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

X

xcharlesy

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Jan 31, 2017
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n_ls said:
So good news first, the D9L cooler fits on the ASRock Z270 M-ITX Fatal1ty board with Vengeance LPX memory.

Bad news...my board won't turn on. The light on the power switch won't even come on. With all of these silent fans, I can't even be certain my PSU works.

Any suggestions where to start?
Click to expand...

Would Corsair Dominator Platinum be out of the quest for this board?
 
Qrash

Qrash

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n_ls said:
Is there any way to test the PSU itself?
Click to expand...

Search online and you should find photos and videos of how to test that the power supply can at least turn on. Here is the first one I found:

http://marcomiltenburg.com/2011/09/18/how-to-test-an-atx-power-supply/

This will involve jumpering two of the wires in the 24-pin motherboard connector. The power supply should not be connected to anything except a case fan. The wires to connect are the PS_ON# wire and a Common Ground (COM) wire. It is harder to identify which wires are which when they are all black so study the photos and videos carefully. After the two wires are connected by a U-shaped wire or paper clip, turn on the power supply's rocker switch. The power supply should make an audible click and the fans should spin. The PS fan may stop because of the low load and cool temperature of the PS , but the case fan should be spinning.

Be careful and good luck!
 
N

n_ls

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The Vengeance LPX has a height of 31mm. The Dominator Platinum would be pressing against the D9L cooler. Something like a C14 cooler without the bottom fan might work though. I would also wait for the ASUS Z270 m-ITX ROG board. I believe there might be more space between memory and the cooler. That board should be coming out any day now.
 
N

n_ls

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Qrash said:
Search online and you should find photos and videos of how to test that the power supply can at least turn on. Here is the first one I found:

http://marcomiltenburg.com/2011/09/18/how-to-test-an-atx-power-supply/

This will involve jumpering two of the wires in the 24-pin motherboard connector. The power supply should not be connected to anything except a case fan. The wires to connect are the PS_ON# wire and a Common Ground (COM) wire. It is harder to identify which wires are which when they are all black so study the photos and videos carefully. After the two wires are connected by a U-shaped wire or paper clip, turn on the power supply's rocker switch. The power supply should make an audible click and the fans should spin. The PS fan may stop because of the low load and cool temperature of the PS , but the case fan should be spinning.

Be careful and good luck!
Click to expand...

I don't have an adapter for the case fan unfortunately - I'm going to pick up one this weekend. I also ordered a new PSU from amazon and an internal speaker. Is the click and spin true for the SF450 series?
 
H

hshot_rooke

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Chapeau said:
I'm not sure exactly what you're asking...
- If it is "WHERE" the keycaps are, then they're located on the outside of the keyboard. The entire top row and all the keys with double printed for functions are original. The tab, caps, shift, ctrl space etc around the edges, arrow keys and pg up/down are gradient
- If it's "WHAT" the keycaps are, then look here or here for an explanation. Double shot means the keys are made from two plastic types. The printing on the keys is actually part of the keycap. In this case, a clear plastic on the inside to let the backlight through and a second hard plastic for the casing.

Finally, I bought mine from ebay as there is a definite lack of supply in Australia. But if you use your Google Fu, you'll find plenty of US retailers.
Click to expand...

Thanks Chapeau...yeah, I googled it after I asked...sorry. Did not realize your keys were different gradient in previous pics. very nice.
 
Qrash

Qrash

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n_ls said:
I don't have an adapter for the case fan unfortunately - I'm going to pick up one this weekend. I also ordered a new PSU from amazon and an internal speaker. Is the click and spin true for the SF450 series?
Click to expand...

Yes. I used a SF450 on my son's M1 build. His SF450 is plugged into his Asus Z170I Pro Gaming inside the M1 right now, but here is the start up sequence and the sounds I hear from the power supply when starting with no charge in the power supply:

Start up:
  1. Start with the power supply's rocker switch in the OFF position.
  2. Connect power supply to an electrical outlet.
  3. Put rocker switch in the ON position. No sounds have been heard from the power supply up to this point.
  4. Press the case's power switch once or short the power switch pins on the motherboard momentarily. At this exact moment a click is heard from the power supply. The power supply fan spins for less than 1 second and then stops due to the low load and low temperature.
  5. After about 4 seconds a single short beep is heard from the motherboard indicating a good POST (Power On Self Test). You will not hear this when the power supply is not connected to the motherboard.
Shutdown before Windows starts:

If I put the rocker into the OFF position before Windows loads I hear a click right at the moment the switch is set to OFF. About 4 seconds later I hear a second click. About 4 more seconds later I hear a third click.


Shutdown from Windows:

When I use the Start Menu to shutdown a single click is hear after about 5 seconds, once the computer has completed shutting down. If I now put the rocker switch to the OFF position and then press the case power switch once I hear a click at the moment I pressed the switch (from within the power supply) and then a few seconds later I hear another click.
 
N

n_ls

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Qrash said:
Yes. I used a SF450 on my son's M1 build. His SF450 is plugged into his Asus Z170I Pro Gaming inside the M1 right now, but here is the start up sequence and the sounds I hear from the power supply when starting with no charge in the power supply:

Start up:
  1. Start with the power supply's rocker switch in the OFF position.
  2. Connect power supply to an electrical outlet.
  3. Put rocker switch in the ON position. No sounds have been heard from the power supply up to this point.
  4. Press the case's power switch once or short the power switch pins on the motherboard momentarily. At this exact moment a click is heard from the power supply. The power supply fan spins for less than 1 second and then stops due to the low load and low temperature.
  5. After about 4 seconds a single short beep is heard from the motherboard indicating a good POST (Power On Self Test). You will not hear this when the power supply is not connected to the motherboard.
Shutdown before Windows starts:

If I put the rocker into the OFF position before Windows loads I hear a click right at the moment the switch is set to OFF. About 4 seconds later I hear a second click. About 4 more seconds later I hear a third click.


Shutdown from Windows:

When I use the Start Menu to shutdown a single click is hear after about 5 seconds, once the computer has completed shutting down. If I now put the rocker switch to the OFF position and then press the case power switch once I hear a click at the moment I pressed the switch (from within the power supply) and then a few seconds later I hear another click.
Click to expand...

I got a click and the fan spun briefly when I shorted the 24-pin motherboard connector. When I connect everything to the motherboard, and try shorting the Power and Ground pins, nothing happens.
 
Qrash

Qrash

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n_ls said:
I got a click and the fan spun briefly when I shorted the 24-pin motherboard connector. When I connect everything to the motherboard, and try shorting the Power and Ground pins, nothing happens.
Click to expand...

Well at least you didn't blow up your power supply! OK, until you get a speaker connected to the motherboard, there's not much you can do except check that the CPU is inserted with the correct orientation and that none of the pins in the CPU socket are bent. Just be very careful to lift the CPU vertically to make sure you don't damage the pins underneath.

Another idea would be to find a friend or a local computer repair shop that would test your PS, CPU and RAM with another motherboard.

Does anyone else have a suggestion?
 
Chimaera43

Chimaera43

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Qrash said:
Well at least you didn't blow up your power supply! OK, until you get a speaker connected to the motherboard, there's not much you can do except check that the CPU is inserted with the correct orientation and that none of the pins in the CPU socket are bent. Just be very careful to lift the CPU vertically to make sure you don't damage the pins underneath.

Another idea would be to find a friend or a local computer repair shop that would test your PS, CPU and RAM with another motherboard.

Does anyone else have a suggestion?
Click to expand...
I have a PSU tester that came from Amazon. Used it a couple of times on questionable power supplies, very handy when you need it. $15 for the one I use.
 
Qrash

Qrash

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Chimaera43 said:
I have a PSU tester that came from Amazon. Used it a couple of times on questionable power supplies, very handy when you need it. $15 for the one I use.
Click to expand...

I had trouble starting my son's M1. I was fortunate to have enough replacement parts to prove to Asus the motherboard was faulty. This was the first time I've ever had to go through the RMA process and it wasn't too bad. It took about 10 days to send in the faulty motherboard and receive the replacement.
 
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Neapolitan6th

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Can you stick a 3.5 inch drive and 2 2.5 inch HDDs in the base the NCASE?

Will there be clearance for all the sata and sata power cables?

Thanks
 
N

n_ls

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Speaker arrives on Monday, I'll report back then. If I don't get any beeps, I'll send the mobo back. I started the ASRock RMA process - unfortunately neither ASRock nor Newegg have any in stock. I'm going to keep a close eye on other retailers. Any recommenations other than Amazon for the U.S.?
 
Qrash

Qrash

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Yes, but it depends on the rest of your hardware.

The drive cage can holder two 3.5-inch drives (or 1 drive and a 120 mm fan, I think) and it can be mounted on either half of the side bracket or on the case floor. This will depend on the CPU cooler size or graphics card length.

A 3.5-inch drive can also be mounted directly to the case floor at the rear. This position may limit airflow to the graphics card or cause the drive to get hot due to heat from the card.

Two 2.5-inch drives can be mounted to the outside of the front panel (both 7 mm drives), to the inside of the front panel (both drives 9 mm or less), or to the case floor through the use of the stacking brackets. Alternatively, a single 15 mm thick drive (up to 4 TB now) can be mounted to either side of the front panel (or to the case floor).
 
rfarmer

rfarmer

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N

Necere

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Neapolitan6th said:
Can you stick a 3.5 inch drive and 2 2.5 inch HDDs in the base the NCASE?

Will there be clearance for all the sata and sata power cables?

Thanks
Click to expand...
You can mount one 3.5" HDD or two 2.5" HDDs on the floor of the case, but not both. There are the inside/outside chassis front for mounting the 2.5" HDDs though, at least one of which should be available depending what else you're fitting in.
 
L

lukedriftwood

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Qrash said:
Yes, but it depends on the rest of your hardware.

The drive cage can holder two 3.5-inch drives (or 1 drive and a 120 mm fan, I think) and it can be mounted on either half of the side bracket or on the case floor. This will depend on the CPU cooler size or graphics card length.

A 3.5-inch drive can also be mounted directly to the case floor at the rear. This position may limit airflow to the graphics card or cause the drive to get hot due to heat from the card.

Two 2.5-inch drives can be mounted to the outside of the front panel (both 7 mm drives), to the inside of the front panel (both drives 9 mm or less), or to the case floor through the use of the stacking brackets. Alternatively, a single 15 mm thick drive (up to 4 TB now) can be mounted to either side of the front panel (or to the case floor).
Click to expand...

5TB 2.5inch 15mm drive is out now, it's from Seagate.
 
Qrash

Qrash

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Necere said:
You can mount one 3.5" HDD or two 2.5" HDDs on the floor of the case, but not both. There are the inside/outside chassis front for mounting the 2.5" HDDs though, at least one of which should be available depending what else you're fitting in.
Click to expand...

Aw heck, I didn't notice he was asking for all 3 drives on the case floor. Sorry for my excessive response.
 
F

Frazhna

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Does anyone know how to fix stripped threads? the threads in one of the holes on the back of the case got stripped. I have been enjoying my case for years now, but I finally (excuse the pun) screwed up and cross threaded one of the screws in the hole where you put the screw to fasten the side bracket on the back. I suppose I could just buy a tap to make new threads in the same hole, thereby making the hole larger and then use a larger screw, but I would prefer to use the original screws. Is there a better way to fix it?
 
H

Hermit2001

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Frazhna said:
Does anyone know how to fix stripped threads? the threads in one of the holes on the back of the case got stripped. I have been enjoying my case for years now, but I finally (excuse the pun) screwed up and cross threaded one of the screws in the hole where you put the screw to fasten the side bracket on the back. I suppose I could just buy a tap to make new threads in the same hole, thereby making the hole larger and then use a larger screw, but I would prefer to use the original screws. Is there a better way to fix it?
Click to expand...
If you don't want to drill and tap to a larger size, you can maybe use a threaded-insert or maybe even a thread repair set (Heli-coil). All of these require a bit of tooling (sometimes included). The simplest solution may just be to drill it out and use a nut, you could maybe glue the nut in place.
 
G

gsilver

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Anyone have any noise comparisons between higher quality water cooling options and the Gigabyte Xtreme Gaming 1070/1080?

I'm also looking for a case which supports triple-slot GPUs, but also ATX power supplies and CPU coolers 160mm high (this would be my primary desktop).
The intent is to trickle-down parts from the desktop (where silence is the upmost priority, but I don't want it to be too big) to the NCase-powered HTPC (where compactness is priority, but I'd still like it to be quiet).

I'm using a Fractal Design Core 500 for my desktop right now, but that has no 3-slot compatibility.
 
H

HilbertSpace

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You are not going to be able to fit an ATX PSU and water cooled graphics card in the ncase, and have it quiet too. I am on my second attempt at getting my build done, and to have top tier components (7700k + GTX 1080) reasonably quiet you need to fit two 240 radiators in the case. This isn't possible with ATX PSU. That said my SFX Corsair SF450 has so far been very quiet even with ~250 Watt load, so it is possible to get quiet SFX PSU's.
 
X

xcharlesy

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What's everyones opinion on air vs water? I am going for a reasonably quiet build but have been hung up on picking a cpu cooler. Custom loop is out of the question and build is made up of 7700k / 1080. Debating on going either Corsair h100i or Noctua d9l/u9s primarily but if anyone has other suggestions please let me know. In a perfect world I could have a 7700k 5Ghz without a huge sound or aesthetic compromise.
 
G

gsilver

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HilbertSpace said:
You are not going to be able to fit an ATX PSU and water cooled graphics card in the ncase, and have it quiet too. I am on my second attempt at getting my build done, and to have top tier components (7700k + GTX 1080) reasonably quiet you need to fit two 240 radiators in the case. This isn't possible with ATX PSU. That said my SFX Corsair SF450 has so far been very quiet even with ~250 Watt load, so it is possible to get quiet SFX PSU's.
Click to expand...
Well, no, my plans are: (Already have both of them built)
ITX desktop with full-sized CPU cooler and power supply (using Fractal Design Core 500)
ITX HTPC (using NCase M1)

Over time, parts from the desktop (motherboard/ram/CPU/Video card) will be replaced in the desktop and be moved down to the HTPC. Stuff like the CPU cooler and power supply will carry over from build to build.

I'm intrigued by the triple-slot Gigabyte Xtreme Gaming cards, and my desktop is due to have an upgrade. While the card will work in the NCase, it won't work in my desktop case. I'd like to correct that.

I can either find a desktop case that can take a triple-slot card, or stick to water coolers, hence the original question.
And I can get the desktop noise lower due to the larger reusable parts, which is why I don't want to just use an NCase for both.
 
Last edited:
H

HilbertSpace

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I would go with the air option. I personally like the Bitfenix Pandora mATX case, not that I have used it, although airflow might also be a problem. CaseLabs has some nicer/more expensive options too.
 
Qrash

Qrash

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phillai said:
Anyone tried a ZOTAC GeForce® GTX 1070 Mini in the NCASE M1?
https://www.zotac.com/gb/product/graphics_card/zotac-geforce®-gtx-1070-mini-0#spec

And would this fit if I am currently using 2 x 3.5" hard drives with the hard drive cage at the side?
Click to expand...

I did a search and found a few builds that had the drive cage on the front half of the side bracket with two 3.5-inch drives and a graphics card below that was longer than the Zotac 1070 Mini. Here are two such photos from the NCASE M1 User Build Gallery on Imgur:

OMln6Bom.jpg
Qdzpzk5m.jpg
 
D

dmw5678

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Received my case and started my build and noticed a couple of imperfections in the case. The top panel was cut unevenly on one side and a tiny nick(pin head sized) on the rear side panel. Both of these issues are minor but noticeable to my eye. I tried to reach NCASE support to arrange for an exchange of the top panel and no response so far. Anyone else with case quality issues / imperfections? If yes, how did you resolve?
 
J

JamboAU

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Qrash said:
I did a search and found a few builds that had the drive cage on the front half of the side bracket with two 3.5-inch drives and a graphics card below that was longer than the Zotac 1070 Mini. Here are two such photos from the NCASE M1 User Build Gallery on Imgur:

OMln6Bom.jpg
Qdzpzk5m.jpg
Click to expand...
The one on the left is my old build, there was plenty of room to fit 2x 3.5" drives and a 120mm rad with an R9 290.

I still have basically the same setup but with a 1070 Strix OC now which takes up pretty much every little bit of space down there. The drive cage still fits just fine along with my rad. It runs relatively cool at the back of the case with a GPU controlled exhaust fan and intake from the rad fan. But it does get a little toasty around the drives in the front of the case with an open GPU, partly my fault for running 2100MHz all the time. The little PSU can't really exhaust all that. So I think my next move will be to replace the drives with a couple of 2.5" ones so I can install a GPU controlled fan on the side bracket instead.
 
M

Mecher123

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Hi everyone,

Want to share my M1 build here, planning and building a m1 was a very good experience, I am very enjoy that. Thanks to this thread and Ncase community, I can plan my build very well. This is my first build share post in English, please forgive me if the post is hard to read.

Part list
CPU: Intel i7 4790K
RAM: Corsair Dominator Platinum ddr3 8gb x 2
Motherboard: ASUS z97i-plus
Display: EVGA GTX980 ACX2.0 SC
Power: Corsair SF600
CPU cooler: Noctua nh-c14
VGA cooler: Aritic Accelero Xtreme III
FAN: ML120 Pro red x4 (CPU and VGA intake), nf-a9x14 x1 (Rear outtake), Prolimatech Ultra Sleek Vortex 14cm x1 (CPU bottom)

The idea start from I don't want to use AIO anymore, it have excellent performance, it running very good around 2 years without any problem. But every time when I heard rare noise or smell strange smell, I'll go to check the case first...

My previous case is air 240, so I look for the best cooler I can get, it seem Noctua nh-c14 is the best choice, but it do not fit if use 25cm fan and the cooler also blocked the rear and side outtake fan, it will cause bad air flow. So I recognize I need to change the case, and then I sort out my requirements:

Aluminum case,
As small as possible,
Can use top level cpu cooler with top grade CPU,
Can use aftermarket vga cooler with top grade GPU,
Silent, little noticeable noise at night when playing high loading game and both CPU and VGA don't over 60c

After some research on internet, I find M1 is the best choice. From gather parts and waiting Ncase arrived, it make me to wait 2 months.

Installation
CPU Cooler mounted with 14cm 15mm thick bottom fan is very tight fit and also need to remove the ram top heatsink. Other than that, no fitting issue, except sometime I use the wrong screw damaged the case frame...



Cooling and noise
Two 12cm fan intake for cpu cooler and one 14cm fan at bottom, the main purpose for adding the 14cm is I want to try this fan and 25mm thick 12cm fan do not fit even I remove the remaining ram heatsink... the second is help to cool the motherboard and pull the air out of the case quicker. The 14cm fan can help to drop 2-3 degrees, it may not be accurate, I rely on my memory. The 12cm CPU fan noise is acceptable below 1700 rpm, the 14cm fan noise is hard to notice when it running at full speed, and the 9cm fan also.



The VGA cooler is Accelero Xtreme III, during the test I notice there will be annoying noise when the fan speed over 1600rpm, the cpu fan don't have this noise at the same speed. I think the sound may caused by the air flowing through the case bottom grill, so I put the fan a 1-2 mm away the bottom grill, it's better, now I can have 1600rpm running at night with little sound. And also I make the case 3cm away the table, in order to have better air flow for bottom fan, it will help to drop around 8c degree.




All test running at ambient 20C

Stress test
Prime95 blend 4 threads, Furmark ( 2560x1440) 30 minutes, (8 threads will make the temp go to 100C......)
cpu fan max, vga fan max, CPU:86C and VGA:57C

Furmark ( 2560x1440) only 30 minutes,
vga fan ~1550rpm, VGA:57C

Gaming test
3Dmark Fire Strike Extreme Strees test
cpu fan ~1200rpm , vga fan ~1550rpm , CPU: 45C and VGA:56C

Hitman beachmark 2560x1440
cpu fan ~1100rpm , vga fan ~1550rpm , CPU:50C and VGA:54C



 
H

HilbertSpace

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Does anyone know of a super-slim radiator which would be 15 mm thick? I think 15 mm rad and 25 mm fans would work better than ~27 mm rad and 15 mm fans for the bottom of the case. I realize there are no PC radiators that size, but maybe from some other source? Or would it be possible to mod a dual pass rad into a single that is half height, by maybe carefully milling off half the thickness?
 
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