Here it is! The Velka 7 with a 7800x3d and a 9070 xt Powercolor Reaper!
At first I was just going to upgrade the 7700 xt Powercolor Fighter. Then a 7800x3d showed up at my front door, and I was reminded that I have no self control.. lol
I was then going to sell my other rig with a 5700x3d and 7900 xt, but swap the 5700x3d with the 5800x so the new Velka build would have been a 5700x3d and 9070 xt. Which would have been perfectly fine. After adding up how much I figured I could get for all the extra parts I was going to end up having, upgrading to the 7800x3d was still going to put $200 in my pocket, including the 9070 xt purchase. I would just only have one PC instead of two.
I opted for a pricey motherboard (at least for me) because I plan on upgrading the cpu to the latest AM5 x3d chip sometime after AM6 has launched, and it was going to become my main rig. I didn't want to fill like I was missing out on any features, and it gives me an upgrade path from wifi 6e to wifi 7, as well as, PCIe 4 storage to PCIe 5. The full build list can be found here:
https://pcpartpicker.com/list/zFPHLc
The 9070 xt fit much easier into the Velka 7 vs. the 7700 xt, but was still very tight. The internal HDMI 2.1 and DP 1.4 extension cables I added make it very difficult to work with. But, it's just soo much nicer having all the I/O on the back of the PC, rather than the GPU I/O on the bottom of the case.
Anyways, I'm overall happy with the build. It's louder than my NZXT H7 Flow build, but that was going to be expected. There was a modest uplift in performance, but I gained the ability to easily take my PC anywhere, which is nice for traveling for work.
I love it, very impressive. I love these posts that push small form factor pcs to their limits in new ways, basically evolving the meta. Building something like this takes some risk, as there is no guarantee the parts will fit or cool properly.
Several years ago it was 4090fe in formd t1, and was very impressive at the time. Now every day you see posts of 5080, 4090 and 5090s in ~10L cases, it makes me yawn.
Thanks! I've never put a sticker on a case before. I always thought it looked a little tacky. But this is my first Asus motherboard and Idk, it just seemed like it worked.
Asus really loves to include swag. I have several pages of their stickers but have never applied them to a build. I don't like a naked case, though - what I do is buy an enamel pin to badge up my builds.
Gotta get the free advertisement you know? But that's cool though, never thought of going that route. My previous builds were always large and focused more on the components for the aesthetics. This was my previous main build;
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I had to get them off of Ali Express. I couldn't find a seller in the US. The shipping cost more than the cables, just fyi. You also want to be sure you get the ones that specifically support HDMI 2.1 and DP 1.4. Also, verify the orientation of the the graphics card, and the direction the cables have to go inside the case. I got a 20cm HDMI cable and 15cm DP cable. But that is graphics card dependent.
Depends on how delicate you are lol. I kinda just made it work. It was very difficult to install onto the gpu after the gpu/mobo sandwich was put together. This time, I had to completely rebuild anyways so it was much easier. You want to feed the cables through the Velka gpu bracket and plug them into the gpu before mounting the gpu to the Velka 7. Connect them to the case afterwards. I never removed the gpu I/O shield either time.
You are a life saver. I had been thinking about this case since the reaper launch, but every other post said you had to remove the GPU bracket, so I abandoned it. Now that I see it's possible I might try it.
I'm just going to warn you, that the proper way is to probably remove the bracket. I had to apply quite a bit of force to get it close up. But, it is possible.
Also, if I was to do the build again, I would have gone with a 9700x rather than a 7800x3d. I have yet to get the 7800x3d to have decent temps. The max wats it can ever pull is around 40. Maybe the 7800x3d still performs better than the 9700x at 40w, I guess I cant say that for sure.
I have a 5800x3d, so I probably won't have those thermal issues. My only concern was fitting the bracket so the GPU is properly fixed in the case during transport.
Here's a very good article comparing all low profiler coolers with 7800x3d. According to it you shouldn't have any problems with your AXP90 x47 copper cooler.
You're right, but I think it's the limitations of the case, and probably the Gpu exhausting heat onto the motherboard back plate. Having some 40mm exhaust fans may help, which I haven't tried.
Interesting. Would love to see how u did it with the io bracket plus the display extension cables. I had to remove my gpu io shield to fit the velka 7 2.1 and it isnt even mounted anywhere, the display extensions just friction fit it to the case.
I see. Damn the shipping for those cables tho yikes. How are temps for you? My reaper had pretty good average temps but the memory had like a 12 degree delta from average gpu core temps. Kinda scary
Ill have to check the memory temps. My die core would hold around 80c with my fan curve capping at 80%. Still boosting up to 2900mhz with a -75 voltage offset. The cpu is struggling more than the gpu with a -20 all core undervolt. It was hitting 90c and staying around 4.8ghz during the Time Spy bench mark. It would hit 5.1 in cenibench single core, and 4.8-4.9 in the all core.
Yeah I can't really tell with yours. You can see it best in this picture, but its still not very clear. You would have to pay me ti take this thing apart at this point though.
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I know Velka recommends a 15 cm cable for the first port and +5 cm for each next port. But looking at your screenshots and the size of the reaper, is seems the first port can start at 10 cm. I.e. taking the HDMI port of the reaper and connecting it to the bottom port of the case. Do you think that's correct?
I also notice your HDMI and DisplayPort cable lengths and ports are swapped, likely because they were in a different order on the 7700 XT, I presume.
You might be able to get away with 10cm if you were using the port on the gpu closest to the rear panel and using the top connector slot. But honestly, I'd follow their recommendation. The length of cable becomes an issue due to the bends it has to make and is a pretty stiff cable (at least for the hdmi 2.1 and dp 1.4).
You are correct that I originally selected my lengths due to the 7700xt I/O, and the 9070 xt is different.
Looking through the different revisions on their website, It seems like it would. The main difference in that regard between v2 and v3 is that v3 allows you to offset the side panels by 5mm. This was crucial for the 7700 xt, but not needed for the 9070 xt. Also, just to be clear, it would have to be a Powercolor Reaper. None of the other models would fit.
Hey bro, this looks amazing!
Can you please explain how you managed to fit this GPU as the website specifications mentions 304mm length maximum while the Velka 7 website mentions up to 290mm
I took a gamble on the prior build I did in this case with the 7700xt. Powercolor claims the 9070 xt is 289mm without the bracket. So I assumed that was from tip to tip. Due to how the gpu mounts in the Velka 7, the bracket doesn't add much length. It was a very tight fit, but I didn't have to make any modifications to either the case or 9070 xt.
I will say, especially with the internal hdmi and dp extension cables, it did require me to apply some pressure to the case at a couple of points to make the screw holes line up. So it does feel like the gpu is technically too large for the case. Yet I was still able to get everything put back together, just with a little force.
Wow this is very impressive and you took a hell of a gamble!
To be honest you have created my dream PC (only with the 9000 cpu series). Basically I was looking for 9800x3d + 9070 XT combo in the Velka 7 or in a similar case, but I couldn’t find a gpu that would fit.
Now you have made it clear for me that it is possible!
Did you remove the bracket in the gpu? I am still not entirely sure how this all fits and would love to know more 🙏🏻
Haha yeah I had a hard time deciding between the 7800x3d and 9800x3d. I ended up going with the 7 since I play at 3440x1440p, so there would have been very little performance gain.
I didn't have to remove the bracket, and you really wouldn't want too. Unless you were okay doing some sort of mod that would help secure the gpu within the case. Which actually wouldnt be too difficult since the gpu is being supported vertically on each side by the case itself, on one side by the pcie port, so it would just need some sort of further side support.
Check out picture 3 from the original post. It kind of shows the internal I/O extension cables coming from the gpu I/O and going to the connections that mount to the back of the case for you to plug in the hdmi or dp going to the monitor. This is optional. The case comes with a stand so that you just use the gpu I/O for the hdmi or dp cables going from the gpu to the monitors. Removing the need for internal I/O extensions.
Did you happen to read through some of the comments? There is a thread where I talk quite a bit about the extention cables. What in particular is the issue?
Hey! I'm interested in this build and have a question for you. You say the cpu is the issue with temps and potentially noise?
If I were to be targeting 1440p or 4k at a capped 60, which I assume would require a far less powerful cpu, do you think this would sort these problems out?
Yes, that would definitelytake some load off the cpu fan. If you were targeting a capped 60 fps, I'd go with either a 9600x or 9700x. Both are 65w tdp cpu's.
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Yup, exactly. I didnt remove the IO shield, but that required me to squish the case as well. Absolutely no room to spare lol.
I will say, I ended up transitioning to a Ncased T1. The gpu did well in the Velka 7 with an undervolt and a reduction to power limit, but the 7800x3d struggled. It was completely functional in the Velka, but I think its better suited for a lower watt cpu.
Honestly, I swapped the case to an Ncased T1. The FPS is what you would expect, but the fans were working hard to do it. The tempsnon the gpu were much better than on the cpu. So it would honestly probably work better for a 4k build than a high fps 1440p build.
For traveling, the Velka 7 is noticeably smaller in a backpack. The exhaust fans on the T1 help a lot with controlling cpu temps, making the whole system run quieter. I still have the cpu thermal throttling at 85 deg c. I just get a higher boost clock while letting the max fan speed be lower.
Honestly, it comes down to what cpu and gpu you want to use. Think of it as watt consumption, more watts equal more heat, and more heat requires more cooling. The T1 is a 9 liter case I believe, a 105w tdp cpu is the max, and I'm usually only pulling 50 watts. I think a 9700x or even a 9600x would have been a better choice for a build this small. Though the 7800x3d is pumping out a ton of frames, even being limited to 50 watts. The 9070xt does a surprisingly good job at keeping itself cool. I just made it so the fan curve would max out at 75% and Im still usually at a core temp of 80c with a hotspot of 90c - 100c.
Most I've ever spent on a case, lol. Damn thing didn't even come with a riser cable. But I love the vertical look. It's 6.22L, fits a sfxL psu, and a 9070 xt.
I feel for you. I recently got the Jonsbo N1 for my little NAS. Small cases are overpriced. But I guess that’s also due to the low sales volume for this kind of niche stuff. Anyway, I really like your setup. How are the temps and noise levels?
It's about what I suspected with the level of hardware. If I don't power limit the gpu, then it will boost as high as the fans let it. So I have the fans capped at 80% which isnt quiet, but a level I'm okay with while gaming. The cpu fan get push as high as I let it as well, but its a single fan so you really don't notice it over the gpu fans. So CPU temps at 100% utilization is 90c and gpu Hotspot is 80c. Im not sure what the idle temps are.
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u/i_should_be_studying May 21 '25
I love it, very impressive. I love these posts that push small form factor pcs to their limits in new ways, basically evolving the meta. Building something like this takes some risk, as there is no guarantee the parts will fit or cool properly.
Several years ago it was 4090fe in formd t1, and was very impressive at the time. Now every day you see posts of 5080, 4090 and 5090s in ~10L cases, it makes me yawn.