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

[Curiositie]

How are your temps with the Accelero on the 970?

I've got a similar cooler on my 750ti and I'm getting 35/70C Idle/load passive right now, and was thinking of swapping to a 970.

 

[mwayne5]

What motherboard are you using? I've read that the Asrock motherboards can be thinner than others so maybe this is contributing to the amount of curvature. Regarding the over-tightening of the cooler, did you place any washers on the back of the motherboard under the cooler's backplate?

It is an Asrock board. I honestly can't remember if I used washers or not. I just used the included hardware and followed the instructions.

 

[FinnishNerdmare]

Wow, that's a crazy tight fit. I can't tell from the pic, are these leads close to the cables?

Are they tight Those spikes are incredible sharp and pretty much digged into those cables which is not good at all. I dont want to be electrocuted. So theres absolutely no room between the card and 24pin.

Does anyone know if theres some sort of adapter or something for v1 power supply mount?

 

[icc0rz]

How are your temps with the Accelero on the 970?

I've got a similar cooler on my 750ti and I'm getting 35/70C Idle/load passive right now, and was thinking of swapping to a 970.

With dual SP120L 120mm PWM fans and the standard fan settings form Gainward the idle temp is 27C, and after a couple of hours with BF4 the max is 57C.
It's pretty quiet, but not quiet enough. I can post the results after testing out the NF-S12B Redux 1200 and tweaking the settings for quiet operation.

 

[Series^]

Is there any way of getting those little panel brackets that the side & top panels snap in to?

I've broken a few off my V1 taking the panels off and trying to relocate non-essential ones to broken corners, but they just snap if I try to take them off.

Any alternate panel mounting methods?

 

[milkcow]

Is there any way of getting those little panel brackets that the side & top panels snap in to?

I've broken a few off my V1 taking the panels off and trying to relocate non-essential ones to broken corners, but they just snap if I try to take them off.

Any alternate panel mounting methods?

write wahaha360 https://www.ncases.com/contact
and ask him to send you some

 

[Urelure]

With dual SP120L 120mm PWM fans and the standard fan settings form Gainward the idle temp is 27C, and after a couple of hours with BF4 the max is 57C.
It's pretty quiet, but not quiet enough. I can post the results after testing out the NF-S12B Redux 1200 and tweaking the settings for quiet operation.

With those temps in mind you can always alter the fan curve to allow for higher max temperatures to get a quieter build.

 

[EdZ]

It looks like the connectors (apart from the retention clips) just about reach halfway across the PSU. Does flipping the SX500-LG so the fan faces the inside allow the connectors to clear the rear edge of the GPU?

 

[CyberShot]

I installed also today my SFX-LG and I used PCI-E Extender.

But extender is bad quality so my GPU is working only x4 mode. Now I am looking better extender. I have now found these:
http://www.bplus.com.tw/ExtenderBoard/P27F.html
http://www.ameri-rack.com/ARC1-PELX16A1-C7V2.html

And also that 3M.

 

[Aibohphobia]

Are they tight Those spikes are incredible sharp and pretty much digged into those cables which is not good at all. I dont want to be electrocuted. So theres absolutely no room between the card and 24pin.

Does anyone know if theres some sort of adapter or something for v1 power supply mount?

That's very not good, you could fry your whole rig if it shorts.

I'm working on a custom bracket, it would place the PSU like the ATX bracket except shifted up against the front so the connectors would go past the front edge of the card.

There's also someone working on a 3d printed version of the V3 bracket I believe.

 

[Hanakuso]

That's very not good, you could fry your whole rig if it shorts.

I'm working on a custom bracket, it would place the PSU like the ATX bracket except shifted up against the front so the connectors would go past the front edge of the card.

There's also someone working on a 3d printed version of the V3 bracket I believe.

I noticed in the poll results you have 1&2 vs 3. Is the V3 different compared to the first 2 ncases?

 

[Aibohphobia]

I noticed in the poll results you have 1&2 vs 3. Is the V3 different compared to the first 2 ncases?

The v3 SFX bracket is 2mm higher than the v1/v2 bracket for a bit more clearance.

Combined with card sag it's enough for the connectors to safely clear the card.

Edit: I suppose it doesn't matter that much, interest is interest, I'm just curious how many v3 owners are still interested even though it looks like SFX-L works with the v3 bracket (albeit with some card sag).

 

[Urelure]

The v3 SFX bracket is 2mm higher than the v1/v2 bracket for a bit more clearance.

Combined with card sag it's enough for the connectors to safely clear the card.

Edit: I suppose it doesn't matter that much, interest is interest, I'm just curious how many v3 owners are still interested even though it looks like SFX-L works with the v3 bracket (albeit with some card sag).

I think it is more about peace of mind than realistic issues. Even a ghetto piece of paper would sicnificantly reduce cable insualtion rubbing issues. But that bracket makes so much sense. It will future proof your case as well as being a far more elegant solution aestetically. The reason the stock sfx bracket is designed the way it is i the first place is to accomodate dual rad or 3,5" HDD. For us who is not interested in that this new bracket is, in my opinion, much better.

 

[-bjorn]

I have a SX600-G and I wanted to sleeve the cables and
shorten them as they're awfully long as is, I'm looking for
some recommendations for sizing if anyone could give me a
hand for the lengths to best accommodate my NCASE, I want
it to be clean and have neat runs while not having too much cable clutter. Thanks!

This is what I was thinking.

• 24-pin CPU: 20cm
• 8-pin CPU: 20cm
• Dual 6+2-pin PCIe: 20cm+10cm

Edit: Motherboard is an ROG Impact VI.

 

[Hanakuso]

The v3 SFX bracket is 2mm higher than the v1/v2 bracket for a bit more clearance.

Combined with card sag it's enough for the connectors to safely clear the card.

Edit: I suppose it doesn't matter that much, interest is interest, I'm just curious how many v3 owners are still interested even though it looks like SFX-L works with the v3 bracket (albeit with some card sag).

Thanks. Looking forward to this happening.

I have a SX600-G and I wanted to sleeve the cables and
shorten them as they're awfully long as is, I'm looking for
some recommendations for sizing if anyone could give me a
hand for the lengths to best accommodate my NCASE, I want
it to be clean and have neat runs while not having too much cable clutter. Thanks!

This is what I was thinking.

• 24-pin CPU: 20cm
• 8-pin CPU: 20cm
• Dual 6+2-pin PCIe: 20cm+10cm

Which motherboard?

 

[-bjorn]

Thanks. Looking forward to this happening.


Which motherboard?

Haha, my bad, that would help, wouldn't it? It's an Asus Impact VI.

 

[Hanakuso]

Haha, my bad, that would help, wouldn't it? It's an Asus Impact VI.

I have the same motherboard and I custom made my cables. Well, I custom made half of them and the other half are just shortened from the silverstone flat kit. I don't know the exact lengths but it's not hard to just use a ruler yourself. Are you doing it yourself or paying someone?

Also, each cable is slightly different in my case because I wanted it neatly laid out depending on which way they need to bend. So one side might be a few millimeters longer then the other side

 

[-bjorn]

I have the same motherboard and I custom made my cables. Well, I custom made half of them and the other half are just shortened from the silverstone flat kit. I don't know the exact lengths but it's not hard to just use a ruler yourself. Are you doing it yourself or paying someone?

Also, each cable is slightly different in my case because I wanted it neatly laid out depending on which way they need to bend. So one side might be a few millimeters longer then the other side

I'm planning on doing them myself, just going to cut them down in length and put some nice sleeving on them, because I already find them a bit long and I don't want to stuff them behind the motherboard tray. I thought maybe asking the community may lead to some ideas, I don't want to butcher my cables and make them too short to be usable for any other builds, though I doubt I'd leave my NCASE, so I want to leave them an appropriate length, I found the community here is very good at calculating things and taking the future into account.

 

[Curiositie]

With dual SP120L 120mm PWM fans and the standard fan settings form Gainward the idle temp is 27C, and after a couple of hours with BF4 the max is 57C.
It's pretty quiet, but not quiet enough. I can post the results after testing out the NF-S12B Redux 1200 and tweaking the settings for quiet operation.

Please do, I'd be very interested.

 

[AFD]

The reason the stock sfx bracket is designed the way it is i the first place is to accomodate dual rad or 3,5" HDD. For us who is not interested in that this new bracket is, in my opinion, much better.

Aiboh's bracket is a very smart idea, but it still leaves us v1/v2 owners needing a v3-style bracket that doesn't block the frontward rad/fan/hdd mount shit out of luck.. at least until the current batch of v3 cases are sold and another run is started (which is still a long way off and may never happen at all).

 

[Phuncz]

The last few days I've noticed small puddles of coolant appearing under my Ncase. Apparently my EK FC R9 290X waterblock decided to start leaking after a year of service. I wasn't entirely happy with the Swiftech H220, having crappy fans (one was even rattling loudly under a certain angle) and the pump not being able to be quiet.

So I decided to remove the watercooling setup and focus on a good air cooling:

I used a Scythe Kabuto 2 (thanks cowsgomoo) with a Noctua NF-F12 fan from a NH-L12 heatsink I still had (used the Scythe fan on that one) and an Arctic Accelero Extreme IV (thx Necere) on the R9 290X with two Noctua NF-F12 fans. The Noiseblocker 80x15mm fan in my ST45SF-G is now the noisiest (read as: least quiet) part in my case...

I'll need to tweak the fan settings but I'm basically running almost the same temps as idle, except it's whisper quiet now. Oh yes and no more leaks.

 

[ghostwich]

*snip*

I used a Scythe Kabuto 2 (thanks cowsgomoo) with a Noctua NF-F12 fan from a NH-L12 heatsink I still had (used the Scythe fan on that one) and an Arctic Accelero Extreme IV (thx Necere) on the R9 290X with two Noctua NF-F12 fans. The Noiseblocker 80x15mm fan in my ST45SF-G is now the noisiest (read as: least quiet) part in my case...

I'll need to tweak the fan settings but I'm basically running almost the same temps as idle, except it's whisper quiet now. Oh yes and no more leaks.

Very glad to hear you got back up and running - a leak is no joke. Whisper quiet, at what rpm(s)?

 

[AFD]

I used a Scythe Kabuto 2 (thanks cowsgomoo) with a Noctua NF-F12 fan from a NH-L12 heatsink I still had (used the Scythe fan on that one) and an Arctic Accelero Extreme IV (thx Necere) on the R9 290X with two Noctua NF-F12 fans..

Very nice rebuild Phuncz.. I like it! (and can't believe I'm seeing that many fans in your case )

And good choice on the F12s.. really good sounding fan imo. Are the bottom two being powered/controlled by your M7i or the 290x?

 

[Mackan]

The last few days I've noticed small puddles of coolant appearing under my Ncase. Apparently my EK FC R9 290X waterblock decided to start leaking after a year of service. I wasn't entirely happy with the Swiftech H220, having crappy fans (one was even rattling loudly under a certain angle) and the pump not being able to be quiet.

So I decided to remove the watercooling setup and focus on a good air cooling:

I used a Scythe Kabuto 2 (thanks cowsgomoo) with a Noctua NF-F12 fan from a NH-L12 heatsink I still had (used the Scythe fan on that one) and an Arctic Accelero Extreme IV (thx Necere) on the R9 290X with two Noctua NF-F12 fans. The Noiseblocker 80x15mm fan in my ST45SF-G is now the noisiest (read as: least quiet) part in my case...

I'll need to tweak the fan settings but I'm basically running almost the same temps as idle, except it's whisper quiet now. Oh yes and no more leaks.

I guess this will look very similar to my setup, except I have the SX500-LG and plan to have an Accelero Twin Turbo II on a short PCB GTX 960/970. With the right cable management, it's going to look very clean I think. Good to hear that it's quiet.

 

[Urelure]

So I decided to remove the watercooling setup and focus on a good air cooling

Looking good These accelero coolers are becoming popular. What did you do about the cooling for secondary components?

I'll need to tweak the fan settings but I'm basically running almost the same temps as idle, except it's whisper quiet now. Oh yes and no more leaks.

Good to hear. I have decided to do this with a short PCB 970 soon. Was about to press buy but have had to set aside quite a but of funding for rainy days, given that the Norwegian oil industry is laying off people left and right and there are houses to be kept and fridges to fill. No fun investments on this side of the summer at least

As for Noctua fans, Have anyone got first hand experience with the industrial grade fans in regard to noise level rpms for rpms. I know they are rated to be louder, but they are also rated at way higher rpms. Would a regular Noctua fan and an industrial "equivalent" at 800rpm be comparable or significantly different?

 

[Phuncz]

Thanks for the comments, guys !

Whisper quiet, at what rpm(s)?

I don't know, AIDA64 doesn't report fan speeds on the Maximus 7 Impact (or I've not figured it out). I'm going to try the latest Ai Suite and see if it works this time.
But at first boot the UEFI was complaining my CPU fan was running too low at 300rpm (treshold was 600rpm)

Very nice rebuild Phuncz.. I like it! (and can't believe I'm seeing that many fans in your case )

LOL indeed, 50% more fans than my previous build Minus the loud pump though...

Are the bottom two being powered/controlled by your M7i or the 290x?

The M7I for now. I'm thinking about putting them on the R9 290X so they are dynamically controlled, now they are CPU-temp bound.

What did you do about the cooling for secondary components?

The coolness of fresh air at the moment. I had some stick-on heatsinks but they were a millimeter too wide for the VRM's. I'm not worried about the memory chips, but I think I'll be toasting those VRM's easily this way. I'm going to look for VRM and RAM sinks, any suggestions are welcome !

 

[goodbyegalaxy]

These ones don't look like much, but they get good reviews: http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835708012 (Amazon link). I had them bookmarked because someone else here recommended them.

 

[Phuncz]

Yeah I've seen those too. But something I'm wondering:

Those chips inside the pink area, you can see 6 larger ones and 6 smaller ones. Do they all need cooling ? Because a kit of 10 of those Enzotech heatsinks won't do. Also, the VRM's in the red area also need three heatsinks. And I should also get a few kits of RAM sinks for the memory chips. But that's like $60 worth of heatsinks...

I've been eyeing the Gelid R9 290 enhancement kit which includes all the VRM sinks for $10-$20, but it's nowhere (in Europe) to be found in-stock.

 

[Zangmonkey]

The last few days I've noticed small puddles of coolant appearing under my Ncase. Apparently my EK FC R9 290X waterblock decided to start leaking after a year of service. I wasn't entirely happy with the Swiftech H220, having crappy fans (one was even rattling loudly under a certain angle) and the pump not being able to be quiet.

So I decided to remove the watercooling setup and focus on a good air cooling:

I used a Scythe Kabuto 2 (thanks cowsgomoo) with a Noctua NF-F12 fan from a NH-L12 heatsink I still had (used the Scythe fan on that one) and an Arctic Accelero Extreme IV (thx Necere) on the R9 290X with two Noctua NF-F12 fans. The Noiseblocker 80x15mm fan in my ST45SF-G is now the noisiest (read as: least quiet) part in my case...

I'll need to tweak the fan settings but I'm basically running almost the same temps as idle, except it's whisper quiet now. Oh yes and no more leaks.

Great setup.

How close to the intake on the panel is that fan?

Also, this build appears to have negative pressure. Report back in a while about dust would be much appreciated

 

[iFreilicht]

Guys could you please snip the pictures from the post or put spoilers around it?

 

[theGryphon]

Great setup.

How close to the intake on the panel is that fan?

Also, this build appears to have negative pressure. Report back in a while about dust would be much appreciated

How can it have negative pressure when all three fans are intake??

 

[Phuncz]

Guys could you please snip the pictures from the post or put spoilers around it?

I agree, no use in quoting the pictures too.

How close to the intake on the panel is that fan?

You can roughly see from the first picture you quoted. I'd say about 10mm give or take, the heatsink isn't really parallel to the case panel.

 

[Zangmonkey]

How can it have negative pressure when all three fans are intake??

On second examination you're right....


Seems to me the bottom fans should exhaust...

 

[Aibohphobia]

As for Noctua fans, Have anyone got first hand experience with the industrial grade fans in regard to noise level rpms for rpms. I know they are rated to be louder, but they are also rated at way higher rpms. Would a regular Noctua fan and an industrial "equivalent" at 800rpm be comparable or significantly different?

I have the 140mm 2000RPM and at low speeds it's comparable to the non-industrial versions, with PWM I had it running at 660RPM at idle (it won't go that low on voltage control though).

 

[Phuncz]

On second examination you're right....


Seems to me the bottom fans should exhaust...

Than I would have negative pressure

The build performed quite well in Diablo 3 1920x1080 60fps, CPU, GPU and GPU VRM's stayed around 60°C and the system remained relatively quiet. Much more quiet than I could run my watercooling setup

 

[Zangmonkey]

Than I would have negative pressure

The build performed quite well in Diablo 3 1920x1080 60fps, CPU, GPU and GPU VRM's stayed around 60°C and the system remained relatively quiet. Much more quiet than I could run my watercooling setup

One additional intake fan and you wouldn't be negative pressure anymore. I figure the GPU exhausting wouldn't heat up the case.

 

[Phuncz]

I'll be removing the card when I find VRM heatsinks anyway, so I might try turning the fans around. But I'd indeed would need another fan.

 

[Blk]

That's very not good, you could fry your whole rig if it shorts.

I'm working on a custom bracket, it would place the PSU like the ATX bracket except shifted up against the front so the connectors would go past the front edge of the card.

There's also someone working on a 3d printed version of the V3 bracket I believe.

Got my GTX 980 Ref. today and tried it with the SX500-LG. If your bracket puts the PSU up against the front plate, I'll work perfectly.
But you won't be able to move it more than 2-3mm before it starts to hit the GPU.
Urelure's suggestion won't really improve it because there's not really any space to move it around, given that you have a card that is 267mm or longer.
There's however plenty of room "height wise" and cable routing won't be a issue.

 

[Aibohphobia]

Got my GTX 980 Ref. today and tried it with the SX500-LG. If your bracket puts the PSU up against the front plate, I'll work perfectly.
But you won't be able to move it more than 2-3mm before it starts to hit the GPU.
Urelure's suggestion won't really improve it because there's not really any space to move it around, given that you have a card that is 267mm or longer.
There's however plenty of room "height wise" and cable routing won't be a issue.

Do have a pic? My bracket doesn't push the PSU right up against the front, I left a few mm space for clearance.

Urelure's idea I think is to give flexibility between mounting drives on the inside front versus GPU length.

So depending on the card length you could use either none, 1, or 2 drives.

 

[Urelure]

I'll be removing the card when I find VRM heatsinks anyway, so I might try turning the fans around. But I'd indeed would need another fan.

I think you can expect comparable results as ScorpioNElite if you flip the fans around. As you can see he reported that intake was the most effective for GPU temps. Since your build gets fresh air for the CPU, contrary to his PSU mounted AIO, there might not be any gain in using them as exhaust.

Urelure's idea I think is to give flexibility between mounting drives on the inside front versus GPU length. So depending on the card length you could use either none, 1, or 2 drives.

That was the general idea yes, but also for creating a tight space to route cables.