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

Sorry for the stupid question but I figured I'd ask anyways. I'm only a few parts away from completing my build but I was wondering if it was possible to use the G.Skill TridentZ RGB RAM with the AIO and having the side panel closed? I plan on using the windowed side panel. Just making sure before I dump money on memory

Thank you
 
You know what's friggin hard?
Waiting for the end of the workday, knowing your roomie walked to customs to get your SFX-A4, sitting now at home... argh!
 
Shall we begin?
 

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Just wanted to drop some install notes before I forget for anyone interested in using either the HDPlex PSU or the NZXT M22 120mm AIO in the Dan case v3.

- This AIO (M22) is not on Dan's supported AIO list, but if you use a 120x15mm fan you're fine. The CPU block is exactly 48mm tall, the rad about 32mm. I think you have around 52mm of possible clearance.

- If you install in pull config (presumably for acoustics/to avoid turbulence/because you don't know about screws like me) AND you want the HDPlex, you can keep the front USB but it's a little tricky.

- The HDPlex seems to only have one accessible screw mount. I may be missing it because I've already mounted my SSD to the front panel. 3M tape neatly solves this. (dondan corrected me, there are 4 standoffs for mounting)

- You are losing some GPU space with the HDPlex, so if you've somehow fit a kingpin in the v2, I'm uh...sorry for your loss?

- If you installed the radiator with the tubes on the top, I think you could also the 92mm fan beneath it. I think it might vary between AIOs.

I'm still working on the case, and I'll provide my notes on cable management and hopefully thermals tomorrow.
 

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Sorry for the stupid question but I figured I'd ask anyways. I'm only a few parts away from completing my build but I was wondering if it was possible to use the G.Skill TridentZ RGB RAM with the AIO and having the side panel closed? I plan on using the windowed side panel. Just making sure before I dump money on memory

Thank you

It depends; if you're using the 92mm AIO then no, not if you want to close the side panel. I used Corsair vengeance ram because they were low profile.

However, if you're on a v3 and using a 120mm AIO then it shouldn't be an issue.
 
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It depends; if you're using the 92mm AIO then no, not if you want to close the side panel. I used Corsair vengeance ram because they were low profile.

However, if you're on a v3 and using a 120mm AIO then it shouldn't be an issue.

Unfortunately I'm using the v2. I had figured that would be the case but it never hurts to ask. Thank you for the reply!

Good luck on your v3 build!
 
- The HDPlex seems to only have one accessible screw mount. I may be missing it because I've already mounted my SSD to the front panel. 3M tape neatly solves this.
.

You have to use the included 4x M3 7mm stan offs. Put the stand offs in the four holes at the front and mount the HdPlex on them :)
 
Alaberti, why don't you put the hdplex directly on the gpu side panel and use a thicker fan for the AIO ?
 
You have to use the included 4x M3 7mm stan offs. Put the stand offs in the four holes at the front and mount the HdPlex on them :)

Ohhhh that's what those are for! That's silly of me. Thank you for clarifying!

Alaberti, why don't you put the hdplex directly on the gpu side panel and use a thicker fan for the AIO ?

There's no space with my current gpu. Might work with a mini. Also the included PSU cable is very short, I'm not 100% certain it would reach. Sorry I didn't have a pic with the GPU already, could have sworn I did. See below!

Cable management is a little trickier so I have kind of a rat's nest atm. Anytime you can route a cable along the frame, it's been awesome though.

Unfortunately, no thermals or acoustics as what appears to be a SOC/vrm choke has detached itself from my motherboard, which now no longer POSTs (regardless of which PSU I use). Fans and LEDs turn on across the board, GPU seems to turn on but each fan starts and stops one at a time in intervals. AIO works. Replacement motherboard arrives by next Friday so I'll be over here crying in a corner until then.
 

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Dondan,

Are you planning a V4 of the case? Have you considered other colors?

Thank you.
 
PSA: Turns out building a PC in a hotel late at night, leaving parts everywhere and forgetting to clean up can lead to...misunderstandings about what you're actually doing.

I managed to electrical tape the choke back in place. You can't see it in the b-roll below, which makes me feel better.

Ran Prime 95 for 30 minutes, with my stock R7 1800X:
Temps: 33C idle / 74C load

Final(?) notes:
- I needed to turn XFR off on the CPU and undervolt the GPU because the dell power brick I'm using to supply my HDPlex with power cuts out around 300 watts. I'm having a custom 450w brick made to solve that problem. https://smallformfactor.net/forum/t...bto-psus-are-now-available-direct-order.1983/
- Mounting the HDPlex (properly) - you can only fit 3 standoffs if you have a SSD mounted in the front of the case, but so far I've had no issues from it - even with it sandwiched between the GPU and AIO exhaust. What a champ!
- For those who want to use the HDPlex PSU, I recommend a 65w CPU/APU and probably nothing bigger than a 1070/equivalent if you want the most plug and play experience. Otherwise, the power brick will be the limiting component.
- For those interested in the 120mm NZXT AIO, the 15mm noctua fan is more than sufficient and, to no one's great surprise, it's very quiet. Still, I'd recommend using Dan's guidance on his site for supported coolers, especially if a 25mm fan is what you want/need. https://www.dan-cases.com/dana4_spec.html

Hope this helps anyone interested in the exciting new options opened up by the v3. Looking forward to playing in dondan's next endeavor.

20180609_004923.jpg 20180609_005023.jpg 20180609_004906.jpg 20180608_194417.jpg 20180609_010405.jpg

* I guess the keyboard business is a thing now? HAVIT TKL HV-KB390L
 
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PSA: Turns out building a PC in a hotel late at night, leaving parts everywhere and forgetting to clean up can lead to...misunderstandings about what you're actually doing.

I managed to electrical tape the choke back in place. You can't see it in the b-roll below, which makes me feel better.

Ran Prime 95 for 30 minutes, with my stock R7 1800X:
Temps: 33C idle / 74C load

Final(?) notes:
- I needed to turn XFR off on the CPU and undervolt the GPU because the dell power brick I'm using to supply my HDPlex with power cuts out around 300 watts. I'm having a custom 450w brick made to solve that problem. https://smallformfactor.net/forum/t...bto-psus-are-now-available-direct-order.1983/
- Mounting the HDPlex (properly) - you can only fit 3 standoffs if you have a SSD mounted in the front of the case, but so far I've had no issues from it - even with it sandwiched between the GPU and AIO exhaust. What a champ!
- For those who want to use the HDPlex PSU, I recommend a 65w CPU/APU and probably nothing bigger than a 1070/equivalent if you want the most plug and play experience. Otherwise, the power brick will be the limiting component.
- For those interested in the 120mm NZXT AIO, the 15mm noctua fan is more than sufficient and, to no one's great surprise, it's very quiet. Still, I'd recommend using Dan's guidance on his site for supported coolers, especially if a 25mm fan is what you want/need. https://www.dan-cases.com/dana4_spec.html

Hope this helps anyone interested in the exciting new options opened up by the v3. Looking forward to playing in dondan's next endeavor.

View attachment 79829 View attachment 79828 View attachment 79830 View attachment 79824 View attachment 79831

* I guess this is a thing now? HAVIT TKL HV-KB390L

That GPU is literally a perfect fit. Awesome build man!
 
had the case not even 24 hours and i've already managed to scratch the blood gpu side panel.

i'm livid...
 
PSA: Turns out building a PC in a hotel late at night, leaving parts everywhere and forgetting to clean up can lead to...misunderstandings about what you're actually doing.

I managed to electrical tape the choke back in place. You can't see it in the b-roll below, which makes me feel better.

Ran Prime 95 for 30 minutes, with my stock R7 1800X:
Temps: 33C idle / 74C load

Final(?) notes:
- I needed to turn XFR off on the CPU and undervolt the GPU because the dell power brick I'm using to supply my HDPlex with power cuts out around 300 watts. I'm having a custom 450w brick made to solve that problem. https://smallformfactor.net/forum/t...bto-psus-are-now-available-direct-order.1983/
- Mounting the HDPlex (properly) - you can only fit 3 standoffs if you have a SSD mounted in the front of the case, but so far I've had no issues from it - even with it sandwiched between the GPU and AIO exhaust. What a champ!
- For those who want to use the HDPlex PSU, I recommend a 65w CPU/APU and probably nothing bigger than a 1070/equivalent if you want the most plug and play experience. Otherwise, the power brick will be the limiting component.
- For those interested in the 120mm NZXT AIO, the 15mm noctua fan is more than sufficient and, to no one's great surprise, it's very quiet. Still, I'd recommend using Dan's guidance on his site for supported coolers, especially if a 25mm fan is what you want/need. https://www.dan-cases.com/dana4_spec.html

Hope this helps anyone interested in the exciting new options opened up by the v3. Looking forward to playing in dondan's next endeavor.

View attachment 79829 View attachment 79828 View attachment 79830 View attachment 79824 View attachment 79831

* I guess this is a thing now? HAVIT TKL HV-KB390L

What HDplex combo did you use?
And what is the bracket you use where the normal powerplug is seated? is that included in the HDPlex when you buy it?
 
The HDPlex 400w (https://www.hdplex.com/hdplex-400w-hi-fi-dc-atx-power-supply-16v-24v-wide-range-voltage-input.html) You should probably also buy the mounting bracket (https://www.hdplex.com/hdplex-atx-sfx-adapter-bracket.html). The PSU comes with the bracket but NOT the mounting screws.

i see, so you have to dismantle that and place it where the powerplug is

Is there space for this: https://www.hdplex.com/hdplex-160w-dc-atx-power-supply-16v-24v-wide-range-voltage-input.html
if my GPU is 270 in lenght
 
Today I tested the new sample i got from HDPlex. Now it works like charme. The HdPlex is only hand warm and is rock solid with a GTX 1070 Founders Edition, a 120mm AIO for Ryzen 1700. The system needs 300W in Prime95.

Now I can finalize the work on the A4-SFX Water Cooling manual, because I know it works very well.

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Today I tested the new sample i got from HDPlex. Now it works like charme. The HdPlex is only hand warm and is rock solid with a GTX 1070 Founders Edition, a 120mm AIO for Ryzen 1700. The system needs 300W in Prime95.

Now I can finalize the work on the A4-SFX Water Cooling manual, because I know it works very well.

View attachment 80461
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How is the SSD not burning up with no airflow over it? My SSD isn’t even super high performance and I have to ramp my fans early to avoid throttling when doing anything with even moderate load. I hear these Samsung EVO SSD heat up very easily. Plus it seems many in this very thread have had issues with their SSDs heating up too much as well. Did you consider that part of the thermal equation when you tested this setup?

Other than my concern about zero airflow over the motherboard, it seems like a nice idea.
 
i see, so you have to dismantle that and place it where the powerplug is

Is there space for this: https://www.hdplex.com/hdplex-160w-dc-atx-power-supply-16v-24v-wide-range-voltage-input.html
if my GPU is 270 in lenght

Sebbie I would say so, because you plug it directly onto the motherboard have have about the same clearance restrictions as the CPU cooler, a little less maybe. The width makes me think that you couldn't fit the AIO bracket on the same side, if that was something you were interested in.

Today I tested the new sample i got from HDPlex. Now it works like charme. The HdPlex is only hand warm and is rock solid with a GTX 1070 Founders Edition, a 120mm AIO for Ryzen 1700. The system needs 300W in Prime95.

Now I can finalize the work on the A4-SFX Water Cooling manual, because I know it works very well.

View attachment 80461
View attachment 80462

dondan, super happy you made it possible to use the HDPlex, my build is almost perfectly silent under load, and with the AIO it's been 15C~ cooler over the 92mm AIO and the C7cu. Can't wait for the manual so I can see all the obvious and preventable mistakes I made. I would like to highlight that the NZXT M22 does meet all specifications to fit in your case, but is not listed as supported (48mm CPU block, 32mm rad + 15mm fan).

Also, I discovered you are able to fit the USB on the front in that orientation, but the bottom plate of the AIO bracket presses up against it quite a bit. I think it is possible to accommodate the USB without significantly reducing the stability of the bracket in a future revision.

How is the SSD not burning up with no airflow over it? My SSD isn’t even super high performance and I have to ramp my fans early to avoid throttling when doing anything with even moderate load. I hear these Samsung EVO SSD heat up very easily. Plus it seems many in this very thread have had issues with their SSDs heating up too much as well. Did you consider that part of the thermal equation when you tested this setup?

Other than my concern about zero airflow over the motherboard, it seems like a nice idea.

ztjio I've found that my 500GB Samsung 850 Evo hits about 39C under a half hour of prime95 in my v3 setup, with idle at 25C. The back-mounted Samsung 950 Pro 512GB sits around 50C max, 29C idle, and the front mounted samsung 960 evo 1 TB hits 60C, 26C idle. The front mounted SSD is honestly doing the best out of all the drives, because it's not sandwiched between as many hot components like the M.2 drives are.

My temps across the board with the 120mm AIO have dropped from 43C Idle, 76C gaming load with an Asetek 92mm AIO, R7 1800X, EVGA FTW 1080, and Corsair SFX600 to 33C idle, 45C gaming load. Motherboard temps were hovering around 52 C idle, 71C gaming before and are now 40C idle, 54C gaming load. My previous setup even included an extra 92mm noctua fan blowing cool up from the bottom of the case directly over the motherboard, which I no longer use. My v3 performs so much better than my v2 it's actually ridiculous.
 
the 120mm AIO mount isn't compatible with v2. The new USB cable will be available in the next weeks.
 
So I bought these parts for my PC..

Ryzen 7 2700X
Cryorig C7 Cu + inc. TIM
Asus ROG Strix X470-I Motherboard
Noctua NF A9x14 92mm 14mm thick fan
G Skill Trident Z RGB 32GB (16x2) DDR4-3200 SDRAM
Samsung 970 EVO 500GB m.2 NVMe SSD
EVGA GeForce GTX 1080Ti SuperClocked Black w/ 11GB GDDR5X
Corsair SF600W 80+ Gold PSU

There is a fan mount in the bottom. Would it be worth it to buy an additional Noctua 92mm fan or would that be unnecessary?
 
So I bought these parts for my PC..

Ryzen 7 2700X
Cryorig C7 Cu + inc. TIM
Asus ROG Strix X470-I Motherboard
Noctua NF A9x14 92mm 14mm thick fan
G Skill Trident Z RGB 32GB (16x2) DDR4-3200 SDRAM
Samsung 970 EVO 500GB m.2 NVMe SSD
EVGA GeForce GTX 1080Ti SuperClocked Black w/ 11GB GDDR5X
Corsair SF600W 80+ Gold PSU

There is a fan mount in the bottom. Would it be worth it to buy an additional Noctua 92mm fan or would that be unnecessary?

In my setup, that fan is important, ramping it up a bit early vs. the CPU fan keeps my M.2 SSD temps under control otherwise it throttles. That said, I have the 14mm noctua that comes with the LH9i which is a faster fan than their standalone one. Not sure if that will make a difference.
 
the 120mm AIO mount isn't compatible with v2. The new USB cable will be available in the next weeks.
Not compatible without some slight modding, but still useful for those of us who own V1/2 (I have one of each) and don't want to buy a V3?
 
jordan condi

I would be very curious to know what your temps are with your R7 2700x, I ended up with a Asetek 545LC on mine, today actually (stock paste, soon to be re-pasted). I am hovering around 40C at idle if I keep it quite, sub 40 if I run the pump and fan higher.

I previously had the Cryorig C7 Cu with stock fan, no 92mm intake fan under the PSU, and I wasn't happy with the cryorig cooler when used with the window kit due to temps, it seemed to work fine with the standard side panels. (outside of sounding like a lawn mower due to air turbulence, you won't have that issue). Could be operator error or a bad paste job on my part.

Ryzen 7 2700X
Asetek 545LC w/ AM4 bracket and Noctua NF A9x14 92mm fan
Asus ROG Strix X470-I Motherboard
G Skill Trident Z RGB 16GB (8x2) DDR4-3200 CL14 SDRAM
Samsung 960 PRO 500GB m.2 NVMe SSD
EVGA GeForce GTX 1080Ti FTW 3 w/ 11GB GDDR5X
Corsair SF600W 80+ Gold PSU

Had everything but the CPU, RAM, Motherboard and Coolers, from my previous desktop.

A couple of question I had for the forum,

1. What screw length should be used with the Asetek 545LC? I vaguely remember it being mentioned about 40 pages ago but wasn't able to find it again.

2. The EVGA 1080Ti FTW3 might be a bit longer of a GPU than this hardware combo can handle, the backplate of the GPU is pressing pretty hard on one of the Asetek radiator hose fittings, I ended up removing the radiator mounting screws, slid it over to the motherboard side, and it's just sitting at the bottom for now. I am guessing this isn't really solvable with that GPU model, but wanted to ask.

3. My Asetek cooler is gurgling more than I would expect, like an hour+ after install, does anyone else's do that?
 
RagingOcelot:

1) = On the bottom you can use the anti vibration screws of the hdd bay. On the top for the Noctua fan 4x C6/32 16-17mm length
2) = I dont see a question
3) = This is too long. Maybe remove it start it outside the case and try to catch the bubbles in the radiator or get an replacement

antioch: You need to drill holes perfectly and you need a special counter sunk drill for the holes with lian li special angle. I think I can sell 20 of these brackets to modders that are able to do this but this is not enough - Sorry.

@ALL: Here are some tips of running the 8700k/8700 inside the A4 without delidding:

1) Disable Intel Turbo Mode in UEFI: The CPU will "only" clock with 3,7Ghz but is now very easy to cool.
2) Undervolt the CPU or maybe clock it some Mhz down. If you set the max multiplicator to 42 and set the offset voltage to -0.75 - -0,125V
you have still a high clock while the CPU generates less heat. The performance lost is low.
3) If you have the A4-SFX v2 you can use the 92mm Asetek AIO
4) If you have the A4-SFX v3, a full size GPU and a HDPlex PSU you can use a 120mm AIO. This solution can handle the 8700K also with light OC.
5) If you have the A4-SFX v3, a ITX size GPU and a SFX PSU you can also use a 120mm AIO. This solution can handle the 8700K also with light OC.
6) External Water cooling: Works on every A4 version, remove the I/O shield and route the pump of an big 240mm or 360mm AIO through it. Now reinstall the boards. The radiator can be placed behind the case or under the desk. This solution will give you the best thermal results and heatroom for OC.
 
@ALL: Here are some tips of running the 8700k/8700 inside the A4 without delidding:

1) Disable Intel Turbo Mode in UEFI: The CPU will "only" clock with 3,7Ghz but is now very easy to cool.
2) Undervolt the CPU or maybe clock it some Mhz down. If you set the max multiplicator to 42 and set the offset voltage to -0.75 - -0,125V
you have still a high clock while the CPU generates less heat. The performance lost is low.
3) If you have the A4-SFX v2 you can use the 92mm Asetek AIO
4) If you have the A4-SFX v3, a full size GPU and a HDPlex PSU you can use a 120mm AIO. This solution can handle the 8700K also with light OC.
5) If you have the A4-SFX v3, a ITX size GPU and a SFX PSU you can also use a 120mm AIO. This solution can handle the 8700K also with light OC.
6) External Water cooling: Works on every A4 version, remove the I/O shield and route the pump of an big 240mm or 360mm AIO through it. Now reinstall the boards. The radiator can be placed behind the case or under the desk. This solution will give you the best thermal results and heatroom for OC.

FWIW I’m running an 8700 using the LH-N9i but with the NF-A9PWM fan on the cooler and the included 14mm on the bottom of the case under the PSU. I didn’t have to disable turbo or undervolt, but, I did have to fight my BIOS to get it to run everything exactly at spec for it to stand up to stress testing. Seems these ASUS boards want to force overclocking of some kind or another without a deliberate effort to avoid it. It also required adjusting the vdroop compensation settings which by default allowed a massive power spike under load which was accounting for a lot of unexpected heat. So I can understand if someone is failing to keep this CPU cooled with what they think is a baseline setup if using this board (Z370-i)

With this setup the CPU maxes out at 94C under stress. Never gets anywhere near that under normal use, though.

Edit: I should mention it’s not Prime95 getting that 94C temp, that comes from Intel’s processor diagnostic tool. In Prime95 torture test, temps plateau around 67C usually, depends on ambient.
 
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In Prime95 torture test, temps plateau around 67C usually, depends on ambient.

Then you run prime not correct. If you run custom test with 8k in min and max field + Small FFTs in Place you will hit 100°C. Prime is heavier than Intel XTU.

LL.jpg


And now wait 15min.

If you run Prime with your adjust settings what is the Clock that CPU-Z shows?
 
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Then you run prime not correct. If you run custom test with 8k in min and max field + Small FFTs in Place you will hit 100°C. Prime is heavier than Intel XTU.

View attachment 81015

And now wait 15min.

If you run Prime with your adjust settings what is the Clock that CPU-Z shows?

Running it now with settings matching your screenshot. The only difference from before is setting threads to 4 instead of 12. That has the CPU temp at 64C with a few cores bouncing between 72C and 52C, with a few spikes to 75C. The Core Speed in CPU-Z with this setup is sticking right about 3700MHz.

Although it’s only been 12 minutes, the temperature ranges and averages aren’t changing. I doubt they will in another 3.

Edit: I should mention, this isn’t maxing out my fans with my current setup. Case fan is at 76% and CPU at 80%. So I suppose the temps could be lower.

Edit 2: As suspected, the temp ranges and averages stayed the same for the whole duration.
 
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Sorry I sourced the screenshot from google.
Ok it looks like you CPU hit the power limit in Prime95 so it clocks down to 3,7 and not stay at 4,3Ghz. Maybe the load in Intel XTU is lower so it can reach 4,3Ghz and become hotter ;)

From your last post I know you limit your CPU to stay in TDP 65W specs. This will let your CPU clock down in Prime95. It is nearly the same solution if you disable the turbo boos. But working with power limits has the advantage to get a clock between 3,2-4,3 GHz.

With L9i and 8700 tested by myself:

Turbo Off = CoreTemp Powerconsumtion say 50W and the CPU temp is 56°C in Prime 95 (clock = 3,2 Ghz)
Turbo On = CoreTemp Powerconsumtion say 120W and the CPU temp is 100°C in Prime 95 (clock = 4,3 Ghz)
Power limit (for example 65W) = CoreTemp Powerconsumtion say 65W and the CPU temp is 70°C in Prime 95 (clock = 3,7 Ghz)

ztjio: Conclusion: Also your CPU will hit 100°C if you allow it to clock with 4,3Ghz but since you are working with power limits the CPU isn't allowed to source more than 65W or what ever value you specify.
Load != Power consumtion that means if you look in task manager and see 100% load for example in XTU it could be that your CPU has a higher clock as in Prime95 also with 100% on all cores in task manager. 100% load means only all threads are full but not how complicated the task is inside the threads. So a complex task inside a thread will force the CPU to take more power. So it clocks down to be in power limit specs.

I think this topic is very interesting and I will make a turoial for the How-To section on dan-cases.com
 
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Sorry I sourced the screenshot from google.
Ok it looks like you CPU hit the power limit in Prime95 so it clocks down to 3,7 and not stay at 4,3Ghz. Maybe the load in Intel XTU is lower so it can reach 4,3Ghz and become hotter ;)

From your last post I know you limit your CPU to stay in TDP 65W specs. This will let your CPU clock down in Prime95. It is nearly the same solution if you disable the turbo boos. But working with power limits has the advantage to get a clock between 3,2-4,3 GHz.

With L9i and 8700 tested by myself:

Turbo Off = CoreTemp Powerconsumtion say 50W and the CPU temp is 56°C in Prime 95 (clock = 3,2 Ghz)
Turbo On = CoreTemp Powerconsumtion say 120W and the CPU temp is 100°C in Prime 95 (clock = 4,3 Ghz)
Power limit (for example 65W) = CoreTemp Powerconsumtion say 65W and the CPU temp is 70°C in Prime 95 (clock = 3,7 Ghz)

ztjio: Conclusion: Also your CPU will hit 100°C if you allow it to clock with 4,3Ghz but since you are working with power limits the CPU isn't allowed to source more than 65W or what ever value you specify.
Load != Power consumtion that means if you look in task manager and see 100% load for example in XTU it could be that your CPU has a higher clock as in Prime95 also with 100% on all cores in task manager. 100% load means only all threads are full but not how complicated the task is inside the threads. So a complex task inside a thread will force the CPU to take more power. So it clocks down to be in power limit specs.

I think this topic is very interesting and I will make a turoial for the How-To section on dan-cases.com

Sort of. Here’s my take based on what I know about the architecture: The design spec for turbo boost intel CPUs does not allow more than one core to run at the max turbo boost clock speed. The more cores under load, the lower the max clock. I can definitely get the CPU to heat up beyond what the cooler can handle, and easily hit 100C. All I have to do is flip on Multicore Enhancement (and run 6+ threads) which evades the normal clock/core balancing algorithm of the CPU and allows more cores to hit max (maybe all?) clock simultaneously which obviously draws a lot more power. All I’m doing instead is running the CPU exactly as its capabilities are advertised, which requires changing the default settings of the BIOS even after running the basic tuning wizard. Standard clocks/multipliers, standard core ratios. Clearly, there are multiple ways to get the 65W TDP limit, such as deliberately asking the board to target that metric. I just decided to go for it via default/stock setup.

Also, load in Task Manager actually doesn’t say 100%. It’s 40%. With 4 cores under load, 3.7GHz is the max clock that will be used under spec behavior, but, it’s still only 4 of 12 threads at a bit more than standard max clock so it ends up coming up as 40% (I watched it.) The Task Manager takes all these things into account. If I run 12 threads, even though the max clock is 3.2ghz, it does reach almost 100% load. It rests at about 96%. So even though the CPU runs hotter in Prime95 at 4 threads, it’s not the max load and not the max performance either.

At any rate, to get this bog standard behavior I had to not only use all the default, baseline clock settings but also disable Multicore Enhancement and set Load-line Calibration from “Auto” to “Default” on this Z370-i board. So if you document this, those will be important to note. I learned of the Load-line calibration setting from a Toms hardware review of this board, btw. Without that setting, the intel tests still wouldn’t pass even with fans set to max ahead of time. I’m kind of irritated that ASUS made it harder than necessary to get this pure baseline behavior. There’s basically no way out of the box for someone to know to do these things if they really want the CPU to work as designed. You can see the review here https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/asus-rog-strix-z370-i-gaming-motherboard,5381-4.html

As far as comparing XTU’s temp results, I’m sure it’s recording the highest spike on the hottest core and probably sampling the cores more than my normal temp monitor and that’s why it gets up to 94C. Well that and the fact I ran the test with my normal fan ramp, rather than fans set to max. If I actually watch the current temp while it runs, the warmest test seems to be the “Math” tests which sits around 82C continuously, though, again, pretty sure that’s just the hottest single core and per core behavior will vary across samples. I might just have one core on my chip that’s prone to heating up more than usual. In my normal monitor the temps look similar to the Prim95 tests.

The most interesting thing I’ve noticed so far is that I have one game that will put up almost the same CPU temp numbers as Prime95: Final Fantasy XV. So I guess it’s not always true that gaming is a low CPU demanding activity. But that said, usually it sits much lower in games.

Anyway, all in all I’m happy with the case, happy with the performance, happy with the sound in most situations. I could probably tweak things and eek out slightly more max performance but since this is a gaming machine, I’m happier to have my fans running a bit quieter and never worrying about accidentally hitting the throttle point in real usage.
 
dondan Thank you for such a prompt response! I will try your suggestion with the cooler.

I will update with some additional comments later on when I "feel" the Asetek is operating correctly, or has been replaced if necessary, and have time to mess with voltages/clocks for fun (I plan on running stock clocks and let AMD's PB/XFR 2.0 do it's thing in actual use). Which is why I didn't mention any "at 1.4V and 4.2ghz all core overclock it hit xx C in Prime" earlier.

For anyone following along, I haven't run into any issues using the Cryorig C7 Cu or Asetek cooler with a r7 2700x in day to day use or gaming, stock clocks. I just like my PC's as quite as possible and the Asetek cooler was a way to get there.
 
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