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

Curious about this too, can't decide whether it is worth it to shell out extra for the i7-8700 or just go with the i5-8400. I worry that the thermal limitations on the i7-8700 may cause it to be just as effective as the 8400 while costing more.

Also trying to decide if it is worth it or not to get the 1080 ti over the 1080.
 
Last edited:
danodee said:
Hi!

I’m a Dan A4 V2 backer and will soon have this great case delivered! (y)

I will use a Ryzen 1600 on Asrock B350 Fatality ITX mobo but not sure what the best air solution would be (and not sure when/if the HSLP-48 will be available)
I guess the obvious choice would be Cryorig C7 or Noctua NH-L9a but would it be better to go for the below options?

1. Cryorig C7 with Noctua NF-A9x14 PWM
2. Noctua NH-L9a-AM4 with Noctua NF-B9 redux-1600 92mm PWM

Is there any better solutions available for Ryzen AM4?

Thanks! / D
Click to expand...


I am using the NH-L9a with my 1700X and a ducting mod (basically cardboard to seal off the heatsink from case air.) Gaming is usually in the 55-65 range (more towards 65, but depends on the game) and intense workloads get to 70-75. Everything stock, no OCing. At 75 it does throttle down the cores by about 50-100mhz. Have to say after messing with fan curves it is dead quiet doing desktop work, as in I cannot tell it is on without the light of my GFX card.
 
D-Wiz said:
I am using the NH-L9a with my 1700X and a ducting mod (basically cardboard to seal off the heatsink from case air.) Gaming is usually in the 55-65 range (more towards 65, but depends on the game) and intense workloads get to 70-75. Everything stock, no OCing. At 75 it does throttle down the cores by about 50-100mhz. Have to say after messing with fan curves it is dead quiet doing desktop work, as in I cannot tell it is on without the light of my GFX card.
Click to expand...

I'm sure the Noctua NH-L9a-AM4 will be enough then!
Thanks D-Wiz
 
danodee said:
I'm sure the Noctua NH-L9a-AM4 will be enough then!
Thanks D-Wiz
Click to expand...

Glad to help, I had these exact questions when building mine. But I will caution that when all cores are burning away at prime95, my 1700X drops down to 3.2-3.3 @ 75C and the case heats up significantly. I'm looking at ideas for increasing airflow in the case cause that's the biggest problem i'm seeing, maybe something along the idea of a notebook cooling pad, or the top exhaust fans I saw in this thread. But, in day to day use and gaming there's no problem so it's not exactly an urgent problem, but if I wanted to start rendering I would want it.
 
D-Wiz said:
Glad to help, I had these exact questions when building mine. But I will caution that when all cores are burning away at prime95, my 1700X drops down to 3.2-3.3 @ 75C and the case heats up significantly. I'm looking at ideas for increasing airflow in the case cause that's the biggest problem i'm seeing, maybe something along the idea of a notebook cooling pad, or the top exhaust fans I saw in this thread. But, in day to day use and gaming there's no problem so it's not exactly an urgent problem, but if I wanted to start rendering I would want it.
Click to expand...
Have you tried moving your case away from the wall a bit more? My 1700 runs stock 3.2 all cores at 68° at 2200rpm with a duct when 1" from the wall. When I move it to the middle of my desk it drops to 64° at 1850rpm. This is with an L9a.
 
richiegore said:
Have you tried moving your case away from the wall a bit more? My 1700 runs stock 3.2 all cores at 68° at 2200rpm with a duct when 1" from the wall. When I move it to the middle of my desk it drops to 64° at 1850rpm. This is with an L9a.
Click to expand...

Not near a wall at all, sitting on the corner of my desk. Prime95 is absolute worst case IMO, never seen even close to that in real world uses, so really not worried or actually pretty happy with my temps. Though definitely glad i didn't get an Intel chip base on other's temp reports (and other reason's)

*Update* Did a Handbrake encoded, saw the exact same behavior as Prime95 Blend. First heatsoaked the system by playing games for an hour, then did a 1080p encode. At full 100% utilization (all 16threads) CPU hit 75C, but did not go over. Ryzen auto-downclocked to 3.2-3.3 Ghz. This is all using auto settings in bios and XMP for my RAM.
 
Last edited:
A guy an a german forum was able to cool a delid 8700k with LP53 + Noctua A12x15 in Prime with max. 85°C in Prime 26.6.

_mg_24950qsa2.jpg

_mg_2497lwscd.jpg


Btw: Today I got the V2 and the Window Kits :)
 
Exciting time!!

Does the LP53 with Noctua fan produce the noise turbulence issue like the stock C7 for being too close to the case wall?
 
Cody Spring said:
Exciting time!!

Does the LP53 with Noctua fan produce the noise turbulence issue like the stock C7 for being too close to the case wall?
Click to expand...

No. The LP53/Noctua combo is 40mm tall (not counting whatever way you mount it by), only 3mm taller then the L9i/L9a which has no issues either.

I did listen to both sounds and wonder if the panel one was marginally louder (barely if at all), but I guess I'll have my own proof when the case gets here
 
i3DqGPu.jpg

It's here! I never received a shipping confirmation from Caseking and my order is still showing as "Being processed", but the UPS guy just showed up at my door with this today (shipping date shows as 4.1. on the label). Not that I would complain :D

Now the only thing I'm missing is cabling as neat as this (scroll down a bit). loafidelity was kind of to provide the measurements here, but I'm struggling selecting the proper cable pieces from modDIY. There's no difference between 18-pin and 24-pin Corsair modular connectors, right..? So basically I just need the correct pin-count on the modular connectors and custom cable length for PSU cables and otherwise I'm set? o_O
 
Caseking is allready shipping to customers that ordered the v1 case before start of Kickstarter 2017.
 
So, delivery man was lazy and apparently just marked it as I wasn't home for some reason, didn't have to pick it up that far away though.
So now I'm wondering, what is the best approach to take?
I have a i5-8600k and a ASUS Z370-I. I'm a bit afraid of what temperatures are like, and am wondering what is the 'best' approach to take?
Since it's v2 it should be able to fit a AiO instead of having extra disks AFAIK, would that be a worthy trade-off, or doesn't it give sufficient cooling? And is Corsair SF450 the 'go-to' PSU?
 
dondan said:
Caseking is allready shipping to customers that ordered the v1 case before start of Kickstarter 2017.
Click to expand...

But have you sent stocks to OcUK too? Or are you planning in anytime soon? An approximate on ETA will be appreciated
 
See picture

Cannot fit Asetek 545LC 92mm AIO in Dan Case V2, there are two protrusions or something sticking out at the bottom that make it impossible to put it flush at bottom (will sit at a big angle), adding the noctua fan at the bottom makes it possible to fit the AIO "no idea how to screw it on though" but it will not fit under the PSU the rubber hoses gets extremely snug and I can't get the AIO straight "tried with a bit of force" I have a Corsair SF600

Any suggestions?

Yes there are a ton of dust O_O I also have no toilet due to water damage, renovation so my extremely small apartment has been a mess for the last 3 months.

https://www.dan-cases.com/dana4_spec.html
92mm AIO Water Cooling support
Compatible AIOs
  • Asetek 545LC
Note: You have to remove the front USB port!
Only compatible with A4-SFX v2!
Click to expand...
 
lappenlappen said:
Cannot fit Asetek 545LC 92mm AIO in Dan Case V2, there are two protrusions or something sticking out at the bottom that make it impossible to put it flush at bottom (will sit at a big angle), adding the noctua fan at the bottom makes it possible to fit the AIO "no idea how to screw it on though" but it will not fit under the PSU the rubber hoses gets extremely snug and I can't get the AIO straight "tried with a bit of force" I have a Corsair SF600

Any suggestions?
Click to expand...

Looked at a video from one who modded the v1. He installed the radiator itself BEFORE installing the PSU, maybe that would help you out?
 
dondan said:
What do you mean with protrusions?
Click to expand...
Fan and plastic thingi majings (at both sides) se picture, the AIO is bigger then the fan and makes it impossible to fit.
EDIT: looked at the vid below, remove the case plastic thingys seems to be the right way (should probably have tried that from the beginning O_O)

picture:

Killervalon said:
Looked at a video from one who modded the v1. He installed the radiator itself BEFORE installing the PSU, maybe that would help you out?
Click to expand...

Will look at the vid, ty edit see above
 
Last edited:
Hey guys, so excited to get my v2 in a couple of weeks, quick question I thought you could help with. My build will include a 8700k and 1080 ti (EVGA SC2, not the FTW) and im having trouble deciding between power supplies. Naturally I would just go with the corsair sf600 because those are power thirsty components, but I read all the issues the 600 was having with noise and its fan curve and I'm wandering if I should go with the sf450 instead because that seems to be the consistently quieter one. Noise is the absolute most important thing to me, so is 450 watts enough for those components? Will that be quieter? I am more than comfortable modding the sf600 with a a9x14, do you think that would be the best choice? Any advice I could get here would be greatly appreciated!
 
sldr said:
View attachment 47918 Ahha, HDMI cable arrived, now let’s see if we can drill a new hole...
Click to expand...

Please let us know if this has worked.
This is in a way "just" an HDMI extension, and its notoriously difficult to extend the HDMI cables for VR. Only specific cables or active HDMI cables will get an image on the screen.
Talking out of experience with my Vive. My Rift i never tried to extend actually, not sure if similar difficulties, but presume so.
 
Frenzy_ls said:
Please let us know if this has worked.
This is in a way "just" an HDMI extension, and its notoriously difficult to extend the HDMI cables for VR. Only specific cables or active HDMI cables will get an image on the screen.
Talking out of experience with my Vive. My Rift i never tried to extend actually, not sure if similar difficulties, but presume so.
Click to expand...

I'm still searching the internet and contacting companies who work with aluminium and may be able to punch a hole in the 1,5mm casing.

So far I have found companies that do h20 or laser cuts, but they aren't able to because they need 1) a flat plate and 2) a 3D plan of the aluminium plate - both which I don't have.
Companies that do it manually say it will be very difficult to cut or punch out a hole without "some" damage to the rest of the plate. I have a rendez-vous with one of those companies this afternoon.

I want a the cleanest hole possible, that is why I'm contacting professionals as opposed to do it manually with something like this: http://www.vanderelst-electric.eu/nl/voor-rechthoekige-gaten-1
 
So, one step closer to having a front HDMI connector

Had a meeting with a local company that said it could punch or drill or however-they-see-fit. Left the case there now, they'll contact me once done.

Now to find a way to attach the internal cable somewhere.

IMG_0283.jpg
 
lappenlappen said:
Fan and plastic thingi majings (at both sides) se picture, the AIO is bigger then the fan and makes it impossible to fit.
EDIT: looked at the vid below, remove the case plastic thingys seems to be the right way (should probably have tried that from the beginning O_O)


Will look at the vid, ty edit see above
Click to expand...

Were you able to get the AIO installed, and did you go the route of modding to keep the front USB port? Still trying to decide between the LP53 or AIO myself, but I would like to keep the front USB port. If I could get more information on drilling the holes to have both AIO and front USB, depending on how much trouble it is I will likely go that route!

On an unrelated note, I really hope this whole crypto GPU price inflation fiasco settles down by the time my case gets to me... The timing is so depressing. 1080ti 3 days ago at $800 now at $1200
 
Last edited:
Greetings all. I'm anticipating arrival of an A4 v2, and am planning my cooling for this new case.

It's only recently that I've read about the air turbulence problem. Which coolers does this impact? It sounds like the C7 is problematic – what about the LP53+Noctua combination?
 
dondan

I really do not prefer to be spamming the same question multiple times but it was never answered once.

Q. When will OcUK get the stock of V2?

Caesking not only received the stocks already but also completed in delivering them to pre-orderers. But what's the delay for OcUK if they haven't received it yet?
 
dglow said:
Greetings all. I'm anticipating arrival of an A4 v2, and am planning my cooling for this new case.

It's only recently that I've read about the air turbulence problem. Which coolers does this impact? It sounds like the C7 is problematic – what about the LP53+Noctua combination?
Click to expand...

No turbulence with the LP53 and Noctua slim, using it myself.
 
Min Ahn said:
dondan

I really do not prefer to be spamming the same question multiple times but it was never answered once.

Q. When will OcUK get the stock of V2?

Caesking not only received the stocks already but also completed in delivering them to pre-orderers. But what's the delay for OcUK if they haven't received it yet?
Click to expand...

As far as what's been said so far, the only ones who received their order from CaseKing are those who ordered a DAN Case before the v2 kickstarter went live. As for the rest of the orders for CaseKing, and for OcUK, they may receive them earlier but are instructed not to send them out until the 15th. I know we are all excited about the case, but at this point backers aren't even getting them yet, so repeating questions like this is meaningless, he is likely busy getting everything in order. I ordered mine from OcUK as well, and am expecting/hoping to receive it sometime between the 20th-31st.
 
Cody Spring said:
Were you able to get the AIO installed, and did you go the route of modding to keep the front USB port? Still trying to decide between the LP53 or AIO myself, but I would like to keep the front USB port. If I could get more information on drilling the holes to have both AIO and front USB, depending on how much trouble it is I will likely go that route!
Click to expand...

Removing the plastic connectors at the bottom makes the AIO fit inside the case, wasn't aware of a USB route mod will have to check that if i can solve my issues. For now im going with the fan outside the case / sidepanel open case mod :)
Putting the fan inside the case seems to be difficult, touches the blades not sure if it's due to my mobo having the ram slots vertical/blocking the CPU making the AIO hoses more difficult to route, the judge had the slots horizontal dondan any experience with this setup?


 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top