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

I have looked at the detailed spec for GPU compatibility and not previously noted the limitations on 2.5 width cards. My card is 302.5x110.5 and 2.5 slot. I think it should just fit - can anyone else comment and confirm they agree?

https://m.imgur.com/5fktEW1

It’s the ‘maximum length of card in slot 3’ dimension which is troubling me. Does this mean ‘maximum length of a tall card in slot 3’?

It’s not a massive problem if the card won’t fit but if I can stick an Accelero on it - at the very least it will reduce the 2.5 to 2.

Amazon says hwat as does Newegg
Thank you I managed to find a source but it doesn’t seem to be picked up by pcpartpicker which is odd.
 
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@QuantumBraced: thanks a lot for your ideas. I actually thought about something similar regarding the PSU thingy, but don't really know how to get at it and if it's worth to do just for the better looks!
I had the NZXT Kraken X52 in a previous µATX build and I absolutely loved it, thats why I came up with the idea of putting the M22 inside the M1. Maybe somehow has some other ideas :)
 
@QuantumBraced: thanks a lot for your ideas. I actually thought about something similar regarding the PSU thingy, but don't really know how to get at it and if it's worth to do just for the better looks!
I had the NZXT Kraken X52 in a previous µATX build and I absolutely loved it, thats why I came up with the idea of putting the M22 inside the M1. Maybe somehow has some other ideas :)

You're welcome. The reason I typed such a long response is because I've been thinking about this myself as I plan to get the upcoming M1 window panel and I have a 120mm AIO currently mounted to the side bracket on the motherboard side. I plan on mounting the AIO on the bottom as I recently downgraded to a 1050 Ti, which is only the length of the PCIe slot, so a 120mm AIO will fit on the bottom next to it. But with a longer GPU, the PSU fan mount seems to be the only option -- I may test and I'll let you know how it performs, I have a 6800K OCed to 4GHz which draws about 100W at full load. Otherwise, your only other AIO option is the Asetek 92mm to mount to the rear panel, but that doesn't really look good and I think your D9L will outperform it significantly.

Anyway, let us know what you decide to do and post pictures. If you have access to a 120mm AIO, you could get the 92-to-120mm adapter (less than $10) and just try it to see what the temps are. Again, your main issue is that open air GPU that will be feeding the AIO warm air and the PSU even warmer air. You could consider undervolting/underclocking the CPU/GPU a little to reduce TDPs, just gotta decide how much you want that sick RGB fan look.
 
Two questions:

1.) What's the best cooling solution to add some sort of airflow to the motherboard VRM's? I'm running my current build with a Corsair H110i but my Gigabyte's VRM's were overheating, prompting me to start a new build. This time I might ditch the 110i if air cooling combined with case fans will offer better airflow. I'd still like enough CPU cooling to try an overclock an 8700k to 5Ghz.

2.) Custom cables: has anyone done a build with the ASUS ROG STRIX Z370-I and the Corsair SFF PSU's? I'm looking at custom cable lengths because I hate how messy it is inside my case right now with my Gigabyte board, and since I'm re-doing my build might as well organize the cable management in there with shorter cables.
 
Two questions:

1.) What's the best cooling solution to add some sort of airflow to the motherboard VRM's? I'm running my current build with a Corsair H110i but my Gigabyte's VRM's were overheating, prompting me to start a new build. This time I might ditch the 110i if air cooling combined with case fans will offer better airflow. I'd still like enough CPU cooling to try an overclock an 8700k to 5Ghz.

2.) Custom cables: has anyone done a build with the ASUS ROG STRIX Z370-I and the Corsair SFF PSU's? I'm looking at custom cable lengths because I hate how messy it is inside my case right now with my Gigabyte board, and since I'm re-doing my build might as well organize the cable management in there with shorter cables.
1. Depending on your ram and cooler config, the best solution I see is this. A 120 side mounted fan with direct airflow, a top down cooler with good airflow, or perhaps most ideally: a top mounted slim-full width 92-120mm fan blowing directly down over the vrms (with ddr4 orrientation hopefully not blocking the vrms airflow). Worst come to worst you may opt to unmount your IO shield to allow airflow out the back.
 
So basically side and top slim fans, a tower cooler, and maybe a 92mm rear exhaust fan? I'd like to see if anyone's done it. Searching through this thread right now.
 
So basically side and top slim fans, a tower cooler, and maybe a 92mm rear exhaust fan? I'd like to see if anyone's done it. Searching through this thread right now.
Something like that basicly. If you want to do something crazy. You could vertically mount your gpu, put that 240mm AIO in the bottom, and then potentially have more clearance for a full size high rpm fan in the top for the vrms.

(I vertically mount mine so I can say there is enough room for this...depends on things like your motherboard layout though)

Conditions: blower ideal as the gpu could pontentially make VRM temps worse if its a non blower style cooler.

Just my crazy mind making more problems than solutions more than likely.
 
Two questions:

1.) What's the best cooling solution to add some sort of airflow to the motherboard VRM's? I'm running my current build with a Corsair H110i but my Gigabyte's VRM's were overheating, prompting me to start a new build. This time I might ditch the 110i if air cooling combined with case fans will offer better airflow. I'd still like enough CPU cooling to try an overclock an 8700k to 5Ghz.

2.) Custom cables: has anyone done a build with the ASUS ROG STRIX Z370-I and the Corsair SFF PSU's? I'm looking at custom cable lengths because I hate how messy it is inside my case right now with my Gigabyte board, and since I'm re-doing my build might as well organize the cable management in there with shorter cables.

two answers:
1.) a fan
2.) yes
 
You're welcome. The reason I typed such a long response is because I've been thinking about this myself as I plan to get the upcoming M1 window panel and I have a 120mm AIO currently mounted to the side bracket on the motherboard side. I plan on mounting the AIO on the bottom as I recently downgraded to a 1050 Ti, which is only the length of the PCIe slot, so a 120mm AIO will fit on the bottom next to it. But with a longer GPU, the PSU fan mount seems to be the only option -- I may test and I'll let you know how it performs, I have a 6800K OCed to 4GHz which draws about 100W at full load. Otherwise, your only other AIO option is the Asetek 92mm to mount to the rear panel, but that doesn't really look good and I think your D9L will outperform it significantly.

Anyway, let us know what you decide to do and post pictures. If you have access to a 120mm AIO, you could get the 92-to-120mm adapter (less than $10) and just try it to see what the temps are. Again, your main issue is that open air GPU that will be feeding the AIO warm air and the PSU even warmer air. You could consider undervolting/underclocking the CPU/GPU a little to reduce TDPs, just gotta decide how much you want that sick RGB fan look.


Here's a crazy idea:

What if you reversed the direction of the PS fan so that it drew air in from above (beside the AC connection) and then through the 120 mm radiator (via a 92-120 adapter. The SF600 is quite efficient and it might not warm up the air too much. Have a 120 mm fan on the other side of the radiator (pulling air through it). The warm air would be exahusted inside the case but you could exhaust it out the rear. Some would diffuse out the top, especially if you had bottom intake fans.

Told you it was crazy.
 
Here's a crazy idea:

What if you reversed the direction of the PS fan so that it drew air in from above (beside the AC connection) and then through the 120 mm radiator (via a 92-120 adapter. The SF600 is quite efficient and it might not warm up the air too much. Have a 120 mm fan on the other side of the radiator (pulling air through it). The warm air would be exahusted inside the case but you could exhaust it out the rear. Some would diffuse out the top, especially if you had bottom intake fans.

Told you it was crazy.

Or an even crazier idea. Ditch the windowed side panel, mount the 120mm AIO on the fan bracket with an additional 120mm fan to cool the VRM. Now that would be crazy. :p
 
Or an even crazier idea. Ditch the windowed side panel, mount the 120mm AIO on the fan bracket with an additional 120mm fan to cool the VRM. Now that would be crazy. :p

How boring!;)
 
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Here's a crazy idea:

What if you reversed the direction of the PS fan so that it drew air in from above (beside the AC connection) and then through the 120 mm radiator (via a 92-120 adapter. The SF600 is quite efficient and it might not warm up the air too much. Have a 120 mm fan on the other side of the radiator (pulling air through it). The warm air would be exahusted inside the case but you could exhaust it out the rear. Some would diffuse out the top, especially if you had bottom intake fans.

Told you it was crazy.

That may be a better setup, because you effectively again another intake (top) and the PSU, which is the largest potential source of noise, would be getting cooler air vs. intaking thru a radiator. However, I suspect there would be a fair amount of recirculation happening with the PSU intaking its own exhaust. Both setups would have to be tested.
 
That may be a better setup, because you effectively again another intake (top) and the PSU, which is the largest potential source of noise, would be getting cooler air vs. intaking thru a radiator. However, I suspect there would be a fair amount of recirculation happening with the PSU intaking its own exhaust. Both setups would have to be tested.

I think you're right about the recirculation of warm air from the radiator back into the PS. Maybe sealing the top of the PS to the top panel (with soft foam?) and/or sealing the underside of the top panel that is close to PS could reduce the amount of recirculation. It'd be an interesting experiment.
 
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I think you're right about the recirculation if warm air from the radiator back into the PS. Maybe sealing the top of the PS to the top panel (with soft foam?) and/or sealing the underside of the top panel that is close to PS could reduce the amount of recirculation. It'd be an interesting experiment.

Sure, DIY ducts would solve the problem, but they would look pretty ugly, and the whole point of this is looks. I think as long as the CPU is tuned to max power consumption of no more than ~100W and isn't used for video editing or consistent near 100% load and the GPU is not open-air exhausting in the case, you would be fine with intake thru the PSU.

This guy did it:

qfa3FtI.jpg


He posted it on reddit, but no comment on temperatures...

On one hand, you'd think the PSU fan would go into jet engine mode because you strapped a radiator to it. But on the other hand, you have a 120mm fan pushing air thru it, greatly helping with airflow, so that should reduce the need for the PSU fan to ramp up. I think under moderate load it would be fine, but under heavy load, it would be Airbus A380 taking off.
 
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lhIC47fl.jpg


My current setup for SolidWorks, KeyShot, Excel and GTA 5:

NCASE M1 + SFFLAB Window
Intel i9-7900X
Nvidia Titan XP Star Wars Galactic Empire
ASRock X299E-ITX/ac
Noctua NH-U9S and additional 92mm fan (NF-A9 PWM)
Corsair SF600
Samsung 960 EVO

Still need to the following:
1. custom sleeved PSU cables (window makes cable mess too obvious)
2. dual Thunderbolt 3 front I/O module


I will try and post temperatures in APR - time is rare these days.

More info on how the windowed panel affects the system temp is always good.
 
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View attachment 62093

My current setup for SolidWorks, KeyShot, Excel and GTA 5:

NCASE M1 + SFFLAB Window
Intel i9-7900X
Nvidia Titan XP Star Wars Galactic Empire
ASRock X299E-ITX/ac
Noctua NH-U9S and additional 92mm fan (NF-A9 PWM)
Corsair SF600
Samsung 960 EVO

Still need to the following:
1. custom sleeved PSU cables (window makes cable mess too obvious)
2. dual Thunderbolt 3 front I/O module


I will try and post temperatures in APR - time is rare these days.

More info on how the windowed panel affects the system temp is always good.

That looks great. I am also considering switching to the U9S when I get the window, seems to be the best option. You could tuck the PCIe cables behind the GPU a little until you get the sleeved ones.

The X299E-ITX/ac doesn't have Thunderbolt 3, so how would you use it?
 
That looks great. I am also considering switching to the U9S when I get the window, seems to be the best option. You could tuck the PCIe cables behind the GPU a little until you get the sleeved ones.

The X299E-ITX/ac doesn't have Thunderbolt 3, so how would you use it?


I got a eGPU OEM board, I'm turning it into Thunderbolt 3 for personal use.

NCASE is not authorized to sell TB3 stuff, because Intel never got back to us on approval, so it's not something we can sell.
 
I got a eGPU OEM board, I'm turning it into Thunderbolt 3 for personal use.

NCASE is not authorized to sell TB3 stuff, because Intel never got back to us on approval, so it's not something we can sell.

I see. Well please post pictures when your setup is done, I'd be curious to see how you set up the TB3 board and front I/O.
 
The (passive) graphics card doesn't have a fan, but there is a case fan (NF-P12) underneath it.

Huh, I didn't realize that was a passive 1050 Ti. Great choice of components to achieve your goal of a silent build.
 
Wahaha, any chance we will ever get the option to purchase the front I/O bracket? I will more than likely have to fabricate one soon, as I want to delete all the USB and Audio jacks and just have the power switch. I accidentally scratched my stock one when I did the power switch mod.
 
What's the biggest reasonable air cooler that you can fit into the NCASE with an ASUS ROG STRIX Z370-I? Is the Noctua NH-U9S with an extra fan enough to cool a delidded 8700k at 5Ghz?
I'm thinking of replacing my Corsair H100i V2 with an air cooler in order to make it easier to travel with, so I'd like something with more or less equivalent cooling capacity and not loud.
 
I'm 5+ years late to this party but I'm in for one. Ordered a sliver no ODD back on March 22nd. Got the shipping notice yesterday that it's leaving Taiwan.

I've been building and upgrading my own systems for a long time although I don't have near the expertise as many on this forum - I just know how to plug things in - lol. My first build had a 80286 CPU, a whopping 512 KB of ram and a "monster" 32 MB 5.25" hard drive!! I had one of the early VGA monitors - I think it displayed only 256 colors (or was it 16?) on 14" CRT. I guess that all means I'm really old. Anyway I've been long overdue for a new build - it's been awhile - some of my components date back to 2008. I'm ready to down size - I used to do video capture of TV shows and movies and store them on my system - 16TB of storage stuffed into a Lian Li PC-V1000LA Silver Aluminum ATX Full Tower Chassis that cost a basket full of $$. With the advent and maturation of streaming services there really is no need for that anymore.

Anyway, started researching my new build about a month ago and stumbled upon SFFLAB and started digging into the cases available there which lead me to this thread. I started reading from the first post and continued reading clear through to the first production shipments arriving in the US and then jumped ahead and skimmed through the last year or so. Amazing story. If they ever wanted to make a movie about a successful crowd funded project (a la The Social Network) they should come right here. Two guys on opposite coasts that desire to make something better with all the contributions from forum members along the way. One of the two doesn't even get his opportunity to see the project in the flesh for what - about year and half? Then he FLIES TO TAIWAN to personally oversee shipments? Are you kidding me!? This was a hobby after all, right? They could even over dramatize (as Hollywood is prone to do) the corporate rip-offs of your design. Add to that the drama of all the whining and sniveling over design changes (please make it 20MM taller, etc.) and shipping issues. And to top off all that the total class that both Ncere and Wahaha360 have displayed for all these years. Amazing patience and tolerance to all sorts of issues, questions (wish I had a dollar for every time someone was directed to go back and read the original post) and criticisms.

I'm a production planner for one of the largest food companies in the world so have some understanding of the undertaking of at least the logistics what you guys have done. I couldn't be more impressed. I know it's been said many times before but fantastic job guys!
 
Today i got some new parts for my build , I wanted to replace the Noctua NH-U9S with the aio from fractal Design the Celsius s24 and the psu

First the easy thing my SilverStone sx600g wasn’t bad psu at all the fan had never spin up ..... or so i thought the thing is during installation I must had bend the fan grid (wasn’t noticeable) and it blocked the fan ..... for a year or so , after bending back the grid it seems to work fine but to be save I exenched it for a Corsair sf 600 .... and I think it’s better , bigger fan , really really quit when it starts to spin and it turns off when not needed

For the cpu cooler the Noctua is really great but I wanted to try a aio the Celsius s24 BUT I couldn’t get it to fit ( ncase m1 v3) not without putting a lot of stress on it , someone a few pages earlier had it installed but for me it was to tight so i did put the NH-U9S back on and it will stay on , with this I have a lot more space within my case

Mannymal , the NH-U9S is really really good , my setup runs it with 2 fans push/pull from the right to the left , in the bottom of the case I got 2 x 120 mm fans and an the side parallel to the psu is also a 120 fan ( all air in )

Used auto tune within the bios for the fans and it got me really good temps

Cpu fans idle 400rpm , 33 degrees Celsius
Cpu fans load games around 1000rpm 50-60 degrees Celsius

Only at cpu benchmarks like cinebench where all cores (I7 8700k) run at 4700mhz and 100% load on all cores it goes up to 75-80 degree the cpu fans spins with 1800-2000rpms and that is really loud ,

Stress Test the cpu with Aida64 the cpu ramps up to 4300mhz on all cores ( that should be the normal clock for all cores) the cpu fans run at around 1500rpm and the temps are around 70-75 degree Celsius
 
Hi everyone!

I have an NCASE M1 version 1 (first edition). I bought it long ago anticipating an upgrade, but it's been sitting in my apartment for over four years because it turns out the 2600K was a legendary CPU. All good things must come to an end, however, and the time has come to upgrade.

My question is: how has the M1 v1 aged? I see the changelog for v2 through v5, but I don't know how serious any of those differences are. I'm thinking about selling it on eBay and getting a "more updated case" if it turns out to be basically inferior/obsolete.

I guess a related question is: are these collectible? Is there a market for first edition NCASE M1 that makes them more valuable than one would naively assume? eBay data is basically non-existant, but if I can sell this case for a profit and have an extra few bucks to spend on components, I'd like to do so.
 
Here's my super quiet NCase
i5-8400
960 Pro
Palit 1050 Ti Kalmx
Oh, that looks really nice. I didn't realise you could get a 100% passive 1050ti! How are your GPU temperatures and clocks with that setup, and do you find the CPU getting hot with the GPU heat being blown into the case? (Appreciate that it's only a 75W GPU)

I really might have to get one of these bad boys - I'd prefer something a bit faster but refuse to pay silly money for a 1060 or better, and I could cope fine with a 1050ti, but above all I want silence!

Again, that's a really nice build.
 
Wahaha, any chance we will ever get the option to purchase the front I/O bracket? I will more than likely have to fabricate one soon, as I want to delete all the USB and Audio jacks and just have the power switch. I accidentally scratched my stock one when I did the power switch mod.

We don’t have any atm.

Have you considered 3D printing a black ABS I/O?

I was planning to upload the Front I/O CAD to SmallFormFactor.net anyways.
 
We don’t have any atm.

Have you considered 3D printing a black ABS I/O?

I was planning to upload the Front I/O CAD to SmallFormFactor.net anyways.

I'm sure there are many people, myself included, that would be extremely greatful if you uploaded the i/o cad to sff.net!

I didn't consider going with abs. Home Depot sheet metal is only 8 bucks for a 8x12 sheet.
 
Hi everyone!

I have an NCASE M1 version 1 (first edition). I bought it long ago anticipating an upgrade, but it's been sitting in my apartment for over four years because it turns out the 2600K was a legendary CPU. All good things must come to an end, however, and the time has come to upgrade.

My question is: how has the M1 v1 aged? I see the changelog for v2 through v5, but I don't know how serious any of those differences are. I'm thinking about selling it on eBay and getting a "more updated case" if it turns out to be basically inferior/obsolete.

I guess a related question is: are these collectible? Is there a market for first edition NCASE M1 that makes them more valuable than one would naively assume? eBay data is basically non-existant, but if I can sell this case for a profit and have an extra few bucks to spend on components, I'd like to do so.
No. Sure there are people that collect hardware, and among those are people who collect cases, but even among those people the criteria for each collection is going to vary wildly and sometimes in ways that can't be easily quantified. You'd have to find not only someone willing to buy the M1 V1 for the sake of having a first-gen, that doesn't already have one, that's willing to pay more than what the upgraded version is worth, that actually has that money to spend, within the time limit of an ebay listing. It's just not happening.
 
While waiting for my case I've been working on planning/purchasing by build. Looking to put together a small clean system. Not a gamer anymore but who knows? Plan to retire in a couple of years and I might try my hand at it again. Anyway, I've been kind of an AMD guy for awhile now and when I saw the ridiculous prices that video cards are at right now I thought the the Ryzen 5 2400G looked like a good place to start. Although I haven't seen any builds with the 2400G with the M1 that I can find. The Corsair SFX PSUs seem like a no brainer so I picked up the SF450. Picked up both the processor and the psu from Newegg. Plan to stick with air cooling because that's what I know. Not really interested in liquid cooling at this point. I'm not super hung up on fan noise - with no video card to start with I don't imagine the noise would be bad anyway.

Here's my plan so far:

NCASE M1
Ryzen 5 2400G
Corsair SF450 with custom cables (no I won't be doing this myself - I'll go with Cable Mod or somebody like that)
Samsung 850 EVO 500GB from current system
Western Digital Red NAS 6TB from current sytem (selling off the other 10 TB worth of drives from that system)

Researching the rest. Looking at motherboards now. Sure not much out there for Ryzen ITX boards. The ASRock boards don't look too bad feature set wise but I hate the black and red scheme. MSI is a possibility but can't find any of their ITX boards in stock anywhere. The ASUS ROG is not what I'm looking for either although it isn't easy to find anyway. I have had really good luck with Gigabyte boards but again care for the red and black scheme I see there either. I guess I can wait for the new X470/B450 boards but who knows when they are coming out and when the ITX iterations will be availible. I really need to nail the motherboard down before looking at ram, coolers, etc. Would really like to keep the color scheme in the black/silver/gray range. Not opposed to blue. I know I shouldn't be all that hung up on colors but as I said I want I really clean system that looks nice because thats what I want......

Any thoughts/suggestions? Also, how long before I see the M1 at my door? I got a notice Friday that the "Origin Post is Preparing Shipment." Not in a huge hurry but I would kind of like having an idea how long it typically takes once I get this notice. I live in Iowa if that factors into the delivery time.
 
While waiting for my case I've been working on planning/purchasing by build. Looking to put together a small clean system. Not a gamer anymore but who knows? Plan to retire in a couple of years and I might try my hand at it again. Anyway, I've been kind of an AMD guy for awhile now and when I saw the ridiculous prices that video cards are at right now I thought the the Ryzen 5 2400G looked like a good place to start. Although I haven't seen any builds with the 2400G with the M1 that I can find. The Corsair SFX PSUs seem like a no brainer so I picked up the SF450. Picked up both the processor and the psu from Newegg. Plan to stick with air cooling because that's what I know. Not really interested in liquid cooling at this point. I'm not super hung up on fan noise - with no video card to start with I don't imagine the noise would be bad anyway.

Here's my plan so far:

NCASE M1
Ryzen 5 2400G
Corsair SF450 with custom cables (no I won't be doing this myself - I'll go with Cable Mod or somebody like that)
Samsung 850 EVO 500GB from current system
Western Digital Red NAS 6TB from current sytem (selling off the other 10 TB worth of drives from that system)

Researching the rest. Looking at motherboards now. Sure not much out there for Ryzen ITX boards. The ASRock boards don't look too bad feature set wise but I hate the black and red scheme. MSI is a possibility but can't find any of their ITX boards in stock anywhere. The ASUS ROG is not what I'm looking for either although it isn't easy to find anyway. I have had really good luck with Gigabyte boards but again care for the red and black scheme I see there either. I guess I can wait for the new X470/B450 boards but who knows when they are coming out and when the ITX iterations will be availible. I really need to nail the motherboard down before looking at ram, coolers, etc. Would really like to keep the color scheme in the black/silver/gray range. Not opposed to blue. I know I shouldn't be all that hung up on colors but as I said I want I really clean system that looks nice because thats what I want......

Any thoughts/suggestions? Also, how long before I see the M1 at my door? I got a notice Friday that the "Origin Post is Preparing Shipment." Not in a huge hurry but I would kind of like having an idea how long it typically takes once I get this notice. I live in Iowa if that factors into the delivery time.

I would wait, Gigabyte went away from the Red/Black on their Z370 itx board so there is a chance they will do the same with the 400 series. Unless Asus changes their design they are not compatible with the Raven Ridge APUs, they have no video outputs.
 
Has anyone noticed any wear on the power button? It looks like some of the edges on mine is wearing off so the led light shows through the wear.
 
My NCase still awaiting customs clearance since March 26th :(

Driving me nuts. I have a room full of new toys to fit inside!
 
My NCase still awaiting customs clearance since March 26th :(

Driving me nuts. I have a room full of new toys to fit inside!
How long ago did you order? I ordered on 3/22 and got a tracking number last Friday. Just wondering how long orders are typically taking.
 
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