World's DENSTIEST A2000 Gaming Rig

Basically a A2000 Ti... See how more juice and liquid cooling in the DENSYEST SFF build yet gives 20-40% performance yields from our last TINY. Normally I don't like "worlds blankiest blank" titles, but hey, if we are wrong, you will call us out. :)
The Spreadsheet (with benchmarks and links)
tinyurl.com/RT...
Support our channel and download various project files and CAD:
/ nfc
Our SFF Discord:
/ discord
THANK YOU to lofi geek for the music! Please check out their work here:
/ lofigeek1
Playlist:
Jon Woo: Beat Loop 0:43
Lofi Geek: Nostalgic 1:07
Lofi Geek: I'm Strong 3:37
Lofi Geek: Among the Stars 8:10
Yeah, I know how to spell densest. That's boring. And doesn't have Ti in the name ;)

[@MandicReally]

I poured a block to make my own waterblock in my high school metal shop. I too found that I had to go well beyond the stated melting point to not get a porous and nasty pour. I was using mostly fresh copper with a small bit of recycled. Your experience sounds very similar to my own. Killer build, love to see it. 👌🏻

[@nfcerick3634]

Thanks! Going well past the melting point definitely made a difference.

[@KibitoAkuya]

Not well versed in the matter but still gonna hazard a guess Maybe because it's too close to the melting but obviously much hotter than surroundings it has loss to both radiation and convection that it already starts to solidify at random parts too fast to allow the liquid metal to settle uniformly enough (and why going hotter helps, because it needs to lose way more heat, so it doesn't easily start to solidify on random spots during pouring, also why probably why they sometimes recommend to heat up molds)

[@virtualtools_3021]

preheat the molds too, helps a lot

[@nfcerick3634]

I do preheat the molds, and in the future I’ll be sure to heat them longer.

[@matthewm3927]

Amazing work, with custom metal casting to boot! You guys are true artisans

[@nfcerick3634]

Thank you!

[@mo2mo1mo]

A master craftsman! Incredible how you guys keep on cramming more power into even smaller cases that look absolutely stunning.

[@nfcerick3634]

We're just small dedicated SFF enthusiasts chasing the dream!

[@nexorabolis]

Me: They'll never get all that to fit in there. Erick: Hold my S4T while I cast custom copper blocks Sirs you've done it again, fantastic build!

[@nfcerick3634]

LOL...we have the SFF fever...and the cure is more S4T!

[@xeminie]

@@nfcerick3634 lol

[@grantbaxter3669]

Pure inspiration. This is art. I can only dream of reaching your level, but I do dream!

[@nfcerick3634]

Don't be afraid to try! We make mistakes ALL the time. Thanks for commenting.

[@michaelriehl7335]

A true artisan you are Erick. And kudos for casting the copper plate yourself. I've only taken an introductory course in metallurgy in my schooling, so I can't say for certain the cause of the low strength of your previous attempts. But, impurities may have been to blame. The introduction of impurities can affect the final crystal structure, which for pure copper is FCC (face centered cubic). The fact that your previous unsuccessful attempts fractured seems to indicate the likelihood of impurities, as pure copper is very ductile. It's also possible that the temperature wasn't high enough. Usually when dealing with alloys, you want to reach a temperature known as the liquidus. This is the temperature beyond the melting point where the metal forms the least amount of crystals and is said to be homogeneous. If it's below the liquidus temperature, then more crystal growth can lead to a weaker crystal structure, resulting in less areas for atoms to slip and therefore causing the part to fail. Raising the temperature could have reached this point, but to what temperature exactly, I'm not sure. Increasing it a couple hundred degrees Celsius sounds like a safe bet. But that's if your smelting furnace can reach those temps. I hope this helps.

[@nfcerick3634]

Thank you for taking the time to comment. I think you're right. It seemed to be successful after a combination of adding pure copper stock and increasing the heat. I'll keep this in mind for future pours.

[@OkammakO]

​@@nfcerick3634 Did you preheat your molds? If so, perhaps experiment with a slightly higher temperature on your mold preheat (100-200F).

[@nfcerick3634]

@@OkammakO Yes, I do. But that's a good suggestion. I'll heat them longer next time and see what that does.

[@OkammakO]

@@nfcerick3634 If you have a non-contact thermometer it may help with consistency of mold temperature when pouring.

[@mcteags]

“That’s Uno.” 😂 Amazing job team. The quality of the work you do blows my mind. Keep it tiny ✊

[@nfcerick3634]

Thank you!

[@Cellbuster]

I've always wanted to see someone make a CPU-GPU sandwich waterblock. It makes a ton of sense theoretically but compatibility has always held it back.

[@nfcerick3634]

I think it's possible for a company like EKWB to make blocks like this. They could make a standard sandwich style water block, then sell specific GPU cold plates that attach to it to fit the hundreds of different GPUs out there. Maybe this video will inspire the idea.

[@mikeymaiku]

@@nfcerick3634 anything is possible but i bet they figured its not worth the effort considering it caters to a very specific type of customer.

[@M17kilswitch]

This is one of the coolest cases I’ve ever seen. Very inspiring that you designed, and manufactured the cold plates and exterior items. Phenomenal work!

[@nfcerick3634]

Thank you! 😊

[@mrcn001]

I just stumbled upon this guy and found myself unable to think of superlative good enough.The brains,the tech and the eyes. wow.

[@psytechs]

I have no experience with melting, casting or machining metals except for lead pouring on New Year's Eve. I really enjoyed the ridiculousness of this build.

[@sicurr1]

Jeez Louise, you guys are insane and fantastic at the same time for pushing small form factor limitations. This is fantastic and incredible. I can't wait to see what you do next.

[@nfcerick3634]

Thanks for watching! We love SFF!

[@Spreadie]

I was feeling a little bit smug having just slotted a 6 core cpu + RTX A2000 into a ZS-A4DC, to make a small but capable SFF gaming rig. Then I saw this vid. 😮 Daaaamn. That's gorgeous.

[@KellyWu04]

I watched the prequel, and I was both amazed and scared. Then I watched the sequel, and I am terrified. The engineering, the creativity, and the attention to detail are just... amazing and beyond anything which I have seen.

[@nfcerick3634]

Thank you, friend! Glad you enjoyed it!

[@shapshooter7769]

That monoblock is just exquisite. Hopefully you could do the same to an actual SFF 3060

[@nfcerick3634]

Thank you! I already have plans for a larger GPU. This was a great start.

[@DiarrheaBubbles]

This is the only truly impressive PC build I've ever seen.

[@nfcerick3634]

Thank you very much!

[@bryanthartwig6994]

I don’t have any experience melting and casting metal but man that’s dope cuz u really made ur own special identintifying piece of computer technology from your own know how to a high degree

[@mountaindew267]

Absolutely unbelievable. People who do projects where the answers aren't on google are the most impressive kind of people.

[@jayhardway23]

I dreamt of this build and here it is, my dream is real. thank you for documenting and sharing with us!

[@Birdwhisperer85]

Your dedication to mastering your craft is unmatched- always learning, improving, and striving for excellence. Can’t wait to see what’s next! So very proud of you!!

[@nfcerick3634]

Thank you for your support, love, and patience while I chase these consuming dreams. I couldn’t do it without you. Love you!

[@NotFromConcentrate]

Thanks Sarah! Your support means alot to...oh wait you're talking to Erick...

[@Birdwhisperer85]

@@NotFromConcentrate lol! I actually had a whole other comment typed out to both of you, but apparently it didn’t meet the community guidelines. 😂 YOU are awesome too!!!

[@oghomelesskid]

im new. when u melted down scraps, then threw it on a cnc, all the different expertise it takes to put this together, absolutely awesome work.

[@nfcerick3634]

I’ll tell you a secret. I only learned all of this about three years ago. I constantly make mistakes, but I keep going and work hard to improve. I usually just throw myself at it until I get it right. Thanks for watching!

[@zoe1882]

Wow...just wow. It's nice to see YT streamers do some really custom builds instead of the same saturated, buy parts from store, slap it in some ATX case with store bought AIO's and call it a liquid cooling video. This was pretty awesome!

[@nfcerick3634]

Thank you! Glad you enjoyed it!

[@foxiewhisper]

This design is better than every other mini PC I've seen on the market, no joke. And that's before you consider that it's able to take on a 3060 at almost equal performance. Absolutely mind blowing.

[@nfcerick3634]

Thank you! I was really impressed with this builds performance too.

[@countzer0408]

Wow that looks amazing. Nice work dude.

[@qwertmom]

Super duper clean. Reminds me of when you open up a Mac and all the parts are so satisfyingly fitted together. Would love to see this style of build with more power hungry components

[@nfcerick3634]

Thank you! I have plans to make a similar build with top-tier components. Think of this as a test build.

[@meg6pat]

I thought that I reached bottom then saw 9 litres builds but you is doing cool in such a small form is beyond my imagination

[@nfcerick3634]

Welcome to small form factor madness!

[@lucasreis1516]

Insane amount of work! The result is magnificent, this is a piece of art.

[@gilbertrodriguez6053]

Absolutely outstanding work!

[@nfcerick3634]

Thank you!

[@ocadusouza]

This is freaking AMAZING! Very well done.

[@nfcerick3634]

Thank you, friend!

[@KiraSlith]

Not only did you cast your own waterblock fin stack and build a full double-core custom CLC, but through lots of pre-planning you crammed it into the tightest possible package for the hardware involved. Sure it's pointless on a productory level, but as a piece of technical design it's nothing short of art. Great job guys.

[@approximatelybored]

Incredible work! 😮 for casting add anywhere from 5-20% raw material volume overhead (depending on scale). Smaller projects = higher overhead. Then distribute evenly across all dimensions and reduce to desired spec afterwards 👌

[@nfcerick3634]

Thanks for the advice!

[@82FGDT]

Love the video! I've been wanting to see more content on modded turing workstation cards like the a2000 and a4000 but most videos only go over their performance for mining. There's some serious untapped potential for these cards and I love seeing it get explored for their advantages in size and power consumption!

[@X862go]

Yet another amazing build 🙌

[@grofnerd5615]

Absolutely gorgeous work. Love seeing metallurgy involved with recycling copper.

[@nfcerick3634]

Thank you! My scrap box is deep so you can be sure I'll do more in the future.

[@0h_hey944]

Damn. Just damn. Insanely clean and sick!

[@-BarathKumarS]

Did you guys check the new RTX 4000 ADA sff workstation gpu announced by nvidia a couple days ago? It comes with 20GB VRAM,DLSS 3,Improved RT cores and rasterization perfomance is estimated to be about an RTX 3070 at just 70W. It is essentially a cut down RTX 4070 ti,pretty cool if you ask me. I'm sure your Copper plate should line up exactly with the 4000 ADA sff as it's exactly the same size of and RTX A2000,could essentially have a PC more powerful than an PS5/XSX at nearly the size of an XSS in this S4T case. Throw in a Shunt mod and overclocking with the new card and i think you could reach RTX 3080(?) levels of perfomance. DLSS3 would also help immensely in demanding games.

[@ohoiboi9818]

There is one thing that could be issue in recycling metal... for jewelry casting you have to use a certain percentage of new metal (casting grain) with the reuse metal whenever you're casting an object. The percentage for silver is suggested to be 70/30 (used/new) I believe. But for copper it may be different. There's also plastic around the copper windings and other contaminates, inside the copper tubing that may have contributed to some issues additionally after casting the ingot Annealing it before working the copper makes it softer and less brittle. Torch it till it glows light red (in a darker room) and dunk in water... The multiple melts burnt off residual contaminates in the metal probably. That's what Ideas I have for you hope it helps

[@nfcerick3634]

Thanks for the insight! I appreciate you taking the time to comment.

[@rawsea7381]

This is pure insanity of the greatest kind.

[@nfcerick3634]

Welcome to madness! We’re glad you joined us.

[@rawsea7381]

@@nfcerick3634 what watercooling pump did you use? You've certainly planted a seed for a future project to this hopefully

[@MrMoxes]

This is absolutely beautiful! Keep up the amazing work and continue to push the boundaries of what is possible. You all are wonderful. 👍

[@llaumegui]

This is so awesome!! Great job!

[@nfcerick3634]

Thank you!

[@skaterat524]

Simply amazing. You sparked my interest in SFF again!!

[@nfcerick3634]

That’s great!

[@WindowsG]

wtff this is amazing!~ deserves so much more attention

[@wooden2187]

There are OEM manufacturers writing notes as they watch this.

[@DanielTheBigD]

Now that’s what I call pure craftsmanship. Also, I am thinking about getting the RTX A2000 for my Dell prebuilt.

[@Develoquent]

Super awesome build! I would prefer blue over purple, but incredible custom build!

[@Revirst]

this one forsure has to be the coolest sff builds ive seen

[@nfcerick3634]

Glad you like it! Thanks for watching and commenting!

[@nmkloster]

I haven't seen the video yet but by the title I'm thinking SFF Amiga 2000. I somehow don't think that's what I'm getting but that doesn't necessarily mean I'll be disappointed. Lessgoou!

[@aaronjones4529]

I realise that I'm late to the party; I've just come across your channel now... However I just wanted to express my admiration for the quality and beauty of this custon cooling solution. This build is pure genius!

[@danielbolanos6389]

Damn that's cool, hard to believe is sooo close to a modern high tier pc but at 1/10th the size

[@hereforthefeast]

An absolutely beautiful engineering work of art

[@ohoiboi9818]

Nice 😎.... This video makes me feel all warm and fuzzy

[@pav1u]

YES I LOVE IT! THIS IS TRUE PC MODDING LIKE THE GOOD OLD DAYS OF XTREME BUILDS AND OVERCLOCKING!

[@EnnTomi1]

that is just sick !!!!!!!!!love it

[@user-tn6tb2qh8d]

Im not into sff builds at all, but your content is top notch, love watching it!!

[@nfcerick3634]

Come to the dark side! I won't tell anyone! 🤫Thank you for watching!

[@kipter]

ive only ever heard horror stories about machining copper. this is insanely impressive

[@nfcerick3634]

It definitely requires more TLC. Plenty of coolant is the key. Copper can start to cut like jello if it gets too hot.

[@sidj8447]

Absolutely amazing! You just made hardcore pcmodders look like amateurs!!

[@nfcerick3634]

I just want all the PC modders out there (from amateurs to pros) to inspire one another and push the boundary of what is possible. Thanks for watching and commenting!

[@philipps4322]

Every Build you do turns out even more insane than the Last one! 🤯

[@nfcerick3634]

Thank you for the support and kind words. Hope I don’t disappoint with the next one!

[@sebastianj.82]

Love the lighting on your cnc beauty shots! :D

[@nfcerick3634]

I appreciate that. I'm always worried that it isn't good enough.

[@Capital_KP]

Nice work. Keep it up! It would be great to see more tiny tech on the market 🤗

[@nfcerick3634]

Thank you!

[@greatwavefan397]

Love to see the RTX A2000 getting some more attention, given it's immense frame-per-watt. I wanna try my hand at building an efficiency gaming PC one day.

[@nfcerick3634]

When I first saw it, I didn't give it the credit that it deserves. It's pretty amazing!

[@TheTmshuman]

Perhaps copper has a curtain melting point, but the oxides and impurities that form when melting have a much higher melting point. I know it’s a problem when I weld aluminum without scratching off the natural oxide layer that forms in air. Awesome build. Haven’t seen anything quite like it.

[@anga6275]

wow that was incredible! a wide variety of skills and knowledge

[@catgirldoll]

I adore the S4T. God-tier little case.

[@theomcinturff1213]

"I made a mistake and had to use neodymium magnets to fix it." This is the most nerdy, 40k solution I've ever heard. And far from the first time I've heard it.

[@gnomesukno]

As always, great work Erick! Keep it up

[@nfcerick3634]

Thank you, Chris! Love your support!

[@harisjaved1379]

Amazing work man! Just amazing

[@wholedaybig]

almost have to cry its so fkin perfect

[@jimsingleton2589]

This was amazing to watch. Such an inspiration and great to see each step and the thinking that went into it. Closest I ever got to modifying anything of mine was when I took a Cooler Master server copper heatsink and fitting it with heatpipes and attaching it to my evga 1060sc with rewired laptop fans to make it essentially a single slot.

[@nfcerick3634]

Thanks for watching and taking the time to comment. Sounds like a great mod and I love when people share their experiences. That’s what this is all about. Supporting each other’s work no matter how big or small.

[@theomcinturff1213]

Next level compacting of parts. Recycled custom poured copper. Raw aesthetic sense. Tiny fucking case. This channel is so absolutely *by* SFF makers, *for* SFF makers. It's art. Thank you.

[@nfcerick3634]

Thank you, Theo!

[@lonelymtbrider3369]

What an epic build. Absolute top notch, borderline insanity! Wow!

[@NickDanzinger]

Love to see micro-manufacturing and PC building in one video, subbed

[@phenomenologicalparadox5216]

Seriously a work of art. Ive only built a few SFF systems in real life, but ive built countless in my head lol, this is something i had figured no one had both the skills and the motivation to actually create. Cant believe how tiny you made that custom loop and im amazed at the performance uplift with such a small rad! Great work!!

[@NotFromConcentrate]

Thanks for the kind words

[@alexogilvie1840]

this is illegal you are not meant to be able to fit that much horsepower and cooling into 3 liters. excellent build anyway and i hope i can make something like this someday

[@Aurosonic]

Looks awesome! Well done ❤

[@Kurufasulye06]

You should commercialise this! Great work!

[@telepresencebot2]

absolutely beautiful

[@hankblah]

In terms of liter per fps, gaming laptop still has an edge. I stopped looking at small form-factor pc when I started comparing gaming laptop performance/ liter vs small form factor PC performance per liter. But still, good work!

[@AngelUribe18]

I can't believe you guys can cram so much power into such tiny cases, I love it, each one of them is a piece of art

[@nfcerick3634]

Thanks, Angel! We love that you love it! ❤

[@suspeh]

I love the chosen color palette

[@___DRIP___]

If you look real close you can tell they broke several laws of physics.

[@Draelren]

This is super cool! I've built watercooled sub-4L systems before myself, but this takes it to a whole new level! After watching this it's confirmed I need more space for tools! haha fantastic work!

[@nfcerick3634]

Get after it! You can NEVER have enough tools. Thanks for watching!

[@nickthaskater]

This is ridiculous. Amazing job.

[@dirzz]

Incredible work!

[@MisterRorschach90]

If I had a workshop filled with cnc machines, 3D printers of all material types, and other machines to make circuit boards and forge or cast custom metal parts, I don’t think I’d ever buy watercooling parts ever again. Except for maybe radiators and fittings. It’s so expensive to get all those machines though. I’ve always wanted to make a completely passive custom loop. No fans. No pumps. Just using engineering and physics to move the water around and cool it. Have the entire tiny case be a monoblock, distroplate, radiator, cabling alternative, and enclosure. Disassemble everything to make it as small as possible. Design it so that it attaches to the gpu, cpu, vrm, psu, memory, and chipset, while also connecting directly to the power connectors so there are no or very few cables exposed or used. Design it so that when it starts to heat up that starts to move the fluid, and both the heat and moving fluid cause air to circulate through the enclosure cooling the system.

[@nfcerick3634]

That sounds like an amazing and ambitious dream.

[@SuperConker]

Perhaps a regular 5700x would give a lower temp on the CPU than the 5700g? (since it does not have the iGPU in it).

[@nfcerick3634]

Unfortunately, the X300M STX motherboard doesn’t support the 5700X. This build relied on the STX form factor to help squeeze in all the components.

[@trento6297]

This is insane! I love the work yall did.

[@sergeymikolaitis8205]

Shocking! Epic! Way ahead anyone! Good job, Eric!

[@nfcerick3634]

Thank you so much for watching and commenting!

[@sergeymikolaitis8205]

​@@nfcerick3634 Is bigstackD videos inspired you to try melting/casting? :) I like that you've interested in this and tried this out no matter what! How much time did it take for you to develop this water loop/block design? It looks like this is a huge amount of work. Is there a way to create a loop without pipes? Interesting challenge that hopefully can make a build more clean, but assembly will be a lot more challenging i think :) PS: sorry for typing your name wrong in previous message, Erick. Glad you did not mention this.

[@nfcerick3634]

@@sergeymikolaitis8205 No worries about the mistyped name. I enjoy watching bigstackD's videos. It got me interested in doing it a long time ago, but I never really had a reason to other than adding ANOTHER hobby to my already ridiculous list of hobbies. The block design took a few weeks. Yes, you can make a loop without tubing or pipes, and I have plans for a build like that too. Assembly will be challenging in a stock case, so perhaps a scratch build would be best.

[@TheLikesofMee]

As both a master hvac tech and certified infosec analyst, I fkn love you’re channel. I just found it. I also scrap and have a lot of stuff laying around. You engineered the hell out of this and it’s unbelievable quality. Great job and you got a new fan and sub 🫡

[@nfcerick3634]

Thank you! Welcome to the channel!

[@SSJfraz]

That's amazing. Get these mass produced now!

[@TheJamesKF]

Mind blown. Again!

[@Sphyxx]

I need this in my current situation of moving around quite a lot

[@AznJungleFever]

This is sooo cool seeing people melt recycling old materials to build pc parts and stuff is awesome work bud

[@TurTurHamMan]

Absolutely ridiculous, I love it

[@kaedeschulz5422]

Maan that make me think my SFF build is a joke🤣🤣🤣 Insane work man! Not done yet but when done it's a 11400f with a 5600xt in sub 8liters No custom part's tho and a be quiet shadow rock lp and not something super tiny like the noctua 92.

[@nfcerick3634]

Thank you! Hope your build turns out great!

[@kaedeschulz5422]

@@nfcerick3634 Thanks a lot mate!✌️ Currently making the front of it with Cherry wood!😍kzbin.info/www/bejne/jKXVdXmOe52Ml9k

[@gerbaniumgreen9624]

Very nice , I wish it could be mass produced so we could purchase it.

[@MatthijsvanSantendeHoog]

It really is a piece of art.

[@rolandamarantoii170]

Duude! Your builds are next level!

[@Shvok]

This was AMAZING! Job well done!

[@joaopaulocoelho1153]

wold be great also have some dust filters on it

[@nfcerick3634]

Personally, I’m not a fan of dust filters. I have a regular routine of blasting out my builds with air, so I find them useless. The look is unappealing to me.

[@guccifer2]

Brilliant build, would love to see it as a backpack VR rig

[@nfcerick3634]

Interesting idea!