NCASE M1 and ASUS GTX 970 DirectCU Mini

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technobot

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Hello, all. I recently received my NCASE M1 and have to say it's fantastic.

I will admit there was a momentary onset of buyer's remorse after finally removing the case from all of its packaging. Honestly, it was something along the lines of "I paid $300 CDN for just this???"

After handling the case for an hour or so that feeling completely vanished. It's been stated before but the case is exceptional. I love the simple, minimalist aesthetic. It's a joy to build in, and any hiccups you might encounter seem to be par for the course for smaller mini-ITX cases anyway. For something so light, it's sturdy.

Anyway, thank you again to team NCASE for a fantastic product which will house the majority of my mini-ITX systems in the future.

On to the actual question: sorry if this has been covered but I've googled till I passed out from exhaustion and can't find a definitive answer. Will this card (ASUS GTX 970 DirectCU Mini) fit in the M1?

If I reference the GPU's height (4.8") vs the compatibility section on the NCASES website, it looks like it will be a very tight fit if it works at all. I swear I found a post by AFD who confirmed it won't fit or if it did the PCI-E power connecter would be scraping against the side panel.

By the same token, I am almost certain I've seen images, posted in this forum, of an ASUS DirectCU Mini card in the M1.

So to summarize, is there anyone who can confirm if this fits "comfortably" or should I just go with Plan B: get a blower style reference card, was thinking of either EVGA or MSI.

Thanks.
 
The only reason to get a mini version of the 970 is if you want to use a full-size ATX PSU.

The EVGA and MSI 970s should fit fine with an SFX PSU.
 
There've been a number of builds with the ASUS mini cards and no mentions of any fitment problems. Going by the spec sheet, the PCB is 10mm taller than reference, which leaves ~17mm to the side panel. The plastic PCIe power connectors are 10mm themselves, so there's 7mm left for the cable to bend. It's snug, but it should be doable

Glad you're enjoying the case :)
 
pointfiveo said:
Or an SFX-L for that matter. The way it presses against full-length cards, I wouldn't exactly call them compatible.

#MakeM1cmHigher
Click to expand...

It doesn't press much on cards without a backplate, and you can avoid contact completely if you orient the PSU so that the fan is on the inside of the case.
 
Necere: Thanks for confirmation. I still haven't decided yet but I'll take your notes and keep it under consideration when choosing the GPU.

And yes, I am MOST CERTAINLY enjoying the case. If you guys do an ATX case I'm all over that as well, although the M1 adventure has shown me maybe I don't need ATX for my "desktop" after all...
 
makar1 said:
It doesn't press much on cards without a backplate, and you can avoid contact completely if you orient the PSU so that the fan is on the inside of the case.
Click to expand...
Do you have any pictures of this? I wasn't aware of that.
 
I built my NCASE with the DirectCU Mini, but only because I wanted to use an ATX PSU to ensure the whole system was quiet.

It fits perfect. Nothing to worry about.
 
I found this left-angle PCIe 8-pin extender...looks like it prevent you from having to bend your PSU cable. I might try this when I get everything together.

PTZDXrlm.jpg
 
I've got the MSI GTX 760 Gaming ITX which is build very, very similar to Asus short cards and it fits like a glove together with my semipassive full-size ATX PSU.
 
i have an M1 with the 970 DC Mini in it - fantastic card, was significantly quieter than the XFX 290 DD it replaced and using a quieter fan curve i couldnt really hear the card at all over other components until it got close to 50% fan speed (or about 65C on my fan profile - i prefer hotter/quieter to louder/cooler).

gives the M1 a lot more room having the short card - much better bottom to top airflow for mobo/psu.

i then decided to G10 kraken mod the card (because i had all the parts already from when it was on my 290) and its so much easier with the short card - modded the bracket to remove the fan mount (not needed with short pcb) and so much cooler/quieter - with a noctua 120mm on the rad i dont have to have the fan spin up past 950rpm to keep the card at <58C under full load (far cry 4).
 
I know this is bit of an old thread, but I recently picked up an Asus 970 DirectCU Mini to replace the Gigabyte 970 G1 Gaming in my ncase M1.

I really liked the Gigabyte card, but ultimately I decided to replace because:

1. It was a bit too long in the M1 and made cable management difficult.
2. The back plate on the card was extremely tight against the PSU cables on my Silverstone SX500-LG.
3. It required me to mount the PSU with the fan inside the case. The 24 pin connector would not bend enough and was putting pressure on the video card. PSU oriented with the fan inside the case allowed the 24 pin connector to run under the video card.
4. I was getting a lot of heat dumping from the card to the gap between the PSU and the case. The PSU housing and side of the case were very warm to the touch...

Now, the Asus card addresses all the concerns I had with the Gigabyte card above. But it is not all roses...I am getting way higher GPU temperatures on the Asus card. After 10 minutes of gaming, the GPU is over 80°C (under the default performance settings)!! Also, around the GPU area both sides of the case are very warm to touch (similar to point 4 above). I adjusted the fan curve, but to get temperatures around 75°C, the fan needs to go up to at least 75% and is LOUD...I tried putting a 120mm case fan directly under the GPU fan blowing cold air up from the bottom of the case, but that didn't give a measurable improvement. I finally decided to throttle the card to a maximum temperature of 75°C (using Asus's Tweak II application). This does work, but performance is definitely impacted.

My current setup:

Case: Ncase M1
CPU: i7 6700k
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D9L w/ 2 92mm Noctua fans exhausting out the back of the case
GPU: Asus GTX970 DirectCU Mini
PSU: Silverstone SX500-LG (though currently running a ST4SF-G, waiting for my replacement SX500-LG after an RMA)
SDD: Samsung 850 Evo 500gb (mounted in front behind panel)
Case Fan: Noctua NF-S12a (Mounted on the side bracket position closest to the front of the case. I have a second NF-S12a, but it is not currently in the case)

Ambient temperatures are around 19-20°C

With the sides off my case, the temperatures drop which indicates airflow is part of the issue. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to improve air circulation from the GPU? Should I reorient the CPU cooler to exhaust out the top of the case? Would a different fan work better on the bottom of the case to help air flow? I would like to stay away from water cooling...but I may reconsider based on what callumbolch did with the G10 Kraken.
 
incredadamible said:
My current setup:

Case: Ncase M1
CPU: i7 6700k
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D9L w/ 2 92mm Noctua fans exhausting out the back of the case
GPU: Asus GTX970 DirectCU Mini
PSU: Silverstone SX500-LG (though currently running a ST4SF-G, waiting for my replacement SX500-LG after an RMA)
SDD: Samsung 850 Evo 500gb (mounted in front behind panel)
Case Fan: Noctua NF-S12a (Mounted on the side bracket position closest to the front of the case. I have a second NF-S12a, but it is not currently in the case)
Click to expand...

Hi incredadamible, have you yet resolved your issue?
I will probably go on the same build. Only difference will be a i5 6600 with a much lower TDP and a top down air cooler from Noctua - I expect less heat from the CPU.
I really am a beginner here regarding airflow issues and to be honest I don't recall seeing many builds with hot CPU and no VGA blower unless one of them is watercooled at least - but I may be very wrong (n)

Have you considered going on watercooling your CPU?

Cheers
 
LoGam said:
Have you considered going on watercooling your CPU?
Click to expand...

I actually have no issues with CPU temperatures. With only one 92mm fan on the NH-D9L, I'm 25-27°C idle, around 40°C after gaming for a while, and max 65°C with 100% CPU load (HD Video conversion using Handbrake).

The issue I'm having is with the GPU not being able to easily disperse the heat in such a small (but awesome) case without the fan impersonating a leaf blower. The way the video card is designed dumps heat out cutouts on the shroud on the top, bottom, and end of the card. With such a narrow case, the top and bottom venting from the card basically hits the side panels with nowhere really to go. It takes about 1 minute of heavy GPU use to go from ~30°C (idle temps) to my thermal limit at 75°C.

I just got in some slim 120mm fans (Raijintek Aeolus). I am going to try them on the bottom of the case to help move the air around the GPU.

Overall I am very happy with my system...I just want my cake and eat it too (overclock the GPU but keep temperatures and noise down...in a SFF case)
 
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incredadamible said:
I am going to try them on the bottom of the case to help move the air around the GPU
Click to expand...

I am quite interested to know what would be the results.
You will have 2 fans botom as intake, right? but then hot air will flow till the top on CPU and Mobo.
Do you expect to install also some exhaust fans?
 
incredadamible said:
Now, the Asus card addresses all the concerns I had with the Gigabyte card above. But it is not all roses...I am getting way higher GPU temperatures on the Asus card. After 10 minutes of gaming, the GPU is over 80°C (under the default performance settings)!! Also, around the GPU area both sides of the case are very warm to touch (similar to point 4 above). I adjusted the fan curve, but to get temperatures around 75°C, the fan needs to go up to at least 75% and is LOUD...I tried putting a 120mm case fan directly under the GPU fan blowing cold air up from the bottom of the case, but that didn't give a measurable improvement. I finally decided to throttle the card to a maximum temperature of 75°C (using Asus's Tweak II application). This does work, but performance is definitely impacted.
Click to expand...
Why do you think the card needs to be at 75C? Nvidia's own reference cards are designed to run at 83C, and will "use up" any temperature headroom to increase clock speeds. There's essentially no reason whatsoever to lower the thermal limit. I'm using exactly the same card in the M1, with two 120mm fans as intake on the side and no bottom fans, and I have no issues with it, with the exception that I wouldn't mind if it was a little quieter. It's not what I'd call "loud" though - more of it having some tonal aspects that are just noticeable.

That the case gets warm near the GPU is just a side effect of being made from aluminum, which conducts heat more readily than steel or plastic.
 
Necere said:
Why do you think the card needs to be at 75C? Nvidia's own reference cards are designed to run at 83C, and will "use up" any temperature headroom to increase clock speeds. There's essentially no reason whatsoever to lower the thermal limit. I'm using exactly the same card in the M1, with two 120mm fans as intake on the side and no bottom fans, and I have no issues with it, with the exception that I wouldn't mind if it was a little quieter. It's not what I'd call "loud" though - more of it having some tonal aspects that are just noticeable.

That the case gets warm near the GPU is just a side effect of being made from aluminum, which conducts heat more readily than steel or plastic.
Click to expand...

Out of curiosity, are you not using bottom fans because you tried them and saw little effect or because your current setup is simply good enough?
 
Necere said:
Why do you think the card needs to be at 75C? Nvidia's own reference cards are designed to run at 83C
Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply and information! It is greatly appreciated and was exactly the input I was looking for. To be honest, I was not aware of the upper limit on the GPU. I was using the thermal performance of my previous card (the Gigabyte G1 Gaming) as the benchmark for the new card (my first post in this thread alluded to this). I was not assuming the cooling DirectCU performance would equal the massive Windforce cooler, but at lower "out of the box" speeds on the Asus card I was thinking temperatures should be similar.

geniekid said:
Out of curiosity, are you not using bottom fans because you tried them and saw little effect or because your current setup is simply good enough?
Click to expand...

I have installed the two slim fans on the bottom but I have not noticed much improvement on the GPU thermals. What Necere said makes sense as the card would just use whatever thermal headroom is available. That said, it does take longer for the GPU to reach max temperature, and I do notice that the sides of the case do not get nearly as warm, so that is a win! I have the two fans at ~900rpm and they are pretty quiet, but I can hear them over the Noctua fans.

I'll try to post a picture of my setup later today!
 
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FYI, with the thermal limit of 75°C, I am running at a 6% overclock and the fan speed on the GPU stays around 45%. I will do some trials tonight after removing the thermal limit and see where I can run the card while maintaining the same fan speed.

Also including some pictures of my system! The Raijintek fans came with horrible rubber mounts, so I used some spare rubber Noctua mounts I had laying around :)


IMG_4530.JPG
IMG_4532.JPG
 
geniekid said:
Out of curiosity, are you not using bottom fans because you tried them and saw little effect or because your current setup is simply good enough?
Click to expand...
Had a 120mm fan on the bottom initially, but I took it out. Partly because it didn't seem to be doing much, but mostly because the side dust filter is easier to access and clean than the bottom ones.
 
Quick update...The fan on the GPU stays at 50% with a 10% overclock and temperatures hover around 80°C (benchmark app, not gaming). With the GPU pumping out this much heat, the sides of the case are only slightly warm so the bottom fans are definitely helping to move air! I've also tweaked my fan curves on the bottom fans so they stay steady around 500 rpm, the CPU fan idles at ~300 rpm and doesn't ramp up until CPU temperature goes above 50°C, and I put the low noise adapter on the side Noctua fan. Extremely happy with the overall cooling performance!

Thanks again for the input Necere (and thanks for designing such a great SFF case!!!)
 
incredadamible said:
Quick update...The fan on the GPU stays at 50% with a 10% overclock and temperatures hover around 80°C (benchmark app, not gaming). With the GPU pumping out this much heat, the sides of the case are only slightly warm so the bottom fans are definitely helping to move air! I've also tweaked my fan curves on the bottom fans so they stay steady around 500 rpm, the CPU fan idles at ~300 rpm and doesn't ramp up until CPU temperature goes above 50°C, and I put the low noise adapter on the side Noctua fan. Extremely happy with the overall cooling performance!

Thanks again for the input Necere (and thanks for designing such a great SFF case!!!)
Click to expand...
Sure, glad it's working out for you.
 
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