I've been meaning to build a "Console" SFFPC for a long time now. I was inspired by the Zaber Sentry 2.0 but by the time I was aware of the said enclosure, the chance to back it through indiegogo was already gone. Scalpers through ebay are a no go and folks from r/hardwareswap rarely sell their sentry.

I've contacted the manufacturer but was told there were no immediate plans for a version 3.0 and judging from the current line up of GPU's 3 slot (even 4 slots) behemoth dimensions becoming a standard, I never heard an update from them ever since. I was met with radio silence and most probably will never see a 3.0 in the foreseeable future.

So I looked for a clone that is surprisingly very similar to Zaber Sentry. I don't mean it in a stereotypical way but the chinese are really good at producing knock-offs/clone.

Issues encountered:

1. The stock PSU extension cable is really stiff AF! I had to source an angled PSU extension cable from Streacom to make perfect bends for the cable routing.

2. The stock PCIe riser cable is s***. I had to source a LINKUP PCIe 4.0 5CM straight riser cable from Amazon. The new problem is I was unable to mount the riser cable on the GPU end because of the extra length added from the mounting holes to the GPU receptacle of the said riser cable. If I screw down the mount holes, the GPU IO bracket will never sit flush against the rear case mounting for the GPU.

Overall the build experience was great! It may be too troublesome for some folks to deal with these SFF quirks but the end result is just rewarding!

Specs:
Case: HZMOD XQ69
Motherboard: Asus ROG Strix B550-I Gaming
CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 5600X
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-L9A Chromax
RAM: Crucial Ballistix Elite 16GB 2X8GB 3600CL16
GPU: EVGA RTX 2080TI Blower
Storage: WD Blue SN570 1TB M.2 NVME SSD
PSU: Corsair SF600 Gold
PSU Cables: Custom Sleeveless Silicone Cables