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

I can't decide if I want to use an M-Sata card or just a regular SSD....lol

How far off are we on the production of the case? Since it's limited run (as far as I know?) I'm going to order it as my first piece.

I do want to run watercooling, but can't decide if I want to start with the swiftech closed loop and add to it later (vga cooler) or just go custom loop. And I can't seem to find a higher wattage SFX PSU than 450watts.
 
It must be some seriously overclocked Core i5 or i7 with a dual-GPU card, no doubt.
 
Diverge said:
EVGA Stinger should be avoided until proven that their bios isn't complete garbage again. As a buyer of their Z77 itx, i'm just warning anyone not to be a pioneer with their boards unless you don't mind huge headaches, and very slow development. Look at their forums, they are notorious for garbage bioses.
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I wouldn't touch their boards, quality has taken a huge dive since half their team bailed to Sapphire. The last good series was for x58 heh.
 
kevral said:
Did Asus change their approach?
The SupremeFX that I had last time was nothing more than a software-enhanced Realtek.
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I thought it was different different, but perhaps I'm mistaken there.

Phuncz said:
I'll be getting the Asrock Z87E-ITX myself, it seems to be loaded with all the goodies I want: Intel Gbit NIC, 802.11ac, mSATA-600, Realtek ALC1150 with TI NE5532 headphone Amp and optical, decent placement of headers and components.
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I plan on using an H220 in the M1, so my concern is that the pump won't fit on the CPU due to the socket placement, since that was an issue with the last Asrock mITX board.
 
No just a single GTX 780 with a 4670k, possibly overclocked but also with a water cooling setup of some sort. I guess 450w is likely enough. The Silverstone 450w that's modular looks pretty nice.
 
huguberhart said:
Look for Athena Power.
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that athena power is a complete unknown, and it looks like crap. the 450W gold silverstone can actually provide OVER 500W due to its high quality, though i wouldnt push it like that myself. that "600W" athena power probably puts out less power on the 12V rail than the 450W silverstones, and probably does it at lower quality as well. if you REALLY need more than 450W (which you probably dont) then you should really go for a short, quality, atx psu.
 
Well the problem with putting an ATX PSU in this case is you can't put the dual 120 radiator in at that point right? Although I imagine the 450w silverstone is likely fine, the GTX 780 is more efficient than the 680, and the haswell CPU's are quite a bit more efficient as well.
 
hdale85 said:
Well the problem with putting an ATX PSU in this case is you can't put the dual 120 radiator in at that point right? Although I imagine the 450w silverstone is likely fine, the GTX 780 is more efficient than the 680, and the haswell CPU's are quite a bit more efficient as well.
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exactly. you can only fit one cpu and one gpu in this case, so there is pretty much no situation in which you will need more power than the gold 450W can supply. if you do need more, then go with a different case as you must be OCing quite heavily and this tiny case will not support your heat load.
 
well with a dual 120 radiator I think oc'ing the 4570k a decent amount should be easily doable.
 
hdale85 said:
well with a dual 120 radiator I think oc'ing the 4570k a decent amount should be easily doable.
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meh. doable, but not necessary. if you actually do push it into diminishing returns just for e-peen points then you might be able to go past the PSUs capabilities. that would, however, mean that your cpu is being epically bottlenecked by your GPU unless you have a titan and similarly overclock it which would mean water for both which means both will be on a single dual 120 rad which will mean you actually cant OC that much in this case. if you plan on just pumping up your CPU OC for absolutely no reason then i guess that's your choice but you will not get any worthwhile performance gains out of all that extra power usage and heat developed. the main point of people wanting to WC in this case is for noise, not pumping up your OC to epically stupid levels just for bragging rights.
 
I didn't say stupid levels, but I'm not sure if I'd overclock anything, I haven't overclocked my current setup so?
 
Is there a way to get in on one of these? I've hit every link but I'm coming up cold.
 
Sorry if it's been discussed before, but were there any tests with the two 120mm side fans as exhaust? I was kinda curious to see how the h220 would perform with the fans pulling through the radiator to exhaust, while perhaps using bottom fans as intake.

Also, does anyone know how well in general top-down-style cpu coolers work with the fan pulling air up? I've tried google, but have never found any information. I'd like to know how the C14 would perform when exhausting out the side panel in this case as well.
 
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I've always been a budget oriented system builder. However, I've got some extra cash right now and the computer I build in a few months with this case will likely be the last computer I ever build. I think in a few years when this new system becomes obsolete laptops will be able to handle anything you can throw at them.

If I were buying today, this is what I would be putting inside;

Intel Core i7-4770 Haswell CPU
EVGA 03G-P4-2781-KR GeForce GTX 780 Graphics Card
ASRock Z87E-ITX Motherboard
Crucial Ballistix Sport 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3 1600 RAM
SILVERSTONE ST45SF-G 450W PSU
Plextor M5M PX-256M5M mSATA 256GB SSD

CPU cooling and case fans TBD. No desire to get a ODD. Storage hard drive(s) will come from previous desktop and this computer will utilize my storage sever for anything else. This would be an upgrade from a Phenom II x4 955 and Gforce 460 machine.
 
If you're just gaming the 4770 is likely overkill, just get the 4670. But that's almost identical to my build.
 
Lord_Vale3 said:
You can't quite get one yet. There will be a KS production campaign, you contribute enough to that to get a case.
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There probably will be no Kickstarter production campaign, but one on Indiegogo, like the project finance once. You can read it on the Indiegogo page.
 
grazina said:
Will there be enough room inside the case with the NH-C14 and a 14mm thick fan like this Noctua NF-A9x14?
noctua_nf_a9x14_pwm_2.jpg
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Also, was this question ever answered? I know I could mount a fan on the outside of the grille and use another fan grille, but using the 14mm thick fan as an internal exhaust along with the NH-C14 would be awesome. That and the external fans power cable, even though briefly on the outside before going through the top WC grommet, would ruin the look a bit. In thermal testing part 2 it is mentioned that there is a fan mounted externally, but no pictures were taken of this to see how it looks. :mad:
 
Now that prototype testing is done, do we have an estimated date when the production fund will begin?
 
Screes said:
Now that prototype testing is done, do we have an estimated date when the production fund will begin?
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Did Necere announce testing complete? I must have missed that.I just been eye balling the thread every other day or so.
 
hdale85 said:
If you're just gaming the 4770 is likely overkill, just get the 4670. But that's almost identical to my build.
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I'm a photographer and do a lot of work in Adobe Lightroom. The added CPU horsepower helps in importing and rendering photos. This should be a substantial increase over my Phenom II X4
 
Smitty2k1 said:
I'm a photographer and do a lot of work in Adobe Lightroom. The added CPU horsepower helps in importing and rendering photos. This should be a substantial increase over my Phenom II X4
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Lightroom imports are limited by your memory card read speeds, not by your CPU.
 
Lord_Vale3 said:
Also, was this question ever answered?
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I'm also still waiting for this answer, but i decided to postpone buying additional gear until I have the case in my hands. Fans and grills and sata cables/power splitters are some of the items I'm leaving for last. But this fan would be cool inside. We just need to know if it actually does any good to have a fan in that spot exhausting air.
 
Ubiquity said:
Lightroom imports are limited by your memory card read speeds, not by your CPU.
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Not sure about Lightroom, but if you deal with RAW, a lot of photo managers will immediately convert a version to a high quality JPEG for easier viewing and navigation in the photo browser, switching to viewing the RAW only when you are editing. This conversion takes CPU.
 
Jomanscool2 said:
Not sure about Lightroom, but if you deal with RAW, a lot of photo managers will immediately convert a version to a high quality JPEG for easier viewing and navigation in the photo browser, switching to viewing the RAW only when you are editing. This conversion takes CPU.
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This is correct. The longest part of the import process is the rendering of 1:1 full size preview JPEGS for faster browsing and picking of photos.

Also, as adjustments are made to raw images the JPEG must be re-rendered.
 
Smitty2k1 said:
This is correct. The longest part of the import process is the rendering of 1:1 full size preview JPEGS for faster browsing and picking of photos.

Also, as adjustments are made to raw images the JPEG must be re-rendered.
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Which is why smart people turn off 1:1 previews on import.
 
Ubiquity said:
Which is why smart people turn off 1:1 previews on import.
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I prefer to take care of it at import rather than wait for them to render when I view full size, though rendering standard size previews meeting the resolution of your preview monitor is acceptable too.

Just different preferences for different people, which is why Adobe gives us options.
 
Smitty2k1 said:
I prefer to take care of it at import rather than wait for them to render when I view full size, though rendering standard size previews meeting the resolution of your preview monitor is acceptable too.

Just different preferences for different people, which is why Adobe gives us options.
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I guess for me it makes a lot more sense to create minimal previews on import and then manually create 1:1 previews before I start actually working with the photos, usually when I'm doing something else and it doesn't matter how long they take to render. And you don't really need a 1:1 preview to cull your photos when in the Library module.

But that's all kind of beside the point in relation to the original comment. The performance differences between a 4670 and 4770 in that use case are minimal.
 
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I don't know why the haswell reviews are disappointing? But that board looks really nice.....
 
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