This is my first SFF build. I do a lot of data heavy editing and was looking for something that could support that workload while still being in a small form factor for travel. I did quite a bit of research gauging sizes and was able to fit everything into the Fractal Ridge below. One thing that was a little off was the uneven heights on my deshrouded Asus GPU, which made the clearance very tight on the AIO side. The case would close, but the side panel wanted to pop the top off a little, so I trimmed off one of the fan mounts and that solved the issue. Enjoy.

Build Specs

• CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 9950X 16-Core Processor
• CPU Cooler: Cooler Master AIO (with Noctua Chromax G2 120mm fans)
• GPU: Asus Prime GeForce RTX 5080 (Deshrouded)
• Motherboard: ASUS ROG Strix B850-I Gaming WiFi
• RAM: 96GB DDR5 SDRAM T-Create
• Storage: 2TB Samsung 9100 PRO NVMe (Primary) + 4TB Gen 5 NVMe (Secondary)

Fan Control Adjustments

The two Noctua Chromax fans are sandwiched between the AIO radiator and the GPU heatsink, functioning to cool both. They are connected to the CPU header, and then I used the Fan Control app to sync them to a custom Mix Curve tracking whichever temperature is higher between the CPU and GPU.

• CPU Fan Curve (Master Mix):
  • 45°C @ 30% / 65°C @ 50% / 80°C @ 75% / 90°C @ 100%
• GPU Fan Curve: Linear control curve targeting the core sensor directly:
  • 35°C @ 25% up to 80°C @ 60%
• Chassis Fan Curve (60mm Array): Forced to follow the combined CPU/GPU Mix Curve:
  • 40°C @ 25% / 70°C @ 45% / 85°C @ 65% / 90°C @ 100%
• Extra Flow / VRM Fan Curve: 15mm Noctua Chromax 120mm mounted above the AIO block on the outside wall of the case:
  • 40°C @ 20% / 55°C @ 40% / 65°C @ 60%
• AIO Pump Curve: Locked flat at 100% speed static (completely silent to my ears, providing maximum fluid velocity).

Benchmarks & Thermals

3DMark Steel Nomad Stress Test:

• DX12 Score: 8,553
• Max GPU Temp: Stabilized right at ~85°C under sustained loop load
• Max CPU Temp: Hovered comfortably around 50°C to 55°C with brief intermittent utility spikes up to ~65°C

HWInfo Built-In Stress Testing (10+ Minute Sustained Heavy Load):

• CPU Only Load: Settled smoothly at 88.0°C under full multi-core stress.
• GPU Only Load: Leveled out at 74.6°C.
• Simultaneous CPU + GPU Test: CPU stabilized at 88.5°C while the GPU actually dropped to a cool 67.6°C.

Acoustics: The system is actually pretty quiet, averaging about 35dB from 1 foot away, and moving closer to 38dB at flat-out full speed. When I was first running tests, there was an AC unit and a generator running nearby, and the PC was completely inaudible in that environment.

Overall pretty happy with how it turned out :)