Mcprue Apollo S V3: My dream SFF Build

[sly flax]

I wanted to do a top of the line SFF PC build, and after finding the Mac Pro inspired Mcprue Apollo S V3, I knew I had to have it. Super happy with how this turned out, and everything fits perfectly with very little room to spare. The case is of super high quality and was a joy to build in.

Case: Mcprue Apollo S V3 Space Gray
CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-U12A Chromax
GPU: Nvidia 4090 Founders Edition
RAM: G.Skill Flare X5 6000Mhz CL30
Motherboard: Asus ROG Strix B650E-i
Storage: 2TB SN850X, 1TB SN750, 1TB 860 EVO
PSU: Corsair SF750
Case Fans: 4x NF-A14x2, 2x NF-A12 (CPU Cooler), 1x NF-A9x14

I started my PC gaming journey with an NZXT H1 Mini. While I had interest in building a PC, at the time components were hard to get, and I bought it as a pre-built. It had a 9900k and 2070 Super, and over time I upgraded to a 3090, along with doing faster RAM, upgraded fans and cooling, PSU etc. This PC treated me very well, and I loved having an SFF form factor.

I've been playing a good bit of competitive shooters, and recently added a 27" 1440p 240hz OLED to my setup, in addition to my 42 4k 120hz OLED. Warzone is a game we play often, and I wasn't maxing out my new monitor, which started the itch to upgrade.

I wanted to go to a SFF based machine with a 7800X3D and 4090. I'm a fan of Apple and mostly use their devices outside my gaming PC, so when I found out about the McPrue Apollo S V3, I knew I had to have it. I have been very impressed by the build quality on this case, every part of it is well thought out, and of very high quality. While it is not a cheap case, it feels well worth its asking price. Every piece on it is made of solid aluminum, truly a step above any of the mass produced offerings.

Continued in the comments (1/2)

(2/2)

I started part sourcing which was a journey in of itself, there was quite a few steps and changes to land on my final parts list, but I ended up on the following, which I think the optimal way to go for a fully aircooled setup. I'm using a 4090 Founders Edition, AMD 7800X3D, ASUS ROG Strix B650E-i, G.Skill Flare X5 6000Mhz CL30, and Corsair SF750 PSU. On the cooling side I went with a Noctua U12A, 4x 140mmx25MM fans, and 1x 92x25mm fans.

There was a lot of trial and error to get to this combo, but this uses up every bit of room in the case, while still having enough space for easy cable management and serviceability. Temps are great from what I have seen so far, sitting in mid 60s on both CPU/GPU while gaming, and hitting ~70 degrees in benchmarks. The PC is very quiet overall with the 4090 being the loudest part of the build. I did end up doing a custom fan curve on it to quiet it down while still staying sub 70 degrees in gaming which helped.

I currently have the front fan, and side fan set as intakes, with the top fans, cpu cooler, and rear fan set as exhaust. I did want play around with trying a reverse flow option for airflow as it may perform better, but temps and noise are so good I have not tried it. I would be curious on others experience with that who have tried both.

Overall I am extremely pleased with how this came out, and it feels good to get to build it exactly how I wanted. The case really makes the PC feel special, and it's great it performs as good as it looks and is built.

[somber gazelle]

Beautiful case, fits the set up perfect

What’s the keyboard specs? Looks awesome

[wooden hill]

Looks awesome , kinda want one , whats the idle temps on this ?

[sly flax]

Missed this prior sorry. Keyboard is a Bolsa Supply Midway 60, and I'm running their technoviolet switches, and GMK Dualshot caps. Super happy with the keyboard and would reocmmend it.

[sly flax]

Idle temps are super low, ~ 30n degrees on the GPU and ~40 degrees on the CPU, I'm about to post an update on temps with more details.

I just added the Mac Pro style feet and handles, I think this takes it from just being a Mac Pro inspired look, to exactly how Apple would have created an SFF Mac Pro. Mcprue did a run of shadow chrome Mac Pro style feet and handles, with the gunmetal tones complimenting the Space Gray perfectly. The shadow chrome tends to photograph as bright chrome, but in person is more muted and I’m a big fan of the look, really finishes off the aesthetic.

Since my original post I did reverse my airflow, having the top two fans set to intake, the CPU fans set to intake from the rear, and the front and side fans set to exhaust. This allows both the CPU and GPU access to fresh air, with all of the heat being pulled out from the front and side fan. Having 4x 140x25mm fans in a case this size is awesome, fully taking advantage of all the available space. The only issue I ran into was turbulence noise on the rear 92mm fan I previously had when it was set to intake rather than exhaust, so I have chosen to delete this. I would like to eventually try a foam or 3d printed fan shroud for the rear CPU fan, to insure it only is pulling fresh air from the rear, but thermals are already great.

With my motherboards default silent fan curves I was seeing in the mid to upper 50s while gaming on my GPU, and hovering right around 70 on the CPU. There was however a bit of fan noise in this configuration, so I got to playing with my fan curves. With my CPU I moved the whole curve about 10 degrees over in the bios from the default silent configuration, which results in 3-5 degrees higher temps in gaming, but the PC is silent now. As this is in the low to mid 70s, I am not seeing any throttling, and this is a great trade off. The two 140mm fans intaking right into the GPU also allowed me to do a custom curve here, where I have the GPU fans sit at 30% fan speed until ~75 degrees. At 30% which is the lowest fan speed for the 4090 I never see it exceed the mid 60s in gaming or benchmarks, and this keeps the entire build silent. This is all with PBO on for the CPU with a -20 curve on all cores, and a 100% power limit on the GPU with a 150Mhz OC on the core, and 1500Mhz OC on the memory.

[tepid radish]

hello. how are temps under CPU load for solely CPU heavy tasks (not including synthetics like R23)?

this is assuming you run content creation as well or something

thanks

[sly flax]

I just do gaming almost exclusively so the benchmarks I have run are various 3DMark, and in game benchmarks. Happy to run something else and see if you would like. With an aggressively silent (10 degrees to the right past the factory Asus “silent” fan curve) I am seeing mid 70s in gaming and benchmarks, with no throttling.