BUILD IT
A Pseudo Retro Conversion
The curious case of Raijintek…
ZAK STOREY, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
LENGTH OF TIME: 1-2 HOURS
LEVEL OF DIFFICULTY: EASY
THE CONCEPT
THIS IS A strange build for a number of reasons. We decided to do this because the case is really interesting. We were perusing various retailers on the hunt for a decent chassis to build in for this issue, and came across this sweet little ITX number: the Raijintek Pan Slim. It’s an odd case stylewise, reminiscent of the early ’90s PCs on which you’d stack a chunky CRT monitor. So, we set to task requesting one.
It took a while because we didn’t have a direct relationship with Raijintek, despite having reviewed a few of its cases in the past (samples from Newegg), but after reaching out to the company, the PR got back to us, and we started to discuss the build. Usual questions were asked: “What will the coverage look like?” “What are you planning on building with it?” “How many readers do you have?” And so forth. Once we’d cleared all those checks and balances, we got to discussing the case itself.
Why is it so weird? Well, apart from its nostalgic throwback appearance, it’s clearly listed everywhere as an ITX chassis. The PR, however, turned around and informed us that, with a reasonable dollop of elbow grease, it could be converted fairly easily to support ATX. Also, although the chassis doesn’t technically support AIO liquid coolers (it does support two 120mm fans), again, with a little effort, you could make that a reality, too. And so, like a 200lb marlin, we were hooked, lined, and sinkered.
PARTS GALORE
THE QUESTION of “What chassis?” was answered, so the next problem was: “What the heck do we put in it?” And that’s where things got a little complicated. The tech market, being the big mess it is right now, makes deciding what hardware to place in any build quite difficult, because there’s not a lot of stock of anything anywhere. With the RTX 3080 Ti just having launched, it was certainly a contender, but it was immediately out of stock (Christian’s hoping to line one up for a build next issue, though).
So, we decided to opt for something more “modest,” if you can call it that. Instead of plumping for the latest-gen AMD chip, we grabbed a Ryzen 7 3700X eight-core. Instead of the latest flagship GPU chunking its way well into the four-figure area, we picked up one of Zotac’s RTX 3060 Tis instead (at the not reasonable price of $610). And for everything else? We mixed it up with a combination of ADATA, Asus, Be Quiet!, and Corsair parts.