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

Nobu said:
X2 might be cutting it close for three connections (~400MB max throughput, 1X pcie 3.0 is ~900MB max), but yeah probably fine in most cases.
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Firewire is 400 Mbps (bits) so that is 50MB/s (byte). And for the 3 is is 150MB/s.. I think an X2 port of 985MB/s*2=1970MB/s can handle that :wacky: Even if it would be the 800Mbps variant. :LOL:
 
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SmootyPoody said:
Firewire is 400 Mbps (bits) so that is 50MB/s (byte). And for the 3 is is 150MB/s.. I think an X2 port of 985MB/s*2=1970MB/s can handle that :wacky: Even if it would be the 800Mbps variant. :LOL:
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1394b (beta mode) supports up to 3200Mbps (~400MB), dunno how many devices support it, though. Edit: yeah, I expected it, but after a lot of searching only found one device which had a beta connector (a bus analyzer, I think...website wouldn't load) and a few places to get the beta cables.
 
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Nobu said:
1394b (beta mode) supports up to 3200Mbps (~400MB), dunno how many devices support it, though. Edit: yeah, I expected it, but after a lot of searching only found one device which had a beta connector (a bus analyzer, I think...website wouldn't load) and a few places to get the beta cables.
Click to expand...

What you are saying is not 100% true or.. It sounds like you just googled the speed of it. But not really knowing it.. So Firewire 800 uses a 9 pin interface (was made in around 2002). That same interface (cable) is used for the newer 2008 (cant remember the exact year) FireWire S3200 standard. But at the time of making FireWire 800 it was only on paper the 3200Mbps speed existed. FireWire 800 is 800Mbps - not 3200Mbps. To achive the 3200Mbps speed the devices needs to support the newer IEEE1394d/2008 specifikation. That is a lot newer and needs total new chips. You old FireWire 800 does not run at this speed.

And as far as I am aware this newer 3200Mbps spec was only on paper. No real devices came with it. Apple (which was the biggest adopter of FireWire) stopped using FireWire and instead went with USB (3.0 I think it was).

That is why some google result could tell you that the FireWire 800 interface (cable) could do 3200Mbps. But as said not real world implimentation was ever made.
 
Benlehot said:
You can fits the Radeon VII in the M1 without any problem.

Click to expand...

Nice...!

It looks like you have your CPU cooler fans intaking from the interior of the chassis & exhausting out the rear...

But it also looks like you have the heat sink itself positioned to intake from the rear...

Noctua recommends that the U9S have the side of the heat sink with the majority of the heat pipes to be the intake side...
 
Boil said:
Nice...!

It looks like you have your CPU cooler fans intaking from the interior of the chassis & exhausting out the rear...

But it also looks like you have the heat sink itself positioned to intake from the rear...

Noctua recommends that the U9S have the side of the heat sink with the majority of the heat pipes to be the intake side...
Click to expand...
CPU is exhausting out the rear, rear fan is exhaust, looks like bottom front is exhaust also, but I can't see how the bottom rear is oriented. That would make all the air have to come from the front/side panels, but he doesn't have those in the photos.

Ah, I see what you're saying. Yeah, that may not be optimal.
 
I finally got an EVGA RTX 2080 XC Ultra for my NCASE M1 v2 but I cannot keep the temperatures down! :(
The RTX 2080 is fine when used for general browsing and watching Netflix (temps are in the 40/50s) but playing any sort of strenuous FPS shooters, the CPU temps shoot up in the 90s and after a while it just cuts out and my PC will not power back up until again, until I take out all the PSU cables out and back in.
In my NCASE M1 now, I'm using a Noctua - NH-U9S 46.44 CFM CPU Cooler with some Arctic Silver - 5 High-Density Polysynthetic Silver 3.5 g Thermal Paste.
I'm thinking of replacing these but what is generally regarded as the best quiet air cooled CPU cooler and best thermal paste?
The CPU cooler has to be air cooled as I have no space in my NCASE M1 as I'm using the side bracket with two 3.5" hard drives.

Thanks to all replies in advance!!
 
phillai said:
I finally got an EVGA RTX 2080 XC Ultra for my NCASE M1 v2 but I cannot keep the temperatures down! :(
The RTX 2080 is fine when used for general browsing and watching Netflix (temps are in the 40/50s) but playing any sort of strenuous FPS shooters, the CPU temps shoot up in the 90s and after a while it just cuts out and my PC will not power back up until again, until I take out all the PSU cables out and back in.
In my NCASE M1 now, I'm using a Noctua - NH-U9S 46.44 CFM CPU Cooler with some Arctic Silver - 5 High-Density Polysynthetic Silver 3.5 g Thermal Paste.
I'm thinking of replacing these but what is generally regarded as the best quiet air cooled CPU cooler and best thermal paste?
The CPU cooler has to be air cooled as I have no space in my NCASE M1 as I'm using the side bracket with two 3.5" hard drives.

Thanks to all replies in advance!!
Click to expand...
Are you using the TG side panel? If not I'd say get an 240 AIO. That way you are cooling your CPU with cold air from outside of your case. Right now, your NH-U9S is trying to cool your 6700k with hot air from your gpu. Any air cooler will be fighting the same battle.

If not, you can try to delid + switch to the Noctua c14s. That should buy you an additional 15C-20C of headroom. If you are uncomfortable doing that, Silicon Lottery will do it for $40 plus shipping.

Look at M1AF post below on cooler results.

M1AF said:
AIO results are up. After the first few runs I noticed that the difference between a 15 minute run and a one hour run is like 1c so I went with multiple 15 minute tests. All tests began when the liquid temp was up to 30C. Max liquid temp after an hour never broke 40C. All tests were done with two NF-A12x25 fans at 60% - pump at full speed.




View attachment 138606 View attachment 138607
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darrpara said:
Hey everyone,
I have a pretty fine tuned Ncase system (see my sig) but I am looking to go up to a 2080 or 2080ti. How is everyone cooling the video cards today? My 980ti with an accelero III has been such an ideal solution for noise and temps.

Or is the best bet to get a larger video card that fills the bottom but has a better cooling solution?
Click to expand...

yeah i was wondering the same. i have a 970 with an Accelero III as well. I am thinking about getting a 2060 and am REALLLYYY hoping it will fit
 
phillai said:
I finally got an EVGA RTX 2080 XC Ultra for my NCASE M1 v2 but I cannot keep the temperatures down! :(
The RTX 2080 is fine when used for general browsing and watching Netflix (temps are in the 40/50s) but playing any sort of strenuous FPS shooters, the CPU temps shoot up in the 90s and after a while it just cuts out and my PC will not power back up until again, until I take out all the PSU cables out and back in.
In my NCASE M1 now, I'm using a Noctua - NH-U9S 46.44 CFM CPU Cooler with some Arctic Silver - 5 High-Density Polysynthetic Silver 3.5 g Thermal Paste.
I'm thinking of replacing these but what is generally regarded as the best quiet air cooled CPU cooler and best thermal paste?
The CPU cooler has to be air cooled as I have no space in my NCASE M1 as I'm using the side bracket with two 3.5" hard drives.

Thanks to all replies in advance!!
Click to expand...

Like Doug said, if you haven't already, you need to delid. I'm assuming you're still running the 6700k in your signature. That will help a lot.

Next, remove these four screws and add two NF-A12X15 fans underneath the GPU as intake. The fans will not fit unless you remove the screws.
XC Ultra.png

After that, I would try to play with the fan configuration of the U9S since you want to retain the HDD bracket. I'd try 2 exhausting 92mm fans, one on the chassis and one on the right side of the cooler blowing from right to left. And if that doesn't yield good results I'd try to run them as intake, left to right. Adjust fan profiles as well. You might have to bump up the RPM.

Lastly, I'd grab a better thermal paste. AS5 isn't a top contender anymore. Try some Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut, Gelid GC Extreme, or NT-H1.
 
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Boil said:
Nice...!

It looks like you have your CPU cooler fans intaking from the interior of the chassis & exhausting out the rear...

But it also looks like you have the heat sink itself positioned to intake from the rear...

Noctua recommends that the U9S have the side of the heat sink with the majority of the heat pipes to be the intake side...
Click to expand...

Nobu said:
CPU is exhausting out the rear, rear fan is exhaust, looks like bottom front is exhaust also, but I can't see how the bottom rear is oriented. That would make all the air have to come from the front/side panels, but he doesn't have those in the photos.

Ah, I see what you're saying. Yeah, that may not be optimal.
Click to expand...

Thank you for point that out guys.

The 3 fans on the CPU are driving air out.
I have 1 intake (Noctua 120mmX25) on the side and 2 on the case bottom (Noctua 120mmX15) blowing air on the GPU.

I'm waiting to get the new Thermaright tower. I will probably keep my heatsink in this orientation till then. I have pretty good temp so far.
 
Hi All,
I'm looking to upgrade my 9 year old system. Been wanting to do a Ncase M1 build since it first came out. I'm not a gamer so not planning to add a water cooler. Looking for a single video card to drive 3 monitors. My current system uses a way outdated Nvidia 460 and 210 cards to drive 3 monitors. I'm just looking for a reasonable build for the next 5-10 years. Does anyone think getting a optical drive is worth it? My old machine has 2 which I haven't used in quite some time.

The other option is what I think many people are now moving towards. Using a laptop as primary and docking it when at home. I've pretty much moved all my main files to a Qnap NAS drive so my primary machine only needs a small SSD drive to house applications.

Also is there a simple way to move apps off a C drive to a new build? Haven't kept up with latest developments.
Thanks,
 
when it comes to thermal tape for the heatsinks for the video card, does anyone have one to look at? I just want to make sure that I get the right one.
 
With the fan profiles bumped up, it's not crashed once yet whilst playing an FPS game!

I guess the silent fan profile was exactly that and not pushing that much air out!! LOOL
 
PotOdds said:
Hi All,
I'm looking to upgrade my 9 year old system. Been wanting to do a Ncase M1 build since it first came out. I'm not a gamer so not planning to add a water cooler. Looking for a single video card to drive 3 monitors. My current system uses a way outdated Nvidia 460 and 210 cards to drive 3 monitors. I'm just looking for a reasonable build for the next 5-10 years. Does anyone think getting a optical drive is worth it? My old machine has 2 which I haven't used in quite some time.

The other option is what I think many people are now moving towards. Using a laptop as primary and docking it when at home. I've pretty much moved all my main files to a Qnap NAS drive so my primary machine only needs a small SSD drive to house applications.

Also is there a simple way to move apps off a C drive to a new build? Haven't kept up with latest developments.
Thanks,
Click to expand...

I would pass on the optical drive. Get you a USB one and use that for everything.

I just tried getting a laptop with a Razer dock. This really depends on what your are going to do with the computer. If you need a gpu powering three monitors, then you need a dock with a gpu. I just don't think those are seems less enough yet to go that route. I much rather buy a cheap ultra portable and do a budget desktop. I will say that a surface pro and a dock is a very nice solution that works seemelessly. But I do not believe it supports three monitors.
 
vortaku said:
Evga mid plate? Does that cool better?
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It's hard for me to answer that. I am using the FE version of the GTX 1080, so it doesn't have temp sensors for memory or vrm. I just bought an EVGA heatsink with midplate to mod for my project. I have been gaming on the card just fine, so I don't think it matters much. I bet you could even run memory chips naked without much issue.

Here was my reddit post mentioning the mod.
 
Accelero cooler - thermalpads?

As of now I am running stock cooler on my GPU (ASUS 1060 6GB Dual), but i am doing the Accelero switch soon.. What thermal pads are people using? because I heard that you shouldn't use the thermal glue that goes with the cooler. I see that Thermal grizzly have the "Minus pad" (8W/mK), but in test its not really that much better then the cheap blue pads from Artic (6W/mK) (costs about 1/3 of the Grizzly). Then there the Fujipoly which comes in to version (of cause these are ridiculous expensive) with 11W/mK and 17W/mK.

And are there any other things to be aware of when going accelero (3 - not 4)? Other mods worth doing when doing it?

Artic = https://www.amazon.de/ARCTIC-Therma...=UTF8&qid=1550509122&sr=8-1&keywords=Fujipoly
Grizzly = https://www.amazon.de/Thermal-Grizz...=UTF8&qid=1550509122&sr=8-5&keywords=Fujipoly
Fujipoly = https://www.amazon.de/Smart-fujipol...=UTF8&qid=1550509122&sr=8-7&keywords=Fujipoly
Fujipoly = https://www.amazon.de/Smart-fujipol...Q6GVXJ2YJKR&psc=1&refRID=2XEMAQ351Q6GVXJ2YJKR
 
The paste on the accelero 3, what does it use? Smudged a bit looking st it qhen I first got it, so may need to replace the paste.
 
SmootyPoody said:
And are there any other things to be aware of when going accelero (3 - not 4)?
Click to expand...

The Accelero Xtreme 3 comes with small heatsinks for the VRAM and VRM, but no backplate. The Accelero Xtreme 4 doesn't include the small heatsinks, but it does include a backplate, though it has cooling fins that may interfere with other hardware on the motherboard.
 
Qrash said:
The Accelero Xtreme 3 comes with small heatsinks for the VRAM and VRM, but no backplate. The Accelero Xtreme 4 doesn't include the small heatsinks, but it does include a backplate, though it has cooling fins that may interfere with other hardware on the motherboard.
Click to expand...
Havent we established that the mark iv is not a way to go in the NCase?.. I thought only the mark iii was possible?
 
SmootyPoody said:
Havent we established that the mark iv is not a way to go in the NCase?.. I thought only the mark iii was possible?
Click to expand...

That was the thought until one owner posted photos of his build with the Accelero Xtreme 4. It's the only one I've seen so compatiblility must be very hardware-specific.

Addendum: The GPU -side heatsink is the same for the Accelero Xtreme 3 and 4. It's the 4's backplate with its large fins that is the problematic.
 
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From my experience, both of the main heatsink from the III and IV are compatible with the Founders Edition GTX 1080 and RTX 2080.

To be specific, I have the IV on my GTX 1080 FE:
- just the main heatsink for the GPU die
- I didn't use the giant back plate heatsink in the M1. It is very large, and I didn't feel like trying to shoe horn it into the M1.
- Gelid Icy Vision Enhancement Kit for 1080. This heatsink bolts onto the 1080 FE and is a very clean way to keep the VRM cool
- no VRAM heatsinks
- runs great. 60c during gaming and/or benchmark
- bottom exhaust in the M1 with 2x A12x25
- bottom fan speed controlled via Corsair Commander based in GPU temperature

I have the III on my RTX 2080 FE:
- main heatsink
- all the small heatsinks on the VRM side
- VRAM heatsink interferes with heat pipes from the main heatsink
- runs great. 60c during gaming and/or benchmark
- bottom exhaust in the M1 with 2x A12x25
- bottom fan speed controlled via Corsair Commander based in GPU temperature
 
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From artics website it is 23mm high.. So possible would work with an AIO. I dont think C14(S) can take the mark iv backplate then. Maybe someone could lossly measure it?

Edit. Just measure it with the Corsair H100i Platinum (testing that AIO right now).. Seems douable. especially if you mount the side intake in the high position. (there are two positions).´It even seems it can fit in the "low" position.
 
SmootyPoody said:
From artics website it is 23mm high.. So possible would work with an AIO. I dont think C14(S) can take the mark iv backplate then. Maybe someone could lossly measure it?

Edit. Just measure it with the Corsair H100i Platinum (testing that AIO right now).. Seems douable. especially if you mount the side intake in the high position. (there are two positions).´It even seems it can fit in the "low" position.
Click to expand...
I remember seeing builds out there where folks dremel'ed down the IV heatsink to fit with a C14 / Dark Rock TF. Not worth it IMO.
 
Nanook said:
From my experience, both of the main heatsink from the III and IV are compatible with the Founders Edition GTX 1080 and RTX 2080.

To be specific, I have the IV on my GTX 1080 FE:
- just the main heatsink for the GPU die
- I didn't use the giant back plate heatsink in the M1. It is very large, and I didn't feel like trying to shoe horn it into the M1.
- Gelid Icy Vision Enhancement Kit for 1080. This heatsink bolts onto the 1080 FE and is a very clean way to keep the VRM cool
- no VRAM heatsinks
- runs great. 60c during gaming and/or benchmark
- bottom exhaust in the M1 with 2x A12x25
- bottom fan speed controlled via Corsair Commander based in GPU temperature

I have the III on my RTX 2080 FE:
- main heatsink
- all the small heatsinks on the VRM side
- VRAM heatsink interferes with heat pipes from the main heatsink
- runs great. 60c during gaming and/or benchmark
- bottom exhaust in the M1 with 2x A12x25
- bottom fan speed controlled via Corsair Commander based in GPU temperature
Click to expand...

The Gelid Icy Vision Enhancement Kit for 1080 is really neat, but it's only compatible with FE 1080 and 1070. Not the 1080 Ti, so be aware of this. If you buy an Accelero Xtreme IV and use it on a different graphics card model you will have to buy small heatsinks for the VRAM and VRM.
 
I found this album while searching around for 2080ti + accelero III installs and I thought I would share since I didnt see it here:


https://imgur.com/a/Cq6p3OI#q8pwttW

Looks like it works with some slight vrm heatsink shaving and some slight mods to the accelero III heatsink. Definitely within the ballpark for what I am comfortable with. Now I just need to camp out and wait for 2080ti blacks to come back into stock.

q8pwttW.jpg
 

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Ya.. I am just getting the mark iii then..

So what thermal pads to buy? (see my question further up for details).
 
SmootyPoody said:
Ya.. I am just getting the mark iii then..

So what thermal pads to buy? (see my question further up for details).
Click to expand...
I think what you linked are pads. You need tape. What Blindphleb posted should work...
Blindphleb said:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01MSL64XG/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o08__o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

This is what I used, and it stuck very well. When I eventually wanted to switch to an EVGA midplate instead of the miniature ram heatsinks I really had to twist them a bunch to get them to come off.
Click to expand...
 
Nanook said:
I think what you linked are pads. You need tape. What Blindphleb posted should work...
Click to expand...
I dont have any experience with these kind of things eventhou I have built computers in over 15 years. What is the difference? Tape is with glue? Pads are just for mounting between stuff that is screwed down? or?
 
SmootyPoody said:
I dont have any experience with these kind of things eventhou I have built computers in over 15 years. What is the difference? Tape is with glue? Pads are just for mounting between stuff that is screwed down? or?
Click to expand...
Yes, thermal tape will actually hold on to the upside down heatsinks when the graphics card is installed in the M1.

Pads are usually placed between components and heatsinks that are mechanically held on. They are slightly sticky, but isn’t strong enough for aluminum/copper heatsinks. You really don’t want the small heatsinks to fall into the two whirling 120mm fans below :)

The Accelero kits come with thermal glue that conducts heat better than tape, but they are permanent, so it is up to you. :)
 
Nanook said:
Yes, thermal tape will actually hold on to the upside down heatsinks when the graphics card is installed in the M1.

Pads are usually placed between components and heatsinks that are mechanically held on. They are slightly sticky, but isn’t strong enough for aluminum/copper heatsinks. You really don’t want the small heatsinks to fall into the two whirling 120mm fans below :)

The Accelero kits come with thermal glue that conducts heat better than tape, but they are permanent, so it is up to you. :)
Click to expand...
Ya not gonna glue it :D

This is "pads" but with self-adhesive.

https://www.alphacool.com/shop/ther...l-eisschicht-thermal-pad-11w/mk-100x100x0-5mm
 
So after M1AFs test os C14 vs C14S vs 240 CLC/AIO I wanted to how much better an 240 AIO would be than a C14 setup - for my own eyes (not because he did not do a great job! - he did!). The testing has been a long underway (it has taken over 2 weeks to complete) as I have tested every setup in 4 different fan speeds. As I did not like the speed fan M1AF had in his test. A bad cooler would do better as it had the possiblity to ramp from 60% to 100% when over 85c. This skews the result a bit - although much more practical testing as this is more how a user would (rarely you only rely on 1 speed setting for you fans as my test was done). So no hate to M1AF. He did a fine job but I wanted it to have more equal terms. I have made it so that all results show up at first, but you can sort it but turning different parameters on/off. Like for instance if you only want to see the results of 40% fan speed, you can disable 60%, 80% and 100%. Then you can sort it however you want. Fx with CPU package max or delta, or VRM.. however you want.

The Corsair H100i platinum (made by CoolIT - not Asetek) has swivel fittings at the pump so I was able to mount a half push/pull setup with 2 fans over the pump area and one in push mode at the PSU.

No TG testing as I dont have a TG panel and a AIO cannot really be testing with such a setup anyway. Be

Be aware that I have only tested the setups with GPU stress test for the 3 best setups. They are at the buttom.

Also I seem to be the last person on the earth to not run a setup with a 1080 (or bigger) setup.. so beaware that its only a 1060. And that it is a stock cooler so bottom fans are INTAKE.. Not Accelero exhaust setup!

One thing I gotta say is that, if you really truely want a silent setup you cannot have AIO/WC. The pump noise is there. Even if it goes to "Quiet mode" - 2000 RPM. It is very noticeable. You will only not hear it if you are sitting with music on constant, live in a very loud enviremoent or have the fans about 40% constantly (or higher) (Noctua A12X25 PWM specificly). If the fans are at 30% they are (to my ears) slient. Of cause you can even have a 0 RPM setup (I have had that with this setup with the C14) but as the fans cannot be heard at 30% I put them at 20% so that atleast the hot air around the components are cycled. So at the momemt I have the H100i setup (3x fans) going, but I will switch back to the C14 setup as I see the pump noise as a compromise - which isnt working. This is of cause only a problem for idle. As soon as you render/game/stress the setup the fans are louder then the pump. But even when I am editing video/film (and we are talking raw 4k+ video editing - really pushing data) the fans rarely go very high up. So I hear the pump a lot :-\ When rendering it is of cause different and the pump cannot be heard over the fans.

Questions?.. Fire away! :)



EDIT: Cannot get the Google Sheet filter view to work. Apperantly it is and have not been implimented when embedded in over 5 years. Manually paste the adress into your browser
HTML: 
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1jDKjy9SQwKDJAhfMVEpmIN5WFyQRjmY7Q44t0QEl0cA/edit?usp=sharing
and use the filter function. Then you can select what fans speeds you want to see and sort the perfered metric you want.
 
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Nice job on the tests Smooty. Did you use a thermal pad or thermal paste? Just kidding, saw where you used Kryonaut.

It's interesting to see the differences when the bottom fans are set to intake. I also have to say that I became annoyed with my pump speed noise at 100% (3000 rpm) and have since lowered it all the way down (2000 rpm) and it is significantly quieter to the point where it doesn't bother me anymore.
 
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