For decades, PC gaming meant owning a monolith: a massive, flashing tower that dominated your floor space. But in 2026, the era of the giant box is over. Components have become efficient enough that you no longer need 60 liters of air to cool them. The “Small Form Factor” (SFF) movement’s gone mainstream, proving that you can fit an RTX 5080 and a top-tier CPU into a case the size of a shoebox.
It’s minimal, it’s sophisticated, and it looks a lot better on a desk than a plastic tower. If you’re ready to downsize without downgrading performance, this is where you should start.
The Terra changed the game by proving a PC could look like mid-century furniture. Featuring a genuine walnut wood front panel and anodized aluminum sheets, it’s designed to be seen. The “sandwich” layout puts the GPU on one side and the CPU on the other, allowing it to stay incredibly small (10.4 liters) while still fitting full-sized graphics cards.
While the Terra is rustic, the Era 2 is pure modern elegance. The sculpted silver aluminum exterior feels like high-end audio equipment. It’s optimized for airflow with a unique chimney design, pulling cool air from the bottom and exhausting it out the top. It’s the perfect housing for a professional creative workstation.
This is the reference standard for water-cooled SFF builds. Collaborating with DAN Cases, Lian Li created a sub-11 liter case that somehow fits a 240mm AIO liquid cooler. It’s an industrial, no-nonsense aluminum box that maximizes every millimeter of internal space. If you want the smallest possible footprint with liquid cooling, this is it.
Building in a small case can be intimidating. Cooler Master solves this with the MAX V2. It comes pre-installed with a custom 280mm AIO cooler and an 850W Gold Power supply, with the cables already routed and managed. You just drop in your motherboard and GPU, and you are done. It is designed to handle next-gen power, officially ready for cards like the RTX 5080. It is also 12% off right now.
ASUS — ROG Loki SFX-L 850W Platinum
Small builds used to mean low power, but not anymore. The Loki pushes 850W of Platinum-rated efficiency, enough to drive top-tier silicon. It uses the slightly longer “SFX-L” standard to fit a larger 120mm fan, making it quieter than standard small power supplies. Plus, it includes an RGB fan if you want a subtle glow.
Ask any SFF builder what PSU to buy, and they’ll say “Corsair SF750.” The 2024 refresh brings ATX 3.1 compliance and native PCIe 5.1 cables for modern GPUs. It is incredibly dense, reliable, and features a zero-RPM mode so the fan doesn’t even spin during light work. You can grab it now for 20% off.
In cases like the Fractal Terra, you can’t fit a big liquid cooler. You need high-performance air cooling that stays low. The Big Shuriken 4 is designed exactly for this. At just 67mm tall, it fits where standard coolers can’t, yet it can handle up to 200W of heat thanks to its dense fin stack and high-static pressure fan.
If you want a PC that doubles as home decor, the Fractal Design Terra is the clear winner. For first-time builders who don’t want to stress about cable management or part compatibility, the Cooler Master NR200P MAX V2 is a cheat code that saves hours of frustration. But if you need absolute maximum cooling for high-end components in the smallest possible footprint, the Lian Li A4-H2O remains the gold standard.
Google just dropped its latest AI model, Gemini 4 Carbon, designed to tackle complex coding jobs and cybersecurity threats. The company claims it can work through difficult engineering problems for days, finding hidden bugs and developing fixes across large codebases.
Gemini 4 Carbon also takes the top spot on Artificial Analysis' updated Intelligence Index, scoring 59 points, pushing out Claude Opus 5.5, OpenAI's GPT-6 Astra, and even its own predecessor Gemini 4 Argon.
Apple has just introduced a redesigned MacBook Pro with a few bells and whistles. The focus this time around is on a thinner and lighter build, and an upgrade to a touch-sensitive OLED screen without any ugly notch. And, in case you were wondering, there is definitely a price premium to pay for these niceties, which also include a glowing Apple logo at the back. What if you wanted to get the best that Apple has to offer? Well, the numbers are finally here.
For a mere $14,549, you can get yourself the fully kitted 16-inch MacBook Pro PROLED XDR with the beefiest laptop chip that Apple has to offer, and the best memory configuration in tow. For nearly $15,000, you treat yourself to the 16-inch version of the laptop with a nano-texture glass layer on the screen to reduce reflections and glare.
Apple has unveiled its first-ever touchscreen MacBook Pro. The company seems a bit confused about the naming, calling it the "MacBook Pro with PROLED XDR Display," which is tough to remember. If you look past that and review the full spec sheets, you might ask a genuine question: what are the differences between the touchscreen and non-touchscreen versions?
Given that Apple continues to sell both variants together, that's a genuine question. Luckily, you don't have to spend more time lining up the spec sheets side by side and hunting for differences hidden in the fine print. I took that bullet for you. Here's everything that's different between the PROLED XDR Display and the regular MacBook Pro.