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

JoeH823 said:
I assume you mean shorter length cards. Half height is something entirely different.... and sort of would defeat the purpose of using a riser to get a smaller case in the first place.
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Since he said MSI 750ti I was imagining this one:
7d7aedacc3db99b4bba317593c0b8887.med.1600.jpg


Especially since short 750ti's are really common.
 
I would assume that by Q4 we have some ITX sized 1070's, and who knows what from AMD. The trend seems to be that we always see some sort of short version of at least the 760/970 upper mid range tier especially since efficiency and lower power seems to be one of the focuses of the new generation.

But the beauty of this case is we don't need those mini ITX cards. My hope is by the time we get these cases in Q4 we have the Ti or equivalent Pascal range cards on the market. That's where this case really shines in the SFF market--no compromises necessary on the GPU.
 
Sorry, I've been away from the SFF forums for a while, and seeing both the kickstarter for this and the release of these fancy schmancy new cards is getting me excited. Is there word on whether or not these reference designs will be able to fit straight off the bat? Thank you very much!
 
The_Oasis said:
Sorry, I've been away from the SFF forums for a while, and seeing both the kickstarter for this and the release of these fancy schmancy new cards is getting me excited. Is there word on whether or not these reference designs will be able to fit straight off the bat? Thank you very much!
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Scroll up 15 posts on the same page, and you'll see a compatibility list of 1080s
 
Hanakuso said:
I've been following this thread for about a year and already bought 5 CPU coolers for this case alone. (I found the LP53 + slim 15mm Delta fan to work the best).

The main reason I feel comfortable buying this case is you seem upfront. It just would of been nice to have some type of protection while we wait.
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Which Delta fan?

I wonder whether the 1700 (I hope I got my numbers right) cases on Kickstarter will all sell. It's close to 1400 now. Edit: I mean, it's right at 1400 :D
 
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chx said:
Which Delta fan?

I wonder whether the 1700 (I hope I got my numbers right) cases on Kickstarter will all sell. It's close to 1400 now.
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EVERYONE tell your friends and family to buy it! That way, we'll get it to 1700 faster! Haha :D (I wonder if that might in anyway actually decrease the time for it to ship to us).
 
HopkinsTea said:
EVERYONE tell your friends and family to buy it! That way, we'll get it to 1700 faster! Haha :D (I wonder if that might in anyway actually decrease the time for it to ship to us).
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Or maybe it will increase the time to ship since Dan will have to pack more! :p
 
The 6950x has the same TDP like my i7 5820k. So with the ASRock X99e ITX, the Dynatron T318 heatsink and Noctua A9x14 Fan it could work.
 
Oh wow how do you attach the A9x14 to the T318? It's not like the latter has fan mounting points or does it...?
 
chx said:
Oh wow how do you attach the A9x14 to the T318? It's not like the latter has fan mounting points or does it...?
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Zip-ties as described here.
DAN Cases

Dan, by the way according to the Gigabyte website the 1080 G1 dimensions are H=42 L=286 W=115 mm, which is shorter than what it looks.
 
drklu said:
I'm guessing one of these, not sure which would be the best for the LP53

http://www.delta.com.tw/product/cp/dcfans/download/pdf/AFB/AFB80x80x15mm.pdf
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Delta would have highest performance... but if you don't know the rep they have...

NOSIEST FANS OUT THERE.

Unless that 1'C is worth going deaf over get something else - and I think depending on what you order you'll have to terminate the fan header yourself or order from places like Delta High Performance - Cooling Fans
 
KarateOC said:
Dan, by the way according to the Gigabyte website the 1080 G1 dimensions are H=42 L=286 W=115 mm, which is shorter than what it looks.
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Unless that's the shortest (height) and fattest card ever made I think you've got your measurements mixed up. If so then yeah it should fit assuming that includes the backplate.

Upon checking their website though, it appears that the measurements you've posted are the exact ones that Gigabyte used. So I guess it is the shortest and fattest card ever made, and won't fit. Or Gigabyte needs to hire an editor, one of those two.
 
Sicariase said:
Unless that's the shortest (height) and fattest card ever made I think you've got your measurements mixed up. If so then yeah it should fit assuming that includes the backplate.

Upon checking their website though, it appears that the measurements you've posted are the exact ones that Gigabyte used. So I guess it is the shortest and fattest card ever made, and won't fit. Or Gigabyte needs to hire an editor, one of those two.
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Obviously what they mean by height and width is the opposite way many people are looking at it on this thread, probably because in most cases the fan is facing downwards, therefore making the shortest dimension the height.
 
dondan said:
The 6950x has the same TDP like my i7 5820k. So with the ASRock X99e ITX, the Dynatron T318 heatsink and Noctua A9x14 Fan it could work.
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Hi Dan,
Any reason that you're using the A9x14 fan instead of the thermalright TR-TY100 fan? Your tests made it seem like that was the best option. However, if the A9x14 fan works better I might switch for that one.

For those interested, I'm using a 12 core Xeon with a TDP of 135W using the Dynatron T318 heatsink. For me, it runs hot on idle (mid-40's to low 50's) and not too bad (low 80's) on sustained load. I've tried undervolting and that has a slight improvement.

Keep in mind, even the most CPU intensive games, like Ashes of the Singularity, barely tax this thing at all and temps are low because only a fraction of the CPU is being fully utilized. I imagine it would be the same for a 5960X or 6950X at stock clocks.
 
raildex1 said:
Delta would have highest performance... but if you don't know the rep they have...

NOSIEST FANS OUT THERE.

Unless that 1'C is worth going deaf over get something else - and I think depending on what you order you'll have to terminate the fan header yourself or order from places like Delta High Performance - Cooling Fans
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I've ran a few Delta fans, I simply do not run them at the highest speed if I feel they are too loud. I get your point though.
 
For us non X99 plebians, seems the thread conclusion is the C7 remains the optimal choice? Dan's post below, although a wee bit unscientific (different chips, different test conditions) seems to indicate that. Although some other review sites don't have the C7 beating the Noctua (or anything else) as handily. In fact some reviews show it as worse than the Noctua at load. (Who cares about idle, really?) And, some posters in this thread seem to think the Noctua will nonetheless be preferable. Also the C7 needs zip ties if you want to swap the fan out, but that's not really a big deal to me. (Is there a "best" fan to stick on there? The Thermalright 100?) The Cooltek, the #1 performer in the OP, is unavailable in the US as far as I can tell.

This only really matters if you plan to test the waters with a light OC, which I might actually do. I wonder--would the C7 have a unique benefit in this case, as opposed to others, because the fan is basically sitting right next to the ventilation? As opposed to the Noctua which is about 10mm below the vents? Or would that tiny amount of space not really matter?

dondan said:

Original values with the i5 3350P

i53350pejstj.jpg


Calculated Values with the Xeon 1230v2.

1230v2jostq.jpg


I am very impressed with these values. For my testsetup the C7 is 30% better as the Boxed Cooler and also better as the LP53. Maybe the performance will be lower with a higher TDP class CPU but as I already post, the cooler is able to handle a 6700K in Prime95 around 69-70°C.
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illram said:
In fact some reviews show it as worse than the Noctua at load.
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the reason for this is because the people who review heatsinks are simpletons. they don't test heatsinks with the same reference fan at the same reference speed, so you can never know how the heatsinks compare. all you know is how the total package compares at an unknown decibel level, which is itself pretty useless for anyone hardcore enough to actually be reading a bunch of cooler reviews.

I'm taking the long path to saying that the noctua was likely louder in the tests it won, because the fan was spinning faster and moving more air. if the reviewer had controlled for sound output (which is more difficult than just using a reference fan) they would have found how the actual heatsinks compare. instead they reviewed the fan and and heatsink at the same time, so you cannot possibly tell what was doing what.

dan found the c7 was the best. that's the best data we've got for now
 
Don't get me wrong, I love Dan and he has gone to great lengths to rigorously test his case and a variety of internal components for us. I can't imagine how long all of his testing must have taken and we are lucky he does that for us. But the huuuuge improvement he saw in that test, compared to tests such as this one (which does test noise levels at specific speeds) which show no such variation, (and show the Noctua performing better) along with the different components used, makes me wonder. I mean Dan saw a 20 degree variation in his test, which just seems a little crazy to me.

For what it's worth, I probably will go with the C7 once I get my grubby hands on the case, but in the meantime I have time for idle speculation...
 
illram said:
Don't get me wrong, I love Dan and he has gone to great lengths to rigorously test his case and a variety of internal components for us. I can't imagine how long all of his testing must have taken and we are lucky he does that for us. But the huuuuge improvement he saw in that test, compared to tests such as this one (which does test noise levels at specific speeds) which show no such variation, (and show the Noctua performing better) along with the different components used, makes me wonder. I mean Dan saw a 20 degree variation in his test, which just seems a little crazy to me.

For what it's worth, I probably will go with the C7 once I get my grubby hands on the case, but in the meantime I have time for idle speculation...
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Can you link to where Dan saw the 20 degree variation? Or are you saying that his tests were 20 degrees cooler than the tests done by techpowerup?
 
illram said:
Don't get me wrong, I love Dan and he has gone to great lengths to rigorously test his case and a variety of internal components for us. I can't imagine how long all of his testing must have taken and we are lucky he does that for us. But the huuuuge improvement he saw in that test, compared to tests such as this one (which does test noise levels at specific speeds) which show no such variation, (and show the Noctua performing better) along with the different components used, makes me wonder. I mean Dan saw a 20 degree variation in his test, which just seems a little crazy to me.

For what it's worth, I probably will go with the C7 once I get my grubby hands on the case, but in the meantime I have time for idle speculation...
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Unless I'm missing something, those charts are comparing the C7 to the L9x65, which is the beefier brother of the L9I.
 
Curiositie said:
Unless I'm missing something, those charts are comparing the C7 to the L9x65, which is the beefier brother of the L9I.
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Yes, they are obviously confusing the two. Virtually all reviews show the c7 as a better cooler than the L9I, but few show it better than the L9x65 which is 8mm taller than the C7.

jb1 said:
Hi Dan,
Any reason that you're using the A9x14 fan instead of the thermalright TR-TY100 fan? Your tests made it seem like that was the best option. However, if the A9x14 fan works better I might switch for that one.

For those interested, I'm using a 12 core Xeon with a TDP of 135W using the Dynatron T318 heatsink. For me, it runs hot on idle (mid-40's to low 50's) and not too bad (low 80's) on sustained load. I've tried undervolting and that has a slight improvement.

Keep in mind, even the most CPU intensive games, like Ashes of the Singularity, barely tax this thing at all and temps are low because only a fraction of the CPU is being fully utilized. I imagine it would be the same for a 5960X or 6950X at stock clocks.
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Probably because the TR-TY100 cannot be purchased without buying the AXP100?
 
So what kind of Wifi antennas are you guys planning on using?

I want something I can mount on the case (figure inside the case is most likely out because physics), but I can't find anything that will look good.
 
dominathan said:
So what kind of Wifi antennas are you guys planning on using?

I want something I can mount on the case (figure inside the case is most likely out because physics), but I can't find anything that will look good.
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Had been thinking about that, the ones i'm currently using will be taller than the case :)
 
Perhaps an optimal cooler can be designed for this case in collaboration with Noctua or another maker. Wouldn't mind paying premium for that cooler if maximises the cooling ability and low noise. And I would like the heatsink to be black. ;)
 
dondan said:
PcPer talked about the A4-SFX in their weekly podcast:



1:50:58
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what a bunch of plebs. you could actually see that they had no idea what they were talking about. "barely fits" .... THAT IS THE FUCKING POINT

Ncase failed ....

was just waiting they mention Prodigy ...
 
danij3l said:
what a bunch of plebs. you could actually see that they had no idea what they were talking about. "barely fits" .... THAT IS THE FUCKING POINT

Ncase failed ....

was just waiting they mention Prodigy ...
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Well if it fits an Asus Strix GTX 1080 like Dan suggests, then a reference card easily fits. I think they brought up it supporting an AIO cooler (perhaps said it accidentally), yea if you get a short GPU and then somehow mount a thin radiator next to the GPU, but that is obviously not what they were meaning. Another possibility might be to find a slim 92mm fan/radiator combo (very rare I know) and somehow mount it in the drive bay together with a standard size SFX PSU and careful cable management? Not sure if anyone has brought up this idea.
 
dondan said:
I think of a heatsink, that could be mount on 115x and 2011-3 Narrow Ilm with the power to handle 150W TDP. Maybe I will make a CAD drawing next week.
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Can't wait to see that!
Also, have you tried rotate the fan on the heatsink so it will "suck" the hot air out instead of blowing? I'm curious if that will make a difference :)
 
dondan said:
I think of a heatsink, that could be mount on 115x and 2011-3 Narrow Ilm with the power to handle 150W TDP. Maybe I will make a CAD drawing next week.
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KINETIC COOLER DAN!!!! PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE!!!!! I WOULD PAY ANOTHER $250 FOR IT...

prototype.jpg


a4.jpg


hqdefault.jpg
 
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