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

Hi guys! Will be building in an Ncase as soon as I can get my hands on one and these are the current parts I am thinking of using. However I am unsure on what CPU cooler to use that will fit my motherboard. any tips for air coolers?

GPU - 980TI reference
CPU + MOBO - 4790K + ROG IMPACT
RAM - HYPER X FURY / Savage 8GBX2
PSU - SILVERSTONE 600W
CASE - NCASE M1
COOLER -

Thank you!
 
brahbruh said:
Hi guys! Will be building in an Ncase as soon as I can get my hands on one and these are the current parts I am thinking of using. However I am unsure on what CPU cooler to use that will fit my motherboard. any tips for air coolers?

GPU - 980TI reference
CPU + MOBO - 4790K + ROG IMPACT
RAM - HYPER X FURY / Savage 8GBX2
PSU - SILVERSTONE 600W
CASE - NCASE M1
COOLER -

Thank you!
Click to expand...

We have the exact same spec. And for CPU cooler I go for Corsair Hydro H100i. A very reliable one ;)
 
wschow said:
We have the exact same spec. And for CPU cooler I go for Corsair Hydro H100i. A very reliable one ;)
Click to expand...

I am thinking of going air cooler as I want to use the other 120mm slot for 2 HDD. Any flat down air coolers you would recommend?
 
brahbruh said:
I am thinking of going air cooler as I want to use the other 120mm slot for 2 HDD. Any flat down air coolers you would recommend?
Click to expand...

The Noctua NH-C12 permits the use of the hard drive cage and cools only slightly less than the NH-C14 which prevents mounting of the drive cage.
 
A few air coolers that will fit the NCASE M1 on ASUS boards..



( FROM LEFT TO RIGHT: NOCTUA C12 W/A15 BY AFD -- SCYTHE KABUTO II W/2X 120MM BY COWSGOMOO -- NOCTUA C14 W/2X 120MM BY NECERE )


The Kabuto II is one of the beefiest coolers that will fit and still allow use of the side HDD rack (the C14 pictured above does not).
 
AFD said:
A few air coolers that will fit the NCASE M1 on ASUS boards..



( FROM LEFT TO RIGHT: NOCTUA C12 W/A15 BY AFD -- SCYTHE KABUTO II W/2X 120MM BY COWSGOMOO -- NOCTUA C14 W/2X 120MM BY NECERE )


The Kabuto II is one of the beefiest coolers that will fit and still allow use of the side HDD rack (the C14 pictured above does not).
Click to expand...

Thank you for the pictures! The C12 seems like a solid choice!
If inwere to not use the hdd cage. Would you say that thw c14 is the best cooler that can fit on the ROG impact
 
Last edited:
brahbruh said:
Thank you for the pictures! The C12 seems like a solid choice!
If inwere to not use the hdd cage. Would you say that thw c14 is the best cooler that can fit on the ROG impact
Click to expand...

Not sure if the C14 is the absolute best, but it's definitely a great choice that's been popular with several folks here. It's just a shame that it doesn't fit with the 3.5" HDD bracket (as it's shown in the main pictures at Ncases.com).
 
Qrash said:
The Noctua NH-C12 permits the use of the hard drive cage and cools only slightly less than the NH-C14 which prevents mounting of the drive cage.
Click to expand...

Hit the order button on this cooler + a noctua 92mm pwm for the rear.

Would you guys recommend getting two 120mm for the button of the case or would this not benefit to much ?
 
Leska said:
Hit the order button on this cooler + a noctua 92mm pwm for the rear.

Would you guys recommend getting two 120mm for the button of the case or would this not benefit to much ?
Click to expand...

Probably won't make much of a difference, depending on GPU style (blower, open air, aftermarket heatsink). I personally think it's a good idea, just for additional case airflow, but it likely won't have much effect on your GPU temps.

Before considering bottom fans, I'd highly recommend ditching the fan that ships with the C12 and replacing it with the larger A15 PWM (or any other PWM fan). The included non-PWM P14 was noticeably louder than the F12 PWM and the A15 PWM to my ears.
 
AFD said:
Before considering bottom fans, I'd highly recommend ditching the fan that ships with the C12 and replacing it with the larger A15 PWM (or any other PWM fan). The included non-PWM P14 was noticeably louder than the F12 PWM and the A15 PWM to my ears.
Click to expand...

My experiences with the P14 was that it generated a lot of noise, and barely pushed any air. I know its not necessarily a fair comparison, but a gentle typhoon running significantly quieter was able to push far more air Through the heatsink than the noctua P14.

As impressive as the P14 looks compared to a 120mm fan, I am getting better results will a 120, acoustically and thermally.
 
AFD said:
Not sure if the C14 is the absolute best, but it's definitely a great choice that's been popular with several folks here. It's just a shame that it doesn't fit with the 3.5" HDD bracket (as it's shown in the main pictures at Ncases.com).
Click to expand...
It's actually the C12 in the renders. Look at this pic carefully - note the curvature of the heatpipes and the fin stack at the base. The C14 doesn't have that.
 
Leska said:
Can you still mount 3.5 harddrives with the A15 PWM ?
Click to expand...

Yes, just mount it direct to the heatsink as far towards the rear as possible and oriented with the tabs at top/bottom (doesn't interfere with GPU either). I just posted a picture of the A15 mounted on a C12 today (LINK; see 1st photo)

Leska said:
Noctua NF-A14 PWM Will this be any good to replace the fan that comes with the C12 ?
Click to expand...

No. The C12 will only fit square 120mm fans and 140mm fans that have 120mm hole spacing (P14 or A15)



Necere said:
It's actually the C12 in the renders.
Click to expand...
My bad.. didn't realize you changed it. :eek: It was a C14 at one point, I think.
 
AFD said:
My bad.. didn't realize you changed it. :eek: It was a C14 at one point, I think.
Click to expand...
In the original IGG campaign for the prototype funding, I did show the C14 in the renders. Of course, I actually tested it later after we had the prototype and discovered it wouldn't fit that way, so it changed to the C12 for all subsequent renders.
 
Hey I know I'm jumping the gun very early, but I wanted to stir some discussion.

Do you think we'll be able to get Type-C connectors for the front to swap-out the USB 3.0s?

We could do a group buy. Seeing as SkyLake is coming out, and Type-C peripherals are about to come out... I figured I'd try to raise some interest.
 
kidlufty said:
Hey I know I'm jumping the gun very early, but I wanted to stir some discussion.

Do you think we'll be able to get Type-C connectors for the front to swap-out the USB 3.0s?

We could do a group buy. Seeing as SkyLake is coming out, and Type-C peripherals are about to come out... I figured I'd try to raise some interest.
Click to expand...
I'd be up for this, and willing to pay too much for it. :p

Would take a good bit of work, but getting a case made does too. :)
 
I wouldn't mind the new v4 run having 1x type-C and 1x type-A at the front as a compromise, if that's possible. Having strictly 2x type-C will have a limited market for some time, and would be useless for folks continuing to use older boards.

Plus, I'm gonna miss trying to plug in a cable, flip it around and try it again, only to realize I had right the first time.. which happens >90% of the time :p
 
has anyone tried to cram a Gigabyte 980 in here?

Looking at 980's and considering the Gigabyte, but I'm pretty sure it's too long.
 
AFD said:
Yes, just mount it direct to the heatsink as far towards the rear as possible and oriented with the tabs at top/bottom (doesn't interfere with GPU either). I just posted a picture of the A15 mounted on a C12 today (LINK; see 1st photo)



No. The C12 will only fit square 120mm fans and 140mm fans that have 120mm hole spacing (P14 or A15)



My bad.. didn't realize you changed it. :eek: It was a C14 at one point, I think.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the advice. Just ordered the A15 now + a 92 mm pwm for the rear of the case. Wont order any buttom case fans. And went with a SilentStorm SFX Gold 500W. Hopefully the system will be very low noise. Atleast when just browsing etc. Can live with a bit of noise, when gaming, since i use headphones 99% of the time, when gaming
 
AFD said:
I wouldn't mind the new v4 run having 1x type-C and 1x type-A at the front as a compromise, if that's possible. Having strictly 2x type-C will have a limited market for some time, and would be useless for folks continuing to use older boards.
Click to expand...
There's a long lead time and significant tooling costs for something like that, and we're too close to v4 production to consider it. I wouldn't expect type-C to really catch on for some time anyway.

Curiositie said:
has anyone tried to cram a Gigabyte 980 in here?

Looking at 980's and considering the Gigabyte, but I'm pretty sure it's too long.
Click to expand...
It does fit (that's a GTX 970, but it's the same cooler/dimensions as the 980), though it's at the upper limit lengthwise. The bigger concern is heat when using an axial fan cooler like the Windforce, which deanx0r goes into in his post.
 
Necere said:
There's a long lead time and significant tooling costs for something like that, and we're too close to v4 production to consider it. I wouldn't expect type-C to really catch on for some time anyway.
Click to expand...
I do look forward to USB type-C being mainstream but I'd also guess this is going to take a while. And we're obviously hoping Ncase will bring us more nice stuff in the future by then :D
 
For now:
Necere said:
We're considering changing the fan bracket to SECC (steel) for V4. It's not for strength reasons though - it's to allow us to include a magnetic filter with the case that attaches to the bracket. This is what it looks like on a Lian Li case.
Click to expand...
 
AFD said:
I wouldn't mind the new v4 run having 1x type-C and 1x type-A at the front as a compromise, if that's possible. Having strictly 2x type-C will have a limited market for some time, and would be useless for folks continuing to use older boards.

Plus, I'm gonna miss trying to plug in a cable, flip it around and try it again, only to realize I had right the first time.. which happens >90% of the time :p
Click to expand...

Really looking forward to type-C where I'll only have to turn the plug around once to get it in :D

But that will be a while, we're just now starting to see boards with a single of these plugs at the back because there aren't any stacked versions of it yet, and I'm not sure if there even is a section in the standard for front type-C yet, especially when considering alternative modes.
 
Necere said:
It does fit (that's a GTX 970, but it's the same cooler/dimensions as the 980), though it's at the upper limit lengthwise. The bigger concern is heat when using an axial fan cooler like the Windforce, which deanx0r goes into in his post.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the link!
Good to know it does fit, that at least makes it an option when searching fro 980's.
 
I'm sure eventually there'll be Type-C cables like the Type-B cables that you can just screw into the front panel of your case, possibly with a similar form-factor for compatibility. I don't see why they wouldn't, anyway.
 
Looking forward to the V4. Bought one of each and i'm running out of reasons to buy another.
 
ReXDFEt.jpg


It's very tight, but it fits.I wouldn't recommend an open air cooler in the M1 tho, and certainly not the G1 series if you value silence. The card goes full blast when you start the computer (very annoying) and isn't completely silent when idle. There is a walk around but it requires a vga bios mode. If I were to redo it, I would go with hybrid watercooler GPU like the eVGA 980ti Hybrid or the upcoming AMD GPU with a short PCB and radiator.

AMD-Radeon-R9-Fury-X-Draft-Render-Fiji-XT-GPU.jpg
 
We'll be opening pre-orders as soon as we've validated the changes to the fan bracket, which is the only change for v4. Bear in mind production will take around a month, and shipping won't be until the second half of July or beginning of August.

Also, our plan is to ship the pre-ordered cases directly from Taiwan, as we've been doing, but after that w360 wants to ship the rest to the US to ship from here. This means if you miss the pre-order window (which will be open until probably mid-July), the next shipments after the late July-early August shipment from Taiwan won't be until September or October. This applies to orders in the Americas and Europe; we'll be keeping a small stock of M1s in Taiwan to fill orders in the rest of Asia and Australia.
 
Necere said:
We'll be opening pre-orders as soon as we've validated the changes to the fan bracket, which is the only change for v4. Bear in mind production will take around a month, and shipping won't be until the second half of July or beginning of August.

Also, our plan is to ship the pre-ordered cases directly from Taiwan, as we've been doing, but after that w360 wants to ship the rest to the US to ship from here. This means if you miss the pre-order window (which will be open until probably mid-July), the next shipments after the late July-early August shipment from Taiwan won't be until September or October. This applies to orders in the Americas and Europe; we'll be keeping a small stock of M1s in Taiwan to fill orders in the rest of Asia and Australia.
Click to expand...

Sweet! Would order right away when it comes back in stock! :D
 
It would be complicated to design and I don't think it would work well, unfortunately. The filter material isn't really suitable for use on the outside of the case without some kind of reinforcing frame.
 
If i'm subscribed to your newsletter, will I be notified about the preorder, or do I need to check here every day?
 
Nobu said:
I'm sure eventually there'll be Type-C cables like the Type-B cables that you can just screw into the front panel of your case, possibly with a similar form-factor for compatibility. I don't see why they wouldn't, anyway.
Click to expand...

The issue I see there is that Type-C has increased the maximum current the connector can or should provide, so maybe a front connector for Type-C needs a different connector on the board that has different ratings for power or has to be powered by a SATA power cable or something like that.

Not sure though, it may be that the lowest current still stayed the same. I'll have a look at the standard and report back ;)

EDIT: So the thing is, the orientation of the plug inside the Type-C receptable has to be detected by the host, in this case, the Front I/O panel. This means that if you were to implement a Type-C front panel that works with the USB3.0 header, you'd have to have a small Microcontroller on the PCB that does that detection and forwards the data to the required pins. The advantage is that your I/O panel could then also implement the various alternative modes like DisplayPort or TRRS Audio, but the disadvantage is that you'd have very high R&D costs until somthing like this becomes available publicly or board designers implement an internal Type-C connector.
 
Last edited:
I was thinking something like this, only Type-C connectors instead of Type-B, and whatever they decide for the motherboard header (if they ever put one into spec). For this, I'd imagine the host would still be the motherboard (or, more specifically, the USB controller on the motherboard).

If you were planning on keeping the same motherboard, I could see where you'd have a problem...but then you would need some USB Type-C hub/controller in the case anyway--either built into the case, or an add-in card that optionally receives additional power from the PSU.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top