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Yesterday all parts arrived (except the liquid metal for delid) so I built my system:
i5-7600k
Asus z270i
32GB Corsair Vengeance LPX 3000
Noctua NH-L9i with NF-A9x14 fan
EVGA GTX 1080 FTW ACX 3.0
Two Samsung EVO 960 m.2 (265GB + 1TB)
Corsair SF450
First of all, those parts are small! (except the GTX) It's my first ITX build and I am realy amazed.
Building the system was not as easy as in a big case, but it was no big deal. Needed to remove the PSU cage to install the mainboard. The advantage is, that there are not many cables (as I dont have SSDs).
I installed the mainboard io shield, but I am going to remove it as soon as I delid my CPU. Undervolting is also on the todo list.
I run ARK survival evolved for a few minutes as the pc will mostly be used for gaming and there are my first impressions (closed sidepannels, io shield on, no delid, no undervolting, NH-L9i fins parallel to ram):
- in windows (2d) the SF450 fan runs most of the time, not only while/after gaming. The air blowing out of the PSU feels like having the same temperature as the room. I don't realy know why the fan is spinning, but it is silent and I can only hear it very close. I had a look if it is the problem with the GPU backplate heating the PSU. My GPU looks like beinig a little bent, it almost touches the PSU. I put some spacers (small piece of PSU package foam, not covering the PSU/GPU back much) and let the GPU fan spin. The PSU fan was still most of the time spinning. I might try to do a better job with the spacers and see if it makes a difference
- in games this case is much loader than my old big tower. The GPU is by far the loadest part and spinns about 20% faster than in my old case. Using a power target of 70% helped a bit, but not very much. But the noise it produces is not realy annoying.
I would recommand for those who only use the pc for gaming without OC, just use the Noctua or C7 with the Noctua fan. Disabling turbo boost didn't make any noise difference, but I did not run a stress test.
- The Asus boad looks great and has many features (like the 2 m.2), but the mosfet heatsinks cover most of the heatsink. There is not much space for air to get through. If you dont mind having only one m.2 I would recommend a mainboard with much space (or as much as possible) around the CPU.
- To the case ventilation itself: While gaming it gets hot on the back top and buttom (I think the GPU heat heats those parts). It could use as much space as possible to blow air out, I think that's why removing the io shield will benefit. I think an additional fan at the top blowing out doesn't make any difference. Maybe a bigger mesh on the top would help with that a little, but maybe won't look that good
- I replaced the feet with the hifi feet suggested pages back. Putting the case on a mousepad or something similar would also reduce sliding.
- I still need to figure out where to turn off Asus auto OC, but the OC is very minimal (about 20 MHz for each core). Did not have the time to take a closer look.
So far I like the case because its so small and has much power. I think Dan did the best he could for the small format! I don't want to go back to my tower! Good work Dan, thank you for the case!
I hope there will be improved parts in the future those wo already have the case (and thereby help improving it) will also have the possibility to benefit.
Dan, maybe you can make a collection of tipps and tricks on your homepage?
i5-7600k
Asus z270i
32GB Corsair Vengeance LPX 3000
Noctua NH-L9i with NF-A9x14 fan
EVGA GTX 1080 FTW ACX 3.0
Two Samsung EVO 960 m.2 (265GB + 1TB)
Corsair SF450
First of all, those parts are small! (except the GTX) It's my first ITX build and I am realy amazed.
Building the system was not as easy as in a big case, but it was no big deal. Needed to remove the PSU cage to install the mainboard. The advantage is, that there are not many cables (as I dont have SSDs).
I installed the mainboard io shield, but I am going to remove it as soon as I delid my CPU. Undervolting is also on the todo list.
I run ARK survival evolved for a few minutes as the pc will mostly be used for gaming and there are my first impressions (closed sidepannels, io shield on, no delid, no undervolting, NH-L9i fins parallel to ram):
- in windows (2d) the SF450 fan runs most of the time, not only while/after gaming. The air blowing out of the PSU feels like having the same temperature as the room. I don't realy know why the fan is spinning, but it is silent and I can only hear it very close. I had a look if it is the problem with the GPU backplate heating the PSU. My GPU looks like beinig a little bent, it almost touches the PSU. I put some spacers (small piece of PSU package foam, not covering the PSU/GPU back much) and let the GPU fan spin. The PSU fan was still most of the time spinning. I might try to do a better job with the spacers and see if it makes a difference
- in games this case is much loader than my old big tower. The GPU is by far the loadest part and spinns about 20% faster than in my old case. Using a power target of 70% helped a bit, but not very much. But the noise it produces is not realy annoying.
I would recommand for those who only use the pc for gaming without OC, just use the Noctua or C7 with the Noctua fan. Disabling turbo boost didn't make any noise difference, but I did not run a stress test.
- The Asus boad looks great and has many features (like the 2 m.2), but the mosfet heatsinks cover most of the heatsink. There is not much space for air to get through. If you dont mind having only one m.2 I would recommend a mainboard with much space (or as much as possible) around the CPU.
- To the case ventilation itself: While gaming it gets hot on the back top and buttom (I think the GPU heat heats those parts). It could use as much space as possible to blow air out, I think that's why removing the io shield will benefit. I think an additional fan at the top blowing out doesn't make any difference. Maybe a bigger mesh on the top would help with that a little, but maybe won't look that good
- I replaced the feet with the hifi feet suggested pages back. Putting the case on a mousepad or something similar would also reduce sliding.
- I still need to figure out where to turn off Asus auto OC, but the OC is very minimal (about 20 MHz for each core). Did not have the time to take a closer look.
So far I like the case because its so small and has much power. I think Dan did the best he could for the small format! I don't want to go back to my tower! Good work Dan, thank you for the case!
I hope there will be improved parts in the future those wo already have the case (and thereby help improving it) will also have the possibility to benefit.
Dan, maybe you can make a collection of tipps and tricks on your homepage?
