Case study / 05

ITX
Workstation

A compact high-performance PC shaped around CAD work, thermal management and a tight physical envelope.

Focus: Compact performance
Core: Ryzen 5 7600X + RX 7900 GRE
Detail: Custom 3D-printed ducting

Front view of a compact custom ITX workstation

Overview

This workstation was built to deliver serious CAD and gaming performance without giving up the discipline of a small-form-factor build.

The component choices balance price, performance and longevity: a Ryzen 5 7600X, Radeon RX 7900 GRE and 32GB of fast CL30 memory, paired with an ultrawide primary display and a vertical second screen for design and coding work.

The FormD T1 V2.5 enclosure made thermal behaviour a design problem in its own right. I designed and 3D printed bespoke ducting to direct airflow more deliberately, maintaining safe temperatures under sustained load while keeping the package compact.

More than a specification exercise, the build sharpened practical system-design decisions: selecting components as a whole, working around physical constraints and testing the result in the workloads it was actually made for.

Front of the compact ITX workstation — Compact FormD T1 build

CPU side of the custom ITX workstation — Cooling and CPU packaging

GPU side of the custom ITX workstation — GPU-side layout

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