Wanted a super minimalist build for a secondary split boot machine I would probably use mostly for a linux server. I ran across the open concept Xproto "case" when researching mini-ITX builds, and while most people will scoff and scream DUST DUST DUST I just thought the thing was sexy as hell and knew thats what I wanted to build on.

Like I said, I kept this simple and minimalistic with just the right touch of flash. The blacked out feel was definitely what I wanted and which is why I went with the noctua chromax cooler. While its not going to be a workhorse on the thermal side. Being that I live in Wisconsin and the ambeint temp in my house is usually very low, being that its a open design case the cooler needs to be very minimal performance wise.

I also undertook a mod of the Corsair SF 600, removing the stock fan that was installed and updated with a noctua low profile chromax 92mm fan and also remove the stock grill that was over the fan. This modification was a bit tricky but found some awesome documentation here https://smallformfactor.net/forum/threads/corsair-sf-80-platinum-fan-mod-swap.12251/ if any of you are interested in doing something similar. Worked like a charm, although again being an open design and not a huge power sucker the PSU fan hardly ever kicks on.

I went with the Corsair Dominator memory purely for aesthetics, even though it is some great memory, I felt it added the little touch of RGB other than the motherboard RGB to really make this look amazing.

Obviously went with m.2 ssd to minimize the cable management however there are some pretty great places to mount some SSDs inbetween the butterfly panels. If I needed the storage I could easily upgrade however the mobo having 2 m.2 slots filling those with a couple 500gb drives should be more than adaquate for this build.

Finally the graphics card. I decided to go with a blower style card for the simple fact that the hot air is ejected out the back of the card which in this case is straight out the top. The 2060 certainly isn't top of the line but was the best budget card I could find in these trying types and the flat black aesthetic fit the build great with just a slice of rgb to match the front.

Completely in love with this build, I did buy a number of brackets to add on to this thing as eventually I want to do some crazy custom cooling loop on this thing. Black Monolith 2.0 will be liquid cooled.

Let me know what you think!