DAN A4-SFX: The smallest gaming case in the world

dondan same question from me preordered and payed for v1 but on caseking.de that became v2 with a looooooooong wait a year or so hoping to have the case in hand jan/ feb =)
 
dondan same question from me preordered and payed for v1 but on caseking.de that became v2 with a looooooooong wait a year or so hoping to have the case in hand jan/ feb =)

you should check casekind and overclockers website regularly. In the last month or two I saw both the silver and then the black V1 A4 units in stock, but they get sold out in a few days.
 
Does Dan have a AIO temp test with that Astek system? Seems like horribly poor intake/exhaust.
custom watercooling with 92mm radiator
nMhzBtx.jpg
 
ahh okay, I am waiting for the V2 also.. interested to see when well be able to receive the V2 pre-orders. Hopefully not another year D:
Got a reply from caseking that preorders will be shipped in january though if its new or only old preordes wasnt in the reply, hopefully/guessing that dondan has stock/planned for that :)
 
Hi Dondan,

I would like to purchase a DAN A4 V2, but I need to know beforehand that coupled it with an Asetek 92mm AIO and 7700K (4.5GHz_1.220v delided) duo how much heating I can expect during gaming. (I am not interested in benchmarks)

Could you please measure the temperatures for me? My order hinges upon this data.

Thanks in advance

Attila
 
That's the infamous cold boot issue which Asus refuses to acknowledge to this day. Basically, the theory is Asus really messed up the Auto settings for the Z270I when you run any typical memory kit that's not DDR4-2133. Which is nearly everyone. The solution is methodically changing the VCCIO and System Agent voltages until the system reliably cold boots (boots after being fully unplugged for a minute or so). Some typical values are listed here. This solved it for me.

Edit: to add, if you power cycle three times, it will load bios defaults allowing you to make changes.
I had the very same issue on my Asus Z370I and could not find a solution on the web when I searched for it ~2 weeks ago, a couple of days later I'm reading this post here (!), tried it out, and no problems since then. Amazing - thanks a lot Ceski!!!
 
Thinking about doing the same. Note any performance improvements and temperature differences?

How did the noise change?

Well, performance went wayyy up, but the noice also went a little up.

Comparing the GTX 1080 Strix to the GTX 1080Ti Turbo comes down to this:

- The Turbo's Fan always spins at idle at 20% or some 1300RPM and is hearable then, whereas the Strix's fans did not spin in idle and made no sound.
- That also makes that the Turbo is some 28°C idle and the Strix was 45°C
- Playing a lengthy game (Wolf2, Doom, Quake Champions) ramps up the Turbo's fan to 55% (2700RPM) while keeping it under 85°C, and this is very hearable - the specific high pitched sound of a turbine fan. The Strix never got warmer than 75°C (don't remember the RPM)
- The exhaust air at the read of the Turbo is a lot warmer than with the Strix, but this also makes that the rest of the interior of the Dan A4-SFX is a couple of degrees cooler.

I must say that these findings were with both sidepanels installed for the Turbo, and both sidepanels removed for the Strix. I'll see what it gives when I remove the sidepanels and play games with the Turbo.

Screen Shot 2017-11-17 at 07.18.30.png
Screen Shot 2017-11-17 at 07.18.51.png


(yes, Hardwaremonitor still displays "GTX 1080" but it's really the GTX 1080Ti :)
 
Well, performance went wayyy up, but the noice also went a little up.

Comparing the GTX 1080 Strix to the GTX 1080Ti Turbo comes down to this:

- The Turbo's Fan always spins at idle at 20% or some 1300RPM and is hearable then, whereas the Strix's fans did not spin in idle and made no sound.
- That also makes that the Turbo is some 28°C idle and the Strix was 45°C
- Playing a lengthy game (Wolf2, Doom, Quake Champions) ramps up the Turbo's fan to 55% (2700RPM) while keeping it under 85°C, and this is very hearable - the specific high pitched sound of a turbine fan. The Strix never got warmer than 75°C (don't remember the RPM)
- The exhaust air at the read of the Turbo is a lot warmer than with the Strix, but this also makes that the rest of the interior of the Dan A4-SFX is a couple of degrees cooler.

I must say that these findings were with both sidepanels installed for the Turbo, and both sidepanels removed for the Strix. I'll see what it gives when I remove the sidepanels and play games with the Turbo.

View attachment 43395 View attachment 43396

(yes, Hardwaremonitor still displays "GTX 1080" but it's really the GTX 1080Ti :)

You should try undervolting the 1080ti to tame the 2700RPMs.

I used to have a vacum cleaner of card with Vega and undervolted it to lower the noise overclocked from 800mhz to 1020mhz.

Now my max RPM is set to 2200RPM for gaming.
 
After having tight funds for a while I am finally getting around to my Dan A4 (v1) build and had three questions.
First, anyone have used a 960 EVO from an SSD that is limited by the SATA bus"(MX300 for example)? I currently have a Sandisk Extreme Pro and am curious if the M.2 drive is worth it.
Second question is if anyone sees a problem with my build?
My Parts list is:

Ryzen 1700X
ASRock B350 ITX
Noctua NH-L9a
G.Skill Ripjaws V 2x16GB
Sandisk Extreme Pro 480GB
Samsung 830 pro 256gb
EVGA 1070 SC ACX
Corsair SF450


Lastly, anyone have and favorite tips or tricks from their builds?
 
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S
After having tight funds for a while I am finally getting around to my Dan A4 (v1) build and had three questions.
First, anyone have used a 960 EVO from an SSD that is limited by the SATA bus"(MX300 for example)? I currently have a Sandisk Extreme Pro and am curious if the M.2 drive is worth it.
Second question is if anyone sees a problem with my build?
My Parts list is:

Ryzen 1700X
ASRock B350M
Noctua NH-L9a
G.Skill Ripjaws V 2x16GB
Sandisk Extreme Pro 480GB
Samsung 830 pro 256gb
EVGA 1070 SC ACX
Corsair SF450


Lastly, anyone have and favorite tips or tricks from their builds?

32gb will be hard to get high frequency to work. All looks good but spend some time researching the ram unless you already have it.

http://www.asrock.com/MB/AMD/Fatal1ty AB350 Gaming-ITXac/index.asp#Memory
 
32gb will be hard to get high frequency to work. All looks good but spend some time researching the ram unless you already have it.

Thanks for the reply. Yes, already bought the RAM on sale ($260 was hard to pass up considering prices lately and in the future) plus every time a site does a memory speed test it doesn't seem to matter much, meanwhile I max out my current 12gb frequently enough that I would not feel comfortable with just 16gb.
 
ASRock B350M
Please note what you have added to the list is a micro ATX motherboard and the case only fits mini ITX motherboards. For Ryzen there are currently 3(4) motherboards available:

Asrock Fatal1ty AB350 Gaming-ITX/ac
Asrock Fatal1ty X370 Gaming-ITX/ac

ASUS ROG Strix B350-I Gaming
ASUS ROG Strix X370-I Gaming

Biostar Racing B350GTN
Biostar Racing X370GTN

Gigabyte AB350N-Gaming WiFi

Please note that while I listed the X370GTN it offers no discernible benefit over it's B350 counterpart
 
First, anyone have used a 960 EVO from an SSD that is limited by the SATA bus"(MX300 for example)? I currently have a Sandisk Extreme Pro and am curious if the M.2 drive is worth it.
If you're asking whether there's a noticeable real-world difference between a SATA M.2 SSD and an NVMe M.2 SSD, then I'd have to say that in my experience I can't tell the difference between the two in general operation. I guess if you have a particular use-case where you have sustained, prolonged writes or reads then you may find there to be a difference, but I can't tell the difference in Windows or with game loading times, for example.

On the other hand, if you're buying a new drive anyway and the price differential between SATA M.2 and NVMe isn't too great, you might as well go for it. But I wouldn't go out and buy an NVMe drive to replace a perfectly good SATA one.
 
Please note what you have added to the list is a micro ATX motherboard and the case only fits mini ITX motherboards. For Ryzen there are currently 3(4) motherboards available:

Asrock Fatal1ty AB350 Gaming-ITX/ac
Asrock Fatal1ty X370 Gaming-ITX/ac

ASUS ROG Strix B350-I Gaming
ASUS ROG Strix X370-I Gaming

Biostar Racing B350GTN
Biostar Racing X370GTN

Gigabyte AB350N-Gaming WiFi

Please note that while I listed the X370GTN it offers no discernible benefit over it's B350 counterpart
Well don't you get a 50-100mhz (depending on if you have an X or non X chip) boost increase on and x370?

Edit: Seems this is incorrect, I must have misread an article. Thanks to Jadetea for the clarification.
 
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If you're asking whether there's a noticeable real-world difference between a SATA M.2 SSD and an NVMe M.2 SSD, then I'd have to say that in my experience I can't tell the difference between the two in general operation. I guess if you have a particular use-case where you have sustained, prolonged writes or reads then you may find there to be a difference, but I can't tell the difference in Windows or with game loading times, for example.

On the other hand, if you're buying a new drive anyway and the price differential between SATA M.2 and NVMe isn't too great, you might as well go for it. But I wouldn't go out and buy an NVMe drive to replace a perfectly good SATA one.

I have to agree with this. I get 2500 mb/s read and 1500 mb/s write with my NVMe, but actually using it daily I don't notice a difference between it and a SATA 3 SSD.
 
So I plan on doing a Black/Silver Coffee Lake build for my v2 and I'm buying parts now and just putting them in a Node 202 till it arrives (god I don't wanna wait much longer). I was wondering about compatibility. I've heard the Asus Strix z370i isn't and is compatible with the LP53 cooler, with and without the VRMs. Would the LP53 work with the board?

This is the build: https://pcpartpicker.com/user/SirTreePuncher/saved/Y9DwVn

Also what length cables from CableMod would be good? Any help is appreciated!
 
Just get the cheaper Cryorig C7 or NH-L9 for now and wait for dondan's super special heatsink.
Edit: Just remembered that Z370i had that overhanging VRM that may not fit.
 
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If the VRMs on the Asus z370 are like the z270, just remove them. You get much better airflow in the Dan case that way if your fins are oriented such that they block air. If you're worried about cooling buy some low profile heatsinks and stick them on. The obnoxiously huge VRMs are basically marketing gimmicks.
 
If the VRMs on the Asus z370 are like the z270, just remove them. You get much better airflow in the Dan case that way if your fins are oriented such that they block air. If you're worried about cooling buy some low profile heatsinks and stick them on. The obnoxiously huge VRMs are basically marketing gimmicks.
Don't get me started (again) on those stupid heatsinks it annoys the hell out of me. These boards are so expensive and they can't even give you proper heatsinks.
 
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