NCASE M1: a crowdfunded Mini-ITX case (updates in first post)

WiSK said:
Both my rigs have a ST45SF-G sleeved.

It's difficult to describe without pictures, but think of a door handle. Normal door handles are a mirror of each other. If they were both exactly the same, then one of them would pointing the wrong way. Or you can turn it upside down, but then you have to open the door by pushing upwards. PSUs in the Silverstone Strider connectors are similar. The connectors on PSU side and MB side have exactly the same pinout. But because the sockets point towards one another, the wires all have to cross from one side to the other column-wise, while keeping the same row (mirrored). Or you turn the PSU upside-down and cross wires from one row to the other while keeping the same columns (interlaced).

Happily, in the NCase M1 the PSU points down and the motherboard towards you. So you'll have a natural curve so you can go with interlaced which looks a bit nicer.
Click to expand...

Thanks for your helpful analogy WiSK. That makes much more sense. I can't wait to start sleeving, I'm going to get the material and get some practice in on my current rig in my signature.
Again, thanks for you help.
 
White Rice said:
Thanks, now I don't feel pressured to order.
Click to expand...
Don't get too relaxed, there's only two days left to order at ncases.com


Hopefully after the successful delivery of this product, customers wont think twice to buy direct from ncases in the future and they can make a bit more profit. (if they decided to do another run, extra panels, new model, etc)
 
at0m33 said:
If anyone buys a piece at ncases.com, the counter at igg is updated?
Click to expand...

No, it's separate. They will order 660 from IGG + whatever they sold at ncases + 10-15% extra for RMA and replacing shipping damages.
 
WiSK said:
No, it's separate. They will order 660 from IGG + whatever they sold at ncases + 10-15% extra for RMA and replacing shipping damages.
Click to expand...

Ow I see. I ordered from ncases.com directly, but I watched the counter at igg closely and was very happy to have one of the last 10 cases :p but apparently they will continue to take orders till sunday? Great. Will spread the word a bit more.

Also, is it normal that I still didn't get a confirmation email from ncases.com? Ordered 10 hours ago, did get paypal payment confirm mail though.
 
Consider that Wahaha360 is travelling professionally a lot and doesn't have time or internet access that often so it might take a few days.
 
I am so glad I stumbled upon this thread the other day when I was browsing Google; I pre-ordered one in a heartbeat.
 
Ribozyme said:
Also, is it normal that I still didn't get a confirmation email from ncases.com? Ordered 10 hours ago, did get paypal payment confirm mail though.
Click to expand...

I will send an email to all backers to confirm order and shipping address after the campaign ends.
 
Phuncz said:
Consider that Wahaha360 is travelling professionally a lot and doesn't have time or internet access that often so it might take a few days.
Click to expand...

I usually don't travel frequently, however, this year I'm trying to finish end of year work 1 month in advance.

I will most likely use all of my vacation days this year to ship M1 between late Nov to Jan 2014.

I have to really hustle and work with other people's schedule in order to accomplish this = more traveling now.
 
wahaha360 said:
I will send an email to all backers to confirm order and shipping address after the campaign ends.
Click to expand...

When I ordered on ncases.com, I believe I misspelled my email address (no email confirmation from PayPal).

If I give you my payment info and personal info I typed in when I ordered, can you update the email?
 
WiSK said:
Try the PSU first and then decide if you want to do the mod. It might be more acceptable in the M1 than other cases people have tried. You never know :)

Sleeving: http://en.mdpc-x.com/ you need crimper and Molex de-pinning tool. It's quite an investment, but you can use it for years on many PSUs. It's not hard to do as long as you take your time, read the guides and watch the videos.
Click to expand...

Wow thanks for the site. Really awesome, makes me want to start sleeving right away. The pictures of the sleeving and tools look beautiful. Checked some vids already and should be doable, am prepared to put in a lot of time, gonna make this my project!

wahaha360 said:
I will send an email to all backers to confirm order and shipping address after the campaign ends.
Click to expand...

Okay thanks, no need to feel pressured though, this must be a ton of work for you I iamgine. Really a big thanks to you and Necere, this is a truely amazing project you guys have realised and wil hopefully inspire many others and manufacturers for innovation.
 
wahaha360 said:
I usually don't travel frequently, however, this year I'm trying to finish end of year work 1 month in advance.

I will most likely use all of my vacation days this year to ship M1 between late Nov to Jan 2014.

I have to really hustle and work with other people's schedule in order to accomplish this = more traveling now.
Click to expand...

<3

This will be the best late Christmas present ever. Just a few more hours and we can consider this successful campaign wrapped up. We're that much closer!
 
Lol @ increased IGG reward availability amount :D

Wonder how many will jump in right at the end!
 
No. Nothing even really competes with the M1s ability at its size, in any price bracket. It exists to inspire more good things at this size to be developed. So buy one, to make it more successful, to make the big boys (Silverstone, Lian Li, Antec, Corsair etc.) pay more attention to the mini ITX space.
 
Lord_Vale3 said:
No. Nothing even really competes with the M1s ability at its size, in any price bracket. It exists to inspire more good things at this size to be developed. So buy one, to make it more successful, to make the big boys (Silverstone, Lian Li, Antec, Corsair etc.) pay more attention to the mini ITX space.
Click to expand...

+1. Though I expect within a year, one of those companies will try and make a comparable knock-off for less than half the price. It'll still end up being larger, heavier, with poor utilization of available space, and made of cheaper steel & plastics. Lian Li & Silverstone might get the closest, but I bet it'll still be a far cry from the M1 and won't look anywhere near as nice.
 
AFD said:
Lian Li & Silverstone might get the closest, but I bet it'll still be a far cry from the M1 and won't look anywhere near as nice.
Click to expand...

M1 is probably flawed by their standards because it doesn't have a 180mm fan and it doesn't have a 4x3.5" hot-swap rack.
 
cowsgomoo said:
M1 is probably flawed by their standards because it doesn't have a 180mm fan and it doesn't have a 4x3.5" hot-swap rack.
Click to expand...

Lol. I never did understand their desire to put a hot-swap HDD rack in a case that required removing an entire panel to access. I mean, if you're already taking off a panel just to swap a drive, it can't be that much more of a pain to boot down the dang machine.

Dunno. Maybe I'm just missing something?
 
PcZac said:
Are there any good cheap alternatives to the Ncase M1?
Click to expand...
No, and that's kind of the point; the entire motivation for this project from the beginning was that what was available invariably failed in one way or another. Big, ugly, limited - you name it, there was nothing that really seemed to get it right.

Now, I'm not going to pretend that I've designed the perfect small case. But I'd like to think that it gets more things right than anything else currently on the market. The fact that we have a successfully funded crowdfunding campaign leads me to believe that there are quite a few people that agree.

Having said that, there are other competent mini-ITX cases out there. I like the Node 304 for its simple & elegant exterior design, but not so much a fan of the "shoebox" form factor or size of it. The FT03-mini is neat, I think - but it has some quirks and limitations, and the ODD slot and Silverstone's blasted snowflake kind of put me off.
 
well i did finally ordered one. I sure hope that maybe next year we do another run eater this or something similar. I would like 4 more i think but that cant happen right now.

thanks for all the hard work.

rody
 
AFD said:
Lol. I never did understand their desire to put a hot-swap HDD rack in a case that required removing an entire panel to access. I mean, if you're already taking off a panel just to swap a drive, it can't be that much more of a pain to boot down the dang machine.

Dunno. Maybe I'm just missing something?
Click to expand...

To be fair it's actually easy to hot-swap because Lian Li panels are screwless. But I don't see why most people would want to hot-swap on a regular basis. More importantly, those 4x3.5" racks take up too much space. See PC-Q08, PC-TU200, PC-Q18, PC-Q25, PC-Q28.
 
cowsgomoo said:
To be fair it's actually easy to hot-swap because Lian Li panels are screwless. But I don't see why most people would want to hot-swap on a regular basis. More importantly, those 4x3.5" racks take up too much space. See PC-Q08, PC-TU200, PC-Q18, PC-Q25, PC-Q28.
Click to expand...

I can't see many people wanting 4x3.5" in an itx, unless it's an optional cage where a longer graphics card would go.

Personally, ideally, a itx case would only have room for 2x3.5" drive and 2x2.5" for SSD, that way you have room for a full backup hard drive in the case. Also, I don't understand why SSDs are in 2.5" form factors when some barely take up half of the enclosure.
 
cowsgomoo said:
To be fair it's actually easy to hot-swap because Lian Li panels are screwless.
Click to expand...
Tell that to my PC-V352, it has 6 (!) for each panel. It might not be the worst case ever designed technically, but it's one of the most stupid. Can't remove a hard drive without removing the motherboard tray, can't remove the videocard without COMPLETELY removing the motherboard tray and you can't use ANY videocard that uses power connectors on the top. Yeah sure it can fit 10" videocards, but not their power connectors :rolleyes:

Oh well, I'll be getting the Cooler Master Elite 130 as soon as it's released, so I can upgrade my GPU in time for Battlefield 4, until the M1 arrives.
 
cowsgomoo said:
Bitfenix Prodigy, Fractal Design Node 304, or the new Coolermaster Elite 130.
Click to expand...

I wouldn't mention the Bitfenix Prodigy as an alternative to this case, or nearly any decent mITX case. It has a capacity of 36 liters. There are fullsize ATX cases (I'm not even talking &#956;ATX) that are smaller than the Bitfenix Prodigy!

The 304 and 120 are about 1.5x the size of the Ncase M1, which is more fair. The added space allows for a bit more storage capactiy when using a fullsize ATX psu, but overall these cases are less efficiently designed.

Thanks for your answers again Necere. Put up the amount for a silver M1 including shipping to Europe yesterday! Can't wait to transfer my system from my SG05-450 to this new case, and make the build more silent whilst keeping the potential for mobility.

Will the HDD brackets/mounts/screws come with any anti-vibration measures by the way?
 
cowsgomoo said:
To be fair it's actually easy to hot-swap because Lian Li panels are screwless. But I don't see why most people would want to hot-swap on a regular basis. More importantly, those 4x3.5" racks take up too much space. See PC-Q08, PC-TU200, PC-Q18, PC-Q25, PC-Q28.
Click to expand...

Exactly, you need to have that much storage, you have an external unit connected via eSATA or you have a multi drive NAS
 
Necere said:
They fit on the fan bracket fine. There's 3mm between the bracket and side panel, which is enough for the Demciflex filters plus magnetic backing.

The same design also fits on the bottom, although it's less than perfect due to all the vents and mounting holes there. The design I came up with uses four separate strips for the magnetic backing, you can see in a couple areas where it would need to be trimmed:



Real estate is at a premium on the bottom, and it's a bit of a challenge to come up with a design that clears all the mounting holes. The current solution is less than ideal though, so I don't know... maybe I'll take another stab at it, see if I can some up with something better.
Click to expand...

i'd be interested in some of these, but will wait till the case arrives and then revisit the options, but if the design is submitted to them it would, i agree, make life easier for ordering, and might cut down the number of queries you get regarding it !
 
Received my Silverstone ST45SF-G v2.0 and PP05 Short cable kit.

The 24-in ATX cable in the PP05 short cable kit is 2 Inches LONGER than the standard cable.
Makes no sense at all to me.
 
soundx said:
Received my Silverstone ST45SF-G v2.0 and PP05 Short cable kit.

The 24-in ATX cable in the PP05 short cable kit is 2 Inches LONGER than the standard cable.
Makes no sense at all to me.
Click to expand...

Yes, I mentioned the PP05 short cable set being longer than the included ST45 set a few times recently. Actually, even yesterday I made mention of this.

The extra PP05 kit would make a good candidate for cutting to length and sleeving, I suppose.. that way you'll still have the original for reference, or in case you mess up.

Any good deals on the ST45 v2 going around that you ordered it so soon?
 
Alright, the mobo and CPU are here (M6I and 4670K)
the question is, should I wait for the M1 to get here before start building? or should I use just build it into cubitek mini ice for now?
they are all just sitting in their box collecting dust lol
what should i dooooooo
 
soundx said:
Received my Silverstone ST45SF-G v2.0 and PP05 Short cable kit.

The 24-in ATX cable in the PP05 short cable kit is 2 Inches LONGER than the standard cable.
Makes no sense at all to me.
Click to expand...

Yeah, the PP05 was designed for their regular PSUs and was brought out long before they made the ST45SF-G.

Also it has two PCIe 6+2 cables instead of one PCIe with a split 6+2 + 6.

Edit: what AFD said :)
 
AFD said:
Yes, I mentioned the PP05 short cable set being longer than the included ST45 set a few times recently. Actually, even yesterday I made mention of this.

The extra PP05 kit would make a good candidate for cutting to length and sleeving, I suppose.. that way you'll still have the original for reference, or in case you mess up.

Any good deals on the ST45 v2 going around that you ordered it so soon?
Click to expand...

WiSK said:
Yeah, the PP05 was designed for their regular PSUs and was brought out long before they made the ST45SF-G.

Also it has two PCIe 6+2 cables instead of one PCIe with a split 6+2 + 6.
Click to expand...

I thought I'd read something in one of your posts but it just seemed so bizarre it didn't fully register until I saw the cables in front of me :) Yes it's good to practice on.

$94.99 at egg less $15 AUGWINBACK
 
I've been watching this thread for a very long time. Finally pulled the trigger last night. I can't even afford the build yet, but this case makes me drool. I just want to thank everybody here for making this case a reality.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top