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

Interesting, I thought I saw some posts from a user saying the cables were too close but apparently they didn’t bend them enough. How would you compare the (fan) noise at load vs the sf600 and evga units?

Running BFV with my 9900K and 2080 Ti overclocked and at full TDP, I can't really hear fan noise from either. They're both pretty quiet. The major improvement is coil whine IMHO.
 
That card has to be thermal throttling. There is no way on earth there is enough flow in the Ncase for an OC'd 2080 ti.
 
so after a month and half of mishaps i finally get the correct part.

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its not quite as visible as i would have hoped and it mobo ios blocks it from being flush with the gpu.


any advice?
 
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I would just leave it alone. The plate looks very custom with the LEDs attached to the back and I would hate to see it damaged. Are you on a windowed side panel?

yes addressable RGB, and they added side emitting RGBs for the mishap.

window panel.

pretty much done aesthetics now, just some OC if thermals let me.
 
Depending on if you're going more for performance or aesthetics, you could drop in a noctua L9i and really make the backplate pop.
 
...the in from the rear and out through the bottom thermal results are quite good and worthy of consideration for an M1 with the standard side panel. Such an airflow may operate at a slight negative case pressure, but I find the M1 is easy to clean with a blower (even a hair dryer on the cool setting) due to its pop-off panels.

If sticking with standard side panel, I would think adding a Noctua 12x25 to the front side panel slot (running off the Chassis Fan header, set to a constant 50% & ramping up for temps if needed), flipping the CPU heat sink to exhaust & moving the pull fan from the heat sink to the rear 92mm fan mount area (but still keeping both 92mm fans on the same fan splitter to the CPU Fan header) might be the way to go...?

Chassis Fan / Noctua NF-A12x25 PWM fan keeps a steady supply of cool air flowing into the chassis, CPU & GPU both regulate themselves to exhaust hot air out of the chassis...
 
I don't understand all the bottom vents or bottom mounted rads. Hot air rises yall and trying to force it out the bottom with the stock feet would only dissipate marginal, if any heat. Sure it looks nice, but it defeats the purpose of trying to "expel" heat from the puter.
 
I don't understand all the bottom vents or bottom mounted rads. Hot air rises yall and trying to force it out the bottom with the stock feet would only dissipate marginal, if any heat. Sure it looks nice, but it defeats the purpose of trying to "expel" heat from the puter.

From what I understand, hot air rising is completely negated by any sort of fan introduced through the system. I can assure you, after loads of testing, the best temperatures I have ever gotten out of the system are with two bottom exhaust fans using an Acellero. Even better temperatures than when I was running two bottom fans as intake.
 
I don't understand all the bottom vents or bottom mounted rads. Hot air rises yall and trying to force it out the bottom with the stock feet would only dissipate marginal, if any heat. Sure it looks nice, but it defeats the purpose of trying to "expel" heat from the puter.

I'm pretty sure convection isn't so powerful as to render bottom exhaust fans useless. Even if it was, bottom radiators can (and I believe often do) have their fans as intakes, so saying bottom radiators are useless due to convection doesn't make sense either.

I'd say bottom exhaust fans don't make sense for completely different reasons, like the fact that it makes an air cooled gpu have to fight them for air and a radiator have to recycle hot air from the case when the cool air you get as an intake would make the radiator more effective.
 
From what I understand, hot air rising is completely negated by any sort of fan introduced through the system. I can assure you, after loads of testing, the best temperatures I have ever gotten out of the system are with two bottom exhaust fans using an Acellero. Even better temperatures than when I was running two bottom fans as intake.

Now the 2 bottom fans to intake would work, but I was only commenting on the folks who set it up to expel instead of intake. I too have spent, 4 figures on parts for fun and trying to find the best temps I could. Now mind you I went straight to water when I couldn't find the Noctura CPU cooler available anymore, but I have tried 5 different rads/combos, (1x 240, 1x240+120mm, side bottom, back, EK/Black Ice/etc.., 2x pumps, 3x blocks, dozens of fans/push, pull, both, High CFM/High pressure, low FPI,High FPI, etc..,) I literally have bags of parts for the Ncase lol.

In the end, in all my testing, the side vent ALWAYS produced the best temps and even then I can still spike upto 65c in Prime smallFT @4.6 6700k DELIDDED. (I have not modified it for top mount) It just interesting to see all these nice builds and I have no idea how 1x slim rad with 2x slim colored fans is producing acceptable temps. Im not saying anything is right or wrong with anybodys build and I love to see them all for ideas, just trying to understand how others are doing it.

Edit: Or Air for that matter with the Ncase. I understand it works, and its within spec, but my PC's would literally make my house temps rise so I dunno.

Its kind of an addiction now for me lol.
 
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Getting the heat out of the case ASAP is why the bottom exhaust works, the hot air is evacuated and allowed to do its rising thing outside the case. When the bottoms fans are set as intake all the hot air coming off the radiator or GPU fins recirculates within the case and is then sucked through whatever else you have above it before leaving the enclosure.

I'm also not sure I've seen a high TDP system with only a single slim rad with amazing temperatures, it's usually a side 240m + a slim 240mm on the bottom. You've also got to keep in mind most builds with the side window are prioritizing aesthetics to show off the build and not necessarily top performance.
 
From what I understand, hot air rising is completely negated by any sort of fan introduced through the system. I can assure you, after loads of testing, the best temperatures I have ever gotten out of the system are with two bottom exhaust fans using an Acellero. Even better temperatures than when I was running two bottom fans as intake.
Exactly, the fact hot air rises has almost zero impact on how you should setup your fans. The impact of fans, even at low RPMs, completely negates the effect of hot air's natural movement.
 
Exactly, the fact hot air rises has almost zero impact on how you should setup your fans. The impact of fans, even at low RPMs, completely negates the effect of hot air's natural movement.

So youre telling me, that as soon as a fan is introduced either naked or attached to a rad, the "hot air rising" effect is negated?
 
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So youre telling me, that as soon as a fan is introduced either naked or attached to a rad, the "hot air rising" effect is negated?

Heat rises due to air buoyancy. The air in contact with a heated surface heats up, causing it to expand and become less dense than the air further away from the surface. The denser air moves downward (due to gravity) displacing the less dense air which moves up. This is the mechanics of natural convection.

It doesn't take a lot of forced flow (from fans) to overcome the upward travel of the heat.
 
Edit. After reading some Physics about wind, I guess my take was completely wrong, with regards to air rebounding all these months. Never thought to inquire until this mini discussion.

I might rebuild the loop, again lol...
 
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Bottom radiator (plus window) is purely for aesthetic reasons. I used to have a custom loop with custom TG window in the M1. Bottom HWL 240mm slim rad with slim fans, rear Alphacool / HWL 92mm rad and fan. It looked amazing, but the temperatures were never great. I ended up running all the components (6700K delidded, GTX1080FE) stock, fans run at very high rpm, just so that my components stay cool (under 75c), coolant and pump to stay under 50c...
 
Edit. After reading some Physics about wind, I guess my take was completely wrong, with regards to air rebounding all these months. Never thought to inquire until this mini discussion.

I might rebuild the loop, again lol...
Yeah, there's such a small volume, with decent exhaust fans and at least one intake, you'll be clearing the air out before it has a chance to get very hot at all.
 
Depending on if you're going more for performance or aesthetics, you could drop in a noctua L9i and really make the backplate pop.

i have a 8700k, even without OC'ing i dnt think my temps would be good on that cooler
 
If sticking with standard side panel, I would think adding a Noctua 12x25 to the front side panel slot (running off the Chassis Fan header, set to a constant 50% & ramping up for temps if needed), flipping the CPU heat sink to exhaust & moving the pull fan from the heat sink to the rear 92mm fan mount area (but still keeping both 92mm fans on the same fan splitter to the CPU Fan header) might be the way to go...?

Chassis Fan / Noctua NF-A12x25 PWM fan keeps a steady supply of cool air flowing into the chassis, CPU & GPU both regulate themselves to exhaust hot air out of the chassis...

Yes, I agree and would try a side intake first.
 
Did you think that a build with an i7 9700k plus Nvidia 2070, with a single 240 mm aio on the cpu will work? No additional bottom or case fans
 
Did you think that a build with an i7 9700k plus Nvidia 2070, with a single 240 mm aio on the cpu will work? No additional bottom or case fans

I think so, but I'm pretty sure you would see better results with two bottom intake fans and exhaust the 240 fans.
 
So as the new RTX 20x0 series from NVIDIA was revealed I was of cause excited, but then it struck me.... What if the Artic Accelero cooler does not fit the new sensor size or the mounting has change a lot.. So I started digging around.. Not that I had any hopes of finding any dimensions of the new cooler mount or any official statement about that. But then I found some PCB shots and the thinking machine started working (some call it the brain - I wouldn't know as I don't have one :wacky:). So I found images of what i knew the Accelero III would fit (if i remember correctly) - a reference 1080 ti. And I found a picture of the mounting plate of the cooler. So with a bit of warping in photoshop and alligning the PCI-E dimensionen up. This is what i came up with:

So this is not perfect down to the millimeter, but it is somewhat an indication. It seems that the RTX 2080 uses the same GPU cooler mounting holes as old 7900 and 9800 GTX cards (and a whole heap of others. from what i can derrive, it is compatible with the number 2 holes on the Accelero mount bracket found here: https://support.arctic.ac/index.php?p=ax3&lang=en )

View attachment 98042


But the GPU itself is moved more away from the PCI brackets (on the case) and more toward what would be the front of the M1. So that leaves the question. Will it all fit in a M1.. I don't know.. I don't even know if it will mount a RTX 2080.. But it does indicate it.

So what I did to line it up, was that I made the cooler mount fit the card that I knew it would fit (1080 ti)(I had to warp a picture from Artic that was skewed - so not perfect) then i copied that exact size layer to the 2080. So there is no size difference between the cooler mounts seen. They are exactly a copy of each other.. and the cards are aligned by the size of the PCI-E connector and locking mechanism. Of cause there will be small millimeter differences to real world, but it is only a mock up to get an idea of if it will fit or not. To match the cooler, i took the cooler mount and lined it up with a picture of the whole cooler.

The 1. model is the 1080 ti ref with the cooler mount put on.
The 2. model shows the 2080 founders match with the same cooler mount (notice the GPU is moved compared to the 1080 ti ref PCB layout)
The 3. model shows the 2080 founders with the Artic Accelero III "mounted" ontop.
The 4. model shos the same 1080 ti ref with the Artic Accelero III "mounted" ontop. Notice the difference to the 2080.

(English is not my first language, so sorry if it is explained poorly).

The heatpipes will clear easily. The only issue that you might run into is in orange in the pictures below.

Hi guys!

I saw this post, I have a asus 2070 turbo and would like to place the Accelero Cooler on the card. Do you think it will fit in the Ncase? Can anyone confirm if it will work or not?
 
Ended up settling on the SGX-650. It fits perfectly with my 2080 Ti XC Ultra. The cables are flexible and, even without the intake fans, there was no sagging or pressure on my GPU.

No coil whine issues either. I had really bad coil whine with one SF600 Platinum and 2x EVGA 650 GM units. Very happy with how this build turned out.

https://imgur.com/a/SjqQu5e

I really like my SX650 too but recently had to RMA it. Silverstone made a change to correct premature OCP that occurs with Vega cards. I've ordered a SF600 platinum to use while my SX650 is out for RMA. I got the SF600 plat for $120 shipped for Black Friday so I figure I can just sell it for $120+shipping when I'm done with it.

If I find some free time, I was going to try to do some pseudo-scientific noise comparisons between the two.

I don't really buy into the GPU sag hype though. Especially in your situation where the GPU touches the case fans...
 
How is the evga sfx psu? I am going to be replacing most of my build soon, and trying to nail down the psu.

what are the pros and cons to:
corsair sf600
silverstone sfx 600(what i currently have)
evga 600
am i missing any options?
 
Corsair SF600 Platinum. The new platinum model comes with sleeved cables and a reworked fan controller (PWM).

My Silverstone SFX made a weird ticking noise at idle so I grabbed an SF600 Gold at launch a few years ago before people started posting about fan issues on that PSU...

I have no idea about the EVGA SFX units, I think OklahomaWolf reviewed the unit and had good things to say over at jonnyGURU.

You could also wait for the rumored/leaked SF750 Corsair an reuse the Silverstone SFX unit in the interim.
 
I've been eyeing the SilverStone NJ450, though it's SFX-L (132mm at the connectors) and I've yet to see one in the M1. It's ~7mm longer than the SGX-650 and the cables don't look quite as flexible, but it could also be mounted ATX/attached to the front panel since you don't have to worry about airflow. It's a fully passive unit, and the internals are apparently rated for far beyond 450W (one review I read had over power protection at 666W). It is, however, $200 USD.

I don't need more than 450W but my sf450 plat is louder than I'd like on load. The SF600 plat doesn't look like it'd be a big noise difference (per Cybernetics Labs testing). It sure would be swell if that SF750 shows up soon as I think that'd satisfy my noise needs in a real SFX form factor.
 
Has anyone used the FSP Dagger SFX PSUs? A 500W 80+ Gold sells for $100 on Amazon. I've got a Corsair SF450 in my NCASE M1 and am happy with it. But, I'm only running a GTX 1070 in it now.
 
So just got the last part of my new build today. It was the motherboard. But sadly, it does not fit in the NCase with the Noctua C14 (legacy) :'(

So that makes it quite easy to chose a motherboard. Only the ASRock Z390 Phantom gaming is the real choice then if you want to use this cooler on the CPU (9900K). Either that or chose a different cooler.

I wanted the ASUS as I like their motherboards more. Its a personal thing. We all have our reasons (for me, its the fan handling - its just better and super important in these small setups) and it can easily handle the 9900K. Its the heat in these small setup thats the problem. Dont really like ASRock motherboard (personal thing), but now I am forced.. Oh well. Thunderbolt support and better VRMs is not that bad. Just need a good way to setup the fans then.

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So just got the last part of my new build today. It was the motherboard. But sadly, it does not fit in the NCase with the Noctua C14 (legacy) :'(

So that makes it quite easy to chose a motherboard. Only the ASRock Z390 Phantom gaming is the real choice then if you want to use this cooler on the CPU (9900K). Either that or chose a different cooler.

I wanted the ASUS as I like their motherboards more. Its a personal thing. We all have our reasons (for me, its the fan handling - its just better and super important in these small setups) and it can easily handle the 9900K. Its the heat in these small setup thats the problem. Dont really like ASRock motherboard (personal thing), but now I am forced.. Oh well. Thunderbolt support and better VRMs is not that bad. Just need a good way to setup the fans then.

View attachment 127240

What about removing the cover from that rear heatsink or even filing some notches into it? Or replace the heatsink with smaller ones.
 
What about removing the cover from that rear heatsink or even filing some notches into it? Or replace the heatsink with smaller ones.

Removing it is not wise as then you remove the whole heatsink and this board already only have 3 phases so they get pretty warm I would imagine. There is no "cover"..

Filling it am I not prepared to do.. Sure it can be done. But would lose my warranty.. But if you are ready to lose that, then it is possible.

One could just use a U9S and it would fit (thou would block some of the fan I would imagine).. But I am not ready to go for a small cooler. I am replacing it with the ASUS Z390 Phantom gaming ITX board. Should be fine, but was not what I wanted to do. Multiple reasons.
 
Removing it is not wise as then you remove the whole heatsink and this board already only have 3 phases so they get pretty warm I would imagine. There is no "cover"..

Filling it am I not prepared to do.. Sure it can be done. But would lose my warranty.. But if you are ready to lose that, then it is possible.

One could just use a U9S and it would fit (thou would block some of the fan I would imagine).. But I am not ready to go for a small cooler. I am replacing it with the ASUS Z390 Phantom gaming ITX board. Should be fine, but was not what I wanted to do. Multiple reasons.


All good points. I was guessing that the LED "cover" was separate from the actual metal heatsinks underneath. Apparently, that is not the case.

The old NH-C14 is so rare. It's too bad you couldn't use it with your motherboard of choice. I take it, that the cooler won't fit in any other orientation either?
 
...does not fit in the NCase with the Noctua C14 (legacy)

Bummer, I guess the only real solution is for you to step up to the newer & shinier Noctua NH-C14S...!

You can just send that useless C14 my way...

;^p
 
So just got the last part of my new build today. It was the motherboard. But sadly, it does not fit in the NCase with the Noctua C14 (legacy) :'(

So that makes it quite easy to chose a motherboard. Only the ASRock Z390 Phantom gaming is the real choice then if you want to use this cooler on the CPU (9900K). Either that or chose a different cooler.

I wanted the ASUS as I like their motherboards more. Its a personal thing. We all have our reasons (for me, its the fan handling - its just better and super important in these small setups) and it can easily handle the 9900K. Its the heat in these small setup thats the problem. Dont really like ASRock motherboard (personal thing), but now I am forced.. Oh well. Thunderbolt support and better VRMs is not that bad. Just need a good way to setup the fans then.

View attachment 127240

Nanook has a build log on SFF where he is using a 9900k and Strix Z390 in a Ghost S1. He removed the VRM heatsink in order to install a Noctua NH-L12, he said the VRM temps were fine while using a top down cooler. He later changed to a 240mm AIO and the VRM temps went really high. With the Noctua C14 you should be fine with removing the VRM heatsink. You already have the motherboard and the cooler, just try it and see.
 
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