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

I have been considering building a new PC for a while now and I have settled on an Ncase build. I have done a fair bit of research but some things are still unclear to me. Here is my PCPartPicker.

PCPartPicker part list:

CPU: Intel Core i7-6700K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Nepton 120XL 76.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler
Motherboard: Asus Z170I PRO GAMING Mini ITX LGA1151 Motherboard
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3200 Memory
Storage: Intel 600p Series 512GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1080 8GB Xtreme Gaming Water cooling Video Card
Power Supply: Corsair SF 600W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular SFX Power Supply
Total: $1652.72
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-10-01 14:53 EDT-0400

My biggest points of consideration is whether the cooling is adequate. I would really like to get a moderate OC on both the GPU and CPU (100 offset GPU and 4.5 on CPU) but I don't have the expertise to judge if the cooling solution is enough.
The reason I have a AIO for the CPU is portability. I know an air cooler could possibly improve this setup but due to weight an AIO is the most suitable. Will this setup perform better than a 240mm radiator and an air cooled GPU in terms of thermals?

You might also want to check Ari Altman's site 'TechBuyersGuru' TBG Homepage | The Tech Buyer's Guru

He is excellent, responds to all posts in a very timely manner, has reviews, etc... Has been very helpful, along with the folks here.
 
I'll have to do my own wiring for the psu, anyone got any experience with 16 awg wire from china? (ebay/aliexpress)
 
I've seen a few people replace the feet to give more airflow to the bottom rad. Anyone have any recommendations?
 
I've seen a few people replace the feet to give more airflow to the bottom rad. Anyone have any recommendations?

I went with some no name ebay case feet. A search for hifi or audio equipment feet will yield plenty of results.

Lian Li do some stackable case feet too if you want to keep things more original.

I also found that 3M double sided mounting tape was plenty strong for mounting if you don't screw the feet on. I actually tried tape first and had trouble removing it before going to screws.. I'd personally be happy with either solution.
 
Guys I'm really stuck on my GPU choice. In general, do the blower style coolers work better in the case than the open air ones? I know that theoretically they should work better, but I'm wondering if it practically also does keep the temperatures of the GPU and CPU lower? Blowing the hot air out of the back of the case is best ofcourse, but is it possible (easilly doable) to get better temps with an open air cooled GPU and some extra fans in the case for air flow?

What I was thinking about was getting the Asus GTX 1070 Strix in combination with a Dark Rock TF (i7 6700k) and use an outtake fan on the side panel where the PSU is :)

Let me know!
 
Guys I'm really stuck on my GPU choice. In general, do the blower style coolers work better in the case than the open air ones? I know that theoretically they should work better, but I'm wondering if it practically also does keep the temperatures of the GPU and CPU lower? Blowing the hot air out of the back of the case is best ofcourse, but is it possible (easilly doable) to get better temps with an open air cooled GPU and some extra fans in the case for air flow?

What I was thinking about was getting the Asus GTX 1070 Strix in combination with a Dark Rock TF (i7 6700k) and use an outtake fan on the side panel where the PSU is :)

Let me know!

Dumping any kind of warm air into a small case like the Ncase is not going to help with temps. The case was designed with a rear blower style GPU in mind. However that doesn't mean you can't use the non rear blower type GPUs and be okay. Many have done so.
 
I will be using the Noctua C14 cpu cooler but with a single, smaller 120mm fan (maybe my Vardar) with the Asus Z170i Pro Gaming MB and the i7-6700k. (I may OC). I have the 1080-FE.

Would there be enough space for this other Noctua fan to exhaust air out the back of the case? ( NF-A9x14 PWM ) I will probably use 2 other 120mm fans on the side panel as exhaust.

Maybe don't even need the rear exhaust fan with the 2 side 120's blowing out...

Thoughts...

-Indecisive Brian
 
I will be using the Noctua C14 cpu cooler but with a single, smaller 120mm fan (maybe my Vardar) with the Asus Z170i Pro Gaming MB and the i7-6700k. (I may OC). I have the 1080-FE.

Would there be enough space for this other Noctua fan to exhaust air out the back of the case? ( NF-A9x14 PWM ) I will probably use 2 other 120mm fans on the side panel as exhaust.

Maybe don't even need the rear exhaust fan with the 2 side 120's blowing out...

Thoughts...

-Indecisive Brian
Yes you can squeeze a slim 92 on the rear panel. Here what it could look like:
IMG_4570.JPG
 
Yes you can squeeze a slim 92 on the rear panel. Here what it could look like:
View attachment 8439

Thanks...

In the pictured setup, there's the 92mm in the rear, and the 120mm cpu fan is blowing up thru the heat sink... Do you also have fans on the side panel blowing out, or just the bottom 120's?
 
Thanks...

In the pictured setup, there's the 92mm in the rear, and the 120mm cpu fan is blowing up thru the heat sink... Do you also have fans on the side panel blowing out, or just the bottom 120's?

There're two 120s on the side panel blowing out (not shown). The two bottom 120s are blowing in.
 
As anyone actually tried if any of newer MSI cards fit?

For example: GeForce GTX 1080 GAMING X 8G | MSI Global | Graphics card - The world leader in display performance

Or Gigabyte GTX1070 "Mini" ?

GIGABYTE - Graphics Card - NVIDIA - PCI Express Solution - GeForce® GTX 10 Series - GeForce® GTX 1070 Mini ITX OC

I would really like to purchase this case, but if either of my GPU`s does not fit, it would be sad...

The MSI is 140mm wide with the pci connectors at the top of the pcb, you have no way of installing the power cables and being able to install the side panel. Cards with PCBs that extend to the full height at the corners will not fit due to interference from the chassis. That is a potential problem with the Gigabyte too. The Gigabyte is 131mm wide, Necere recommends 120mm for pci connection, you could do it with right angle pci adapters but you still have potential problem of it not fitting because of the rear corner.
 
Guys I'm really stuck on my GPU choice. In general, do the blower style coolers work better in the case than the open air ones? I know that theoretically they should work better, but I'm wondering if it practically also does keep the temperatures of the GPU and CPU lower? Blowing the hot air out of the back of the case is best ofcourse, but is it possible (easilly doable) to get better temps with an open air cooled GPU and some extra fans in the case for air flow?

What I was thinking about was getting the Asus GTX 1070 Strix in combination with a Dark Rock TF (i7 6700k) and use an outtake fan on the side panel where the PSU is :)

Let me know!

When I was looking for a GPU there weren't many options for blowers, but I found one and bought it. MSI GTX770 It wouldn't stay cool. It would quickly jump to 80+ degrees and then proceed to thermally throttle itself. Maybe the one I got was poor quality, but I ended up switching to a full liquid cooling setup to finally keep the card below thermal throttle range. It's usually in the 60s now under load. There seems to be plenty of people that are just fine though, so I don't know what my problem was.
 
The Gigabyte is 131mm wide, Necere recommends 120mm for pci connection, you could do it with right angle pci adapters but you still have potential problem of it not fitting because of the rear corner.

Actually, Gigabyte has odd shape PCB, power connector is more inside, look at the left upper corner:
cc599113da78f18a4bb7aef46f6ccc66bf83e6e08ce682b14469dbed87df957c.jpg


If PCI-E power cable is connected it is pretty much flat with the rest of protruding PCB...
 
My Cryorig C7 is starting to make a noise. A grinding noise with the fan. If I tap it a few times.. it goes away, but comes back after a few minutes. I guess it's time for a new cpu cooler. Recommendations? I like the C7 for the compact size and would like something similar. I am open to suggestions for something else too! I currently use Crucial Ballistic DDR4 so I don't think I have any clearance issues.

crucial-ballistix-sport.jpg


01_top_sh_c7.jpg
 
My Cryorig C7 is starting to make a noise. A grinding noise with the fan. If I tap it a few times.. it goes away, but comes back after a few minutes. I guess it's time for a new cpu cooler. Recommendations? I like the C7 for the compact size and would like something similar. I am open to suggestions for something else too! I currently use Crucial Ballistic DDR4 so I don't think I have any clearance issues.

crucial-ballistix-sport.jpg


01_top_sh_c7.jpg
Rma mby?
 
what about getting a better fan to replace the failing one and just tie it onto the heatsink? you could potentially end up with better performance but keep the same size.
 
Ok, I have decided to make a build now. Just waiting on funds before I order stuff. Anyway, I want to use Masterliquid pro 120. Can I mount this in the back given that I do not install IO shield of the motherboard? Or the only place I can mount it is on the side bracket? If that's the case, has anyone mounted it right next to SFX PSU? I want to reserve the 120mm fan to blow onto the motherboard.
 
what about getting a better fan to replace the failing one and just tie it onto the heatsink? you could potentially end up with better performance but keep the same size.

Yeah I could do that. I guess i'll have to figure out how to rig the fan to stay mounted.
 
M9i is the obvious replacement choice for me personally. Same price, but the tower model does a bit better than the "stock replacement" shape.
 
No issues at all. Much shorter than other coolers other people have used and has no ram clearance issues at all. Make sure you get the M9a if you are still using an AMD chip though.
 
Yeah I could do that. I guess i'll have to figure out how to rig the fan to stay mounted.
all you need is the new fan and 8 zip ties. you just have to make sure the head of the zip tie is bigger than the screw holes in the fan. I "drew" you pic. hope it helps.

ziptiepic.png
 
Thanks again for the tip Pendragon! Fixed and temporarily using my 92mm exhaust fan until a replacement fan arrives from Cryorig
 
Just got my Origin Build with slightly changed. Replaced R9 290 with ASUS ROG STRIX-RX480-O8G-GAMING.
I was too lazy to take a part. I just did the swap directly and took me around 30mins to find the right angle to remove old one and install the new card lol
but fit well (just make it) For your reference as following pics.

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I'm in the midst of swapping graphics cards, and I really do love building in this thing. It's such a fantastic, well thought out little case. Out with the old and in with the lovely new GTX 1070 (sorry for the potato phone pic, and the missing window board).

image2.JPG
 
Just got my Origin Build with slightly changed. Replaced R9 290 with ASUS ROG STRIX-RX480-O8G-GAMING.
I was too lazy to take a part. I just did the swap directly and took me around 30mins to find the right angle to remove old one and install the new card ...

Looks good! I like the way you've organised the fans on the side panel especially. All that cool air feeding the CPU and PSU seems like a good layout. Good job on getting everything to fit in there!
 
I'm in the midst of swapping graphics cards, and I really do love building in this thing. It's such a fantastic, well thought out little case. Out with the old and in with the lovely new GTX 1070 (sorry for the potato phone pic, and the missing window board).

[/QOTE]

Can you update me with the temp on the gtx 1070 once the system is up running? What cpu cooler is that? cryorig? Can you OC with it?
 
Just got my Origin Build with slightly changed. Replaced R9 290 with ASUS ROG STRIX-RX480-O8G-GAMING.
I was too lazy to take a part. I just did the swap directly and took me around 30mins to find the right angle to remove old one and install the new card lol
but fit well (just make it) For your reference as following pics.

That is a tight fit, good job on getting it in there. How are you liking the RX 480?

I'm in the midst of swapping graphics cards, and I really do love building in this thing. It's such a fantastic, well thought out little case. Out with the old and in with the lovely new GTX 1070 (sorry for the potato phone pic, and the missing window board).

Nice, I love my 1070 FE. :D
 
Can you update me with the temp on the gtx 1070 once the system is up running? What cpu cooler is that? cryorig? Can you OC with it?

Sure thing (I should have it up and running later this evening), and yes it is. It's the Cryorig C7. Which isn't the best for overclocking (apparently) but I don't intend to overclock at the moment, so it's good for me. If/when I do decide to overclock I could always just swap my NH-C14 cooler in for it instead.
 
So what's the verdict putting a SFX-L power supply in a Gen 1 Ncase with a large (GTX 780) graphics card?
 
Can help much in regards with a v1, but my v5 with Lian Li's new PE-750 SFX-L works just fine. That's a 1070 FE converted with EVGA's hybrid kit. Assuming a short cable set is used, stock cables are too long in my opinion.
IMG_0139.jpg
IMG_0141.jpg
 
So what's the verdict putting a SFX-L power supply in a Gen 1 Ncase with a large (GTX 780) graphics card?

The Lian Li 550 watt SFX-L gives you even a bit more room than the 750 watt. The connector sockets are flush mounted with the 550, but protrude a couple cm with the 750.
 
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