA-III 64MB & 8GB SSD (Hybrid SSHD)
CPU Cooling : 1 x Corsair Hydro H80i V2 (Advanced Liquid Cooling)
Operating System : 1 x Microsoft Windows 10 Home 64 BIT
Power Supply : 1 x Corsair 850W (Modular) PSU - Low Noise
Optical Drive #1 : 1 x Asus (BW-16D1HT) 16x Blu-Ray Re-Writer/Reader & 16x DVD/CD Re-Writer (Software Included)
Memory : 1 x Corsair 32GB Vengeance 3000MHz (2x16GB) - Lifetime Warranty (DDR4) - RGB
Delivery Service : 1 x FREE - UK FedEx Delivery
Delivery Time Slot : 1 x Express Morning Delivery - Before 12:00 PM (UK Only)
Warranty : 1 x 3 Year Standard Warranty (2 Year Collect & Return)
Motherboard : 1 x Asus STRIX Z370I (Intel Z370i) - Mini-ITX
Storage Drive #1 : 1 x 500GB Samsung 970 EVO M.2 SSD, Read 3400MB/s, Write 2300MB/s - Silent
Graphics Card : 1 x NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti - 11 GB - (PCI-E) - DP/HDMI - HD/4K/VR - Supports 4 Monitors - TODAY ONLY LOW PRICE
Networking : 1 x Motherboard Integrated Wireless Adapter & Ethernet Lan 10/100/1000
Computer Case : 1 x Fractal Design Node 304 - Black
CPU Compound : 1 x Standard CPU Compound Supplied With Heatsink
Mouse : 1 x Standard Optical Mouse (USB)
CPU : 1 x Intel i9 9900K - (8 x 3.6 GHZ - Turbo 8 x 5.0 GHZ) - Coffee Lake

The Fractal Design case has been chosen as its one of the only cases that will fit into the space in my AV unit. For political reasons it has to go into that space 😁 The case dimensions are 250 x 210 x 374 (WxHxD mm)

My uneducated concern is that this may be too much PC for a small case. Will it get too hot?

Cheers

Matt

[Jinx]

Matt London said:

I would appreciate some opinions. I am clueless about PCs.

I don’t have room for a tower PC but would like a very powerful gaming PC. It would primarly be for DCS and I will probably get a VR set for it too.

I have specced up a mini ITX unit on Computer Planet’s site. It looks like this:

Storage Drive #2 : 1 x 1 TB Seagate FireCuda (1000 GB) SATA-III 64MB & 8GB SSD (Hybrid SSHD)
CPU Cooling : 1 x Corsair Hydro H80i V2 (Advanced Liquid Cooling)
Operating System : 1 x Microsoft Windows 10 Home 64 BIT
Power Supply : 1 x Corsair 850W (Modular) PSU - Low Noise
Optical Drive #1 : 1 x Asus (BW-16D1HT) 16x Blu-Ray Re-Writer/Reader & 16x DVD/CD Re-Writer (Software Included)
Memory : 1 x Corsair 32GB Vengeance 3000MHz (2x16GB) - Lifetime Warranty (DDR4) - RGB
Delivery Service : 1 x FREE - UK FedEx Delivery
Delivery Time Slot : 1 x Express Morning Delivery - Before 12:00 PM (UK Only)
Warranty : 1 x 3 Year Standard Warranty (2 Year Collect & Return)
Motherboard : 1 x Asus STRIX Z370I (Intel Z370i) - Mini-ITX
Storage Drive #1 : 1 x 500GB Samsung 970 EVO M.2 SSD, Read 3400MB/s, Write 2300MB/s - Silent
Graphics Card : 1 x NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti - 11 GB - (PCI-E) - DP/HDMI - HD/4K/VR - Supports 4 Monitors - TODAY ONLY LOW PRICE
Networking : 1 x Motherboard Integrated Wireless Adapter & Ethernet Lan 10/100/1000
Computer Case : 1 x Fractal Design Node 304 - Black
CPU Compound : 1 x Standard CPU Compound Supplied With Heatsink
Mouse : 1 x Standard Optical Mouse (USB)
CPU : 1 x Intel i9 9900K - (8 x 3.6 GHZ - Turbo 8 x 5.0 GHZ) - Coffee Lake

The Fractal Design case has been chosen as its one of the only cases that will fit into the space in my AV unit. For political reasons it has to go into that space ?? The case dimensions are 250 x 210 x 374 (WxHxD mm)

My uneducated concern is that this may be too much PC for a small case. Will it get too hot?

Cheers

Matt

That is a lot of hot stuff in that set up - slightly left field but wouldn't a corsair one fit the bill?

Other than that the 2080 Ti is going to need some serious cooling ( Tom's power and temps link)

[RizzoTheRat]

Take a look at PC Partpicker website, you can spec a build on there and then post it on their forums for some useful feedback.

When you say it needs to fit in a specific space, how much room is there around/behind it for decent airflow? We used to have some reasonable spec builds in Shuttle cases, and with the power supply and an extra fan sucking air front to back they cooled really well, until you put one somewhere it didn't have enough airflow around it.

[Matt London]

Thanks for the replies so far.

I have specced the Fractal Node case because it fits into the 350x470x470 (HxWxD) space that I have. The AV unit it's going into is a BDI Corridor. These can be completely opened at the back, the front is slatted and the top and bottom are vented.

I did have a go at Parts Picker but when it came to trying to get the 2080ti specced it flagged up something about ports being unable to be used. I was unsure whether that meant it was incompatible with the other components or just that these couldn't be used if In then chose to add something else. I will look again and try to work out what exactly it meant.

The other thing was that when I looked at getting all of the parts myself it was exceeding the cost of the ready built one.

The Corsair one looks very good but won't fit the space. I could move things around in the other compartments but they would still leave the Corsair on its side. Which I guess is a bad thing?

[maffski]

YouTube - Fractal Design Node 304 ITX Modular Case Unboxing & First Look Linus Tech Tips

Looks like it should be fine, as long as airflow is good enough around the case.

[130R]

The 2080 Ti will kick out a lot of heat into the case. Might be better going for a blower-style design (they are noisier though).

[Matt London]

I think the airflow around the case will be ok. I can always just pull it out of the AV unit and put it on the floor.

It looks like the sort of size case I need (Node 304) is limited to a '2 Slot size GPU' (this was a new term for me today) so I don't even know what/how to spec something that is not a 'blower'.

I really appreciate the help. It seems that speccing a Mini ITX is a minefield compared to an unrestricted case.

[RizzoTheRat]

I'd have thought a 2080 would be dual width regardless of whether it's a blower or not.

If you're not sure of the difference, a standard card has the fans mounted on the side and blow air over cooling fins, but all within the case. A blower card has ducting so it draws air from inside the case over the cooling fins and then ejects it out of the back of the case. t

There are also some cards that come with liquid cooling and an external radiator

[Matt London]

I did look at builds with other cards but I read in a few places that the Fractal case could only take 2.0 slot cards. It seems a lot of 2080ti cards seem to be 2.5-2.7 slot.

Thanks for the replies.

[deckster]

Matt London said:

I really appreciate the help. It seems that speccing a Mini ITX is a minefield compared to an unrestricted case.

That's the point really. Mini-ITX was never designed to be all full-on gaming monster form factor and you will I fear struggle to get stuff to both fit and to run at a reasonable temperature - you're going to have be incredibly fussy and careful with card sizes, airflow and the like. Probably to the extent that you'll have to buy a few and send back the ones which don't fit. It's such a ballache that I've given up building small PCs and now just buy massive cases and hide them

[Jinx]

Matt London said:

The Corsair one looks very good but won't fit the space. I could move things around in the other compartments but they would still leave the Corsair on its side. Which I guess is a bad thing?

The intakes are on the side and the exhaust on the top - so probably no good on its side. May work ok on its front - face down (lose the front USB and power switch - keep it in standby )?

[HRL]

You’ve also picked the hottest general purpose CPU that Intel make BTW, albeit to be fitted with a small AIO cooler. Just don’t go trying to overclock it as then they get REALLY hot.

Stick with the 2080Ti if you want to play at 4K but you can probably get away with a significantly cooler CPU, like a Ryzen 2700X instead. At 4K res the frame rates are limited by the GPU rather than the CPU in most cases anyway.

[Matt London]

Jinx said:

The intakes are on the side and the exhaust on the top - so probably no good on its side. May work ok on its front - face down (lose the front USB and power switch - keep it in standby )?

Thanks Jinx

deckster said:

That's the point really. Mini-ITX was never designed to be all full-on gaming monster form factor and you will I fear struggle to get stuff to both fit and to run at a reasonable temperature - you're going to have be incredibly fussy and careful with card sizes, airflow and the like. Probably to the extent that you'll have to buy a few and send back the ones which don't fit. It's such a ballache that I've given up building small PCs and now just buy massive cases and hide them

The thing is that I ran out of places to hide stuff ages ago. I did try hiding stuff in plain sight but she noticed the 7.1 speaker set up!

I did float the idea of an Alienware Aurora R7 tower in the living room but that was a big NO GO It was 12% off at the time too!

When I looked at self build I couldn't get close to the price of the Mini ITX I specced.

HRL said:

You’ve also picked the hottest general purpose CPU that Intel make BTW, albeit to be fitted with a small AIO cooler. Just don’t go trying to overclock it as then they get REALLY hot.

Stick with the 2080Ti if you want to play at 4K but you can probably get away with a significantly cooler CPU, like a Ryzen 2700X instead. At 4K res the frame rates are limited by the GPU rather than the CPU in most cases anyway.

I definitely want 4k as it will be connected to a 65" LG OLED. I am under the impression that DCS is very CPU heavy. I wanted the fastest and best for future proofing too! It does sound like I am over reaching with the heat though. I will look into what DCS can run like with a lower processor. I want to avoid tight bottlenecks.

Thanks to all of you for the advice, its been immensely helpful!

Edited for spelling heat as heart

Edited by Matt London on Wednesday 13th March 20:39

[Type R Tom]

Disguise it as an ornament!

[Type R Tom]

On a more serious note, have you looked at HTPC cases?

[Matt London]

Type R Tom said:

Disguise it as an ornament!

Damn shame we don't live near the sea. I could have put it outside and disguised it as a passing ship. Would have helped with the cooling too!

[RizzoTheRat]

Matt London said:

I will look into what DCS can run like with a lower processor. I want to avoid tight bottlenecks.[/footnote]

Check how well it does multithreading, a lot of games don't really use multiple cores so aren't any faster on an i7 than an i5 at the same clock speed. Dunno what the heat difference would be though.

[AdamD]

I’m running an i9-9900k and a 1080gtx (blower fan) in my fractal node 304. All fans upgraded to noctua PWM and a Corsair H90 AIO with 2 x 140mm fans in push pull config on the radiator.

Nice little box and very cool and quiet considering.