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

ceski said:
Printed a fan bracket and stuck a foam gasket on top.

Prime95:
No Fan Duct: 93 °C
Fan Duct: 89 °C

PCH, M.2, and memory temps dropped by 3-4 °C. Ambient: 22 °C.
i7-7700K Delidded, 5.0 GHz, 1.312 V, LP53 + NF-A9x14 + no I/O shield.

More testing to do, thought I'd share.
Click to expand...

That is a gorgeous system. Now plug in front panel headers and Sata cables. ;)

I have to say, I'm awfully impressed with how large a difference having a fan duct of some sort has been making for people; that's an easy fix to pick up 4-5 degrees. Was it tricky to make?
 
ceski said:
Printed a fan bracket and stuck a foam gasket on top.

Prime95:
No Fan Duct: 93 °C
Fan Duct: 89 °C

PCH, M.2, and memory temps dropped by 3-4 °C. Ambient: 22 °C.
i7-7700K Delidded, 5.0 GHz, 1.312 V, LP53 + NF-A9x14 + no I/O shield.

More testing to do, thought I'd share.
Click to expand...
Would you like to share the file for 3d print? :)
 
ceski said:
Printed a fan bracket and stuck a foam gasket on top.

Prime95:
No Fan Duct: 93 °C
Fan Duct: 89 °C

PCH, M.2, and memory temps dropped by 3-4 °C. Ambient: 22 °C.
i7-7700K Delidded, 5.0 GHz, 1.312 V, LP53 + NF-A9x14 + no I/O shield.

More testing to do, thought I'd share.
Click to expand...

That's impressive quality! Which way does the fan point? Does the fan direction change performance?
 

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mcheddadi said:
What motherboard is that? How long after the stress test in prime did you take those measurements.
Click to expand...

Looks like an Asus Strix z270i, with the VRM heatsinks removed and replaced by aluminium fins.

(Speaking of, ceski, how much of a difference did that make to temps and airflow?)
 
mcheddadi said:
What motherboard is that? How long after the stress test in prime did you take those measurements.
Click to expand...
Originally, 10 minutes each. In the name of science, I ran it again for 1 hour each. Weather was a bit cooler today.

fb5BM7q.png


Settings:
h5mj3zs.png

darksable said:
Looks like an Asus Strix z270i, with the VRM heatsinks removed and replaced by aluminium fins.

(Speaking of, ceski, how much of a difference did that make to temps and airflow?)
Click to expand...

I'm going to grab a FLIR thermal camera and see what the board looks like next.
 
ceski said:
Originally, 10 minutes each. In the name of science, I ran it again for 1 hour each. Weather was a bit cooler today.

fb5BM7q.png


I'm going to grab a FLIR thermal camera and see what the board looks like next.
Click to expand...

Are you going to run at 5.0GHz as a daily driver?
 
ceski said:
Printed a fan bracket and stuck a foam gasket on top.

Prime95:
No Fan Duct: 93 °C
Fan Duct: 89 °C

PCH, M.2, and memory temps dropped by 3-4 °C. Ambient: 22 °C.
i7-7700K Delidded, 5.0 GHz, 1.312 V, LP53 + NF-A9x14 + no I/O shield.

More testing to do, thought I'd share.
Click to expand...
Very clean build I am impressed.
The heatsinks from adafruit look way better than my copper heatsinks. xD


Btw. a word to my dead Asus Strix board.
It looks like my RGB strip killed the motherboard, I had an older one without the whole Aura certification thingy. Don't do that, it can kill your board. Luckily the shop I bought it at is nice enough to replace it (I am a very good customer) even though I apparently killed the board myself.
 
damn, i'm impressed at your results ceski. I tried just to see with the strix heatsink removed but not the bottum one, without the IO shield and without 4mm standoffs, with kryonut thermal grizzly paste, with delid (liquid metal), with the lp53 + the noctua fan and it thermal throttled like crazy at 4.6ghz :( . did not last more than a minute without dying in prime 95. thats with a 6700K. with the axp-100 full copper I can do 5ghz but it can't run more than a minute without crashing in prime 95.

not having heatinks on your vrms would that increase the temps of the cpu? I would not think so. well I'm stummped lol. 4.4ghz at 75C max load is what I'm going to run I guess. 10% overclock. meh...


DONDAN if you want to send me a prototpe of your new project case (not a4-sfx v2, the other new secret one) I'd love some water cooling options . I can pay for it too :p
 
mcheddadi said:
damn, i'm impressed at your results ceski. I tried just to see with the strix heatsink removed but not the bottum one, without the IO shield and without 4mm standoffs, with kryonut thermal grizzly paste, with delid (liquid metal), with the lp53 + the noctua fan and it thermal throttled like crazy at 4.6ghz :( . did not last more than a minute without dying in prime 95. thats with a 6700K. with the axp-100 full copper I can do 5ghz but it can't run more than a minute without crashing in prime 95.

not having heatinks on your vrms would that increase the temps of the cpu? I would not think so. well I'm stummped lol. 4.4ghz at 75C max load is what I'm going to run I guess. 10% overclock. meh...
Click to expand...

Hmmm... it sounds like something's off. Either the heatsink doesn't have enough pressure or just isn't seated correctly...

What voltage are you using? Unless you got really, really unlucky, you shouldn't even need anything extra to hit 4.4-4.6 or so.
 
ceski said:
Printed a fan bracket and stuck a foam gasket on top.

Prime95:
No Fan Duct: 93 °C
Fan Duct: 89 °C

PCH, M.2, and memory temps dropped by 3-4 °C. Ambient: 22 °C.
i7-7700K Delidded, 5.0 GHz, 1.312 V, LP53 + NF-A9x14 + no I/O shield.

More testing to do, thought I'd share.
Click to expand...

Looks great! Where did you get the foam gasket?
 
CknSalad said:
Are you going to run at 5.0GHz as a daily driver?
Click to expand...

I need to do more low RPM testing, but signs point to 4.6-4.7 GHz being ideal for quiet sound levels around ~70 °C.

Philfreeze said:
Very clean build I am impressed.
The heatsinks from adafruit look way better than my copper heatsinks. xD
Click to expand...

Actually I didn't get the adafruit ones, I used extras left over from a GPU mod from a couple years ago. They look identical though?

SpartanM07 said:
Looks great! Where did you get the foam gasket?
Click to expand...

I think it was this one, again recycled from past modding projects, I don't remember exactly.
 
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SpartanM07 said:
I've managed to install the heatsink/fan assembly from a EVGA GTX 1080 FTW (bought from eBay) onto my Titan Xp. Highest temps I've seen so far is 61C with an ambient of around 22C. Idle temps are extremely low at around 23 to 26C. Fan is silent at idle and about as loud as a PS4 Pro at full tilt. Boost clocks settle right at 2000mhz; I haven't touched the memory yet. Second image is my Titan X (Pascal)... I used it as the test bed in-case I did something wrong. Moved the Titan X (Pascal) to my second PC with a hybrid mod installed; third pic.
Click to expand...

Did you have to do any modding to the FTW cooler to get it to fit on your Titan? I'm wondering if I could get this cooler to work on a 1080 Ti FE.
 
I reapplied the Liquid Thermal Ultra & the Thermal Grizzly but temps are still out of control. 3:40 into Aida 64 it his the thermal limits. This is with the sides of the case off. The Noctua fan is only spinning at 2000rpm max?. I also have it set with the sicker facing the LP53.

I have no idea how some of you are temping in the 60-70. Thermal paste applications are not THAT hard to perform. Im confident its making solid and even contact.
 
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maven1975 said:
I reapplied the Liquid Thermal Ultra & the Thermal Grizzly but temps are still out of control. 3:40 into Aida 64 it his the thermal limits. This is with the sides of the case off. The Noctua fan is only spinning at 2000rpm max?. I also have it set with the sicker facing the LP53.

I have no idea how some of you are temping in the 60-70. Thermal paste applications are not THAT hard to perform. Im confident its making solid and even contact.
Click to expand...

Full disclosure - I don't have an A4, instead a Ncase M1 WC build.

I just don't see how your thin fan can effectively drive the radiator. A rule of thumb is that a fan needs 1 fan diameter for intake and for exhaust to function correctly.
Not many people have this kind of room, so it should really be taken with a grain of salt so to speak, but with your case just mm off the floor, a thin fan and a thick radiator, things don't look too good.

Have to tried with a simple (even stock) air cooler to wee whether it really is a thermal compound issue?
I experienced something similar with my bottom radiator - thin fans coupled with a dense 240mm radiator meant my temps were worse than on air initially.
 
darksable said:
Looks like an Asus Strix z270i, with the VRM heatsinks removed and replaced by aluminium fins.

(Speaking of, ceski, how much of a difference did that make to temps and airflow?)
Click to expand...
ceski said:
I'm going to grab a FLIR thermal camera and see what the board looks like next.
Click to expand...
As promised:

The FLIR is out of calibration and only has ± 5 °C accuracy at best, but that's okay because it's still useful for identifying hot spots. The MOSFETs in the exhaust path of the CPU heatsink are the hottest.

lsWvoDc.jpg


A quick check with an IR thermometer shows around 64 °C at the same hot spot, but these devices have limitations too.

ZYuMuPU.jpg


Another way to measure the VRMs is using a thermocouople (type T) with a bit of polyimide tape to secure it in place. It's not perfect, but now the side panel can be put back on.

SirtNI9.jpg


Thermocouple results after 20 minutes of Prime95 (Ambient: 22 °C):

mmZIL8I.png
 
Nice. Your IR thermometer temps are the same as mine. The exhaust area is (predictably) the hottest part of the board. I also have similar looking heatsinks on my mosfets. (From adafruit). Tiny but they get the job done!
 
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Sebastian @PCperspective reviewed the case, have a look at: https://www.pcper.com/reviews/Cases-and-Cooling/DAN-Cases-A4-SFX-Crowdfunded-Mini-ITX-Case-Review

The DAN Cases A4-SFX is an ingenious design that takes a mini-ITX gaming system down to its smallest possible dimensions, and does so with style and premium build quality. It really has no flaws as it is, from design to engineering, perfectly executed. Any limitations are known going in, such as CPU cooler height and power supply form-factor, and these do not detract from the experience in my opinion as they are absolutely necessary for this enclosure size to work.
Click to expand...
 
tbooth said:
Did you have to do any modding to the FTW cooler to get it to fit on your Titan? I'm wondering if I could get this cooler to work on a 1080 Ti FE.
Click to expand...
Yes, I cut down the base plate probably more than I needed too but I did not want to cause a short by contacting any components (cuts could have been cleaner but I did not have my jigsaw at the moment so I used my dremel):
IMG_20170410_230147.jpg IMG_20170410_232747.jpg

I used a dremel to cut down some fins to make room for components and the power plugs:
IMG_20170410_233438.jpg IMG_20170410_235819.jpg

I used some M2.5-0.45 threaded hex nuts and some non-conductive washers for 7 of the 16 mounting holes (3 pictured) so I could install the backplate: Untitled.png

I first installed the 3 hex nuts/washers that would be covered by the base plate (seen in picture above), then the base plate and the other 4 hex nuts/washers, then the backplate, and lastly the fan/heatsink assembly:
IMG_20170410_235006.jpg

The only thing that doesn't work is the LED lighting as the stock PCB does not have a second 4-pin plug. The mod was fun but if a aftermarket 1080 ti fan/heatsink would have popped up on eBay I would have gone with that since no mods would have had to been made. I went with this cooler mainly because it was a good price and aftermarket coolers rarely appear on eBay.
 
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ceski said:
Printed a fan bracket and stuck a foam gasket on top.

Prime95:
No Fan Duct: 93 °C
Fan Duct: 89 °C

PCH, M.2, and memory temps dropped by 3-4 °C. Ambient: 22 °C.
i7-7700K Delidded, 5.0 GHz, 1.312 V, LP53 + NF-A9x14 + no I/O shield.

More testing to do, thought I'd share.
Click to expand...

Can you make another one of these for me? I will give you the monees. Also what fan gasket did you use?
 
Ca11idus said:
Can you make another one of these for me? I will give you the monees. Also what fan gasket did you use?
Click to expand...
I would take the .STL file that I posted to your favorite proto shop and get it printed in a color other than barf creme. Shapeways is okay (free shipping on first order).
 

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maven1975 said:
I reapplied the Liquid Thermal Ultra & the Thermal Grizzly but temps are still out of control. 3:40 into Aida 64 it his the thermal limits. This is with the sides of the case off. The Noctua fan is only spinning at 2000rpm max?. I also have it set with the sicker facing the LP53.

I have no idea how some of you are temping in the 60-70. Thermal paste applications are not THAT hard to perform. Im confident its making solid and even contact.
Click to expand...
Yeah - as I mentioned, 65 was the absolute max with the case side off and a Cryorig C7 (default fan) in Aida64 after about 20 minutes in. I ran an encode under Handbrake for a bit and peaked around 80 or so. I'm curious how I would fare with the L9i (I'd rather not swap fans, etc. even though I know that's optimal). I have one so I may try it unless I feel too lazy to take the motherboard out again.

Hope you get yours sorted out soon!
 
Is there a consensus on the best air cooling solution for this case? I have a C7 and the fan is really loud.
 
raazman said:
Is there a consensus on the best air cooling solution for this case? I have a C7 and the fan is really loud.
Click to expand...
Try swap your fan on the c7 for a Noctua a9x14 or ty100.
Best cooler seems to be the Cooltek LP53 but difficult to get your hands on it. I've emailed them and they have said they are currently doing a production run that should be wrapping up this month so should be more units hitting the market over the next few weeks.

Note: I have the Noctua NH-L9i and it is silent at idle and pretty quiet under load. I had to check it was actually spinning a few times!
 
Hello my dears!

After a lot of trying and testing I've managed to setup my 22 Cores and 44 Threads Xeon E5-2696 V4 properly.

(and the $%&**$%& Turbo Boost 3.0 Driver that was continuosly crashing).



Et voila!!!


It has broken the 3.000cb mark on cinebench R15, without any overclocking or tweaking, reaching 3.105cb .

This may be the fastest rendering machine per volume on earth, thanks to the A4-SFX.


1.jpg




It is:

· 17% faster than the 2646cb mark that an E5-2699 V4 did in this video link,
more or less the same that Linus got with these two E5-2699 v4 (5.214cb / 2 = 2.607cb) link

· 49% faster than the 2.114cb 4,2ghz oveclocked i7 6950x link
(this configuration can't be managed inside A4-SFX because of the heat)

· 74% faster than the 1.778cb stock i7 6950x link

· 97% faster than the 1.570cb 12 cores top end mac pro link


I don't know how much that mac pro costs but the E5-2696 V4 costs 1300€ on ebay from china, less than the 6950x.



So yes, the E5-2696 V4 is 17% faster than the E5-2699 V4.
(and that explains the question of why the first has a tdp of 150W and the second a tdp of 145W).




-------------------------------------------------------------------



I was continuosly making 2800cb because I wasn't realizing that RealTempGT, for whatever reason, crashed turbo boost 3.0 driver till I rebooted the compuer, stucking 8 cores on 2,2 ghz. all the time.
Since I had it all the time enabled to check the temps, I didn't notice the problem till I switched to HWiNFO64 (I thought it was the normal behavior of turbo boost, and was very happy with 2.800cb).


· Here you can see what happened while rendering with the RealtempGT- TurboBoost problem:

1.jpg




· After fixing it, this is how it looks while rendering (some times one core suddenly jumps to 3,7ghz, but thats so quick and random that i can't make the printscreen):

1.jpg


· And this is how it looks while using regular apps. It can stuck one core to 3,7ghz and the others in several clock speeds.

1.jpg



------------------------------------------------

I want to thank Dan for allowing the build of this dream "portable" workstation.
 
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raazman said:
Is there a consensus on the best air cooling solution for this case? I have a C7 and the fan is really loud.
Click to expand...


Check out my post here: https://hardforum.com/threads/dan-a4-sfx-the-smallest-gaming-case-in-the-world.1799326/page-264

Shortened down version:

BDCx9uO.png



Please note that these temps can't represent "Real World Performance", I mostly just wanted to get an overview of the temperatures quickly - all these benchmarks are taken in the following way:
  • 5 min
  • Open Test Bench
  • Idle temp in bios
  • Bios reset, Ram upped to 2400mhz

Summary
  • If you ask me today if LP53 is worth it? I really do not know. My results indicate that the C7 + Noctua fan might be a better option (more cost effective)
  • I would recommend you try a C7 + a NF A9x14 fan on it
  • The NF A9x14 is way quieter than the the C7 stock fan

Sound Levels
Some notes about the noise during the bios temp benchmarks:
  • LP53 + NF A9x14 (quietest)
  • C7 (slightly higher)
  • Stock Intel (loudest)

Want to save money?
  • Get C7 + NF A9x14

Got money to spare and want a kick ass full copper CPU cooler?
  • Get LP53 + NF A9 x14
 
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shogou said:
Check out my post here: https://hardforum.com/threads/dan-a4-sfx-the-smallest-gaming-case-in-the-world.1799326/page-264

Shortened down version:

BDCx9uO.png



Please note that these temps can't represent "Real World Performance", I mostly just wanted to get an overview of the temperatures quickly - all these benchmarks are taken in the following way:
  • 5 min
  • Open Test Bench
  • Idle temp in bios
  • Bios reset, Ram upped to 2400mhz

Summary
  • If you ask me today if LP53 is worth it? I really do not know. My results indicate that the C7 + Noctua fan might be a better option (more cost effective)
  • I would recommend you try a C7 + a NF A9x14 fan on it
  • The NF A9x14 is way quieter than the the C7 stock fan

Sound Levels
Some notes about the noise during the bios temp benchmarks:
  • LP53 + NF A9x14 (quietest)
  • C7 (slightly higher)
  • Stock Intel (loudest)

Want to save money?
  • Get C7 + NF A9x14

Got money to spare and want a kick ass full copper CPU cooler?
  • Get LP53 + NF A9 x14
Click to expand...

Thank you! Question though, doesn't the Noctua push less air?
 
Got money to spare and want a kick ass full copper CPU cooler and with 4mm standoffs?
  • Get LP53 + NF A9 PWM (over 35% greater air flow over the thinner Noctua)
 
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It is exactly what I am using. Is tight, but fits with no bowing of the side case panel.
 
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