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

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Now this is cool, Asrock X299E-ITX/ac. They managed to fit four DDR4 SO-DIMM slots and 2 M.2 slots.

https://www.techpowerup.com/233817/asrock-unveils-the-x299e-itx-ac-mini-itx-x299-quad-channel-memory
 
p3z said:
I will go ahead and say that you will need bottom fans for that particular GPU. However, between the STRIX and the SC BE, the SC BE performed better in the NCASE in particular. In any other case, the STRIX should perform better. Without bottom fans, you will hit your temp limit within an hour of gaming. The PSU should be fine since you're not OC'ing the CPU. A GPU OC will still be viable and you'll be well within the limits of 450w. (250w TDP on GPU, 65w TDP on CPU, etc.). Also, I'm guessing you have FSB OC'ed the 7700?


I found the same to be true between the STRIX and the SC BE. The STRIX is a great cooler, but ultimately just struggled in this particular case for a few reasons.
Click to expand...

Food for thought, I appreciate the feedback. I don't think I'll mind the extra noise of bottom fans as they won't spin that fast. I'll start without and take it from there. But tough choice on the Strix versus the EVGA SC BE, not sure yet what I'll end up doing there. Perhaps I should consider using the Arctic Cooling Accelero III, do you think that would help with temps while staying relatively quiet?
 
Just bought a cheap Accelero III (new in box) for my reference 980 TI SC as I've noticed it can thermal throttle under sustained loads/poorly optimized games (PUBATTLEGROUNDS).

Any tips for installation? I'll be using thermal tape from work instead of the provided thermal glue/adhesive as I do plan to move to a 1080TI eventually.
 
What is the best 1070 that can accept the Accelero III?

I am looking to upgrade from my 970 and use the Accelero III but unsure if i should just buy the founder edition, a better card that can OC well/more power etc, or a cheaper card than founders with a plastic blower (as long as it isnt a crap card)

this seems to be the cheapest
https://www.amazon.com/EVGA-GeForce...&ie=UTF8&qid=1496167121&sr=1-30&keywords=1070
 
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Be Quiet! showed a new top-down cooler at Computex, the Dark Rock TF2, which may be a good alternative to the original Dark Rock TF and the discontinued Noctua NH-C14. There's a couple pics at Techpowerup, and a video in German from when it was shown a couple months ago at CeBIT. This article gives the height as 112mm, and I assume that is without the fan. That puts it right around 137mm with a fan, which is right at the limit of what will fit in the M1 (with the fan bracket in place, at least).
 
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Does anyone know the specific reason *why* the 9.5 mm ODDs aren't compatible with the Ncase M1? I ordered the Silverstone SST-SOD03 because it supported the 12.7mm form factor, but didn't notice that it appears to be a 9.5mm drive with an optional 12.7mm bezel. Not quite the same thing. I did a test fit tonight, and I can only get the mounting screws in on one side. The screws in the other side (the right?), with the bend in the bracket, don't fit. Is that the expected error, or am I doing something wrong?

Necere said:
Be Quiet! showed a new top-down cooler at Computex, the Dark Rock TF2, which may be a good alternative to the original Dark Rock TF and the discontinued Noctua NH-C14. There's a couple pics at Techpowerup, and a video in German from when it was shown a couple months ago at CeBIT. This article gives the height as 112mm, and I assume that is without that fan. That puts it right around 137mm with a fan, which is right a the limit of what will fit in the M1 (with the fan bracket in place, at least).
Click to expand...
Ooooh, I would have thought 137 far too large, but you'd know.
 
DarkForceRising said:
Does anyone know the specific reason *why* the 9.5 mm ODDs aren't compatible with the Ncase M1? I ordered the Silverstone SST-SOD03 because it supported the 12.7mm form factor, but didn't notice that it appears to be a 9.5mm drive with an optional 12.7mm bezel. Not quite the same thing. I did a test fit tonight, and I can only get the mounting screws in on one side. The screws in the other side (the right?), with the bend in the bracket, don't fit. Is that the expected error, or am I doing something wrong.
Click to expand...
I designed the bracket for 12.7mm thick drives. The 9.5mm drives are different. That's it. It won't fit, just as you've observed.

I was never actually able to find an engineering drawing for a 9.5mm thick drive. Perhaps if I had, I could've designed the bracket to accommodate both. Edit: actually I take that back. I do have the technical drawings for both sizes. So I don't actually remember why. It's possible I couldn't make both work with the slot in the top panel. 9.5mm thick slot loading drives may have been less of a thing at the time, too.
 
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mobidutch said:
Food for thought, I appreciate the feedback. I don't think I'll mind the extra noise of bottom fans as they won't spin that fast. I'll start without and take it from there. But tough choice on the Strix versus the EVGA SC BE, not sure yet what I'll end up doing there. Perhaps I should consider using the Arctic Cooling Accelero III, do you think that would help with temps while staying relatively quiet?
Click to expand...

The STRIX looks pretty great in the NCASE, IMO, if not a tad difficult to fit. It does not require the same bottom fans that the EVGA card would, but it will affect other temperatures (i.e. CPU, SSD, mobo) more than a FE or SC BE does. I would say if you want to put a ACIII on it eventually, there's no reason not to save the money and get a FE card. It even leaves the option open for you to do a hybrid mod to the card if you decide to try that.

Here's some pics that I took that might be helpful for you in determining fitment, aesthetics, etc between the STRIX, SC BE, FE, and FE+Hybrid.
STRIX, SC BE, FE, FE+Hybrid: http://imgur.com/a/sw5Nf
Current setup: http://imgur.com/a/MA6gS

Overall, I recommend an FE card in this case. The fact that you can throw an ACIII or Hybrid kit on it for a reasonable price only drives the point home that you will not get a better cooled and quieter card in this particular case.

Necere said:
Be Quiet! showed a new top-down cooler at Computex, the Dark Rock TF2, which may be a good alternative to the original Dark Rock TF and the discontinued Noctua NH-C14. There's a couple pics at Techpowerup, and a video in German from when it was shown a couple months ago at CeBIT. This article gives the height as 112mm, and I assume that is without the fan. That puts it right around 137mm with a fan, which is right at the limit of what will fit in the M1 (with the fan bracket in place, at least).
Click to expand...

Very nice! It even looks like it'll have better board and memory compatibility this time as well. Hope that we do end up seeing this cooler make it's way to us.
 
p3z said:
The STRIX looks pretty great in the NCASE, IMO, if not a tad difficult to fit. It does not require the same bottom fans that the EVGA card would, but it will affect other temperatures (i.e. CPU, SSD, mobo) more than a FE or SC BE does. I would say if you want to put a ACIII on it eventually, there's no reason not to save the money and get a FE card. It even leaves the option open for you to do a hybrid mod to the card if you decide to try that.
Click to expand...
That makes sense. FE card + Arctic Accellero III is close to the same cost as the Strix card by itself. Minus voided warranty of course. I'll let this stew for a bit...
 
ejohnson said:
https://mnpctech.com/ncase-m1-mods/
MNpc tech now has gpu supports for the ncase!
Click to expand...
And they even talk about a window panel!

Bookmark this page if you're looking for a custom window solution for your NCASE M1. We plan to create and release custom window side panels for the silver and black NCASE M1 ITX case in the fall of 2017.

P.S. you should change the URL of your link, actually it goes through facebook exit link.
 
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pendragon1 said:
tear it apart and check contact/tim. add more tim too, as a little extra is better than not enough. if temps are still high try adjusting the fan curve and maybe experiment with raising the case up a bit(blocks under feet) for better airflow. see if any of that helps.
Click to expand...

I took off the Arctic Accelero Xtreme III, and checked the tim. It appeared to be making good contact. I cleaned it off and re-applied fresh tim (I wasn't skimpy since this is the actual die, not a heat spreader that I'm trying to make contact with the cooler) This time, I tightened it down a little harder than last time, and it seemed like it was going to work better, but the temps just climbed up over 80 and it started throttling again. I found out that one of my fans wasn't spinning. I appears that it's hit or miss if my graphics card will even actually spin the fans, so I connected the non-spinning fan to the system fan, and I also downloaded msi afterburner so I could make custom fan curves. I thought that the problem was solved because the temperature looked like it was holding at around 75 degrees. But the temperature ever so slowly climbed up the last 5 degrees to 80, and then the card started throttling again. At least this time it was holding at 80 and not going above. I think it is better off than before, so I think the re-seating of the cooler and the custom fan curves did a little bit of good.

Next step is to just try raising the case to see if more airflow will make a difference.

Qrash said:
Another option is to flip the bottom fans so that they exhaust warm air. Your side fans (if any) should be set as intakes.
Click to expand...

My side fans are set as intakes, the bottom fans too. If it doesn't cool down from raising the case a bit, I think I'll try your suggestion of flipping the bottom fans. I might get some new fans too because I'm afraid these ones (Arctic F12 PWM) might not be pushing enough air through.

I might just go back to water cooling. the Arctic Accelero Xtreme has been a big dissapointment.
 
Frazhna said:
My side fans are set as intakes, the bottom fans too. If it doesn't cool down from raising the case a bit, I think I'll try your suggestion of flipping the bottom fans. I might get some new fans too because I'm afraid these ones (Arctic F12 PWM) might not be pushing enough air through.

I might just go back to water cooling. the Arctic Accelero Xtreme has been a big dissapointment.
Click to expand...

i would be interested to see what your results are in changing the bottom fans to exhaust. I am thinking about getting it because i dont like the noise off my ref 970
 
I'm buying a 1080 gtx for my Ncase next week. What is the current consensus for the best one in terms of noise and temps? Not overly concerned about which is the fastest, they are all fast enough for me.
 
Finally decided to get a GTX 1080 ti (EVGA SC Black Edition). Maxes at 72C so far with one 140mm intake fan at the bottom. My CPU did get hotter though and goes between 68-74C.
 
So I think i decided im going to hold off on the new GPU and get the Accelero III for my 970. I will wait to upgrade the GPU until I get a new monitor later on towards the end of the year, and then switch the Accelero over to the new card.

What fans would be best under the Accelero III heatsink? I have 2 Corsair SP120s, but am willing to get another set if they would be significantly better.

Vardar, Noctua, eloops, gentle typhoons, SP120s??


I would really appreciate any thoughts on the fans, and my plan with the accelero!!!
 
mobidutch said:
That makes sense. FE card + Arctic Accellero III is close to the same cost as the Strix card by itself. Minus voided warranty of course. I'll let this stew for a bit...
Click to expand...

Indeed. And if you get a card directly from NVIDIA (I'm sure other OEMs do it, too) you won't have an annoying waranty sticker. That or EVGA since they won't care about you disassembling the card so long as it looks right when/if it's RMA'd :p.

mobidutch said:
That looks great! It looks like you're using Corsair H75 for CPU... and is that a 1080 hybrid card, or a 1080 Ti? How are your noise levels with the Phantek fans?
Click to expand...

Thank you! I highly appreciate it!

And I went from a 1080 Ti FE on the Hybrid back to my Titan X P (2016/non-p version). There's no perceptible performance difference in games that I can see, but my pre-existing Titan X P OC's and sits at about 2038-2050 while my Ti FE would only give me 1949MHz. Plus I liked the all-black aesthetic, too.

As for the fans, I love the noise profile. I can't say enough good things about the F120MPs. My temps would be better with a faster 120mm fan, but it's one of, if not the quietest 120mm static-pressure oriented fan you can find. The Noctua and GT offerings of course are the biggest rivals, but a few review sites have found the F120MP to be equal in performance, noise, etc. They run at 100% under gaming scenarios and the noise profile is extremely pleasant.

noobzilla said:
Finally decided to get a GTX 1080 ti (EVGA SC Black Edition). Maxes at 72C so far with one 140mm intake fan at the bottom. My CPU did get hotter though and goes between 68-74C.
Click to expand...

Yep, this was my experience pretty much spot on. That 140mm is probably enough and a second fan or swap to 2x120s wouldn't be worth the extra noise/power draw.

No Hands 55 said:
So I think i decided im going to hold off on the new GPU and get the Accelero III for my 970. I will wait to upgrade the GPU until I get a new monitor later on towards the end of the year, and then switch the Accelero over to the new card.

What fans would be best under the Accelero III heatsink? I have 2 Corsair SP120s, but am willing to get another set if they would be significantly better.

Vardar, Noctua, eloops, gentle typhoons, SP120s??


I would really appreciate any thoughts on the fans, and my plan with the accelero!!!
Click to expand...

The downside to the SP120s is while they are fast spinning fans that push good air, they are very loud for what they are. If you can put them on a fan curve via a mobo fan header or some type of low-noise adapter, you can get a decent noise-to-performance ratio out of them. It's not a bad fan to start out with. From what I've seen in sound comparisons in YouTube videos (take that with a grain of salt, of course), the Vardars have an extremely annoying noise profile compared to the GTs. I would also through the Phanteks F120MP into consideration. I personally find the Industrial Noctua 2Ks to be a bit....awful in the sound department.

dbgt said:
is there a gtx 1080TI compatibility list?
Click to expand...

Yep! And of course, feel free to ask us here :D.
 
Update on my Arctic Accelero Xtreme III that was allowing my GPU to thermally throttle:

First, I put some blocks under the feet of my case to raise it up, to see if it could get some better airflow. This resulted in no noticeable difference in temperatures. This exercise allowed me to put my hand next to the intakes and feel how much air was being sucked in. (not much)

I ditched the blocks and swapped out the Arctic F12 fans on the bottom. In their place, I put a couple of Helix fans that I pulled off my old Swiftech H220 radiator. The new fans are still set as intake. Now the temperature doesn't go above 74 degrees while running Unigen Valley benchmark (I let it run for a couple of hours just to be sure that the temps weren't climbing anymore), but most important to me: no more thermal throttling! The Arctic fans were nice and quiet, but they just weren't moving enough air through the radiator to get the job done. And the noise level of the Helix fans? I can't tell the difference between them and the arctic fans because any time they have to spin up enough to be heard, they are completely drowned out by the loud fan on my Silverstone power supply. So, I guess the only answer I can give regarding noise levels of the fans I have tried is that they are all imperceptible when in the Ncase with the Silverstone power supply.

I'm also a little suspicious of the available power for fans on the graphics card.
My earlier configurations:
2x120 Arctic F12 fans plugged into the graphics card ended up with temps over 85 degrees and severe throttling. One fan wouldn't even spin.
1 Acrtic F12 plugged in to the graphics card, and 1 plugged in to the system fan ended up with temps of 80 degrees and some throttling. Both fans were spinning.

The configuration that works is 2x120 Helix fans plugged in with an adapter that allows the graphics card to control the speed of the fans, while the power to drive the fans comes directly from a 4 pin connector from the PSU.

I can't really draw a solid conclusion about what actually solved this problem because I never completely isolated the variables, but I did narrow it down to either the Arctic F12 fans weren't getting enough power, or if they were, they still couldn't move enough air through the heat sink fins to get the job done.
 
Frazhna said:
Update on my Arctic Accelero Xtreme III that was allowing my GPU to thermally throttle:

First, I put some blocks under the feet of my case to raise it up, to see if it could get some better airflow. This resulted in no noticeable difference in temperatures. This exercise allowed me to put my hand next to the intakes and feel how much air was being sucked in. (not much)

I ditched the blocks and swapped out the Arctic F12 fans on the bottom. In their place, I put a couple of Helix fans that I pulled off my old Swiftech H220 radiator. The new fans are still set as intake. Now the temperature doesn't go above 74 degrees while running Unigen Valley benchmark (I let it run for a couple of hours just to be sure that the temps weren't climbing anymore), but most important to me: no more thermal throttling! The Arctic fans were nice and quiet, but they just weren't moving enough air through the radiator to get the job done. And the noise level of the Helix fans? I can't tell the difference between them and the arctic fans because any time they have to spin up enough to be heard, they are completely drowned out by the loud fan on my Silverstone power supply. So, I guess the only answer I can give regarding noise levels of the fans I have tried is that they are all imperceptible when in the Ncase with the Silverstone power supply.

I'm also a little suspicious of the available power for fans on the graphics card.
My earlier configurations:
2x120 Arctic F12 fans plugged into the graphics card ended up with temps over 85 degrees and severe throttling. One fan wouldn't even spin.
1 Acrtic F12 plugged in to the graphics card, and 1 plugged in to the system fan ended up with temps of 80 degrees and some throttling. Both fans were spinning.

The configuration that works is 2x120 Helix fans plugged in with an adapter that allows the graphics card to control the speed of the fans, while the power to drive the fans comes directly from a 4 pin connector from the PSU.

I can't really draw a solid conclusion about what actually solved this problem because I never completely isolated the variables, but I did narrow it down to either the Arctic F12 fans weren't getting enough power, or if they were, they still couldn't move enough air through the heat sink fins to get the job done.
Click to expand...

I'm being lazy, but are any of the sets 3-pin and others 4-pin? Some fans that are 3-pin can act a bit strange when hooked up to 4-pin headers and vice-versa. There are some fans that do not operate well on DC (3-pin) effectively under certain power thresholds (think of it as the fan using DC only like 75% and 100%).
 
All the fans that I used are 4-pin PWM fans. (The headers that I used were also all 4-pin headers.)
 
p3z said:
The downside to the SP120s is while they are fast spinning fans that push good air, they are very loud for what they are. If you can put them on a fan curve via a mobo fan header or some type of low-noise adapter, you can get a decent noise-to-performance ratio out of them. It's not a bad fan to start out with. From what I've seen in sound comparisons in YouTube videos (take that with a grain of salt, of course), the Vardars have an extremely annoying noise profile compared to the GTs. I would also through the Phanteks F120MP into consideration. I personally find the Industrial Noctua 2Ks to be a bit....awful in the sound department.
Click to expand...

Good to know thanks. I am leaning towards the GTs or the original F12s, both PWM, debating getting them for my Dark Rock TF too. I will definitely try it out with my SP120s first though. A little noise shouldn't be a huge bother because i'm using a founders blower card at the moment haha.

Also, I have a 600w silverstone SFX. Other than the little chirping of the fan when it starts spinning, would the Corsair SFX600 be worth it to replace it?
 
You should still flip the fans and have them as exhaust, the consensus is the temps are best that way. You shouldn't be getting temps in the 70s at all.
 
All,
I also just installed an Accelero III onto my 980TI and have some great temps.

Current setting is Clock at 1450 MHz and Memory at 3800 MH and that results in max of 70 degrees with my fan curve. The only downside is that using the GPU fan header means the fan spins at a minimum of 22% or 1200ish rpm. I could probably get the fans damn near silent of the fan curve let me go below this because at 22% minimum it appears to desktop idle at around 35-40 degrees.

Any easy way to use the MB fan controller and tie that to the GPU temp so I can have a little more control over this?
 
darrpara said:
All,
I also just installed an Accelero III onto my 980TI and have some great temps.

Current setting is Clock at 1450 MHz and Memory at 3800 MH and that results in max of 70 degrees with my fan curve. The only downside is that using the GPU fan header means the fan spins at a minimum of 22% or 1200ish rpm. I could probably get the fans damn near silent of the fan curve let me go below this because at 22% minimum it appears to desktop idle at around 35-40 degrees.

Any easy way to use the MB fan controller and tie that to the GPU temp so I can have a little more control over this?
Click to expand...
speedfan. look for jayztwocents' setup vid to make it a little easier.
 
Any thoughts on cramming the new EK Fluid Gaming A240G into the M1? I guess the main issue would be finding a nice spot for the pump/res... rear fan mount?
Appears to be a good value cooling and it would be really "cool" to get a block on my 1080ti without breaking the bank.
 
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