4080 Super in the CLEANEST mATX SFF Case You’ve Never Seen

I’m using the Z-18 from the company called Cooj. They have some of the cleanest designs I have seen. For starters, you have the outer cover that’s a single piece that slides off from the top, and it’s made of 4mm thick aluminum. Although there’s not a ton of ventilation in this piece, you have some hole punching on the front and rear, but it seems that they’re hoping to get the majority of the fresh air from the top and the bottom. Both those areas have mounts for a couple of 120 mm fans or a 240 mm radiator, so I’m interested to see how that works out for air flow. There’s a built-in cover for the power supply to hide the unit itself and keep the finished build looking tidy, which I think is pretty interesting. There’s also a cage to mount a few hard drives if you need it. For a case that’s on the slightly larger side of SFF, which is typically considered anything under 20 L, this is looking like a promising mATX option as long as you don’t mind spending a little extra on an sfx power supply, but we’ll have to see how thermals look once we get some Hardware installed.

We’re using the new RTX 4080 Super, which is designed to deliver the same performance as the original 4080 but at a $200 lower price. It also has a clean, all-black aesthetic that looks great. Compared to the original 4080, there are slight improvements in core count, clock speeds, and memory bandwidth, but the main difference is the price drop—something many felt was overdue. From my testing on a 14900K test bench, performance gains are modest—around 2 to 5%—which lines up with NVIDIA’s claims. In Forza Horizon 5, I saw about a 2.5% frame rate increase. Compared to the 4070 Ti Super, the 4080 Super offers around a 21% boost, and across multiple games, I’ve seen performance increases in the 15–25% range. Both cards can handle 4K 60fps easily, but the 4080 Super is more comfortable for 4K 120fps gaming.

This card isn’t aimed at current 4080 owners. It’s meant to convince 2000- and 3000-series users to upgrade. Compared to the 3080, the 4080 Super delivers roughly 60% better performance, which is a solid generational leap. Although it doesn’t match the original $700 MSRP of the 3080, that price point was rarely available in practice. With frame generation—AI-generated frames inserted between native ones—you get smoother motion, especially in single-player titles like Alan Wake 2. While it’s not ideal for competitive shooters due to added latency, in high-fidelity games, the latency is minimal and well worth the visual upgrade. Even with maxed-out path tracing settings and DLSS enabled, performance holds up around 50–60 fps, and enabling frame generation bumps that to a smoother 75–80 fps.

Physically, the 4080 Super is nearly identical to the original. It still uses the blow-through style cooler and the compact Founders Edition design, now fully blacked out. It’s small enough to fit in cases that can be carried in a backpack, making it ideal for LAN parties or travel setups.

I’m going to be using the i5-13600K, which has 14 cores—six of which are performance cores—and it can boost up to 5.1 GHz. This is still one of the better options available, especially on the Intel side. While the AMD 7800X3D is technically the fastest gaming CPU at the moment, the gains over the 13600K are negligible in most titles, particularly at 4K, which is our target here. The newer 14th-gen 14600K is also available and isn’t much more expensive, but the performance difference between the two is minimal. I don’t see any reason to upgrade when the 13600K is still more than fast enough for today’s GPUs.

At the top of the case, there’s room for a 240mm radiator, so I installed the NZXT Kraken 240 Elite—one of my favorite coolers right now. It offers solid cooling performance, is easy to set up, and I opted for the version without RGB fans to reduce cable clutter. It uses a single cable to connect the pump and fans to power and USB, which keeps things simple. There’s also a bright and clear 2.3-inch LCD display on the pump head that can show temperatures, images, or other custom content. It’s positioned so we’ll be able to see it clearly through the glass side panel.

For the motherboard, I’m using the ASUS TUF B760M. It’s a B-series board, which makes it more affordable than Z-series options, though it doesn’t support overclocking. For my needs, that’s fine—I’m happy with the i5-13600K’s stock performance. There’s also a DDR4 version of this board if you want to save a bit on RAM. It has everything needed for a gaming build, including large VRM heatsinks, plenty of fan headers, a Thunderbolt/USB 4 header, built-in Wi-Fi 6, and a good selection of rear I/O. It strikes a solid balance between features and price for a microATX build.

For memory, I’m using a DDR5-5600 kit from Corsair. It’s not the absolute fastest available, but it’s more than enough for this build. It supports an XMP profile for easy overclocking, which helps squeeze out extra performance without much hassle. As for storage, the case includes a drive cage that can hold a few hard drives if needed, though specific SSD details weren’t mentioned in the build overview. Given the context, it’s safe to assume there’s at least one M.2 NVMe SSD installed on the motherboard, which is standard for modern gaming setups.

For the power supply, I’m using the Corsair SF750—one of the best SFX units available. Since the case doesn’t support standard ATX power supplies, this compact and high-quality option is a perfect fit. The case includes a cover that mounts directly to the PSU before installation, helping to keep the interior clean and visually tidy.

As for fans, there’s space for two 120mm fans at the bottom of the case. I originally planned to use standard fans but swapped them out for slim Noctua fans to avoid clearance issues with the GPU. There’s also room for a single 92mm fan at the rear, which I installed as well. These fans help compensate for the case’s limited ventilation by ensuring solid airflow from the bottom and back.