Upgraded the Node 202 to Kolink Rocket for more smaller footprint and premium look. Absolutely love this case.
Old case and new case side by side.
Also swapped the Sapphire RX 580 4GB NITRO+ to the EVGA GTX 1660 SC 6GB.
The PC with the most essential component packages.
The Node 202 case bottom view, when in "landscape" mode. The 2x 120mm "intake" case fans are visible.
Case with top cover removed.
The components without the GPU. The 2x 120mm slim case fans are at the bottom section.
Closer look at the Sapphire Radeon RX 580 Nitro+ 4GB GPU. I had to use "slim" case fans, to make sure that there is space in between the fans and the GPU cooler.
Cable management in with the Fractal Design Node 202 mini-ITX case is challenging. Also, I don't like that the PSU cables have "old-school" colours. The cables will change to "black "with the future PSU upgrade.
LAN PC / Livingroom HTPC
For this build I had a budget of around 800€, which I held on to quite nicely.
The idea was to have a cheap yet capable 1080p on-the-go PC that I could take with to LAN parties for example. And I think this build achieves that purpose pretty well.
As with all SFF builds, one of the problems is heat dissipation which is mainly taken care of the two "slim" 120mm chassis fans, and in addition two 40mm "exhaust" fans on top of the case, near where the CPU cooler is located. The latter is to help the CPU cooler with its job.
During gaming, the GPU temperature peaks at 73 degrees, and the CPU temperature peaks at 75 degrees Celsius when set at 3.6GHz stock speed.
NOTE: 30/2/2019 - Added two 40mm fans to exhaust hot CPU air.
NOTE: 18/8/2019 - Changed the Node 202 case to Kolink Rocket premium mini-ITX case. Also changed the RX580 to GTX 1660.
All the clock speeds for CPU and GPU are at default values. This is something I will take a look at after taking care of the CPU cooling, possibly slightly overclocking both. XMP is enabled for RAM.
Please see my short youtube video on the build: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9SYoK9IZQDw
Upgrade ideas for late 2019/early 2020:
- PS: Corsair SF600 (600W needed for a better GPU).
- CPU: Ryzen 5 3600 or Ryzen 7 3700x
The idea was to have a cheap yet capable 1080p on-the-go PC that I could take with to LAN parties for example. And I think this build achieves that purpose pretty well.
As with all SFF builds, one of the problems is heat dissipation which is mainly taken care of the two "slim" 120mm chassis fans, and in addition two 40mm "exhaust" fans on top of the case, near where the CPU cooler is located. The latter is to help the CPU cooler with its job.
During gaming, the GPU temperature peaks at 73 degrees, and the CPU temperature peaks at 75 degrees Celsius when set at 3.6GHz stock speed.
NOTE: 30/2/2019 - Added two 40mm fans to exhaust hot CPU air.
NOTE: 18/8/2019 - Changed the Node 202 case to Kolink Rocket premium mini-ITX case. Also changed the RX580 to GTX 1660.
All the clock speeds for CPU and GPU are at default values. This is something I will take a look at after taking care of the CPU cooling, possibly slightly overclocking both. XMP is enabled for RAM.
Please see my short youtube video on the build: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9SYoK9IZQDw
Upgrade ideas for late 2019/early 2020:
- PS: Corsair SF600 (600W needed for a better GPU).
- CPU: Ryzen 5 3600 or Ryzen 7 3700x
Color(s): Black
RGB Lighting? No
Theme: none
Cooling: Air Cooling
Size: Mini-ITX
Type: General Build
Build Updates
05/03/2019 - Replaced the Noctua NF-A9x14 (14mm variant) with NF-A9 (25mm variant).
27/2/2019 - Added 2x 120mm SilverStone Slim case fans
19/08/2019 - Changed case to Kolink Rocket
19/08/2019 - Replaced RX 580 with GTX 1660
Hardware
CPU
$ 125.00
Motherboard
$ 138.99
PSU
Cooling
$ 44.95
Approved by: