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

[Speed-Driven]

Configurator | CableMod Global Store Go through the configuration page, that way you can get just the ones you need and select the lengths you want.

Thanks. doing the configurator option is a lot more expensive. Oh well.. I guess i'll live with this for now. EVGA GTX 1080 FTW is in and I got the stock cables to be pretty much tucked away as best I could.

I used these lower profile 90 degreen PCI-E cables from eBay: ➨➨➨ 90 Degree Female 8-Pin to 8-Pin PCI-E Lay Flat Video Power Adpt. Ver. 1 ➨➨➨

 

[RIRed48]

.... as I use an external DAC for all audio, and don't have the on-board audio enabled at all.

I was thinking of doing this. Could you break down what DAC and how you connected all audio. In current rig, I'm using a Xonar Essence ST internal sound card (can't use with the M1 case), M-Audio- AV40 powered speakers (2.0), and a Sennheiser PC360 headset (use this when wife is home).

 

[Speed-Driven]

I was thinking of doing this. Could you break down what DAC and how you connected all audio. In current rig, I'm using a Xonar Essence ST internal sound card (can't use with the M1 case), M-Audio- AV40 powered speakers (2.0), and a Sennheiser PC360 headset (use this when wife is home).

It's it's like most USB Dacs similar to my FIIO E10, then there should be a USB port on the back that you connect to your computer. There should also be a LINE OUT port that you plug your speakers into for signal. On the front, there should be another port for your headphones.

then on your computer, you simply choose the external DAC as your playback devicefrom the speaker icon on the bottom right corner of your desktop.

 

[rfarmer]

Thanks. doing the configurator option is a lot more expensive. Oh well.. I guess i'll live with this for now. EVGA GTX 1080 FTW is in and I got the stock cables to be pretty much tucked away as best I could.

I used these lower profile 90 degreen PCI-E cables from eBay: ➨➨➨ 90 Degree Female 8-Pin to 8-Pin PCI-E Lay Flat Video Power Adpt. Ver. 1 ➨➨➨

Your build looks really good, nice job on cable management. Can I ask what drives do you have stacked at the front?

 

[Speed-Driven]

Your build looks really good, nice job on cable management. Can I ask what drives do you have stacked at the front?

behind the front panel, I have a 512 Crucial SSD. and inside the case, I have a Seagate 3TB 2.5" SATA double sided taped to another Seagate 4TB 2.5" SATA

 

[AWartman]

Thanks. doing the configurator option is a lot more expensive. Oh well.. I guess i'll live with this for now. EVGA GTX 1080 FTW is in and I got the stock cables to be pretty much tucked away as best I could.

I used these lower profile 90 degreen PCI-E cables from eBay: ➨➨➨ 90 Degree Female 8-Pin to 8-Pin PCI-E Lay Flat Video Power Adpt. Ver. 1 ➨➨➨

If I may ask, how are the temps with the FTW? I just found out my Strix might be delayed till mid september so I am thinking about picking up a FTW. Thanks!

 

[rfarmer]

behind the front panel, I have a 512 Crucial SSD. and inside the case, I have a Seagate 3TB 2.5" SATA double sided taped to another Seagate 4TB 2.5" SATA

Yeah I thought those were the Seagate, thick little drives but it is nice to have that capacity in a 2.5 drive.

 

[Speed-Driven]

If I may ask, how are the temps with the FTW? I just found out my Strix might be delayed till mid september so I am thinking about picking up a FTW. Thanks!

Note that I put a side window on my case so the left side vent holes are gone.

Here's Idle using HWMonitor

and here's under load using Valley Benchmark and HWMonitor. GPU temps actually climbed up to 78C during the test, but went down to 70C when I took the screenshot.

 

[markbalz]

Thanks. doing the configurator option is a lot more expensive. Oh well.. I guess i'll live with this for now. EVGA GTX 1080 FTW is in and I got the stock cables to be pretty much tucked away as best I could.

I used these lower profile 90 degreen PCI-E cables from eBay: ➨➨➨ 90 Degree Female 8-Pin to 8-Pin PCI-E Lay Flat Video Power Adpt. Ver. 1 ➨➨➨

I'm guessing you went to a shop to cut the side panel and paint the internals. Can I ask where you went to do that and how much that was? I'm thinking of doing a custom loop and having a tempered glass/acrylic window would also be part of it.

 

[Speed-Driven]

I'm guessing you went to a shop to cut the side panel and paint the internals. Can I ask where you went to do that and how much that was? I'm thinking of doing a custom loop and having a tempered glass/acrylic window would also be part of it.

I got the side panels cut for $40 at a local waterjet shop near my house.

Advanced Waterjet & Engraving - Anaheim, CA

The case I painted myself. took it all apart, unscrewed what I could.. and just painted with spray cans.

 

[RIRed48]

For anyone who is using the Asus Z170i and either the Corsair SF450/600 PSU's these cable lengths seem to work well.

24 pin - 250mm (Minimum available length)
4+4 pin - 400mm
6+2 pin Gpu - 200mm
Sata power - 150mm

Cablemod CPU power by CintaMagique, on Flickr

Cablemod 24pin power by CintaMagique, on Flickr


However, If I did it all again, I would trim down the 24pin further to help it transition from vertical on the motherboard to horizontal under the PSU.
Also - there are several cables that double up making "stealth" cable combs a bit tricky.

Are those the cable combs from CableMod?

 

[keshley]

I was thinking of doing this. Could you break down what DAC and how you connected all audio. In current rig, I'm using a Xonar Essence ST internal sound card (can't use with the M1 case), M-Audio- AV40 powered speakers (2.0), and a Sennheiser PC360 headset (use this when wife is home).

It's it's like most USB Dacs similar to my FIIO E10, then there should be a USB port on the back that you connect to your computer. There should also be a LINE OUT port that you plug your speakers into for signal. On the front, there should be another port for your headphones.

then on your computer, you simply choose the external DAC as your playback devicefrom the speaker icon on the bottom right corner of your desktop.

I'm using a Schiit Audio Bifrost Mutlibit (which is a bit spendy to the average consumer, although probably comparable to some of the Xonar models), so rather than a miniplug line out, I have a pair of RCA jacks. No fancy surround like your Xonar, but sounds like you're 'just' doing stereo audio like me.

Connectivity is like what Speed-Driven said, USB to DAC. After that is a bit more complex as I also have a turntable with external phono preamp in the loop, and a passive switch, so there's a bunch of hardware that won't apply to your use case. Effectively, however, the DAC goes to my headphone amp, which in turn has a pair of line-level RCA jacks that go to my speakers.
I've also done Optical and Coax out from my PC to a DAC in previous setups, but that's adding additional unneeded processing, so going USB simplifies the whole audio path IMO.

If you like your Xonar, Asus makes an external model as well, I believe, but I have no idea how it fares compared to their incredible internal cards.

 

[Chapeau]

Are those the cable combs from CableMod?

They're stealth style combs from icemodz. They must have updated in the last few weeks so these aren't exactly the same as what is available now. The newer style is clearer still.

I also found stealth combs from Overclockers UK but theirs weren't as nice. The laser cutting was quite rough and the material less clear.

 

[Curiositie]

Were we still unsure of if the EVGA 1080 FTW would fit?
My friend needed to test his in a different build so I offered mine to try.

It did fit in my V2, though i did have to temporarily remove the push pin socket to get it in, and you'd need to get some of those ultra low profile 90° peg adapters if you wanted to put the side panel on.

 

[Speed-Driven]

Were we still unsure of if the EVGA 1080 FTW would fit?
My friend needed to test his in a different build so I offered mine to try.

It did fit in my V2, though i did have to temporarily remove the push pin socket to get it in, and you'd need to get some of those ultra low profile 90° peg adapters if you wanted to put the side panel on.

It fits and those 90 degree low profile PCIE cables work and lets you put the side cover back on.

 

[Curiositie]

It fits and those 90 degree low profile PCIE cables work and lets you put the side cover back on.

That's what I was saying.
I wasn't sure if we had had someone try that yet or not, so I figured I'd post what I found.

Edit:
I just realized we're talking about the FTW higher up on the page
Nice job, me.

 

[Verdi]

Note that I put a side window on my case so the left side vent holes are gone.

Here's Idle using HWMonitor

and here's under load using Valley Benchmark and HWMonitor. GPU temps actually climbed up to 78C during the test, but went down to 70C when I took the screenshot.

Those temps look very good... are those without bottom fans or ducting? Do you use any other fans besides that rear exhaust?

 

[Speed-Driven]

Those temps look very good... are those without bottom fans or ducting? Do you use any other fans besides that rear exhaust?

no other fans except the cpu and rear exhaust.

 

[rdubs628]

Okay, I just wanted to comment because...wow!

I was using a 980TI with the ACX 2.0 cooler and my GPU temps were getting up to 79-80C during heavy gaming load and benchmarking (Heaven extreme). I just replaced the cooler with the Accelero Xtreme III with two NF-F12s underneath in exhaust configuration. Max temps for Heaven extreme were 65C.

That is an amazing improvement!

However, my backplate (I left the ACX mid and backplates to make it easy to go back should I need to) is getting really hot (much hotter than the heatsink). I'm worried my VRM and VRAM temperatures may be too high. Would having my F12s exhuasting air out cause those temps to go up? I'd really hate to fry my GPU, but I'd also hate to dump all that heat back into the case by making the F12s intake.

Side note: This thing is now quite the space heater. Cool to the touch, but the GPU fans exhausting are pushing a LOT of hot air out and blasting me with it. I'm sure I'll appreciate it come winter

Pic for reference:

Also I'm a little concerned my Accelero bracket is bent too much...should I loosen up the screws a little?

 

[Amr0d]

Thanks. doing the configurator option is a lot more expensive. Oh well.. I guess i'll live with this for now. EVGA GTX 1080 FTW is in and I got the stock cables to be pretty much tucked away as best I could.

I used these lower profile 90 degreen PCI-E cables from eBay: ➨➨➨ 90 Degree Female 8-Pin to 8-Pin PCI-E Lay Flat Video Power Adpt. Ver. 1 ➨➨➨

Can you tell me how you put the 3,5" drives where they are? I am really interested in this.

 

[Curiositie]

Can you tell me how you put the 3,5" drives where they are? I am really interested in this.

Something gives me the feeling those are 15mm thick 2.5" drives.

 

[Speed-Driven]

Can you tell me how you put the 3,5" drives where they are? I am really interested in this.

not 3.5". they are dual 2.5" Seagates. They're 15mm thick too so the brackets that come with the NCase do not work. I had to resort to using double sided tape and just taped one drive to another.

 

[Amr0d]

Oh lol, the thickness is a bit misleading

 

[Nanook]

Okay, I just wanted to comment because...wow!

I was using a 980TI with the ACX 2.0 cooler and my GPU temps were getting up to 79-80C during heavy gaming load and benchmarking (Heaven extreme). I just replaced the cooler with the Accelero Xtreme III with two NF-F12s underneath in exhaust configuration. Max temps for Heaven extreme were 65C.

That is an amazing improvement!

However, my backplate (I left the ACX mid and backplates to make it easy to go back should I need to) is getting really hot (much hotter than the heatsink). I'm worried my VRM and VRAM temperatures may be too high. Would having my F12s exhuasting air out cause those temps to go up? I'd really hate to fry my GPU, but I'd also hate to dump all that heat back into the case by making the F12s intake.

Side note: This thing is now quite the space heater. Cool to the touch, but the GPU fans exhausting are pushing a LOT of hot air out and blasting me with it. I'm sure I'll appreciate it come winter

Pic for reference:
View attachment 6843

Also I'm a little concerned my Accelero bracket is bent too much...should I loosen up the screws a little?
View attachment 6844

I have a similar setup: an Arctic Accelero Xtreme4 on my 1080.

What material is the video card mid plate made off? I wonder if just putting an extruded aluminum heat sink directly on the mid plate would help with vrm temps.

I tried having the bottom fans exhaust, but all that does was blow the hot air to my desk, which then bounces up and warms everything else. I prefer the bottom fans as intake. For side fans, I tried having them as exhaust to expel the hot air from both CPU and GPU, but the CPU seem to be a lot warmer ~70c this way (CPU and GPU under synthetic bench). Currently I have all 4x 120s as intake. The rear 92mm is the only exhaust fan. There's plenty of passive exhaust from the top and right side. I like this setup the best. The mobo vrm and CPU temps are actually best with the side 120s blowing at them. With all intakes, idle CPU/GPU is 25/35, load CPU/GPU is 65/65

 

[mcbirds]

Finally done. Shout out to all the great info in this thread, would of been a lot worse off without it.

Imgur: The most awesome images on the Internet

 

[Chapeau]

Finally done. Shout out to all the great info in this thread, would of been a lot worse off without it.

Imgur: The most awesome images on the Internet

Looks great!!

I like the 92mm exhaust fan behind the CPU cooler. I think this is preferable to having two fans strapped to the cooler as the air tends to recycle back into the case without something to positively push it out. My top vents are definitely warmer over the CPU area.

 

[rfarmer]

Finally done. Shout out to all the great info in this thread, would of been a lot worse off without it.

Imgur: The most awesome images on the Internet

I know Noctua makes really good fans but man I just can not do that brown, this looks really good with the Thermaltake fans. Need more pics and system specs.

 

[Roboknopp]

You guys are great! I have never read through a nicer, more helpfull and troll free forum. This feels like one of the good parts of the internet.

I am wondering if it is worth waiting for AMD releasing the Zen CPUs. Their TDP looks to be much lower, which will be good for the fully packed N1 case. What do you guys think?

 

[rfarmer]

You guys are great! I have never read through a nicer, more helpfull and troll free forum. This feels like one of the good parts of the internet.

I am wondering if it is worth waiting for AMD releasing the Zen CPUs. Their TDP looks to be much lower, which will be good for the fully packed N1 case. What do you guys think?

Biggest question for me is will they do a m-itx motherboard for Zen? With the total lack of AM3+ m-itx boards not sure I would take the chance.

 

[Roboknopp]

Biggest question for me is will they do a m-itx motherboard for Zen? With the total lack of AM3+ m-itx boards not sure I would take the chance.

Oh, got point! I have not looked at AMD for quite some time, so I did not even notice that. I was wondering though, why nobody mentions AMD N1 bulids in here - now I know. Thx

Maybe at least Intel will have to drop prices if AMD can offer real competition performance wise.

 

[rdubs628]

I have a similar setup: an Arctic Accelero Xtreme4 on my 1080.

What material is the video card mid plate made off? I wonder if just putting an extruded aluminum heat sink directly on the mid plate would help with vrm temps.

I tried having the bottom fans exhaust, but all that does was blow the hot air to my desk, which then bounces up and warms everything else. I prefer the bottom fans as intake. For side fans, I tried having them as exhaust to expel the hot air from both CPU and GPU, but the CPU seem to be a lot warmer ~70c this way (CPU and GPU under synthetic bench). Currently I have all 4x 120s as intake. The rear 92mm is the only exhaust fan. There's plenty of passive exhaust from the top and right side. I like this setup the best. The mobo vrm and CPU temps are actually best with the side 120s blowing at them. With all intakes, idle CPU/GPU is 25/35, load CPU/GPU is 65/65

The mid and backplates are some sort of metal, I would guess aluminum.

My CPU gets up to 70-75C during Prime95, but never that high with gaming. My temps are really similar to yours as exhuast. My case is farther away from my monitor, keyboard, mouse, etc. though so maybe that's why it's not so bad to me. Overall I'm pleased with how it's setup minus the temperature of the backplate.

Also, did you see the picture of my Accelero mounting bracket? Does it look too bent? How bent is yours? I guess with the IV the mounting system is different so that may be a useless comparison.

 

[Nanook]

The mid and backplates are some sort of metal, I would guess aluminum.

My CPU gets up to 70-75C during Prime95, but never that high with gaming. My temps are really similar to yours as exhuast. My case is farther away from my monitor, keyboard, mouse, etc. though so maybe that's why it's not so bad to me. Overall I'm pleased with how it's setup minus the temperature of the backplate.

Also, did you see the picture of my Accelero mounting bracket? Does it look too bent? How bent is yours? I guess with the IV the mounting system is different so that may be a useless comparison.

There's passive cooling on the vrm with the metal baseplate (assuming the stock thermal pads are still there between vrm and baseplate). If you want, you can get a small aluminum heat sink block and use thermal double sided tape to attached on top of the base plate for added dissipation. Just make sure the heatsink isn't too tall to interfere with the main Accelero heatsink.

I meant to write about the Accelero mounting as well but got distracted...
Yes, mine is also slightly bent like yours. I didn't use the giant backplate which came with my Accelero 4, I used a NZXT g10 backplate instead. I'm not too concerned as long as the video card itself isn't bend. Are your mounting nuts too tight?

 

[mcbirds]

Looks great!!

I like the 92mm exhaust fan behind the CPU cooler. I think this is preferable to having two fans strapped to the cooler as the air tends to recycle back into the case without something to positively push it out. My top vents are definitely warmer over the CPU area.

Yeah my CPU temps stayed about the same but my mobo temps dropped about 5 degrees.

I know Noctua makes really good fans but man I just can not do that brown, this looks really good with the Thermaltake fans. Need more pics and system specs.

Yeah I've got to agree with you. I'm a huge fan of their coolers but the brown is just a kill. They're actually ThermalRIGHT fans btw. They've made some great fans and coolers over the years and are definitely worth checking out. Some of the Thermalright fans are equal to or better than the Noctua fans at performance and acoustics, and to top it off most of them aren't brown. Their coolers are great too for the money but their mounting system seems like it's a generation behind. I wish everyone would just copy Noctua on that front.

Anyways here are my specs.

• 4790k @ Stock (Waiting to see if I can get 4.7 back on it with a the NH-9DL)
• NH-9DL w/ Thermalright TR9225
  
• ASUS Z97-I Plus
• Corsair SF600 w/ Cable Mod custom cables (Well worth the $120 imo)
• 1TB Samsung 850 EVO
• EVGA GTX 1080

 

[Nanook]

I know Noctua makes really good fans but man I just can not do that brown, this looks really good with the Thermaltake fans. Need more pics and system specs.

Agreed on the brown as well...

 

[Qrash]

Oh, got point! I have not looked at AMD for quite some time, so I did not even notice that. I was wondering though, why nobody mentions AMD N1 bulids in here - now I know. Thx

Maybe at least Intel will have to drop prices if AMD can offer real competition performance wise.

Welcome to the forum and I look forward to your contributions! A kind reminder: the case is the M1 by Ncase, not the N1. Website: www.ncases.com .

 

[omsion]

Just started putting together things in my NCASE - using a Gigabyte 1070 Mini, which appears to come in a bit taller than most GPUs. You have to take out the side panel receptacle thingy in order to have it fit in.

Unfortunately the case seems to scratch quite easily - have quite a few from trying to get everything together =(

 

[Curiositie]

Just started putting together things in my NCASE - using a Gigabyte 1070 Mini, which appears to come in a bit taller than most GPUs. You have to take out the side panel receptacle thingy in order to have it fit in.

Unfortunately the case seems to scratch quite easily - have quite a few from trying to get everything together =(

Can you fit the side panel back on after installing the GPU + power cable?

 

[RIRed48]

I know Noctua makes really good fans but man I just can not do that brown...

Ha, you worked Summers for UPS when in school...

 

[RIRed48]

Agreed on the brown as well...

... Another former UPS guy...

 

[rfarmer]

Can you fit the side panel back on after installing the GPU + power cable?

I am curious of that too, I know it will be a snug fit.