Small form-factor or SFF builds are becoming increasingly popular. More case vendors are supplying small PC cases designed for SFF builds that sport some very nice user-friendly features. Even Nvidia have a special initiative to mark cards that are suitable for these smaller builds. However, I’m fairly sure that none of those companies were expecting the sort of project that Reddit user Revolutionary_Pack54 came up with.
This user posted to Reddit, explaining that they had acquired what they described as: “A bunch of free hardware.” For reasons that few can possibly fathom, they decided absolutely the best course was to try and stuff all this hardware into the smallest PC case they could find.
The case in question is an NZXT H1 from 2019, but with the outer panels removed to leave just the main chassis. Revolutionary_Pack54 then assembled his hardware, which apparently mostly consisted of cast-off components he had ended up with through the course of his work.
The angle and lighting on the photos makes it difficult to positively identify all the components in use, but the Club386 team were able to use our experience to make some educated guesses. The graphics card is likely an MSI Ventus, probably from the RTX 20 series, since it uses the older 8-pin connector. The colour scheme on the motherboard points towards a Gigabyte or possibly ASRock. The M.2 SSD is a Crucial 1TB and the RAM appears to be HyperX Ballistix. Based on the other components, it is probably DDR4 RAM. The CPU cooler looks like an ID-COOLING air cooler of some kind, though we were unable to identify the exact model.
The power supply is an Apevia AT-PR600W, though only one picture shows this clearly, since in later images the metal shielding around the PSU has been removed. This move is the main reason why Revolutionary_Pack54 warned people not to attempt to replicate this build. As you can probably guess, uncovered power supplies mean that the high-voltage components inside are accessible and can easily deliver up to 600W of power to your nervous system instead of the PC if you aren’t very careful.
Besides the bananas delidded PSU, there is much to marvel at in the ‘completed’ build. The proliferation of zip ties holding everything together, the way the various components are all squeezed like London commuters at rush hour, and of course the total lack of air flow.
Astonishingly, this Frankenstein’s monster of a PC does actually function and runs a Linux install. For this reason, a fellow Reddit user dubbed Revolutionary_Pack54 as ‘The Junk King’. An accolade that Revolutionary_Pack54 says they will ‘wear with honour’.
