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

dondan Thank you for such a prompt response! I will try your suggestion with the cooler.

I will update with some additional comments later on when I "feel" the Asetek is operating correctly, or has been replaced if necessary, and have time to mess with voltages/clocks for fun (I plan on running stock clocks and let AMD's PB/XFR 2.0 do it's thing in actual use). Which is why I didn't mention any "at 1.4V and 4.2ghz all core overclock it hit xx C in Prime" earlier.

For anyone following along, I haven't run into any issues using the Cryorig C7 Cu or Asetek cooler with a r7 2700x in day to day use or gaming, stock clocks. I just like my PC's as quite as possible and the Asetek cooler was a way to get there.
What is your t die temp with 2700x and C7 Cu? I have a C7 Cu with A9x14, and also a A9 at the drive bay and two akasa 80x10mm fan on the top and the bottom of the mobo. Currently my 2700x is on the desk without a case and it goes to 80+ (tdie) sometime during some heavy load games. Hope they can handle the 2700x well with a low temp.
 
Good Afternoon All,

I know this has probably been discussed but I've been reading over the last 359 pages and it seems like most people using Coffee Lake CPUs are using the K versions. I am in the process of building a PC for my wife in the a4-SFX v3 (which arrived a couple of weeks ago) using a non-k version of the i7-8700.

I have sent the cpu off to silicon lottery to have it delidded and am in the process of purchasing a CPU cooler. It looks like I'm stuck between the Cryorig C7 and the Noctua NH L9-i. The reviews of these two coolers being used in this case all seem to have been done by folks overclocking 'K' versions of CPUs. So I've got a couple of questions I'd appreciate some input/feed back on....First with regards to the CPU Cooler......
1. Will I have any thermal problems at all under heavy cpu usage if I use the Noctua?
2. With a delidded i7-8700 (non-K) using stock settings would the Cryorig still experience the air-turbulence issues so many people have discussed?

Finally, as for the rest of the system, I'm looking at:
ASUS ROG Strix H370-i - MOBO
Corsair Vengeance LPX 2666 (2 x 8GB) - RAM
Crucial MX500 1TB - m.2280 - STORAGE
EVGA 1080 8GB SC iCX - GPU
Corsair SF600 - PSU
Dell S2417DG - MONITOR

This should be a reasonably quiet and powerful enough system for playing MMORPGs @ 1440p with graphics turned pretty high up right? My wife loves WOW, GW2 etc...Are there any suggestions for changes?

My apologies if this is in the wrongs spot, but it seemed like the place to ask since this thread is dedicated to this case.
 
Good Afternoon All,

I know this has probably been discussed but I've been reading over the last 359 pages and it seems like most people using Coffee Lake CPUs are using the K versions. I am in the process of building a PC for my wife in the a4-SFX v3 (which arrived a couple of weeks ago) using a non-k version of the i7-8700.

I have sent the cpu off to silicon lottery to have it delidded and am in the process of purchasing a CPU cooler. It looks like I'm stuck between the Cryorig C7 and the Noctua NH L9-i. The reviews of these two coolers being used in this case all seem to have been done by folks overclocking 'K' versions of CPUs. So I've got a couple of questions I'd appreciate some input/feed back on....First with regards to the CPU Cooler......
1. Will I have any thermal problems at all under heavy cpu usage if I use the Noctua?
2. With a delidded i7-8700 (non-K) using stock settings would the Cryorig still experience the air-turbulence issues so many people have discussed?

Finally, as for the rest of the system, I'm looking at:
ASUS ROG Strix H370-i - MOBO
Corsair Vengeance LPX 2666 (2 x 8GB) - RAM
Crucial MX500 1TB - m.2280 - STORAGE
EVGA 1080 8GB SC iCX - GPU
Corsair SF600 - PSU
Dell S2417DG - MONITOR

This should be a reasonably quiet and powerful enough system for playing MMORPGs @ 1440p with graphics turned pretty high up right? My wife loves WOW, GW2 etc...Are there any suggestions for changes?

My apologies if this is in the wrongs spot, but it seemed like the place to ask since this thread is dedicated to this case.

I have a very similar setup. I can tell you if you are going to *truly* set the CPU up stock you didn’t need to delid it. I have zero problems cooling it with the Noctua and I didn’t delid. In fact, I discussed this with dondan just a few messages back. Though I have the Z370-i, which perhaps has different bios behaviors, I will mention that getting it to run as stock was not straight off obvious. Default settings even after running through the setup wizard setting everything to the low/mundane use settings still has options set that massively increase heat output so you’ll want to make sure multicore enhancement is off and Load-line Calibration, assuming same issues/behavior as the Z370-i, is correctly set as mentioned above. But that said, since you delidded, you might be able to get away with reenabling some of those non stock features I guess.

But at stock there’s zero issue running the i7-8700. Nor should there be. It’s only a 65W TDP CPU. You could probably just use the included cooler. I cool it with the Noctua LH9-i with the fan swapped out for the A9 which mostly just improves the sound quality. These slim fans have a kind of buzz to them the thicker fans don’t have. I used the included fan for the intake though, on the bottom. I have basically the same GPU, and though my RAM is higher spec I run it at stock speeds for the CPU which is much slower than what either of us have there.

As far as gaming, one of my games that I play is FFXIV and I have zero issues maintaining a very high framerate. In fact, I usually play with 100% max settings and framerates are always good. Though I run it with the framerate limited to 70fps just because it keeps the room quieter/cooler. I suspect given that the other games you mention have simpler graphics loads, there should be no issues there either.

With this setup I also have decent framerates in FFXV using its enhanced assets pack and relatively high image quality settings. That’s by far the most demanding game I’ve tried on this system and again, it’s all fine albeit that one does drop under 60fps at times. I could lower the settings of course... but it’s so damn good looking I don’t wanna ;)
 
I have a very similar setup. I can tell you if you are going to *truly* set the CPU up stock you didn’t need to delid it. I have zero problems cooling it with the Noctua and I didn’t delid. In fact, I discussed this with dondan just a few messages back. Though I have the Z370-i, which perhaps has different bios behaviors, I will mention that getting it to run as stock was not straight off obvious. Default settings even after running through the setup wizard setting everything to the low/mundane use settings still has options set that massively increase heat output so you’ll want to make sure multicore enhancement is off and Load-line Calibration, assuming same issues/behavior as the Z370-i, is correctly set as mentioned above. But that said, since you delidded, you might be able to get away with reenabling some of those non stock features I guess.

But at stock there’s zero issue running the i7-8700. Nor should there be. It’s only a 65W TDP CPU. You could probably just use the included cooler. I cool it with the Noctua LH9-i with the fan swapped out for the A9 which mostly just improves the sound quality. These slim fans have a kind of buzz to them the thicker fans don’t have. I used the included fan for the intake though, on the bottom. I have basically the same GPU, and though my RAM is higher spec I run it at stock speeds for the CPU which is much slower than what either of us have there.

As far as gaming, one of my games that I play is FFXIV and I have zero issues maintaining a very high framerate. In fact, I usually play with 100% max settings and framerates are always good. Though I run it with the framerate limited to 70fps just because it keeps the room quieter/cooler. I suspect given that the other games you mention have simpler graphics loads, there should be no issues there either.

With this setup I also have decent framerates in FFXV using its enhanced assets pack and relatively high image quality settings. That’s by far the most demanding game I’ve tried on this system and again, it’s all fine albeit that one does drop under 60fps at times. I could lower the settings of course... but it’s so damn good looking I don’t wanna ;)

Thanks man....Do you know if the Asus H370-i will allow me to do the same things you've done to force the CPU to stay at 65W? My initial understanding of the H370 spec is that the only thing it doesn't allow is over-clocking....but I don't know if that means purely overclocking or if that means you're aren't allowed to adjust the CPU in any fashion. Haven't really seen any reviews that discuss it yet either. The only review I saw had some guy using an unlocked coffee lake processor trying to overclock it and saying, "No dice"....Which kinda led me to question if you could actually undervolt a cpu with it. That's not technically "over" clocking....

Think I'll just take your advice and go with the Noctua unless anyone else chimes in about the Cryorig maybe not having to spin fast enough to create the turbulance issue since I'll be using a locked version of the CPU.

Out of curiosity...do you game at 1080 or 1440p? Also...do you have any pictures of your build? Big question I got is how noticable is that ugly noctua fan sitting at on the CPU cooler? *LOL* Vanity I know....
 
What is your t die temp with 2700x and C7 Cu? I have a C7 Cu with A9x14, and also a A9 at the drive bay and two akasa 80x10mm fan on the top and the bottom of the mobo. Currently my 2700x is on the desk without a case and it goes to 80+ (tdie) sometime during some heavy load games. Hope they can handle the 2700x well with a low temp.

I don't have the C7 Cu on the r7 2700x at the moment, just an out of box Asetek, finishing some custom length cables and then I will go back and try it with the other cooler again.

Disclaimer: Motherboard Side Panel Was Off, PSU sitting just outside case, ambient temp 25.55 C (78 F)

Pump Curve:

40C 60%
60C 70%
80C 100%

Fan Curve:

0C 100%
100C 100%

I just ran FF XV with graphics details at max @ 4k and Ryzen Master is reporting a clock speed of 3925-3950 across all cores, 1.325V, with a temp 59.88 - 62 C, power usage anywhere from 30-60W after 15 minutes of gameplay.

Ran Prime95 with just checking Small FFT's and running 20 minutes and ended up at a clock speed of 3650 across all cores, 1.23125-1.225V with a temp of 85 - 85.13C, power usage of 101.8 - 104.8 W.

So far I am happy with it, it's been said more than once that 65W CPU's are recommended, and I stuck a 105W CPU in it.

If you have any game title's in particular your using send me a message and if I own it I might take a look at it to provide some info.

Edit: One thing I did want to try out soon was disabling the 4 "weak" cores via Ryzen Master and seeing if I can get any kind of TDP headroom to overclock the remaining 4 for gaming use only. Just to see what it will do.
 
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Thanks man....Do you know if the Asus H370-i will allow me to do the same things you've done to force the CPU to stay at 65W? My initial understanding of the H370 spec is that the only thing it doesn't allow is over-clocking....but I don't know if that means purely overclocking or if that means you're aren't allowed to adjust the CPU in any fashion. Haven't really seen any reviews that discuss it yet either. The only review I saw had some guy using an unlocked coffee lake processor trying to overclock it and saying, "No dice"....Which kinda led me to question if you could actually undervolt a cpu with it. That's not technically "over" clocking....

Think I'll just take your advice and go with the Noctua unless anyone else chimes in about the Cryorig maybe not having to spin fast enough to create the turbulance issue since I'll be using a locked version of the CPU.

Out of curiosity...do you game at 1080 or 1440p? Also...do you have any pictures of your build? Big question I got is how noticable is that ugly noctua fan sitting at on the CPU cooler? *LOL* Vanity I know....

I don’t know what settings are available on the H370-I, but, I’d guess if it doesn’t have control over the two things I mentioned then it will not enable those functions at all. Just a guess though.

I game at 1440p, nothing’s performed poorly enough to push me down so... may as well.

As for the visibility of the fan, it hasn’t bothered me. In a typical evening/low light gaming scenario I can’t really see it in a meaningful way at all. In bright daylight you can see the light part of the fan frame, but, the dark brown parts are not very visible. I thought it might bother me more than it does, tbh. If I was using a clear side panel I’d run some custom blue/pink cabling and just incorporate the colors. Maybe even consider modding a noctua fan into the SF600 to keep up consistency. I do have a pic of my build posted on page 358 with my keyboard. That’s a fairly badly lit pic so it doesn’t really reflect reality so great. It really brought out the light color more than you see it in real life. This might be a slightly more fair representation though it’s definitely brightly lit making it easier to see.

MVMPkQ5jS2msUUybl6GZrw.jpg
 
I don't have the C7 Cu on the r7 2700x at the moment, just an out of box Asetek, finishing some custom length cables and then I will go back and try it with the other cooler again.

Disclaimer: Motherboard Side Panel Was Off, PSU sitting just outside case, ambient temp 25.55 C (78 F)

Pump Curve:

40C 60%
60C 70%
80C 100%

Fan Curve:

0C 100%
100C 100%

I just ran FF XV with graphics details at max @ 4k and Ryzen Master is reporting a clock speed of 3925-3950 across all cores, 1.325V, with a temp 59.88 - 62 C, power usage anywhere from 30-60W after 15 minutes of gameplay.

Ran Prime95 with just checking Small FFT's and running 20 minutes and ended up at a clock speed of 3650 across all cores, 1.23125-1.225V with a temp of 85 - 85.13C, power usage of 101.8 - 104.8 W.

So far I am happy with it, it's been said more than once that 65W CPU's are recommended, and I stuck a 105W CPU in it.

If you have any game title's in particular your using send me a message and if I own it I might take a look at it to provide some info.

Edit: One thing I did want to try out soon was disabling the 4 "weak" cores via Ryzen Master and seeing if I can get any kind of TDP headroom to overclock the remaining 4 for gaming use only. Just to see what it will do.

Thanks man. That temp seems similar to my Cu C7 +A9x14 without a dan case. I put my build temporarily in a mid tower case with only one case fan near the IO shield. I think in most of the games CPU temps is around 60+ (tdie) and in some heavy loading games may reach 80, but it seems okay.
I will probably get my A4SFX this weekend or next week. I have a normal thick A9 in my hand, two A4x10 and two Akasa 80x10 fans so I might expect a better performance than what I have right now.
 
Thanks man. That temp seems similar to my Cu C7 +A9x14 without a dan case. I put my build temporarily in a mid tower case with only one case fan near the IO shield. I think in most of the games CPU temps is around 60+ (tdie) and in some heavy loading games may reach 80, but it seems okay.
I will probably get my A4SFX this weekend or next week. I have a normal thick A9 in my hand, two A4x10 and two Akasa 80x10 fans so I might expect a better performance than what I have right now.

Yeah, I have been wondering myself if the Asetek with a slim fan vs the C7 Cu are basically the same. I saw that the Asetek is listed as a 150W TDP cooler, but with a slim fan it may be more like a 100-120W TDP cooler which is basically a C7 Cu. Don't know until you try it out though.
 
I don’t know what settings are available on the H370-I, but, I’d guess if it doesn’t have control over the two things I mentioned then it will not enable those functions at all. Just a guess though.

I game at 1440p, nothing’s performed poorly enough to push me down so... may as well.

As for the visibility of the fan, it hasn’t bothered me. In a typical evening/low light gaming scenario I can’t really see it in a meaningful way at all. In bright daylight you can see the light part of the fan frame, but, the dark brown parts are not very visible. I thought it might bother me more than it does, tbh. If I was using a clear side panel I’d run some custom blue/pink cabling and just incorporate the colors. Maybe even consider modding a noctua fan into the SF600 to keep up consistency. I do have a pic of my build posted on page 358 with my keyboard. That’s a fairly badly lit pic so it doesn’t really reflect reality so great. It really brought out the light color more than you see it in real life. This might be a slightly more fair representation though it’s definitely brightly lit making it easier to see.
Dude....you win the internets. Love your build but seriously, that cat..."rub my belly"...I've got an orange Tom much the same, he's more a golden retriever than a cat. He steals the show.

Thanks for your input. Hope to report back once this thing is complete.
 
Here is a small list of temp values made with an Noctua L9i on an Intel i7 8700 that show what temps you can reach if you play with the maximum power consumtion of your CPU. On my Asrock board the value is called "Long Duration Power Limit" (LDPL). This value give you the chance to setup you4 CPU in that way that it will run in Intel specs and you are able to cool it. All results was made in Prime95 v26.6 (8k Test FFTs in place)

Auto (125W) = 100+°C /6x 4,3Ghz
95W = 91°C /6x 3,9-4,0Ghz
80W = 80°C /6x 3,7-3,8Ghz
65W = 72°C /6x 3,5-3,6Ghz

Special Test with LDPL @ 100W and untervolted - 0,1V.

100W + undervolt = 87°C / 6x 4,1 -4,2Ghz.
 
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On a motherboard, with the IO ports on the Right hand side, is it best to have the 24pin power and CPU power cables on the left side or on the bottom side?

I'm looking to get an AM4 mini-ITX board, and the two brands I've seen have one of the right and one on the bottom. I'm asking for power cable routing purposes, and which would be easier.

Thanks
 
Went to a LAN party and the case and bag is such an amazing combination.
Where I use to carry a backpack on my back, monitor and keyboard in one hand and case wrapped in DIY washing-line handle in the other hand, I now have everything but monitor on my shoulder and monitor in one hand.

Big thanks to DonDan!

Hi jjsyht, any chance you could load up those photos again please? I'm just wondering how tight the bag is. I'm planning on doing some clear plastic side panels which might be quite delicate and will add 3mm to the width of the case. Feedback would be appreciated thanks! Alternatively I was thinking of getting this one which seems a bit bigger, is a bit cheaper, but isn't padded.
 
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Hi guys,

i am very interested in the A4 SFX and read/watched almost every available review about this case.
What I am still a bit worried about is the fan noise, which would be the main reason (besides the better upgradeability) for me to replace my notebook with a desktop for the first time. As i don't want to loose too much of my notebook's beloved portability, the A4-SFX would be my only possible choice.

In some reviews and build videos some users criticized fan noise, especially on the cpu side.
On the one hand i guess the criticism came rather from pc users, who are used to very quiet systems in bigger cases.

On the other hand i am defnitely used to some degree of fan noise, as i am using an entry level gaming notebook (Clevo W355SS), which although is rather on the quiet side (in comparison to thinner and/or mid- to high level gaming notebooks)
Here you can checkout a review of it (please find the fan noise levels under "emissions"; I never get over their measured 44 db (even on a full stress test!). Therefore noise levels are still quite ok to me.
Although if i would decide to buy a A4 SFX i definitely want quite a bit lower fan noise levels.

My planed config would be a 65 watt cpu (8700 or ryzen 5 2600) or maybe 91 watt (8700k but without overclocking) and a non-blower style GPU (max. GTX 1070 level).
The case would stand on my desk next to my monitor (therefore not much more far away from my ears than my notebook is)

What do you think? Would that be more quiet than my notebook or wouldn't be the difference that big?

Any help is much appreciated!

Thanks in advance,
Chris
 
Its possible to get the CPU Fan noise down to a minimum. In my setup i dont even hear my cpu fan.. my psu fan is louder in games.

To get the best noise/cooling perfomance ratio you should get a cooler thats hight with the fan is similiar to the noctua nh-l9i. The cryorig will be noisy anyway because the gap between the fan and sidepanel is too big

With a fan shroud like this u can improve the cooling perfmance
https://imgur.com/gyIEUH1

There are several posts about this topic in this thread
https://hardforum.com/threads/dan-a...in-the-world.1799326/page-307#post-1043195385
 
Hi guys,

i am very interested in the A4 SFX and read/watched almost every available review about this case.
What I am still a bit worried about is the fan noise, which would be the main reason (besides the better upgradeability) for me to replace my notebook with a desktop for the first time. As i don't want to loose too much of my notebook's beloved portability, the A4-SFX would be my only possible choice.

In some reviews and build videos some users criticized fan noise, especially on the cpu side.
On the one hand i guess the criticism came rather from pc users, who are used to very quiet systems in bigger cases.

On the other hand i am defnitely used to some degree of fan noise, as i am using an entry level gaming notebook (Clevo W355SS), which although is rather on the quiet side (in comparison to thinner and/or mid- to high level gaming notebooks)
Here you can checkout a review of it (please find the fan noise levels under "emissions"; I never get over their measured 44 db (even on a full stress test!). Therefore noise levels are still quite ok to me.
Although if i would decide to buy a A4 SFX i definitely want quite a bit lower fan noise levels.

My planed config would be a 65 watt cpu (8700 or ryzen 5 2600) or maybe 91 watt (8700k but without overclocking) and a non-blower style GPU (max. GTX 1070 level).
The case would stand on my desk next to my monitor (therefore not much more far away from my ears than my notebook is)

What do you think? Would that be more quiet than my notebook or wouldn't be the difference that big?

Any help is much appreciated!

Thanks in advance,
Chris

With the v3 is possible to use a 120mm AIO in which the fan noise is very minimal if you install it in pull config.
 
Hi guys,

i am very interested in the A4 SFX and read/watched almost every available review about this case.
What I am still a bit worried about is the fan noise, which would be the main reason (besides the better upgradeability) for me to replace my notebook with a desktop for the first time. As i don't want to loose too much of my notebook's beloved portability, the A4-SFX would be my only possible choice.

In some reviews and build videos some users criticized fan noise, especially on the cpu side.
On the one hand i guess the criticism came rather from pc users, who are used to very quiet systems in bigger cases.

On the other hand i am defnitely used to some degree of fan noise, as i am using an entry level gaming notebook (Clevo W355SS), which although is rather on the quiet side (in comparison to thinner and/or mid- to high level gaming notebooks)
Here you can checkout a review of it (please find the fan noise levels under "emissions"; I never get over their measured 44 db (even on a full stress test!). Therefore noise levels are still quite ok to me.
Although if i would decide to buy a A4 SFX i definitely want quite a bit lower fan noise levels.

My planed config would be a 65 watt cpu (8700 or ryzen 5 2600) or maybe 91 watt (8700k but without overclocking) and a non-blower style GPU (max. GTX 1070 level).
The case would stand on my desk next to my monitor (therefore not much more far away from my ears than my notebook is)

What do you think? Would that be more quiet than my notebook or wouldn't be the difference that big?

Any help is much appreciated!

Thanks in advance,
Chris
dont try to jam the absolute bleeding edge hardware and oc the snot out ot it and it will be ok. the most fan noise complaints ive seen have been with 92mm high rpm fans. no shit theyre noisy.
 
Hi guys,

i am very interested in the A4 SFX and read/watched almost every available review about this case.
What I am still a bit worried about is the fan noise, which would be the main reason (besides the better upgradeability) for me to replace my notebook with a desktop for the first time. As i don't want to loose too much of my notebook's beloved portability, the A4-SFX would be my only possible choice.

In some reviews and build videos some users criticized fan noise, especially on the cpu side.
On the one hand i guess the criticism came rather from pc users, who are used to very quiet systems in bigger cases.

On the other hand i am defnitely used to some degree of fan noise, as i am using an entry level gaming notebook (Clevo W355SS), which although is rather on the quiet side (in comparison to thinner and/or mid- to high level gaming notebooks)
Here you can checkout a review of it (please find the fan noise levels under "emissions"; I never get over their measured 44 db (even on a full stress test!). Therefore noise levels are still quite ok to me.
Although if i would decide to buy a A4 SFX i definitely want quite a bit lower fan noise levels.

My planed config would be a 65 watt cpu (8700 or ryzen 5 2600) or maybe 91 watt (8700k but without overclocking) and a non-blower style GPU (max. GTX 1070 level).
The case would stand on my desk next to my monitor (therefore not much more far away from my ears than my notebook is)

What do you think? Would that be more quiet than my notebook or wouldn't be the difference that big?

Any help is much appreciated!

Thanks in advance,
Chris
tbh, I think you should be okay - preferably, run with ryzen imo - I got the Ryzen 7 2700X in there and got no heat struggles with the Aluminium Cryorig C7. If you roll with Intel, delid your CPU.
the 1070 is fine, I got a 1080 in my case - neither my CPU, nor my GPU ever thermal throttled.
 
tbh, I think you should be okay - preferably, run with ryzen imo - I got the Ryzen 7 2700X in there and got no heat struggles with the Aluminium Cryorig C7. If you roll with Intel, delid your CPU.
the 1070 is fine, I got a 1080 in my case - neither my CPU, nor my GPU ever thermal throttled.
yeah but they can get really hot before throttle. what kinda numbers do you see? 'cause to me, an 80c space heater next to me during summer sucks.
 
Thank you guys for your quick responses! Highly appreciated! (y)

mirgus: I recently read about this fan shroud mod on another page, although didn't think it would make much of a difference. Looks pretty polished! (y)
But if i read your table correctly the shroud alone makes a difference of about 10 degree C ?? Would be quite impressive...
And yes, i would definitely prefer the noctua fan over the cryorig because of air turbulences.

By the way, what about air turbulences on the gpu side? I always only hear complaints about the cpu fan, although on photos it looks like the gpu is quite near to the sidepanel as well? Aren't there air turbulence issues on the gpu side?

Alaberti: You are right! That would be the best solution regarding fan noise for sure, but would exceed my budget by a bit... (a good-to-have fallback solution though)
Isn't a water cooling solution already possible with the v2? (Thought the v3 just changed to an all black riser cable and maybe minor other changes...)

Like i mentioned before, i don't expect a silent system at all and can accept a subtle level of fan noise! But as this would become my first pc ever, i have to buy EVERY single component.
Therefore i am a bit worried about buying everything, building it and finally having only a minimal improvement regarding noise compared to my notebook... :unsure:

I like to hear what modifications you guys do for improving airflow, but would be more interested in hearing your experiences and opinions about the A4 SFX's fan noise "out of the box" with your configurations (without mods like a fan shroud or an undervolted CPU/GPU etc).

So, more opinions and experiences about that would be very appreciated!
Thanks again!!

Chris
 
Thank you guys for your quick responses! Highly appreciated! (y)

mirgus: I recently read about this fan shroud mod on another page, although didn't think it would make much of a difference. Looks pretty polished! (y)
But if i read your table correctly the shroud alone makes a difference of about 10 degree C ?? Would be quite impressive...
And yes, i would definitely prefer the noctua fan over the cryorig because of air turbulences.

By the way, what about air turbulences on the gpu side? I always only hear complaints about the cpu fan, although on photos it looks like the gpu is quite near to the sidepanel as well? Aren't there air turbulence issues on the gpu side?

Alaberti: You are right! That would be the best solution regarding fan noise for sure, but would exceed my budget by a bit... (a good-to-have fallback solution though)
Isn't a water cooling solution already possible with the v2? (Thought the v3 just changed to an all black riser cable and maybe minor other changes...)

Like i mentioned before, i don't expect a silent system at all and can accept a subtle level of fan noise! But as this would become my first pc ever, i have to buy EVERY single component.
Therefore i am a bit worried about buying everything, building it and finally having only a minimal improvement regarding noise compared to my notebook... :unsure:

I like to hear what modifications you guys do for improving airflow, but would be more interested in hearing your experiences and opinions about the A4 SFX's fan noise "out of the box" with your configurations (without mods like a fan shroud or an undervolted CPU/GPU etc).

So, more opinions and experiences about that would be very appreciated!
Thanks again!!

Chris

V2 and V3 support a 92mm AIO from asetek which is perfectly fine. It's likely within your sound tolerance, but just because a person can tolerate lots of sound doesn't mean they sounds. While I found the 92mm AIO with noctua fan an acceptable noise to heat ratio (44C idle, 75C gaming load with an 1800X and 1080) if you could go to the v3 and a 120mm AIO, try for it. The difference is about 15C cooler on average with an NXZT M22 and it's quieter than whatever game or movie I'm watching. Just my 2 cents, you're really just splitting hairs if you got this far.
 
Thank you guys for your quick responses! Highly appreciated! (y)

mirgus: I recently read about this fan shroud mod on another page, although didn't think it would make much of a difference. Looks pretty polished! (y)
But if i read your table correctly the shroud alone makes a difference of about 10 degree C ?? Would be quite impressive...
And yes, i would definitely prefer the noctua fan over the cryorig because of air turbulences.

By the way, what about air turbulences on the gpu side? I always only hear complaints about the cpu fan, although on photos it looks like the gpu is quite near to the sidepanel as well? Aren't there air turbulence issues on the gpu side?
Yea the shroud makes a 10°C difference in cooling perfomance. Why? Because without the shroud the cpu fan is recycling the hot air in the case instead of sucking in air with room temperature.

The GPU fans can make a similiar depending on the graphics cards cooler. My MSI for example as relative big fans, so its doesnt need higher RPM to get the same amount of air trough the cooler fins, therefor it makes less noise. So take a card with a good cooler and the lowest fan speeds. Tomshardware for example is including the fan speeds in their tests
 
Not sure why nobody mentions GPU turbulence.
Yea the shroud makes a 10°C difference in cooling perfomance. Why? Because without the shroud the cpu fan is recycling the hot air in the case instead of sucking in air with room temperature.

The GPU fans can make a similiar depending on the graphics cards cooler. My MSI for example as relative big fans, so its doesnt need higher RPM to get the same amount of air trough the cooler fins, therefor it makes less noise. So take a card with a good cooler and the lowest fan speeds. Tomshardware for example is including the fan speeds in their tests

I have an MSI 1080 armour and have noticed that if I take off my GPU side panel and hold it roughly 8mm away from the gpu the fan noise is way lower. Does your GPU not behave the same way? It's not super noisy with the panel on but it's much quieter spaced off. I'm going to do some tests for my custom clear side panels to see if I can reduce the turbulence with a different/less restrictive vent pattern.

On the above point I'd say the regular window pattern for the Dan case is much quieter too as it is spaced off.
 
Not sure why nobody mentions GPU turbulence.


I have an MSI 1080 armour and have noticed that if I take off my GPU side panel and hold it roughly 8mm away from the gpu the fan noise is way lower. Does your GPU not behave the same way? It's not super noisy with the panel on but it's much quieter spaced off. I'm going to do some tests for my custom clear side panels to see if I can reduce the turbulence with a different/less restrictive vent pattern.

On the above point I'd say the regular window pattern for the Dan case is much quieter too as it is spaced off.

I have an EVGA FTW 1080 and the fans spin slowly enough up until about 45% that I almost confuse them with noctua fans.

Almost.

Yeah it's a thing but compared to the CPU side my experience has been less...uh...turbulent.
 
Alaberti: Of course it's pretty hard to discuss about such "soft facts" like fan noise, as this always is subjective (unless you have a normed measuring scenario, which makes db values comparable).
I guess i would probably be fine with air cooling though as i am used to my not superloud but very audible notebook under high load; When the A4 SFX would be at least a bit better on that field, i would be fine i think... :unsure:
The AIO requires the glass sidepanels, doesn't it? At least on photos it looks too thick to use it with the standard aluminum panels, which i would want to use...

mirgus: Yeah, i understand what you mean. Didn't expect such a big difference though. But that's a very useful mod!
What did you use for this shroud? Like i said it doesn't look bad or like a "tinker solution" at all. Good job!

Richie, that's what i was curious about. But i doubt, that the glass panels are a better solution, as temps shall be quite a bit higher compared to the standard panels (from what i read so far...). So i think the better noise insulation would be compensated by the higher temps and therefor higher rpms on the GPU (and CPU) fans...?
The Loque Ghost S1 is quite a bit wider, but i don't know, if the increased width is only on the cpu side or on the gpu side as well, so that gpu turbulences would be less on that... Anyway, i like the design and size of the A4-SFX a bit more. The S1 would be my fallback if i really could not bear with the fan noise :LOL:

Does anyone have experiences with the case fan, which can be mounted instead of the 2,5 bay at the bottom of the case? Seems that most of the air is blocked by the power supply (especially with a SFX-L). So it helps fore sure, but does it bring a noticeable benefit and would that help with noise, too? Of course 1 spinning fan more, but makes all fans spin a bit slower, i guess? :LOL:

Thanks again for your help, guys! Very helpful!

Chris

P.S. Nice cable management, pslate! Looks very clean. If you don't mind, would be nice to hear your opinion about your system's noise levels as well ... (especially under high/full load)? :)
Thought the noctua would be a bit too weak for a 90W CPU like the 7700k...
 
Alaberti: Of course it's pretty hard to discuss about such "soft facts" like fan noise, as this always is subjective (unless you have a normed measuring scenario, which makes db values comparable).
I guess i would probably be fine with air cooling though as i am used to my not superloud but very audible notebook under high load; When the A4 SFX would be at least a bit better on that field, i would be fine i think... :unsure:
The AIO requires the glass sidepanels, doesn't it? At least on photos it looks too thick to use it with the standard aluminum panels, which i would want to use...

mirgus: Yeah, i understand what you mean. Didn't expect such a big difference though. But that's a very useful mod!
What did you use for this shroud? Like i said it doesn't look bad or like a "tinker solution" at all. Good job!

Richie, that's what i was curious about. But i doubt, that the glass panels are a better solution, as temps shall be quite a bit higher compared to the standard panels (from what i read so far...). So i think the better noise insulation would be compensated by the higher temps and therefor higher rpms on the GPU (and CPU) fans...?
The Loque Ghost S1 is quite a bit wider, but i don't know, if the increased width is only on the cpu side or on the gpu side as well, so that gpu turbulences would be less on that... Anyway, i like the design and size of the A4-SFX a bit more. The S1 would be my fallback if i really could not bear with the fan noise :LOL:

Does anyone have experiences with the case fan, which can be mounted instead of the 2,5 bay at the bottom of the case? Seems that most of the air is blocked by the power supply (especially with a SFX-L). So it helps fore sure, but does it bring a noticeable benefit and would that help with noise, too? Of course 1 spinning fan more, but makes all fans spin a bit slower, i guess? :LOL:

Thanks again for your help, guys! Very helpful!

Chris

P.S. Nice cable management, pslate! Looks very clean. If you don't mind, would be nice to hear your opinion about your system's noise levels as well ... (especially under high/full load)? :)
Thought the noctua would be a bit too weak for a 90W CPU like the 7700k...

https://hardforum.com/threads/dan-a...in-the-world.1799326/page-358#post-1043663403

Here is a post containing my two previous V2 92mm AIO builds, all of which I was able to close the side panel on without issue. RAM choice matters, you need to have low profile ram.
 
I don’t know what settings are available on the H370-I, but, I’d guess if it doesn’t have control over the two things I mentioned then it will not enable those functions at all. Just a guess though.

I game at 1440p, nothing’s performed poorly enough to push me down so... may as well.

As for the visibility of the fan, it hasn’t bothered me. In a typical evening/low light gaming scenario I can’t really see it in a meaningful way at all. In bright daylight you can see the light part of the fan frame, but, the dark brown parts are not very visible. I thought it might bother me more than it does, tbh. If I was using a clear side panel I’d run some custom blue/pink cabling and just incorporate the colors. Maybe even consider modding a noctua fan into the SF600 to keep up consistency. I do have a pic of my build posted on page 358 with my keyboard. That’s a fairly badly lit pic so it doesn’t really reflect reality so great. It really brought out the light color more than you see it in real life. This might be a slightly more fair representation though it’s definitely brightly lit making it easier to see.

View attachment 81604
This picture is freaky. I have the same set of speakers by my case. Is your cat sending messages to mine?
 
I actually want the Zotac 1080Ti AMP Edition (2 fans) in my DAN V3. but it's 148mm in height. which is too high, I know that. but I saw the 1080Ti compatibility post of Dondan which has the Zotac 1080Ti AMP edition in green letters which means it would fit. I don't know if this is a mistake or not? Can I fit the AMP inside the DAN without any trouble? or am I better off with finding another card?
 
I dont think that the zotac will fit. I have an 140mm hight card and any higher then that u wont be able to connect the psu cables. Also i wouldnt buy that card because the cooler isnt really good for a 1080ti
 
Oh okay.. that's a shame because it's a sexy card. :eek: Will go for the zotac blower edition then I guess? although I don't like jet sound of a blower card lol
 
i've never seen a blower card in person, only ever fan coolers. is the general consensus blower cards are louder? if so, how much louder are they on average? i'm trying to decide on a 1070Ti for my build but not sure what to go with, im rocking the dan a4sfx v3
 
i've never seen a blower card in person, only ever fan coolers. is the general consensus blower cards are louder? if so, how much louder are they on average? i'm trying to decide on a 1070Ti for my build but not sure what to go with, im rocking the dan a4sfx v3
I have the GTX 1080 founders edition, and yes, the blower is loud and annoying. It’s much more so than my smaller Zotac Mini 1080. When set at the same clocks, the mini actually runs quieter and cooler.
 
The difference between blower and non blower typically comes down to which is more important: keeping the card cool (non-blower) or keeping the rest of your computer cool (blower). You can undervolt and tweak fan curves to control acoustics and heat, though out of the box non-blowers are typically quieter. Identify what set of pros and cons works for you and choose accordingly.
 
i've never seen a blower card in person, only ever fan coolers. is the general consensus blower cards are louder? if so, how much louder are they on average? i'm trying to decide on a 1070Ti for my build but not sure what to go with, im rocking the dan a4sfx v3

I have had a few reference cards and they are quite at idle, at load I could never hear them over my game. Only time I heard the fan was when I closed the game waiting for the card to cool down, I never found it to be a problem.
 
Just wanted to put an update out there, from my posts on the last forum page, re-pasted my Asetek 545LC paried with a AMD R7 2700x and I am very happy with the temps vs noise (Gelid GC Extreme, all I had on hand). Dropped my temps!

When I pulled the Astetek off I discovered that the stock, as shipped, thermal paste coverage was... judge for yourself, pic below of coverage.

pdUwQnY.jpg
 
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Just wanted to put an update out there, from my posts on the last forum page, re-pasted my Asetek 545LC paried with a AMD R7 2700x and I am very happy with the temps vs noise (Gelid GC Extreme, all I had on hand). Dropped my temps!

When I pulled the Astetek off I discovered that the stock, as shipped, thermal paste coverage was... judge for yourself, pic below of coverage.

https://imgur.com/pdUwQnY
looks fine to me, maybe a little sparse. the better paste is prob what did it.
 
https://hardforum.com/threads/dan-a...in-the-world.1799326/page-358#post-1043663403

Here is a post containing my two previous V2 92mm AIO builds, all of which I was able to close the side panel on without issue. RAM choice matters, you need to have low profile ram.

Hell, not a single cm space wasted... :D Good job!
This guy over here modified his V1 case to use the Asetek 545, too. But he didn't get his sidepanel back on. Therefore i thought this would only be possible with the window kit...

On the other pics with the big radiator and fan parallel to the sidepanels i guess this is your aforementioned 120 AIO, which is only possible in V3, right?
If i'm not mistaken you have to do compromises on this 120 AIO though: Either using an Mini-GPU (which means more noise because of smaller heatsink and less fans) or replacing the SFX power supply with this HDplex, which requires an external power supply... Please correct me, if i am wrong.
Therefore the 120 AIO would not be an option to me, as (if i finally decide to drop my notebook for the A4-SFX) i want to keep as much portability and clean/simple setup as possible. But the 92 AIO is a good fallback-solution for me, although i think the NH-L9i would do the job for me...

Apropos Noctua: Please let me ask you another question :D
On your pics i see, that you have or had two noctua fans at the bottom of one case. As i am not convinced of the "offical approved" one right under the PSU (isn't most of airflow blocked by the PSU and cables?), the one under the mainboard would make much more sense to me!
Could you tell me how you get this fan over there working or would that require further modding or even drilling holes into the case? :unsure:

Sorry for so many questions, but as notebook user i am almost completely blank regarding these topics, getting headache from so many many information, technical terms and acronyms i read on different forums... :LOL:

Best regards,
Chris
 
Chris4SFX:
You are right with your thoughts. 120 AIO requires v3. With full size GPU a external PSU and with ITX GPU it will work with SFX PSU.
The 92mm AIO tubing will only fit if you use default RAM without heatsinks.
If you use a Gigabyte 1080 ITX you can use the 120mm AIO with SFX PSU and you will have a very powerful system.
 
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