Look At That, K39 Review - Ultimate Sub 5L Case?

Today we're finally checking out the k39 ITX case from Aliexpress and as you can see this thing is incredibly tiny this case will allow you to build pretty much the smallest gaming system possible with desktop graphics performance that means up to an Rx 5700 or RT X 2070 giving you a fairly capable 1440p gaming system in just under a 4 liter case and unlike many of the space optimized cases that we've taken a look at on the channel this one is actually available you could buy it today if you wanted and it's relatively affordable as well I mean around 75 to 80 US dollars once you factor in the riser cable so it's accessible affordable and honestly this might be the perfect case if you're looking to build something as small and portable as possible but building this small does have many compromises so let's take a look at what you need to know so addressing the elephant in the room for those who know yes this is extremely similar to the vole case volca 3 they're both four liters and use Flex ATX power supplies more on that in just a minute 

but they do have slight differences and overall the k39 is actually the better case in many ways build quality here is surprisingly good and will get much thicker aluminium panels the finish of the case is also fairly nice with not too many imperfections after a quick wipe down the overall proportions and stance of the case I think works really well it's a similar height and a length as the volca 3 but just a bit wider so a pretty clean and minimal design no front USB or headphone jack but you will find a sneaky little power button right at the back towards the top so the one that I've got here is silver and it does have a couple of dark spots on the front panel just slight imperfections which you will catch in some lighting but not all it does also come in black or red if you prefer those now structurally I don't have any real issues with the case you could quite easily throw this in a backpack or luggage and you won't have any issues but just keep in mind that you can still warp and bend the panel's if you try hard enough the k39 can be hard for fifty-five dollars and doesn't come with a riser cable however that can also be bought quite easily from Aliexpress for around twenty to twenty-five dollars so overall you paying around seventy five to eighty US dollars for the case and the riser cable so it's a fair price it's not overwhelming value considering the very small amount of materials used and you also need to factor in the shipping cost as well I chose the cheapest option which I think could have even been free shipping and it did take around two months to get here to Australia now 

I believe that there are many reasons out there that someone would want to build an ITX machine but the reasons to build a machine this small are quite slim and they're going to vary from person to person everyone has different use cases for something this small but having said that what's discussed the compromises that you'll need to know if you are considering building something this small so in terms of graphics card support you can install two slot cards up to 118 millimeters in length and roughly 100 and 15 millimeters in height the power color rx 5600 XT that I've got in there was a fairly easy fit they also make an Rx 5700 within the same dimensions just make sure to check the fan profile on these cards first and I do really want to say that up to an RT X 2070 will fit in here as well but as you guys have let me know MSI doesn't seem to be making these cards anymore

 of course if you're planning on just playing competitive eSports titles like Valerie overwatch csgo at 1080p there are plenty of gtx 1650 supers and 1660 super cards that will fit into the k 39 so there are two main compromises here firstly no 27 years favor 2080 super 20 a DTI or quad row workstation cards and of course being restricted to a single fan card they are gonna run a bit hotter and louder most users GPU requirements though surely will be met especially if you are going for one of those more affordable and more power efficient GTX Super cards for the CPU we're at a stage now where you can get quite a lot of CPU performance within reasonable power levels so for gaming builds I would recommend the horizon 3300 X 36 hundred or Intel's new I 5 10 600 K those processes will have no problem being called by a forty seven millimeter cooler which is the max for the K 39 and your best option there would be the Alpen phone black Ridge if you have a motherboard that will fit it otherwise the cryo rig c 7g that i've used here

this is one big advantage over the volca 3 which can only really accommodate the Noctua and hl9 cooler for CPU rendering or video editing builds you could definitely go up to a risin 3,700 X like I have here potentially higher if you're okay with manually dialing in those voltages you will need a Flex ATX power supply for this build which sits just underneath the graphics card and the motherboard the one that I'm using here is a modded FSP 400 watt 80 plus gold model but I do have another model on the way the 500 watt metal fish which is also from Aliexpress so that one you might want to consider as well the build process is much like the volca three it has you taking off the external show of the case building onto the motherboard tray and then just kind of squashing the whole thing together and putting the screws onto the back it'll probably require some teeth gritting and flexing

 if this is your first time at building in a case in this small but it is totally doable and was a fair bit easier than my experience with the volca 3 the k39 is just a bit bigger so I didn't have as much of a problem with cable management there's even some breathing room there for an RGB LED strip one problem I did have though was the front panel bending which was not ideal at all in the end you most likely won't be able to get it completely flush with those side panels although it doesn't look too bad from most angles for additional storage you can fit two two and a half inch drives in the k39 they mount right here between the power supply and the frame of the case and the mounting is from the bottom but I would just highly recommend seeking to MDOT to storage for he build this small it'll make the entire build so much cleaner and it'll make the build process a lot easier now although the k39 doesn't have any active case fans it doesn't really need them seeing as it's so small and relatively well ventilated our eight core rise in 3700 X running the relatively loud cry rec7 G had no problems at all in blender and the vrm was running with in a very safe limit as well just remember this is an 8 core CPU in just a 4 liter case that's basically the size of an ATX power supply with the fan set to 1750 rpm on the power color rx 5600 XT we get some fairly reasonable thermals there as well at full load most of the noise from the system was coming from the 47 milk rig cooler so the graphics card fan was otherwise it relatively quiet I would highly recommend swapping that crying van to a slim 92 mm knocked or instead so overall the k39 is pretty impressive the build quality is decent

 if you can manage to avoid bending the panels the ventilation and air flow is good enough for the kind of volume of the case and overall we can build a very powerful gaming machine or even a mini workstation in this thing and that's pretty insane considering how small this is it's more powerful than Intel's nook 9 extreme and it's smaller it's also very suitable for more modest configurations - like 1660 super and 3300 X gaming build but I have to say unless you really need your gaming PC to be portable to the point where you can put it in a backpack I highly recommend just going a bit bigger you can check out my recent video which goes over some of the better options out there that are a bit bigger but also have way less compromise you'll have much better hardware compatibility an easier build process and your upgrades down the road will be much easier as well and I totally get it this thing is cool AF especially when you consider how much power you can cram in there just be prepared for some compromise so if you are interested in picking this one up I will leave it linked down below as well as a bunch of hardware that I've most recommend cramming into this case as always guys a huge thanks for reading and I'll see you all in the next one