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

Yes, mine's still in Frankfurt. I think it may not update until it actually arrives at the US carrier's spot and gets sent out for delivery from there, in my case USPS. (DHL transferred my package over to them). And I'm not 100% sure we are getting a plane ride either.

The last reported location for mine is at the airport in Frankfurt, so I hope they're not planning on putting it on a boat there and sending it down the Main river or it will be quite the circuitous journey from there to LA.. Given where the cases were born, they will have traveled well over half way around the world to get here via the current routing :p Here's to hoping that on future builds Dan is able to drop ship directly from Taiwan via a local logistics handler rather than pushing them all through Europe.
 
The 1700x being classed as a "Gaming" Cpu has done a total back flip

Many many many people wanting to get this have got disappointing me included. I was opening up to the wonderful soldered chip and supporting the underdog.

But i felt not quite trusted with any game dev supporting 8 cores, the lack of 3200+ Memory support, lack any mini itx boaeds, then AMD intentional tweaking gaming scores on reveal. It all left me with a bad taste in my mouth.

7700k will be king for a good few years until intel do a 6 core 7700k ipc. Looks like il have to get that strix board and delid.

A local retailer dropped the prices of their 7700k's this morning by $50. I jumped on that and a Strix.

Can't wait for these cases to reach NZ :D

We have a huge $5 change since ryzen reveal LOL
 
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Finally got my system built. Running a 7700k and evga 1080 SC2 with the new icx cooler.

Getting max temps of around 78c for the CPU and an impressive 63-65c for gpu. Not bad! And have these cool new TridentZ rgb ram in there.

Is the 7700k running stock? How are you testing the system - just in use, in game or benchmarks?
 
Ryzen seems to be limiting at the top end but not the minimum frames per second much and only at 1080p, it's the same performance at 1440p let alone 4k. Unless you have a 144hz monitor I think it's still an excellent choice. The risk and effort of delivering a 7700 is way to much for me. It has much better IPC than my old 2500k had at 4.5ghz so and I'll be able to more than half any 3d renders I do.
 
Approx. 24mm between the EK waterblock and the edge of the case.


In other news, I had to remount my block (it was off a bit) and my thermals are now as follows:

Ambient 21 C.

i7 4790K OC'd to 4.6 GHz @ 1.3v:
@ idle: cores are 20-22 C.
@ 100% load: the cores range from 66-74 C. Minor jumps up as high as 76 C on one of the cores.

GTX 980ti OC'd to 1500 MHz clock, 7012 MHz memory:
@ idle: 21 C.
@ 100% load: 39 C.

My cooling solution has a D5 vario at setting 3 and a 480mm x 60mm thick rad with fans at 600rpm (can't even hear them a foot away from me).
All in all I'm quite happy with this. Cooling could be better if I ramped up the fans but I like peace and quiet haha.

Looks great! With those results I might consider going for a watercooling myself :)
Can you please give me more details about your watercooling setup and maybe a few pics of the external parts? Where did you put the pump and tank?

I thought about putting the case on top of the radiator so air of the fans would go through the case, but there are not many vent holes on the bottom of the case and the air going through the case is already heated. Maybe the radiator can be mounted on top and suck in some of the air through the vent holse on the top of the case (= casefan). A 360 radiator should be about the size of the case. But I don't know if it will work.
 
Ive been on some evga forums since then and people are coming to the conclusion that my acx 1080 needs to step up to icx 1080 and only then could i step up to 1080ti....

if it's true then it's pretty frustrating since the icx version wouldnt exist if they got their burning vrm right the first time.
I don't believe that is the case. My guess is you would choose the product you want to step up to and the value difference would be paid. It wouldn't make much sense to step up to another 1080.
 
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BIOSTAR X370GTN itx first photo:
Biostar-Racing-X370GTN-3.jpeg
For AMD Ryzen

Source
 
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Why does that have a dvi port?? Looks like a dvi port anyway... There is no built in graphics on a Zen CPU... Is that designed/compatible with their new APUs as well?
 
So I contacted innodisk about low profile ram and volume discounts. If we can get 50 people together we can get 32gb (2x16gb) VLP ram for $318. The volume discount is for 100 16gb sticks.

You think there are 50 people interested in doing this? This is 100 dollars cheaper than the crucial option.

Here is the p/n: M4U0-AGS1WCSJ

See email below:

Hello Dan,


Thank you for the quick reply!


I am pleased to offer the following:


Innodisk P/N: M4U0-AGS1WCSJ

Unit Price: $159 / 1-99 PCS

147 / 100 PCS+

Delivery: FOB CA, 3 wks ARO


Please let me know if you have any questions or need anything else.


Best Regards,
 
Can anyone please post the PSU and the custom cable length that worked for you? Not able to find those posts.

You would need the details of the exact PSU and motherboard combination. The PSUs have connectors across the 100 mm center of the back. The motherboards have the 24-pin power connectors on the top or the back edge. The CPU power can be next to it, or anywhere around the middle of the board.
 
Cable mod is still working on my order so I can't confirm it all worked. But I ordered a 150mm 24pin, and 300mm CPU and PCI-E cables. I intentionally ordered a bit longer CPU and PCI-E then I thought I needed. Z270i Mobo.

The PSU is right next to the 24 pin port on the Asus. The CPU is along the bottom edge near the IO if I remember correctly. You can see where the GPU is. From there, unless someone else can confirm before I estimate having everything in about a month, based on case and Mobo measurements plus bending I figured 300mm would cover the longer runs.
 
Oh did he delid his? I'm not comfortable with delidding processors.
It's really not as hard as you may think. We did my buddies 3770k in about 15 minutes. The thermal paste looked terrible and was chalky and didn't have good coverage. We did it with a thin bladed razor and slowly worked around the chip until it was easily pulled off. Redid the paste with some Liquid ultra, reseated the cpu and it was good to go. Reduced temps 15c and made his cores consistent temps. Before 2 cores were at least 10c higher then the others. Really awesome how much better it runs now. At idle it will get down to 17c. He does have a full custom water loop but still pretty impressive results.
 
Oh did he delid his? I'm not comfortable with delidding processors.

IDK either, but it drops the temps by 20c at times it seems. I wasn't comfortable with delidding either until I watched this:



I picked up a Rockit Cool and did it in about less than an hour. The only potential problem is Rockit Cool is going to cost about $40, but I already put down so much money on a DAN case I didn't mind and it was a safe solution. There may be cheaper solutions on ebay too.
 
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You would need the details of the exact PSU and motherboard combination. The PSUs have connectors across the 100 mm center of the back. The motherboards have the 24-pin power connectors on the top or the back edge. The CPU power can be next to it, or anywhere around the middle of the board.

I am going with the Asus Z270 with the Corsair SF600.
 
So I contacted innodisk about low profile ram and volume discounts. If we can get 50 people together we can get 32gb (2x16gb) VLP ram for $318. The volume discount is for 100 16gb sticks.

You think there are 50 people interested in doing this? This is 100 dollars cheaper than the crucial option.

Here is the p/n: M4U0-AGS1WCSJ
How about the 16gb (2x8gb) kits?
 
Begin to mod Phanteks PH- TC12LS.

Gap between Tower and Heatsink är 12.5 mm so used a metall file to grind it down for about 2 hours.

Forgot mounting system that are a metall bar over the heatsink Will not fit when i grind it down.

So now i must try to fabricate a new One that will fit.

Will se if i can suceed or i must buy a new Cooler.
 
I'm also using the i7-7700K on the Asus Z270I with a Noctua L9i. Delidded my CPU and applied Coollaboratory Liquid Pro on the Die itself and Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut between Heatspreader and the L9i. I get temperatures up to 80°C/83°C in Realbench/Prime v26.6 @ 4.5 GHz with which I am totally happy with. Average temperatures while gaming are about 65-75°C.
Before delidding temperatures crossed the 100°C-mark within seconds in Prime and the CPU throttled. I'd advise anyone using a 91/95W-CPU to delid it!
 
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A question for those who delidded their 7700K:

Did you do anything special to seal the IHS to the chip when you put it back? Or did you just use the mobo cpu socket clip to hold the IHS in place? Honesly I was going to do the latter and just save the damn trouble but reading Kyle's article on relidding with silicone to prevent temps from rising in future due to the IHS warping under uneven pressure has me a little scared.
 
I used a bit of heat-resistant silicone-adhesive on the broad edges of the IHS just to hold it in place, more of a habit though. Never had any problems with relidded CPUs this way.
 
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Can anyone please post the PSU and the custom cable length that worked for you? Not able to find those posts.

This thread is getting longer by the day.

I just got done building custom ATX and EPS cables for my Corsair SF450 and MSI H110i combo using the same method that Pantera_666 has outlined on this forum (i.e. using short "patch" wires on the PSU end for the double wires).

I varied the lengths of the ATX wires from 145mm to 105mm to match the curve, and it's a tight fit. So if I was ordering I'd probably go for 150mm for ATX. And I made the EPS cable 240mm long and it fits well.

This is my first custom cabling project. It's slow fiddly work and I still have the PCI-E cable to go, but happy with the outcome so far. Only thing I would change in hindsight is using 18 AWG cable instead of the 16 AWG that I'm using as thinner cables would have been much easier to deal with when crimping two wires into a single pin.

DSCF2857.jpg DSCF2863.jpg DSCF2875.jpg DSCF2878.jpg
 
A question for those who delidded their 7700K:

Did you do anything special to seal the IHS to the chip when you put it back? Or did you just use the mobo cpu socket clip to hold the IHS in place? Honesly I was going to do the latter and just save the damn trouble but reading Kyle's article on relidding with silicone to prevent temps from rising in future due to the IHS warping under uneven pressure has me a little scared.
I followed these instructions exactly and am getting good results. I used the same glue they recommended on each corner to hold the ihs in place. I like that you can delid again easily if something were to go wrong. Using silicon glue, it's hard to delid again. https://rockitcool.myshopify.com/pages/using-the-rockit-88
 
I just got done building custom ATX and EPS cables for my Corsair SF450 and MSI H110i combo using the same method that Pantera_666 has outlined on this forum (i.e. using short "patch" wires on the PSU end for the double wires).

I varied the lengths of the ATX wires from 145mm to 105mm to match the curve, and it's a tight fit. So if I was ordering I'd probably go for 150mm for ATX. And I made the EPS cable 240mm long and it fits well.

This is my first custom cabling project. It's slow fiddly work and I still have the PCI-E cable to go, but happy with the outcome so far. Only thing I would change in hindsight is using 18 AWG cable instead of the 16 AWG that I'm using as thinner cables would have been much easier to deal with when crimping two wires into a single pin.

View attachment 18469 View attachment 18470 View attachment 18471 View attachment 18472


Thanks mate. Helped a lot and gives me lots of ideas.
 
So I contacted innodisk about low profile ram and volume discounts. If we can get 50 people together we can get 32gb (2x16gb) VLP ram for $318. The volume discount is for 100 16gb sticks.

You think there are 50 people interested in doing this? This is 100 dollars cheaper than the crucial option.

Here is the p/n: M4U0-AGS1WCSJ

See email below:

Hello Dan,


Thank you for the quick reply!


I am pleased to offer the following:


Innodisk P/N: M4U0-AGS1WCSJ

Unit Price: $159 / 1-99 PCS

147 / 100 PCS+

Delivery: FOB CA, 3 wks ARO


Please let me know if you have any questions or need anything else.


Best Regards,

12$ discount per stick if we have 100+ ??? what the hell.

here's 90$ per stick but out of stock:
http://www.avadirect.com/16GB-PC4-1...MM-ECC-Unbuffered-VLP-Memory/Product/10777634


here's some in stock bu more expensive (all unbuffered UDIMM)
crucial:
140$ https://www.superbiiz.com/detail.php?name=CT424EV16G in stock

micron ram:
150$ https://www.superbiiz.com/detail.php?name=M424EV16G1 in stock
150$ http://harddiskdirect.com/categorie...-low-profile-vlp-dual-rank-memory-module.html
in stock and freeship

Micron ram specs https://www.micron.com/~/media/docu...odules/unbuffered_dimm/ddr4/adf18c2gx72az.pdf

don't need their inflated bulk prices and 3 week time, fucking innodisk
 
12$ discount per stick if we have 100+ ??? what the hell.
....
don't need their inflated bulk prices and 3 week time, fucking innodisk

true that, I have seen 16GB VLP UDIMM sticks on amazon for <150$ and on other websites for <130$
 
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