Velka 3 SFF Build

So lugging my Dan A4-H20 around the world is really tiresome. It barely fits into my backpack and 8KG of PC gets tiring really fast. Recently - when I was at Spelkollektivet - one of my housemates got a new build with a Ryzen 9 7900. A 65W chip. I thought perhaps it was time to try to build a truly portable low power PC with the 3.9l velka 3 - especially since I will not be picking up any film-grade projects in the near future.

Parts:

• Amd Ryzen 9 7900
• Velka 3 version 3
• ENP-7660B-VK 600W Flex ATX PSU
• Asus B650E i-gaming (concerned the X670E's backplate cooler causing interference, so choose this)
  
• GSkill Ripjaw S5 64gb CL32 ram (Low profile ram required)
  
• Thermalright AXP90-x36 cooler (Supposedly the best low profile cooler for velka 5; data appears applicable to the Velka 3)
• Zota Solo 4060
  

Build notes/issues

• 4060's fan grinds against the case. Solutions: Either use rubber stand offs to ensure the side panel does not come close, remove the sticker on the fan, or use the side panel offset mounting hole.
• Am5 platform has really slow boot up time (around 1minute for mine) due to "memory training". It's possible to get this down to normal by disabling the memory training. Two bios settings needed to be set:

• Enable "Memory Context Restore"
• Enable "Power Down Enable"

• The case gets hot, even stock. If pbo is enabled, I've observed it hitting 95C. The PSU on its own is really, really warm. Comparably, the Corsair 750 sfx power supply in my Dan A4 never gets that warm in use.
  
• No space for extra fans, only fans in the case are the one in the gpu and cpu cooler.
  
• Extremely tight to build. Cable management is a pain
• Axp90-x36 comes with its own mounting backplate but I don't think we're supposed to remove the backplate from this motherboard, so I just mounted the cooler through the existing backplate. Its fine.
  
• No reset button/front io apart from the power button
• The 4060 + 7900 is better than the 3950x + 3080ti for games lol. Will need to do more tests but deep rock galactic was at a nice 144hz no issue. 
• Can't really find 96gb ram kits so 64gb was the next option.
• Currently running curve optimizer with -30, ppt at 85. This nets me around 80C top temperature (ambient ~31C)
• Single core performance can be improved by increasing the frequency limit (afaik this is an asus motherboard feature).
   

 

Update: Finalized my build for now. 

• Added in bumpers on the 4060 to prevent the fan from grinding against the grille.
• Replaced the bottom standoffs with much higher ones in the hope the psu can breathe better.

 I'm also thinking of putting a fan duct around the cpu cooler's intake fan, but I need a 3d printer for that.

Update 2: The onboard wifi of this board is not very good - I was experiencing connection dropouts, and when the connection _appeared_ good, the ping times in online games had alot of jitter. I decided to get a TP-Link Archer T4U Plus, a usb wifi 5 adapter, and the connection is now very solid.