Xikii Industries has been showcasing its custom 9.8 liter PC chassis, made solely for Asus ProArt graphics card users, at trade shows like Computex and Bilibili Word over recent months. Now the ProArt FF04 chassis has gone up for pre-order at jd.com for an astounding 3,799 Chinese yuan, roughly US$522 using today’s exchange rate. Despite its compact size, the FF04 can fit some of the most powerful components, such as the Asus ProArt 4080 Super graphics card.
Reducing the dimensions of a PC case yet maintaining the capacity to fit the most powerful components is a tough task. Power users will often require one of the best CPUs available, plus one of the best GPUs you can buy, without requiring esoteric cooling. There have been quite a few attempts to address this market, and getting it right might seem like an art.
As mentioned in the intro, this ProArt FF04 chassis designed by Xikii manages to balance capacity and cooling in a 9.8 liter chassis – it is just 369.5 tall x 183mm wide x 145mm deep (14.6 x 7.2 x 5.7-inches). Despite its proportions, the FF04 weighs 7.5kg (16.5 pounds) unpopulated.
The design of the FF04 has been adapted so that both the main heat centers, the CPU and GPU, have independent airflow channels. In the feature video, you also see evidence of the case’s compact clip connector assembly design which helps cut out cabling concerns during assembly.
It seems reasonable to assume that Xikii managed to shave its chassis design dimensions so well due to the limitations it imposes on component choice. With the name of this collab project, you shouldn’t be surprised to know that the case is tailored to fit just Asus ProArt GPUs.
According to Chinese tech site EXPReview, the specific component requirements / recommendations include the following:
- GPU - Asus ProArt series RTX 4070 Ti / 4070 Ti Super / 4080 /4080 Super graphics cards
- Motherboard – Asus ROG Strix B650E-I Gaming WiFi
- PSU - Asus ROG Loki series power supplies
- CPU cooler - ID-Cooling IS-67-XT low profile (67mm height) cooler
If you stick with the recommended component choices we guess all the supplied connections and power adaptors, plus case venting positions, will all work as intended. The source site comments that an example build featured an AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D processor.
Those eyeing a processor that might exceed the capabilities of the ID-Cooling IS-67-XT can make use of the FF04’s optional (extra fee) external water-cooling module. You can see the two standard liquid connectors highlighted in the product video.
Now that the Asus ProArt FF04 chassis from Xikii Industries has hit a major retailer in China, we have stronger hopes that this compact case will head west. However, paying $500+ just for a case will be a stretch - even for those enchanted by the design.
