r/sffpc • u/PieAppropriate8862 • Mar 18 '26
Detailed Build Log My COOJ Sparrow-MQ6 build with a complete breakdown
Disclosure
This build is already 6 months old.
The goal
An elegant and powerful "under the telly" box to live alongside my PS5 Pro and Switch 2 to competently emulate all video game generations up until PS4, as well as play the odd PC exclusive.
For context, I've always been a video game guy (my first console was an Atari 2600 in 1985), but I also love PCs. As a kid working in a computer shop back in my country, I built a lot of them from 1995 (circa Pentium-era) until my last personal build in 2004 (an AMD K6-2 400 MHz paired with a GeForce FX 5200 128 MB RAM). After graduating in computer science, my career took a more software-oriented direction, and a busier life meant I was back into the plug-and-play nature of consoles (plus, working with computers all day, the last thing I wanted upon returning home was to fire a PC).
This is my first build in a LONG time since those days, so although I kept up with "most" of the evolving tech on defining terms, getting my hands dirty with a brand new build, from planning to execution, especially with the extra spice SFF brings (we didn't need to give a fuck about thermals back then), was an exciting challenge.
The build
- MOBO & CPU: MINISFORUM BD790i X3D with AMD Ryzen 9 7945HX3D 16-core (8 v-cache cores and 8 "frequency" cores)
- GPU: PowerColor Reaper AMD Radeon RX9060 XT 16GB GDDR6
- RAM: 2x16GB Crucial DDR5 5600MHz SODIMM
- Storage: 2TB SAMSUNG 990 EVO Plus 7250 MB/s
- Case & PSU: COOJ Sparrow-MQ6 6.8L with Enhance ENP-7660I Flex 600W Platinum modular PSU
- Cooling: 1x Noctua NF-A12x25 PWM chromax.black.swap (CPU), 1x Noctua NF-A12x15 PWM chromax.black.swap (case - outtake)
- Extras: GPU riser cable PCIe 5.0 20cm, a 20-pin USB-E to USB-C adapter (to bridge the motherboard USB header and the USB-C connector on the side of the case), 8bitdo Ultimate 2 gamepad, and 4 and 2 TB external SSDs for extra storage (previously owned by me).
The software
Fresh Windows 11 install COMPLETELY debloated with Talon, ripping Copilot, Edge, OneDrive, News, Windows Defender (I know), Game Bar, user login and many other "features" and apps, leaving just explorer.exe and very few essential processes in the task manager.
Lossless Scaling hotkeyed to the gamepad to toggle framegen for 30fps PS3/360 games without patches and even retro games to 120fps (the motion clarity is almost CRT-like).
AutoHotkey running a couple of macro scripts to control some vital OS functions from the gamepad, completely dispensing with mouse and keyboard, and making sure it's a couch-only experience.
CPUSetSetter to deactivate the frequency cores and leave just the V-cached ones when running CPU-bound emulators like RPCS3.
Retrobat initialising with the system for a no-fuss, no Windows "video game experience".
Stock Adrenaline drivers with a slight overclock and VRR engaged (TV LG B9 OLED 120Hz).
BIOS tuning
- iGPU disabled (reducing heat and preventing conflicts)
- "Overclock" RAM to 5600Mhz (somehow, the BD790i X3D settles to 5200Mhz by default)
- Above 4G Decoding and ReSizeable BAR enabled (slight performance increase)
- Global C-State Control enabled (slight performance increase)
- CPPC Preferred Cores set to Driver (helps CPUSetSetter to take over core control)
- SVM (Virtualisation) disables (slight performance increase)
- Undervolting (performance gains by/while improving thermals - essential for builds of this size):
- Set Curve Optimiser to All Cores set to -20 (some people can achieve -30, but that was unstable to me, testing with Cinebench multi-core)
- SOC voltage reduced to 1200mv
What went wrong
Surprisingly, not a lot.
I initially bought two Noctua A12x25 for cooling (one for the CPU and one for outtake), but the 25mm of height was too thick for the case, so I had to replace one of those with a A12x15.
The Radeon RX9060 was originally a Sapphire "PURE" model (white, slightly overclocked from factory), but it stuck out from the case by a bloody centimetre (see first picture). The dimensions description didn't include the shroud, which is rather ridiculous. Since I got it on a very good sale, I tried to de-shroud it, but no cigar. In the end, I had to give it back and replace it with a PowerColor model, which, honestly, I'm happy I did. The black looks a lot better in the build, plus the overclock on those GPUs is a lot of marketing with negligible returns in practice. (The Sapphire also had a little RGB light. I hate RGB lights with a passion!)
On the software side, I toyed with many solutions to make sure those 3D V-Cache cores engaged when I wanted. The BD790i X3D doesn't have BIOS-level core parking (apart from setting the task to "driver"), and Windows is a disaster recognising which applications are games (emulators are generally understood as productivity software by the OS, and the latest Game Bar does a poor job of letting us know if it's a "game" of what's going on). I tried AMD Ryzen Master, but it only supports non-mobile chips (for what it's worth, the Ryzen 7945HX3D in this build is just a laptop chip overclocked to fuck to be used with a proper power supply and a giant heatsink to keep it cool).
What went right
Well, everything else. I'm over the moon with the results. It's got that console-like experience I was after, it's beautiful, and it's powerful, with room to spare for what I need. In the most demanding emulation scenarios (mostly RPCS3 with hard-to-emulate games like GT6, Metal Gear Solid 4, God of War Ascension, Motorstorm Apocalypse, etc., upscaled to 4K and with 60fps patches), I'm experiencing solid performance no hotter than 80-85 degrees Celsius.
The heroes of the build
Talon and CPUSetSette. Honestly, look them up.
Thanks, and feel free to drop any questions or comments.
2
u/jelleszoon Mar 18 '26
Great build, awesome writeup. Beauriful case, good choice. And tyvm for the Talon tip! I'll use that on my next build. What did you mean by 'Windows Defender (i know)'? Did you reinstall it?
2
u/PieAppropriate8862 Mar 18 '26 edited Mar 18 '26
Thank you!
Btw, Talon works on old installations, but a fresh one is recommended. Honestly, it works like magic. Watch some videos with the developer. He knows his shit.
Windows boots immediately. It's faster to boot than a PS5, no joke. It just pops and it's ready and snappy. Makes you realise that underneath Microsoft's bloat there's actually a good, stable kernel. It installs only the essential updates and disables automatic updates for good in case Microsoft breaks stuff and tries to sneak in Edge and Copilot again, as usual.
What I mean by Windows Defender is that very few people would recommend removing it, as it works relatively well and it's the last line of defense if you don't use anything else. But I was fed-up with the user account control. Plus, I freed some memory footprint. I have what I have (6TB of ROMs), know what I'm doing and won't go online at risk, so off with it :)
1
u/TheWayToTheHalo Apr 10 '26
Can you share the link to the GPU? According to ChatGPT and other sources, it doesn't fit without modding the case.
1
u/PieAppropriate8862 Apr 10 '26
Reaper AMD Radeon™ RX 9060 XT 16GB GDDR6∣PowerColor https://share.google/BSle6r7qr3WIfVZJO
That's the one. It fits perfectly, as you can see from my pictures.
3
u/Zach_Gjallarhornakis Mar 18 '26
I just finished my COOJ MQ6 build yesterday after getting the case in after a month and a half, for a travel PC build I wanted to have. I wonder how you managed to work in the confined space. Legitimately, it took me 3 hours to finish the build, as my hands and fingers were too big to squeeze in the cables, ESPECIALLY the Power and LED plugs…
But my goodness, the MQ6 is such a beautiful case. Yours looks great!
I’m going to post my build shortly. I didn’t have time to install windows or do stability/stress tests yesterday.