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

Hi guys the 4mm motherboard spacer standoffs i bought arrived, i installed them and everything is running smoothly, the Thermalright AXP-100H Muscle fits in perfectly now, no flex on the side panel at all.

i have the m.2 on the back of the motherboard and the riser cable running behind the motherboard and no problems at all.

i got them from here:

http://**************/2lNWQCi

comes in a pack of 100 though lol

Any issues with the I/O plate with the smaller standoffs? If not, the AXP100H may be the cooler to get - it's available for all sockets, cools well, and is similar in design to Dan's heatsink.
 
Hi guys the 4mm motherboard spacer standoffs i bought arrived, i installed them and everything is running smoothly, the Thermalright AXP-100H Muscle fits in perfectly now, no flex on the side panel at all.

i have the m.2 on the back of the motherboard and the riser cable running behind the motherboard and no problems at all.

i got them from here:

http://**************/2lNWQCi

comes in a pack of 100 though lol

Did you remove the back I/O shield of the motherboard?
 
That would be great.

If possible, it would also be very interesting to know if the temps increase with it fitted?

Also, many thanks for all this effort you are putting in on behalf of the community!
 
Temps are about 2-3 degrees hotter with the I/O shield.

all of the I/O slots into the shield easily, i screwed the I/O side of the motherboard in as normal but i'm not sure if it has gone all the way into the standoff, but its secure.

DSC09358.jpg

The side panel isn't completely flush like this though:

DSC09357.jpg

I think i'm personally going to leave the I/O shield off but i don't think its necessary.

My LP53 and NF a9x14 PWM should arrive in about an hour, so i'll do temps and videos of that with various fans.
 
Anyone have any experience with DHL shipping from Germany to USA? Just wondering how long international shipping usually takes.
 
Temps are about 2-3 degrees hotter with the I/O shield.

all of the I/O slots into the shield easily, i screwed the I/O side of the motherboard in as normal but i'm not sure if it has gone all the way into the standoff, but its secure.

View attachment 17654

The side panel isn't completely flush like this though:

View attachment 17653

I think i'm personally going to leave the I/O shield off but i don't think its necessary.

My LP53 and NF a9x14 PWM should arrive in about an hour, so i'll do temps and videos of that with various fans.
what you planning on doing with the rgb connector? , looks like that hole is useful
 
Thanks for posting this.

Where did you get the ax-100 brackets from? Also, do you think a 100mm fan will fit?
ty-100 fan may be fitted to another motherboard, but strix heatsink is too tall.
 
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Temps are about 2-3 degrees hotter with the I/O shield.

all of the I/O slots into the shield easily, i screwed the I/O side of the motherboard in as normal but i'm not sure if it has gone all the way into the standoff, but its secure.

View attachment 17654

The side panel isn't completely flush like this though:

View attachment 17653

I think i'm personally going to leave the I/O shield off but i don't think its necessary.

My LP53 and NF a9x14 PWM should arrive in about an hour, so i'll do temps and videos of that with various fans.

So with the 4mm standoffs the side fits nice and flush with no bulge?
 
Hmm. If I replace the motherboard standoffs with the 4mm ones (posted earlier) - would the Cryorig C7 become a viable option once again, since it wouldn't be that close to the side panels and cause that noise?
 
A made a couple changes to my CoolJag setup and got pretty good increases in performance. I was finally able to complete a 10 minute (actually did 15) Prime95 run while keeping my temps lower than the C7.

First, was that I realized that the cooler was basically oriented incorrectly in my existing case (the heat pipes were facing down) so I flipped my case over to reflect the correct orientation and to mirror the way it would be sitting in the A4. This caused a very noticeable drop in temps.

Second, I removed the IO area heatsink on the Strix Z270i and put in a TY-100 FAN. This dropped temps about 3C.

CyNvivs.jpg

UjQmqD1.jpg


First comparison is 5 minute stress test with Intel XTU. Second set is 10 minutes of Prime95 blend (I did 15 minutes with the CoolJag though). Ignore the clock speeds in the screenshots. All tests were done @ 4.2Ghz.

Max temps are the thing to look at.

pDkXaO3.png
aKLqC2H.png

sAqQGZY.png
xmDHpGG.png
 
Why is the Cooljag Screenshot when the cpu isnt stressed anymore? So the cooljag is only 6degrees cooler?
 
A made a couple changes to my CoolJag setup and got pretty good increases in performance. I was finally able to complete a 10 minute (actually did 15) Prime95 run while keeping my temps lower than the C7.

First, was that I realized that the cooler was basically oriented incorrectly in my existing case (the heat pipes were facing down) so I flipped my case over to reflect the correct orientation and to mirror the way it would be sitting in the A4. This caused a very noticeable drop in temps.

Second, I removed the IO area heatsink on the Strix Z270i and put in a TY-100 FAN. This dropped temps about 3C.


UjQmqD1.jpg


First comparison is 5 minute stress test with Intel XTU. Second set is 10 minutes of Prime95 blend (I did 15 minutes with the CoolJag though). Ignore the clock speeds in the screenshots. All tests were done @ 4.2Ghz.

Max temps are the thing to look at.

Have you tried flipping the TY-100 fan to blow the air out of the motherboard?
 
So is Thermal Grizzly the new hotness these days? I remember when Arctic Silver was all the rage. I thought I had some lying around when in put my Lp53 on, but used some old Noctua paste instead.
 
EDIT: if you want heatsinks, only buy the small one, the STRIX Z270I uses a non usual power design!


If somebody thinks he wants to remove the heatsink from his STRIX but still wants something there (smaller heatsink) for looks or slightly improved temperatures.
I would recommend something like this:
Thermal conductive adhesive tape

with:
8mm high black heatsink
or
3mm high silver heatsink
or
small 3.65mm high silver heatsink

How to use:
Under the Asus heatsink there will be two MOSFETs per phase (three for iGPU?) with a package size of roughly 5.9mm x 6.9mm. Usually two phases are arranged very closely together.
You can use on of the big heatsinks to cover four MOSFETs at once or you can use four of the small ones to only cover one MOSFET.

The tape above is very nice for this kind of application. Just cut it to the right size and use it to stick the heatsink onto the MOSFETs and you are good to go.

At this point I would like to ask someone who removed a heatsink from their STRIX to make a picture of the phases, that way I can confirm that they are arranged in the usual way.
Also, I would like to say that even these heatsinks are not really needed and you would add them more for the looks.
 
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Just got my LP53, zip-tied the TY-100 fan onto it and ......



Idle temps:

LP53 with ty-100 fan.JPG

Prime 95 temps:

LP53 with ty-100 fan stress.JPG

Bloody hell ..... looks like the LP53 + TY-100 is in the lead so far in my tests! This is on my 6700K @4.4Ghz as usual.

I didn't even see it hit 86°C, must have only been for a split second, 99% of the time it was hovering between 81 and 83°C

This is with the 4mm standoffs and no I/O shield. i have used the same thermal paste on all of these tests btw, the Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut, i applied it with the included spreader as per the instructions.

It's silent at idle and pretty quiet at full speed. It's actually a lower pitch when the side panel is on, but sounds more or less the same with the side panel both on and off, which is good. the 4mm standoffs may be helping with this as the fan is further away from the side panel than it would be without the shorter standoffs, therefore creating much less air turbulence.

well guys, guess I got lucky and will be getting a FULL COPPER ultra limited cooler. more details soon

Man i am jealous, seeing how good this tiny little copper cooler performs has me itching for one now lol

I'm wondering if the fins being copper has anything to do with the lower temps, its barely taller than the AR05 and cools much better, and that has copper direct contact heatpipes, the LP53 doesnt have direct contact heatpipes, doesn't look like it even needs them.

I'm hoping Dondan can do a fully copper cooler, the temps show that its far more efficient than aluminium, at least in this super small cooler range.
 
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It shouldn't be that hard to go full copper. I remember almost 15 years back thermalright had a full copper xp-90 heatsink. It was a great cooler too.
 
Just got my LP53, zip-tied the TY-100 fan onto it and ......



Idle temps:

View attachment 17693

Prime 95 temps:

View attachment 17694

Bloody hell ..... looks like the LP53 + TY-100 is in the lead so far in my tests! This is on my 6700K @4.4Ghz as usual.

I didn't even see it hit 86°C, must have only been for a split second, 99% of the time it was hovering between 81 and 83°C

This is with the 4mm standoffs and no I/O shield. i have used the same thermal paste on all of these tests btw, the Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut, i applied it with the included spreader as per the instructions.

It's silent at idle and pretty quiet at full speed. It's actually a lower pitch when the side panel is on, but sounds more or less the same with the side panel both on and off, which is good. the 4mm standoffs may be helping with this as the fan is further away from the side panel than it would be without the shorter standoffs, therefore creating much less air turbulence.



Man i am jealous, seeing how good this tiny little copper cooler performs has me itching for one now lol

I'm wondering if the fins being copper has anything to do with the lower temps, its barely taller than the AR05 and cools much better, and that has copper direct contact heatpipes, the LP53 doesnt have direct contact heatpipes, doesn't look like it even needs them.

I'm hoping Dondan can do a fully copper cooler, the temps show that its far more efficient than aluminium, at least in this super small cooler range.

I think a9x14 is a better option than ty-100.The temperature is hotter 2 to 3 degrees Celsius, but it is much quieter.
 
Meccabolix - Apart from Dans comprehensive testing, your testing so far is the most valid enduser comparison tests by being able to test the largest variety of coolers on a fairly constant build, the most comprehensive by far. Keep up the amazing work!! Much appreciated by All of us!

Would be great to see if you could compare the a9x14 with normal standoffs on the LP53 - to represent the most likely scenario that many might end up with. I think quite a few have gone down that pathway, myself included.

Also would be great to compare the TY-100 fan to the Noctua a9-14, both noise and performance wise.
 
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At this point I would like to ask someone who removed a heatsink from their STRIX to make a picture of the phases, that way I can confirm that they are arranged in the usual way.
Also, I would like to say that even these heatsinks are not really needed and you would add them more for the looks.

Heatsinks stripped within 30s of removing the z270i from the box :)

I'll bring the FLIR home again this weekend and take some measurements - based on what I saw on my current board, the PCH was the only component generating any heat of note aside from the CPU.
 

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I like the look of your mobo without those big solid blocks of alum. Its like concept of how heatsinks work is based on how big they look and how many labels or RGB LEDs you can put on one. There have been way too many heatsinks I have seen on mobos where there are fins hidden under a big sticker to block all airflow.

One thing i have wondered with regards to the PCH heatsink on the Z720i Strix, is how much surface area it actually gets for cooling, and whether its so low that it actually ends up heating up the M2 SSD rather than cooling it. Or it might more likely mean that the M2 has a higher idle temp, and when both are under heavy loads, the SSD only runs slightly cooler than the M2 would have alone.
 
repentsinner thanks for posting the shots under the heat sinks. I plan on removing the one by the IO ports so I can fit the nexus cooler with a 120mm fan. Hopefully I can use my ram without modification.

Hopefully this results in some superior cooling.
 
Speaking of all the cooling, what are the group's consensus on delid/relid? I have a 6700k with Cryorig C7 - despite the noise, temperatures are ok. However, lower is always nicer, especially as it results in lower RPMs.
 
Heatsinks stripped within 30s of removing the z270i from the box :)

I'll bring the FLIR home again this weekend and take some measurements - based on what I saw on my current board, the PCH was the only component generating any heat of note aside from the CPU.

Thanks for the pictures. Don't forget to put a bit of electrical tape onto the PCH to correct the emissivity (read for short explanation and good post by FLIR on how to correct it).


About the power design of this motherboard. It is certainly not a usual layout and I don't yet fully understand how exactly it works (I don't see enough MOSFETs for example). I am however pretty sure it is properly cooled and doesn't need a heatsink as long as there is some airflow and the case temperature isn't too high.

usual layout:
vrm.jpg

Asus STRIX Z270I:
power_1.jpg power_2.jpg
 
Speaking of all the cooling, what are the group's consensus on delid/relid? I have a 6700k with Cryorig C7 - despite the noise, temperatures are ok. However, lower is always nicer, especially as it results in lower RPMs.

As far as I have seen from various people who relided their 6th or 7th gen CPU the temperature drop is all over the place. To me it seems like it depends on if you got lucky with the silicon lottery or not.
 
I haven't seen it anywhere in the thread yet but it looks like the AMD Spire 95W cooler that comes with the Ryzen 1700 is 54mm tall so won't fit in the case. Obviously the 1700X and 1800X 140W cooler is larger @ 85mm tall.
http://digiworthy.com/2017/02/20/amd-ryzen-7-wraith-max-and-spire/

Going to be tough to find an ITX board and a cooler for the Ryzen.

Some will be released with the Wraith Stealth cooler (http://imgur.com/a/nTYOb) which seems to be a lot less tall, and doesn't come with the RGB ring, going to try and swap the RGB fan with the Non-RGB one when i get it :)
 
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