The brackets that hold on the CPU cooler are placed right on top of those standoffs and then secured with four thumb screws. The upward-facing screws on the brackets — which we’ll use in a minute — are built in.

It’s easy to get caught up in how expensive PC gaming can be in 2025, throw up your hands, and say to hell with all of it. You don’t need an RTX 5090 to play games on PC in 2025, though. Now, more than ever before,

I started with the same $1,999 RTX 5090 FE and 1000-watt power supply from my desktop test, dropping them both onto a $99 Minisforum DEG1. It’s an open-air external GPU that can connect to the Oculink port that’s now shipping in a handful of portable gaming PCs, so long as you bring your own desktop GPU and power supply.