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

OverRated said:
20140120_220033.jpg
Click to expand...

I can almost see what I've been looking for in that 3rd picture. Have you been able to confirm the fitment of the aduio header to the daughter-board with the block installed?

Edit: D'oh!
 
Hello all
Great thread!
I was also planning a build with EK water block on asus impact mobo

Though i can't seem to find this case anywhere, there's one on Ebay but not shipping outside US. Will this case ever gonna be produced or we're stuck with the first and last manıfactured batch?
 
Someone REALLY needs to update that first post with a FAQ at the top.
Wahaha360 ?
 
BoraTo said:
Hello all
Great thread!
I was also planning a build with EK water block on asus impact mobo

Though i can't seem to find this case anywhere, there's one on Ebay but not shipping outside US. Will this case ever gonna be produced or we're stuck with the first and last manıfactured batch?
Click to expand...

Please refer to the first post FAQ.
 
Almighty ODST said:
I really like how clean the build is and the conversion to hex hardware.
Click to expand...
Thanks, it took a little while to countersink and check each depth but it was worth it. I like the idea that I just need 1 allen key to completely strip my case to bare (apart from removing ODD from the mounted side brackets) but also every part of my case is now aluminium or stainless.

Almighty ODST said:
I just don't particularly care for the feet. I think they look kind of cheap :/
Click to expand...
How can you say that? :eek: Ok, I may brush them up.
As far as I'm concerned, solid aluminium > plastic. Also, the aluminium feet sit flush against the case giving more support. The supplied plastic are on a bit of a stilt.

If anyone else is a bit impatient, I've emailed Demciflex and ordered the Ncase filter kit with ST45SF-G PSU filter, they're being sent out next week.

edit: Slightly offtopic, but I've also ordered a custom filter for anyone who owns a N36L, N40L or N54L HP Microserver. This slips just inside the front door. PM me for design.
 
@dstart

I think what I don't like about the feet is that they are solid while the case is brushed and the two tones of aluminum don't quite match. I agree that solid aluminum is better than plastic any day of the week, though.
 
wahaha360 said:
Done.
Click to expand...
Awesome !

Now there is nothing that stands in the way of people knowing about this info. Unless it is their skill to read the first few lines... That still might be a challenge to some but nothing we can be blamed for.
 
Geoffrey4283 said:
I can almost see what I've been looking for in that 3rd picture. Have you been able to confirm the fitment of the aduio header to the daughter-board with the block installed?

Edit: D'oh!
Click to expand...

Yer you can't install the header the block is in the way.
 
I know the feeling, always got 1 project on the side... these days I can spend hours and hours finding the perfect parts.
As I'm fairly busy this is limited to 2 cases a year, switching back and forth between atx and itx, a htpc and custom case building.
What's pretty funny... some of my sketches from 3 years ago look identical to the M1, except the motherboard was swapped to the other side with the gpu up, and the optical drive in front instead.
This sketching can be real fun, and these days with sketchup it's even easier.

What I tried to say is the fun is in the designing + building, once that's done there's nothing left for me and mostly I sell the builds on.
This I bought for my mobile workstation for between projects for which because of the easy access to parts and room... something like the mac pro minus the mac parts.
 
Last edited:
aruthir said:
Hi jtiger102, that would be great. Hope your transition to the M1 goes smoothly!

I forgot to mention, thank you so much Necere and Wahaha for designing, and bringing this case all the way from concept to reality. I absolutely love it despite being a relative newb compared to a lot of veterans on here.
Click to expand...

So, I tackled the transplant today. I have a bunch of pictures along the way.

I did run into a problem in that I think my H220 pump isn't working. I've put a Corsair H55 with Noctua PWM fans in at the moment. It's actually doing quite well. Idle temps are 32 - 33 degrees C. Room temperature is 25 degrees C.

As far as noise goes, the power supply is a little noisier than my previous build in a CM Elite 130. I had a Seasonic X-650 which would shut the fan off under low loads, so at times it was dead silent. The Silverstone Bluray drive is decent. You can hear a disc spinning up and while a disc is playing. It's not overwhelming at all and unless you have a really quiet scene or your volume is really turned down, I wouldn't worry about it.

Once I get the pics uploaded, I'll post a link here and in the spreadsheet.
 
Last edited:
Does anyone have any suggestions for a quiet graphics card that will suit the NCASE?

I've tried an EVGA GTX 770 with the Nvidia blower style cooler. That works well in terms of getting the heat out of the case, but its pretty loud in more intensive games. I also tried a non-reference design, the Gigabyte GTX 770, since that seemed to have one of the bigger heatsinks.

Stock it was pretty loud too and also warmed up the whole case. So I suspect it might be even worse for long term use despite being a tad quieter.

I tried removing the stock fans and putting two 120mm Nexus fans at the bottom, now that was pretty quiet, but the temps get out of control pretty fast and just keep going up with a moderate to heavy load.

So I'm kind of at a loss. Obviously a custom water cooling setup is probably the way given infinite time to fiddle and a large budget, but short of that does anyone have other suggestions?

My best thought is to go with a lower output GPU since the 770 is probably more than I need. Maybe an AMD 270x and hope the heat output is low enough. Only other thing I can think of is something like the Kraken G10 http://www.nzxt.com/product/detail/138-kraken-g10-gpu-bracket.html but really no idea how well that might work...
 
I got my res today just waiting on a few fittings to come though the mail after playing around with the pump and tubing i found this to work the best.

20140121_173807.jpg
 
IncubusBob:

MSI R9 270X HAWK or N760 HAWK fits (watch out for PCIE power connectors, these cards are a bit wider) and are pretty quiet. The only problem is the produced heat during gaming if you have 3.5" HDDs in cage about graphics card. I'm now running my M1 with 270X HAWK without 3.5" HDDs and trying to figure something out. Without HDD cage the temps are fine and the card/whole computer is very quiet (I've modded the PSU fan, that was the loudest part of the computer even at idle).

OverRated:

Whoa. Very nice. More photos, please :)
 
I also just ordered the Demciflex filters through emailing them. Additionally I requested the filter for the ST45SF-G PSU. So while they don't have them listed on their website anywhere, they seem to have them. Hopefully it's the right kit. :)

4 x DEMCiflex NCASE M1 120mm Square Filter Non-Ferrous Black/black @ USD 5.50 each
1 x DEMCiflex ST45SF Filter Non-Ferrous Black/black @ USD 3.50 each
Click to expand...
 
PiT said:
IncubusBob:

MSI R9 270X HAWK or N760 HAWK fits (watch out for PCIE power connectors, these cards are a bit wider) and are pretty quiet. The only problem is the produced heat during gaming if you have 3.5" HDDs in cage about graphics card. I'm now running my M1 with 270X HAWK without 3.5" HDDs and trying to figure something out. Without HDD cage the temps are fine and the card/whole computer is very quiet (I've modded the PSU fan, that was the loudest part of the computer even at idle).

OverRated:

Whoa. Very nice. More photos, please :)
Click to expand...


More photos will come soon just waiting on the rest of the parts :) .

I'm thinking about making the power cables shorter but if i change boards they cables mite not reach so im still thinking about it most asus boards have there power connectors in the same places.
 
Last edited:
My system runs fine except when its off and started up it doesnt find the SSD. Ideas?
 
@harsaphes

Assuming ssd and motherbard thats in your sig? This sounds like a issue I've had with an older ssd. Check your firmware on the ssd and make sure its up to date, as this sounds like this is probably the issue, note that some firmware updates reset the ssd so make sure its backup 1st. If that dont work I'd try a different sata cable and sata port on the motherboard just to make sure these are not an issue. Could also make sure you motherboard bios is up to date.
 
Last edited:
OverRated said:
I'm thinking about making the power cables shorter but if i change boards they cables mite not reach so im still thinking about it most asus boards have there power connectors in the same places.
Click to expand...
Mine PP05-E cables arrived last friday and I've had the same thoughts. I've decided to cut the cables to some reasonable length exactly as you think, still waiting for molex power connectors and rethinking how would I redirect the hot air from graphics card somewhere else from HDD cage.
 
xbeater said:
I also just ordered the Demciflex filters through emailing them. Additionally I requested the filter for the ST45SF-G PSU. So while they don't have them listed on their website anywhere, they seem to have them. Hopefully it's the right kit. :)
Click to expand...

If necere can confirm this somehow I will order them immediately :D
 
Hi everyone, just curious what the difference is between the supplied filters, and the demciflex ones that Necere designed?

Is there a big difference besides aesthetics?
 
aruthir said:
Hi everyone, just curious what the difference is between the supplied filters, and the demciflex ones that Necere designed?

Is there a big difference besides aesthetics?
Click to expand...

demciflex filters are magnetic -> easier cleaning /easier removal
 
could you please provide a link to the M1 filters in demciflex's website? i could not find it for the life of me!
 
PiT said:
Mine PP05-E cables arrived last friday and I've had the same thoughts. I've decided to cut the cables to some reasonable length exactly as you think, still waiting for molex power connectors and rethinking how would I redirect the hot air from graphics card somewhere else from HDD cage.
Click to expand...

Yep its the best i think here what mine look like after cutting them down, I shorted all of them by about half and the molex cable and added two sata ports to it, Also cut down the pump wires so there only a inch long now.

Also when i do my leak testing ill be using an other PSU out side the case to save the pain removing the cables.

20140121_225628.jpg


20140121_225634.jpg
 
darxider said:
could you please provide a link to the M1 filters in demciflex's website? i could not find it for the life of me!
Click to expand...

I do not believe they have officially posted them yet. If you wish to order right now, you'd have to send an e-mail.
 
Nyven said:
@harsaphes

Assuming ssd and motherbard thats in your sig? This sounds like a issue I've had with an older ssd. Check your firmware on the ssd and make sure its up to date, as this sounds like this is probably the issue, note that some firmware updates reset the ssd so make sure its backup 1st. If that dont work I'd try a different sata cable and sata port on the motherboard just to make sure these are not an issue. Could also make sure you motherboard bios is up to date.
Click to expand...

Updated everything. So far so good. If it happens again I will swap out the cable.
thanks
 
jtiger102 said:
So, I tackled the transplant today. I have a bunch of pictures along the way.

I did run into a problem in that I think my H220 pump isn't working. I've put a Corsair H55 with Noctua PWM fans in at the moment. It's actually doing quite well. Idle temps are 32 - 33 degrees C. Room temperature is 25 degrees C.

As far as noise goes, the power supply is a little noisier than my previous build in a CM Elite 130. I had a Seasonic X-650 which would shut the fan off under low loads, so at times it was dead silent. The Silverstone Bluray drive is decent. You can hear a disc spinning up and while a disc is playing. It's not overwhelming at all and unless you have a really quiet scene or your volume is really turned down, I wouldn't worry about it.

Once I get the pics uploaded, I'll post a link here and in the spreadsheet.
Click to expand...

Images uploaded: http://imgur.com/a/Ms2Bb
 
Kaos_Drem said:
Nice clean build man. You should check your temps on the 780 with heaven or something like mining to see what your maximum temps you might see. I don't run a fan below the card in mine as my card seems to max out around 72C, curious to see if having a fan force air into the card will help.
Click to expand...

Running Heaven on the Extreme preset:
In the Elite 130 build, I had it set for a temp limit of 82 degrees so the GPU fan would spin up and hold around 83 degrees.

Doing some testing with the AF120, it doesn't look like it makes any difference on the GPU temps. I tried with the fan off and full on and with a curve applied. Nothing seemed to really help the GPU keep any cooler than just using it's own fan.

The AF120 at best may be helping to move some other air around the case, but with the GPU in the way, I don't think it is moving much. I may just remove it.

On a positive note, the rig seems a little quieter with the GPU oriented facing down as opposed to facing towards me. In the Elite 130 the fan was facing me and I could hear it more. In the M1, with the fan facing down, I think some of the sound is muffled slightly.

Edit: One thing I did notice is that my card seems to not be too happy when it gets around the 84 to 85 degree mark. The driver will temporarily crash and recover. So, I'm keeping it just below that mark. I also applied both core and memory offsets for overclocking. And thank you for the compliments on the build.
 
Last edited:
ATTENTION::(
This is the verbatim reply I just got from SilverstoneTek support regarding my question which I will put after this: "For safety reasons we can't provide any information and by modifying the
power supply or cables this void the warranty." What? For safety reasons they can't give info? This is from my email asking them for help and giving them facts to work with:
"... a capacitor, marked with a polization with the neg. on the black negative wire to pin 3, and the other side on the orange wire to pin 2. It is marked with characters on three lines:
Label Line1: 330 Line 2: 6.3CG Line3: 342
Since it is wired across 3.3V, I am guessing that 6.3CG means 6.3V. No idea
what the "CG" means The 330 and 342 could be values or date/lot codes. ..."
It's small and tubular and looks like an electrolytic, with the small crimp on the bottom end where its leads exit. I had to read the labeling with a good pair of glasses (small). My guess is it is not noise suppression but rather inrush suppression or more likely hold-up for that line.
My concern is it is on the cables that came with the ST45SF-G PSU, and was obviously done at the factory. What SAFETY at 3.3V?:confused:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top