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

LuckyIrishLife said:

So that leaves the ASUS Pro Gaming or the Gigabyte Gaming 5, but the Gigabyte doesn't look like a reliable platform from the reviews I've seen.

Click to expand...

Which is really too bad, given its feature set. It even has Intel's Alpine Ridge USB 3.1/Thunderbolt controller with Type A and C ports. Why oh why did Asus not put an M.2 port on the Maximus VIII Impact? How about Asrock?

Qrash said:

Which is really too bad, given its feature set. It even has Intel's Alpine Ridge USB 3.1/Thunderbolt controller with Type A and C ports. Why oh why did Asus not put an M.2 port on the Maximus VIII Impact? How about Asrock?

Click to expand...

I talked to JJ from Asus at Quakecon this year and mentioned that, he said that they chose U.2 because with M.2 SSD's like the 950 throttling when placed on the back of boards it made more sense to them to support a standard that lets you place the SSD wherever you like, even if there's not a lot of choices for U.2 drives at the moment.
Or at least, that's what I think I remember he said the reasoning was.
As to why not put the M.2 on the front- you can plainly tell the front of the board is stuffed full of parts as is.

Curiositie said:

I talked to JJ from Asus at Quakecon this year and mentioned that, he said that they chose U.2 because with M.2 SSD's like the 950 throttling when placed on the back of boards it made more sense to them to support a standard that lets you place the SSD wherever you like, even if there's not a lot of choices for U.2 drives at the moment.
Or at least, that's what I think I remember he said the reasoning was.
As to why not put the M.2 on the front- you can plainly tell the front of the board is stuffed full of parts as is.

Click to expand...

My rear mounted M.2 SSD runs a bit warm, but I have seen users report on extremely high temps on the front mounted M.2 SSDs. I would rather have it on the back especially since the ncase has the vented side covers.

Curiositie said:

I talked to JJ from Asus at Quakecon this year and mentioned that, he said that they chose U.2 because with M.2 SSD's like the 950 throttling when placed on the back of boards it made more sense to them to support a standard that lets you place the SSD wherever you like, even if there's not a lot of choices for U.2 drives at the moment.
Or at least, that's what I think I remember he said the reasoning was.
As to why not put the M.2 on the front- you can plainly tell the front of the board is stuffed full of parts as is.

Click to expand...

Thanks for that information. JJ has always been pretty upfront with consumers.

I believe there have been some posts from people with M.2 SSDs on the rear of their motherboards and they have not seen much throttling in normal use. Only benchmarks seem to cause the level of heating that leads to throttling. At least, that's what I remember reading from those posts. The M1 has ventilation holes nicely placed to cool a drive in that location. Hopefully, future M.2 drives will be more efficient and throttling will be less of an issue. We'll have to wait and see.

I haven't read any reviews of Samsung's 960 or 961 drives that were announced in June. Ram City in Australia lists the 1 TB SM961 for ~ $550 (US), but they're not in stock until October.

rfarmer said:

My rear mounted M.2 SSD runs a bit warm, but I have seen users report on extremely high temps on the front mounted M.2 SSDs. I would rather have it on the back especially since the ncase has the vented side covers.

Click to expand...

I'm glad yours is doing well.
I'll be honest, I haven't looked too hard into m.2 since I'm on a Z77 board, and because of that don't know too much about thermal issues/ non issues, but the vented side cover would make sense for it to run cooler.

Qrash said:

Thanks for that information. JJ has always been pretty upfront with consumers.

I believe there have been some posts from people with M.2 SSDs on the rear of their motherboards and they have not seen much throttling in normal use. Only benchmarks seem to cause the level of heating that leads to throttling. At least, that's what I remember reading from those posts. The M1 has ventilation holes nicely placed to cool a drive in that location. Hopefully, future M.2 drives will be more efficient and throttling will be less of an issue. We'll have to wait and see.

I haven't read any reviews of Samsung's 960 or 961 drives that were announced in June. Ram City in Australia lists the 1 TB SM961 for ~ $550 (US), but they're not in stock until October.

Click to expand...

He was great to talk to, I gave him feedback on a few asus things I own and he wrote down notets, we ended up talking about stuff for about an hour.
Are those supposed to run cooler? I haven't been keeping up with M.2 since I can't really use one right now.

Curiositie said:

I'm glad yours is doing well.
I'll be honest, I haven't looked too hard into m.2 since I'm on a Z77 board, and because of that don't know too much about thermal issues/ non issues, but the vented side cover would make sense for it to run cooler.

He was great to talk to, I gave him feedback on a few asus things I own and he wrote down notets, we ended up talking about stuff for about an hour.
Are those supposed to run cooler? I haven't been keeping up with M.2 since I can't really use one right now.

Click to expand...

I don't know. Allyn at PC Perspective mentioned that Samsung's new Polaris controller will be more efficient. It's been the controller overheating in the past that caused throttling, so that's an obvious area to make improvements. Hopefully we'll know soon.

Great Info Guys!

Ok, so this is my revised build plan:

i7 6700k
Samsung 950 Pro 512gb
Gigabyte G1 Z170N Gaming 5
Corsair SF600
Corsair Vengeance LPX 3200 DDR4 2x8gb Red
Exhaust: Noctua NF-A9 PWM (It's going to be such an eye sore)
EVGA 1080 GTX SC Gaming ACX 3.0
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-C14 (remove both 140mm fans) add 120mm NH-F12 Industrial 2000RPM PWM with Red Chromax Bumpers underneath C14
Case Fans:
2 120mm NH-F12 Industrial 2000RPM PWM fans with Red Chromax Bumpers for the side (1 pulling air in over the C14, the other pushing air out) with Red Chromax Bumpers
2 120mm NH-F12 Industrial 2000RPM PWM fans with Red Chromax Bumpers for the bottom of the case both pulling air in

Going for a Red, White, and Black theme. Debating on White or Red Vengeance LPX RAM. Also, debating white or red chromax bumpers for the industrial all black noctua fans, might do a mix of 2 red and 2 white, etc.

Anyone have a 92mm PWM Noctua equivalent that would go better with my color scheme?

I suppose I could always attempt the Noctua color mod by using dye to the color the 92mm fan how I want.

Not ready for implementing a liquid cooling setup. I'll stick to air cooling to start.

LuckyIrishLife said:

Great Info Guys!

Ok, so this is my revised build plan:

i7 6700k
Samsung 950 Pro 512gb
Gigabyte G1 Z170N Gaming 5
Corsair SF600
Corsair Vengeance LPX 3200 DDR4 2x8gb Red
Exhaust: Noctua NF-A9 PWM (It's going to be such an eye sore)
EVGA 1080 GTX SC Gaming ACX 3.0
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-C14 (remove both 140mm fans) add 120mm NH-F12 Industrial 2000RPM PWM with Red Chromax Bumpers underneath C14
Case Fans:
2 120mm NH-F12 Industrial 2000RPM PWM fans with Red Chromax Bumpers for the side (1 pulling air in over the C14, the other pushing air out) with Red Chromax Bumpers
2 120mm NH-F12 Industrial 2000RPM PWM fans with Red Chromax Bumpers for the bottom of the case both pulling air in

Going for a Red, White, and Black theme. Debating on White or Red Vengeance LPX RAM. Also, debating white or red chromax bumpers for the industrial all black noctua fans, might do a mix of 2 red and 2 white, etc.

Anyone have a 92mm PWM Noctua equivalent that would go better with my color scheme?

I suppose I could always attempt the Noctua color mod by using dye to the color the 92mm fan how I want.

Not ready for implementing a liquid cooling setup. I'll stick to air cooling to start.

Click to expand...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIAADY4B02901 Have you looked at these? Not black but much better than the brown.

Switched from the reference 1080 to the ASUS Strix and recorded my temps with each card and their effects on the other components. I ran Heaven + the AIDA64 system stability test for 45 minutes. The biggest drop so far has been in games where the blower would easily hit the 83° mark and throttle while the Strix sits around 69° at a much lower fan speed. Although for whatever reason I don't mind the sound of blower cards even when they maxed out.

Refrence cooler - NCASE M1 w/ blower cooler

Open air cooler - NCASE M1 w/ open air cooler

redshoulder said:

Where did you purchase them?

Click to expand...

i found some 2 guys one from hardforum and one overclock.net where they'd uploadet a PC build years ago where there where pictured a GT92mm i wrote to them and asked if i could buy it for the right price so i ended up with 3 GT92mm fans

Finished my build today! This was a fun project. I plan to use this as my main workstation and for 4k gaming, so no corners were cut...spec list:

Intel Xeon E5 2695-v3
Asrock X99 itx
Nvidia Titan X Pascal
Crucial 64G (32x2) ddr4 ECC 2133
Corsair SF600
CPU cooling: Noctua NH-C14. Phanteks 140HP on top, original 140mm Noctua fan on bottom
Samsung 950 pro m.2 512g
2x Phanteks 120MP for bottom intake
Cablemod custom cables: 400mm 24-pin, 150mm 8-pin, 200mm 6/8-pin PCIE
A whole lot of cable ties!

LuckyIrishLife said:

Great Info Guys!

Ok, so this is my revised build plan:

i7 6700k
Samsung 950 Pro 512gb
Gigabyte G1 Z170N Gaming 5
Corsair SF600
Corsair Vengeance LPX 3200 DDR4 2x8gb Red
Exhaust: Noctua NF-A9 PWM (It's going to be such an eye sore)
EVGA 1080 GTX SC Gaming ACX 3.0
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-C14 (remove both 140mm fans) add 120mm NH-F12 Industrial 2000RPM PWM with Red Chromax Bumpers underneath C14
Case Fans:
2 120mm NH-F12 Industrial 2000RPM PWM fans with Red Chromax Bumpers for the side (1 pulling air in over the C14, the other pushing air out) with Red Chromax Bumpers
2 120mm NH-F12 Industrial 2000RPM PWM fans with Red Chromax Bumpers for the bottom of the case both pulling air in

Going for a Red, White, and Black theme. Debating on White or Red Vengeance LPX RAM. Also, debating white or red chromax bumpers for the industrial all black noctua fans, might do a mix of 2 red and 2 white, etc.

Anyone have a 92mm PWM Noctua equivalent that would go better with my color scheme?

I suppose I could always attempt the Noctua color mod by using dye to the color the 92mm fan how I want.

Not ready for implementing a liquid cooling setup. I'll stick to air cooling to start.

Click to expand...

LuckyIrishLife said:

Great Info Guys!

Ok, so this is my revised build plan:

i7 6700k
Samsung 950 Pro 512gb
Gigabyte G1 Z170N Gaming 5
Corsair SF600
Corsair Vengeance LPX 3200 DDR4 2x8gb Red
Exhaust: Noctua NF-A9 PWM (It's going to be such an eye sore)
EVGA 1080 GTX SC Gaming ACX 3.0
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-C14 (remove both 140mm fans) add 120mm NH-F12 Industrial 2000RPM PWM with Red Chromax Bumpers underneath C14
Case Fans:
2 120mm NH-F12 Industrial 2000RPM PWM fans with Red Chromax Bumpers for the side (1 pulling air in over the C14, the other pushing air out) with Red Chromax Bumpers
2 120mm NH-F12 Industrial 2000RPM PWM fans with Red Chromax Bumpers for the bottom of the case both pulling air in

Going for a Red, White, and Black theme. Debating on White or Red Vengeance LPX RAM. Also, debating white or red chromax bumpers for the industrial all black noctua fans, might do a mix of 2 red and 2 white, etc.

Anyone have a 92mm PWM Noctua equivalent that would go better with my color scheme?

I suppose I could always attempt the Noctua color mod by using dye to the color the 92mm fan how I want.

Not ready for implementing a liquid cooling setup. I'll stick to air cooling to start.

Click to expand...

With the NH-C14 there is only room for a slim exhaust fan on the rear panel. So if you want the Noctua NF-A9 PWM make sure it's the 14 mm thick version.

I know you hate the colour of the retail Noctua fans, but those 2000 RPM industrial ones will be loud.

yyv_146 said:

Finished my build today! This was a fun project. I plan to use this as my main workstation and for 4k gaming, so no corners were cut...spec list:

Intel Xeon E5 2695-v3
Asrock X99 itx
Nvidia Titan X Pascal
Crucial 64G (32x2) ddr4 ECC 2133
Corsair SF600
CPU cooling: Noctua NH-C14. Phanteks 140HP on top, original 140mm Noctua fan on bottom
Samsung 950 pro m.2 512g
2x Phanteks 120MP for bottom intake
Cablemod custom cables: 400mm 24-pin, 150mm 8-pin, 200mm 6/8-pin PCIE
A whole lot of cable ties!

Click to expand...

Wow, that is a lot of power stuffed in there! I'm surprised you could fit a 140 mm fan on the underside of the NH-C14. I guess that's because the Asrock motherboard doesn't have the VRM daughterboard like my Asus Maximus.

How are your temperatures?

I got my Strix 1080 yesterday and fitting that thing in was a major pain and I actually ended up breaking a fan blade.
I am exchanging the broken card for a new card due to store warranty (hooray) but I am looking for suggestions on the install in order to avoid this fiasco again. I have spent a while browsing this thread and saw the reddit threads but no good advice was given.
I suppose the best method is to uninstall all other components besides mobo and fans and then have at it?
Also did anyone experience the Asus Strix 1080 fans hitting the bottom case fans within the Ncase? I use two corsair 120mms and was thinking maybe I need slimmer 120s on the bottom.

In summary.

- Got Asus Strix 1080, having difficulty installing
- Need general install advice specific to this card, if any suggestions exisit
- Thin and high quality 120mm fans for the Ncase? Noctua quality (its a pipe dream I know)

Thanks in advance to anyone who takes the time to help out!

I believe the post below is from a member you should contact.

jnericks said:

Just an FYI, ASUS Strix 1080 fits in this case, removed the front panel and had to use a little pressure to squeeze it through and was able to get the input side of the card in

Click to expand...

Even Necere was surprised this card fit. Its length is 6 mm more than his previously stated maximum of 292 mm.

If it was me, I would loosen or remove anything in the way such as side panel clips and the front I/O block. Maybe even remove the card's mounting bracket until the card is inside the case and ready to fasten into place, if that even makes sense or is possible.

The Strix 1080 is 40 mm thick so it should only occupy 2 slots. It must be sagging due to its weight into your bottom fans. Are there filters under the fans that are lifting them higher?

yyv_146 said:

Finished my build today! This was a fun project. I plan to use this as my main workstation and for 4k gaming, so no corners were cut...spec list:

Intel Xeon E5 2695-v3
Asrock X99 itx
Nvidia Titan X Pascal
Crucial 64G (32x2) ddr4 ECC 2133
Corsair SF600
CPU cooling: Noctua NH-C14. Phanteks 140HP on top, original 140mm Noctua fan on bottom
Samsung 950 pro m.2 512g
2x Phanteks 120MP for bottom intake
Cablemod custom cables: 400mm 24-pin, 150mm 8-pin, 200mm 6/8-pin PCIE
A whole lot of cable ties!

Click to expand...

Neat, simple, powerful!
Very nice build, congrats!

{NG}Fidel said:

I got my Strix 1080 yesterday and fitting that thing in was a major pain and I actually ended up breaking a fan blade.
I am exchanging the broken card for a new card due to store warranty (hooray) but I am looking for suggestions on the install in order to avoid this fiasco again. I have spent a while browsing this thread and saw the reddit threads but no good advice was given.
I suppose the best method is to uninstall all other components besides mobo and fans and then have at it?
Also did anyone experience the Asus Strix 1080 fans hitting the bottom case fans within the Ncase? I use two corsair 120mms and was thinking maybe I need slimmer 120s on the bottom.

In summary.

- Got Asus Strix 1080, having difficulty installing
- Need general install advice specific to this card, if any suggestions exisit
- Thin and high quality 120mm fans for the Ncase? Noctua quality (its a pipe dream I know)

Thanks in advance to anyone who takes the time to help out!

Click to expand...

So I just did this two days ago and yeah it's a bitch to install. The easiest way is to remove anything that would make sliding the back of the card past the front panel. You want the path from where the front I/O and drive mount to be clear. As for fans I had some EK Vardar fans on the bottom and they would create turbulence with the Strix at higher speeds. I'm probably gonna look into some slim fans but my temperature without bottom intake isn't really that bad thing. Slim fans can be a crap shoot but I'm gonna try the 15mm fans from Prolimatech. I'll reply again and let you know how it goes.

Qrash said:

I believe the post below is from a member you should contact.



Even Necere was surprised this card fit. Its length is 6 mm more than his previously stated maximum of 292 mm.

If it was me, I would loosen or remove anything in the way such as side panel clips and the front I/O block. Maybe even remove the card's mounting bracket until the card is inside the case and ready to fasten into place, if that even makes sense or is possible.

The Strix 1080 is 40 mm thick so it should only occupy 2 slots. It must be sagging due to its weight into your bottom fans. Are there filters under the fans that are lifting them higher?

Click to expand...

mcbirds said:

So I just did this two days ago and yeah it's a bitch to install. The easiest way is to remove anything that would make sliding the back of the card past the front panel. You want the path from where the front I/O and drive mount to be clear. As for fans I had some EK Vardar fans on the bottom and they would create turbulence with the Strix at higher speeds. I'm probably gonna look into some slim fans but my temperature without bottom intake isn't really that bad thing. Slim fans can be a crap shoot but I'm gonna try the 15mm fans from Prolimatech. I'll reply again and let you know how it goes.

Click to expand...

Thank you both, I will be heading to the store today to exchange this Strix and try again. If worse comes to worse I may end up taking the bottom case fans out but I enjoyed them adding extra cooling into the system. If not Ill get some adhesive foam and place it around the fan cut out so that the card is raised up above the case fans.
Another reason I dont want those fans out is because one thing about the Strix I liked was the fact that I could attach those fans into the card itself.

{NG}Fidel said:

Thank you both, I will be heading to the store today to exchange this Strix and try again. If worse comes to worse I may end up taking the bottom case fans out but I enjoyed them adding extra cooling into the system. If not Ill get some adhesive foam and place it around the fan cut out so that the card is raised up above the case fans.
Another reason I dont want those fans out is because one thing about the Strix I liked was the fact that I could attach those fans into the card itself.

Click to expand...

So those fan headers on the Strix ONLY work with GPU Tweak II fyi. And GPU Tweak II is ass, I mean it. You can't lower the fan speed of any of the fans below 40% and the fan headers themselves run at 50% and above only. I was super excited to have the bottom fans run of the GPU temp without using Speedfan but it's just not worth the hassle of using the ASUS software. I actually thought the headers didn't work at first because I always use AB but I spent about an hour last night trying to get the fuckers running and GPU Tweak was the only way to config them and even then the options are so limited you're just better off using something else to control them.

I hear you. My GPU cooling is a bit unusual. I have the small Zotac 970 and I replaced its fans and heatsink with a large cooler, the Alpenfohn Peter 2. I didn't realize it was thicker than the Arctic Accelero Xtreme III, but it was, which meant I couldn't fit regular 25 mm fans in the bottom (as exhaust). Since I had to get slim fans (generally not what I want), I decided to move up to 140 mm slim fans (Prolimatech Ultra Sleek Vortex 14) . I had to drill custom mounting holes for the fans, but they just fit. Square 140s will not fit. I considered cutting out the bottom of my M1 so they could breath better, but just made some additional smaller holes instead. Anyway, the fans are plugged into my 970 (using an adapter that came with the heatsink) and so far are doing a good job. I need to do more GPU stress testing, but first I'm battling with crazy high CPU temperatures from my 4790K under an NH-C14. As the customer rep at Noctua told me, it looks like my CPU is broken. More to come on that front.

Qrash said:

With the NH-C14 there is only room for a slim exhaust fan on the rear panel. So if you want the Noctua NF-A9 PWM make sure it's the 14 mm thick version.

I know you hate the colour of the retail Noctua fans, but those 2000 RPM industrial ones will be loud.

Click to expand...

Awesome, switched my order to the 14mm version of the A9. I can compromise a little loudness for looks. I might even go with the EK-Vardar F4-120ER fans instead of the Noctua F12 industrials. Might just buy both and see what works best. Thermalbench loves the EK F4-120ERs over the Noctuas. We'll see.

I see some builds sporting the Phanteks as well, might look into those too.

The Gigabyte G1 Z170N only has one CPU PWM header and one System PWM header. How would I wire all these fans up safely? I thought about Noctua 4 pin Y splitters but that doesn't seem safe to put that much electrical draw on one mobo PWM header. Should I use this? -> EK-Cable Splitter 4-Fan PWM Extended – EK Webshop

I am sitting here with the new 1080 installed and with all the suggestions I got it to work but I still have work to do. When the case is moved a bit a single wire (from the front IO panel) starts hitting the fan of the Strix. Everything else is running perfect though.

mcbirds said:

So those fan headers on the Strix ONLY work with GPU Tweak II fyi. And GPU Tweak II is ass, I mean it. You can't lower the fan speed of any of the fans below 40% and the fan headers themselves run at 50% and above only. I was super excited to have the bottom fans run of the GPU temp without using Speedfan but it's just not worth the hassle of using the ASUS software. I actually thought the headers didn't work at first because I always use AB but I spent about an hour last night trying to get the fuckers running and GPU Tweak was the only way to config them and even then the options are so limited you're just better off using something else to control them.

Click to expand...

Ouch I had no idea but its too late for me anyway. Finally got a working ASUS 1080 in here and I like the lighting enough that I wont mind if that header function doesn't work. Thanks for the info though.

mcbirds said:

Switched from the reference 1080 to the ASUS Strix and recorded my temps with each card and their effects on the other components. I ran Heaven + the AIDA64 system stability test for 45 minutes. The biggest drop so far has been in games where the blower would easily hit the 83° mark and throttle while the Strix sits around 69° at a much lower fan speed. Although for whatever reason I don't mind the sound of blower cards even when they maxed out.

Refrence cooler - NCASE M1 w/ blower cooler

Open air cooler - NCASE M1 w/ open air cooler

Click to expand...

Thanks for posting this. I've been curious about why the NCASE website recommends a blower cooler, and your tests seem to really throw a wrench into things. If the GPU and all components are cooler with an open air cooler, then why bother with a blower cooler at all?

Qrash said:

Wow, that is a lot of power stuffed in there! I'm surprised you could fit a 140 mm fan on the underside of the NH-C14. I guess that's because the Asrock motherboard doesn't have the VRM daughterboard like my Asus Maximus.

How are your temperatures?

Click to expand...

Yes. Clearance is *very* tight enough. I wonder if it'll run better without the fan, since there doesn't seem to be much room for airflow with all those cables under it.

Current temps are low 60s under full CPU load and 83-84 on the GPU. I tweaked the curves a bit since the default Nvidia curves don't seem to run the blower at 100% until 85℃.

bit_rot said:

Thanks for posting this. I've been curious about why the NCASE website recommends a blower cooler, and your tests seem to really throw a wrench into things. If the GPU and all components are cooler with an open air cooler, then why bother with a blower cooler at all?

Click to expand...

I have had the same experience with the Ncase. I see no issue in an open air cooler as long as the cards max TDP isnt some ungodly number.

bit_rot said:

Thanks for posting this. I've been curious about why the NCASE website recommends a blower cooler, and your tests seem to really throw a wrench into things. If the GPU and all components are cooler with an open air cooler, then why bother with a blower cooler at all?

Click to expand...

Well your CPU temps do go up about 5° in my case. A higher TDP card like a 980 Ti might dump even more hot air into your CPU. That said I'll take 10° off my GPU temps for 5° on my CPU everyday of the week.

{NG}Fidel said:

I am sitting here with the new 1080 installed and with all the suggestions I got it to work but I still have work to do. When the case is moved a bit a single wire (from the front IO panel) starts hitting the fan of the Strix. Everything else is running perfect though.



Ouch I had no idea but its too late for me anyway. Finally got a working ASUS 1080 in here and I like the lighting enough that I wont mind if that header function doesn't work. Thanks for the info though.

Click to expand...

Yeah I'm still keeping my Strix too it's just a bummer that it seemed like a match made in heaven.

mcbirds said:

Well your CPU temps do go up about 5° in my case. A higher TDP card like a 980 Ti might dump even more hot air into your CPU. That said I'll take 10° off my GPU temps for 5° on my CPU everyday of the week.



Yeah I'm still keeping my Strix too it's just a bummer that it seemed like a match made in heaven.

Click to expand...

Blower card is recommended so that the rest of the case interior is cooler than if you use a non-blower card.

BaK2BaK said:

Neat, simple, powerful!
Very nice build, congrats!

Click to expand...

Thanks this was a bit of a pain but actuslly less difficult than expected. The trickiest part is getting the heatsink on but temps seem worth the effort

LuckyIrishLife said:

Great Info Guys!

Ok, so this is my revised build plan:

i7 6700k
Samsung 950 Pro 512gb
Gigabyte G1 Z170N Gaming 5
Corsair SF600
Corsair Vengeance LPX 3200 DDR4 2x8gb Red
Exhaust: Noctua NF-A9 PWM (It's going to be such an eye sore)
EVGA 1080 GTX SC Gaming ACX 3.0
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-C14 (remove both 140mm fans) add 120mm NH-F12 Industrial 2000RPM PWM with Red Chromax Bumpers underneath C14
Case Fans:
2 120mm NH-F12 Industrial 2000RPM PWM fans with Red Chromax Bumpers for the side (1 pulling air in over the C14, the other pushing air out) with Red Chromax Bumpers
2 120mm NH-F12 Industrial 2000RPM PWM fans with Red Chromax Bumpers for the bottom of the case both pulling air in

Going for a Red, White, and Black theme. Debating on White or Red Vengeance LPX RAM. Also, debating white or red chromax bumpers for the industrial all black noctua fans, might do a mix of 2 red and 2 white, etc.

Anyone have a 92mm PWM Noctua equivalent that would go better with my color scheme?

I suppose I could always attempt the Noctua color mod by using dye to the color the 92mm fan how I want.

Not ready for implementing a liquid cooling setup. I'll stick to air cooling to start.

Click to expand...

Some suggestions:

1. PLAN like your life depends on it. You'll save a ton of time avoiding having to pull the PSU out time after time.
2. If you have anything to plug on the Mobo's PSU-facing side, plug them all in before attaching the PSU or the bracket. Once those are on there reaching in is virtually impossible.
3. I would still attach the C14 to the mobo outside of the case...if you want to marry them in there, pull out everything else and do that first.
4. I'm not convinced that the bottom fan helps that much. I've pulled mine out and temps stayed virtually the same. YMMV

For the exhaust fan, first I'm not quite sure that it'll change things much, and second, have you checked out the redux series? Still not my favorite color but miles better than the brown.

yyv_146 said:

Finished my build today! This was a fun project. I plan to use this as my main workstation and for 4k gaming, so no corners were cut...spec list:

Intel Xeon E5 2695-v3
Asrock X99 itx
Nvidia Titan X Pascal
Crucial 64G (32x2) ddr4 ECC 2133
Corsair SF600
CPU cooling: Noctua NH-C14. Phanteks 140HP on top, original 140mm Noctua fan on bottom
Samsung 950 pro m.2 512g
2x Phanteks 120MP for bottom intake
Cablemod custom cables: 400mm 24-pin, 150mm 8-pin, 200mm 6/8-pin PCIE
A whole lot of cable ties!

Click to expand...

How did you get the C14 to fit on the X99 itx board?

Nanook said:

How did you get the C14 to fit on the X99 itx board?

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You can request mounting brackets for the U9S from Noctua which will fit on the C14. Then I used the screws from the Asrock supplied heatsink to mount the modified cooler onto the board. The front screws can easily be tightened with a low-profile screwdriver. The rear screws are trickier - I basically hand tightened them as far as I could, then got a couple more turns in with various small tools. It wasn't terribly difficult but I did scratch my hands a few times from moving too quickly around the fins...

yyv_146 said:

Some suggestions:

1. PLAN like your life depends on it. You'll save a ton of time avoiding having to pull the PSU out time after time.
2. If you have anything to plug on the Mobo's PSU-facing side, plug them all in before attaching the PSU or the bracket. Once those are on there reaching in is virtually impossible.
3. I would still attach the C14 to the mobo outside of the case...if you want to marry them in there, pull out everything else and do that first.
4. I'm not convinced that the bottom fan helps that much. I've pulled mine out and temps stayed virtually the same. YMMV

For the exhaust fan, first I'm not quite sure that it'll change things much, and second, have you checked out the redux series? Still not my favorite color but miles better than the brown.

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I attached my C14 after the motherboard was in the case. It was easy to do, but absolutely make sure everything that needs to be plugged into the motherboard is plugged in before adding the C14. It's easy to slide the fan for the underside of the C14 into place before your GPU is installed. The top fan I attached to the side bracket. Both fans were plugged into a PWM splitter that was already plugged in.

The problem for the rear fan is that with the C14 you may not have clearance for a normal 25 mm thick fan, depending on how close the CPU socket is to the rear panel. For my Asus motherboard, there was only space for a slim fan and the Noctua NF-A9x14 PWM fan that is 14 mm thick. Choices for slim 92 mm fans are limited. Oh, and I mounted and plugged in my rear fan before installing the C14.

yyv_146 said:

You can request mounting brackets for the U9S from Noctua which will fit on the C14. Then I used the screws from the Asrock supplied heatsink to mount the modified cooler onto the board. The front screws can easily be tightened with a low-profile screwdriver. The rear screws are trickier - I basically hand tightened them as far as I could, then got a couple more turns in with various small tools. It wasn't terribly difficult but I did scratch my hands a few times from moving too quickly around the fins...

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An offset screwdriver is best, but a short Philips screwdriver bit combined with open-end wrench (or spanner in the UK) can work.

Nanook said:

How did you get the C14 to fit on the X99 itx board?

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See this earlier post for details and photos about the brackets you need to ask Noctua for.

Qrash said:

An offset screwdriver is best, but a short Philips screwdriver bit combined with open-end wrench (or spanner in the UK) can work.

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I have a few sets of low-profile/offset screwdrivers but not one was actually low-profile enough for the rear screws (won't clear the heat pipes). Maybe something even flatter will work.

Edit: I think someone here mentioned the M4 screws. I tried and those are easier to work with, although in the end I just stuck with the dynatronics screws since I managed to get them in.

LuckyIrishLife said:

Awesome, switched my order to the 14mm version of the A9. I can compromise a little loudness for looks. I might even go with the EK-Vardar F4-120ER fans instead of the Noctua F12 industrials. Might just buy both and see what works best. Thermalbench loves the EK F4-120ERs over the Noctuas. We'll see.

I see some builds sporting the Phanteks as well, might look into those too.

The Gigabyte G1 Z170N only has one CPU PWM header and one System PWM header. How would I wire all these fans up safely? I thought about Noctua 4 pin Y splitters but that doesn't seem safe to put that much electrical draw on one mobo PWM header. Should I use this? -> EK-Cable Splitter 4-Fan PWM Extended – EK Webshop

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The one you linked should work fine, if you want a fan controller I am using one of these PC 4 Channel 3-Pin 3pin PCI Cooling Fan Speed Controller Support Turn OFF Fan

Intel 600P Series SSDs bring NVMe into the M.2 mainstream New Intel M.2 SSDs, don't have great write speed but read speed is really good compared to SATA3. Gets better the higher capacity you get, prices are really good.

RE// Post 21028... I stripped the Phillips head case screw, 1 of 2 very small screws holding the power supply cord to the rear corner of the M1, as I wanted to move that cord to the middle position to make room for rad/fans...

A Ryobi screw extraction tool I got at Home Depot yesterday did not work to get the screw out. So, is my only option now to drill the screw right out?

EDIT... Walmart has a micro version of this...The Alden 1257P #1 size. Hope that's what I need... checking tomm morning.

rfarmer said:

Sorry to hear that I thought it was bad that it took them 10 days to ship mine after ordering, I see your experience was much worse. It's too bad that it works so well for the ncase and there really isn't another option that works as well.

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I just ordered on Aug 25, I'm hoping I get mine as fast as yours. When I ordered there we're still 4 in stock, now there's two left. My order status says it's "awaiting fulfillment".

I just competed my initial build It took me about 4 hours. I just sat with Qrash's helpful guide (post #20735) and took my time and enjoyed it.




I had no major dramas with the install. I've just gone with a minimal build initially, so only 1 case fan. I'll list the spec:

Intel i7 6700K
AsRock Fatal1ty Z170 Gaming-ITX/ac
G.Skill Trident Z PC3200 2x16GB (overkill, but I do a lot of audio and image work, so maybe one day I'll be able to use it)
Corsair SF600
EVGA GTX 1070 SC
Samsung 950 Pro 512GB M.2 SSD
Samsung 850 Pro 1TB SSD (mounted in the front)
WD Red NAS 6TB HDD
Noctua NH-U9S with Noctua NF-A9 PWM fan
Noctua NF-A9 PWM fan on rear of case


Here are some notes from my build:
1. I have some ram clearance issues with the cpu cooler fan. One option was to put the Noctua NF-A9x14 slim fan on there instead of the NF-A9 that came with it. Unfortunately, the fan attachment doesn't work for the NF-A9x14. Maybe I can buy a slim attachment mechanism. I decided to just move the fan slightly towards the front of the case, so that it wasn't resting on the ram. I don't see this being a big deal, but I'll obviously keep an eye on the CPU temps.

2. I had the NF-A9x14 set up as an exhaust at the rear of the case, but when trying it on the cpu cooler, I put a NF-A9 in it's place. Even though the slim fan didn't attach, as mentioned above, I decided to leave the NF-A9 exhausting at the rear of the case. I assumed I'd need to use it with this cooler, but there's plenty of room. I was actually originally planning on attaching 2 of the NF-A9s to the cooler as is quite common to do, but I don't intend to overclock, and this way, I have the cooler fan blowing from right to left into the cooler and hopefully working with the case exhaust fan, rather than having an additional fan which may be overkill and may cause turbulence with the case exhaust fan.

3. Installing the SSD in the front of the case was no problem, but the power connectors that come with the Corsair SF600 require a bit more space between the drive and the case. This means that I've had to force the connection in at a slight angle. I triple checked that the pressure wasn't damaging the connection on the SSD, and it's working, but I'd have preferred a more suitable cable.

4. I have 2 Noctua NF-F12 PWM 120mm fans. I was deciding between 2 in the bottom of the case, or some configuration where I could have one as a side intake. With the HDD cage and the cpu cooler I've chosen, there's no way to fit one on the side. The other option would be to mount the HDD in the bottom (maybe with the slim NF-A9x14), enabling the NF-F12 to go where the drive cage is. I'm starting off with minimal fans though, so I elected to not use any additional fans.

5. I had to invert the HDD so that the cables are at the top. When having it with the cables on the bottom, there's no room for the cables as they're blocked by the graphics card. It's not clear from the photo, but there's plenty of space now between the HDD and the graphics card. The only issue I then had was that I needed a right angle SATA cable. I only noticed that AsRock kindly included one, but I'd already used blue cables I had lying around.

6. I haven't done anything with cable management, other than stuff the cables where there is space. There's space towards the back of the case under the PSU. It doesn't look too bad, and I'm not obsessed about this. As long as there's enough air flow. Time will tell.



Does it work? Well it posted and I explored the bios. I haven't installed Windows yet, so I have no idea how stable it is, or what the temperatures are like. It seemed to sit around 30-40C while I was in the bios. I set all fans to silent mode as I want a worst case scenario. I can tell you that it is very quiet. You can hear air, but my plasma TV was just as loud when I stuck my head up to it.


In summary, planning this was fun. This forum was a big help. That and Google - I did a lot of searching and looking at images to figure orientations and things out. But the case is very easy to build from - and I last built my PC (my HTPC) about 10 years ago!!! So I'm not exactly a pro like most of you are.


I'll post at a later date when I see how it performs.