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

Sebbie said:
So was it tomorrow the kickstarter Would start??
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dondan said:
Hi everybody,


the original plan was to start the 7 days countdown for the Crowdfunding campaign today on 8pm German time. But in the process of validating the campaign on Kickstarter I had to do different steps. The next step is only visible if I completed the last one. So last step is now entering a real business credit card. The problem is that I currently don't have a credit card for my business account. So I ordered it this week. The real problem is the period of getting it. They said it will take two weeks so the campaign will have a delay of one week. So you have to wait one week more :(


With best regards and sorry for the tiny delay


Daniel
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readeh said:
Don't know if I should get the "reference" GTX 1080 or AIB cards.. Only reason I'm thinking about buying the reference model is because of the A4-SFX case, but the temps for the reference model seems quite bad.
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I can answer this question for you. Both will work fine, but Dan tested both designs and found that the non-references designs (the ones with multiple large fans) performed better in his case. I was skeptical, but his reasoning makes sense: The case is so small that there is no room between the side of the video card and the side of the case. So the fans on the side of the video card are actually sucking in air from outside the case. Hot air is then blown around inside the case and then exhausted out the top of the case due to positive air pressure and convection.

So it turns out that the benefit of larger fans sucking in more outside air outweighs the benefit of a reference cooler exhausting air directly out of the case. You can thank Dan for doing this testing and publishing the results!
 
It also matters how the fins on the heatsink are oriented and how much area there is to exhaust the warm air. Lots of "reference"-style cards have a stupid tiny area for the air to exhaust at the IO area of he card (due in no small part to the sheer bulk of DVI connectors), and the hot air is forced to traverse most of the length of the card, making heat transfer to the moving air more problematic. Open cooler-style cards with fins running across the "short" dimension of the card can put more cool air on more fins at a greater rate and not restrict the exhaust and should offer better cooling at a given fan noise (assuming all fans are equal and the case venting at the top and bottom of the card is not restrictive).
 
If i build this case and i'm moving to another country, can i ship it with the gpu installed?

Or it's better to unnistall the gpu, send it by mail and then install it.

Maybe it's dangerous to move a lot the case with the gpu installed, right?
 
Xan-Z said:
If i build this case and i'm moving to another country, can i ship it with the gpu installed?

Or it's better to unnistall the gpu, send it by mail and then install it.

Maybe it's dangerous to move a lot the case with the gpu installed, right?
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I don't see why you couldn't ship it. i would put a block of foam at the top of the gpu to prevent movement. pack it up real good and it should be fine.
 
Xan-Z said:
If i build this case and i'm moving to another country, can i ship it with the gpu installed?

Or it's better to unnistall the gpu, send it by mail and then install it.

Maybe it's dangerous to move a lot the case with the gpu installed, right?
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You should not do that. An actual computer company shipping to another country would need to fill the case with foam spacers designed and tested by engineers to prevent self-destruction under certain loads. Since shipping abuse load testing is the last thing on Dan's mind right now, I wouldn't volunteer to be the first one to test it. I would ship ANY case with both the GPU removed and the CPU cooler removed (and with the CPU removed probably too, in case something inside smashed into it).
 
bAMtan2 said:
You should not do that. An actual computer company shipping to another country would need to fill the case with foam spacers designed and tested by engineers to prevent self-destruction under certain loads. Since shipping abuse load testing is the last thing on Dan's mind right now, I wouldn't volunteer to be the first one to test it. I would ship ANY case with both the GPU removed and the CPU cooler removed (and with the CPU removed probably too, in case something inside smashed into it).
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I'm just going to point out that the reason for removing a CPU cooler is because they're frequently heavy.
Any coolers that fit in the A4 aren't heavy enough to matter, or even need a backplate. So I think they're fine to leave on.

The GPU is secured to the back of the case and to the PCIE slot which is screwed into the back of the mobo tray, and even if it did shift there's not many places for it to go, so it shouldn't incur any/ much damage.
If somehow it did shift enough to destroy the PCIE slot, you can buy a new PCIE slot, instead of what would normally happen: It destroys the PCIE slot which ruins the motherboard.
 
For the Computerbase Review I shiped my total System mounted Inside to them with no problems.
 
You never know though. My reference 290 is heavy enough that it sags without a backplate, give it a few nasty jolts in shipping and it'd probably damage the slot and itself. The cpu cooler could say on no problem, it weighs next to nothing and it's low profile so there's no leverage for it to damage anything.
 
shinjinian said:
You never know though. My reference 290 is heavy enough that it sags without a backplate, give it a few nasty jolts in shipping and it'd probably damage the slot and itself. The cpu cooler could say on no problem, it weighs next to nothing and it's low profile so there's no leverage for it to damage anything.
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Yeah I saw the card sag in your ncase m1 it's scary!
 
Lazer1337 said:
Dan, do you have more information on non EU paying 19% VAT or not?
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Non EU costumers will not have to pay the VAT. But the procedure is very extensive for me so the reduced price is less than 19%. Also the saving will not be subtract from the case price it will be subtract from the shipping cost.

E.G.: Shipping to the US will normally 42€ but now it will be only 22€. The advantage of this is that I don't need special non EU tiers.

baonguyen312 said:
Why don't just start the crownfunding on Sunday? We don't need a countdown. Holy *** I can't wait any more longer.
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Everybody should get the chance to see that on sunday only 7 days are left to the campaign.
 
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Xan-Z said:
If i build this case and i'm moving to another country, can i ship it with the gpu installed?
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dondan said:
For the Computerbase Review I shiped my total System mounted Inside to them with no problems.
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But Computerbase is in Germany, just like you. Xan-Z asked for shipping to another country, and that's a whole different matter. With air and water shipping, handling can become a lot rougher.

What one could do for shipping a fully assembled PC is calculating/testing/guessing maximum acceleration forces and putting an impact indicator on the side of the package, but I don't know whether that will increase shipping cost.
 
Damn. At some point in the next 7 days or so, I guess I'm going to have to decide if I want this or the Sentry. :D Leaning towards this, but I keep going back and forth over which form factor would work better for me.
 
Damn. At some point in the next 7 days or so, I guess I'm going to have to decide if I want this in black or silver. :D
 
Aircoookie said:
Damn. At some point in the next 7 days or so, I guess I'm going to have to decide if I want this in black or silver. :D
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Having a hard time with this decision as well. From experience with the Ncase M1 (I'm assuming that the panel materials will be identical), the silver hides finger print smudges better.
 
Damn. At some point in the next 7 days or so, I guess I'm going to have to decide if I want 1 case or 2. :)
 
It's two complete cases.

dondan Will we be able to add shipping to the pledge or do we have to do a 2nd payment?
 
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Hmm. In that case I will have to pick the colour as well since entry fee will be a bit much ... ;)
 
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dondan I'm just speaking hypotheticals here but if this campaign was successful - when do you think a second batch fundraiser would happen? Winter of 2016? Spring of 2017?
 
He said there will be no second crowdfunding. If he sells more than 1000 in this campaign, you will be able to buy it from his website or a retailer. Otherwise, the case won't have future availability (won't happen though ;) )
 
Any reasonable mods possible for this case? Water cooling seems out of the question, but I imagine a few will laser cut the panels to add windows.
 
Mackan said:
Any reasonable mods possible for this case? Water cooling seems out of the question, but I imagine a few will laser cut the panels to add windows.
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if I had the cash I would totally try to WC this! even if I had to go with an external power brick.
 
Mackan said:
Any reasonable mods possible for this case? Water cooling seems out of the question, but I imagine a few will laser cut the panels to add windows.
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I'm a noob when it comes to modding - how could you go about this? Where would you be able to "laser cut" it and obtain panels? Thanks!
 
HopkinsTea said:
I'm a noob when it comes to modding - how could you go about this? Where would you be able to "laser cut" it and obtain panels? Thanks!
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Look up laser cutters in your area on Google or Yelp. As for the panels, you can find them on amazon or look for high quality acrylic panels and double sided 3M tape to attach it. There are many guides online. The hardest part would be laser cutting and getting the nice edge look, but it's very doable by a professional in your area.
 
Lazer1337 said:
What mods are you looking to do?
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Can't think of anything that is possible to do other than cosmetic stuff. Anything functional would protrude outside the case, except adding dust filters, which unfortunately might just make the case hotter.
 
Mackan said:
Can't think of anything that is possible to do other than cosmetic stuff. Anything functional would protrude outside the case, except adding dust filters, which unfortunately might just make the case hotter.
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Dondan said dust filters will make the temps hotter?
 
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