NCASE M1: a crowdfunded Mini-ITX case (updates in first post)

Actually it says there wont be any brokerages fees. There might be duty since the case wasn't build in the USA, but that all depends on how you declare it.

$65 seems very steep for Canada esp. for an all aluminum case, Newegg will ship a Corsair 800D for 29.99 to Canada and it must weight 4x more. I'm not trying to be a dick, but shipping to North America is MUCH cheaper than to other continents.
 
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pricing looks great. stretch goals also look great. let's hope things go smoothly with front i/o redesign. anticipation...
 
Will the finish of the silver anodized version be similar to the finish of Apple products?
 
It is 3KG / 6.7lbs with Lian Li packaging.

We might have to double box it - most likely for international shipping.

If we double box it and stuff it with peanuts, it will be < 8lb.

We plan to do some drop tests (4 - 6 feet), depending on how it goes, we will adjust packaging.

Thanks wahaha360. Do you know the weight without packaging as well?
 
Will the finish of the silver anodized version be similar to the finish of Apple products?
Well, since it is being made by Lian Li I would assume the finish would be like Lian Li products... :rolleyes:

IIRC, Apple usually goes with a sand blasted finish where Lian Li brushes.
 
I don't think apple uses brushed aluminum in any of its products, at least not on the mac air I'm typing this on. Most of Lian-li's cases use brushed aluminum, so you can just check their site to see what they look like.

But the color should be the same. Anodizing doesn't change the color unless you add some kind of dye.
 
If I ever repurpose it into a HTPC I could simply swap the top panel and add in an ODD.

Another possibility would be to use an external USB bluray drive (slim or full). They cost less than the limited options for internal, r/w twice as fast, and are portable.
 
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We plan to do some drop tests (4 - 6 feet), depending on how it goes, we will adjust packaging.
If you have time or capacity, also try to do a "stacking" test, with a few heavy boxes on top of the Ncase box. I doubt most transport services are engaged enough to stack light packages on top.
 
Another possibility would be to use an external USB bluray drive (slim or full). They cost less than the limited options for internal, r/w twice as fast, and are portable.

I've been doing this for a long time; it works really well. It's also cheap to get long USB cords, so you can put the ODD almost anywhere. That way you can have easy access, or make it easy to hide, or both.
 
Actually it says there wont be any brokerages fees. There might be duty since the case wasn't build in the USA, but that all depends on how you declare it.

$65 seems very steep for Canada esp. for an all aluminum case, Newegg will ship a Corsair 800D for 29.99 to Canada and it must weight 4x more. I'm not trying to be a dick, but shipping to North America is MUCH cheaper than to other continents.

The following are the info I used to calculate shipping to Canada via USPS:

Weight: 8lbs

USPS Shipping (cheapest with tracking): $44.70
USPS Insurance ($200): $4.75
Labels & Packaging & someone to fill every custom form - $3
Warehouse Fee - not available yet

IGG Fee + PayPal International Credit Card Fee + currency exchange charges ~ 10%

$65 - 10%*$65 = $58.5 vs. Est. Cost of Shipping to Canada = $52.45 + warehouse fees

If you know a way for us to ship cheaper and reliably, we are game :)

btw...I tried to get USPS bulk mail prices, but it requires us to buy some software to print out mail indicias and meter tape, given our small quantity, it's too complicated and not sure cost effective.
 
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Internal slimline drives aren't too bad. A slot load Blu-ray is about £50 and standard DVD is £23. So about the same as a standard internal.

External DVD are around £22 and external Blu-ray from what I can find easily are around the £60 mark. So really there is zero price difference between external and internal.
 
Hello guys! I am buying this case :) but cant wait for the release, so I am building computer to node 304 for the time when Ncase m1 gets released, my question is which 780 model shall I pick? I've watching the evga 780 SC ACX model. Any opinions? :p
 
Hello guys! I am buying this case :) but cant wait for the release, so I am building computer to node 304 for the time when Ncase m1 gets released, my question is which 780 model shall I pick? I've watching the evga 780 SC ACX model. Any opinions? :p

Depends on how noisy you want your machine to be.

I highly recommend dual-fan style cards (e.g. MSI Twin Frozr, ASUS DirectCU II, Gigabyte Windforce) because they run cooler and quieter.
Yes, it may raise your internal case temperatures a few degrees, but it's not an issue if you have an adequate number of fans. With the M1, you could probably place some slim fans on the bottom of the case to act as an intake.

Rear-exhaust blower-style coolers will run hotter and louder, typically the loudest component in any machine. If you don't want to listen to a dust-buster while gaming, I highly recommend spending the extra money on a better cooler design.
 
Depends on how noisy you want your machine to be.

I highly recommend dual-fan style cards (e.g. MSI Twin Frozr, ASUS DirectCU II, Gigabyte Windforce) because they run cooler and quieter.
Yes, it may raise your internal case temperatures a few degrees, but it's not an issue if you have an adequate number of fans. With the M1, you could probably place some slim fans on the bottom of the case to act as an intake.

Rear-exhaust blower-style coolers will run hotter and louder, typically the loudest component in any machine. If you don't want to listen to a dust-buster while gaming, I highly recommend spending the extra money on a better cooler design.

dont give this advice. the case is not built to cool cards with blower style coolers. you should use either a blower or a waterblock.
 
Depends on how noisy you want your machine to be.

I highly recommend dual-fan style cards (e.g. MSI Twin Frozr, ASUS DirectCU II, Gigabyte Windforce) because they run cooler and quieter.
It will, in large cases. This is not a large case.

Yes, it may raise your internal case temperatures a few degrees, but it's not an issue if you have an adequate number of fans. With the M1, you could probably place some slim fans on the bottom of the case to act as an intake.
Slim fans aren't going to help you, because the GPU will already be close to the bottom. It might actually create more turbulence when not done well. You are better off with ducts if you decide on an open-style cooler.

Rear-exhaust blower-style coolers will run hotter and louder, typically the loudest component in any machine. If you don't want to listen to a dust-buster while gaming, I highly recommend spending the extra money on a better cooler design.
It's been said many times in this topic that the blower-style fans are the prefered option for this case. The Titan-cooler (also found on the GTX780) is actually very good, not to be generalised with just any blower-style cooler.
 
Depends on how noisy you want your machine to be.

I highly recommend dual-fan style cards (e.g. MSI Twin Frozr, ASUS DirectCU II, Gigabyte Windforce) because they run cooler and quieter.
Yes, it may raise your internal case temperatures a few degrees, but it's not an issue if you have an adequate number of fans. With the M1, you could probably place some slim fans on the bottom of the case to act as an intake.

Rear-exhaust blower-style coolers will run hotter and louder, typically the loudest component in any machine. If you don't want to listen to a dust-buster while gaming, I highly recommend spending the extra money on a better cooler design.

The reference 780 uses the reference Titan cooler and its pretty damn good in regards to noise and cooling.

The reference 680 cooler is used on most blower style 770s. Its not as good as the titan cooler but its no where near as bad as the leafblowers on any AMD card, which most people think of when they think of blower style coolers.

If I were to buy a 780 or Titan I'd go with the cheapest reference card I could buy.
 
No and I don't think it will for some time because the I/O port has to be redesigned and I'm assuming another prototype has to be sent with laser cutting.

I didn't think it was so much a re-design, it was just recessed too far, wasn't it? All they need to do is make sure Lian Li follows the instructions exact when it comes to the front panel I/O
 
I didn't think it was so much a re-design, it was just recessed too far, wasn't it? All they need to do is make sure Lian Li follows the instructions exact when it comes to the front panel I/O
This and the brackets holding the plugs in place has to be redesigned to not interfere with large graphics card coolers.
 
This and the brackets holding the plugs in place has to be redesigned to not interfere with large graphics card coolers.

Yeah I didn't mean to imply something huge but that there was going to be a delay nevertheless. Either ways I just hope the production campaign starts soon and they start shipping it before August ends
 
Yeah I didn't mean to imply something huge but that there was going to be a delay nevertheless. Either ways I just hope the production campaign starts soon and they start shipping it before August ends
Agreed, I just need this, my Asus Impact, and some new form factor ssd's to release and I will be ready for my build.
 
dont give this advice. the case is not built to cool cards with blower style coolers. you should use either a blower or a waterblock.

I plan on using a non blower VGA setup. Single AP-12 ducted to the stock heatsink on the short Zotac GTX 660 with the stock fans removed. I don't foresee any issues with this setup.
 
Yeah I didn't mean to imply something huge but that there was going to be a delay nevertheless. Either ways I just hope the production campaign starts soon and they start shipping it before August ends

Shipping by the end of August isn't going to happen and hasn't been in the timeframe for awhile now. We can hope by the end of Sept but as the days pass it could be Oct or later before people actually have the case in their hands. It's better for everything to be done right than rushed.
 
Is anyone planning on doing a full loop in this case? If so what kind of rads/pumps or combo's will you be using? Thanks for any insight.
 
Shipping by the end of August isn't going to happen and hasn't been in the timeframe for awhile now. We can hope by the end of Sept but as the days pass it could be Oct or later before people actually have the case in their hands. It's better for everything to be done right than rushed.

Yeah I was simply too hopeful I knew deep down it couldn't happen.

Is anyone planning on doing a full loop in this case? If so what kind of rads/pumps or combo's will you be using? Thanks for any insight.

While I wait I'm planning to put everything in a cubitek minicube and once its out I'm going to waterblock my gtx titan with komodo + cpu with H220. And since the tubings are going to be far longer, I'll also make appropriate tube lengths.

My builds a pretty simple one... Titan, 4670k, dominator platniums, H220, and asus impact.
 
Here's my parts list for my Ncase M1 build: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/1i8mK

Had to add some custom entries because it didnt have everything im using. I also left out some of the minor things like the foam board i use to make fan ducts, and fan decouplers, and cable splitters etc.
 
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Here's my parts list for my Ncase M1 build: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/1hx2U

Had to add some custom entries because it didnt have everything im using. I also left out some of the minor things like the foam board i use to make fan ducts, and fan decouplers, and cable splitters etc.

That downdraft L12 is going to be awfully tight in there... Unless you're planning to use it without the 120mm fan. Maybe you should go for something like axp-100?
 
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...what kind of rads/pumps or combo's will you be using?

IMO M1 dimensions is too small to design something extraordinary. Of course there are always different options, but after Necere feedback I've read through many articles about Swiftech H220 and came to a decision to also try it with both CPU and GPU cooling. I would probably add couple fans to the bottom just to boost airflow inside the case but I doubt it will influence temps much.

Here is my preliminary build specs. About $2k give or take (adjusted for Moscow).
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/1hyu5
 
Is anyone planning on doing a full loop in this case? If so what kind of rads/pumps or combo's will you be using? Thanks for any insight.

My preliminary plan is to use the Alphacool NexXxoS ST30 Full Copper 240mm radiator. In the space below the GPU I would place a Laing DDC-1T Plus pump and a Swiftech MCRES Micro Rev2 reservoir. The reservoir would be oriented sideways during operation in order to fit below the GPU.
 
Shipping by the end of August isn't going to happen and hasn't been in the timeframe for awhile now. We can hope by the end of Sept but as the days pass it could be Oct or later before people actually have the case in their hands. It's better for everything to be done right than rushed.

Could we get a confirmation on this?

My parts are starting to come in, and I'd like to house them and make sure they're working before I ship the UPC's for rebate purposes. If the NCase will be delayed for at least another month, does anyone have any recommendations for an ITX case (besides the Prodigy) that can handle a 240mm radiator temporarily?
 
Most good ITX cases are expensive and the Prodigy is one of the few that is cheap AND can support a 240mm radiator. A Cooler Master N200 also seems like a bargain as a temp case and as a future low/mid-end build for anything universal.
 
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