After buying a SFF-friendly RTX 5080, I had the idea to build an ‘all white’ mini-ITX build around it. Naturally the founder’s edition isn’t white, but everything else in the build is - even the motherboard, which is the only white AM5 mini-ITX mobo available (the X870I Aorus Pro Ice). I think this build looks pretty good, and it was a REALLY fun build overall - even if some parts of it were a bit challenging!

The full part list is:

  • Case: Corsair 2000D mITX Case
  • CPU: AMD Ryzen 7700 (8C/16T)
  • Motherboard: Gigabyte Aorus X870I Aorus Pro Ice
  • RAM: Corsair Vengeance 32GB 6000Mhz CL30
  • GPU: NVIDIA RTX 5080 Founder’s Edition
  • Case Fans: Corsair RS120 120mm (25mm wide)
  • Extra Fans: Thermalright TL-C12015W-S White 120mm (15mm wide)
  • Storage: 2x 4TB Gen 4 NVMe SSDs
  • CPU Cooler: Thermalright Peerless Mini White 120mm
  • PSU: ROG Loki 850w SFF ATX 3.0

(Link to direct YouTube video)

If you prefer text over video, please read on for the guide/transcript version of this video.

Video Transcript And Guide

Hey everyone! For quite some time, I’ve had the idea of doing a mini-ITX all-white computer build, but for one reason or another, I’ve just never really got around to it. But recently, after buying an RTX 5080 which is small form factor, I thought it’s now time to actually do this all-white build. And I say “all white” because I know that the Founders Edition isn’t white, but everything else in the build I’m going to be doing is white. So I’m pretty excited for this build.

And it’s actually going to be my workstation build. So I’m going to have my RTX 5080 in there. And actually, I’m going to use it for my video editing. And it’s also going to have 8 TB of NVME space, which I’m going to nick from this current computer, which is my gaming computer. And the idea is I’m actually going to run this mini-ITX workstation build 24/7.

So as a result, I actually didn’t want loads of really flashy RGB, and I’ll show off the parts in just a minute. But the idea was actually this computer will just sit in the corner of my study, or maybe even behind my current computer, ‘cuz there is actually space for that, and the computer will run all the time and actually act as a base for all of my media content for YouTube and things like that. So I actually am quite excited by the build.

The case itself that I went for is the Corsair 2000D, which has mesh on all sides, and it’s quite a customizable, configurable case. It’s got space for an all-in-one cooler or a simple air cooler. And I’ll talk about my cooling choice in just a minute. But actually, it’s just a quite good case, and you can have up to eight fans, but because my graphics card is dual slot, I very much doubt I’m going to be able to have two of the fans there, but I’m still going to be able to have six fans, which is really good. So that is the actual case, and I think it looks pretty nice, and I’m excited to build in it.

Next is the motherboard, and I’ve gone for the X870 Aorus Pro Ice. The reason I went for this one is it’s the only mini-ITX AM5 motherboard that is actually white. There is actually a B650 motherboard by MSI which has silver heat sink and things, and so you could sort of use that as a compromise, but then, you know, ultimately you’re still going to see the black of the PCB quite a lot. With this one, you’re not going to actually have that problem. And this was the priciest bit of the build, or the second most pricey bit actually, because the graphics card was the first. But this cost me around £300, which is very expensive. But if you’re going to do, you know, a white mini-ITX AM5 build, that’s very, very niche, and as a result, you’re not going to have that much choice. But that’s the actual motherboard.

For the RAM then, I’ve gone for—just, I’ve just kept it simple—Corsair Vengeance RGB DDR5. Now, I did mention earlier on I don’t actually want RGB in this build, but actually, I mainly meant the case fans because the Corsair 2000D does come with a model which actually comes with, I think it’s three Corsair RGB fans. And it’s that sort of thing I didn’t want. I didn’t want loads of case fans with RGB flashing away while I’m running my computer 24/7. But with the RAM, it’s not as bad ‘cuz you’re not going to see it. And obviously this is iCUE compatible. So I could always just turn off the RAM if I wanted, or set it to like a white color and just leave it at that, really. But that’s the RAM—is 32 gigs, 6,000 megahertz, and CL30. So actually pretty fast RAM, and I’m quite happy about that.

Next is the actual CPU, which I’ve gone for the Ryzen 7700. And you might be wondering why this says a five, and that’s because actually the CPU I’ve ordered is from AliExpress. I literally paid less than half of the official price. One of the first things I’ll actually do is test it and make sure it is, you know, working and not a fake CPU and stuff. But right now, it’s actually on the way from China. I think it’s still on the plane. And so I’ve just got this box.

The next thing I wanted to show off is the actual case fans, ‘cuz I was talking about RGB. And so what I’ve gone for is just the Corsair RS120s, which are white fans. And one of the big reasons I bought them is they are daisy-chained connection ones. So basically what I can do in the build is actually connect all six together and put them into a single motherboard fan header. I know some people say, “Don’t put like six through a single fan header,” but actually the wattage of these should be low enough to actually be fine to have six of those fans on a particular fan header. So that, that is that.

The next is the storage, which as I said, currently it’s in my other computer because basically I merged two systems together, and I have three NVME drives in this gaming computer. I’m going to go back to having just a simple gaming computer with like two or four terabytes of RAM, and then my workstation computer with 8 terabytes of RAM, and that’s going to host all of my media content. But yeah, these are NVME drives. All fairly straightforward.

The next thing I wanted to show is the CPU cooler, because as you can tell, I’ve gone for air cooling and not liquid cooling. So in this other computer, I’ve got an all-in-one cooler from Corsair, and that works out really well for me. But actually, again, for this workstation computer, I kind of want to just keep it simple. And this particular CPU cooler is the Pis Assassin from Thermalright, and it’s the mini white. So it’s actually got quite good RAM clearance. And I did double-check, and the Corsair Vengeance RGB RAM does actually fit under here, ‘cuz this has clearance for up to like 53.5 mm, if I remember correctly. But that should work absolutely fine.

And next we come to the graphics card and the PSU. In fact, they’re the final two components, aren’t they? So I’ll talk about the graphics card in a minute, but first I wanted to talk about the PSU because it’s not completely white, technically. It’s a bit more silvery, but it’s the closest thing you’re going to have. Obviously, it’s a small form factor power supply unit, and it does say “white edition.” So even if it’s not completely white, it’s as close as you’re going to get, and the actual cables are white. And actually, this does have RGB as well, but apparently it’s addressable. It’s got an ARGB header in it. It should be able to power my RTX 5080 with no issue whatsoever.

And as I mentioned, the reason I’m doing this build is because I actually picked up a Founders Edition on launch day. I’d given up hope of actually buying one, and then the “add to basket” link came up at like 20 past 2, so I just bought it. And actually, yeah, I really like the sleek look of the Founders Edition. I know it’s not white, but actually, I think the rest of this build is going to be white. So hopefully this should be fine too. But now I wanted to just dive into the build. So let’s get going.

[Music - “Can’t Hold Us”]

So that was a pretty fun build. It was my first ever small form factor build, and other than the I/O front panel connectors, which, you know, I barely had any space for, everything else went really fine. So actually, I really like the look of this build.

I should quickly point out before I actually go and test the thermals, ‘cuz this is a small form factor build, so thermals are going to be a concern. I should point out that my fans are configured slightly unusually. So in the front, which is actually the side, there’s space for three fans, but I’ve only got two on the top bit because my CPU cooler is a sufficient height that actually means I can’t actually have that third intake fan. And I knew that before building because technically the Corsair 2000D only supports CPU coolers up to like 90 millimeters, and obviously my CPU cooler is taller than that. So I knew that in advance I might need to sacrifice one of those fans.

So what I’ve then done is on the other side, where the power buttons are, usually you’d have like three exhaust fans, but what I’ve actually done is the bottom one, I’ve flipped around, and that’s actually an intake, which might seem a bit weird, but my theory is that actually that’s going to draw cool air in to the bottom of the case and help cool the CPU cooler. However, I am a bit concerned about whether that’s going to impact on the GPU, which is obviously going to be bringing a lot of warm air in and might actually clash with that bottom intake. So as a result, I’m going to obviously test all the thermals and see how it actually works out.

So I started out with Prime 95, which is a bit of an older stress tester, but it’s also great still for actually generating loads of heat. So I kicked it off, waited 1 hour, and then actually you can see the results here. So my RTX 5080 FE was 42 degrees C, so fairly respectable, you know, considering actually it’s a small form factor case. And the CPU temperatures were in the 60s, which isn’t too bad. And things were turboing above the base speed, obviously only getting to like 4.3 GHz, but actually that’s not too bad. And there is some thermal headroom here.

But next I wanted to look at Furmark, especially because I’m going to mainly do video editing on this system, and actually that’s going to hammer the GPU a lot more. So I thought I’ll just hammer the GPU with the furry donut, which is always fun. So I kicked off Furmark and then waited 1 hour. And we can see the results here. And unfortunately, they’re not pretty.

The CPU firstly was being warmed up to into the 60° C range, which isn’t very good considering the CPU wasn’t doing anything. Well, not much, but the actual GPU was above 80° C, which is absolutely terrible. Small form factor or not, that is a really bad result. And if I compare the results here again with my 5080 Founders Edition in a full tower ATX case, I was only seeing temps of like 70° C. So actually, my small form factor case was seeing my 5080 run 13° C hotter.

And as you can see when running Prime 95, that my GPU was running around 3° higher in this small form factor build, and then in Furmark, it was running significantly higher. Like, for me, this is a really, really bad result. I don’t want to be averaging in the 80s. Yeah. So that is… yeah, yeah, yeah, very technical explanation, I know, but basically, yeah, overall at idle, things aren’t too bad, even though it’s going to be a bit higher than like a full tower ATX case with like eight or nine fans, but in general at idle, it’s not too bad, and when you’re stress testing just the CPU, it’s not terrible either. When you come to doing GPU stuff, whether that’s gaming or, you know, video rendering or anything like that, the GPU gets insanely hot. I mean, it’s averaging over 80° C, which is too hot for me. So as a result, I wanted to actually go out and fix things if I can.

And actually, I realized from measuring up, I can just about get two slimline fans in front of the actual GPU, which is going to be brilliant. So I’ve gone out and bought some slimline fans and installed those. And what then that means is I’ve effectively got four intakes: two at the front or the side of the case, two actually helping to cool the GPU. And what that then means is I’ve gone ahead and that weird intake that I had on the other side where the power buttons are, I’ve rotated that around, and I’ve actually put that back to an exhaust. So I’ve now got four intakes, three exhausts, and hopefully that will help a little bit. Let’s go back to the stress tests and actually take a look.

So, firstly, Prime 95 again. So again, I kicked it off, and I run things for 1 hour. And you can see the before and after in my small form factor build here. So before the fan changes and after the fan changes, and there was an improvement. The CPU was only like half a degree cooler, which is still an improvement, I guess, but the actual GPU was clearly better. You can see here things were sort of 6° on average lower, which is actually pretty good just for adding a couple of fans. So that’s really good.

Next, I wanted to run Furmark, the furry donut. Again, I run it for 1 hour, and actually, let’s see the results. Well, you can see them there. It doesn’t look like there’s much difference. CPU is like 1° C cooler, and my GPU is like 2° C cooler, which doesn’t look like it’s that much of a difference, but actually that’s not bad just for adding a couple of fans. And remember, Furmark stresses the system more than if you were video editing or gaming in many cases. So I’m still seeing a benefit.

But actually, if I just use my system for an entire 6-hour period, doing video editing and web browsing and doing all the usual things that I might do in a typical day, after 6 hours, you can see the results here. And there is actually a positive improvement. You can actually see CPU temperatures on average are a lot better, and so are the GPU temps. You know, things are 6° on average lower, which is actually brilliant. So when using the system generally, the new fan configuration has improved things a lot.

Obviously, when stress testing, you know, it wasn’t quite as good. You know, you’re not going to see as much difference because ultimately, if you are running like Furmark for so long, GPU temperatures are going to build up, especially in a small form factor case, but I think it’s now decent, and actually, I might explore, you know, undervolting my CPU and my GPU a little bit in the future, which will then further help with temperatures. But I think right now I’m happy, and overall this has been a pretty good build.

Obviously, the two main downsides of this build, in my opinion, are the—firstly, the Corsair 2000D is on the bigger side. Some people in the SFF community actually, they say it’s too big at 25 L, and it’s not like a proper mini-ITX case. Obviously, it is a mini-ITX case, but you just have that extra room, and I actually prefer building in a case like that. So actually, I kind of enjoyed the build overall, even though it is a little bit on the bigger side for, you know, a mini-ITX case.

Secondly, you might have clocked that the actual I/O is at the very bottom of this case because the motherboard and the GPU faces down. So if you’re putting in like a display port or HDMI cable or USB or Ethernet cable or something, you’ve actually got to move the computer upside down to actually plug the cables in. Now, if you’re frequently, you know, plugging things in and out, that might not work for you. In my particular case, remember this is a workstation build, I’m either going to just put it in the corner of my study and forget about it, or I’m actually going to hook it up to like a KVM switch, and, you know, I’ll set it up once, and then this computer will be running 24/7. So in my mind, I don’t really care about that bottom I/O, and there is plenty of room because the legs are quite big. There is plenty of room to get normal cables under it and things like that. You don’t need to get like right-angle display port adapters, which is good.

But overall, yeah, I’m actually really happy with this build. I really like it, and the fact there’s so much power in it is pretty impressive. If you’ve got any questions or feedback or anything like that, please let me know down in the comments. And if you enjoyed this video, please click the thumbs up button, and please subscribe to see more videos like this. Thanks for watching!