Question about AIO PC construction, cloud NAS integration, and adding a laptop component to the setup.
Question about AIO PC construction, cloud NAS integration, and adding a laptop component to the setup.
Unless you prefer RTX 50-series or RX 9000 series GPUs, there’s no sign of component shortages. All other parts remain readily available.
From Corsair, solid choices include: RMx, RMi, HXi and AXi. The remaining models are not recommended for purchase. RM, HX and AX are outdated; TX and TXm are also older but with a wide variety of SKUs, making it hard to determine the compatible PSU. RMe offers average quality but is sufficient for office setups without a dedicated GPU. CX and CXm also have average quality, suitable only for office builds. CV, CSm, VS are of poor quality and represent a waste of money.
Oh, Corsair SF-series stands out with good quality (SFX PSU). The same applies to Seasonic Focus SGX (also an SFX PSU).
Sorry for the delayed response!
Thank you for the guidance! I checked both options using pcpartpicker but will take a closer look.
My main concern is figuring out what she needs compared to the more expensive or powerful alternatives I’d prefer if it were mine.
I really appreciate all the support!
I’ll close the thread now, but if I start building, I might bring my build list here for you to review. If that’s okay.
Also, I’ll consult USAFRet’s recommendations about the NAS once I begin the project.
Thanks!
👍 Reputable evaluations of Corsair SF-series components: Reliable assessment of Seasonic SGX-series units: https://www.kitguru.net/components/zardo...iew/all/1/ Additional recommendations for high-quality SFX and SFX-L PSUs (ATX 3.x models), more details available at the provided link. Consider focusing on a fixed budget to ensure better value. 👍
Hello once more,
I’ve finally had the chance to review everything and here’s what I’ve decided.
Here’s the link for the PC components:
https://pcpartpicker.com/list/nYYCYd
Case -
Lian Li LANCOOL 205M Mesh Micro ATX Mini Tower
CPU -
AMD Ryzen 5 9600X 3.9GHz
CPU Cooler -
Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120 SE 66.17CFM
Mobo -
ASRock B850M Pro RS Wifi6e Micro ATX AM5
Ram -
G.Skill Trident Z5 Neo RGB (since plain ones weren’t available) 32 GB (2x16GB) DDR5-6000 CL36
Storage (OS) -
SSD Samsung 970 Evo Plus 1 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 3.0x4 NVME
Storage (data) -
SSD Samsung 870 Evo 1 or 2 TB 2.5" SATA 6.0 Gb/s
PSU -
???
I’m stuck on the power supply. The estimated wattage is low — around 185 W. I understand it’s low because I don’t have a graphics card in the build, but I’m not planning to add one just yet. Since the CPU has built-in graphics, it should work fine for a workstation setup. I’m aware I can later upgrade to a GPU if needed — there’s enough space.
I’m uncertain about the right PSU model. I’ve been considering 300W and 450W options because I don’t want excessive power consumption. The available space is about 180 mm, which should accommodate it.
Some of my mounting areas are limited. My cooler stands at 155mm tall, leaving roughly 5mm of room. There’s around 42mm under the cooler if I skip a standoff, and the RAM sticks are 41mm thick. I could switch to Crucial Pro Overclocking 32 GB (2x16GB) CL36, but I’m leaning toward G.Skill. I chose the B850 motherboard over the B650 since the price difference is only $10 — better quality would be worth the extra cost. The AM5 chipset consumes less power and is ideal for an office build. I also considered the Ryzen 7 9700X, but at $100 it’s hard to say if it’s a good value right now.
Feel free to share any recommendations.
Thanks!
Megan
Trident Z Neo RGB is 42.8mm tall. Source: https://www.techpowerup.com/review/g-ski...l26/3.html So, you need to slightly pop up the front fan of Peerless Assassin 120 SE. DDR5 RAM DIMM heights: For Kingston, the numbers are: 34.9mm - Beast 42.23mm - Beast RGB 39.2mm - Renegade 44mm - Renegade RGB For Corsair, the numbers are: 35mm - Vengeance 44mm - Vengeance RGB 56mm - Dominator Platinum RGB 57mm - Dominator Titanium RGB For G.Skill, the numbers are: 33mm - Flare X5 33mm - Ripjaws S5 41mm - Ripjaws M5 and M5 Neo 44mm - Trident Z, Z RGB, Z5, Z5 RGB and Z5 Royal Neo RGB 42.8mm - Trident Z5 Neo and Z5 Neo RGB 43.5mm - Trident Z5 Royal Refined and completed your build; PCPartPicker Part List CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 9600X 3.9 GHz 6-Core Processor ($197.00 @ Amazon) CPU Cooler: Thermalright Royal Pretor 130 81.88 CFM CPU Cooler ($44.39 @ Amazon) Motherboard: ASRock B850M Pro RS WiFi Micro ATX AM5 Motherboard ($149.99 @ Newegg) Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws S5 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR5-6400 CL32 Memory ($109.99 @ Amazon) Storage: Samsung 990 Pro w/Heatsink 1 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive ($109.99 @ Abt) Storage: Samsung 9100 PRO 1 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 5.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive ($124.99 @ Newegg) Case: Lian Li LANCOOL 205M MESH MicroATX Mini Tower Case ($89.99 @ Amazon) Power Supply: Cooler Master V850 SFX GOLD 850 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular SFX Power Supply ($160.99 @ Amazon) Total: $987.33 Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available Generated by PCPartPicker 2025-09-05 05:59 EDT-0400 Changes made; CPU cooler - From Peerless Assassin 120 SE to Royal Pretor 130. Royal Pretor 130 is 158mm tall, fitting nicely in your PC case that has clearance up to 160mm. But Royal Pretor 130 is current king of air coolers and offers better cooling than Peerless Assassin 120 SE. 259W vs 246W. Royal Pretor 130 is actually the CPU cooler i'm going with my new build as well, albeit it will be cooling my R7 9800X3D. So, for your R5 9600X, it is more than enough. Review: You can change the CPU cooler back if you want to save few bucks. RAM - From G.Skill Trident Z5 Neo RGB (6000 MT/s, CL36) to G.Skill Ripjaws S5 (6400 MT/s, CL32). What you gain, is performance. Faster transfer speeds and lower CAS Latency = lower overall latency of only 10 nanoseconds. Trident Z5 Neo RGB latency is 12 nanoseconds. So, a bit slower RAM. E.g Ripjaws can make 3 accesses in 30 ns while Trident can do only 2. For 3 accesses, it needs 36ns. What you loose, is RAM height. Ripjaws is 33mm tall. Trident is 42.8mm. And you also loose few bucks since better RAM costs a bit more. M.2 SSD - From 970 Evo Plus 1TB and 870 Evo 1TB to 9100 Pro 1TB and 990 Pro 1TB with heatsink. This change costs quite a bit, but will get you most out of your system. Since your MoBo has one Gen5 and two Gen4 M.2 slots. 970 Evo Plus is Gen3 drive. 990 Pro is Gen4 and 9100 Pro is Gen5. So, you can install 9100 Pro into Gen5 slot (using MoBo heatsink on it) and get the fastest read/write speeds MoBo can offer. It would do nice as OS drive. And for storage, 990 Pro in Gen4 slot will do nicely. Since your MoBo doesn't have heatsinks over Gen4 slots, it is best to get M.2 drive with a heatsink, for better cooling. Going full M.2 drives also means that you have it easier with cable management. This way, you don't have to use SATA power cable from PSU to 870 Evo and SATA data cable from 870 Evo to MoBo, not to mention mounting the drive somewhere. With your MoBo, you can keep the build solely M.2, since your MoBo has 3x M.2 slots. Depending on your budget or storage preferences, you could go with 2TB 9100 Pro off the bat as well, while keeping the two M.2 Gen4 slots empty. While in the future, when you need more storage, you can easily add Gen4 M.2 drives, like 980 Pro or 990 Pro. Now, 990 Evo and 990 Evo Plus are DRAM-less drives and i do not suggest getting those at all. Up to you how you solve your storage situation, since it has the most flexibility in your build. I, personally, am going with 9100 Pro 2TB as OS drive off the bat. And for my new build, i'm planning to use solely M.2 drives (less cable clutter among other things). Now, my new MoBo has in total of 5x M.2 slots, giving me even more flexibility with storage drives. Btw, my new MoBo is AsRock X870E Nova Wi-fi. It's full ATX MoBo and wouldn't fit in your small Lian-Li case. Also, it is high-end MoBo and too much (features and price wise) for your R5 9600X. PSU - Cooler Master V850 Gold. The cheapest, great quality SFX PSU i could find. Sure, it has ample capacity of 850W but more capacity doesn't hurt. Gives you good grounds to add dedicated GPU in the build at future date, if you deem it so. 850W unit is good enough for up to RTX 5070 Ti GPU. Sure, there are lesser capacity PSUs out there as well, but those cost more than the V850 i linked and are usually worse build quality as well. Whereby you'd be paying more for a worse PSU. For other options regarding PSU, take a look at this PSU tier list (which i wasn't aware earlier when i replied to you 7 months ago), link: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet...JW...1973454078 Aim for a Tier A PSU. Tier A+ is preferred while Tier A- will do too. And in that chart, you can easily spot SFX PSUs, since their size is color coded to blue. Cooler Master V850 i put in the build is Tier A. 205M Mesh comes with 2x 140mm front intake unicorn puke fans. You can add up to 3x 120mm fans as well, two top exhausts and one rear exhaust. Lately, Arctic P12 fans have been good ones to buy, with good performance. There are several variants of P12, take your pick, pcpp: https://pcpartpicker.com/products/compar...3C,xBhv6h/
If you live near MicroCenter. and the biger size is not an issue - this case seems like a good deal(supposedly half price) , and you shouldn't need additional fans (in the front has somewhat strange triple 120mm in one frame, and one 120mm in the back)
NZXT H5 Flow RGB (2024) - White $59.99
I don't find "better" priced white psu, but if you decide that you want one for the sake of color, than it either would have to be some of the questionable models, or the ones that cost more money. One thing to consider is that the psu is mostly "hidden" under shroud. Cables are a visible part (but some might not mind the contrast), and the back of the psu is visible in the back of the case( how many people look at the back of the case). Higher WATTage psu, i don't think is much of a problem for efficiency - todays PSUs(the good ones) are much better in that regard, than old ones - no point in worrying about it.
EDIT: Just to add that idon't think the price on the cpu will last long!
PCPartPicker Part List
CPU:
AMD Ryzen 5 7600X 4.7 GHz 6-Core Processor
($119.00 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler:
Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120 SE WHITE ARGB 66.17 CFM CPU Cooler
($36.90 @ Amazon)
Motherboard:
Gigabyte B850M EAGLE WIFI6E ICE Micro ATX AM5 Motherboard
($149.99 @ Best Buy)
Memory:
TEAMGROUP T-Create Expert 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR5-6000 CL30 Memory
($100.99 @ Amazon)
Storage:
SK Hynix Platinum P41 2 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive
($119.99 @ Newegg)
Case:
Lian Li LANCOOL 205M MESH MicroATX Mini Tower Case
($89.99 @ Amazon)
Power Supply:
Montech CENTURY II 850 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply
($89.90 @ Newegg)
Total:
$706.76
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by
PCPartPicker
2025-09-05 08:13 EDT-0400
I just recalled the main goal of this subject: creating a compact PC.
Now, Lian-Li 205M Mesh is essentially a medium-sized case, but what offers a small footprint while allowing all parts to fit freely is the Lian-Li A3-mATX.
pcpp:
https://pcpartpicker.com/products/compar...cf,zPVfrH/
specs:
https://lian-li.com/product/a3-matx/
It’s significantly smaller and more affordable than the 205M Mesh.
When picking a case, it’s a personal decision, but I usually stick with what I have. Still, sometimes a better alternative exists.
The A3-mATX doesn’t include fans, though it accommodates 120mm fans. The ideal setup would be three 120mm exhausts at the top and three 120mm intake fans at the bottom, forming a smooth airflow path inside the machine. Adding one 120mm rear exhaust could further aid the CPU cooler—though the Royal Precision 130 doesn’t require much assistance.
Thank you both for responding!
🤦♀️ I forgot that I changed them. The original ones I had were 41. I'll definitely look into the other ones. I believe that the cooler came with a standoff if needed so that had been my plan.
Lian Li's case designation isn't the best - there's an M, a Mesh, a M Mesh, and a Mesh C! This case is the Lian Li 205M Mesh (which is a mATX case - the 205 Mesh is their ATX case). I had looked at that case. I think it looks better than the 205M Mesh
but it was larger than the 205M Mesh
(Edit 2: Ignore that I said this.. amazon's measurements were wrong and that's what I had looked at. They're similar in size.)
Per Lian Li's info on both:
205M Mesh- 15.85"D x 8.27"W x 15.75"H | A3 - 17.44"D x 7.64"W x 12.04"H
I'm still gunna mess around with the case and fans. Maybe getting the A3 and a good fan pack would be cheaper than getting the 205M and buying fans. If I stay with the 205M Mesh- would I want three exhaust fans and only two intake fans?
The unicorn puke fans in front (at least in the picture) do not look good to me. I prefer the RGB with black. The white just washes it all out so I'd probably turn the RGB off or pick a single color. My mom likes pink so I thought about that pink case for half a second but damn, it's garish. I think my eye would start twitching trying to build in it.
That case definitely looks better than the 205M Mesh but the bigger size is an issue right now because I'm mounting it on the side of my mom's tiny desk. It will be mounted on the right side of her desk (right side when facing the desk) so the glass panel will be against the desk. The white is only because her desk is whiteish and her house is light, too. I don't mind the look of the black inside the white which is good because I don't like the price of the white components lol.
Very true, the back will be against a wall and the contrasting colors doesn't bother me! My mom keeps saying "dealer's choice." Super helpful 🤣
I wasn't sure about using a SATA since I had read that some people had issues with the spacing, depending on their PSU - and potentially having to buy a splitter. Switching to another M.2 makes sense. Good note about the heatsink. I definitely would not have known that. Thanks!
What do you think about the
Corsair RM750x (2024) 750 W Fully Modular ATX Power Supply
? I can get it for 110-120$
The price of the Cooler Master is a little high but since there's 180mm of space for the PSU, this Corsair at 160mm should fit. It is on the Tier list as an A.
Here's my updated PCPP Build:
PCPartPicker Part List
CPU:
AMD Ryzen 5 9600X 3.9 GHz 6-Core Processor
($197.00 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler:
Thermalright Royal Pretor 130 81.88 CFM CPU Cooler
($44.39 @ Amazon)
Motherboard:
ASRock B850M Pro RS WiFi Micro ATX AM5 Motherboard
($149.99 @ Newegg)
Memory:
G.Skill Ripjaws S5 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR5-6000 CL36 Memory
($81.99 @ Amazon)
Storage:
Samsung 990 Pro w/Heatsink 1 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive
($109.99 @ Abt)
Storage:
Samsung 9100 PRO 1 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 5.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive
($124.99 @ Newegg)
Case:
Lian Li LANCOOL 205M MESH MicroATX Mini Tower Case
($89.99 @ Amazon)
Power Supply:
Corsair RM750x (2024) 750 W Fully Modular ATX Power Supply
($160.99 @ Amazon)
Case Fan:
ARCTIC P12 Slim PWM PST 42.1 CFM 120 mm Fans 3-Pack
($28.99 @ Amazon)
Total: $932.32
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2025-09-05 14:35 EDT-0400
Thank you both!!
- Megan
Edit 1: Fixed the case designation.
Edit 2: Looked up the case sizes on Lian Li's website instead of Amazon - Amazon sucks.
Also, if I switched to the a3 case, then I would get two fan packs so the price would be $944.30 EXCEPT for the fact that I would have to switch PSU's because the corsair is too long...
And I changed it for better memory performance, but then chose the Ripjaw S5 with identical speed and latency as my original since it's shorter. If this were my setup, I'd opt for faster speeds or lower latency, but considering its intended use, the less powerful options seem fine. I was browsing Newegg and Amazon, and Newegg is offering the Team Group 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR5 6000 (PC5 48000) Memory for free with the Ryzen 5 9600X purchase. I won't use those since I need 32 GB of RAM instead of 16 GB. @LOGAN54321, you referred to a different model from theirs.
This configuration offers strong cooling performance, though it produces negative pressure. Adjusting the fan RPMs can help achieve a balanced or even positive pressure situation. For example, running the three exhaust fans at lower speeds while keeping the intake fans at a similar rate can stabilize the airflow.
Additionally, two 140mm fans can move the same volume of air as three 120mm fans. Since all components are identical in spec and brand, this balance is straightforward.
The A3 model, despite being longer, is actually narrower and shorter in height. Therefore, it remains the smallest overall in size. Also, its meshed side panels ensure consistent appearance regardless of orientation.
Ultimately, the choice of PC case depends on your preference—whether you favor larger sizes or full-tower ATX options. I personally lean toward bigger cases with a full tower design.
I’m running two Corsair 760T V2 Black and Corsair 750D Airflow Edition fans. A super-tower ATX is also appealing to me, especially models like the Thermaltake Core W200 when paired with the Core P200.
The SATA SSD setup is fine; I’m currently using several 870 Evo SSDs and some offline storage. However, if possible, going full M.2 would be ideal. Cost is a factor, as M.2 drives are more expensive than SATA SSDs. But in compact builds, internal space is limited, and cable management becomes a major concern. Fewer cables to route is better.
If you’re planning a full-tower ATX build (as I am), ample space will make cable management easier. But in my case, it’s not an issue.
I have a solid, high-quality PSU—great choice!
Tier A+ rating.
The Cooler Master V850 SFX PSU I linked is suitable for the A3 case and matches the Corsair RM750x price on Amazon.
Seasonic Focus ATX PSUs are also compact. According to my notes, they’re around 140mm long and Tier A.
Performance: 6000 MT/s with CL38 = 12.667 ns latency.
Specs:
https://www.teamgroupinc.com/en/pro...k/...HC38ADC01/
Height: 46.9mm.
Price: Free.
Useful for lightweight builds where cable clutter is a concern.