Building a 2U SFF PC

The Premise

I want a new MacBook. Well, more accurately, I want a more powerful MacBook than I already have. The problem is, have you seen the price of MacBooks? And with the limitations of not being able to upgrade components, unless you shell out an-arm-and-a-leg up-front for over-spec’d hardware, the prospect of buying a new laptop isn’t particularly compelling.

That’s reason enough; And to be honest, I’ve always wanted to build a Small Form-Factor PC.

Now, I’m no stranger to putting a PC together, I built my gaming rig, and my partner’s flight simulator (and Stardew Valley¹) machine too. Essentially I’m limited by funds, my imagination, and whatever will fit into a tiny case.

Requirements

As much the sky is nearly the limit, I do have some requirements for this.

1. It’s got to be future-proof. This means I need a new socket architecture, a decent CPU, a splash of RAM, and the ability to fit a good chunk of storage.
2. It’s got to be rackmountable. I’m deep into homelab at this point, and I’m never looking back.
3. It’s running Linux. I’m done with Windows and it’s ridiculous requirements in order to keep your OS current.
4. It’s got to be quiet. I’m not looking for a jet engine in my office.
5. Workstation graphics. I’m running a 5120x1440 monitor, and I need something that can handle that resolution, and maybe an extra monitor or two.

Parts List

After much research, deliberation, and wondering if I was going to set my house on fire, I settled on the list of parts below. If it’s more your speed, you can check out the PC Part Picker for this build.

Component	Model	Price at purchase
Case	MyElectronics 2U Mini ITX	€199,00
Motherboard	ASUS ROG Strix B650E-I	£220
CPU	AMD Ryzen 9 7900	£340
CPU Cooler	Noctua NH-L9x65	£50
Memory	Corsair DDR5 PC5-41600 (96GB)	£260
Storage	Samsung 990 Pro M.2 NVME @ 4TB	£283
Graphics	AMD Radeon Pro WX3200	£130
PSU	Corsair 750 SF750	£155
Misc: Case Fans	Nocuta NF-A8 PWM	£17 x 3
Misc: Front IO USB Cables	MyElectronics	€25 x 2

Let’s talk about the elephant in the room. That’s an expensive case. Rackmount cases are a licence to print money, so it is what it is. This case is absolutely gorgeous, the build quality is amazing, and the customer service from MyElectronics is first-class. The case has 4 ports for front I/O, and you can aquire a range of adapters for these ports - I’m only using 2, a USB-A 3.0 & a USB-C.

I opted for an AMD processor because I prefer them over Intel presently, and I’m going for an all AMD build. The 7900 was literally the limit of what I could get away with with this cooler in this case, and I wanted more threads. I am an avid rustacean, so build times are important to me. The cooler is a miracle in itself, as according to the specs I have a mere 2mm of clearance between the top of the fan and the case.

I saved about £200 by going for the Motherboard I did, but this limited my choice of memory a little. I opted for the maximum amount of Corsair Memory (non-RGB because I’m a “professional”), that I could get my hands on that would run at that clock speed. This board also has slots for 2 NVME SSDs, so I threw in a large 4TB (such a big cache too) drive from Samsung, with the option to add another later.

I also got an insane deal on the low-profile GPU! By opting for a slightly older, high-end workstation card, I saved myself £1800 off the retail price from new, and it’ll drive 2 of these monitors.

Noctua all the way on the fans, because who doesn’t love silence, and the smooth brown colour of all matching fans.

This is exactly my partner’s reaction when I was telling her the specs of this

The Build

This case is tight on space, so it was a little tricky to get it all in the box, but outside of a weird papercut[citation needed] that I got, I didn’t ingure my hands so I’d call it a success. There’s a bit of cable spaghetti and ziptie madness going on to keep everything tidy, but it all came together nicely.

The Finished Product

My little fire hazard, in all it’s 2U glory

To be honest, I’m pretty happy with how this turned out. I’m even writing this on the box in question. Performance is amazing and outside of the occasional fan ramp-up, it’s pretty quiet and keeps at about 60°. It’s unseasonably warm in the UK right now, so I’m interested to see how temps look throughout the fall and winter.

My build times are faster than ever and I’m over the moon. Also, you know, I’m running like a bajillion containers on this thing.

What’s next?

I’m going to rice the ever-loving [redacted] out of this box. I’ve already installed the HARDEST operating system², bolted on the Hyprland window manager and installed NeoVim with NvChad.

📝 Footnotes

1. Tell me you don’t like Stardew Valley, you and I both know you’re lying. ↩︎

2. This was hilarious (Bog on YouTube). ↩︎