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

The_Gunslinger said:
no worries, i'll keep watching, i'm sure you'll let us know when they have them :D
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Nah, I'm not following their site so active anymore, because I already have my filters coming from them. :D Today they arrived in Finland, should have them tomorrow or the day after. But my filters are that "old" design so I will be having two separate filters on the side... And I ordered the same filters to the bottom...

Still waiting for last parts, tomorrow should should have most of them and I can start cutting cables. Still have to wait longer for new pump and some fittings. I'm so waiting to get this build done and get that old, big case off my feet. :D
 
hydroforge said:
Guys, just to let you know, the black feet that was supposed to be shipped with the silver M1's are now available for purchase from the supplier (who supplied Lian Li).
http://www.focusattack.com/40mm-black-aluminum-anti-slip-joystick-case-feet-set-of-4/
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Thanks! Just ordered a set of silver and a set of gold in 40mm.. hope they fit. Might try to stain or darken the gold feet just a little ;)

UPgz7wM.jpg
 
Will the NH-C12P be adequate for overclocking (i5-4670k)? I have the Asrock Z87E and can always use a 120mm fan on the case if the 140mm won't fit, but am wondering how well it will perform with a 120mm.
 
Decided to go with the Noctua U9B instead of the L12 but not sure what alignment to use.

262wcbt.jpg


Since its 125mm high I can only use the forward 120mm fan bracket for a chassi intake fan.
With the U9B fitted like my picture it will blow air out the top of the case.

However, if I turn it 90 degrees I could make use of the rear 92mm fan and would get a similar airflow as in the "Airflow option 1" from the Noctua FAQ, picture below.

2nrfv2s.jpg


With the U9B turned it would drag the cold air from around the PSU that is supplied by the front 120mm fan and transport this through the cpu cooler and out through the rear 92mm fan. Maybe the cpu cooler fan would compete with PSU fan, what do you guys reckon would be the best way to mount the U9B?

Perhaps I should leave as fitted i the first picture but install a 92mm rear fan, it would then be pretty similar to "Airflow option 2"?
 
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AFD said:
Thanks! Just ordered a set of silver and a set of gold in 40mm.. hope they fit. Might try to stain or darken the gold feet just a little ;)

UPgz7wM.jpg
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Now that's what I'm talking about! I'm going to wait until the case arrives, I might want to go with the 35mm depending how to stock 40mm look.
 
Personally, if you don't have a beefy GPU and your going to have a low thermal load, therefore not needing a huge amount of airflow, go for the vertical and follow the natural convection pathways, have all the hot air sent to the top of the case.

Realistically, both should give you satisfactory results for CPU alone. It only really becomes an issue when you start filling the case with hot air from a non-blower GPU.


BTW, thats a ECS H61?
 
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2013/10/30 11:12 200450,Taiwan International item mailed in originating country
2013/11/12 18:11 TWKELA,Taiwan International item has left originating country and is en route to Canada

Woohoo!! I am waiting with a Z87E-ITX and 4670K in hand, though I am still eyeing the ASUS Impact even though it's nearly twice the price.... :D
 
okwchin said:
The Primary issue with the C12 fit is the distance between the top panel and the heatsink. This limits placement of the heatsink to a horizontal orientation.

My next question is, with heatpipe ends toward the front of case, by how much and how many fins occlude with the PSU.

Necere has confirmed however that heatpipe ends towards the back is OK.


Next point is - Fan installation. The heatsink itself is 63mm from centre, and we so far have a confirmed fit of the L12 in a particular orientation which confirms clearance for 62mm. Hopefully 63 fits, but thats going to be soo close.

This leaves no space for the anything to be beyond the edge of the heatsink. This includes both the Fan and the Fan clips. Having a 120mm fan will resolve this, if the clips can be within the edge of the frame. If you opt for the 140mm fan, you will need to move the fan down (perpendicular to the heatpipes) by the 7mm or so. This might be more than you can stretch the fan clips
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Hi again

I just did some calculations based on the measurements given in this image from techreport.com.

clearances1.jpg


Based on the fact that the mini-itx board is 170x170mm, I get that the CPU center is at 24.75mm+28mm=52.75 from the edge of the board.

According to the ncases.com webpage, there is 10mm restriction from the mini-itx board and upwards. That means that we have 62.75mm until we hit the top of the chassis, i.e. the NH-C14 might actually not fit at all. It is very, very close if it does indeed fit.

Necere also recommends picking a motherboard with central socket placement. Definitely sound advice!
 
cowsgomoo said:
For those who've already built the M1: is there a recommended sequence when assembling?
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http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?p=1040358072#post1040358072

This is how I did it:
1. disassemble everything (also PSU bracket)
2. install motherboard and CPU (if obstructed, install CPU cooler backplate first)
3. connect cables that are situated below where the heatsink will be (like the P4 conn.)
4. install heatsink (don't forget little drop of thermal paste)
5. connect cables that might become hard to reach like USB, HD-AUDIO and power button/LED's
6. install GPU
7. install PSU
8. install storage
9. install fans
10. route cables going from small to large (SATA data --> SATA power --> PCIe --> ATX 24-pin)

Tips:
- the case features countless ways to route cables, using holes but also with the double slits which are perfect for zip-ties. Use them a lot !
- plan ahead. I was routing my SATA cables before I installed my SSD, because I knew where it was going to go and I only had to click them on.
- less cables = better. If you have the ST45SF-G and you need a Molex plug for fans or whatever, try to use a leftover SATA power connector with a converter to a fan header.
- don't fill every side with a fan. Too many fans will just create more noise.
 
pndc said:
I just did some calculations based on the measurements given in this image from techreport.com.

Based on the fact that the mini-itx board is 170x170mm, I get that the CPU center is at 24.75mm+28mm=52.75 from the edge of the board.
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I don't recommend you use that image for measurements, as it is in slight perspective.

I have made 170mm x 170mm @ 72dpi pictures here.
I'm measuring 49mm from the top to the center of the socket.
 
Phuncz said:
I don't recommend you use that image for measurements, as it is in slight perspective.

I have made 170mm x 170mm @ 72dpi pictures here.
I'm measuring 49mm from the top to the center of the socket.
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Measurements were included on the picture. Thanks for the measure though. I suppose everything is still fine with your L12 cooler - I think it's the solution I'll end up with as well, as I do not seem to be able to fit anything larger.
 
Phuncz said:
- less cables = better. If you have the ST45SF-G and you need a Molex plug for fans or whatever, try to use a leftover SATA power connector with a converter to a fan header.
Click to expand...

Question for Phuncz, or maybe WiSK.. I know that Silverstone strongly recommends installing no more than 4 drives per power cable. Would I be okay running 1x ODD, 2x SSD and 2x HDD (low-power WD Green) on a single cable? Or would it be safer to just run the ODD separately on the molex cable?

I'm thinking my possible 5 drive setup should still draw less power than say 4x WD Black drives.

Thanks!
 
Reckie said:
Decided to go with the Noctua U9B instead of the L12 but not sure what alignment to use.

262wcbt.jpg


Since its 125mm high I can only use the forward 120mm fan bracket for a chassi intake fan.
With the U9B fitted like my picture it will blow air out the top of the case.

However, if I turn it 90 degrees I could make use of the rear 92mm fan and would get a similar airflow as in the "Airflow option 1" from the Noctua FAQ, picture below.

2nrfv2s.jpg


With the U9B turned it would drag the cold air from around the PSU that is supplied by the front 120mm fan and transport this through the cpu cooler and out through the rear 92mm fan. Maybe the cpu cooler fan would compete with PSU fan, what do you guys reckon would be the best way to mount the U9B?

Perhaps I should leave as fitted i the first picture but install a 92mm rear fan, it would then be pretty similar to "Airflow option 2"?
Click to expand...
Heat naturally rises, so a vertical orientation is probably the most efficient. Here's an article that shows a 6 degrees Celsius reduction with a vertically mounted HSF compared to a horizontally mounted HSF.
 
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AFD said:
Question for Phuncz, or maybe WiSK.. I know that Silverstone strongly recommends installing no more than 4 drives per power cable. Would I be okay running 1x ODD, 2x SSD and 2x HDD (low-power WD Green) on a single cable? Or would it be safer to just run the ODD separately on the molex cable?
Click to expand...

The optical and SSDs are 5V and the WD Greens are 12V, so effectively they are already split in to two groups electrically :)
 
pndc said:
Measurements were included on the picture. Thanks for the measure though. I suppose everything is still fine with your L12 cooler - I think it's the solution I'll end up with as well, as I do not seem to be able to fit anything larger.
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The NH-L12 is still going strong, yes :)

This is during BF4 64-player MP match and you see at the end when I close it. It takes a while to reach it's low temperature but it can still dissipate.

BQPaXCk.png


hydroforge said:
Heat naturally rises, so a vertical orientation is probably the most efficient. Here's an article that shows a 6 degrees Celsius reduction with a vertically mounted HSF compared to a horizontally mounted HSF.
Click to expand...
Natural convection is only of use with passive components, the lightest whiff of air will overrule it.
 
sub 60 degrees CPU temp is impressive for the L12. Your ambient was around the 20 deg mark? and what GPU are you running. - 290X based on the spreadsheet!

Thats a pretty good performing setup then!




How about a BeQuiet Shadow Rock 1 TopFlow - Top down 135mm cooler. Height of 126mm (with fan)

Dimension wise, aside from orientation issues (which becomes a problem with higher TDPs), the SR1 is the C14 equivalent for the Asrock board with a close to perfect height and coverage for a large fan the helps pull in cool outside air. My only concerns are how effective this cooler actually is, as the reviewed performance is generally average to poor compared to other heatsinks, and then combine this with the orientation handicap.

With the results showing promising performance for a lower TDP CPU with the heatsink in the non-recommended position, how reliably could a Be Quiet SR1 topflow cooler work in the same potentially problematic orientation. We know the Noctua's are really good, with both Phuncz's L12, and my U9B in inverted setups demonstrating no discernible difference in performance in our 80W TDP and 65W TDP chips respectively.

The Topflow SR1 would fit in Perfectly with the Asrock board with the heat pipe ends facing down. The fan would be in the appropriate location, and there would be minimal gap between the heatsink and the intake fan, providing room for a filter while reducing air recirculation, and plenty of room between the hetasink and the mobo to allow hot air to travel up the case.
The only concern is the efficacy of the fluid flow due to orientation, with gravity working against the capillary action in the heatpipes. Pooling in the finned area is why its not recommended, as there is maximum travel distance for the fluid return path.

Also not as cheap given the delivery outside of the UK and Germany.
 
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Yeah! Just got my tracking! In Taiwan Nov 7th, and apparently traveling to Parts Unknown ever since :D

WiSK said:
The optical and SSDs are 5V and the WD Greens are 12V, so effectively they are already split in to two groups electrically :)
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So, 1x ODD, 2x SSD & 2x HDD should be okay on a single SATA power cable? Would it still be okay if I ran that all using adapters off the molex cable instead? Thanks!

(and yes, I know that ideally I should just build my own cable.. baby steps =)
 
MSI started teasing their Z87I Gaming, as well as a new compact graphics card. At this point we can only speculate on the GPU, but GTX 760 would be the obvious (and probably disappointing) choice, but perhaps it will be something higher spec? Place your bets...

NzfMgPH.jpg
 
okwchin said:
sub 60 degrees CPU temp is impressive for the L12. Your ambient was around the 20 deg mark? and what GPU are you running. - 290X based on the spreadsheet!
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Ambient is about 21,5°C. I'm indeed running an R9 290X in Quiet mode.

ekuest said:
whats in the pcie slot on that thing? it looks like it has the profile of two slot brackets but theyre going the wrong way? wtf? i cant figure it out...
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That's the SLI/Crossfire header.
 


I made an accurate 3D model of the ASRock Z87E-ITX LGA 1150 Intel Z87 Motherboard in Sketchup that you can download here:

https://googledrive.com/host/0B_eK9-nvPN5jREFsc1NIRFFtdTg/

Does anyone have any accurate 3D models of CPU Coolers? That's the last component that I haven't gotten for my M1 build. I want to make sure what I end up getting will fit this board in the case.

I did try this the Noctua NH-D14 in Sketchup for the heck of it just to see if it'll give me an idea of how it would work. It doesn't fit in one orientation so I didn't bother trying it in the other orientations since I may go with the Noctua C12P SE14.



I know that the spreadsheet has a section of what works and what doesn't, but there are so many CPU Cooler systems out there that it is hard to decided on a configuration I'd be happy with.

Spreadsheet

I originally wanted just to air cool, but may end up going with water. I'm very indecisive about which direction to go, plus, who knows what really will fit without physically trying in real life.
 
IanM said:
MSI started teasing their Z87I Gaming, as well as a new compact graphics card. At this point we can only speculate on the GPU, but GTX 760 would be the obvious (and probably disappointing) choice, but perhaps it will be something higher spec? Place your bets...
Click to expand...

Well, after tracking down the image you posted to MSI Europe's Facebook page, and going back a few days, I found they posted a photo of the backside of their new mini GPU.. searching using the various numbers (PCB, FCC, barcode) it seems the FCC number is the same as their GTX 660Ti & 670 (FCC: Micro-Star Model MS-V284).

FCC number could just be tied to GK104.. so 660, 670, 680, 760, 770?

Most likely GTX 760 to compete with the new ASUS Mini 760.. not very exciting :)
 
That Sketchup model is sweet

okwchin said:
How about a BeQuiet Shadow Rock 1 TopFlow - Top down 135mm cooler. Height of 126mm (with fan)

Dimension wise, aside from orientation issues (which becomes a problem with higher TDPs), the SR1 is the C14 equivalent for the Asrock board with a close to perfect height and coverage for a large fan the helps pull in cool outside air. My only concerns are how effective this cooler actually is, as the reviewed performance is generally average to poor compared to other heatsinks, and then combine this with the orientation handicap.

With the results showing promising performance for a lower TDP CPU with the heatsink in the non-recommended position, how reliably could a Be Quiet SR1 topflow cooler work in the same potentially problematic orientation. We know the Noctua's are really good, with both Phuncz's L12, and my U9B in inverted setups demonstrating no discernible difference in performance in our 80W TDP and 65W TDP chips respectively.

The Topflow SR1 would fit in Perfectly with the Asrock board with the heat pipe ends facing down. The fan would be in the appropriate location, and there would be minimal gap between the heatsink and the intake fan, providing room for a filter while reducing air recirculation, and plenty of room between the hetasink and the mobo to allow hot air to travel up the case.
The only concern is the efficacy of the fluid flow due to orientation, with gravity working against the capillary action in the heatpipes. Pooling in the finned area is why its not recommended, as there is maximum travel distance for the fluid return path.

Also not as cheap given the delivery outside of the UK and Germany.
Click to expand...

Edit. This cooler will NOT fit due to interference with the GPU. The cooler is simply too long. It will fit on the top side, but bottom end oversails the PCI slot about 5mm. not only is it close, but it also blocks airflow from the GPU side to the case to the top part of the case.
 
AFD said:
So, 1x ODD, 2x SSD & 2x HDD should be okay on a single SATA power cable? Would it still be okay if I ran that all using adapters off the molex cable instead? Thanks!
Click to expand...

Yes, there's no electrical difference between the sata cable and the molex cable on the ST45SF-G apart from the obvious extra orange 3.3V wire.

For clarity for others, I should note that not all HDDs are 12V only. Some use also 5V, so it's wise to search for a data sheet of all your drives to check voltages used and start up current draw.
 
IanM said:
MSI started teasing their Z87I Gaming, as well as a new compact graphics card. At this point we can only speculate on the GPU, but GTX 760 would be the obvious (and probably disappointing) choice, but perhaps it will be something higher spec? Place your bets...
Click to expand...

Given how disappointing Asus' DirectCU Mini lineup has been i'm not holding my breath for anything special. Their GTX670 showed up far too late to the party, when everyone was moving onto the GTX 700 series.

So they took the GTX760 and gave that the treatment. The GTX760 - you know, that card that already launched with a 9" DirectCU cooler bolted on.

I was hoping Asus would push the envelope a bit, have a go at something like a GTX770 at least, or maybe an R280X. Not instead use it to shorten already small cards a tiny bit further.

I know this is MSI's take, but I don't expect them to try anything special either - it'll just be a shortened GTX760.

Then again, the M1 gets rid of that problem, I just buy the 12" version and use that. :D
 
what is up with the dispatch to germany? all countries were supplied at once or not yet. but germany: ONE case delivered, the rest is still in taiwan and not even dispatched, while the rest of europe already got their cases? some messing up by the postal office?
 
clericc said:
what is up with the dispatch to germany? all countries were supplied at once or not yet. but germany: ONE case delivered, the rest is still in taiwan and not even dispatched, while the rest of europe already got their cases? some messing up by the postal office?
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Rest of Europe get their cases? Think again, look at your friendly neighbours the Dutch ;) (... and French) Have some patience!
 
pa-what? :D but i see, france didn't recieve theirs as well. but it's still weird, that a single package got delivered, instead of a complete batch for the country
 
clericc said:
pa-what? :D but i see, france didn't recieve theirs as well. but it's still weird, that a single package got delivered, instead of a complete batch for the country
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Imagine, there is a boat leaving for Germany. Taiwan post office reserves X containers. They fill those up with parcels and letters. If there is space left at the end for one package, it will go in the container.

Loupi was lucky, that's all :)
 
Anyone using the hydro coolers? Seems like its all air coolers or the Swiftech 220.

Also a question for Phuncz. Did you do any overclocking? If so how much?
 
How is the airflow inside case for non blower gpus? Suggestions how to use fans?

Is it possible to have a 120mm fan on top with Asus impact?
 
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