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

Rorschach said:
Just as i feared ..

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/2017/06/16/intel-core-i9-7900x-and-x299-chipset-revie/8


However, temperatures were definitely a concern with Cinebench and Terragen pushing 100°C with our 240mm AIO liquid cooler


Will get a 5960x second hand or a 1800x and call it a day...
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Hmm yeah. Runs way too hot. If it were me buying this round and I did want to go SFF X299, I'd buy the cpu already delidded from a place like SilconLottery. As for me, I'm looking into a used 5960x as well.
 
I was so hyped with the x299 asrock itx .. but intel killed my dream.

Oh well, just now I ordered the x99 asrock itx new from amazon. And now I am hunting a second hand 5960x on ebay.
 
bAMtan2 said:
I'm not seeing what you guys are seeing. skylake-x runs incredibly FAST. and it's using thermal paste...
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Mild overclocked = 100°C with a 240mm liquid cooling. Try fit a 240mm liquid cooling in the Dan case. In another universe where Intel spent an extra little bit on a $1000 cpu we could be getting a mild overclocked on air in our Dan case.
 
The 100°C is in Cinebench. Prime95 generates more heat than cinebench. As I said using TIM on Skylake-X was a bad decision by Intel.
 
It was a bad decision for their mainstream processors too. Sometimes I think they are getting a kick-back from the aftermarket cpu cooler manufacturers.
 
I'm curious, I read that the new iMac has user replaceable CPUs. I can only guess that the iMac pro uses a bare die variant of the new chips... No way they could cool one of these monsters in an iMac size chassis otherwise?

They should just offer the bare-die version, assuming it exists, to everyone and save on the cost of the integrated heat spreader too!

The way I see it, if you want the ultimate high Hz gaming Dan A4 go 7700k. If you want a combination workstation/gaming PC, or if you are gaming a 60hz go Ryzen.
 
Completed most of my build.

Have a few questions mostly around cabling.

I used an EVGA GTX 1080ti FTW and 250mm is short but doable by routing the cables directly between the GPU and PSU. This creates a problem that the cables themselves make it difficult to cleanly put the middle section cover over the case as the cables themselves can't bend enough to give proper clearance. Different material may help with the problem (I went with ModMesh instead of ModFlex). Definitely think 300mm is a better length for the GPU cabling.

How are people routing the front USB connector cable and the reset button cable?

Also, what about the internal PSU cable? Feels excessively long and makes it difficult to cable manage.

I am having issues with the Trident Z 3200 RAM in the Strix Z270i and XMP profile. I cannot get it to POST at 3200. I am aware of many issues when overclocking the ram or using higher, but I cannot get it to work at the proper rating. This isn't even cold booting, this is just a restart after updating the settings. Any tips?

One thing to be careful off is mounting the motherboard and the PCI extension ribbon cable. Be very careful not to damage it as it can often catch on the solder points / screws under the motherboard. Luckily I didn't damage the cable, but you can see some indents on the side. Simple solution is to put down some paper covering the cable once it is correctly in place and remove it once the motherboard is mounted.
 
mikelorant said:
Completed most of my build.

Have a few questions mostly around cabling.

I used an EVGA GTX 1080ti FTW and 250mm is short but doable by routing the cables directly between the GPU and PSU. This creates a problem that the cables themselves make it difficult to cleanly put the middle section cover over the case as the cables themselves can't bend enough to give proper clearance. Different material may help with the problem (I went with ModMesh instead of ModFlex). Definitely think 300mm is a better length for the GPU cabling.

How are people routing the front USB connector cable and the reset button cable?

Also, what about the internal PSU cable? Feels excessively long and makes it difficult to cable manage.

I am having issues with the Trident Z 3200 RAM in the Strix Z270i and XMP profile. I cannot get it to POST at 3200. I am aware of many issues when overclocking the ram or using higher, but I cannot get it to work at the proper rating. This isn't even cold booting, this is just a restart after updating the settings. Any tips?

One thing to be careful off is mounting the motherboard and the PCI extension ribbon cable. Be very careful not to damage it as it can often catch on the solder points / screws under the motherboard. Luckily I didn't damage the cable, but you can see some indents on the side. Simple solution is to put down some paper covering the cable once it is correctly in place and remove it once the motherboard is mounted.
Click to expand...

There was some discussion a ways back about how the strix board doesn't play well with some XMP profiles. Someone,I forget who, posted that you should just do it manually and use a slightly lower voltage than what the board uses for the XMP profile and it should work.
 
thed00d said:
I don't see why you would limit ryzen to 60fps gamers, to be honest
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That's true, I'd say if you have a 144hz+ Intel is better, Ryzen is usually about 15-20fps slower at those speeds I would say. If you have a free/g-sync monitor it doesn't matter though. I have a 1700 btw.
 
The warm weather (28c, which is pretty warm for me) is making me wonder how the dan case copes during heatwaves during gamng/rendering workloads. On a hot day what kind of temps do you guys get?
 
pionir said:
Everything for the show of course :D . The demiflex filters were designed for the dan a4 propably due to the psu issue as you mentioned. I measured around 0.8~1mm between psu and and the sidepanel.
Now...it may work for someone to put a fullsize dustfilter but as for me it is not worth the effort to make it work. The dustfilter would be just too tight fitted in between. (Heheh...thats what she said)...
Anyways, it seemed to me that the amount of dust which mostlikely is going to build up at some point is not that big of a deal. People who use the dan case are mostlikely not the type of audience, keeping their precious systems in an unclean enviroment, but also they may be the type of people who open up their rigs more usually than the average one in all system consumer. Also stating: most people here care about performance, temps and so on, while tweaking around their little shoebox. As for me..the dustfilters are sort of to prevent noise..(my system's super quiet even under load) although, it is to say that people would complain over an increase than a decrease of the system volume. ( it just works for me) my next project is probably to save money for a gpu...and afterwards watercooling.
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I see, thanks for the feedback. It really is Demciflex's fault, I don't know why their filters have such thick frames. Silverstone makes very similar 120mm filters and theirs have very slim borders, but they only come in standard dimensions.
 
QuantumBraced said:
I see, thanks for the feedback. It really is Demciflex's fault, I don't know why their filters have such thick frames. Silverstone makes very similar 120mm filters and theirs have very slim borders, but they only come in standard dimensions.
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How much over sized are they? Could you just trim off the frame and duct tape them on?
 
richiegore said:
How much over sized are they? Could you just trim off the frame and duct tape them on?
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we are talking about 1-2mm in terms of thickness.. nothing too fancy. however i´d recommend buying 2x gpu side panel filters, since they would match the lenght of the case. if you want to make an effort by putting them on..i recommend using a lil bit sand paper to scrub off that 1-2mm at the space between the psu.
 
One quick question please:

What bolts (diameter and length) did Dan use to secure the Noctua fan to the Asetek AIO radiator and then to the case from here-page 277 ?

Thank you.

img_4189ajuld.jpg
 
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pedrofan said:
If you forget overclocking it may fit. I have a 155 watts 22 cores xeon with the dynatron t-318 and it works like a charm.

If you plan on rendering it may hit >90º though.

Better ssf cooling solutions appears everyday, and in a4- v2 it's possible to fit a liquid cooling rad so you may have no problem, and you can always underclock while waiting for the perfect cooling.
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Thank you! I will do some rendering, mostly CAD and gaming. For sure I will be getting the Radiator from Dan himself when it come out.. IF it comes out, that is :)
 
Rorschach said:
Dan, i finally did it as well !
AIO in da' house !

Of course i had to mod my V1 to accept the Asetek 545LC 92 mm... just to prove that soldered CPUs are the way to go.




This is my journey :)

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dondan said:
Very great job. Now you know why I add support for AIO mounting on v2 :)
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So for the v1, I just need to dremel some holes for air and I can mount aio of a fan??
 
Is it possible to reorient the PSU to pull air from the case and exhaust out? In other words, spin the PSU 180 degrees? Also, can the PSU be mounted such that the cables are coming out the top to clear more room for the AIO radiator? Is it at all possible to reinstall the USB header with the AIO?
 
bAMtan2 said:
dan's goal was €125,000, and with 3 days remaining, he is trending toward €600,000. congratulations dan!!! http://www.kicktraq.com/projects/33753221/dan-cases-a4-sfx-v2-an-ultra-compact-sff-case/
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With that level of success. I'd love to see this case go into full production as opposed to a limited run. If this thing was in stock at online retailers, I'd buy one straight away, as would a couple of my friends. But I'm still of an older mindset which is worried about Kickstarter campaigns. I know I'm not the only one, and judging by the speed the v1 sold out from Overclockers, there is a mass market for this case.
 
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