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

Anyone waiting for Ryzen that has decided what cooler to use with this case? I'm started to be a little worried since the options seems even more limited with this socket. Noctua won't have any mounting kits for the NH-L9 until the end of the year.

*edit*
Correction, I have no clue at all which cooler to use since both stock coolers will be too high :-/

*edit 2*
Could C7 combined with NF-A9x14 avoid air turbulence compared using the stock C7 fan? The NF-A9x14 was a few millimeters thinner, right?
 
Last edited:
Petroj said:
Anyone waiting for Ryzen that has decided what cooler to use with this case? I'm started to be a little worried since the options seems even more limited with this socket. Noctua won't have any mounting kits for the NH-L9 until the end of the year.

*edit*
Correction, I have no clue at all which cooler to use since both stock coolers will be too high :-/
Click to expand...

I'm doing a Ryzen/Vega build. Cryorig will supply AM4 brackets for their coolers. I don't know about Thermalright yet.

My plan currently is either Cryorig C7 with TY-100 Fan or AXP-100RH modified to have fan in under heatsink.

Or machine my own heatsink design out of copper and slap a fan on top.
 
phoxx said:
I'm doing a Ryzen/Vega build. Cryorig will supply AM4 brackets for their coolers. I don't know about Thermalright yet.

My plan currently is either Cryorig C7 with TY-100 Fan or AXP-100RH modified to have fan in under heatsink.

Or machine my own heatsink design out of copper and slap a fan on top.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I know about the C7 mounting kit but I kinda removed the C7 from my list since we got all these reports about the cooler being to loud in this case. The C7 combined with the NF-A9x14 might still be and option though. Nice to see I'm not alone thinking about coolers for AM4 though! :)
 
Petroj said:
Yeah, I know about the C7 mounting kit but I kinda removed the C7 from my list since we got all these reports about the cooler being to loud in this case. The C7 combined with the NF-A9x14 might still be and option though. Nice to see I'm not alone thinking about coolers for AM4 though! :)
Click to expand...

C7 with the TY-100 fan is much quieter and provides the best cooling so far.
 
Ca11idus said:
dondan will the remaining 200 receive an email today to let us know of our good luck or will we have to anxiously waiting till everyone else gets theirs and find out our luck a day or two later?
Click to expand...


It depends where you from. My current position is Norway so everyone in the countries before should got an mail if I have a correct mail address. 200 cases are left and 130 of them are ready to ship. So I am on the last 70. If I get a new toner in the next two days all will be pick up from DHL on friday.
 
Meccabolix said:
Thermals and noise test with the Thermalright AXP-100H MUSCLE with its TY-100 fan on a 6700k @ 4.4Ghz:



Idle temps:

View attachment 17517

Prime 95 temps:

View attachment 17518

Idle speed: 810 RPM

Full speed: 2500 RPM

Temps are about as good at the C7 with the C7 fan, but not quite as good as the C7 with the TY-100 fan.

But in low usage its SILENT! and at max fan speed its pretty quiet, its got the lowest pitch of any of the other combinations i've tested (probably due to the fan being so far behind the side cover and underneath the heatsink), so it's much easier on the ears.

The axp-100H is ever so slightly too tall (as others have pointed out) with the normal standoffs, i have ordered a number of different length standoffs to see what the ideal standoff length I need is (as people have also suggested) . The side panel very nearly fits on with all 4 clips as it is.

I am sticking with this combo for now as it's quieter than the rest, i ordered a nexus last week but it may take a while to arrive, i will test it with the TY-100 and the other fans if people want me to, I am also waiting on the LP53 + NF a9x14 which should come soon.
Click to expand...


Very nice! Can you post a few pictures of this cooler setup? Thanks!
 
Just my luck, case ships when I am about to leave the country on a vacation. Lol. Good thing I have nice neighbors.

I want this thing so bad, the thought did cross my mind to just not go...
 
Meccabolix: I wonder that the AXP100H perform more worse as the C7. Are you screw it accurate? On the video it looks like it is not mounted straight. Maybe the fixing plate on the CPU plate is not in the right position. Furthermore how do you attach the fan to the heatsink it looks like the fan is not fixed to the heatsink. If there is a bigger gab you losing cooling performance. If you rotate the fan you can mount it more centered to the heatsink so more air will go through the heatsink.

Also I wonder that you have not better temps if the fan under the AXP push the air outside the case. On my setup I got better temps with that.

To your motherboard stanoff problem. I used the A4-SFX for now two years. And I unscrewed the motherboard often. I can only point to that sentence in the included user manual: To prevent damaging components and screw threads, use a minimum of force for mounting components and tightening screws. ;)
 
phoxx said:
C7 with the TY-100 fan is much quieter and provides the best cooling so far.
Click to expand...
I've got the C7 with the NF-A9x14 and find the turbulence noise very acceptable now. Temps went up slightly, but are you saying the TY-100 is even better than the NF-A9x14?
 
MrLahn said:
I've got the C7 with the NF-A9x14 and find the turbulence noise very acceptable now. Temps went up slightly, but are you saying the TY-100 is even better than the NF-A9x14?
Click to expand...

I am only using what Meccabolix tested so far.

Unless I missed a test he did with C7 and NF-A9x14??
 
dondan said:
It depends where you from. My current position is Norway so everyone in the countries before should got an mail if I have a correct mail address. 200 cases are left and 130 of them are ready to ship. So I am on the last 70. If I get a new toner in the next two days all will be pick up from DHL on friday.
Click to expand...


I'm in the US.
 
dondan said:
Meccabolix: I wonder that the AXP100H perform more worse as the C7. Are you screw it accurate? On the video it looks like it is not mounted straight. Maybe the fixing plate on the CPU plate is not in the right position. Furthermore how do you attach the fan to the heatsink it looks like the fan is not fixed to the heatsink. If there is a bigger gab you losing cooling performance. If you rotate the fan you can mount it more centered to the heatsink so more air will go through the heatsink.

Also I wonder that you have not better temps if the fan under the AXP push the air outside the case. On my setup I got better temps with that.

To your motherboard stanoff problem. I used the A4-SFX for now two years. And I unscrewed the motherboard often. I can only point to that sentence in the included user manual: To prevent damaging components and screw threads, use a minimum of force for mounting components and tightening screws. ;)
Click to expand...

I think it was user error, thankyou for correcting me, it seems to perform the same as the C7 with the TY-100 now, but quieter:

axp-100h muscle fixed.JPG

i took the little heat sink off the VRMs on my motherboard, which gave me enough room to rotate the fan so it now covers all of the heat sink area.

I flipped the fan upside down and also cable tied it very tightly to the heat sink. i also lined the mount up straight, its very fiddly to align it perfect with Thermalright's universal mount.

lol damn my tremendous strength!
 
Meccabolix said:
I think it was user error, thankyou for correcting me, it seems to perform the same as the C7 with the TY-100 now, but quieter:

View attachment 17553

i took the little heat sink off the VRMs on my motherboard, which gave me enough room to rotate the fan so it now covers all of the heat sink area.

I flipped the fan upside down and also cable tied it very tightly to the heat sink. i also lined the mount up straight, its very fiddly to align it perfect with Thermalright's universal mount.

lol damn my tremendous strength!
Click to expand...

Snap a picture of it newly aligned!
 
krcm0209 said:
Sad news for those who can't make their own custom cables.
3lqEcuT.png
Click to expand...

CableMod has quality builds, but they do something that I think is a VERY weird thing with their cables.

When you lay the CableMod flat on a table, both connector ends have their latches/catches facing the same direction (ex: up/up).
In this orientation, when you connect the cables this results in twisting the cable, which defeats part of the purpose of buying a $120 cable set...clean runs.

I have only bought Silverstone PSUs recently, so I don't know what other PSU makers do for cables, but when you lay a Silverstone stock cable flat on a table, the connector ends have their latches/catches facing in opposite directions (ex: up/down).
In this orientation, when you connect the cables this results in no twist in the cable and gives a much cleaner run.

The CableMod wires look clean and straight when not installed, but when installed result in an ugly twist.
The Silverstone wires look crossed when not installed, but when installed no twist is needed.

Basically, CableMod builds their custom PSU cables as if they were "Extension" cables and they don't "cross" the wires.

On my NCASE M1, I de-pinned the PSU side of all of the cables from my set and re-pinned them so that the wires swapped sides and the latches faced in opposite directions.
The install was *MUCH* cleaner; I wouldn't have expected to have had to do this on a $120 set of cables to make them look nice.

I emailed them about it and they never replied back, so they must think I am crazy.
 
swooby said:
CableMod has quality builds, but they do something that I think is a VERY weird thing with their cables.

When you lay the CableMod flat on a table, both connector ends have their latches/catches facing the same direction (ex: up/up).
In this orientation, when you connect the cables this results in twisting the cable, which defeats part of the purpose of buying a $120 cable set...clean runs.

I have only bought Silverstone PSUs recently, so I don't know what other PSU makers do for cables, but when you lay a Silverstone stock cable flat on a table, the connector ends have their latches/catches facing in opposite directions (ex: up/down).
In this orientation, when you connect the cables this results in no twist in the cable and gives a much cleaner run.

The CableMod wires look clean and straight when not installed, but when installed result in an ugly twist.
The Silverstone wires look crossed when not installed, but when installed no twist is needed.

Basically, CableMod builds their custom PSU cables as if they were "Extension" cables and they don't "cross" the wires.

On my NCASE M1, I de-pinned the PSU side of all of the cables from my set and re-pinned them so that the wires swapped sides and the latches faced in opposite directions.
The install was *MUCH* cleaner; I wouldn't have expected to have had to do this on a $120 set of cables to make them look nice.

I emailed them about it and they never replied back, so they must think I am crazy.
Click to expand...

Maybe we can specify the orientation in the order comments?
 
absolut_zero said:
Sorry, if I have missed it somewhere in this thread. May I know which Corsair PSU are you using, the SF450 or SF600? How is the noise level of the PSU fan together with the cpu fan at full speed?
Click to expand...

Its the SF600, i dont notice it to be honest

phoxx said:
You said you used shorter standoffs to make it fit?

Motherboard standoffs?
Click to expand...

I havent recieved them yet, but yes motherboard standoffs, ive bought a few different lengths to test, i cant go too short though because i have an m.2 on the back of the motherboard. We'll see what works
 
My cooljag didn't fit my socket 1151. It only has mounts for 775 and 1366. Hm. I'd definitely have to remove my tridentz RAM heat sinks. Wow, even then it'd be tight.

I continued with 5 minute OPEN AIR (Dan case has not yet arrived) Prime 95 test with C7 stock and L9i+25mm fan on a delidded 7700k at stock clocks. If you're interested... Noctua paste was used. Inside the delid, coollabratory liquid metal was used. Applied very meticulously.


L9i 25mm noctua A9 PWM (5 min Prime 95)

upload_2017-2-22_1-27-18.png




C7 stock (5 min Prime 95)

upload_2017-2-22_1-27-52.png


Screenshots were taken exactly at 5 mins. I let it run a few mins longer on each but temps stayed at 85C max. I can easily add the 14mm stock l9i fan in for a test but I'm done for the night. At this point, I have so many coolers... as long as it doesn't thermal throttle while gaming, I don't care anymore. I'll probably just leave the l9i in there stock. The delid seems key to keep the 7700k under 90C on these small coolers. My advice is to delid, buy the highly available l9i, and forget about it. Enjoy the build.
 
jtcera said:
My cooljag didn't fit my socket 1151. It only has mounts for 775 and 1366. Hm. I'd definitely have to remove my tridentz RAM heat sinks. Wow, even then it'd be tight.

I continued with 5 minute OPEN AIR (Dan case has not yet arrived) Prime 95 test with C7 stock and L9i+25mm fan on a delidded 7700k at stock clocks. If you're interested... Noctua paste was used. Inside the delid, coollabratory liquid metal was used. Applied very meticulously.


L9i 25mm noctua A9 PWM (5 min Prime 95)

View attachment 17568



C7 stock (5 min Prime 95)

View attachment 17569

Screenshots were taken exactly at 5 mins. I let it run a few mins longer on each but temps stayed at 85C max. I can easily add the 14mm stock l9i fan in for a test but I'm done for the night. At this point, I have so many coolers... as long as it doesn't thermal throttle while gaming, I don't care anymore. I'll probably just leave the l9i in there stock. The delid seems key to keep the 7700k under 90C on these small coolers. My advice is to delid, buy the highly available l9i, and forget about it. Enjoy the build.
Click to expand...

Where did you order your CoolJag?
 
Meccabolix said:
sure, is it ok if i leave it on the motherboard though? i've used loads of thermal paste recently lol
Click to expand...
yes, of course. I am just interested in detail shots, how near it is to the motherboard components. Was orienting the heatsink with the bend pipes pointing to the RAM an option?
 
jtcera said:
and I already bent the fins off so it's going to be a lost cause unless they sell 1151 brackets for it.
Click to expand...

The manual that comes with it says that it only supports 775 and 1366 but there is an 115x bracket in the box. It has 3 holes in it. I thought the same thing when I got mine. Double check your accessories.
 
Hello from Austria to all of you following this thread.

While I'm following HOCP privately for ages, it was your inquiries to Noctua that brought up the idea to register and engage in this thread on behalf of Noctua.
I'm working at Noctua as a product engineer, which means I have had many prototypes going through my hands over time.
Of course not all of them make it to a retail product, as we only want to introduce new products when there is a noticeable improvement to previous products, be it performance wise, handling wise or compatibility wise.

Coming to this specific thread, I want to clear a few things up:
- I know that one of my colleagues said the fan clips don't fit, which seems to proven wrong by photos here. This statement was not given deliberately to get rid of the inquiries, we just don't have first hand experience with this combination and we are always very cautious to give compatibility advise for things we haven't tested. My colleague also said that he must have missed the photos, as he saw them when he went over the thread again.

- We are not angry that people are asking for the fan clips. However, as someone has already pointed out, it's not the material cost for the clips which make this difficult for us, it's the handling and shipping costs.
We appreciate that you are purchasing our fan for this interesting case but everything considered we are on par in the best case or maybe even make a loss on each fan sold, if we send out fan clips to every single user.
While we are open to projects and we have a bit of room for supporting them, I can't justify something like this to my boss if it goes beyond a few fans, especially if there are alternate ways to install the fan - sorry.

However, this doesn't mean that we haven't thought about a way to come towards you.
I suppose that most users in this thread are from the US and Canada? If you could find someone who would be able and willing to distribute the fan clips to the users interested in them, I could imagine sending a bag with fan clips to this person. Or maybe Dan himself would be interested and capable of making things work?
We are open to suggestions how we could handle this, preferably in this thread.

- Regarding the comment of a bigger L9i where another colleague of mine was quoted, well, he started at Noctua only a few months ago and thus isn't that much in the know regarding things that have already been tried in the past.
While his answer wasn't wrong, a slightly taller L9i specifically tailored for this case is unfortunately unrealistic. We've tried a taller L9i in the past but performance wasn't noticeably better, which is the reason why the L9x65 looks quite a bit different than the L9i/a coolers.

- From my own experience with delidding, starting with Ivy and Haswell, this is crucial for getting somewhat acceptable temperatures with small coolers. Unfortunately we can't officially encourage customers to delid their CPU though ...
Using TDP limits with K-CPUs, which are usually disabled by default on Z boards, can help a bit as well, as it won't allow the CPU to go beyond this with some special loads like Prime.
For this purpose the AVX-Offset function of the new Skylake processors is also quite helpful.
 
Noctua said:
Hello from Austria to all of you following this thread.

While I'm following HOCP privately for ages, it was your inquiries to Noctua that brought up the idea to register and engage in this thread on behalf of Noctua.
I'm working at Noctua as a product engineer, which means I have had many prototypes going through my hands over time.
Of course not all of them make it to a retail product, as we only want to introduce new products when there is a noticeable improvement to previous products, be it performance wise, handling wise or compatibility wise.


- Regarding the comment of a bigger L9i where another colleague of mine was quoted, well, he started at Noctua only a few months ago and thus isn't that much in the know regarding things that have already been tried in the past.
While his answer wasn't wrong, a slightly taller L9i specifically tailored for this case is unfortunately unrealistic. We've tried a taller L9i in the past but performance wasn't noticeably better, which is the reason why the L9x65 looks quite a bit different than the L9i/a coolers.

- From my own experience with delidding, starting with Ivy and Haswell, this is crucial for getting somewhat acceptable temperatures with small coolers. Unfortunately we can't officially encourage customers to delid their CPU though ...
Using TDP limits with K-CPUs, which are usually disabled by default on Z boards, can help a bit as well, as it won't allow the CPU to go beyond this with some special loads like Prime.
For this purpose the AVX-Offset function of the new Skylake processors is also quite helpful.
Click to expand...


Hey there. :)

I'm not going to worry about the fan clips - that's an issue that I'm not as invested in, as I'm happy to make my own.

1) I think you'd be amazed at how many of us who've backed the Dan A4 and the Sentry are in Europe or Russia. I certainly was.

2) The taller L9i not actually performing that much better is kind of fascinating, actually, however that wouldn't be the ideal cooler anyways, because having a fan directly next to the case panels sounds, well... kind of like a jet engine.

3) As a corollary to the above, what would you guys think about, rather than creating a taller L9i, creating a shorter NH-L12?

As I mentioned in my email to you guys, I'm actually using an NH-L12 in my small form factor case right now, after having removed both fans and jury-rigged the 120mm fan to be underneath the heatsink. If you want pictures of how this works, I'd be willing to take them for you. If the NH-L12 were shortened by 18mm, that height could mostly come from the heatpipes - at which point, a slim 120mm fan could be placed underneath the fins.

I'm sure there are some significant technical challenges to that, but I'd love to know what you guys think.

Thanks for opening a line of communication, and cheers for all the hard work.
 
Noctua said:
I suppose that most users in this thread are from the US and Canada? If you could find someone who would be able and willing to distribute the fan clips to the users interested in them, I could imagine sending a bag with fan clips to this person. Or maybe Dan himself would be interested and capable of making things work?
We are open to suggestions how we could handle this, preferably in this thread.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the statement, I guess you can add Europe and Russia to the list of users.
I suggest you package the clips and sell it to the public, like what scythe, Prolimatech, ID-Cooling and Thermalright do (check the attached photo)
Or simply bundled it with the A9x14 !, we need the clips in our mod projects like the (Thermolab LP53 + A9x14) or the (Dynatron t318 + A9x14)
I'm sure Noctua will make a good profit out of this clip either way (even if it is bundled)
41Pavs9exSL._SX355_.jpg efb78e17-9aba-428b-8a80-428611558a35.jpg Fan-Clips-Package_01.jpg IMG_7583.JPG IMG_7584.JPG IMG_7585.JPG
 
Last edited:
kingtron said:
Thanks for the statement, I guess you can add Europe and Russia to the list of users.
I suggest you package the clips and sell it to the public, like what scythe, Prolimatech, ID-Cooling and Thermalright do (check the attached photo)
Or simply bundled it with the A9x14 !, we need the clips in our mod projects like the (Thermolab LP53 + A9x14) or the (Dynatron t318 + A9x14)
I'm sure Noctua will make a good profit out of this clip either way (even if it is bundled)
View attachment 17581 View attachment 17582 View attachment 17583 View attachment 17584 View attachment 17585 View attachment 17586
Click to expand...
Yep! It would just make it all way easier and better looking than some homemade screws/rubber bands/strips--mount. Either way, I'm also located in Europe (Denmark)!
 
krcm0209 said:
What's that about?
Click to expand...
I was talking about Self Clearance of packages being imported from other countries.

DHL and any other courier company takes this opportunity to add extra fees on top of the standard import Tax+Duty. Courier companies justify this by claiming they ave some sort of involvement in the clearance of the package. Some of them say its a brokerage fee, others say its a payment forwarding fee when customs asks for payment. Long story short you save yourself $20-$50 depending on your countries currency by advising the Courier you're going to self clear the package, go down to the airport, pick up the documents then go to the customs office yourself to clear it. This way the only charges you pay is Tax+Duty.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top