Project 006 – KōBOKU
During my research for Mercury Vault, I came across the Lazer3D HT5 case on Devyn Johnston’s YouTube channel. An absolute ultra-compact chassis, so small that it instantly caught my attention. I ordered it right away – together with the first set of parts.
As luck would have it, NVIDIA had just released the RTX 5060 in a Low Profile version – a perfect fit for this build. However, the included 250W PSU was far too limiting, so I upgraded to a 500W GaN power supply. Unfortunately, it was slightly too long, which meant my 3D printer had to step in again: I designed and printed a custom C13 socket mount as well as a cover for the PSU.
To round it off, I added a subtle ARGB LED strip for just the right amount of light, and crafted custom aluminum feet to make the case stand out even more.
Kōboku didn’t stay with me for long either – it found a happy new owner who uses it for AI and LLM workloads. (Don’t ask me – in my opinion, it would need a more powerful GPU for that. 😉)
The name “Kōboku” (荒木) comes from Japanese and means “raw wood”. Just like raw wood, this project represents something natural, compact, and full of potential – a minimalist shell that can be crafted into something powerful and unique.
Specifications
Case: Lazer3D HT5
Custom aluminum feet (self-made)
Subtle ARGB LED strip
3D-printed PSU socket & cover
CPU Cooling: Noctua NH-L12s
GPU: Gigabyte GeForce RTX 5060 OC Low Profile 8G (8GB GDDR7)
Motherboard: ASRock B650I Lightning WiFi
RAM: ADATA XPG Lancer Blade RGB 48GB (2×24GB, DDR5-6400)
Storage: Kingston FURY Renegade 2TB M.2 2280
Accessories: Thermalright AMD AM5 BCF CPU Guard (red), custom cabling, misc. small parts
Software: Windows 11 Pro
