DAN C4-SFX: The smallest water cooling case in the world

dondan do you think it would be viable to make 2 versions of this case, one for water cooling and one for air cooling?
With the total added space of 55mm you could fit 2 fans at the top and 2 at the bottom for a total of 4 fans. Or just 2 fans at the bottom/top (however you flip the case) and a smaller overall case.
I mean, if there is no extra cost, why not?
 
Woxys: Sorry I don't have the capacity to make different versions of a product. I think the C4-H2O with the current design will work very well with air cooling and yes maybe we have 30mm waste space in height but this will also result in more silent and efficiency fans, because they have the correct distance between fan intake surface and ground.
There will be extra costs because this will require changes on metal parts on the version you thinking of.
 
Woxys said:
dondan do you think it would be viable to make 2 versions of this case, one for water cooling and one for air cooling?
With the total added space of 55mm you could fit 2 fans at the top and 2 at the bottom for a total of 4 fans. Or just 2 fans at the bottom/top (however you flip the case) and a smaller overall case.
I mean, if there is no extra cost, why not?
Click to expand...

I think it would be good if he made it able to hold more storage, or have ducted airflow for air-cooling users.

The video card is able to breath outside air in the C4-H2O, but the processor cooler could be obstructed when using air cooling. The obstructed cooler is also deep inside the case, leading to it circulating a mix of hot case air with little outside air. The big OEMs often have a plastic piece over the motherboard that forces the CPU cooler fan to intake from one facing of the case and output to another.

The designer or collaborators could make public a plan for a generic duct that would push one or more of the 120 mm fan output into the slot behind the graphics card that the CPU cooler would have to occupy. Dual 92 mm fans could also be held off-center in the dual-120 mm area to better work with a duct for air cooling. The users could order the appropriate duct when they get the case for their cooler and motherboard. These ducts would be 3D printed to order and drop-shipped to the same destination as the ordered case. Perhaps the CPU cooler would not need another fan, leading to more fin area in the limited height.

The Ncase M1 has a bracket that adapts a 120 mm fan hole pattern to two shock-mounted 3.5" drives. This adapter is 54 mm and is included with every Ncase M1. With two of them, a user can skip a graphics card and have a quad-drive ITX NAS made from the old gaming machine. This next Dancase C4-H2O could be a C4-D3.5 for people who use air cooling. A dual-120mm to dual 3.5" could be made, but many dense servers use 15 mm 2.5" drives. Alternatively six 2.5" drive in the 9 mm height could fit in a dual-120 mm storage adapter (or four drives in the 15 mm height). The obstruction does not make a big difference to airflow; once you are 3-5 mm away from the blades air finds a way. Storage servers do not need a lot of airflow.

Nanook said:
Isn’t the A4 the air cooling version?
Click to expand...

The A4-SFX is the most compact, but I see no reason that the C4-H2O can not serve more people then just AIO-users. That is, as long as it does not involve compromise to the primary goals of the case.
 
Last edited:
JackGLemmon:
The idea behind the duct airflow system is interesting, but before I put time into it I will test a prototype without it, because I think it is not necessary. I think the cooling system as it is with air cooling will result in better temps as in the A4-SFX.
My problem with the storage system is, that it will block the fan airflow that is realy necessary for good temps.
 
Hello dondan,

I think this is a great idea, but it's kind of disappointing to make a project "C4-H20" and not able to put a full watercooled system with a pump/res combo.
AIO is good, but a real watercooled build is so far better and making a case specially for watercooling without this possibility is too bad :)

May be you can think about this, I'm just giving you my point of view.

Keep going man, your work is amazing !

Cheers.
 
galletabah:
The aim is being ready for Kickstarter in may 2018 and start shipping Oct. 2018.

Nicolas Renaud:
The most reservoirs on the market are very big maybe a full water cooled system with a T-piece will work as a mini reservoir. The left and right side of the T-piece is the normal water cooling loop and on the third end you put only a piece of tube with a lock at the end that will work like a reservoir. I will test it.

@ALL:
I am thinking of making the inner frame 2mm wider and reducing the thickness of the outer panels from 2,5mm to 2mm. This will result in a case with the following dimensions: 128,5 x 241 x 322,8 (W x H x D) = 9,99l
With these changes the case will support radiators with a width of 124,5mm so the Alphacool ones will fit. Furthermore all Alphacool based AiOs like the "be quiet! Silent Loop 240mm" will fit.
 
dondan Maybe this have been raised before, but it is stated in the OP that 2x 120 mm fans will be included. I would guess that most of your potential customers already have plenty of fans laying around, and would rather skip the fans and get a lower price for the case instead (maybe 20-30 euros decrease depending on the fans?). What do you think?
 
About the radiators you listed, there is the Hardware Labs Black Ice Nemesis GTS 240 used by a lot of people in their NCase M1 (with slim fans).
It seems to be one of the best 30mm height 240 radiator.
 
Love the case idea, was going to go for the NCASE M1 but may now have to consider this! Bit nitpicky, but is it possible for the front USB 3.0 to be black instead of blue, as I think it would make for a much cleaner look (as was done with the M1 V5). Other than that, look forward to seeing how this progresses.
 
Nicolas Renaud said:
About the radiators you listed, there is the Hardware Labs Black Ice Nemesis GTS 240 used by a lot of people in their NCase M1 (with slim fans).
It seems to be one of the best 30mm height 240 radiator.
Click to expand...

I have a Hardware Labs Black Ice Nemesis GTS 240 and it is a great radiator, but it is also 133mm wide. dondan has already increased the width to 128.5mm, I doubt he will increase it to 133mm for a single radiator.
 
Pretty sure he is set on keeping this chassis under 10 liters, and the most recent (minor) width increase has the chassis at 9.99 liters...
 
@All:
I am thinking of renaming the C4-H2O.
I am afraid, that somebody can think that this case is only made for water cooling. This is a real problem, because I think the air cooling efficiency of this case is better as it is in the A4-SFX.
So I need your help again. Please help me finding a new name for the C4-XXX!

Rules:
- The new name must start with C4-
- No names that is longer than 3-4 characters


Example: C4-SFX
 
Last edited:
C4-SFX is consistent with your naming scheme, though if you look at it the other way, C4-H20 or C4-AIO immediately tells people that your case can be water cooled.
 
galletabah: As I wrote it has to start with C4-
Vlad502: As I worte I like to have a name that has nothing to do with water cooling
cowsgomoo2: Currently C4-SFX or C4-SFF is my favorite. But with C4-H2O & C4-AIO we have the problem that I described: Somebody could think the case is only for water cooling.
 
C4-GHz, for the new found overclocking abilities :D
C4-ICE, for the new cooler temperatures :cool:
C4-S18, smallformfactor + hopeful release date :happy:
C4-SF+, small form, with extra (y)

edit: I think C4-SFX might be best though :)
 
dondan said:
Currently C4-SFX or C4-SFF is my favorite. But with C4-H2O & C4-AIO we have the problem that I described: Somebody could think the case is only for water cooling.
Click to expand...
I think more people are concerned with not being able to cool a mini-ITX properly than not being able to use air cooling. Newcomers to mini-ITX usually go around telling people to use low powered S and non-K CPU only and blower GPUs only.
 
dondan said:
@All:
I am thinking of renaming the C4-H2O.
I am afraid, that somebody can think that this case is only made for water cooling. This is a real problem, because I think the air cooling efficiency of this case is better as it is in the A4-SFX.
So I need your help again. Please help me finding a new name for the C4-XXX!

Rules:
- The new name must start with C4-
- No names that is longer than 3-4 characters


Example: C4-SFX
Click to expand...

C4-180

Because It is possible to flip the case 180° and it costs 180€
 
SSuk: But this will not resolve the problem that everyone will think it is only for water cooling.

@All: My current favorites are:

- C4-SFX
- C4-SFF
- C4-ITX
 
dondan said:
SSuk: But this will not resolve the problem that everyone will think it is only for water cooling.

@All: My current favorites are:

- C4-SFX
- C4-SFF
- C4-ITX
Click to expand...

Yeah, it wont, but its a main feature of the case.

If you don´t want to use it, then second possibility would be C4-SFX.
You basically keep it SFX, but just A4 has changed to C4.
So its like SFX series, but there will be 2 models (A4 & C4).

In this situation, you can create more models in SFX series and later on you can create whole new series (fot examfle: A4-ATX, A4-eATX, etc.)
 
C4-SFX (best! Similar to A4-SFX, best for google)
C4-WOA! (2nd best. Sounds like a very cool thing)

C4-XXS
C4-CASE
C4-WTF :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top