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

+1 to silentbob and iFreilicht

The case was't designed with WC in mind, if you need WC JFK, get the Ncase or modify the A4, if the mods are as easy as you say you should have no issue getting a machine shop to help you.
 
Curiositie said:
+1 to silentbob and iFreilicht

The case was't designed with WC in mind, if you need WC JFK, get the Ncase or modify the A4, if the mods are as easy as you say you should have no issue getting a machine shop to help you.
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I got their machine shop right here:
http://www.amazon.com/b?ie=UTF8&node=5538998011

Time to stop suggesting changes to design. Time to start planning builds and moddy shenanigans. Anyone else thinking about making plexi sides to show off at parties?
 
I've thought about a plexi side panel. but I'm not sure how I'd go about it.

Maybe a C shape showing the mobo that avoids the CPU cooler?

Same for CPU, not sure how I'd do it since I personally dislike vented plexi.
 
andgo said:
The HD PLEX 250W power board if properly cooled can do 400W with an external brick. There's a test floating around here somewhere.
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The HDPLEX doesn't have the connections for two cards. If it did, there still is no two-card combo that the HDPLEX is capable of powering that wouldn't be better served by a single card.

jb1 said:
My thought was to place two ITX GPUs side by side and have them on single slot liquid cooling, this would give you more than the performance of a normal full length GPU! Possibly this could be done with 2x R9 Nano.
.
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Look at the ports on your single slot waterblock of choice. Now imagine connecting two together. Does it fit in a dual slot space? AFAIK, there is no way to fit two single-slot waterblocks in a dual slot space.
 
Silentbob343 said:
Lol

You aren't in the target market of this case then, plain and simple. I love how you just joined and are dictating to someone how a finalized product needs to change at the 11th hour to accommodate your edge use-case.

You should design a case for the needs of those people and not expect others to do it for you.
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And who are you Mr Nobody to dictate me if Im target market for the case or not.Buzz off.If you want use X99 you must have WC, the 80C for Prime95 with ambient 24-25C is not acceptable.Its much hotter in southern Europe thats first second having so hot cooler inside case may overheat/damage board with time.Mount/holes for WC would greatly expand profits and market for this case and it in the designer best interest.And why I want X99 and DAN A4 ? Its much portable enough for carry on while flying, I could go with M1 Ncase but I would prefer DAN and most probably other customers too.Beside ... with WC you could possibly WC CPU/GPU and do overclocking - another expanded market - gamers who could easily take it for LAN parties and friends.This case is expensive so option for WC would big plus to justify the price.
 
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Personnaly I wouldn't mind having holes for WC on the back of the DAN A4. But not on the side. Hell no ! That would be FUGLY.

Also, you desire to put WC along the DAN A4 is a niche usage for an already niche product. DAN A4 will probably not sell far more units with this option.

In my case i wouldn't buy one with big holes on the side.
 
Runamok81 said:
The HDPLEX doesn't have the connections for two cards. If it did, there still is no two-card combo that the HDPLEX is capable of powering that wouldn't be better served by a single card.

Look at the ports on your single slot waterblock of choice. Now imagine connecting two together. Does it fit in a dual slot space? AFAIK, there is no way to fit two single-slot waterblocks in a dual slot space.
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Yeah that's what I was thinking, why the hell would you want two ITX 970s or two Nanos if you can just get a Titan X or a Fury X2?

You can actually mount two single-slot blocked cards in two adjacent slots, though. Take a look at this Tri-SLI mATX Build Log.
 
JFK78 said:
And who are you Mr Nobody to dictate me if Im target market for the case or not.Buzz off.If you want use X99 you must have WC, the 80C for Prime95 with ambient 24-25C is not acceptable.Its much hotter in southern Europe thats first second having so hot cooler inside case may overheat/damage board with time.Mount/holes for WC would greatly expand profits and market for this case and it in the designer best interest.And why I want X99 and DAN A4 ? Its much portable enough for carry on while flying, I could go with M1 Ncase but I would prefer DAN and most probably other customers too.Beside ... with WC you could possibly WC CPU/GPU and do overclocking - another expanded market - gamers who could easily take it for LAN parties and friends.This case is expensive so option for WC would big plus to justify the price.
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We are people who have followed this project for far longer than you have...

There is a specific target market for this case. You clearly do not lie within it.
 
Also, if the CPU exceeds TjMax, it won't destroy itself, it'll just throttle. This isn't a classic Athlon or anything.
 
JFK78 said:
If you want use X99 you must have WC
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This is incorrect. If for some bizarre purpose you really want to overclock a 140w TDP CPU in a tiny, case, then put a faster fan on the low-profile heatsink. We already know from 1U servers that even a tiny cooler is sufficient with enough airflow, so you'll just have to trade cooling for quietness.

By the time you've added an outboard radiator and fans, you've grown the total volume to close to that of an SG13, so that case would likely be better suited for you.

If you really do want to add an external radiator, cutting two holes in a side or top panel is not exactly a challenging mod. A hand drill and a holesaw would be sufficient.
 
JFK78 said:
And who are you Mr Nobody to dictate me if Im target market for the case or not.Buzz off.If you want use X99 you must have WC, the 80C for Prime95 with ambient 24-25C is not acceptable.Its much hotter in southern Europe thats first second having so hot cooler inside case may overheat/damage board with time.Mount/holes for WC would greatly expand profits and market for this case and it in the designer best interest.And why I want X99 and DAN A4 ? Its much portable enough for carry on while flying, I could go with M1 Ncase but I would prefer DAN and most probably other customers too.Beside ... with WC you could possibly WC CPU/GPU and do overclocking - another expanded market - gamers who could easily take it for LAN parties and friends.This case is expensive so option for WC would big plus to justify the price.
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You admited it, I didn't need to dictate it. If you want x99/A4/WC you'll need to mod or the case is not for you. I have no issue with people making suggestions, but the way in which you went about it was rude.

You are new here, so some advice, you come off as abrasive and it doesn't help your cause.
 
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iFreilicht said:
Yeah that's what I was thinking, why the hell would you want two ITX 970s or two Nanos if you can just get a Titan X or a Fury X2?

You can actually mount two single-slot blocked cards in two adjacent slots, though. Take a look at this Tri-SLI mATX Build Log.
Click to expand...

Holy hell overkill rads. It'd have to be incredibly noisy (delta fan type speeds) to utilize rads that thick.
 
JFK78 said:
And who are you Mr Nobody to dictate me if Im target market for the case or not.Buzz off.If you want use X99 you must have WC, the 80C for Prime95 with ambient 24-25C is not acceptable.Its much hotter in southern Europe thats first second having so hot cooler inside case may overheat/damage board with time.Mount/holes for WC would greatly expand profits and market for this case and it in the designer best interest.And why I want X99 and DAN A4 ? Its much portable enough for carry on while flying, I could go with M1 Ncase but I would prefer DAN and most probably other customers too.Beside ... with WC you could possibly WC CPU/GPU and do overclocking - another expanded market - gamers who could easily take it for LAN parties and friends.This case is expensive so option for WC would big plus to justify the price.
Click to expand...

You clearly don't know what You are talking about. Do a favor to yourself and start reading the thread from the begining and you you will get there...
 
@ Dan,

The height limit of 48mm CPU cooler is measured with mobo standoff* installed or without?


*usual 6mm+ standoffs.
 
Curiositie said:
IIRC Monsta rads have a low FPI (7?) so you don't need stupid loud fans to use them efficiently.


Edit:

10FPI according to xtreme rigs.
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I meant that the air is saturated with heat probably about half way through. Even in this review with the fans on high (1850rpm in this case) it performs about the same as a "slim" radiator.

http://www.xtremerigs.net/2015/03/25/alphacool-nexxxos-monsta-360-radiator-review/5/

To get your space/money's worth you'd have to get the RPMs way higher.
 
A small status update:

Two new samples are on the way from Taiwan to me.
One sample is for a big german review side page and the other for my reseller if they like it.
I also get the cases with a new secreat riser that has a better price as the 3M one. Maybe it is coequal with the 3M.

The german review side will test the case with very interesting hardware. I can only say Titan, Skylake, C7, Impact VIII...

On weekend I will start with creating the manual for the case.

Currently we have more than 1650 subscriptions.
 
really looking forward to this test, since i'm currently planning to use the A4 with Skylake i7 + C7 cooler. Keep up the great work :)
 
Seriously though, was over on the NCase M1 thread, and they are going to Ver. 5 on their next production run.

The change(s)…? Purely aesthetic, blue in USB front panel ports changed to black, flange removed from same as well.

Got me thinking, would rather have a black USB without the flange as well…

Seems like an easy enough change, no actual structural adjustments needed; just specifying a particular USB over another…?
 
Boil said:
Seriously though, was over on the NCase M1 thread, and they are going to Ver. 5 on their next production run.

The change(s)…? Purely aesthetic, blue in USB front panel ports changed to black, flange removed from same as well.

Got me thinking, would rather have a black USB without the flange as well…

Seems like an easy enough change, no actual structural adjustments needed; just specifying a particular USB over another…?
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Changes are purely aesthetic because the design is almost perfect :D This is what happens when you take your time to release something, and take as many opinions as you can... that you get something good.

Something tells me it will be the same with DAN A4-SFX. ;)
 
Been looking at the temperature data again (over on page one) and it looks like the non-reference cards have lower temps than the blower style reference cards…

But what about the effects of non-reference/blower-style cards on the rest of the chassis? Does a blower card, while hotter itself, actually lead to a cooler overall chassis temp? Or would the extra air moving about, even though heated from the non-reference card, help move air about & out of the chassis?

Just wondering if I go with the reference/blower EVGA GTX 970, or the non-reference EVGA GTX 970 FTW w/ACX 2.0 cooling?

I am going to keep this to a decent gaming rig build, but with lower wattage parts. Trying to keep overall temps down so I can hopefully avoid any thermal throttling issues on the SSD I want to use.

Silverstone SX500-LG 500w SFX-L PSU

I want to get the 700w version if it is released in time, would rather have the extra 'headroom' as far as the PSU is concerned…

Gigabyte H170 miniITX board w/M.2 on backside

Intel Core i5 6500 Skylake CPU - 3.2GHz @ 65w

Crucial Ballistix Tactical 16GB (2 @ 8GB) DDR4 2666 SDRAM

Samsung 256GB NVMe M.2 format / PCIe 3.0 4x interface 950 Pro SSD

EVGA GeForce GTX 970 FTW w/ACX 2.0 GPU - NON Reference

And, of course, a Cryorig C7, which Newegg does not carry yet…

Add in a set of custom cables from IceModz, gonna have them made JUST long enough to connect properly with a minimal of excess cabling. The MB takes a 4-pin for CPU power, so no need for those four extra wires going that way. The GPU takes an 8 & a 6 pin connector, so a single 8 pin wire array to the GPU itself, and then a split off wire array for the 6 pin connector,; again, no need of a few extra wires, even if it is only for a 2 inch span. 24 pin for MB power will probably be less than 6 inches in length. So yeah, SHORT cables! They cost more, but in the long run, will probably make the build easier & cleaner…

REALLY looking forward to this chassis!!!

All said & done, for all the above AND the A4-SFX chassis itself, I should be looking at about US$1,500.00 for a complete buttoned up build. Not too bad…

And for any wondering why the low-power CPU, why the non-overclockable MB, stuff like that…

This will be a Hackintosh; mainly for running WoW, surfing the Internet & watching movies…
 
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A frog-eater with you .... And that also would want a Dan-Case as soon as possible ...

I already have much of what will be in the box ...

- SilverStone SFX-L SX500-LG (500W SFX-L)
- MSI GeForce GTX980 TI Golden Edition 6.0 GB OC
- Corsair Vengeance LPX Series Low Profile 32 Go (2x 16 Go) DDR4 3000 MHz CL15
- Intel Core i7-5820K (3.3 GHz)
- ASRock X99E-ITX/ac
- Crucial MX200 500 Go M.2 Type 2280 (System)
- Dynatron T-318
- Noctua NF-A9x14 PWM 92mm

- For the data, I plan to put a Samsung SSD 850 PRO 2 To or a WD Green Mobile 2 To 2.5" SATA III 6Gb/s... I don't know yet...

I calculated a consumption of about 450W with Power Supply Calculator.

Utilisation: 24/24 with P2P and 4/24 with video/audio/gaming...

The computer power a 40" screen in 4K (Philips BDM4065UC) and in "fiesta" week-end, plus a HD screen projector (my company graciously lent me :) )

This is going to replace an "old" Shuttle SX58J3 with I7, 16Go, 256SSD, 4To HD and Gainward Phantom GTX560... :)

I therefore look forward to the dan box. I have a mailing address in the US to buy via the Kickstarter soon as available.

Compared to electronic certification of the case. I reminds that it is a "case" and that sold in the state, it can not emit any electromagnetic interferance. It was therefore not to pass any test or certificationemit.

We have tons of example with boxes sold by major computer stores and totally open, such as for example the IN WIN-D Frame sold in all major computer stores in Europe.

It would be unfortunate if this delays of deliveries to European who wish so this case.

Finally, I would have preferred the riser 3M for the durability of the housing facing the future standarts PCI-E 4th or 5th generation not yet revealed a quite pay 50 € more. When we invested in a case of this quality, this may be a shame to have a lower quality piece in the middle of this thing . One can find photos of the riser LianLi on the internet, and this is clearly not the quality of the 3M riser.

If however the LianLi riser is bundled, they will have the ability to mount "at posteriori" the 3M riser with the following reference (3M 8KC3-0726-0250)?



Big thank to Dondan and the entire community to have managed to think of such a remarkable case in its design. :)





PS: the only one piece that requesting certification is the "electrical extension" included in the box that is an electrical equipment rated "medium voltage class" which actually requires electrical certification. This piece is being subcontracted, it is the subcontractor to provide certification (just for this cable).

It can be the same for the riser and for the 3M shielded riser, certification is guaranteed with 3M...

Regarding the Lian Li riser , we find it on the wallmont case serie PC05/06/07 (Sold in Europe), and in any case, is the manufacturer of the riser to provide certification of its electroaccessories material and not to the manufacturer of the box which is a totally passive piece.

"The case is provided with (free bundle) an electrical extension (certified... blablabla) and a shielded riser (certified blablabla...)"
 
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StaticSounds said:
First of all I'd like to praise your initiative Dondan, I'm a big fan of compact cases.

Secondly I have some questions for mods the end-user might achieve:
Are there enough room for lowering the female end of the riser and are there any obstacles?
I'm thinking there might be room for ssd's above the videocard if the socket was lowered and the c14 coupler was moved to the top of the case.
I reckon that this will take up some space at the bottom otherwise intended for cablemanagement, but who needs space when going compact :) Some might say that it will reduce aestethics with a power cable at the top, this could be solved with an angled c13 coupler.

Based on; GTX980 height ~120mm, 2,5" SSD width: ~70mm, Case inner height 200mm
Leaving roughly 30 mm for the riser as i see it.
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Counterquestion: How should those SSDs fit up there? The GPU compartment is only ~43mm wide, just enough for the GPU to fit.
You could probably put M.2 or mSATA SSDs there by using an adapter, but they'd already fit there without any modification.

Also, the riser has a straight termination, not an angled one, so it would be hard to move the GPU down by much. You'd also interfere with the IEC C14 connector on the back.

This was covered before, IIRC.

And even those were no obstacles, how would you secure the GPU after your mod?
 
StaticSounds said:
Are there enough room for lowering the female end of the riser and are there any obstacles?
I'm thinking there might be room for ssd's above the videocard if the socket was lowered and the c14 coupler was moved to the top of the case.
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Then the C14 connector will collidate with high GPU e.g. the MSI GTX 980 Ti Gamig 4G
 
dondan said:
Then the C14 connector will collidate with high GPU e.g. the MSI GTX 980 Ti Gamig 4G
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He's talking about a mod he'd like to do, not a standard option.

Silentbob343 said:
2.5" SSDs are 69mm wide.
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I misunderstood that previously as well, the idea is to generate ~70mm of space above the GPU to fit the SSDs in a vertical orientation.

StaticSounds said:
We seem to be misunderstanding eachother, I made a rough sketch: http://i64.tinypic.com/24dk305.png

This mod would ofc limit the hight of the graficscard.
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After reading your reply I think this mod might be possible, if, and only if, you replace the riser with an angled one. Putting stress on the straight termination and the solderjoints of the riser is a bad idea, even if the 3M riser is really strong in that regard.
 
From what I know, the 3M riser can be bent at a 1mm radius because its ribbon-cable is so thin. Do you know the exact measurements of your GPU? I could see a potential problem arising if the measurements you know are off by a few mms.
 
Am I right in thinking that Dominator platinum RAM is far too tall to fit in the A4-SFX?
 
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I'm disappointed that I missed the RAM heigh max on the website.
Thanks for finding it for me. :)
I'd be going dominator mostly for how beautiful they are, speed would be a very nice secondary.
 
Here is a first preview how the Cryorig C7 will perform on an Intel i7 6700k.

c9_1200eduk0.png


The test was made with Prim95 8K test. Prime95 is a extreme scenario for a CPU in a normal Game the temperature will be around 10-15°C lower.
 
Is this test inside the A4 or is this a screenshot from another review? Anyways, this is the cooler of my choice.
 
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