DAN A4-SFX: The smallest gaming case in the world

Today I finished the cpu cooler tests. And then I found this cooler...

16.jpg


On the first view it will not fit, but if you remove the 120mm fan it fits perfectly. I'm not sure but this cooler has the potential to become the best for this system.

I will get it wednesday and then you will see the results on wednesday evening for all cpu coolers.

  • Xigmatek Janus
  • Cooltek LP53
  • Silverstong Argon AR05
  • Noctua L9i
  • Intel Boxed
 
Cool, I've seen the Janus's announcement. Never bothered to check it out later though.
I hope it works better than the others :)
Edit: Newegg reviews seems to complain about fan quality, maybe you could test it with the Noctua fan?
 
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dondan said:
DrakonSan: Thank you for making this clear.

The first testresults show me, that the cooling princible of the A4-SFX works as expected. The temperatur difference between an open build without a case and with the closed case are on the GPU 2°C higher and on the CPU 3°C higher. This means the DAN A4-SFX is using one of the most effivient coolsystem. I will release more Details and Values in the next days.
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Dan, how about fan RPMs in case vs open stand?

Since Janus got plenty of room between socket and radiator, it would be interesting to mount good slim 120mm fan here in both intake and exhaust positions.
 
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OverZerg said:
Dan, how about fan RPMs in case vs open stand?
Click to expand...

In poth setups I test it with fixed rpm. Otherwise it is hard to compare the temp results.

OverZerg said:
Since Janus got plenty of room between socket and radiator, it would be interesting to mount good slim 120mm fan here in both intake and exhaust positions.
Click to expand...

The Janus will only work with 1x80mm FAN. I have to unscrew the 120mm FAN to fit into the case.
 
dondan said:
In poth setups I test it with fixed rpm. Otherwise it is hard to compare the temp results.



The Janus will only work with 1x80mm FAN. I have to unscrew the 120mm FAN to fit into the case.
Click to expand...

Dondan, do you think that you could fit a slim 120mm in the location that the 80mm fan sits in the Janus? How slim is the 80mm fan?

EDIT: I see that it's a 10mm slim fan. Think you could fit a 15mm thick fan in there? Maybe if the heatsink fins were modified a little bit.
 
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jb1 said:
Dondan, do you think that you could fit a slim 120mm in the location that the 80mm fan sits in the Janus? How slim is the 80mm fan?

EDIT: I see that it's a 10mm slim fan. Think you could fit a 15mm thick fan in there? Maybe if the heatsink fins were modified a little bit.
Click to expand...

Or, maybe Noctua's 92mm fan, which is about 13mm thick?
 
I will try the Noctua, but I think, that there are too many components near the socket like mosfets that could collidate with the 92mm fan, because the cooler is directly over the socket. Maybe the scythe slim stream 100x100x12 is the biggest fan that could fit
 
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I'm waiting on the kickstarter/indiegogo/crowdfunding campaign, I'll be one of the first to pitch in! I've got the rest of the components (i7-4790k, 16GB RAM, 980ti) all lined up for purchase, I just need something to put them in Dondan! :p
 
Just waiting on the processor and this case! Can't wait. Contents:

silverstone sx500-lg
Asrock x99e-itx/ac
Crucial m500 960GB
EVGA GTX 780 Classy (Love this card)
Mushkin 2x4GB DDR4-3000 (I know I know, I should've gotten one with black or grey heatsinks...only blue ones where 4x sticks but it kinda matches the copper heatsink)
DeepCool GS120 (120x20mm fan)
Dynatron T318 Copper Vapor Chamber Narrow heatsink (heavy bugger)
1968 Johnny Rocket Mercury Cougar for size comparison
CPU will be a 5820K
Case will be a Silver Dan A4 (I can dream for now)

If I get the cpu in time I will run some torture/temp tests for you guys. Placed the heatsink and the fan to see if they fit and the do.

 
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Will that Dynatron T318 fit on the motherboard? Anything special with it? Never mind, I see you said it fit. It just look gigantic though.
 
The next nice cooler that will fit...

Cryorig C7 will be released on Computex 2015

The C7 is designed to be a “fit anywhere, cool anything” low profile cooler.
Click to expand...

CRYORIG-C7-1.jpg

CRYORIG-C7-2.jpg
 
According to Guru3D it's just under 53mm, which would make it slightly too big. Maybe, if one fitted it with a slim 92mm fan, it would fit.
 
I hope i dont say anything stupid(havent read the last few pages)but if there is still time woudnt be good to give the case something like 2cm in widht so that at least better coolers coud fit?Im sure it wont get fat as whit the current options of cooler up to 48 and the new processors and gadgets i just dont know if we can make it.Im sure those Noctua L9i and dynatron wont be able to handle the modern processors(or it will be at its limits)
On the other hand giving more widh to the case for better coolers is a big decision (most probably will up the costs) but still if there is still time maybe more people will say their thoughts on the subject.
I know the purpose here is to have the smallest thing possible but.... i just dont know if its completely balanced.
 
48mm is plenty fine for what Dondan's vision of this case. You should look up the reviews for both the NH-L9i and the LP-53, they do a pretty good job at cooling i7s. That being the case, this is not an insane overclocking machine.

PICTURE TIME!

T318 - GS120 - Asrock provided Dynatron



120x20mm fan next to the T318

The motherboard lends itself to a multitude of different placements for the 120mm fan without obstructing anything.

Snug fit all around.



Not entirely sure about this one, I would have to tighten down the heatsink to see if it does interfere with the asrock heatsink.


I already put everything away and I'm thinking that it was just the angle of the picture that makes it look like it will touch the blue northbridge heatsink. I remember being super relieved that it fit perfectly.
 
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With only having read the info on front page, allow me ask this:

When is it possible to have this case in my hands?

Are we talking months or..?
 
@D4rkn3ss I spent some time looking for a 92x20mm fan and couldn't find anything. I don't know when or how I came by this fan but I just had to have it. I spent some time just looking at the layout and hoped that it would fit perfectly...and it did. It also comes with some rubber mounts which I'm hoping to attach to the side panel.
 
majic12 said:
I hope i dont say anything stupid(havent read the last few pages)but if there is still time woudnt be good to give the case something like 2cm in widht so that at least better coolers coud fit?Im sure it wont get fat as whit the current options of cooler up to 48 and the new processors and gadgets i just dont know if we can make it.Im sure those Noctua L9i and dynatron wont be able to handle the modern processors(or it will be at its limits)
On the other hand giving more widh to the case for better coolers is a big decision (most probably will up the costs) but still if there is still time maybe more people will say their thoughts on the subject.
I know the purpose here is to have the smallest thing possible but.... i just dont know if its completely balanced.
Click to expand...

Look up a LP53 review, then come back and tell us on a scale of 1-10, how silly was it to ask for an additional 2cm :p
 
pgabor said:
Look up a LP53 review, then come back and tell us on a scale of 1-10, how silly was it to ask for an additional 2cm :p
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One of the reviews of the LP53 says that the cooling performance did not noticeably drop by putting on a 14mm fan instead of the 25mm that comes with it.
 
CknSalad said:
According to Guru3D it's just under 53mm, which would make it slightly too big. Maybe, if one fitted it with a slim 92mm fan, it would fit.
Click to expand...

According to the manufacturer, it's 47mm total.

http://www.cryorig.com/news.php?id=43&page=1

C7
The C7 is designed to be a “fit anywhere, cool anything” low profile cooler. Thanks to it’s total height of under 47mm, it is just as small as the Intel stock cooler, but comes with so much more. With stagger total of four 6 mm copper heatpipes and a full proprietary 92 mm 600~2500 RPM PWM fan with Quad Air Inlet™ technology, it may be small but has all the making of a high-end CRYORIG cooler. The C7 fits both Intel 115x and modern AMD sockets, and basically any case on the market. If the system can fit the stock Intel/AMD cooler, then it will not only fit the C7, it should be upgraded to the C7 immediately.
Click to expand...
 
majic12 said:
I hope i dont say anything stupid(havent read the last few pages)but if there is still time woudnt be good to give the case something like 2cm in widht so that at least better coolers coud fit?Im sure it wont get fat as whit the current options of cooler up to 48 and the new processors and gadgets i just dont know if we can make it.Im sure those Noctua L9i and dynatron wont be able to handle the modern processors(or it will be at its limits)
On the other hand giving more widh to the case for better coolers is a big decision (most probably will up the costs) but still if there is still time maybe more people will say their thoughts on the subject.
I know the purpose here is to have the smallest thing possible but.... i just dont know if its completely balanced.
Click to expand...

There isn't time, the case is finalised IIRC. Also 20mm are a pretty big deal in terms of volume. Cost wouldn't be the problem, but adding that much space just for a bit larger coolers defeats the goal of making the smallest high-end gaming case.
 
majic12 said:
Im sure those Noctua L9i and dynatron wont be able to handle the modern processors(or it will be at its limits).
Click to expand...

The easiest way to alleviate this concern is to remember that these coolers still perform better than the Intel stock cooler. If the engineers at Intel are confident that their cooler performs adequately, you can rest assured than anything that beats it in benchmarks will be just fine.
 
Cryorig C7 is under 53mm for Guru3d's news story. I don't know whether that's a typo, but I guess I would trust the official Cryorig site, making it 47mm in height. It'll be interesting how it performs vs. the LP53.
 
Because the cooler test is still in progress here are three pictures to make the waitingtime bearable...


MSI GTX 970 Gaming 4G fits easily and perfectly in the A4-SFX
img_29125csi3.jpg

img_2917evs8w.jpg



Asrock Z77E-ITX with Phanteks PH-TC12LS (Scythe Kaze Jyu Slim 100mm FAN) fits also easily.
img_2952j0so6.jpg
 
Ca11idus said:
@D4rkn3ss I spent some time looking for a 92x20mm fan and couldn't find anything. I don't know when or how I came by this fan but I just had to have it. I spent some time just looking at the layout and hoped that it would fit perfectly...and it did. It also comes with some rubber mounts which I'm hoping to attach to the side panel.
Click to expand...
92x92x20 right? There are some high quality fans in that size.
 
Dondan, you promised some pics with the top cover removed. :) The reason i ask is because i'm very curious how the 3M pci express rising cable bending radius looks like (and if there's any room left above it).
 
Ca11idus said:
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Click to expand...

while this heatsink does not have as much material as some, the vapor chamber is more efficiently spreading the heat around compared to heat pipes. and it is more height-efficient, which means it can fit a bigger fan. I think a nice big fan (even one attached directly to the case inside) could make this cooler as good as any.
 
dondan said:
Because the cooler test is still in progress here are three pictures to make the waitingtime bearable...


MSI GTX 970 Gaming 4G fits easily and perfectly in the A4-SFX
Click to expand...


The MSI cooler looks perfect for the black A4-SFX :D
I might pick an MSI GPU if it cools well enough :)

Also, with Silverstone making a 700W platinum PSU, I think X99+highest end GPU would be quite the build! :D
 
I can whistle-blow that a top blow gpu is arround 2°C less ifficent as a radial fan GPU, but the total cooling performance is better and it is also more quiet under load.
 
I know I brought this up with the liquid cooled gpu. The R9 390x/390 leaks show it having a short pcb and is liquid cooled. Might that card be viable with the psu inverted so as to have the rad suck air from the panel and exhaust to the psu which would exhaust to the top of the case? I know we would need the exact dimensions to make it work but if it did that would be really cool.
 
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