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

Qrash said:
It would be the ends of the heatpipes at the top of the heatsink.

I found a decent resolution image of your motherboard, the Gigabyte GA-Z97N WIFI (see the thumbnail below). All mini-ITX motherboards are 170 mm square so by counting pixels I get that the distance from the center of the CPU socket to the center of the PCI-E slot is 96 mm. According to the dimensions of the Dark Rock TF heatsink (second thumbnail below), the distance from the center of the CPU contact surface to the ends of the of the heatsink is 89 mm. Remember, that's to the center of the PCI-E slot. The thickness of the PCB, the graphics card components, and a backplate will decrease the gap between the graphics card and the ends of the heatpipes.

Also, note that rotating the heatsink to this "heatpipes down" orientation will result in the heatsink being 3.5 mm closer to the top of the case (73.58 mm vs. 70 mm).

(As a sanity check I measured the distance from the center of the CPU socket to the center of the first RAM slot and found it to be 53.75 mm. This is just a bit greater than the distance from the center of the heatsink to the outside of the lower curve of the heatpipes which is 52.05 mm, according to be quiet. The RAM module's thickness is why the heatsinnk contacts the RAM module.)
Click to expand...

This is incredibly helpful. Thanks so much!
 
pslate said:
This is incredibly helpful. Thanks so much!
Click to expand...

BTW, the width of the heatsink's lower fins is 97.5 mm, so the side of the fins is 48.75 mm from the center of the CPU socket. This should be a few millimeters from the first RAM module.

I really hope this works for you. In the past a few Asus motherboard owners were not able to fit the Dark Rock TF without it hitting their RAM or the graphics card. It definitely is a challenge for mini-ITX owners. Please let us know if I messed up my pixel counting or if heatpipes down fits. Good luck!
 
akhilv1 said:
If you're not using a 3.5" drive in the bottom, I would definitely suggest the ftw for the silence vs the FE. If you're looking to watercooling, the only option with the ftw is the Kraken G10, but it is a solid performer.
Click to expand...

The EVGA FTW also comes in a hybrid configuration; meaning, the AIO is already installed from the factory…

And if you look at the product materials for the FTW hybrid, you can see that the factory solution would be better than the Kraken G10 (IMHO)…
 
pslate said:
Which heatpipes do you have touching the GPU? The small ones or the larger ones?
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On the top heatsink, the tips/ends that stick out, they touch against the backplate on the gpu. And yes Qrash's post is quite helpful! it took me several tries to figure out the orientation i wanted and this seemed like the best. been going strong for about a year almost.
 
So, uh, somewhat stupid question here: People are typically recommending DEMCiflex filters for the sides of the case. Does this include the PSU, since it's an intake, or would that restrict airflow too much? Somewhat annoyingly, DEMC doesn't seem to have any 100mm filters to cleanly match the SF450.
 
Morgon said:
So, uh, somewhat stupid question here: People are typically recommending DEMCiflex filters for the sides of the case. Does this include the PSU, since it's an intake, or would that restrict airflow too much? Somewhat annoyingly, DEMC doesn't seem to have any 100mm filters to cleanly match the SF450.
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The filter for the ST45SF is 100x100mm. Demcifilters are fairly restrictive though, and there have been reports that using them has caused the overheating protection to kick in with some PSUs. I can't say whether it will be a problem for the Corsair PSUs, though.
 
No Hands 55 said:
On the top heatsink, the tips/ends that stick out, they touch against the backplate on the gpu. And yes Qrash's post is quite helpful! it took me several tries to figure out the orientation i wanted and this seemed like the best. been going strong for about a year almost.
Click to expand...

Qrash said:
BTW, the width of the heatsink's lower fins is 97.5 mm, so the side of the fins is 48.75 mm from the center of the CPU socket. This should be a few millimeters from the first RAM module.

I really hope this works for you. In the past a few Asus motherboard owners were not able to fit the Dark Rock TF without it hitting their RAM or the graphics card. It definitely is a challenge for mini-ITX owners. Please let us know if I messed up my pixel counting or if heatpipes down fits. Good luck!
Click to expand...

Thanks for the help guys. I changed the cooler around. I went with the large heatpipes facing the front of the case as shown in the album here:

http://imgur.com/a/NICFv

I tried it with the aluminum caps facing the GPU as No Hands described, but I remember reading that it wasn't a preferred orientation for Noctua top down coolers because the large heat pipes would be facing the top of the case and fighting against gravity. I'm assuming this still applies to the be quiet. With my orientation, the caps nearly touch the rear of the case (on the 92mm fan mount). Obviously, there is no room for even a slim 92mm fan. The power plug must be moved to the middle too.

Also, I replaced my 1070's cooler with an Arctic Accelero III with two NF-F12's as intake. Stock temps running Unigine Heaven were 78 degrees C. With the new cooler, the max temp was 61! Great improvment. This is with a really passive fan curve too.

And I went back to the SF600. Its size is just way easier to work around. The coil whine also doesn't bother me as much as it used to. I'm going to return the PE-550.

So I can finally say I'm done tinkering for now. The case is now incredibly quiet and cool enough in temperature for me.
 
pslate said:
Thanks for the help guys. I changed the cooler around. I went with the large heatpipes facing the front of the case as shown in the album here:

http://imgur.com/a/NICFv

I tried it with the aluminum caps facing the GPU as No Hands described, but I remember reading that it wasn't a preferred orientation for Noctua top down coolers because the large heat pipes would be facing the top of the case and fighting against gravity. I'm assuming this still applies to the be quiet. With my orientation, the caps nearly touch the rear of the case (on the 92mm fan mount). Obviously, there is no room for even a slim 92mm fan. The power plug must be moved to the middle too.

Also, I replaced my 1070's cooler with an Arctic Accelero III with two NF-F12's as intake. Stock temps running Unigine Heaven were 78 degrees C. With the new cooler, the max temp was 61! Great improvment. This is with a really passive fan curve too.

And I went back to the SF600. Its size is just way easier to work around. The coil whine also doesn't bother me as much as it used to. I'm going to return the PE-550.

So I can finally say I'm done tinkering for now. The case is now incredibly quiet and cool enough in temperature for me.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the update. I didn't even think to see if that orientation would fit. I'm sure this information will be helpful to others, especially now that the NH-C14 supply is drying up.
 
pslate said:
Thanks for the help guys. I changed the cooler around. I went with the large heatpipes facing the front of the case as shown in the album here:

http://imgur.com/a/NICFv

I tried it with the aluminum caps facing the GPU as No Hands described, but I remember reading that it wasn't a preferred orientation for Noctua top down coolers because the large heat pipes would be facing the top of the case and fighting against gravity. I'm assuming this still applies to the be quiet. With my orientation, the caps nearly touch the rear of the case (on the 92mm fan mount). Obviously, there is no room for even a slim 92mm fan. The power plug must be moved to the middle too.

Also, I replaced my 1070's cooler with an Arctic Accelero III with two NF-F12's as intake. Stock temps running Unigine Heaven were 78 degrees C. With the new cooler, the max temp was 61! Great improvment. This is with a really passive fan curve too.

And I went back to the SF600. Its size is just way easier to work around. The coil whine also doesn't bother me as much as it used to. I'm going to return the PE-550.

So I can finally say I'm done tinkering for now. The case is now incredibly quiet and cool enough in temperature for me.
Click to expand...

BTW, is this orientation better for clearing the RAM modules? An update photo would be useful.
 
Qrash said:
Thanks for the update. I didn't even think to see if that orientation would fit. I'm sure this information will be helpful to others, especially now that the NH-C14 supply is drying up.
Click to expand...

I thought of it on the spot and I'm glad I did.

So, on my mobo (Gigabyte Z97N-WIFI) the dark rock TF fits three ways: my current orientation (ideal), with the large heat pipes toward the back (small heat pipes rub on the first RAM stick), and with the large heat pipes facing up (fighting against gravity). It does not fit with the large pipes facing down toward the GPU as the top fan runs into the top of the case.

Edit: The current setup clears the RAM!
 
pslate said:
Thanks for the help guys. I changed the cooler around. I went with the large heatpipes facing the front of the case as shown in the album here:

http://imgur.com/a/NICFv

I tried it with the aluminum caps facing the GPU as No Hands described, but I remember reading that it wasn't a preferred orientation for Noctua top down coolers because the large heat pipes would be facing the top of the case and fighting against gravity. I'm assuming this still applies to the be quiet. With my orientation, the caps nearly touch the rear of the case (on the 92mm fan mount). Obviously, there is no room for even a slim 92mm fan. The power plug must be moved to the middle too.

Also, I replaced my 1070's cooler with an Arctic Accelero III with two NF-F12's as intake. Stock temps running Unigine Heaven were 78 degrees C. With the new cooler, the max temp was 61! Great improvment. This is with a really passive fan curve too.

And I went back to the SF600. Its size is just way easier to work around. The coil whine also doesn't bother me as much as it used to. I'm going to return the PE-550.

So I can finally say I'm done tinkering for now. The case is now incredibly quiet and cool enough in temperature for me.
Click to expand...

glad to hear you got it to work! it didnt fit that way on mine or i would have done that as well. How is the sound with the Accelero? I am wanting to either get it for my reference 970 or get a new card with it. Does the Accelero fit on any card or just ref/founders?
 
StrawKite said:
Which accelero cooler is people using? extreme 3 or 4?
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The 3 comes with small heatsinks for the VRM and memory chips (though you could keep using your existing VRM heatsinks). The 4 doesn't have any small heatsinks so you would have to buy some. The 4 also has a backplate/heatsink that many (but not all I think) have found to be too tall to use. The 3 might be harder to find in stock.
 
Qrash said:
The 3 comes with small heatsinks for the VRM and memory chips (though you could keep using your existing VRM heatsinks). The 4 doesn't have any small heatsinks so you would have to buy some. The 4 also has a backplate/heatsink that many (but not all I think) have found to be too tall to use. The 3 might be harder to find in stock.
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I see, so the number 3 seems to be the prefered cooler. How is performance though, the number 4 must be better right?
 
So I have a few questions for the people here on my build

build specs -
asus rog impact viii
i5 6600k
gtx 1080 founders
2 850 evo ssd
silverstone sfx psu
thermaltake riing 120 fans


Now, I have the cpu in a water loop with a 240mm radiator (running the apogee drive pump/cpu block), I am adding the gpu into the loop soon.
But I am going to do some slight redesign on the fans in my case.

The 2 things I am uncertain about is installing a rear 92mm exhaust fan, and mounting of the asus fan board.

Would putting a 92mm fan in the rear help get warm air out of the case? or should I just rely on the passive cooling of the top vents. I do have a single 120mm in the bottom to pull cool air into the case to offset the hot air the radiator fans are dumping in.

Where should I put the fan hub thing, I was thinking of making a mount for it right under the psu, since I cut my cables down I have a decent amount of space there. I do have space under the gpu near the back, but I want to keep that space open for a future 240mm or 120mm radiator.
 
StrawKite said:
I see, so the number 3 seems to be the prefered cooler. How is performance though, the number 4 must be better right?
Click to expand...

The 3 and 4 have the exact same fans and front heatsink. Only differences are the extra small heatsinks with the 3 and the backplate/heatsink with the 4.
 
Qrash said:
The 3 and 4 have the exact same fans and front heatsink. Only differences are the extra small heatsinks with the 3 and the backplate/heatsink with the 4.
Click to expand...
I bought the sf 600 corsair, do you think the backplate heatsink will fit? Actually I could just measure this myself after i have built my PC right?
 
ejohnson said:
So I have a few questions for the people here on my build

build specs -
asus rog impact viii
i5 6600k
gtx 1080 founders
2 850 evo ssd
silverstone sfx psu
thermaltake riing 120 fans


Now, I have the cpu in a water loop with a 240mm radiator (running the apogee drive pump/cpu block), I am adding the gpu into the loop soon.
But I am going to do some slight redesign on the fans in my case.

The 2 things I am uncertain about is installing a rear 92mm exhaust fan, and mounting of the asus fan board.

Would putting a 92mm fan in the rear help get warm air out of the case? or should I just rely on the passive cooling of the top vents. I do have a single 120mm in the bottom to pull cool air into the case to offset the hot air the radiator fans are dumping in.

Where should I put the fan hub thing, I was thinking of making a mount for it right under the psu, since I cut my cables down I have a decent amount of space there. I do have space under the gpu near the back, but I want to keep that space open for a future 240mm or 120mm radiator.
Click to expand...

I am using a single 240mm radiator, side mounted, for an OCed 6600k and GTX 1070. My max cpu temps are 50C and gpu 42C. I have no rear mounted fan. The airflow is very good out of the top and back I don't think a rear 92mm is necessary. Even the motherboard never gets above 50C. Side fans set as intake making the case positive pressure with very little dust.

I am using the same pump/block with a Black Ice Nemesis GTS240.
 
rfarmer said:
I am using a single 240mm radiator, side mounted, for an OCed 6600k and GTX 1070. My max cpu temps are 50C and gpu 42C. I have no rear mounted fan. The airflow is very good out of the top and back I don't think a rear 92mm is necessary. Even the motherboard never gets above 50C. Side fans set as intake making the case positive pressure with very little dust.

I am using the same pump/block with a Black Ice Nemesis GTS240.
Click to expand...


OK cool, Im using the swiftech quiet power or whatever its called and my cpu never gets above 40c and the fans never go above 800rpm.

I know the water will more or less be the same temp throughout the loop, but what order are you running your parts?
Right now mine will be set cpu - res - gpu - radiator - back to cpu
 
ejohnson said:
OK cool, Im using the swiftech quiet power or whatever its called and my cpu never gets above 40c and the fans never go above 800rpm.

I know the water will more or less be the same temp throughout the loop, but what order are you running your parts?
Right now mine will be set cpu - res - gpu - radiator - back to cpu
Click to expand...

Mine goes from res, cpu, radiator, gpu, res. I have the rear mounted FrozenQ reservoir.
 
rfarmer said:
Mine goes from res, cpu, radiator, gpu, res. I have the rear mounted FrozenQ reservoir.
Click to expand...


I too have that res.
I wanted to go from res to cpu, but the asus impact viii sound card blocks the apogee block from mounting with the inlet on the bottom :(
I could route the tube from the res up then into the pump, but then then it adds a bunch of extra tube all over the place. Makes bleeding air a real pain right now.

I do have four 36 inch hard lines on the way so maybe I will see what I can do about re-routing my hoses while I am putting in the gpu (then I can put in a drain line too on the gpu)
 
StrawKite said:
I bought the sf 600 corsair, do you think the backplate heatsink will fit? Actually I could just measure this myself after i have built my PC right?
Click to expand...

Here is a post from early October by ScorpioNElite: https://hardforum.com/threads/ncase...n-first-post.1717132/page-446#post-1041892648

ScorpionElite is using the Arctic Twin Turbo III which also comes with a backplate/heatsink piece. It is 23 mm tall, the same as the one that comes with the Arctic Accelero Xtreme IV. The major difference between the two models is the size and design of the front heatsink.

In his photos ScorpioNElite has a standard SFX power supply (probably a Silverstone model that he has modded by replacing the internal fan with an external 92 mm fan). The Corsair SF power supplies are the same length. Their cables are a bit stiffer than Silverstone's, but you can still bend them out of the way. I like how ScorpioNElite has looped and fastened the excess cable length against the PS (between the added fan and the front panel). This is an effective and tidy strategy that I have copied as well.
 
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Qrash said:
Here is a post from early October by ScorpioNElite: https://hardforum.com/threads/ncase...n-first-post.1717132/page-446#post-1041892648

ScorpionElite is using the Arctic Twin Turbo III which also comes with a backplate/heatsink piece. It is 23 mm tall, the same as the one that comes with the Arctic Accelero Xtreme IV. The major difference between the two models is the size and design of the front heatsink.

In his photos ScorpioNElite has a standard SFX power supply (probably a Silverstone model that he has modded by replacing the internal fan wiht an external 92 mm fan). The Corsair SF power supplies are the same length. Their cables are a bit stiffer than Silverstone's, but you can still bend them out of the way. I like how ScorpioNElite has looped and fastened the excess cable length against the PS (between the added fan and the front panel). This is an effective and tidy strategy that I have copied as well.
Click to expand...

Thanks for that link, I had not seen that build by ScorpioNElite. Nice clean build he has.
 
I got some parts for my future build and this is the first time I'm seeing the Ncase M1 on hand and it is gorgeous!
15282005_649613855213495_432548038_n.jpg
 
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No Hands 55 said:
glad to hear you got it to work! it didnt fit that way on mine or i would have done that as well. How is the sound with the Accelero? I am wanting to either get it for my reference 970 or get a new card with it. Does the Accelero fit on any card or just ref/founders?
Click to expand...

Should work just fine on a 970. Check the technical data tab on their website.

https://www.arctic.ac/us_en/accelero-xtreme-iii.html

My 1070 was an ACX 3.0 model, not the founder's edition. Although that is still a reference PCB.
 
So, kinda a strange idea but I wanted to get your guys opinion on it

I am currently working on adding my gpu to my water cooling loop. I want to run 2 radiators, but I dont like how little space you get with a bottom radiator.

My idea is to remove the sfx psu, then put a Seasonic ss-500l1u under the gpu. Its 500w, 40mm tall and modular.

Then in the place the sfx psu was, put a 120mm radiator. Since the sfx psu is 125mm wide, it should fit just fine.

The only issue I can think of is having the fans from each radiator blowing air at each other (both set to intake, then the air fights in the middle of the case).
I think I can get around this by installing some baffles or something between the 2 fans so it just funnels the air. I could put some thin plexi sheet in there at a angle so it channels the 240mm radiators air up, and then channels the 120mm radiators air down. But I would just have to play around with some air flow to see what works best.
 
ejohnson said:
So, kinda a strange idea but I wanted to get your guys opinion on it

I am currently working on adding my gpu to my water cooling loop. I want to run 2 radiators, but I dont like how little space you get with a bottom radiator.

My idea is to remove the sfx psu, then put a Seasonic ss-500l1u under the gpu. Its 500w, 40mm tall and modular.

Then in the place the sfx psu was, put a 120mm radiator. Since the sfx psu is 125mm wide, it should fit just fine.

The only issue I can think of is having the fans from each radiator blowing air at each other (both set to intake, then the air fights in the middle of the case).
I think I can get around this by installing some baffles or something between the 2 fans so it just funnels the air. I could put some thin plexi sheet in there at a angle so it channels the 240mm radiators air up, and then channels the 120mm radiators air down. But I would just have to play around with some air flow to see what works best.
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Aren't most people here running water cooling getting good results with one 240mm radiator cooling both CPU & GPU?
 
Finished building a ITX setup for a friend using a Fractal Design Nano S case. Here's a side by side in case anyone is wondering about the size difference.

v756H17.jpg
 
Chimaera43 said:
Aah, go for it - and post photos. :)
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I will try to mock something up when my gpu block comes in (next week sometime)

I dont want to take out all my hardlines untill I have a gpu to add to the system :)
I have a spare 120mm rad that I can put in there. Maybe I can just pull the psu out and see how it fits with out the hardlines. I will say pulling the psu out without removing the radiator is a pain in the butt.
 
ejohnson said:
So, kinda a strange idea but I wanted to get your guys opinion on it

I am currently working on adding my gpu to my water cooling loop. I want to run 2 radiators, but I dont like how little space you get with a bottom radiator.

My idea is to remove the sfx psu, then put a Seasonic ss-500l1u under the gpu. Its 500w, 40mm tall and modular.

Then in the place the sfx psu was, put a 120mm radiator. Since the sfx psu is 125mm wide, it should fit just fine.

The only issue I can think of is having the fans from each radiator blowing air at each other (both set to intake, then the air fights in the middle of the case).
I think I can get around this by installing some baffles or something between the 2 fans so it just funnels the air. I could put some thin plexi sheet in there at a angle so it channels the 240mm radiators air up, and then channels the 120mm radiators air down. But I would just have to play around with some air flow to see what works best.
Click to expand...

That would be quite interesting!
The Seasonic would be a tight fit though:
1) The GPU bridge for the DVI is triangular - so you'd have to move your PSU towards the front of the case - It would still fit but the power connections will have less space than you'd think. Some more space is taken by the front IO bracket, and the power cord for the PSU from the back.
2) The screws for the case feet intrude into the case from the bottom so you'd have to either file these flat or mount the PSU off the floor by a few mm.
3) I measure approx. 45mm to the lowest point of the waterblock to the bottom of the case due to card sag (I'm using an EK Full cover Nickel with backplate - Heavy!)

But using the PSU space for a 120 with a push/pull config would be awesome! I think you'd be pretty happy with the temps you'd get.. I'd say go for it!
 
Chapeau said:
That would be quite interesting!
The Seasonic would be a tight fit though:
1) The GPU bridge for the DVI is triangular - so you'd have to move your PSU towards the front of the case - It would still fit but the power connections will have less space than you'd think. Some more space is taken by the front IO bracket, and the power cord for the PSU from the back.
2) The screws for the case feet intrude into the case from the bottom so you'd have to either file these flat or mount the PSU off the floor by a few mm.
3) I measure approx. 45mm to the lowest point of the waterblock to the bottom of the case due to card sag (I'm using an EK Full cover Nickel with backplate - Heavy!)

But using the PSU space for a 120 with a push/pull config would be awesome! I think you'd be pretty happy with the temps you'd get.. I'd say go for it!
Click to expand...



I think I'm definitely going to at least give it a try, but with my SFX PSU outside the case before I spend the money on the 1u PSU.

I matched up a fan and radiator I had laying around and it fits with alot of space between the 2 radiators.
 
Now, if you are planning on the 120mm rad to have its airflow diverted downwards, would it not have a hard time getting out of the chassis because of the GPU & the 1U PSU…?

Maybe have the 240mm rad intake as normal, and have the 120mm rad exhaust…?

Or, if there is plenty of space between the rads, maybe make your divider like an upside-down Y, the arms of the Y contacting with the rads & directing both airflows up & out…?
 
Yea not sure what will be the best for temps. I will try both as a exhaust and a intake.

I think the Y might work well as long as it doesn't interfere with my coolant lines.
 
Necere said:
The filter for the ST45SF is 100x100mm. Demcifilters are fairly restrictive though, and there have been reports that using them has caused the overheating protection to kick in with some PSUs. I can't say whether it will be a problem for the Corsair PSUs, though.
Click to expand...
Thank you! Mine came today (from Titan Rig on Amazon) and I was able to slap it on.. still waiting on my C14 from the Great White North until I can test it.

Another stupid (and slightly pedantic) question for everyone -
The slimline ODD is keyed for a specific orientation. The "Silverstone" ODD (which is just a Panasonic UJ265? wtf; can buy those for half the cost of the Silverstone-branded one) seems to load with the label away from you, where it kinda feels like it'd be better with the label facing the front. Clearly, some custom mounts would be fashioned in some way... but has anyone ever tried getting that to work?
 
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