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

Philfreeze said:
I replaced all MOSFET heatsinks to get some better airflow and it does help. If I can trust my thermal camera the maximal MOSFET die temperature should be no more than 120°C (running Furmark and Prime95) without any heatsinks. With heatsink this will probably drop bellow 110°C. This is well bellow Tjmax (150°C) even without the heatsinks, just bare in mind that this is without the side panel because I can't easily measure it with the side panel.

The same goes for the PCH btw. Its temperatures are even better without any heatsink.
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Thanks for the info. Curious what heatinks you used to replace it with? I ordered these.
 
question for you guys, I'm thinking of getting this case to replace my Ncase M1, however, the case placement on my desk would mean that the right side (when looking at the front) would be up against a wall, for the Ncase this is ok because the back of the mobo is on the right side. On this case, the back of the mobo is on the left side (and thus the CPU/HS side is on the right). Would it be ok for the right side of this case to be up against a wall?
 
I would worry that cutting off the whole CPU side panel ventilation would negatively affect intake of cold air.
 
pookguy88 said:
question for you guys, I'm thinking of getting this case to replace my Ncase M1, however, the case placement on my desk would mean that the right side (when looking at the front) would be up against a wall, for the Ncase this is ok because the back of the mobo is on the right side. On this case, the back of the mobo is on the left side (and thus the CPU/HS side is on the right). Would it be ok for the right side of this case to be up against a wall?
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I'd take advantage of the smaller footprint to leave a few cm of clearance.
 
This thread has lost a lot of life, anyone have any interesting mods they've done to their build?
 
that was like 4 days ago, im hungry for more! i want to hear what everyone else is trying. Im going for a polar white mod and acrylic extension with green led's and green cablemods.
 
I have installed a case fan behind the PSU. Without this fan my PSU heats up, because my other fans are running at low rpm and therefore the air in the pc case heats up.

I have a ASUS GTX 970 Mini.
 
I dont know if im the only one, but i actually went ahead and kept my setup as an 170i asus pro gaming mobo with the noctua l9i+ 25mm pwm noctua fan...and im either deaf, or im not hearing this air turbulence or whining sound coming from the fan, during heavy load i can hear it push air but its not the end of the world and its silent under normal load, my silverstone psu is still the loudest fan in the setup.
 
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What do you think about this for V2?

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dondan said:
What do you think about this for V2?

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If the bar between the two expansion slots is not needed structurally, then it should be eliminated. This small piece of metal blocks a lot of vent area on the Nvidia reference cards.

Edit: The removal of this bar would give the GTX 1080 Founders Edition 46% more vent area. (17 of 54 triangular vents blocked)

Perhaps also dip the feet in Plastidip, or other rubberized coating. Please keep the feat small and non-hooked so that they are easy to slide into a bag.
 
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dondan said:
What do you think about this for V2?

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Honestly I don't see the point, the case is pretty open so it's not going to let much additional dust in. I think it looks fine without it, and it's at the back anyway. Reviewers always feel the need to find some faults, they are just nit-picking, its a really minor thing, I wouldn't go adding a new part increasing costs just because of it....
 
Have you considered adding a hole to to the motherboard mounting plate to allow access to most CPU backplates? I don't think it would affect the strength that much and you have the plastic shield...
 
EVGA 1080ti FTW3 specs were leaked... same clock and boost speeds as the FE Card, My step up request from 1080 to 1080ti FE is feeling more justified :D
 
dondan said:
Yes I think the same. I don't see a real reason to add it but some customer mention it. So I try to improve as much as possible. I think it will not increase the price.
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I think everyone knows it doesn't add much functionality but it's just a finishing touch. If the cost is negligible, just add it.
 
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dondan said:
What do you think about this for V2?

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.... please add 4 mounts for 92mm or 100mm fans. two above the case and two bellow it.....forget about your little blue plate above gpu....seriously?
some taller stickier feets would be nice.
 
I'm going to piggy back on some of the suggestions:

1. Motherboard cutout for easy cooler mounting would be great.
2. Optional screw holes to lower PSU bracket down, so one could install a fan in that spot. For instance if you're not using that SSD tray, and you have short cables (me) you have a bunch of empty space there. Or in general just increasing options to install more fans.
3. More premium feeling power button maybe?
4. More grippy case feet.

That's all I can think of. Honestly if this thing stayed exactly as is, it would still be an amazing case. It's been raised before that increasing the CPU cooler compatibility by even 1.5cm would increase the cooling options by a huge amount, but I don't know if that's too drastic a change for a "v.2." I personally could live with a tiny increase in volume but I can understand why dondan may not want to do it.
 
Finally got my case yesterday Dan. It took awhile, but I'm sure it was worth the wait. Thanks for making it.

My one and only suggestion for V2 is to make it 10mm wider so it can accommodate a much larger array of cooling solutions on the CPU.
 
dondan, you can keep the frame size the same, but do consider perhaps offering 'extended' side panels which stick out much more from the sides. The case will widen laterally but with the additional space many interesting things are possible, for example we can mount 240/280 radiators to the inside of the side panel on the CPU side or hybrid AIO style GPUs on the inside panel on the GPU side. As an optional add on, you give your customers much more choice at minimal additonal cost/trouble to you
 
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tviceman said:
Finally got my case yesterday Dan. It took awhile, but I'm sure it was worth the wait. Thanks for making it.
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I have been loving the case since I got it a week ago. Having full desktop power in a camera bag (Tenba BYOB 13) is fantastic on the go. A photo shoot always already has nice IPS monitors. I bet the "pro" photographer would love to have a full-speed Photoshop computer, with 3+ drives, that fit into his camera bag system. Where do they post?

tviceman said:
My one and only suggestion for V2 is to make it 10mm wider so it can accommodate a much larger array of cooling solutions on the CPU.
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I strongly disagree. I think that taller side panels can accommodate every desire in one thin case. Dan showed some pictures of a taller windowed side panel. Someone also made a picture showing an elevated side panel with an RGB-LED-lit acrylic spacer.

Perhaps some hidden top corner screws would help thicker side panels stay on?
 
JackGLemmon said:
Someone also made a picture showing an elevated side panel with an RGB-LED-lit acrylic spacer.
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that someone would be me lol ;)

anyways for anyone having problemes with ddr4 memory running at the XMP profile on the striz z270i, I did testing for maybe a week and finally got a stable settings after undervolting the ram from 1.35v to 1.275v. it was running too hot and crashing as soon as the cpu went above 70C. the board is really tight. so yeah now 3000mhz runs no problem. hope that helps someone :)
 
mcheddadi said:
that someone would be me lol ;)

anyways for anyone having problemes with ddr4 memory running at the XMP profile on the striz z270i, I did testing for maybe a week and finally got a stable settings after undervolting the ram from 1.35v to 1.275v. it was running too hot and crashing as soon as the cpu went above 70C. the board is really tight. so yeah now 3000mhz runs no problem. hope that helps someone :)
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Are you planning on doing an acrylic spacer? or know how to get one done? I really liked your idea but no idea where to start.
 
nope, Philfreeze and Pantera_666 are each racing to make the first rendition on their pc. I'm here waiting to see :)

if it's good, it might convince someone to produce a kit .
 
Got my case yesterday. I'm supposed to be the second to last to have shipped.
For anyone interested, the lowepro messenger 250 is almost impossible to use unless the inside padding (seperating main compartment and tablet/laptop area) is cut out - But without that, the case fit perfectly inside, maybe too perfect, its tight.
Pictures will be tonight
 
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oh, and i didnt buy any components yet; waiting forGigabyte B250N, with support for USB Gen2!
im still rocking a H55 in an SG05
 
Removed the Strix IO heatsink tonight and tried a Scythe 120mm 12mm fan. Conclusion: stick with the Noctua A9x14, and remove the heatsink if you're using the LP53 with the fins running perpendicular to your RAM. Removing the mosfet heatsink provided a 10c or so improvement in Prime95 temps for me.

The Scythe looks bad ass and really cools the rest of the mobo, RAM, and SSD well. My RAM was about 15c cooler, in fact. But it is pretty loud and offers no increase in CPU cooling performance over the Noctua. It sits about 42mm tall once installed, but it has to rest on the wifi card module of the z270i and the RAM, or just the wifi module depending on how you want it, since it is so large. I.e. even once secured to the heatsink it sits about 1 or 2mm above it. The version you can buy separately is also not PWM, sadly. (Do they sell a slim 120mm 12mm fan with any of their CPU coolers?)
 
My findings agree with yours, and indicate there is no benefit to CPU temps with a 120mm fan, but the motherboard components do benefit. Not having the VRM heatsinks really help let the hot air out of the back of the IO area when the IO shield is not installed.
 
Out of curiosity (If I ever feel experimental with my z170i) how do you safely remove the heatsinks? Just pure force?
 
Cherry Dude said:
Out of curiosity (If I ever feel experimental with my z170i) how do you safely remove the heatsinks? Just pure force?
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There are some screws on the backside of the motherboard. That is the case of my Asus z97i-plus, and from what I can see on photos, they are the exact same location.
 
Did a couple hours of overwatch last night maxed out everything, 1080ti was about 75-82c the entire time. Are these similar temps other 1080ti owners are getting with this case?

Case also got extremely hot lol.

Also was wondering why my 7700k idle was in the 40's turned out I may have accidently OC'd it with ASUS software so I brought that down to normal now get about 32-38c idle temps rocking the noctua. So if your temps are high just make sure you didnt toggle anything in the bios or software like I did.
 
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