Edit:
A Recent addition, this system is now 95% complete, just a few cosmetic touches to finish, but the addition of a 6600XT really rounded things right off.
As well as a solid boost in Timespy to 9346 https://www.3dmark.com/spy/22920011

 
This here is my update to my 10 year old HTPC, bringing it from a AMD APU 3850 / HD7770 up to the modern day! The computer gets used by family, friends, streaming, and long ago, the occasional LAN box!
 
Well Far too often the HTPC cannot handle what people want to do, and it really struggles with 4K content if it is not optimized. While I was in the process of building my new personal system I noticed that Asus is selling a basic, but feature rich B550 board in a plain green PCB. It spoke to me, and so project little green machine was started!
 
Every rivet on this old M-ATX portable case was drilled out, every panel sanded, and cuts were made allow for better air flow into the system. The system is a front bottom breather, and going from a 160w package to a 300w package was going to require an improvement to air flow.
 
After painting every part and re-riveting the case back together, part of the next problem was going to be incorporating the cables into the build, they would not be completely hidden like modern builds, there is no place to hide them with this simple case, so they had to be routed in a way that works with the build, I made sure the Sata cables were routed smoothly enough to look proper.
 
Yes, the final product might be a touch dry on the outside, but I very much enjoyed the whole process.
 
I really did want to find an RTX 3060, but they are not readily available and I still do have the Titan X laying around to use. For the time being, this will do.
 
Asus B550M C/CSM
Ryzen 5 5600x In ECO-45w Mode Cooled by a Phenom X4 Cooler
64gb 3200mt Micron E-Bin Running at 3600mt 1.2v
Nvidia GTX Titan X (Maxwell) running at 75% power target with custom fan curve
Intel 670p 512gb M.2
2x Platter 7200rpm Storage 2tb drives
eVGA B5 550W Modular
 
Scores a respectable 5,963 in Time Spy.
 
So, up first, the glory shots.
 
The Color theme is Satin Ivory / Detroit Diesel Alpine Green
 
 
 
 
Now, what it was before (Cellphone photos)
Before I took it apart, I had taken a last photo, it was a GA-970A-UD2 FM1 socket, with a APU A8-3850, 8gb of DDR3 1866, and an HD7770 (which was added just 6 months after it was built, as the on die GPU proved to be just too slow.
 
 
At that point, the old case shell was inspected to see what needed to be done.
 
 
 
 
Then re-assembly after painting the parts, and initial pass at tidying up the cables behind the HDD cradle
 
 
 
 
And there we have it! I hope you enjoyed this as much as I did making it.

Sounds like many hours were put into creating this "hidden beast under the hood".
 
I was concerned about proper airflow, but after reading about the your case drills, I was relieved.
 
I'm sure you will find a 3060 in no time.  

Nicely done retro build you have made for yourself.  Congratulations to you.
 
How long do it take you to drill all the rivets?  For me, drilling rivets is as much fun as scraping paint.  Also, how did you get way with doing your build in the kitchen?
 
Again, I like your build and thank you for sharing.

Flint 1760
How long do it take you to drill all the rivets?  For me, drilling rivets is as much fun as scraping paint.  Also, how did you get way with doing your build in the kitchen?

Drilling rivets is easy for me, just use a fresh 1/8th bit every time yo do something like this, and keep a good set of pliers nearby so you can pull the hats off the bit once they start to load up. For drilling aluminum you use a lower speed, aluminum, like copper work hardens, so using a high speed is actually making the job more difficult.

As for the kitchen, that's the bar outside the kitchen! The only work I did there was taking pictures, and when I put the 52 rivets back in.
 

Flint 1760
Again, I like your build and thank you for sharing.

Thanks!

That's a sweet little machine! I like it. It would have been a bit painful for me to limit the CPU like that lol, but maybe you'll happen across another cooler some day that fits the theme and offers a little more performance. Or maybe you don't need it. In any case, you've made a cool thing, nice work. Enjoy it! 

That's actually quite nicely done. The green accent color is an excellent touch.

Nike_7688
That's a sweet little machine! I like it. It would have been a bit painful for me to limit the CPU like that lol, but maybe you'll happen across another cooler some day that fits the theme and offers a little more performance. Or maybe you don't need it. In any case, you've made a cool thing, nice work. Enjoy it! 

Thanks!, however on the topic of limiting the CPU, not really as bad as you might think.


In Cinebench, the score running in 88w/65a/90a (all default PBO behavior for the 5600x) scores 11117 in R23. Which is within 1% of the default score average. The chip was running at 4350mhz all core @ 1.22v and peaked at 70°C after 10 min
Running the CPU in the group H eco mode 60w/45a/65a, with a voltage offset of -80mv, and a negative PBO Boost voltage offset of 4 (PBO offset is linear in steps 1-10), while yes there was a performance drop to a score of 10047, the cpu was running at an all core speed of 3950mhz @ 1.01v peaking at 55°C after a 10 min load.

 
That's a 9.7% score reduction all core score reduction for a 31.8% power reduction, and 21.5% temperature reduction.

In GPU benchmarks, and games for that matter, the CPU still boosts all the way up to 4700mhz on partial loads (gaming). Ryzens PBO-2 Is just amazing, this is everything I wanted Turbo to be back when they introduced it to PhII X6.
 
For the GPU, running it at 75% PL, is resulting in a maximum power draw of 175w, down from 233w. This card liked to run at 233w of the rated 250w, with a boost behavior of 1202mhz, which is 10.5% faster than the default 1076mhz Nvidia rated the card at. Running at 75% limit this Titan X it still has enough power to hit it's reference boost of 1076mhz. For what the system is doing, it is more then enough! In this case, with a soft GPU fan curve, it is maxing out at 67°C after extended loads.

Those are great numbers! I meant no offense and expected a larger drop. Definitely seems worth it to me after reading your explanation.

It's all good! No offense was taken, most people are taken aback by my push for maximizing PPW over raw performance. I spent weeks learning how PBO ticked on my main system and took that experience over to the Little Green Machine, a name which has three meanings.

AMD Used to be Team Green
Nvidia Is currently Team Green
Aiming for the highest PPW returns is Green.
 
On this topic, with my 3090 in the main system, I absolutely love the way the NV Boost works now vs its Type 1 and 2 implantations, and the opportunistic nature and scalability of it. This and AMDs PBO-2 are the tools I wish we've had all this time.

 
Looks great. Good job.