FormD T1 Small Form Factor Build with AMD Ryzen 5950x and a Nvidia 3090 Founders Edition

6 min readJan 6, 2021

Case: FormD T1 — Gunmetal Gray

This case from formdworks.com is a sub 5.5lb, 10-litre case (5.23in x 8.5in x 13in) which is literally one of the smallest cases you can put together that supports both a 240mm radiator and a 3-slot GPU. Smaller than your average shoebox, most people wonder about the thermals with this build. With a water-cooled Ryzen 5950x and an air-cooled Nvidia 3090 Founders Edition, this build peaks at 68C. This build also has two NVME M.2. drives which also generate substantial heat, so all things considered this build is totally viable and performant.

I attribute a lot of the cooling performance to the mesh siding which allows for enough airflow. I tried this same build in the new Razer Tomahawk Mini case and got substantially worse thermals using the exact same hardware in a larger case, but it had glass side panels.

It is a fully CNC-milled aluminum case with mesh side panels for ventilation and milled air vents on the top and bottom. It can be oriented “upside-down” to allow for a radiator on top. It was designed to be modular, allowing for both 2 and 3 slot GPUs, and up to two 240mm radiators (if you put it in 2 slot mode).

It also supports the standard small form factor SF PSU sizes, which allow you to mount it in multiple orientations.

Some build notes:

I chose an EKWB 240MM AIO D-RGB CPU Pump + Radiator, however, the stock fans that come with this cooler will not work, so you will need to get the slimline Noctua NF-A12x15 Chromax fans (2 of them). Also, these don't come with screws, so you’ll need to either find or modify screws to attach these. In my build, I didn't bother, because when you attach the top panel of the case, the fans have nowhere to move and are secured pretty tightly even without screws. Also, you will be using the “short” 120mm fan support that comes with the case, rather than the full length fan support, which initially was counter-intuitive. If you want the upgrade pick for some fancy LCDs on your cooler, you might be able to get an NZXT Kraken with Scythe 12mm fans instead of Noctua 15mm, but the thermal performance is worse based on many people’s testing.
When you build this case, if you’re using a 3090 Founders Edition, you have to build the case around the GPU. There just isnt enough room to fit the card into the case after it’s been built. I built the frame (front and rear panels, side struts, and top and bottom struts), attached the riser cable and riser strut, then removed a side and bottom strut and inserted the GPU and then re-attached the struts to get it to work.

You’ll see there’s just enough room to route the power cable from under the GPU, to the back of it and up to the power supply.

Here. you’ll see the J-Hack M2426 Power Supply Cable inserted into the motherboard. It appears at the top right, next to the ram. This allows the interior of the case to save a lot of space that would normally be occupied by a 24pin power supply cable, giving more room for airflow and for routing of watercooling cables. I’ve seen some builds where they put another fan below the radiator, above the power supply, but I just wasnt able to get it to fit yet.

PSU Cable: J-Hack M2426 + 2x J-Hack Short GPU Cables

This power supply “cable” takes what is normally a bulky 24-pin power supply, and reduces it down to a 6 pin cable, which substantially reduces the amount of cable clutter, and improves airflow within your case. It’s also handy to make it so you have more choices when it comes to routing the tubes for your AIO cooler. They have addons like short CPU and GPU cables you can buy, which will also save room. I found that the stock CPU cable that comes with the Corsair SF750 was just fine, but I did end up using J-Hack’s GPU cables in my build.

GPU: Nvidia 3090 Founders Edition

A note here about undervolting the 3090FE — According to OptimumTech you can undervolt this card by nearly 100 watts and achieve better thermal performance without almost a negligible performance loss. Watch his video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?reload=9&v=FqpfYTi43TE

Note: I also ended up ordering a custom 12pin power supply cable from pslatecustoms, since the included cable with the 3090 Founders Edition, is extremely bulky, I’m hoping that I’ll be able to reduce the cable bulkload and add a third fan under the radiator above the power supply.

Accessories: SFF Noir Antenna — Dual Band WiFi and Bluetooth Antenna

The ASUS Rog Strix comes with Wifi6 and integrated Bluetooth. However, in order to use either you MUST attach the included antenna to the two ports in the IO panel. The bluetooth uses that same antenna as well, so if you dont you wont be able to pair any bluetooth devices.

However, the antenna that came with the ASUS ROG Strix is, quite frankly, ugly as hell. So, these small form factor antennas from SFF Noir are perfect.

Accessories: LINKUP — Ultra PCIe 4.0 X16 20cm Riser Cable

Currently, the FormD T1 case comes with a PCIe 3.0 Cable. This will still work with an Nvidia 3090 because the GPU doesnt consume that much bandwidth, however, as the SFF community has learned, certain motherboards do not play nice with PCI 4.0 Cards and PCI 3.0 riser cables. In some circumstances this will confuse the BIOS resulting in failures to POST or requiring you to reset the BIOS to 3.0 mode every time you upgrade the card’s drivers (hopefully someday motherboard manufacturers will fix this).

So, go aftermarket and buy a PCI 4.0 Riser Cable and avoid the situation altogether. I chose the 20cm version, which admittedly is an extremely tight fit. You’ll end up bending the cable at the bottom of the case, smushing it against the bottom panel, and swearing a little if it pops out. If you build it and your screen doesnt turn on, check this culprit first.

Motherboard: ASUS Rog Strix X570-I Gaming

Why? Because it supports the 5950x, two M2 drives, 32gb of ram, Built in Wifi 6, Bluetooth, RGB Headers, and 3 fan ports (2 for the rad fans, 1 for CPU/Pump Controller). The only downside is that this motherboard does not have the “EZ Bios Flashback” feature, which means if this motherboard does not have the right firmware, it will not work out of the box for the new Zen 3 processors, and some of the new dual channel ram. I encountered two problems:

Even with a 3950x it would not POST, and apparently that was because it couldn't handle both of my ram sticks without a BIOS update. You must install only ONE stick of ram in slot 2 (furthest away from the CPU) in order for it to pass POST.
Out of the box, the ASUS ROG Strix X570-I did not support 5950x (or any Zen 3 generation processor) without a BIOS update.