Laptop is a usefull product when you travel a lot. But, they are incredibly pricy for the value they offer : performances and thermals are worse than desktop grade components, reparability is often atrocious, and upgrading is often limited to the storage and memory if they provide any upgradability at all.

Major laptop companies fails to grasp today’s challenges. We need electronics that is repearable : as of 2022, a record 62 million tonnes (Mt) of e-waste was produced in 2022, Up 82% from 2010. These numbers are nuts and highlights our failure to sustain a connected society. As of today, only one company provides 100% repairable laptop. This initiative is amazing.

As I am building more complex and diverse projects, my good old trusty Lenovo T480S is no longer sufficient for my needs (by the way, if you are looking for good laptop for everyday tasks and learning computer science, this thing is cheap nowaday, capable, and the last true upgradable lenovo laptop). Unfornunatly, Framework’s laptop are not powerhorses yet.

I choosed to build what we called a Small Form Factor PC : a PC that has a very small footprint, but that uses standard components that you can source (rather) easily. This post describe my journey building such a system, and could serve you as a tutorial if you plan building one.

Choosing Components

The CPU

Choosing a very powerfull CPU for a SFF PC has to be wise. You don’t wan’t your CPU to overheat and thus causing thermal throtteling. For this build, i choosed the Ryzen 9 7950X3D. It has a TDP of 125W, an acceptable power consumption, excellent multi-core performances. I got this processor on leboncoin. In short, this beast has 32 Threads, 16 Cores, and 144MB L2+L3 Cache.

The Memory

Nothing fancy here. Just a good old pair of DDR5 Kingston Fury memory for a total of 32GB.

The CPU Cooler

This is an important choice : it must be able to fit into your small case and provides enough cooling to avoid CPU thermal throttling. I choosed the Noctua L12S Ghost. It can handle the Ryzen 9 7950X3D just fine as I don’t plan on overclocking it. My case has an heigh clearance of 70mm and the cooler is 66mm high. Be sure to check the dimensions.

The Power Supply Unit (PSU)

Trust me, never cheap out on the power supply. On Aliexpress, you can find 600W unit for like 40 euros. Avoid those deals.

Powerfull, high quality PSU for SFF is often very very pricy. For example, this 600W SilverStone unit cost around 200 euros ! And the unit is not even modular. In the field of SFF, one of the most popular choice is the Enhance ENP-7660B 600W. Extremely hard to find in Europe unfortunatly. So i went with the HDPlex 500W GaN AIO. The build quality of this thing is incredible. From the aluminium case to the PCB. This will provides the system enough power to accomodate a GPU if i need one someday.

Warning : This is not a standard unit. Most PSU for SFF follows the Flex-ATX norms. This won’t fit in a lot of cases. Choosing this unit, I knew I would make modification on the case to make it fit. There is no fun without a bit of DIY… 🙃

The case

The most crucial choice for your build. I went with the LZmod A24-V5. I bought it off Aliexpress. The case build quality is superb and is easy to works with. It supports a low profile GPU, up to 70mm CPU cooler height, 2 2.5 inch SSD, Flex-ATX PSU, and up to six fan. A later chapter will provide a tutorial for fitting the HDPlex 500W GaN AIO neatly into this case.

The graphics card

Even if i don’t plan to game, i choosed to buy a low profile GPU. I went with the Gigabyte RTX 4060 Low Profile. It has a TDP of 75W, and is a good choice for a SFF build. Actually, this is the most powerfull low profile GPU on the market, and that you can fit into this case.

Please be aware that the low profile Asus variant of this card DOES NOT FIT into this case. It is slightly too long.

The build

Installing the HDPlex 500W GaN AIO

Warning : this modification involves using power tools, take precautions. Also, you will loose the ability to install one 2.5 inch SSD.

My case of choice doesn’t support natively my PSU. The mounting system is very clever : four standoffs are screwed into the case, and two little black bracket is pushing the PSU, avoiding it to move by friction. The standoffs are too long to work with the HDPlex unit.

The modification consist of shortening the included standoff. By shortening them, you will loose the threading on one side: you will no longer be able to screw into the standoff. This is a problem, and we will fix this problem by creating new M3 threading into the standoff (this process is called tapping) with tap handle.

Step #1 : cutting the standoffs to desired length

By using a Dremel tool and an appropriate cutting disk, I was able to cut them. This is the dimensions that I found to be correct :

• For two longer one, cut them to a length of 54.20mm.
• For two shorter one, cut them to a length of 46.00 mm.

This is the result. On top, this is the excess length. On the bottom, our fresh standoffs at a correct length :

Step #2 : tapping the hole

Warning : if you haven’t any experience in with a tap handle, I would not recommand you to try this directly. Instead, find a piece of aluminium, drill holes, and practice your tapping skills. This is very delicate and if you miss, you WILL have to buy new standoffs. Also, familiarize yourself with the case by watching this video.

Put a M3 tap drill and add a drop of cutting oil on top of it.

Then, begin tapping the standoff, fixed with a vise. Start very slowly, making sure you are perfectly straight. Every one full turn, back-off one quarter of turn counter clockwise. Thread the hole for about 10mm.

And… that is it. You have sucessfully restored the threading. You can know screw the standoff of both end, congratulation !

Step #3 : installing the HDPlex unit

Follow the standard installation procedure for installation a Flex-ATX onto the case. The end result is absolutly perfect !

The unit is snug and won’t move.

Step #4 : modifying the AC cable from the HDPlex unit

WARNING: This step involves soldering and dealing with AC. If you don’t know what you are doing, use the original cable. You will have to be extremelly carefull.

The case comes with a AC C14 female plug that you have to fit into a hole of the case. One of the HDPlex cable comes with a plug that that is not compatible with the case. You will have to desolder it, and solder the AC C14 female plug given by the case manufacturer.

DO NOT invert live and neutral. Use a multimeter with continuity test to replicate the exact wiring topology. Risks of such inversion can range from nothing to you being dead. I wont’t try.

This is the plug coming to one of the included connector with the HDPlex unit :

Installing the rest of the hardware

This is fairly straightforward into this case and a lot of good youtube video are available. I will not cover this part.

The cable management is a bit tricky : the HDPlex comes with long cables. You can probably have a perfect looking build by using custom cables.

Costs summary

Now let’s recap :

Good luck finding a laptop with similar performances at this price. They at least comes at a 2500 EUR price tag. Of course, this is less portable than a laptop, but you can carry it around if you need to. And you can upgrade it. And you can repair it.