MSI Nightblade M1 *GPU above motherboard*

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Oct 25, 2008
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=175&v=46IcfJkGE1c

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1. CPU cooling can only be horrible
2. 1U power supply can only be horrible
3. Looks are a bit tacky
4. It's bigger than the Dan A4
 
It's nice that these smaller cases are coming to market... but obvious design influence from one small project and the name of another?
 
1. CPU cooling can only be horrible
If it's like the ones in laptops (which it looks like) it should be adequate without overclocking, but it would be loud as... you know.
It's nice that these smaller cases are coming to market... but obvious design influence from one small project and the name of another?

I'm just grateful someone taking hints.
Tired of big manufacturers copying each other. At least now they're copying decent designs :p
 
Yet they have a bad habit of copying decent designs and putting them in ugly cases.
 
Yet they have a bad habit of copying decent designs and putting them in ugly cases.

Yeah... :mad:
Progress is a slow thing with these big names, but it's there at least. :eek:

I do think most of the blame goes to the people who actually buy "Ultra Super Dope Gaming Gear", you know the people who buy stuff because they look "Super Awesome and Cool" or because they have LEDs all over and a tiny alien head with glowing eyes. :rolleyes:
 
I think putting the card over the the motherboard via a riser was inevitable as we push towards more and more compact component layouts. The idea itself isn't really new - anybody remember the Procase Noah? Or HFX Micro? It's actually not uncommon for HTPC cases. These are designed only for low-power applications, and as such only supported a single-slot card (for TV tuners or audio), but the basic layout is the same. It's not much of a leap to take that idea and rework it for dual-slot GPU support and better thermal management.
 
I think putting the card over the the motherboard via a riser was inevitable as we push towards more and more compact component layouts. The idea itself isn't really new - anybody remember the Procase Noah? Or HFX Micro? It's actually not uncommon for HTPC cases. These are designed only for low-power applications, and as such only supported a single-slot card (for TV tuners or audio), but the basic layout is the same. It's not much of a leap to take that idea and rework it for dual-slot GPU support and better thermal management.

The point I'm trying to make is: With the DAN A4-SFX coming closer to its release, what are the disadvantages of this thermally?
 
The point I'm trying to make is: With the DAN A4-SFX coming closer to its release, what are the disadvantages of this thermally?
"This" as in the Nightblade M1? Looking at the pictures and video, I'd say the thermals are going to be pretty bad: the sole intake for the system appears to be the right side panel, which means if you have an open-cooler GPU, all the air in the case is essentially getting preheated by it, and the CPU, PSU, and drives are going to run hotter/louder as a result. It's a pretty poor design, thermally. I think the A4 is much better in this regard, with direct access to outside air for each component.
 
"This" as in the Nightblade M1? Looking at the pictures and video, I'd say the thermals are going to be pretty bad: the sole intake for the system appears to be the right side panel, which means if you have an open-cooler GPU, all the air in the case is essentially getting preheated by it, and the CPU, PSU, and drives are going to run hotter/louder as a result. It's a pretty poor design, thermally. I think the A4 is much better in this regard, with direct access to outside air for each component.

Not to mention it's smaller and looks better ;)
 
I don't agree with calling it a copy, i mean, at what point do you stop calling a mere layout a 'copy'?

The thermaltake debacle is a bit silly for the same reason - the caselabs case is superior and not the same design, and there are existing cases that use the same shape and layout. The execution is what matters.

The A4 layout is not unique and it's not the first. It may be the first with that layout to make it to market but again, the execution is what I pay attention to. I would love to see more manufacturers make similar cases so we have choice.



For that matter, I came up with a very similar layout with inspiration from a russian scratch build and a few silverstone cases at the same time dan was doing his. This was when the A4 thread was created and I didn't realise this similarity until his thread hit around 10 pages.

I'm very excited to see more about this MSI nightblade because my design uses a very similar mobo and GPU placement (but nothing else).

The cooling nightblade cooling looks poor but only numbers will tell when it's released and reviewed. I will reserve proper judgment until then.

I like the use of single sides+top panel cover. Aesthetic is meh, not great and not bad. Front could be improved but the rest of the case looks like a standard PC case (just smaller).
 
Maybe just me, but I find it a bit suspicious that they bring this to the crowd just as the A4 starts to get much more traffic.
 
Doesn't matter who copied who, as long as it is not a blatant carbon copy more choices are good.
Who knows, maybe after I get my A4 someone I know likes it but it's no longer on sale? It would be good to have alternatives then.
 
I wonder if external powered pc cases will become popular as well. I know that QinX is working on a sub 4L water cooled case, but that's with a thin itx motherboard and a stripped out Gpu without the fan cooler. There was another guy a while back that made a sub 4L air cooled case but he scrapped that project. :/
 
Maybe just me, but I find it a bit suspicious that they bring this to the crowd just as the A4 starts to get much more traffic.

Yeah... they don't just pull a case out like that. They may have started a year ago or even longer.
 
I wonder if external powered pc cases will become popular as well. I know that QinX is working on a sub 4L water cooled case, but that's with a thin itx motherboard and a stripped out Gpu without the fan cooler. There was another guy a while back that made a sub 4L air cooled case but he scrapped that project. :/

I hope not.
I mean no hate for people who like external PSUs, but if manufacturers see that as a good to "reduce" size. Then those of us who prefer internal PSUs are f***ed.

I hope someone big (like Lian-Li or Silverstone) takes an interest in Dan's A4-SFX, and hires him (or pays him for the design) then starts mass producing the A4-SFX (or a case with a similar layout).
I'm not a very big fan of aluminum chassis, but since the A4-SFX is the only one I could get in that lay out, I'm fine with aluminum.
 
I hope not.
I mean no hate for people who like external PSUs, but if manufacturers see that as a good to "reduce" size. Then those of us who prefer internal PSUs are f***ed.

I hope someone big (like Lian-Li or Silverstone) takes an interest in Dan's A4-SFX, and hires him (or pays him for the design) then starts mass producing the A4-SFX (or a case with a similar layout).
I'm not a very big fan of aluminum chassis, but since the A4-SFX is the only one I could get in that lay out, I'm fine with aluminum.

DIY market is small, and SFF market is even smaller, thats why large manufactures doesn't much effort on SFFs
 
I hope not.
I mean no hate for people who like external PSUs, but if manufacturers see that as a good to "reduce" size. Then those of us who prefer internal PSUs are f***ed.

I hope someone big (like Lian-Li or Silverstone) takes an interest in Dan's A4-SFX, and hires him (or pays him for the design) then starts mass producing the A4-SFX (or a case with a similar layout).
I'm not a very big fan of aluminum chassis, but since the A4-SFX is the only one I could get in that lay out, I'm fine with aluminum.

Internal PSU and extenal PSU cases are different and basically different markets.

I don't think anyone will be using his design but if the case is popular enough, Dan may be able to do more production runs. I highly doubt it will be 'bought up' and the layout is not patented in every country that has a market for it.

They are free to use the GPU-behind-mobo layout as they want. But I expect more of these types of cases to keep coming out.
 
I wonder if external powered pc cases will become popular as well. I know that QinX is working on a sub 4L water cooled case, but that's with a thin itx motherboard and a stripped out Gpu without the fan cooler. There was another guy a while back that made a sub 4L air cooled case but he scrapped that project. :/

That was Machupo with Neutronium V4, but Runamok81 did something very similar with Little Mac, and he actually finished it.

There are quite a few externally powered cases, the ones from HD-Plex, LianLi PC-Q05, Akasa Euler, some of the Streacom passive cases. But none of those are designed with a GPU in mind, and that's because it's often hard to get your hands on power bricks that are strong enough to power a high-end gaming system. Most case manufacturers wouldn't want to go through the hassle of making this concept work.

For complete systems, that's a different story. The Alienware Alpha and the Asus GR8 are very small mid-ranged gaming systems that are powered externally, and they can do that because they know exactly what hardware is inside their system. They can know for sure that the brick they supply with the system will be powerful enough, while case manufacturers have to plan in a lot of headroom to make sure that every possible configuration works.

And even if you manufacture a full system, you get into a territory where the external power bricks don't really help anymore. The Asus G20AJ shows that to a great extent. I needs two external powerbricks, has a very sophisticated cooling solution, was made with size in mind, and still is 12,5L large. As most powerbricks don't have 12V, but 19V output, you need a strong converter inside your system, which takes up a bit of space, and a bit of space is a lot of space in SFF.
 
I missed seeing this back in June. In any case, was wandering around Guang Hua Digital Plaza in Taipei today and spotted it. It's pretty compact in person, I'm was pretty impressed. Across the way in the new Syntrend mall there was an official MSI store with it sitting next to the regular Nightblade, which dwarfs it. The max spec available is an i7-4790/GTX 970, which isn't terrible, but while I didn't get exact pricing (my Chinese is pretty poor), it's definitely on the expensive side. The i5-4600S/GTX 950 version was listed at ~$1000 at the MSI store (also, worth keeping in mind that Taiwan pricing is usually about 20% higher than in the US for some reason).

I've pre-ordered and S4 Mini, and the A4 looks better in just about every way, but it's interesting to see manufacturers starting to get with it w/ smaller SFF systems. This looks like the most compact prebuilt VR-ready (GTX 970+) system available right now.
 
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