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

CknSalad said:
As Ace_of_Six mentioned, wouldn't it be impossible to fit the samuel 17 since it already is 45mm in height without a fan? Also as Ace mentioned, the NF-A9 pwm would be a good choice to replace the slim 92mm fan in the Noctua NHL-9I.
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Yeah, read the comments above.
 
Ya I just saw the response, my bad. I think at this rate, the best overall for both noise and cooling performance is probably the NHL-9I with the 25mm NF-A9 pwm fan. The Kozuti uses a fairly loud 80mm fan and the NHL-9I with included stock fan beats it.
 
raymondo said:
Scythe Kozuti should fit, too, as it's just 40mm high including fan though I'm not aware of the maximum TDP it can handle.
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The Scythe Kozuti should be fine with really any Haswell/Haswell Refresh CPU. It's actually on par with the Noctua L9i (according to Tom's Hardware). The only issue with it is that the bottom fan, which is the only fan (that is provided), is very loud. And it reaches 3200 RPM just to compete with other CPU coolers.

Hopefully, someone here will take a 12mm fan, shave it down by 2mm, and attach it to the cooler.

Review from TH
 
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Kozuti and NHL-9I are close in temps within 1 degree give or take, but the advantage goes to NHL-9I if you take into account noise and fan speeds. NHL-9I has an advantage in fan selection as you can mount the NF-A9 pwm fan for even quieter operations and similar cooling/temp results to the stock fan.

SPCR Review

Also, I don't think it can fit any more than an 80mm fan just by looking at this picture. Any larger fan would hit either inner-ends of the heatpipes in the picture below (also have to make room for the retention clips):
Scythe Kozuti Bottom (Bird's Eye View)
Closer Shot of Kozuti
 
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I think that new Phanteks with a noctua slim 92 mm would be interesting, if the heatsink is effective.
 
Here's an forum showing that it's possible to mount various fans:
HardForum Kozuti Thread

[EDIT: Actually, reading through this again, it seems that people were only able to fit a 120mm fan on top. :(]
 
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rawrr said:
I think that new Phanteks with a noctua slim 92 mm would be interesting, if the heatsink is effective.
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If you're talking about the Phanteks PH-TC12LS, it won't work. It is 47mm tall without a fan, 74mm with the provided fan.

If you're talking about the Phanteks PH-TC90LS, I don't think it would be more effective than the stock Intel cooler.
 
If the Scythe Kozuti works with the NF-P12 1300, it could potentially be the better cooler. However, if one wants ease of installation, the advantage would go to the Noctua NHL-9I as that cooler takes a few minutes or so to install.

Also, there's the Scythe Kodati: Scythe Kodati Offical Page
 
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I wish people actually had read what I wrote when I first brought up TC12LS.
I thought I made my point clear but it looks like dondan is the only person who understood my point.
 
veryrarium said:
I wish people actually had read what I wrote when I first brought up TC12LS.
I thought I made my point clear but it looks like dondan is the only person who understood my point.
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Thats what i meant as well, with the fan under the heatsink.
 
Hey Dondan, I've got a quick question. How did you create the real physical model for the A4 that you have on your desk? Did you craft it yourself with your own hands, or did you send the 3D concept model of it to a metal shop?

Also, what program did you use to create the 3D model? Sketchup? Solidworks?
 
CknSalad said:
If the Scythe Kozuti works with the NF-P12 1300, it could potentially be the better cooler. However, if one wants ease of installation, the advantage would go to the Noctua NHL-9I as that cooler takes a few minutes or so to install.

Also, there's the Scythe Kodati: Scythe Kodati Offical Page
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I don't see it mentioned in this thread but has anyone considered the Xigmatek Praeton LD964 with a fan swap? The Praeton heatsink only is 30mm tall and performs better than the Noctua L9i, just need to ditch the loud stock fan. Ebay has a few of them.
 
i finally got noctua fan to replace the stock on LP53 (in M1), just havent had the time to replace and see if it makes any difference in temps or sound.

Anyhow, its shame there hasnt been single mega test where all the LP itx coolers were tested at the same time.
 
Hey dondan quick question: Other than the Gigabyte windforce and possibly the zotac poweramp OC cards, the other non-reference cards should fit in this case? I'm also just a little concerned if the non-ref gpu fans will be hitting the side panel.
 
I haven't bit the bullet on any of the amazing [H] community cases but this might be the one for me. Seems to be about as small as you can get. Hits the middle ground between tiny shoebox style case and slim but tall/wide console style case.
 
The thing that stands out to me is how the gpu has its own dedicated 'side' and has easy, close access to fresh air and does not fight with the psu nor cpu cooler for this air. As illram mentioned, this is pretty much the smallest sfx/sfx-l support case. Yes, it would be nice to have a 60mm height cpu cooler support, but honestly overclocking in such a small enclosure is going to be limited and might not yield any justiable clock speed gains. To do so would sacrifice cool cpu temps as well as more noise.
 
It is done! Today i finished the migration of the case from Sketchup to Solidworks :)
Now i will contact Lian Li and plan the prototype crowdfounding campaign.

sw_a43clit.jpg


On the picture you can see the new hdd mounting-rack, where you can mount one 2,5hdd inside it and a second on the top of it.
Furthermore i add the holes for the LianLi mountingclips for the sidepanels.
 
Instant buy for me!
Do you have any idea when it will be possible to order one or how long it will take for Lian Li to make the case?

Guess I should keep an eye on this thread the next couple of weeks.
 
Nice work, Dondan. Good luck with Lian Li, they'll definitely accept this.

Can't wait to get my hands on this case! :D
 
I can't wait to see the actual pc build pictures inside of that case! One quick question: can we route the psu cables through the bottom hole under the motherboard?
 
Great work, dondan.

I have just one question, I should have noticed this earlier from the renders on the updated page 1 but somehow missed it until now. Why there are no ventilation holes punched out on the motherborad side of the bottom panel (the region on the bottom panel nearest to the CPU cooler)? One would naturally expect vent holes there for exhaust air out from the CPU heatsink, no?
 
Is it possible to add 2.5/3.5 hdd mounts behind the PSU, in case ITX-sized GPU is used?
 
The PSU mount bracket looks too thin to me.

Are you sure the sidepanels will come together ideally on the front? That's why there is a front panel usually, or like in Q19 the front panel has the mounting points on its sides.
 
readeh said:
how long it will take for Lian Li to make the case?
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First they must accept doing it. Prepare to wait; case projects always take a lot of time for natural reasons. :)

Also, if Lian Li does accept doing it (which I hope they will), I suspect a 99.99% chance that at least some changes will have to be made in order to work well with their manufacturing process.
 
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@readeh: We have to wait and see what LianLi will say.

@CknSalad: This is possible.

@veryrarium: Yes it is possible to add these holes in the buttom, but i dont think it will really reduce the temperature.

@niksus: This is impossible because there is no metal sheet behind the sfx PSU.

@SaperPL: The SFX holder will work very well. I think the last weeks about this problem you mention with the sidepanels. The left side has these bended border you mean. To add it on the right side i have to increase the length from 304,5mm (6,6L) to 314mm (6,83L). But i think i will do it for a better fit.

@bam: Something like this:
3m-materials-bumpon.jpg
 
I still think that thin construction supporting PSU may not survive transporting complete rig.
If PSU is not held tightly from all sides the little space it has to the gpu might be just enough to let it move just a little in transport and over time it will fatigue the material or tear off the screw.
 
Here is my first rendered picture out of Soldiworks. I add the border on the right side on the frondpanel for a better fit of the sidepanels. The case has now 6,83L

first_renderugznj.jpg
 
Looks good.

Is it from photoview or there's built-in rendering system in new solidworks?

How will the front panel connectors and power button be attached? Glued? Hot-plastic? Just curious.

I haven't had any of those lian-li clips mounted panel cases. Won't there be any problem with detaching those panels?

Did you think about the mATX version? Case would grow 7cm in height but could be awesome 9L mATX case.
 
Very nice work!

Have you thought about approaching other case manufacturers like Jonsbo, who may be more amenable to doing small batches?
 
That's simple - you can go then for intel extreme cpu boards like X99 which enables you currently to put there 18core/36thread xeon cpu and there should be boards with 8 dimm slots for much more ram.

Also you can build something on AMD FX that way if someone ever wanted a nice feet heater for winter :)
 
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