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

JetFlos push more air at higher RPM (than the NF-P12), but will probably be louder too. I'd guess they're about the same as Noctua's industrial fans, maybe a little quieter (don't know, haven't had one of those).
 
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Thanks, I'll test the industrial version for noise (I heard they are significantly louder) and go from there!

On a less crucial note, I've been looking into Silverstone's excellent sleeved cable replacements, but they're super long—all 550mm sleeved compared to the 300mm motherboard cable (supplied with 600W SFX PSU) as an example. Is there any other way to get sleeved cables without doing them myself that are short enough?
 
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Sorry if this has been asked before. I've noticed the power cable going to my ASUS GTX 960 Mini is causing the side of the case to bulge because it sticks straight out of the card into the side panel. Is there are good solution for preventing this? I double there are any PSU cables available with a 90 degree 6 pin PCIe connector. I'm wondering if the cable needs to be zip tied to a point on the case that will pull it away from the side panel.
 
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astheria said:
Thanks, I'll test the industrial version for noise (I heard they are significantly louder) and go from there!
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I know that from a friend that the industrialPPC can be as quiet as the normal Noctua fans. You probably just need to throttle them down (via your BIOS, third party software or fan control). Only problem is that they can't run as slow and silent as the normal fans which disqualifies them for super-silent low-RPM setups. But at moderate RPMs they aren't loud.


Epos7 said:
Sorry if this has been asked before. I've noticed the power cable going to my ASUS GTX 960 Mini is causing the side of the case to bulge because it sticks straight out of the card into the side panel. Is there are good solution for preventing this? I double there are any PSU cables available with a 90 degree 6 pin PCIe connector. I'm wondering if the cable needs to be zip tied to a point on the case that will pull it away from the side panel.
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The DirectCU-Mini designs should fit without problems. Do you have very rigid power cables?As you can see from the picture I have linked you can tilt the cable. If that is not possible with your cables, you can get a sleeved extension cable for your PCI-E connecters that bend and tilt more easily. Tilted PCI-E connectors do not exist to my knowledge.
 
Sverebom said:
The DirectCU-Mini designs should fit without problems. Do you have very rigid power cables?As you can see from the picture I have linked you can tilt the cable. If that is not possible with your cables, you can get a sleeved extension cable for your PCI-E connecters that bend and tilt more easily. Tilted PCI-E connectors do not exist to my knowledge.
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I'm using the power cables that came with my SX500-LG. I think the cable had some memory from its original shape, but now that I've bent it back into place a couple of times it seems to be staying there. If not I'll check out the sleeved cables. Thanks.
 
I'm looking to do a dual radiator custom loop with a slim rad and slim fans on the bottom and the main rad in the standard location. Any general thoughts on fan placement (push vs. pull) and airflow direction (intake vs exhaust)?

I am trying to make this build as travel friendly as possible so I'm wary of putting fans between the rads and the mounts. Though, the bottom fan is fairly thin so it is less of a problem and I'd consider the side rad as well if it felt secure.
 
Has anyone had an issue with the PCIE slots in the case where a GPU screws into place fine, but the bracket isn't actually flush with the outside slot, thereby causing issues with connectors not fully inserting into the ports? Trying to figure out how to resolve this...
 
Loosen all of your motherboard mounting screws and press lightly toward the back of the case as you tighten them down--should fix it. If not, it may be a manufacturing defect in your case or motherboard.
Edit: or do you mean it's too low or high?
 
Sverebom said:
Noctua industrialPPC 2000RPM. They have the latest Noctua technology for durable high performance cooling AND ... they are all black (with brown vibration dampeners, that you can remove. Since they are actually designed for server environments they can run with 2000 (or 3000) RPM, which at the same time disqualifies them for silent (non-audible) systems with extra-low RPMs. But with some fan control to get these beasts under control, you will have a quiet and powerful loop. Bit pricey, but you just need two of them so it's not too painfull.
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Actually selling two of those exact same fans to go to the poopy brown ones.

I think they'd be pretty close to silent at 5v.
 
Nobu said:
Loosen all of your motherboard mounting screws and press lightly toward the back of the case as you tighten them down--should fix it. If not, it may be a manufacturing defect in your case or motherboard.
Edit: or do you mean it's too low or high?
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That's a good idea, thanks. I should have thought of that. Hopefully that does the trick. Basically it's as if the plane of the port is a few mm further inside the case than it should be.. I have a V1 and this just started recently but I can't put my finger on when or what I might have done to cause it. Very irritating though.
 
Epos7 said:
Sorry if this has been asked before. I've noticed the power cable going to my ASUS GTX 960 Mini is causing the side of the case to bulge because it sticks straight out of the card into the side panel. Is there are good solution for preventing this? I double there are any PSU cables available with a 90 degree 6 pin PCIe connector. I'm wondering if the cable needs to be zip tied to a point on the case that will pull it away from the side panel.
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I have a gtx 970 mini and I used a 90 degree left angled pcie adapter (ebay) to avoid this entirely.
 
I have a question for any custom loop ncase owners, what is the average temperature of your motherboard?

Thinking of downsizing, but still plan on watercooling the cpu and gpu. Currently looking at my options for res and pump.
 
Well that didn't work either, video is still intermittent... I guess I'm going to have to pull everything from the case and confirm it works that way and then go from there... so weird.
 
OK all the parts are now available in my country.
Here's my finale part list:

Intel i5-6600k
Gigabyte GA-Z170N-WIFI
NH-C14 (dual 140mm fans)
Silverstone SFX 600W
Kingston hyperx fury single 8GB (2.666MHz)
Msi Gtx 970

I will buy all the parts when my case arrives
Still waiting for the case since it shipped 3 September..

Anymore suggestions?
 
The Silverstone 500 Watts SFX-L would be more than sufficient for this setup. Both the CPU and the GPU very actually. While the Core i5-6600K is rated at 95 watts, it is actually much closer its 65 watts brethren. The SFX-L PSU will be tight fit though, especially if the graphics card comes with a backplate.

I'd still prefer the 500 watts SFX-L PSU over the 600 watts PSU. You don't 600 watts need for that setup, and getting a PSU that is probably more than 50 percent more powerful than it has to be won't help you much to keep the PSU quiet (or even in passive mode).

I'd also go for 16GB RAM, DDR-2400 if necessary to keep the prices a bit lower. You won't actually gain much from the extra DDR-bandwidth and DDR-2400 should be enough. Or are there any OC plans that require the Kingston RAM?
 
How does my build look? All tips are appreciated! It'll be my first build.

CPU: i7-6700k
CPU Cooler: Corsair H75
MoBo: ASRock Z170M-ITX/ac gaming
RAM: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2666
SSD: Samsung 850 500GB
GPU: R9 Fury X
PSU: Silverstone 600W SFX
Case Fan: 2 x Noctua NF-12 PWM 55.0 CFM 120mm

Do I have space for a 3.5" HDD? I'm either looking to add that as a 2nd storage device or another SSD down the line.

And advice on the build process would be great!
 
Sverebom said:
The Silverstone 500 Watts SFX-L would be more than sufficient for this setup. Both the CPU and the GPU very actually. While the Core i5-6600K is rated at 95 watts, it is actually much closer its 65 watts brethren. The SFX-L PSU will be tight fit though, especially if the graphics card comes with a backplate.

I'd still prefer the 500 watts SFX-L PSU over the 600 watts PSU. You don't 600 watts need for that setup, and getting a PSU that is probably more than 50 percent more powerful than it has to be won't help you much to keep the PSU quiet (or even in passive mode).

I'd also go for 16GB RAM, DDR-2400 if necessary to keep the prices a bit lower. You won't actually gain much from the extra DDR-bandwidth and DDR-2400 should be enough. Or are there any OC plans that require the Kingston RAM?
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For the power supply I opted to to for the more safe route space and power wise, maybe the SFX-L is a better more budget friendly option. If I overclocking my i5 won't it thap alot more power from the PSU?

For the ram I chose Kingston hyper x fury because I saw that the ddr3 version has gotten great reviews. Also the 2.666MHZ version is the same price as the 2.400MHZ version in my country. So I see no reason to go for that.

Thanks for the advice, I will look into the SFX-L 500 PSU ^^
 
berendsp said:
For the ram I chose Kingston hyper x fury because I saw that the ddr3 version has gotten great reviews. Also the 2.666MHZ version is the same price as the 2.400MHZ version in my country. So I see no reason to go for that.
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But you are getting DDR4-RAM, right? Because your mainboard only supports DDR4. Bandwith a timings should be of no concern for you. There are virtually no differences these days for most people in desktop gaming environments. Pick a manufacturer that you trust (like Kingston) with lifetime warranty (like Kingston) and a 16GB kit that looks nice (HyperX? really? :p )

I've seen the Core i5-6600K clocked at 4.6Ghz with a slight voltage adjustment. The power consumption in Cinebench peaked at 170 watts for the CPU with that amount of overclocking. In more realistic load scenarios I would put that CPU in the 140 watts range with overclocking, and around 80 watts without overclocking. You will have to perform some serious overclocking both on the GPU and the CPU to push the power consumption of your setup to even 350 watts in realistic load scenarios. So, you will be fine with the 500 watts PSU. If anything the temperature of the CPU might pose a limit to your overclocking ambititons (83°c at 4.6Ghz in an open case - on a hot summer-day though).
 
Sverebom said:
But you are getting DDR4-RAM, right? Because your mainboard only supports DDR4. Bandwith a timings should be of no concern for you. There are virtually no differences these days for most people in desktop gaming environments. Pick a manufacturer that you trust (like Kingston) with lifetime warranty (like Kingston) and a 16GB kit that looks nice (HyperX? really? :p )

I've seen the Core i5-6600K clocked at 4.6Ghz with a slight voltage adjustment. The power consumption in Cinebench peaked at 170 watts for the CPU with that amount of overclocking. In more realistic load scenarios I would put that CPU in the 140 watts range with overclocking, and around 80 watts without overclocking. You will have to perform some serious overclocking both on the GPU and the CPU to push the power consumption of your setup to even 350 watts in realistic load scenarios. So, you will be fine with the 500 watts PSU. If anything the temperature of the CPU might pose a limit to your overclocking ambititons (83°c at 4.6Ghz in an open case - on a hot summer-day though).
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Yes I'm goin g for ddr4. But I want to buy a single 8gb stick now and buy the other 8gb later. I don't need 16gb right now.

Thanks for the advice for the psu, nvidea has high power requirements on there gtx product page. Minimum is 500wat:eek:
 
I don't know why they do that. Probably to make sure that people who have bought a low-quality PSU don't fry their hardware the first time their PSU has to handle serious loads. A cheap PSU might do that. 500 watts are written on the box, but power it to 400 watts and boom goes the PSU. Quality-PSUs like the Silverstone don't do that. They can even handle much higher peak loads. The Silverstone SX500-LG for example can handle 580 watts for a short time (don't do that though! It's just good to know that you have that cushion).

A full-ATX build with a Intel Core i7-4770K Haswell-CPU (power consumption similar to your Core i5-6600K) and a "custom-clocked" GTX970 pulls 270 watts from the PSU. Add some overclocking and tons of peripherals and you might end up at 350 watts. Which the Silverstone SX500-LG would actually appreciate because below 75 watts in idle mode it quickly becomes less efficient. Make sure that you have loads of ~100 watts (idle) to 300+ watts (load) for best efficiency.

P.S.: Make sure that you get the exact same RAM module again when you upgrade. Probably don't wait too long with that. Who knows if that module will still be available in a year.
 
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Are you talking about the MSI one, skjetne? The PCB on that one looks very high, though not as high as the ASUS one. It's certainly not as clear a fit as the Gigabyte one.
 
skjetne said:
Not to be rude, but wrong. 980 ti Gaming 6G does fit. The pcb does not interferere.
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The NCASE compatibility spreadsheet says that it requires low profile PCI-E connectors. The PCB does not interfere, but the PCI-E connnectors do because they are on the top edge of a larger PCB. The PCB's size is indirectly at fault.
 
Can anyone recommend either the NF-F12 iPPC2000, SP120 High-Perf PWM, or NF-S12B redux-1200 as bottom fans?

They'll have minimal clearance from an open-air 980 Ti, with a H100i in push/exhaust above. My intuition tells me that the F12 and SP120 will be a wash and the S12B might not do as well at overall case airflow given the limited space between the fans and the card.

Already have the F12s and SP120s but thinking about the S12s. Whatever's not on the bottom will go on the H100i.
 
Have you tried any fans in the bottom? I saw no difference with bottom intakes/side exhaust. Only when side fans were intake did it help.

That said, both my SP120s for the H100i had bearing noise so I can't recommend them.
 
Hmm, so side intake and bottom exhaust maybe? Not as enthused about that since the dust filters likely wouldn't fit and not sure how the 980 Ti would do fighting for air.

Without the bottom fans I get the impression that I'll have a lot of trapped hot air since I had this problem with every 250+W card in my SG08. The 670 and 980 were fine but the 780 Ti and 980 Ti destroyed temperatures with a H80i intake.

My buddy reported a notable 5-10'C improvement in his v2/MSI 980 Gaming/H60v2 setup when he put some F12s in the bottom, but I can't remember whether his H60 was set up as exhaust or intake.
 
Yeah, I got about 5 C improvement with side intakes/bottom intakes over side intake/nothing and great CPU temps, but GPU temps were still worse than side exhaust/nothing.
Side exhaust gives me such high CPU temps though. Perhaps side intake/bottom exhaust is the way forward. Didn't try bottom exhaust at all though because I assume it would fight the GPU fans for air.
 
Yeah, don't know if it was this thread, but I know I read somewhere that bottom exhaust with a gpu in the m1 = bad idea.
Edit: Unless you have a hybrid/aio cooled GPU, a fanless GPU, or feel like modding/replacing your GPU cooler.
 
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Actually, Phuncz and Cowsgomoo have had good results with bottom exhausting fans that draw warmed air through the large heatsinks they have mounted onto their graphics cards.
 
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Yeah, but they don't have GPU fans that blow the opposite direction. The bottom fans are the GPU fans for them.
 
friend'scatdied said:
Can anyone recommend either the NF-F12 iPPC2000, SP120 High-Perf PWM, or NF-S12B redux-1200 as bottom fans?
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So assuming bottom intakes are not problematic, which of these three might be best suited for this application?

If it's either the SP120/NF-F12 I'll use the other pair on the H100i and not bother with the S12s.
 
XelNika said:
The NCASE compatibility spreadsheet says that it requires low profile PCI-E connectors. The PCB does not interfere, but the PCI-E connnectors do because they are on the top edge of a larger PCB. The PCB's size is indirectly at fault.
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Yeah, thats because I updated the sheet.

The connectors line up with the pcb. If you buy/make some low profile power cables, it fits like a charm. Indirect fault or not, the card fits.
 
Nobu said:
Are you talking about the MSI one, skjetne? The PCB on that one looks very high, though not as high as the ASUS one. It's certainly not as clear a fit as the Gigabyte one.
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Yeah, the Asus strix does not work.

I originaly went for the reference blower, but wanted the msi one because of noise and temps. But when i got the Msi Gaming the temps got higher because no more exhaust, so that the card ended up making as much noise as the reference.

Difference was OC'ing tough - Msi Gaming one managed 1504mhz boost on core.
 
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friend'scatdied said:
Hmm, so side intake and bottom exhaust maybe? Not as enthused about that since the dust filters likely wouldn't fit and not sure how the 980 Ti would do fighting for air.

Without the bottom fans I get the impression that I'll have a lot of trapped hot air since I had this problem with every 250+W card in my SG08. The 670 and 980 were fine but the 780 Ti and 980 Ti destroyed temperatures with a H80i intake.

My buddy reported a notable 5-10'C improvement in his v2/MSI 980 Gaming/H60v2 setup when he put some F12s in the bottom, but I can't remember whether his H60 was set up as exhaust or intake.
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I recommend two of those slim 120mm fans from schyte as bottom intake + side intake. Warm air will rise through the top, and if you want more exhaust you can use flip your psu or add a 92mm fan in the back.

I run my system that way, and I'm very pleased with the temps and noise levels. The whole point of my build was to have the system as silent as possible.
 
Hey guys, does anyone have any information on when the silver, no-odd M1's are going to be back in stock? I assume it could take some time...
 
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