HAVOK's Fractal Design Define Nano S Build History

[The_HAVOK]

Just wanted to share some of the build history I have with the Fractal Design Define Nano S.
I absolutely love this case its compact yet has many build options and in some cases, more build options than other larger cases have...
I originally bought this case to house hardware for server hosting but I have since moved to rackmounted virtualization and decided to use it as a SFF PC guineapig.

Here is a shot of I guess its second build iteration housing:
ASRock Z370M-ITX/a
i7-9700k
Fractal Design Celsius S24
Corsair 32gb DDR4 3600
EVGA 1080 FTW Hybrid Gaming (this was originally a 120mm radiator but the original pump had died so I modified it to run a slightly thicker 240mm radiator in addition to a new pump, reusing the original coldplate)
256gb M.2 (cant remember the exact model)
2tb WD Blue
1tb Samsung 860 Evo
Thermaltake 850w Bronze Semi-Modular

The machine was pretty much unused but was still a fun build.


Here we are at its second build iteration, my most favorite. Everything fit (almost) perfectly and took hours to get all together.
Gigabyte Z690I AORUS ULTRA DDR4 (in order to get the cpu cooler to mount onto the board in this orientation I had to file down the left portion of both the plastic on the cooler and metal retention brackets)
i7-12700KF
Arctic Liquid Freezer II 280 (this cooler just barely fits the case requiring the fans to be mounted in the front panel housing)
Corsair 32gb DDR4 3600 (this is the same memory kit from the last build, I later upgraded to a 64gb corsair kit at the same speed)
EVGA 3090 FTW3 Hybrid
1tb M.2 NVME Gen4 (some gigabyte model)
2tb Seagate SSHD
1tb ADATA XPG SX8200
1tb Samsung 860 Evo
2x500gb WD Blue SSD
Corsair HX1200i Modular Power supply (this power supply actually does not fit, its about 3-5mm too long, but with the power of hitting it a few times, it now fits)

This was my main PC for a while up untill summer when I decided I wanted a slightly bigger case to get more airflow to help cool the 3090. I ended up switching to a M-ATX sized Fractal Define Meshify 2 Mini, which you would think It would be able to hold more but I had to "downgrade" from my 3090 FTW3 Hybrid to my air cooled EVGA 3090 FTW3 ULTRA Gaming. I had already moved all the parts over to the new case before I realized I wouldn't be able to fit both the Arctic LF2 280 and the 3090 Hybrid. I did not want to rebuild into the Nano S and am now stuck with the "larger" Meshify 2 "Mini"


And now to present day with the Define Nano S:
ASRock Z370M-ITX/a (same old motherboard)
i9-9900k
Corsair 240mm AIO (not sure what the model is but I've had it for years doing nothing in storage so I decided to use it. I actually had to open the loop to top it off but it works fine now)
Corsair 32gb DDR4 3600 (same old kit)
EVGA 2080Ti
256gb M.2 (cant remember the exact model)
2tb Seagate SSHD
2x500gb WD Blue SSD (these actually had failed so I removed them for RMA)
Thermaltake 850w Bronze Semi-Modular (same old psu)

This was still a fun build mostly due to the fact I made my S/O build it while I supervised. The build took 2 days.

I think that's a pretty aesthetically pleasing shot of all the parts needed to build the machine.