 Let's face it, most small cases make some big compromises, whether it's noise, cooling, or expandability. And those tend to scare a lot of people off. But... Not today. It's like having a space heater! The craziest thing to me about all of this... You can't even hear it. I can't even hear it! So Strecom set out to build a case that uses a unique modular rail system to allow high-performance components to fit comfortably in a small form factor. And we're gonna find out just how comfortably that can be done thanks to Csonic, who sponsored this third installment of our compact powerhouse build series. Your PSU is the heart of your system, and Csonic is a leader in the category, offering efficient power supplies with outstanding features and performance. For your next build or upgrade, check out Csonic's products at the link in the video description. Starting on the outside, the DA2 is the perfect case for the minimalist Mac user who has a PC at home because gaming on Mac OS is a subpar experience at best. In typical Strecom fashion, the entire case is beautifully finished in either black or silver brushed aluminum, and in keeping with the minimalistic design, there's no RGB anywhere. Honestly, the thing's kind of a breath of fresh air in a market that's crowded with rainbow unicorn vomit. On the front, the only I.O. you get is a power button with an integrated power LED and a single USB 3.2 Gen 1 5 gigabit port. Now, this is something I was a little torn on, because I'm all for switching literally all the things over to USB Type-C. But the thing is, most desktop peripherals still use Type-A, so not having at least one regular port, and audio might have been nice too, is a significant compromise. That is, unless you've got an external USB sound card and a USB hub on your desk or built into your monitor, which I do, in which case, I guess, you probably won't care. The stock side panels don't come with a window, but rather are nicely perforated for airflow, so if you're not much into cable management, then that's a plus for you. But if you do like to strut your stuff, Strecom has you covered there as well with their tempered glass side panel kit. With that said, that side panel will limit your cooling options. More on that later. At the back, the I.O. situation is pretty solid, with a 90mm fan slot and full access to both the motherboard and GPU's I.O., and the only shortcoming here is the positioning of the power supply pass-through. It's right above the GPU, which means it's basically impossible to cleanly route it in case you have the glass side panel. It'll probably get covered by your CPU cooler, but your mileage may vary. Now, removing the side panel is a bit... unique. It's actually just held on by the friction of these little rubber mounts, which is both confusing at first and a blessing in the future, because you'll probably be pleased that you don't need to go find a screwdriver. Oh. Here's one. To get inside. And inside is where the DA2 starts to get really interesting. Like, don't get me wrong, brushed aluminum definitely gets the juices flowing, but modularity... that would be my kryptonite. And conveniently, it's where the DA2 shines. So the inside of this case is essentially just a metal frame. There's no motherboard tray, no front panel, and no power supply mount. These features instead get screwed into the base chassis, so in much the same way that a car company can build multiple different cars on the same basic frame, you could technically build multiple different configurations in this same case. So their first-party accessories allow for a vertical GPU mount, the tempered glass panels we mentioned earlier, and even an inverted motherboard layout. But, if you're a bit handy, the possibilities go even further than that. So let's take a look at the rail system. You pretty much just slide the mounting rails wherever you want to mount something, and then screw them in. You can use them for a pump, hard drive, fan, maybe even a secret place to store that Nickelback CD that you don't want anyone knowing about. It's okay. We don't judge. So to start with, we wanted to see how the DA2 would handle a pretty normal, but clearly enthusiast-level gaming rig. Overall, the build process was fairly smooth. Thanks to the modularity of the case, you can take off all the external panels, allowing for 360-degree access, making the usual ITX build headache a lot more manageable. You can use a regular ATX-sized power supply in the DA2, but you'll lose most of the space on the storage bracket, as well as most of your GPU space. So instead, we went for a 650-watt SFX power supply from Seasonic. With all of that installed, we got to try out the rail system, and it's actually super easy to use. All of the components are nice and rigid. Just screw a rail onto each side of whatever you're mounting, slide the rails onto the mounting screws, and tighten. We did notice that more premium all-in-ones, like the Corsair H100i V2 that we're using, can be tricky to mount because of how thick and rigid the tubing is. So we'd recommend something with thinner tubing if you plan to do this yourself. So, just button it all up and... Wabam! Finished. Sexy. Rig. So we've got Metro Exodus running, RTX is enabled, and this is at 1440p. Should be pushing our 2080 pretty hard. I guess we should check the temps, right? Yeah, I guess so. You can definitely hear it. Yeah, I was gonna say, the fan's pretty apparent. I mean, I wouldn't describe it as loud, but... Yeah, from like a seated distance, it's not too bad. It's noticeable. It's noticeable. And especially when you consider that it's not that small. Yeah, but it's also not that big. And, you know, if you have a regular Founder's Card, it seems to be kind of the noise level you're going to get. I mean, this obviously doesn't have the same level of sound deadening as like an R6 or something like that, but... I think it's good enough. I mean, every time you die, it's just gonna screw it up a little bit. You should probably just stay in this room for a couple minutes to be honest. Stay in the room. No, I'm not gonna die this time. Oh, I died. Oh. That's fine. We just need to check what we're boosting to anyway. Okay, yeah, and we're boosting anywhere from around 1830 to 1860. And temps? Not bad. Well, temps are gonna be 82. Right. Because they are always... 80, excuse me. Yeah. Not quite there, but yeah. That's what they always are. And CPU just over 50. Okay, so we're getting, honestly, about what we'd expect from a decent mid-tower. Yeah, I'm not really surprised at all. But I mean, it's smaller. It's probably half the size of a regular mid-tower, if not less. All right, let's pop this thing off. So that doesn't mean there's not room for improvement, though. So the motherboard area actually does get a fair amount of cool air drawn over it. And we could even improve that by throwing a 92-millimeter fan here at the back. Because we've got our AIO drawing air from sort of the filters at the top and the bottom, and then pushing it out the side. But our GPU, we actually found the ambient air just around it was quite hot. And it's just kind of sitting in its own recycled exhaust. I think if we put a fan at the front, that might be better. But you can't really. It's completely flat. You know, I was thinking maybe if they had sort of to expand on the modularity, a panel in the front that you could remove. And if you didn't want a fan up front, you could just put a flat piece. Or another option, if you've got room for a dual-rad, then you've got room for two single-rads. What if we water-cooled the GPU? What if we just custom water-cooled the whole thing? Okay, so confession time. This is Linus Tech Tips, and we never really intended for this to be just a regular case review. Because one of the first things that stood out to us about the DA2 is that while it's not that small for a super compact case, as long as you stick with the perforated side panel, it supports a 280-millimeter AIO liquid cooler. And where you can fit an AIO, you can fit a custom loop, if you're determined enough. Of course, we weren't just gonna water-cool the 9700K and 2080. That wasn't gonna cut it. Rather, we wanted to go with something a little more extreme. Edition. Like the Core i9-9980XC. It fits perfectly onto ASRock's X299E ITX motherboard, which is pretty much the most badass ITX platform to ever exist. And we slapped on a Bitspower Monoblock to keep the VRMs nice and cool. Then, after mounting one of EK's gorgeous blocks onto our Titan RTX and installing it, things started to get a bit tricky. Now, we didn't intend to mount just one radiator. Rather, we figured with a small amount of modification, we could put a second ultra-slim XSPC radiator under the GPU, now that it was only a single slot, with some slim, scythe fans mounted to the bottom. Thanks to Performance PCs for sending that over, by the way. We mounted that through the bottom filter, and it wasn't all that difficult, but it was becoming clear that even with the super-small power supply and DDC pump, there was no way we were fitting a reservoir in here. That wasn't gonna stop us, though. Even if we needed to use a vacuum pump to fill the darn loop. Thankfully, using a T-fitting to fill, combined with a bit of patience, we were able to get it juiced up. The last challenge, then, was cable management. With the DA2, I don't think they really put a ton of effort into this, but you do have just enough room to tuck away all the excess cable from a stock SFX power supply, with lots of mounting points, coincidentally, on the rail system. If you had custom cables, you'd be in even better shape. So it's done! I gotta say, this is an absolutely incredible amount of raw power for the size. Like, it's smooth. Yeah, I mean, we might not get a better gaming experience than the previous setup, because it's obviously not optimized for gaming, you know, an 18-core. But... But, holy crap! And the craziest thing to me about all of this... You can't even hear it. I can't even hear it! Like, I can feel it! Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like, it's like having a space heater next to you. Like, do you have a stress test running in the background right now? No, this is just this game. This is just the game? Yeah. Oh, wow, like, the metal of the case is, like, warm to the touch. I left it for a couple hours earlier, and it's like the whole case is just, like, burning hot. But these fans are barely running. The parts, like the actual CPU and GPU themselves, are at a very reasonable temperature. It's basically silent! Yeah, so there's two Noctua fans on here that are each running at 1000 RPM, and then you got the slim Scythe ones that... They're not PDM-controllable, so I just put them to, like, 30% duty cycle or something. You can't even see them at a normal angle either. Like, it's absolutely crazy. Alright, so for a final torture test, I've gone ahead and fired up 32 threads of Prime95, so that leaves four threads for our game. Still running good. And we're still running Metro Exodus. And at least to my eye, this is still pretty darn smooth. I mean, this is, like, 400 to 500 watts in a box this size, so no guarantees that it's actually still running particularly well. And yeah, if we check out Afterburner, our boost clock on our GPU is down to, like, 1600 MHz and change. That's a little on the low side. Our CPU still looks good, though. Around 60, 70 degrees. So, yeah, don't do stupid things like this. But other than that, this is a pretty freaking incredible machine. Thanks. Good job. Oh, feeble. That was really rough. And can we just pretend like that didn't? Oh. So in conclusion, for all its beauty, the DA2 does require a little bit of extra work to truly shine. Like, you don't necessarily have to go as far as we did with full custom liquid cooling. Maybe you could make a... You could modify an AIO to run both your CPU and GPU or run two single 140mm, one for each or something like that. It's just that without that, it still does force you to compromise a little bit, whether on cooling or on acoustics. Though in fairness, I guess that does make sense. It is just 17.5 liters, and if you're willing to dial back your crazy specs or get creative, it's got a lot else going for it. It's incredibly modular with a stunning middleistic design that would make even Joni Ive proud. I think the only thing really missing here is a rose gold color option. Speaking of options, if you do end up buying a DA2 for your next build or really any case, you should pair it up with a power supply from Seasonic. They've got tons of options. See, I was getting there. For super efficient and high quality power supplies with excellent performance at all ranges of different price points and wattages. They've got models that are perfect for small and compact builds like this one, all the way up to full-sized ATX power supplies for your epic battle station like in our gaming lounge PCs. So check them out at the link in the video description for your next build. So thanks for watching, guys. If this video sucked, you know what to do. But if you liked it, hit like, get subscribed, or check out the link to where to buy the stuff we featured in the video description. Also linked in the description is our merch store, which has cool shirts like this one and our community forum, which you should totally join.