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

I am wondering if the power section on the ASUS Maximus VII Impact motherboard is too tall for the A4-SFX chassis? Aside form going with the ASRock X99 motherboard, the ASUS model seems like the only other way to get a M.2 SSD going without it being sandwiched between the backside of the motherboard & the mounting plate for same, where the SSD will probably suffer from severe throttling due to excessive heat?

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Thoughts…?!?

Ideally, the Z170 version (the VIII) comes out & fits. And they keep the M.2 on the front of the motherboard. That way, I get DDR4 RAM & don't have to take a hit on GPU lanes like with the Z97 board…
 
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I'm fairly certain it'll fit.

The L9i Is roughly flush with the top of the daughterboard on it, so it should be fine.
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That arrangement in the A4 would give me more pause than having a M.2 on the rear/underside of the mobo, as the daughtercard and ram create walls on 2 of the remaining 3 sides of the mobo limiting the exhaust path from the CPU cooler.
 
The RAM is going to create a wall no matter what board one uses. Low profile RAM would help here. But when you look at the case, it is basically divided into two chambers by the PSU & the motherboard tray. There is a very small gap between the two, and some gap under the PSU to cross between 'chambers'. The cables on the RAM side will also block off that side, again, with any motherboard.

The power section daughterboard, yes, that will block off the bottom intake, but will also be cooled by the same intake?

I really think though, if one orients their CPU cooler properly (fins running up & down) that it will allow the heat to rise up & exit the top of the case (as intended).

I actually would think blocking off the RAM side & the power daughterboard side will force the air to go the only way it can, up & out of the case, rather than cross-flowing into the GPU side & mixing hot air with more hot air. Heat naturally wants to rise…

The M.2, on the backside of the motherboard, will have a solid metal tray behind it, with a hot GPU right next to that. There will also be the riser flat ribbon cable sandwiched in there as well. Not a lot of room for any airflow at all behind the motherboard. And when it does rise in that tiny 7mm sandwich, there will be the ribbon cable blocking the final ascent to the top perforations…

There is also the general thoughts that Skylake will bring us cooler running components, as will nVidia Pascal hardware. I plan (at this point, but things ALWAYS change right up until you actually order the parts) to run the Maximus VIII Impact board, an i7 6700K CPU. 32GB DDR4 RAM, the aforementioned Samsung SM951 M.2 SSD (PCIe 3.0 4x interface!) & an EVGA GTX 970 FTW+ GPU. I will wait until the Pascal cards are out for a bit until upgrading the GPU, let nVidia & EVGA work out some of the bugs first…

But all in all, I think the above combo will make for a really snappy gaming rig!
 
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It won't be a problem to use the ASUS Maximu x Impact boards inside the A4-SFX. The mosfet shield on the topside of the board will not destroy the airflow because the bottom holes are not for cooling the CPU they are help to reduce the temperatures behind the motherboard and gpu.
 
Also, if you run just an M.2, you could put a thin fan on the bottom and run it at low speed to help cool the back/under-mounted M.2.
 
Most of the M.2 positioning I am seeing on current miniITX boards and on the so far released/previewed Skylake miniITX boards is on the backside of the board, right next to the PCIe slot. This IS close to the top of the case, but also has the PCIe riser cable arching over it, obscuring the airflow out of the top of the case. The M.2 SSDs all seem to have thermal throttling implemented in their designs, meaning performance is severely degraded when the units heat up with high demand usage. No bueno for something sandwiched between the main logic board & a hot GPU.

The major draw of the ASUS Maximus VII Impact is that it has the M.2 on the front of the card, which should lead to better cooling of same. I am hoping, really really hoping, that the M.2 placement will remain the same on the forthcoming VIII (Skylake) revision of the Impact board.

The other alternative is using the X99 platform & going with the only miniITX board available from ASRock. This board has the M.2 mounted on the front of the board as well. But the X99 lineup of CPUs are all running at 140 watts, which is a goodly bit of heat to dissipate.

There is not a lot of space for a fan under the main logic board tray, I can only eyeball the chassis pics and hope an 80mm fan MIGHT fit under there. But the actual section of the bottom of the chassis that is ventilated is to either side of the area that is directly under the backside area of the board. I see where a small fan placed under the tray would allow air to move up thru the two chambers, but I do not know how much of it would actually rise BEHIND the motherboard. I am thinking maybe a Silverstone AP81 Air Penetrator might work best here, more focused airflow (hopefully) channelling upwards thru that little 7mm slot behind the motherboard. Alas, there is not a slim version of the AP81, so the search continues. Maybe, just MAYBE, for those of us planning on NOT running traditional 2.5" SSDs/HDDs, we could mount two 80mm fans in the bottom of the chassis firing up, a 2-way splitter leading from the new case fans to the Case Fan header on the motherboard?

Dondan, any insight towards this? Thoughts on what might be an appropriate case fan, something that would fit into the space under the motherboard tray?

In other news, for those thinking of using a M.2 SSD with their A4-SFX, Samsung has this coming out soon…

Samsung 950 Pro M.2 PCIe 3.0 4x SSD

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Speeds are up on the Read side (from the predecessor, the SM951) and price is down 50 bucks for the 512GB model. Nice!

We should be hearing more from ASUS sometime within the next month regarding the Maximus VIII Impact. The Cryorig C7 is also coming out soon, and fits both 1150 & 1151 sockets, so good for either VII or VIII model Impacts. And with it's total height of 47mm, 1mm shy of maximum height for the A4-SFX, it seems a perfect match for the chassis. There is also the Silverstone 700w SFX-L PSU coming out, that will be a positive for high performance gaming rigs using this chassis! And finally, nVidia has Pascal around the corner; looking like the A4-SFX chassis will be a great platform to make a super compact & super powerful next generation gaming rig!
 
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Boil said:
Dondan, any insight towards this? Thoughts on what might be an appropriate case fan, something that would fit into the space under the motherboard tray?
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The case height is 200mm a normal itx board has 170mm so you have on each side 15mm. But you have to subtract 1,5mm for the outer metal. So you are able to mount a 13.5mm thick 80mm fan (Akasa Slimfan 80mm). But there will be no mountpoints for it. At the end I don't think it is neccessary to use such a fan for high speed m.2 ssds. My msata SSD on my last board reached max temps of arround 50°C under full system load (prime + furmark)
 
danij3l said:
Does anyone think that 950 PRO from Samsung is way to expensive?
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More expensive than a regular 2.5" SSD of the same capacity? Yes.

But for having 512GB right in the motherboard with no SATA power or data cable needed, with no PCIe card needed, AND 2.5GB/s reads & 1.5GB/s writes top speeds, well worth 350 bucks. And it has a cool black PCB.

dondan said:
The case height is 200mm a normal itx board has 170mm so you have on each side 15mm. But you have to subtract 1,5mm for the outer metal. So you are able to mount a 13.5mm thick 80mm fan (Akasa Slimfan 80mm). But there will be no mountpoints for it. At the end I don't think it is neccessary to use such a fan for high speed m.2 ssds. My msata SSD on my last board reached max temps of arround 50°C under full system load (prime + furmark)
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Are you talking about the ASRock X99 build you have/had in the A4-SFX? Because that is on the front of the motherboard. I am concerned with possible overheating / thermal throttling with a backside mounting.

That is why I hope ASUS sticks with the way they currently have the M.2 on the Impact series miniITX boards when they upgrade it to the VIII model soon. Front mounted for what I would think best cooling in the A4…

Thank you for the spacing info & fan choice for possible case fans!
 
No my last build was with an Asrock Z77E-ITX. On this board the msata port was on the back.
 
dondan said:
No my last build was with an Asrock Z77E-ITX. On this board the msata port was on the back.
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Well cool (no pun intended?). If you are saying that you had the above mounted in an A4 with no thermal throttling, then my choice of Skylark miniITX boards has just blown wide open! But that ASUS Impact board is still kinda sexy…
 
I have no thermal issues, but you have to know, that newer high performace SSDs getting hotter than normal m.2 or msata SSDs.
 
I could swear that m.2 extension cables exist... Has that already been suggested?
 
Perhaps additional mobo standoff on top of mobo standoff may help provide better airflow for the back of mobo. But have to op for shorter cpu cooler like noctua 9i, instead of Cryorig C7...
 
Showed the A4 to wife yesterday, explaining my next build. Her first words were "It's so cute a tiny!". Nail in the coffin.
 
I always thought 230$ for a case is too much for me but damn I might be ordering this
because this is the most amazing and space efficient case I've ever seen :)
 
I´d like to see how A4 looks with all cables attached and on a desktop next to a monitor. Any chance dondan could release such an image? All images I've seen so far show the case without any cables.
 
lemonated said:
I´d like to see how A4 looks with all cables attached and on a desktop next to a monitor. Any chance dondan could release such an image? All images I've seen so far show the case without any cables.
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One of each; power, video, ethernet, usb, & headphones; all the cables I need…
 
One USB cable?

I'm guessing you've got a wireless mouse or something?
 
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lemonated said:
According to MaximumPC the cost for PC-Q10 in the US is $119 which should be about the same in euros.

http://www.maximumpc.com/lian-li-shows-off-pc-q10wx-case-with-acrylic-side-panel/

That said, A4 is quite a bit smaller than PC-Q10 and certainly more unique.
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I find you can get lian li cases for a good $20_$30 off their list price via newegg. Haven't paid over $100 for a LL case in quite sometime.


That case was supposed to be out this month, been waiting to use it for a new build.
 
@dondan - Any update on timelines my friend? All of my parts are slowly arriving, just waiting on the C7 test results and your case!
 
rude said:
Shipping in MARCH!? Holy shit, guess I'm going with a Lian Li or Osmi.
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Why you gotta be so @rude?
Dontcha know he's human too?

Order that case - I'm gonna order it anyway.
Order that case - it don't matter whatcha say.
 
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