The author of this article reviews a Vertical Form Factor (VFF) case, specifically the DLH21 ITX case. The author notes that the graphics card goes directly into the motherboard, as intended by the PC overlords, but mentions one drawback: temperatures. The author takes some blame for this issue, as they did not use an air cooling system (AIO), and acknowledges that temperatures are also partly due to the panel perforation and dust filters obstructing airflow.

The author notes that the panels have decently large holes, but combined with the dust filters, there is little actual opening for airflow to get through. They conducted a test comparing the temperatures of the case in its original configuration, with the dust filters removed, and then with the side panels completely removed. The results showed a significant temperature difference with each step, demonstrating how much each layer affects airflow.

To address this issue, the author decided to run the system without the dust filters, as it is easy to pop off the panels and clean them out occasionally. They also plan to take the case outside to dust every once in a while. The author notes that building the DLH21 was by far the easiest ITX building experience they have ever had, due to the open frame design when all the panels are removed.

The author provides some context about the components used in the build: an AMD Ryzen 5 3600 processor, which is mentioned as a budget-friendly option that still provides good performance. They also mention that grabbing a cheaper motherboard and graphics card can help reduce the total cost of the build. The author recommends checking out a video of their build sequence, which showcases the simplicity of assembling this case.

The article concludes with some benchmark results for the system's performance in gaming scenarios. The author notes that they used an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 graphics card, which was running at stock settings initially but was later overclocked to 100 MHz on its core and 1000 MHz on its memory. The games were tested in both 1080p and 1440p resolutions.

The system's performance is demonstrated through a series of benchmarks, including the Yoga benchmark, where the author notes that the system "pulls some pretty respectable numbers" at both resolutions. However, the author also mentions that the system runs at temperatures around 80 degrees Celsius under regular day-to-day loads, which they consider to be a drawback.

To mitigate this issue, the author adds an intake fan directly above the CPU cooler to force fresh air onto it, and an exhaust fan below it to remove the hot air built up in the small case volume. This "cheap solution" lowered the CPU temperatures by around 7 degrees, putting them in the mid-70s range while under load. The author notes that this does not affect the graphics card temperatures, as it is already pulling in fresh air from outside the case.

The article concludes with a call to action for readers: they would like to hear their thoughts on vertical form factor cases and whether they see any appeal in them or would want one themselves. They also invite readers to share their comments below, and thank them for watching and supporting the channel.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhey what's up everyone danny here this is the first vertical form factor pc that i've ever built given that graphics cards are still pretty much nowhere to be found at the moment i wanted to shift the focus of this build away from the core specs of the system which usually lie in the cpu and gpu and i wanted to take that focus and put it more towards the form factor itself i thought this would be a good opportunity to check out something that's new to me and share it with you all in case it's something that you may be interested in especially since it's a lot more attainable you know small form factor cases idx motherboards and sfx power supplies aren't really in short supply right now so it would be easier to replicate if you had a system and wanted to do something similar but this build is by no means perfect and it does have room for improvement which i will talk about later on in the video but yeah let's check it out so this build is made up of a mix of parts that i already had on hand and i pulled it from various systems that i've showcased on the channel except for the power supply the case and the cpu cooler those are all actually new but i plan to use this computer as my primary system to game and edit on and i'll be taking it to the next lan party my friends are having which will be in a couple of months the case did come with a drawstring bag which i can just slip the system in and then pull it closed and i'll have a convenient way of carrying it and you know transporting it to the lan party so that's nice but yeah let's go over the specs the cpu i'm using is the ryzen 5 5600x for a while after these were released they were constantly out of stock but that seems to not be the case anymore because as of making this video these are readily available from pretty much every retailer at non-inflated pricing so that's one thing we can rejoice knock on wood though that it stays this way 6 scores 12 threads in solid performance for both gaming and non-gaming workloads this is going to be plenty capable for my needs for this build i opted to go with an aftermarket cooler over the stock cooler because i wanted something that had a bit more cooling capability and better noise levels so i picked up the scythe big shruken 3 which is a low profile cooler that meets the clearance requirements of the case that this is going into i really wanted to avoid using aio because i'm very much an air cooler guy as you may have noticed in the majority of my builds on the channel but you'll see later on in the video though that this decision is going to cost me because the combination of the cooler and the small volume of the case makes the cpu run pretty toasty for the motherboard i'm using the b550i rs pro which i used in a previous build and this board is pretty pricey i don't have many alternative itx boards on hand that i could use because of how niche they are and how expensive and b 50 itx boards are just kind of expensive in general if i had to buy a new one right now for this build i would have bought a cheaper board since we're not gonna be doing any crazy overclocking i would have gotten like a b450 itx board and updated the bios to save myself like 60 to 70 dollars since i won't be taking advantage of the new gen features like pcie 4.0 anyways the graphics card in this build is the rtx 2060 non-super founders edition this is the last gen card and it's over two years old by this point it released at 350 dollars before being reduced to 300 after one year and it's crazy that these are going for 600 to 700 on ebay right now used that's in the ballpark of the rtx 3070 and 3080 mfrp prices brand new so yeah graphics are prices are crazy right now they've been crazy all year and no matter what i chose to throw on the system it would have been harder to obtain anyways but i thought i would at least soften the blow a little this time by not using just straight up like a current gen card for mermaid we've got 16 gigabytes of g-skill rope jaws at 3600 megahertz cl 18 and for storage a one terabyte inland premium nvme ssd standalone there's no other storage device for now but as that ssd does fill up i may add like a three or four terabyte mechanical drive alongside of it for archival purposes the power supply in the system is the fsp dagger pro 550 watt this is a sfx power supply which is required for the small form factor case that we're using it's 80 plus gold certified fully modular has a semi fanless design which doesn't spin under 20 load for a quiet operation and uses quality japanese capacitors from reputable manufacturers it respectively finds itself on the b tier of the popular psu cultist tier list that floats around on a lot of the pc and tech forums this system running a worst-case scenario prime95 and firmware combined stress test was pulling a little bit over 300 watts from the wall which gives this unit plenty of room to support future upgrades to higher end cpus and gpus and last but not least we have the vertical form factor case itself the dark flash dlh21 there are a lot of things i like about this case such as the ease of removal of all the panels simplistic design and overall look subtle rgb underglow and the layout which does not require the use of a pcie riser cable you don't have to worry about spending extra money on cables or like the quality of cable you're getting or the compatibility whether or not the cables pcie 3.0 or 4.0 you don't have to worry about none of that in this case the graphics card goes directly into the motherboard just as the pc overlords intended this case does have one drawback for me though and that's the temperatures which i'll take some of the blame for because i didn't use an aio but the temps are also partly due to how much the panel perforation and dust filters obstruct airflow the panels have decently large holes but combined with the dust filters you can visually see how little actual opening there is for airflow to get through i did a quick test comparing the temperatures with the case as it was configured out of the box then with the dust filters removed and then with the side panels completely removed and as you can see there's a pretty big temperature difference with each step showing how much each layer affects the airflow i decided to run it without the dust filters since it's easy enough to pop off the panels and then pick this up since it's a small case and take it outside to dust every once in a while so let's take a quick look at the build summary and cost which for now i'm going to leave the graphics card open we'll put byog there bring your own graphics card i honestly couldn't tell you what number to sensibly put there i could put the msrp of the card which considering the age and use condition shouldn't be unreasonable but that's not even close to reality at the moment and i'm not going to put 600 there like what we're seeing on ebay because if anyone is using this as a guide i do not recommend buying this card at 600 whatsoever so i leave this one component up to you the rest of the build is pretty much readily available otherwise and is set up pretty nicely to pair with a wide range of graphics cards and also if you're on a tighter budget grabbing a cheaper motherboard like i mentioned earlier can save you a bit of money as well as buying the cheaper ryzen 5 3600 which still provides good performance for the price and those two things are going to knock down the total quite a bit building in the dlh21 was by far the easiest itx building experience i've ever had it's essentially an open frame when all the panels are off making assembly a breeze since you can access the motherboard from all sides i released a video of the build sequence earlier this week that really showcases the simplicity of it so definitely check that out if you haven't seen it yet and now here's a quick look at the finished build so now no build video can go without benchmarks so let's take a look at how the system performs when gaming for overclocks the 5600x is running at stock because i didn't want the temperatures to be any higher than they already were but you'll see during the test that the 2060 was pretty much the bottleneck the entire time anyways even after it was overclocked 100 megahertz on the core and 1000 megahertz on the memory the games were tested in both 1080 and 1440p so sit back relax and enjoy the benchmarks you yoga so there you go the system overall pulls some pretty respectful numbers at both 1080 and 1440p uh the rtx 2060 being used is still going strong and overall i'd say the system is very solid the only thing is the warm temps on the cpu it wasn't throttling which is good but i think most people would prefer not to be operating in the 80-ish degrees or higher under regular day-to-day loads if at all possible so to address this while avoiding an aio cooler i added an intake fan right where the cpu cooler is to force fresh air directly at it so that i wasn't just pulling in hot air expelled from the graphics card and i also added an exhaust fan right below it to remove the hot air being built up in the small volume space and this cheap solution would cost no more than like 15 for the two fans lowered the cpu temps by around seven degrees which put it in the mid 70 degrees while under load the graphics card temps were basically unchanged since it was already pulling in fresh air from outside the case uh so yeah that's the solution you would want to go with if you don't want to use an aio like me um but that's pretty much gonna wrap it up for this video hope you enjoyed and found it either entertaining or useful i'm really curious to hear what your thoughts are though on vertical form factor cases do you see any appeal in them would you want one yourself or do you already have one uh let me know your thoughts down in the comments below i want to thank you all as always for watching and supporting the channel and i look forward to reading all your comments in the comments section as well seeing you in the next video bye youhey what's up everyone danny here this is the first vertical form factor pc that i've ever built given that graphics cards are still pretty much nowhere to be found at the moment i wanted to shift the focus of this build away from the core specs of the system which usually lie in the cpu and gpu and i wanted to take that focus and put it more towards the form factor itself i thought this would be a good opportunity to check out something that's new to me and share it with you all in case it's something that you may be interested in especially since it's a lot more attainable you know small form factor cases idx motherboards and sfx power supplies aren't really in short supply right now so it would be easier to replicate if you had a system and wanted to do something similar but this build is by no means perfect and it does have room for improvement which i will talk about later on in the video but yeah let's check it out so this build is made up of a mix of parts that i already had on hand and i pulled it from various systems that i've showcased on the channel except for the power supply the case and the cpu cooler those are all actually new but i plan to use this computer as my primary system to game and edit on and i'll be taking it to the next lan party my friends are having which will be in a couple of months the case did come with a drawstring bag which i can just slip the system in and then pull it closed and i'll have a convenient way of carrying it and you know transporting it to the lan party so that's nice but yeah let's go over the specs the cpu i'm using is the ryzen 5 5600x for a while after these were released they were constantly out of stock but that seems to not be the case anymore because as of making this video these are readily available from pretty much every retailer at non-inflated pricing so that's one thing we can rejoice knock on wood though that it stays this way 6 scores 12 threads in solid performance for both gaming and non-gaming workloads this is going to be plenty capable for my needs for this build i opted to go with an aftermarket cooler over the stock cooler because i wanted something that had a bit more cooling capability and better noise levels so i picked up the scythe big shruken 3 which is a low profile cooler that meets the clearance requirements of the case that this is going into i really wanted to avoid using aio because i'm very much an air cooler guy as you may have noticed in the majority of my builds on the channel but you'll see later on in the video though that this decision is going to cost me because the combination of the cooler and the small volume of the case makes the cpu run pretty toasty for the motherboard i'm using the b550i rs pro which i used in a previous build and this board is pretty pricey i don't have many alternative itx boards on hand that i could use because of how niche they are and how expensive and b 50 itx boards are just kind of expensive in general if i had to buy a new one right now for this build i would have bought a cheaper board since we're not gonna be doing any crazy overclocking i would have gotten like a b450 itx board and updated the bios to save myself like 60 to 70 dollars since i won't be taking advantage of the new gen features like pcie 4.0 anyways the graphics card in this build is the rtx 2060 non-super founders edition this is the last gen card and it's over two years old by this point it released at 350 dollars before being reduced to 300 after one year and it's crazy that these are going for 600 to 700 on ebay right now used that's in the ballpark of the rtx 3070 and 3080 mfrp prices brand new so yeah graphics are prices are crazy right now they've been crazy all year and no matter what i chose to throw on the system it would have been harder to obtain anyways but i thought i would at least soften the blow a little this time by not using just straight up like a current gen card for mermaid we've got 16 gigabytes of g-skill rope jaws at 3600 megahertz cl 18 and for storage a one terabyte inland premium nvme ssd standalone there's no other storage device for now but as that ssd does fill up i may add like a three or four terabyte mechanical drive alongside of it for archival purposes the power supply in the system is the fsp dagger pro 550 watt this is a sfx power supply which is required for the small form factor case that we're using it's 80 plus gold certified fully modular has a semi fanless design which doesn't spin under 20 load for a quiet operation and uses quality japanese capacitors from reputable manufacturers it respectively finds itself on the b tier of the popular psu cultist tier list that floats around on a lot of the pc and tech forums this system running a worst-case scenario prime95 and firmware combined stress test was pulling a little bit over 300 watts from the wall which gives this unit plenty of room to support future upgrades to higher end cpus and gpus and last but not least we have the vertical form factor case itself the dark flash dlh21 there are a lot of things i like about this case such as the ease of removal of all the panels simplistic design and overall look subtle rgb underglow and the layout which does not require the use of a pcie riser cable you don't have to worry about spending extra money on cables or like the quality of cable you're getting or the compatibility whether or not the cables pcie 3.0 or 4.0 you don't have to worry about none of that in this case the graphics card goes directly into the motherboard just as the pc overlords intended this case does have one drawback for me though and that's the temperatures which i'll take some of the blame for because i didn't use an aio but the temps are also partly due to how much the panel perforation and dust filters obstruct airflow the panels have decently large holes but combined with the dust filters you can visually see how little actual opening there is for airflow to get through i did a quick test comparing the temperatures with the case as it was configured out of the box then with the dust filters removed and then with the side panels completely removed and as you can see there's a pretty big temperature difference with each step showing how much each layer affects the airflow i decided to run it without the dust filters since it's easy enough to pop off the panels and then pick this up since it's a small case and take it outside to dust every once in a while so let's take a quick look at the build summary and cost which for now i'm going to leave the graphics card open we'll put byog there bring your own graphics card i honestly couldn't tell you what number to sensibly put there i could put the msrp of the card which considering the age and use condition shouldn't be unreasonable but that's not even close to reality at the moment and i'm not going to put 600 there like what we're seeing on ebay because if anyone is using this as a guide i do not recommend buying this card at 600 whatsoever so i leave this one component up to you the rest of the build is pretty much readily available otherwise and is set up pretty nicely to pair with a wide range of graphics cards and also if you're on a tighter budget grabbing a cheaper motherboard like i mentioned earlier can save you a bit of money as well as buying the cheaper ryzen 5 3600 which still provides good performance for the price and those two things are going to knock down the total quite a bit building in the dlh21 was by far the easiest itx building experience i've ever had it's essentially an open frame when all the panels are off making assembly a breeze since you can access the motherboard from all sides i released a video of the build sequence earlier this week that really showcases the simplicity of it so definitely check that out if you haven't seen it yet and now here's a quick look at the finished build so now no build video can go without benchmarks so let's take a look at how the system performs when gaming for overclocks the 5600x is running at stock because i didn't want the temperatures to be any higher than they already were but you'll see during the test that the 2060 was pretty much the bottleneck the entire time anyways even after it was overclocked 100 megahertz on the core and 1000 megahertz on the memory the games were tested in both 1080 and 1440p so sit back relax and enjoy the benchmarks you yoga so there you go the system overall pulls some pretty respectful numbers at both 1080 and 1440p uh the rtx 2060 being used is still going strong and overall i'd say the system is very solid the only thing is the warm temps on the cpu it wasn't throttling which is good but i think most people would prefer not to be operating in the 80-ish degrees or higher under regular day-to-day loads if at all possible so to address this while avoiding an aio cooler i added an intake fan right where the cpu cooler is to force fresh air directly at it so that i wasn't just pulling in hot air expelled from the graphics card and i also added an exhaust fan right below it to remove the hot air being built up in the small volume space and this cheap solution would cost no more than like 15 for the two fans lowered the cpu temps by around seven degrees which put it in the mid 70 degrees while under load the graphics card temps were basically unchanged since it was already pulling in fresh air from outside the case uh so yeah that's the solution you would want to go with if you don't want to use an aio like me um but that's pretty much gonna wrap it up for this video hope you enjoyed and found it either entertaining or useful i'm really curious to hear what your thoughts are though on vertical form factor cases do you see any appeal in them would you want one yourself or do you already have one uh let me know your thoughts down in the comments below i want to thank you all as always for watching and supporting the channel and i look forward to reading all your comments in the comments section as well seeing you in the next video bye you\n"