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

La_Menthe said:
So I'm not alone?

Here's btw a video I took with my phone of the buzzing issue (system was idle):



I have returned previous SF600s for this very reason, and would not hesitate to do it again. I'm just not sure what other SFX PSU alternatives there are out there that can give me an adequate level of noise (during load).
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I've never had that problem with mine as well. I bought mine right after the early reviews said it was good.
 
Hi everyone. Its been a while since I last posted in this thread. Good job with all the new builds, some of them look real sick.


Had a quick question. Does anyone know if two 140mm fans would fit on the side bracket? I currently have a Noctua NF-A15 and an NF-F12 next to each other like this, but would two NF-A15s fit right next to each other?
 
gsilver said:
For the parts that I returned (or in the process of RMA, before ebay'ing the replacement, as in the Z170 board), the SF 450s and the Asus Z170 board were from Amazon, the Asus Z270 board from Newegg


For the parts that I didn't return, the SX700 and the ASRock Z270 were both from Amazon.
All were from the stores proper, not 3rd party sellers on the sites.



Just curious, can you try Prime95 Mixed?
I got instant coil whine there with the SF450/Asus motherboard
Heard it with two other power supplies, too, but I verified that it was just the motherboard there.
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Sure, just not today, my gf is having a party and we live in a 1 room apartment :banghead:
 
La_Menthe said:
So I'm not alone?

Here's btw a video I took with my phone of the buzzing issue (system was idle):



I have returned previous SF600s for this very reason, and would not hesitate to do it again. I'm just not sure what other SFX PSU alternatives there are out there that can give me an adequate level of noise (during load).
Click to expand...


My SF600 was perfect before in my other build
 
Can`t wait for ITX AM4 board which is not named BIOSTAR ... My Ryzen build gonna rock
 
So which 1080ti AIB card fits in the Ncase? I hear the new strix is larger and the old one was a PITA enough to get in my case.
Looking to upgrade soon and looking to avoid the FE.
 
{NG}Fidel said:
So which 1080ti AIB card fits in the Ncase? I hear the new strix is larger and the old one was a PITA enough to get in my case.
Looking to upgrade soon and looking to avoid the FE.
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EVGA is probably going to be a good option, they have a 2 fan model that is 111.15 X 266.7mm that should fit with no problem.
 
Evangelion said:
Hi everyone. Its been a while since I last posted in this thread. Good job with all the new builds, some of them look real sick.


Had a quick question. Does anyone know if two 140mm fans would fit on the side bracket? I currently have a Noctua NF-A15 and an NF-F12 next to each other like this, but would two NF-A15s fit right next to each other?
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No. Two 140 mm fans will not fit together on the side bracket, at least not with the existing slots for the fan mounting screws.

Below are two quick and dirty photos of a mock-up of two 140 mm fans on the side bracket. I've attached two Phanteks PH-F140HPII fans beside each other on a rev.1 (aluminum) side bracket using rubber bands. None of the fans' mounting holes (120 mm fan spacing) align with any of the side bracket's slots. Also, some of the area of both fans is covered by the material of the bracket at its ends. The fan mounted nearest the front of the case must be ~ 10 mm from the front of the chasis frame due to the width of the frame at this location (needed to attach the side bracket). At the rear of the case the frame has no width, but the rear 140 mm fan would prevent attaching an 80 mm or 92 mm on the rear panel of the case.

I'm not sure you could mod the provided side bracket enough to mount two 140 mm fans without weakening it too much. You might be better off to make your own side bracket if you really want dual 140s.

Dual 140 mm fans - 1 (Medium).jpg Dual 140 mm fans - 2 (Medium).jpg
 
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Qrash said:
No. Two 140 mm fans will not fit together on the side bracket, at least not with the existing slots for the fan mounting screws.

Below are two quick and dirty photos of a mock-up of two 140 mm fans on the side bracket. I've attached two Phanteks PH-F140HPII fans beside each other on a rev.1 (aluminum) side bracket using rubber bands. None of the fans' mounting holes (120 mm fan spacing) align with any of the side bracket's slots. Also, some of the area of both fans is covered by the material of the bracket at its ends. The fan mounted nearest the front of the case must be ~ 10 mm from the front of the chasis frame due to the width of the frame at this location (needed to attach the side bracket). At the rear of the case the frame has no width, but the rear 140 mm fan would prevent attaching an 80 mm or 92 mm on the rear panel of the case.

I'm not sure you could mod the provided side bracket enough to mount two 140 mm fans without weakening it too much. You might be better off to make your own side bracket if you really want dual 140s.

View attachment 20828 View attachment 20829
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What GPU heatsink is that?
 
Pillars said:
What GPU heatsink is that?
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It's an Alpenföhn Peter 2 from Germany mounted to a Zotac GTX 970. I believe the heatsink is discontinued. I purchased it when planning my build several years ago. I wanted to have dual 120 mm fans in the bottom of the case to exhaust air out the bottom, but the Peter 2 is too thick for standard 25 mm thick fans. Consequently, I used two 140 mm slim fans (Prolimatech Ultra Sleek Vortex 14). There is just enough room on the bottom of the case for two 140 mm fans, but they have to be the round type and you need to drill some holes (but not all of them) for mounting.

M1 with dual 140mm Prolimatech fans on Bottom (Large).jpg
 
Just a quick PSA. EVGA listed the wrong dimensions for the 1080 TI FTW3 card. It's actually longer AND taller. The width is still double slot though. If you thought the 1080 FTW was a pain to fit in your case, good luck with the FTW3. It probably won't fit. I had a 1080 FTW and it was the height that caused me problems. I managed to fit the FTW in the case though.

Here are the official dimensions from the site: https://www.evga.com/products/product.aspx?pn=11G-P4-6696-KR

  • Height: 5.385in - 136.8mm
  • Length: 11.37in - 288.798mm
 
Qrash said:
It's an Alpenföhn Peter 2 from Germany mounted to a Zotac GTX 970. I believe the heatsink is discontinued. I purchased it when planning my build several years ago. I wanted to have dual 120 mm fans in the bottom of the case to exhaust air out the bottom, but the Peter 2 is too thick for standard 25 mm thick fans. Consequently, I used two 140 mm slim fans (Prolimatech Ultra Sleek Vortex 14). There is just enough room on the bottom of the case for two 140 mm fans, but they have to be the round type and you need to drill some holes (but not all of them) for mounting.

View attachment 20842
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Thanks for the info, I'm going to go about testing the exhaust route as well.
 
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WlfHart said:
Mind posting some pics of how you pathed your tubes and oriented the rads?
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I'll try and remember to do this when I'm home. I honestly just put the rads on the bracket and then just shove it all in there, the tubes are basically going in circles like a coiled up spring directly in front of the fans.
 
Thinking about getting custom length cables for m1, what sizes should I order? Have a strix z170 and sf600.
 
Finally opened up my NCASE and gave it the old quality inspection. Frame looks okay from what I could quickly see, but bah. I do hate brushed aluminium - impossible to avoid little blemishes here or there. Thankfully nothing visible unless you look for it, but annoying to know it is there.

Sandblasted panels when
 
Mine has held up well. The only thing I don't like is that the frame's paint rubs off easily. You have to use painters tape or risk scratching off paint. But the panels cover up the frame so not a big deal.
 
BST4R said:
Can`t wait for ITX AM4 board which is not named BIOSTAR ... My Ryzen build gonna rock
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You and me both. There's word of a Gigabyte and an ASRock board in the works, but the Biostars are likely to be first to market, based on the amount of info we have on them.

In the meantime, I'm waiting for ram prices to come back down, and also to see how the R5s perform.
 
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Nathan Spears said:
Mine has held up well. The only thing I don't like is that the frame's paint rubs off easily. You have to use painters tape or risk scratching off paint. But the panels cover up the frame so not a big deal.
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Yeah, I'm sending mine off to get stripped and powder coated before I build. That way it'll hold up nicely. I'm mostly just checking that the frame isn't warped or damaged anywhere before I go voiding any warranties.

Too bad I can't do anything about the blemishes to the panels though - just have to buy a new set when they do the sandblasted variety.
 
Came across someone who seemingly squeezed a MSI 1080 in the ncase http://imgur.com/a/5NK3B so maybe the Ti might fit if it's just slightly fatter. Althought the front I/O seems to have been removed there.
 
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DarkForceRising said:
You and me both. There's word of a Gigabyte and an ASRock board in the works, but the Biostars are likely to be first to market, based on the amount of info we have on them.

In the meantime, I'm waiting for ram prices to come back down, and also to see how the R5s perform.
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I Already have Ryzen 1700 . + Im gonna buy the non reference Vega once it realeased
 
BST4R said:
I Already have Ryzen 1700 . + Im gonna buy the non reference Vega once it realeased
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For the Ryzen 7 the 1700 seems to be the smart buy, I recently saw someone achieve a 4.0 GHz OC on all 8 cores and benchmark numbers were very good. AMD is releasing AGESA updates to vendors which will mean updated BIOS updates so you can probably get even better OC and memory support.
Hope they release m-itx AM4 boards soon.
 
greygrid said:
Came across someone who seemingly squeezed a MSI 1080 in the ncase http://imgur.com/a/5NK3B so maybe the Ti might fit if it's just slightly fatter. Althought the front I/O seems to have been removed there.
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That Imgur album includes a photo of the PCI-E power connector before and after cutting it down to reduce its height enough so that the side panel may be closed.
 
Does anyone else notice their feet not being entirely level? Notice it wobbles on my desk. Sure, you can untwist it a bit but they become incredibly loose instantly.

Hrm...
 
Quick question, if I may: I have a blower-style GPU (A 660Ti) and it's getting pretty toasty and subsequently rather noisy. I was contemplating adding a couple of intake fans at the bottom of the case, but I've heard mixed reports as to how effective these would be: there's a 3cm gap at the bottom of the case, and fans tend to be 25mm deep, so I'm worried that they'll be too close to the GPU to provide effective airflow. I could try and source some slim 120mm fans but obviously these will give lower airflow than their thicker counterparts.

Can anyone share their experience and wisdom on this, please? I'd normally just whack the fans in and see what happens but that would involve quite a lot of removing and replacing components - one of the pitfalls of working with this sort of case :)
 
Bawjaws said:
Quick question, if I may: I have a blower-style GPU (A 660Ti) and it's getting pretty toasty and subsequently rather noisy. I was contemplating adding a couple of intake fans at the bottom of the case, but I've heard mixed reports as to how effective these would be: there's a 3cm gap at the bottom of the case, and fans tend to be 25mm deep, so I'm worried that they'll be too close to the GPU to provide effective airflow. I could try and source some slim 120mm fans but obviously these will give lower airflow than their thicker counterparts.

Can anyone share their experience and wisdom on this, please? I'd normally just whack the fans in and see what happens but that would involve quite a lot of removing and replacing components - one of the pitfalls of working with this sort of case :)
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I think that if you can duct from bottom to blower intake that would be the most effective solution. Fresh air pickup that is all expulsed on the back looks as the best scenario to me and that's what I plan to do when I will build. Like you said adding a fan with not enough space in-between won't do better I believe.
 
Received my Lian Li PC-Q10 today, was planning on swapping my M1 build into it because of the window panel. Having second thoughts though because the overall build quality just doesn't compare to the M1. For instance the non-windowed side panel bulges out on one side, like the frame is tweaked slightly. Also the feet on the case don't seem to be even, rocks side to side on a flat surface. The IO cables are excessive long and the IO area is very exposed, M1 got that down perfect imo. Was missing one of the special plastic clips for the anodized panel, luckly the M1 comes with extra whereas the Q10 does not. It very obvious though that this is the bastard step child of the M1. With Lian Li cutting some corners to save on production cost and not make it completely obvious that the overall design comes from the M1. The one thing it did right was the tiny cover with thumb screw for the gpu area on the back, way nicer then the just solid tiny plate on the M1.

Learned that my L12 will not work with my hybrid gpu in the Q10 though so had to order a U12s, once that comes in next week I will swap my build and see if I keep it.
 
BST4R said:
I Already have Ryzen 1700 . + Im gonna buy the non reference Vega once it realeased
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I'm tentatively planning on getting a 1700, but I see no reason to buy it just yet, unless there's a really nice sale. It's possible, depending on pricing/performance, that I might get a hexcore instead. As for Vega, maybe, but there are as of yet no released pricing or performance details. I'm going to temporarily use my current card, a Radeon 280(x?), Which most likely won't fit in the NCase with the side panel on.

There are four mITX boards that I'm aware of.
2 Biostars (one x370 and one B350) that seem to be nearing release. Speculation has them releasing in April, possibly in time for the R5 launch. These are up on Biostars website, with reasonably detailed specs.
1 Gigabyte. There was a slide leaked a week or two ago with basic specs on it. IIRC someone claimed to have emailed GB and was told that they're targeting a June release.
1 Asrock. This is entirely based on guy posting screenshots of an email from an ASRock sales guy saying they're working on it. I think targeting April, but I doubt it, since theres no info on it yet.
 
Friends, is there a compatibility list that shows what Z270 motherboards work with the C14? I'm looking to buy asrock/asus. Or of some of you guys can tell me which work. That'd be great!
 
C14 or C14S?
Code: 
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Xhd3QG2uIVBgQ7vHgpP_Bd_MNcrfxr8KJW2sY6g33so/edit?pli=1#gid=10
 
enyownz said:
Ordered a Ti Gaming X, will update you guys if it fits


Makes half the job of fitting it in easier, just need to take off the side clip from case. No need to modify the cables.
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Much appreciated!
I'll wait for your update before deciding to get it or the Strix.
 
azagar said:
Received my Lian Li PC-Q10 today, was planning on swapping my M1 build into it because of the window panel. Having second thoughts though because the overall build quality just doesn't compare to the M1. For instance the non-windowed side panel bulges out on one side, like the frame is tweaked slightly. Also the feet on the case don't seem to be even, rocks side to side on a flat surface. The IO cables are excessive long and the IO area is very exposed, M1 got that down perfect imo. Was missing one of the special plastic clips for the anodized panel, luckly the M1 comes with extra whereas the Q10 does not. It very obvious though that this is the bastard step child of the M1. With Lian Li cutting some corners to save on production cost and not make it completely obvious that the overall design comes from the M1. The one thing it did right was the tiny cover with thumb screw for the gpu area on the back, way nicer then the just solid tiny plate on the M1.

Learned that my L12 will not work with my hybrid gpu in the Q10 though so had to order a U12s, once that comes in next week I will swap my build and see if I keep it.
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I'm sure that the Lian-Li PC-Q10 has a limit of 140mm for CPU cooler height. The U12S is higher than this. I don't believe it'll fit? You'll need something like a U9S or D9L. :\.
 
Howdy folks,

new user here and first time assembling Ncase M1. I thought that I can just move my old rig from Evolv ATX to Ncase simply by changing motherboard to ITX. But it aint gonna happen, my old GPU Strix 1070 is too wide/tall? to be used with EK block ln this case. About 16mm of EK GPU block tube connector part punches put of the case. So the problem is the tube connector part on these blocks, without it they will fit. Obviously there is no point to install block without the connectors. :D

So my question is, can I fit any other 1070 with EK block on this case? Gigabute G1? I'm sorry if this has been discussed before, but if not, then feel free to answer.

My case is black and I decided to paint internal parts of the case white:

NoHq0fN.jpg


There will be external cooling unit with D5, 2x280 rad + Aquacomputer.
 
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sad story for me today :( My 290X died as I started running a benchmark (3DMark 11 to be exact).

I sidegraded my PSU today from Antec 750w Platinum to Corsair SF600. Also upgraded my i5 2500K to i7 2600K. I've been running 2x outtake Noctua fans with Arctic Cooler heatsink on my 290X for a while now, but decided to try the fans that came with the heatsink so I can install two 120mm fans on the side now that I have an SFF PSU. Idle temps look fine and overclocked my 2600K to 4.4ghz just fine. Everything booted smoothly. Then...When I ran the benchmark, my screen went nuts. Forced off my desktop and when I turned it on again it had this 1 inch thick vertical strip of bad white and pink display. Display goes nuts when Windows loads and then computer would restart.

Took out the video card and luckily everything else is fine. Tried the 290X on my bro's computer and confirmed it's a video card problem. RIP

Now back to my desktop. I booted fine with the iGPU and some automatic update allowed 4K resolution on the 2600K iGPU. I've ran benchmarks before even on the iGPU and I'm just obsessing doing one run with the 2600K that I got from ebay to make sure it's working 100% even on OC. So I ran it again and welp... my display went nuts again! Same thing and now I get display problems right after loading Windows :/ Several potential culprits here

1) Did running the benchmark kill both the iGPU and 290X? Actually iGPU works ok now on HDMI 1080p, but not anymore on 4k Displayport).
2) Or is the PSU just poor quality? Maybe bad regulation when the benchmark ran and the hardware power requirements spiked.
3) Perhaps the 3rd party gpu fan drew too much power? Doesnt explain the iGPU not working on 4k anymore though.

I've ran the benchmark many time before. Never had a hardware breaking on me.

P.S. 6870 with dual fan just went over 95C with my current fan set-up (intake 120mm fan on C14, outtake 120mm on side). How do people with GTX 1080 non-blower/non-water cooled keep their temps low?
 
noobzilla said:
P.S. 6870 with dual fan just went over 95C with my current fan set-up (intake 120mm fan on C14, outtake 120mm on side). How do people with GTX 1080 non-blower/non-water cooled keep their temps low?
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I have a 1070 Asus Strix. Stays under 75 degrees but the fan ramps up a fair amount. I have NO bottom intake fans, however. I'd assume something is wrong with your 6870. Consider a remount of the cooler and replace the TIM. I did that with a 6850 and dropped temps 10 degrees for me.
 
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