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DAN A4-SFX: The smallest gaming case in the world
- Thread starter dondan
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dondan
[H]ard|Gawd
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@CknSalad I think on SFF-Forum I saw a test of it. But the result should be nearly the same or worse because I made similar test on my Dynatron T318. If the fan is bigger as the heatsink the air will choose the easiest way and this is not through the heatsink. So you will lost air pressure and air pressure is very important for small heatsinks where the fins are very close to each other.
woudlt upgrade the 3570k, except if you are going for more cores like ryzen
Shaav
Limp Gawd
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- Sep 28, 2011
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I did. Horrible results. Far worse than with the NF-A9x14
jenosmaverick
Limp Gawd
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- May 24, 2017
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Anybody knows if and when will asus release an am4 mitx? I would prefer the Strix over the Gigabyte gaming. I'm thinking of a R7 1700 and GTX1070/2070 build for my Dan case. Can wait for Volta but I'm not sure about Ice lake since it might take forever before Intel to release it. I'm slowly buying parts now for that January build 
CknSalad
Limp Gawd
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- May 27, 2014
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There is the AsRock mini itx board as well. Biostar has a mini itx board too, but the bios is kind of bare bones.Anybody knows if and when will asus release an am4 mitx? I would prefer the Strix over the Gigabyte gaming. I'm thinking of a R7 1700 and GTX1070/2070 build for my Dan case. Can wait for Volta but I'm not sure about Ice lake since it might take forever before Intel to release it. I'm slowly buying parts now for that January build
jenosmaverick
Limp Gawd
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As for Gigabyte and Asrock I dunno about their quality. If only EVGA offers AM4 boards.
I'm pretty impressed with the fan control on my ASRock AB350. You can control each individual fan (only use my CPU fan) from the BIOS as well as the software. This has helped with my 1700X as the +20C is annoying.
Hey Guys !
Im back with another status update for my Dan build. Last time i got my Noctua fans mounted on CPU and GPU.
Since then i have been hard at work to get my GPU and CPU at the best possible temp.
I kept running into throttling issues on my 1080ti and the Ryzen 1700 boiled up to 90degrees as soon as i started doing the slightest OC.
So, i started thinking about how to isolate the heat generated in this case. I ended using a thick double sided tape around the CPU and GPU to create a makeshift fan-duct for both. That bought me a few degress, but nothing near enough for OC.
I then started thinking about the design of the sidepanels. The panels are incredibly perforated, to allow for all sorts of coolers, but is also really terrible at managing all the heat generated from the mainboard and the Cryorig C7 cooler itself.
With my Asrock X370 Gaming ITX/ac board, the Cryorig C7 ends up blasting all the hot air directly into the ram and VRM cooler, resulting in all the hot air getting pushed out of the side panel again and sucked back in through the fan, even with the duct. This raises the temp continuously.
So i thought about what to do and came up with a solution i think many of you could use.
Tape.......clear tape.
I took the side panel off and measured where the CPU fan and GPU fan was located. I then masked off the area surrounding the fans and left out the part where the duct meets the panel (duh). This is all done on the panel itself, not the case.
See the pictures for reference. The CPU side is shamelessly ripped from google but the GPU side is my own picture.
On the CPU side, the red squares represent clear tape and the green square represents free space for airflow.
On the GPU side the masked square is green, because of the red hue messing up the color otherwise.
I also stuffed some foam in between the PSU and the SSDs to minimize heat transfer from the GPU side to the CPU side.
THIS did the trick!
Now that the fans are not pulling in hot air generated by the case, but exhausting it all though the top, the temps dropped drastically.
We are talking going from 90s to 78 in realbench on the CPU (now able to OC to 3.5 1.2volts) and going from 86 to 77 on the GPU (now able to OC to over 1900mhz 120% power target)
This seems like a major design flaw, seeing as how a simple mod like this can give these kinds of results.
Please, try this yourself and see what kind of temp you can get with fresh air and post them back here. Be sure to use a fan duct. Even if it is only a janky one made with tape around the fan. Else you will be pulling hot air anyway.
Bonus: I got the A4 mounted on the wall today. Pretty satisfied with the result:
Im back with another status update for my Dan build. Last time i got my Noctua fans mounted on CPU and GPU.
Since then i have been hard at work to get my GPU and CPU at the best possible temp.
I kept running into throttling issues on my 1080ti and the Ryzen 1700 boiled up to 90degrees as soon as i started doing the slightest OC.
So, i started thinking about how to isolate the heat generated in this case. I ended using a thick double sided tape around the CPU and GPU to create a makeshift fan-duct for both. That bought me a few degress, but nothing near enough for OC.
I then started thinking about the design of the sidepanels. The panels are incredibly perforated, to allow for all sorts of coolers, but is also really terrible at managing all the heat generated from the mainboard and the Cryorig C7 cooler itself.
With my Asrock X370 Gaming ITX/ac board, the Cryorig C7 ends up blasting all the hot air directly into the ram and VRM cooler, resulting in all the hot air getting pushed out of the side panel again and sucked back in through the fan, even with the duct. This raises the temp continuously.
So i thought about what to do and came up with a solution i think many of you could use.
Tape.......clear tape.
I took the side panel off and measured where the CPU fan and GPU fan was located. I then masked off the area surrounding the fans and left out the part where the duct meets the panel (duh). This is all done on the panel itself, not the case.
See the pictures for reference. The CPU side is shamelessly ripped from google but the GPU side is my own picture.
On the CPU side, the red squares represent clear tape and the green square represents free space for airflow.
On the GPU side the masked square is green, because of the red hue messing up the color otherwise.
I also stuffed some foam in between the PSU and the SSDs to minimize heat transfer from the GPU side to the CPU side.
THIS did the trick!
Now that the fans are not pulling in hot air generated by the case, but exhausting it all though the top, the temps dropped drastically.
We are talking going from 90s to 78 in realbench on the CPU (now able to OC to 3.5 1.2volts) and going from 86 to 77 on the GPU (now able to OC to over 1900mhz 120% power target)
This seems like a major design flaw, seeing as how a simple mod like this can give these kinds of results.
Please, try this yourself and see what kind of temp you can get with fresh air and post them back here. Be sure to use a fan duct. Even if it is only a janky one made with tape around the fan. Else you will be pulling hot air anyway.
Bonus: I got the A4 mounted on the wall today. Pretty satisfied with the result:
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Wow! I will definitely try this trick!Hey Guys !
Im back with another status update for my Dan build. Last time i got my Noctua fans mounted on CPU and GPU.
Since then i have been hard at work to get my GPU and CPU at the best possible temp.
I kept running into throttling issues on my 1080ti and the Ryzen 1700 boiled up to 90degrees as soon as i started doing the slightest OC.
So, i started thinking about how to isolate the heat generated in this case. I ended using a thick double sided tape around the CPU and GPU to create a makeshift fan-duct for both. That bought me a few degress, but nothing near enough for OC.
I then started thinking about the design of the sidepanels. The panels are incredibly perforated, to allow for all sorts of coolers, but is also really terrible at managing all the heat generated from the mainboard and the Cryorig C7 cooler itself.
With my Asrock X370 Gaming ITX/ac board, the Cryorig C7 ends up blasting all the hot air directly into the ram and VRM cooler, resulting in all the hot air getting pushed out of the side panel again and sucked back in through the fan, even with the duct. This raises the temp continuously.
So i thought about what to do and came up with a solution i think many of you could use.
Tape.......clear tape.
I took the side panel off and measured where the CPU fan and GPU fan was located. I then masked off the area surrounding the fans and left out the part where the duct meets the panel (duh). This is all done on the panel itself, not the case.
See the pictures for reference. The CPU side is shamelessly ripped from google but the GPU side is my own picture.
On the CPU side, the red squares represent clear tape and the green square represents free space for airflow.
On the GPU side the masked square is green, because of the red hue messing up the color otherwise.
I also stuffed some foam in between the PSU and the SSDs to minimize heat transfer from the GPU side to the CPU side.
THIS did the trick!
Now that the fans are not pulling in hot air generated by the case, but exhausting it all though the top, the temps dropped drastically.
We are talking going from 90s to 78 in realbench on the CPU (now able to OC to 3.5 1.2volts) and going from 86 to 77 on the GPU (now able to OC to over 1900mhz 120% power target)
This seems like a major design flaw, seeing as how a simple mod like this can give these kinds of results.
Please, try this yourself and see what kind of temp you can get with fresh air and post them back here.
Bonus: I got the A4 mounted on the wall today. Pretty satisfied with the result:
At the same time, I'm looking for what gtx 1070 to buy. People say different about blower or with 2/3 fans.
Should I go with a gtx 1070 FE/msi aero/asus turbo OR msi armor/zotac mini/asus EX or dual/gigabyte windforce 2?
The zotac mini (which is a dual fan) is the cheapest where I live.
Blackreplica
Limp Gawd
- Joined
- May 9, 2016
- Messages
- 205
Thats quite a neat trick if it works for everyone. I remember people having very good results with fan ducts so I suppose this would work well too
richiegore
Limp Gawd
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- Feb 1, 2017
- Messages
- 322
This trick really depends on the distance the fan is from the side panel. With my L9a I can feel it drawing lots air in from a big area of the side panel, I think this trick would reduce its efficiency. For my GPU it might be a different story as it is closer to the side panel.Hey Guys !
Im back with another status update for my Dan build. Last time i got my Noctua fans mounted on CPU and GPU.
Since then i have been hard at work to get my GPU and CPU at the best possible temp.
I kept running into throttling issues on my 1080ti and the Ryzen 1700 boiled up to 90degrees as soon as i started doing the slightest OC.
So, i started thinking about how to isolate the heat generated in this case. I ended using a thick double sided tape around the CPU and GPU to create a makeshift fan-duct for both. That bought me a few degress, but nothing near enough for OC.
I then started thinking about the design of the sidepanels. The panels are incredibly perforated, to allow for all sorts of coolers, but is also really terrible at managing all the heat generated from the mainboard and the Cryorig C7 cooler itself.
With my Asrock X370 Gaming ITX/ac board, the Cryorig C7 ends up blasting all the hot air directly into the ram and VRM cooler, resulting in all the hot air getting pushed out of the side panel again and sucked back in through the fan, even with the duct. This raises the temp continuously.
So i thought about what to do and came up with a solution i think many of you could use.
Tape.......clear tape.
I took the side panel off and measured where the CPU fan and GPU fan was located. I then masked off the area surrounding the fans and left out the part where the duct meets the panel (duh). This is all done on the panel itself, not the case.
See the pictures for reference. The CPU side is shamelessly ripped from google but the GPU side is my own picture.
On the CPU side, the red squares represent clear tape and the green square represents free space for airflow.
On the GPU side the masked square is green, because of the red hue messing up the color otherwise.
I also stuffed some foam in between the PSU and the SSDs to minimize heat transfer from the GPU side to the CPU side.
THIS did the trick!
Now that the fans are not pulling in hot air generated by the case, but exhausting it all though the top, the temps dropped drastically.
We are talking going from 90s to 78 in realbench on the CPU (now able to OC to 3.5 1.2volts) and going from 86 to 77 on the GPU (now able to OC to over 1900mhz 120% power target)
This seems like a major design flaw, seeing as how a simple mod like this can give these kinds of results.
Please, try this yourself and see what kind of temp you can get with fresh air and post them back here. Be sure to use a fan duct. Even if it is only a janky one made with tape around the fan. Else you will be pulling hot air anyway.
Bonus: I got the A4 mounted on the wall today. Pretty satisfied with the result:
Jspr I have a MSI 1080 armor and am very happy with it, it is a pain bending the cables really tight at the connectors but once you do that it is fine.
richiegore
Limp Gawd
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- Feb 1, 2017
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- 322
Pr0Pain I have a 1700 too, I kept it stock but it only hits 68-69 degrees @2200rpm in a 23 degree ambient room with the L9a in prime95 what are your stock temps like with the c7?
mirgus to be honest I usually play with vsync on and have been finishing off BioShock Infinite so perhaps I haven't been fully stressing it yet. I have left off vsync to check my peak gaming wattage (about 285 total at the wall) and I didn't notice the fan then either, but I will check again at the weekend, I'm away at the moment...
I think most of the bad reputation comes from the 1080ti Armor, the ti is a bit much for it to handle I think...
mirgus to be honest I usually play with vsync on and have been finishing off BioShock Infinite so perhaps I haven't been fully stressing it yet. I have left off vsync to check my peak gaming wattage (about 285 total at the wall) and I didn't notice the fan then either, but I will check again at the weekend, I'm away at the moment...
I think most of the bad reputation comes from the 1080ti Armor, the ti is a bit much for it to handle I think...
So guys, it tested Pr0Pains solution on the GPU and CPU side. At the moment i have mostly played without the sidepanels. So i taped my side panels like Pr0Pain did and compare it to my results without the panel on. I played 30min PUBG with sidepanel on and another 30min without the sidepanel.
The taping on the sidepanel actually helped, the temperatures on the CPU side are lower then without the sidepanel on! On the GPU side the temps were better without the sidepanel on.
Here are my results for the CPU. Keep in mind i didnt fix the CPU RPM!
Xeon 1230v3 | Noctua NH-L9i + A9 25mm | Asus Maximus VII Impact | Ballistix Tactical 16GB | MSI GTX 1070 Quick Silver | Corsair SF 450 | Dan Cases A4-SFX | Samsung 840 Evo 250gb + Samsung 850 Evo 500GB
The taping on the sidepanel actually helped, the temperatures on the CPU side are lower then without the sidepanel on! On the GPU side the temps were better without the sidepanel on.
Here are my results for the CPU. Keep in mind i didnt fix the CPU RPM!
Xeon 1230v3 | Noctua NH-L9i + A9 25mm | Asus Maximus VII Impact | Ballistix Tactical 16GB | MSI GTX 1070 Quick Silver | Corsair SF 450 | Dan Cases A4-SFX | Samsung 840 Evo 250gb + Samsung 850 Evo 500GB
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richiegore
Limp Gawd
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- Feb 1, 2017
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- 322
I notice you are using the a9x25 instead of the a9x14, I wonder what it would be like if you swapped back in the a9x14...
That is why my suggestion requires a fan duct, also made out of tape, just for proof of concept. A sturdier duct can be added later.
Sweet ! Thats so nice to see !
Also, does an A9x25 fit in the A4 ? If that is the case, i want that instead of the x14, just for the bigger fins.
Are you able to set the fan completely flush with the sidepanel with the x25 ? Then that fan would be perfect for my mod !
Bonus: My 2 ekstra LCD arms arrived today, so this is now my battlestation !
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That is why my suggestion requires a fan duct, also made out of tape, just for proof of concept. A sturdier duct can be added later.
Sweet ! Thats so nice to see !
Also, does an A9x25 fit in the A4 ? If that is the case, i want that instead of the x14, just for the bigger fins.
Are you able to set the fan completely flush with the sidepanel with the x25 ? Then that fan would be perfect for my mod !
Bonus: My 2 ekstra LCD arms arrived today, so this is now my battlestation !
The thicker noctua fan might cause turbulence because it is too close to the side panel (like the cryorig c7 with its own fan)
Man nice setup! After looking at your findings it might have to do with the air that is cooling your CPU or GFX is being recycled back in, therefore your ambient is being increased. But since you tried without a side panel, I'm dumbfounded.That is why my suggestion requires a fan duct, also made out of tape, just for proof of concept. A sturdier duct can be added later.
Sweet ! Thats so nice to see !
Also, does an A9x25 fit in the A4 ? If that is the case, i want that instead of the x14, just for the bigger fins.
Are you able to set the fan completely flush with the sidepanel with the x25 ? Then that fan would be perfect for my mod !
Bonus: My 2 ekstra LCD arms arrived today, so this is now my battlestation !
Not an issue here at home.
(You cant see it on the pictures) I have made a custom plexi sidepanel facing the wall with the CPU hole completely cut out and covering the rest like i showed on the previous pictures. So no turbulence at home.
But Mirgus, why wont the x25 fan fit the C7 ? Will it be too high to go on with the sidepanel ?
I am not sure about what you mean ? Without sidepanel ?
richiegore
Limp Gawd
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- Feb 1, 2017
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- 322
Don't do it, your case is probably my favourite with the awesome vinyl cover. Try the 14mm fan with a duct first. Someone posted a really simple one a while back, it was just a flat piece of plastic with a really thick foam fan gasket for a 140mm fan. You could probably cut some foam either. If you used 1mm plastic you could use some 12mm or half inch foam, it would add up nicely to 50mm with l9.
If Mirgus wants an easy duct, just use thick foam tape like me and tape around the frame of the fan, not on the top side facing the panel.
That does the trick for me and only takes 10 seconds to do, if you have thick tape lying around.
Did it for the GPU too and it worked also.
I tried making a pic to explain. The red squares is one long piece of tape, going around the frame:
there is some other data to back pr0pain's observations: dan's new heatsink had the best performance with the fan blowing air OUT of the case from below the heatsink. this is despite theoretically using hot air from inside the case... https://hardforum.com/threads/dan-h...50mm-heatsink.1925480/page-18#post-1043042406
it could be that many heatsinks are eating their own high temperature air immediately after it leaves the case!
it could be that many heatsinks are eating their own high temperature air immediately after it leaves the case!
Hey Guys !
Im back with another status update for my Dan build. Last time i got my Noctua fans mounted on CPU and GPU.
Since then i have been hard at work to get my GPU and CPU at the best possible temp.
I kept running into throttling issues on my 1080ti and the Ryzen 1700 boiled up to 90degrees as soon as i started doing the slightest OC.
So, i started thinking about how to isolate the heat generated in this case. I ended using a thick double sided tape around the CPU and GPU to create a makeshift fan-duct for both. That bought me a few degress, but nothing near enough for OC.
I then started thinking about the design of the sidepanels. The panels are incredibly perforated, to allow for all sorts of coolers, but is also really terrible at managing all the heat generated from the mainboard and the Cryorig C7 cooler itself.
With my Asrock X370 Gaming ITX/ac board, the Cryorig C7 ends up blasting all the hot air directly into the ram and VRM cooler, resulting in all the hot air getting pushed out of the side panel again and sucked back in through the fan, even with the duct. This raises the temp continuously.
So i thought about what to do and came up with a solution i think many of you could use.
Tape.......clear tape.
I took the side panel off and measured where the CPU fan and GPU fan was located. I then masked off the area surrounding the fans and left out the part where the duct meets the panel (duh). This is all done on the panel itself, not the case.
See the pictures for reference. The CPU side is shamelessly ripped from google but the GPU side is my own picture.
On the CPU side, the red squares represent clear tape and the green square represents free space for airflow.
On the GPU side the masked square is green, because of the red hue messing up the color otherwise.
I also stuffed some foam in between the PSU and the SSDs to minimize heat transfer from the GPU side to the CPU side.
THIS did the trick!
Now that the fans are not pulling in hot air generated by the case, but exhausting it all though the top, the temps dropped drastically.
We are talking going from 90s to 78 in realbench on the CPU (now able to OC to 3.5 1.2volts) and going from 86 to 77 on the GPU (now able to OC to over 1900mhz 120% power target)
This seems like a major design flaw, seeing as how a simple mod like this can give these kinds of results.
Please, try this yourself and see what kind of temp you can get with fresh air and post them back here. Be sure to use a fan duct. Even if it is only a janky one made with tape around the fan. Else you will be pulling hot air anyway.
Bonus: I got the A4 mounted on the wall today. Pretty satisfied with the result:
masteralef
n00b
- Joined
- Apr 4, 2017
- Messages
- 61
1)I'm pretty sure those were all done on an open bench rather than inside the case.
2) In all of the fan under scenarios, pull beat push. Dondan didn't check the A12x15 under because he didn't have VLP ram available. It's worth noting that with the fan under, the heat sink would likely function much like a shroud itself on his model, because it's at the maximum height for an A4 or a Sentry.
richiegore
Limp Gawd
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- Feb 1, 2017
- Messages
- 322
That's a nice idea, how much did your temps drop? I would think that the bigger "duct" would increase the number of holes in the cover it can draw air through reducing the chance of a partial vacuum effect and the fan should work more easily resulting in either lower RPMS, better temps or a combination of both... It's one of those things that needs to be tested to really confirm though. I'd test it myself but I don't have the time and my 1700 is totally fine as it is at stock....If Mirgus wants an easy duct, just use thick foam tape like me and tape around the frame of the fan, not on the top side facing the panel.
That does the trick for me and only takes 10 seconds to do, if you have thick tape lying around.
Did it for the GPU too and it worked also.
I tried making a pic to explain. The red squares is one long piece of tape, going around the frame:
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Found a solution that doesnt require duct tape. As much as i love this stuff, i dont wanna mess around in the case
I will try the 14mm fan with this adapter and make a temperature comparison
https://bitspower.com/html/product/pro_show.php?products_id=836
Somebody already tried that in germany
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Found a solution that doesnt require duct tape. As much as i love this stuff, i dont wanna mess around in the case
I will try the 14mm fan with this adapter and make a temperature comparison
https://bitspower.com/html/product/pro_show.php?products_id=836
Somebody already tried that in germany
Nice, i might try that as well.
My 1700 went from shooting instantly to 90degrees to staying at 78-79-80degrees'ish.
i know why my temperatures with the taped sidepanel are worse then without the sidepanel. the fans of my gpu have quiet a big gap between the sidepanel, so its still getting the warm heat from the inside of the case.
Maybe i will 3d print a bracket for my gpu
Maybe i will 3d print a bracket for my gpu
Try doing as i described further back in my post. Use tape around the edge to create a makeshift fan duct. Like this:
jenosmaverick
Limp Gawd
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- May 24, 2017
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- 142
dondan
can I make a request? If your gonna be shipping the case can you under declare its value? Thanks
can I make a request? If your gonna be shipping the case can you under declare its value? Thanks
richiegore
Limp Gawd
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- Feb 1, 2017
- Messages
- 322
This is the mod I was talking about, simple and effective!
Living Weapon
Limp Gawd
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- Dec 21, 2007
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yeah Pr0Pain & richiegore got it covered - simple and effective
if you need to bridge a gap between a side panel and your GPU, a rectangle of adhesive foam tape is easier than 3D printing:
https://www.amazon.com/Frost-King-R734H-Sponge-Rubber/dp/B000EU65WS (choose one tall enough for the gap, trim with scissors if it is too wide)
Not a dan case, but you get the idea:
if you need to bridge a gap between a side panel and your GPU, a rectangle of adhesive foam tape is easier than 3D printing:
https://www.amazon.com/Frost-King-R734H-Sponge-Rubber/dp/B000EU65WS (choose one tall enough for the gap, trim with scissors if it is too wide)
Not a dan case, but you get the idea:
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richiegore
Limp Gawd
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- Feb 1, 2017
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I am running Asrock X370 Fata1ty Gaming itx/ac with 3.5ghz on all cores at 1.2v. Planning on going higher, if i get a better duct. Maybe that bitspower one.
yeah Pr0Pain & richiegore got it covered - simple and effective
if you need to bridge a gap between a side panel and your GPU, a rectangle of adhesive foam tape is easier than 3D printing:
https://www.amazon.com/Frost-King-R734H-Sponge-Rubber/dp/B000EU65WS (choose one tall enough for the gap, trip with scissors if it is too wide)
Not a dan case, but you get the idea:
This! This is similar to what i have been talking about this entire time, i was just too lazy to take a pic of my own setup