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

Nanook said:
This is the one I got:
Silverstone 12.7mm SATA Interface Slot Load 6X Blu-Ray Writer with 8X CD/DVD RW Drive (SOB02)




Mine appear similar / identical as the Panasonic version. Perhaps one is the OEM?
Click to expand...

I got the same one. This is just a rebranded Panasonic model people were using when the Ncase V1 first came out. In my paper manual it even stated it was the Panasonic. LOL
 
Nanook said:
There're folks here who have left the spot under the heatsink emply, with either a 140mm (or twin 120s) above as intake. They'd install a 92mm fan as exhaust to pull heat away from under space between the heatsink and the MB.

You can also reverse the flow of the above setting so that CPU heat is expelled directly.

I prefer to get rid of the heat directly from the small case, I used a 120mm under the heatsink, and two 120mm fans on the side bracket. I've tried intake (lower CPU temps, higher MB / case temps) and exhaust (slightly higher CPU temps, lower MB / case temps).
Click to expand...

Thanks...

I'm thinking one of the stock Noctua C14 fans above the rad blowing down, and then either 2 of my other Noctua fans or 2 of my Vardar's use as exhaust on the side panel... sound good?
 
RIRed48 said:
Thanks...

I'm thinking one of the stock Noctua C14 fans above the rad blowing down, and then either 2 of my other Noctua fans or 2 of my Vardar's use as exhaust on the side panel... sound good?
Click to expand...

You won't fit a 140mm on top and 2 120s on the side. You basically pick between a 140mm on the unit itself, or 2 120mm on the side which will pass directly through the heatsink.
 
ReaperX22 said:
You won't fit a 140mm on top and 2 120s on the side. You basically pick between a 140mm on the unit itself, or 2 120mm on the side which will pass directly through the heatsink.
Click to expand...
You mean if I use one of the stock fans on the C14 Noctua I can't use my 120mm fans on the side panel? So then, there would be no direct forced exhaust air out of the case by a case fan?

Could I use one of my 120mm Vardar's on the C14 Noctua heatsink/block? Then 2 120mm fans would fit on the side panel as exhaust?
 
RIRed48 said:
You mean if I use one of the stock fans on the C14 Noctua I can't use my 120mm fans on the side panel? So then, there would be no direct forced exhaust air out of the case by a case fan?

Could I use one of my 120mm Vardar's on the C14 Noctua heatsink/block? Then 2 120mm fans would fit on the side panel as exhaust?
Click to expand...

PSUDuctV35_zpsf4d3b80c.jpg


Here is a Noctua C14 with 2 side fans mounted, as you can see there is no place to mount the top fan on the Noctua. You can have one or the other.
 
My C14 has a 120mm on the inside, and a 120/140mm combo on the side.
Works great with my 6600k :)

IMAG0216.jpg

I used the noctua soft-mounts for the extra bit of flexibility needed for the side bracket.
I have the same combo on the bottom, screwed in.

The 120mm fans are NF-F12s (3).
The 140mm fans are the NF-P14 (2) that came with the C14 cooler.
The 92mm exhaust fan is a NF-A9x14 Slim.
 
rfarmer said:
PSUDuctV35_zpsf4d3b80c.jpg


Here is a Noctua C14 with 2 side fans mounted, as you can see there is no place to mount the top fan on the Noctua. You can have one or the other.
Click to expand...

Great pic... now I see, said the blind man. What fan is that under the Noctua? ...One of the stock fans that came w/ the C14?

I guess I misunderstood Reaper (...thought he said one could not have any fans on the C14 AND side panel fans.)
prometheus_ said:
My C14 has a 120mm on the inside, and a 120/140mm combo on the side.
Works great with my 6600k :)

View attachment 8291

I used the noctua soft-mounts for the extra bit of flexibility needed for the side bracket.
I have the same combo on the bottom, screwed in.

The 120mm fans are NF-F12s (3).
The 140mm fans are the NF-P14 (2) that came with the C14 cooler.
The 92mm exhaust fan is a NF-A9x14 Slim.
Click to expand...

Thanks.

Someday, please, before Battlefield 1 comes out (Oct 21), I WILL finish this new build....
 
Last edited:
The fan is a Noctua NF-A9X14. A lot who use the C14 use this as a rear exhaust and leave the bottom empty.

We may have misunderstood each other XD. But you get the picture( literally) now :D.
 
RIRed48 said:
Someday, please, before Battlefield 1 comes out (Oct 21), I WILL finish this new build....
Click to expand...
Haha, know the feeling, Im on it since 2014... well, made another build in the meantime!
About to finish it also though, who will be first? :p
 
BaK2BaK said:
Haha, know the feeling, Im on it since 2014... well, made another build in the meantime!
About to finish it also though, who will be first? :p
Click to expand...

You will be, as I'm a near-incompetent with this tight-quarters/build, and afraid I will f*** this up in some significant way.
 
ReaperX22 said:
The fan is a Noctua NF-A9X14. A lot who use the C14 use this as a rear exhaust and leave the bottom empty.

We may have misunderstood each other XD. But you get the picture( literally) now :D.
Click to expand...

So, the Noctua NF-A9X-14, what, on the rear as exhaust, and "...leave the bottomn empty" you stated, meaning no fans at all on the case bottom? And use one of my other 120mm Noctua or Vardar fans as the fan on the C14? Don't tell me, I might finally understand WTF is the way to set all this up....

"What's the name of the guy playing first base?...", "What's the name of the guy playing second base..." , "I'm not asking you who plays second...", "No, who is playing first...", "Who's on first?" "Yes...", I don't know..." "...Third base..."
 
RIRed48 said:
So, the Noctua NF-A9X-14, what, on the rear as exhaust, and "...leave the bottomn empty" you stated, meaning no fans at all on the case bottom? And use one of my other 120mm Noctua or Vardar fans as the fan on the C14? Don't tell me, I might finally understand WTF is the way to set all this up....

"What's the name of the guy playing first base?...", "What's the name of the guy playing second base..." , "I'm not asking you who plays second...", "No, who is playing first...", "Who's on first?" "Yes...", I don't know..." "...Third base..."
Click to expand...
When he said "bottom", he's referring to the fan spot between the heatsink and the CPU. The C14 is considered a top-flow cooler. Not sure who decided to reference cooler orientation with the cooling sitting on top of the CPU, on top of the motherboard...
 
Good to see that this thread is no longer on a temporary server. I imagine that the size of the thread was a contributing factor to the demise (or ?) of the prior server. ;)
 
Dont know if anyone asked...is it possible to have lian li make a custom color? I'd like a black case with black on the sides and red in the front. lol
 
broddy said:
Dont know if anyone asked...is it possible to have lian li make a custom color? I'd like a black case with black on the sides and red in the front. lol
Click to expand...
There's an MOQ for everything, so we can't do custom one-off orders like that.
 
Managed to get my hands on a new Noctua NH-C14. Now the wait for Kaby Lake and the arrival of my freshly ordered NCASE M1 (nov 23rd) is here. Planning everything out as much as possible. Exciting!
 
Hi Guys,

While waiting for the case, I'm thinking of which card to get.

Do you think EVGA 1070/1080 FTW Hybrid would fit?

They both have the dimensions of 10.50" x 5.06".
 
I have been considering building a new PC for a while now and I have settled on an Ncase build. I have done a fair bit of research but some things are still unclear to me. Here is my PCPartPicker.

PCPartPicker part list:

CPU: Intel Core i7-6700K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Nepton 120XL 76.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler
Motherboard: Asus Z170I PRO GAMING Mini ITX LGA1151 Motherboard
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3200 Memory
Storage: Intel 600p Series 512GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1080 8GB Xtreme Gaming Water cooling Video Card
Power Supply: Corsair SF 600W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular SFX Power Supply
Total: $1652.72
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-10-01 14:53 EDT-0400

My biggest points of consideration is whether the cooling is adequate. I would really like to get a moderate OC on both the GPU and CPU (100 offset GPU and 4.5 on CPU) but I don't have the expertise to judge if the cooling solution is enough.
The reason I have a AIO for the CPU is portability. I know an air cooler could possibly improve this setup but due to weight an AIO is the most suitable. Will this setup perform better than a 240mm radiator and an air cooled GPU in terms of thermals?
 
Jalloppi said:
I have been considering building a new PC for a while now and I have settled on an Ncase build. I have done a fair bit of research but some things are still unclear to me. Here is my PCPartPicker.

PCPartPicker part list:

CPU: Intel Core i7-6700K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Nepton 120XL 76.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler
Motherboard: Asus Z170I PRO GAMING Mini ITX LGA1151 Motherboard
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3200 Memory
Storage: Intel 600p Series 512GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1080 8GB Xtreme Gaming Water cooling Video Card
Power Supply: Corsair SF 600W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular SFX Power Supply
Total: $1652.72
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-10-01 14:53 EDT-0400

My biggest points of consideration is whether the cooling is adequate. I would really like to get a moderate OC on both the GPU and CPU (100 offset GPU and 4.5 on CPU) but I don't have the expertise to judge if the cooling solution is enough.
The reason I have a AIO for the CPU is portability. I know an air cooler could possibly improve this setup but due to weight an AIO is the most suitable. Will this setup perform better than a 240mm radiator and an air cooled GPU in terms of thermals?
Click to expand...

That Cooler Master would do the job I am sure but it isn't going to fit, 88mm with 2 fans and you only have 85mm available between side bracket and SFX bracket.

Cooler Master: MasterLiquid Pro 120 I would look at something like that. Unless you are doing mad OC on your 6700k it should be fine. Skylake is a pretty cool running chip.

Edit: Sorry that is a dual fan model also, any decent single fan 120mm AIO should work well.
 
Last edited:
rfarmer said:
That Cooler Master would do the job I am sure but it isn't going to fit, 88mm with 2 fans and you only have 85mm available between side bracket and SFX bracket.

Cooler Master: MasterLiquid Pro 120 I would look at something like that. Unless you are doing mad OC on your 6700k it should be fine. Skylake is a pretty cool running chip.

Edit: Sorry that is a dual fan model also, any decent single fan 120mm AIO should work well.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the response

I was thinking that I would only use one of the fans on the XL so that it would fit and maybe put the other fan on the GPU rad using speedfan, since according to some reviews the stock fan on that one gets quite loud.
My idea was to get a thicker rad whilst still using a single fan since that seemed like "theoretical" best with more surface area and all. But if you're saying most 120 AIOs will do the trick I feel quite reassured.
Now my last consideration is whether I should go with the WaterForce or the Hybrid since the price difference is negligible where I am located.
 
Jalloppi said:
I have been considering building a new PC for a while now and I have settled on an Ncase build. I have done a fair bit of research but some things are still unclear to me. Here is my PCPartPicker.

PCPartPicker part list:

CPU: Intel Core i7-6700K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Nepton 120XL 76.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler
Motherboard: Asus Z170I PRO GAMING Mini ITX LGA1151 Motherboard
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3200 Memory
Storage: Intel 600p Series 512GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1080 8GB Xtreme Gaming Water cooling Video Card
Power Supply: Corsair SF 600W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular SFX Power Supply
Total: $1652.72
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-10-01 14:53 EDT-0400

My biggest points of consideration is whether the cooling is adequate. I would really like to get a moderate OC on both the GPU and CPU (100 offset GPU and 4.5 on CPU) but I don't have the expertise to judge if the cooling solution is enough.
The reason I have a AIO for the CPU is portability. I know an air cooler could possibly improve this setup but due to weight an AIO is the most suitable. Will this setup perform better than a 240mm radiator and an air cooled GPU in terms of thermals?
Click to expand...

You might also want to check Ari Altman's site 'TechBuyersGuru' TBG Homepage | The Tech Buyer's Guru

He is excellent, responds to all posts in a very timely manner, has reviews, etc... Has been very helpful, along with the folks here.
 
I'll have to do my own wiring for the psu, anyone got any experience with 16 awg wire from china? (ebay/aliexpress)
 
I've seen a few people replace the feet to give more airflow to the bottom rad. Anyone have any recommendations?
 
mcbirds said:
I've seen a few people replace the feet to give more airflow to the bottom rad. Anyone have any recommendations?
Click to expand...

I went with some no name ebay case feet. A search for hifi or audio equipment feet will yield plenty of results.

Lian Li do some stackable case feet too if you want to keep things more original.

I also found that 3M double sided mounting tape was plenty strong for mounting if you don't screw the feet on. I actually tried tape first and had trouble removing it before going to screws.. I'd personally be happy with either solution.
 
Guys I'm really stuck on my GPU choice. In general, do the blower style coolers work better in the case than the open air ones? I know that theoretically they should work better, but I'm wondering if it practically also does keep the temperatures of the GPU and CPU lower? Blowing the hot air out of the back of the case is best ofcourse, but is it possible (easilly doable) to get better temps with an open air cooled GPU and some extra fans in the case for air flow?

What I was thinking about was getting the Asus GTX 1070 Strix in combination with a Dark Rock TF (i7 6700k) and use an outtake fan on the side panel where the PSU is :)

Let me know!
 
DrunkenMercenary said:
Guys I'm really stuck on my GPU choice. In general, do the blower style coolers work better in the case than the open air ones? I know that theoretically they should work better, but I'm wondering if it practically also does keep the temperatures of the GPU and CPU lower? Blowing the hot air out of the back of the case is best ofcourse, but is it possible (easilly doable) to get better temps with an open air cooled GPU and some extra fans in the case for air flow?

What I was thinking about was getting the Asus GTX 1070 Strix in combination with a Dark Rock TF (i7 6700k) and use an outtake fan on the side panel where the PSU is :)

Let me know!
Click to expand...

Dumping any kind of warm air into a small case like the Ncase is not going to help with temps. The case was designed with a rear blower style GPU in mind. However that doesn't mean you can't use the non rear blower type GPUs and be okay. Many have done so.
 
I will be using the Noctua C14 cpu cooler but with a single, smaller 120mm fan (maybe my Vardar) with the Asus Z170i Pro Gaming MB and the i7-6700k. (I may OC). I have the 1080-FE.

Would there be enough space for this other Noctua fan to exhaust air out the back of the case? ( NF-A9x14 PWM ) I will probably use 2 other 120mm fans on the side panel as exhaust.

Maybe don't even need the rear exhaust fan with the 2 side 120's blowing out...

Thoughts...

-Indecisive Brian
 
RIRed48 said:
I will be using the Noctua C14 cpu cooler but with a single, smaller 120mm fan (maybe my Vardar) with the Asus Z170i Pro Gaming MB and the i7-6700k. (I may OC). I have the 1080-FE.

Would there be enough space for this other Noctua fan to exhaust air out the back of the case? ( NF-A9x14 PWM ) I will probably use 2 other 120mm fans on the side panel as exhaust.

Maybe don't even need the rear exhaust fan with the 2 side 120's blowing out...

Thoughts...

-Indecisive Brian
Click to expand...
Yes you can squeeze a slim 92 on the rear panel. Here what it could look like:
IMG_4570.JPG
 
Nanook said:
Yes you can squeeze a slim 92 on the rear panel. Here what it could look like:
View attachment 8439
Click to expand...

Thanks...

In the pictured setup, there's the 92mm in the rear, and the 120mm cpu fan is blowing up thru the heat sink... Do you also have fans on the side panel blowing out, or just the bottom 120's?
 
RIRed48 said:
Thanks...

In the pictured setup, there's the 92mm in the rear, and the 120mm cpu fan is blowing up thru the heat sink... Do you also have fans on the side panel blowing out, or just the bottom 120's?
Click to expand...

There're two 120s on the side panel blowing out (not shown). The two bottom 120s are blowing in.
 
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