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

I've got an EVGA 1070 FTW so should be close to identical as yours physically.

No idea about the fans, sorry. I've mostly left this kind of thing at stock until now.

 

Not sure about the spikes but I do think it can be related to the fan specs in the BIOS of the card not matching your new fans. You're probably never hitting the correct min. rpm for the fans?
Here's a quick post/tip on what I did: post-1043722769

 

I see. I though 100% speed would be 12 V, but so its instead 3000 RPM (max stock fans RPM). Thank you. I'm not sure about minimum speed (450 RPM) as I did not try to go that low. I'll check that.

 

About this setup Nanook, How will you setup your fans if using a Tempered Glass?

 

With the windowed panel, I’ve tried bottom intake, and only rear exhaust. Make sure the C14S fan is blowing away from the motherboard. I’ve never had good temperatures with this setup... even with a 3000rpm 140mm fan screaming, my cpu still get very toasty. The tiny 92mm exhaust just can’t keep up with expelling all the warm air. Looks cool though. Only fix is to swap to bottom exhaust.

 

For anyone running a high core count (6+ cores) Ryzen CPU & a Radeon VII GPU in the NCASE M1, what are you doing to cool it all & what temps are you seeing...?

I am hoping Alphacool comes out with a version of their hybrid water block for the Radeon VII, thoughts on cooling with a single 240mm radiator (30mm or 45mm thick)...?!?

Thanks...!

 

Because of the stupid radiator noise, both idle and otherwise as well. People go air coolers instead of water coolers mainly because of noise. Then performance.

 

This. I had a tower cooler, swapped to a 240mm rad ages ago, dropped temps 10-15 degrees, even with my gentle typhoon fans on it, the pump was just annoying. And the gurgling of the water annoyed me too. I'd rather sacrifice temps over silence personally!

Now i run only the GPU to fend for itself, PSU facing outward, one 92mm heatsink fan and one 92mm exhaust. 92mm set as low RPM until they need to ramp up a little, but even then not much noise wise. GPU becomes the loudest thing over gaming.

 

Don't think that 92mm exhaust does you any good. Probably just more noise for no real decrease in temperatures.

Also, have you tried putting the side bracket as exhaust as well to see how the temps are compared to intake (I assume your C14 has both fans as exhaust as well)?

 

You have the bottom fans as exhaust or intake? Exhaust is usually the best, but it's always different based on different set-ups. Also, it's pretty annoying that all GPU manufacturer still provide the shittiest fan profiles ever, with GPU fans going from 0% to 40%, and there being nothing in-between. CPU fan control in Mobo BIOSes are bad as well (forcing 100% speed at 80C) in similar ways. SpeedFan is always the best way to go here.

But yeah, taking off the fan shroud and just attaching fans at the bottom work really well on the GPUs that allow this. Much cheaper and simpler than a dedicated GPU heatsink. I remember in my previous NCASE build that after removing the shroud on my 1080 Strix and using 2 bottom P12 Noctua fans at around 1000 RPM max, the temps stayed the same (around 78-80C on load, which is completely fine) as GPU stock. But the noise was far, far better (I frankly find all modern GPUs to sound detestably loud as they are). So good that the coil whine noise started appearing and became the most annoying factor -- though easily solvable by an insignificant downclock and reduced voltage. Another tips to help improve temps is raising the bottom case feets by attaching new ones. They're expensive as hell, and really not worth it price/perf, but if you got money to throw away, these ones are nice. Hopefully, SFFLAB does something similiar in a future revision of the NCASE.

I was stupid enough to not keep the C14 when selling my previous build, so now I'm searching all over the internet for a used one. Thinking of doing my next build similar to my last one, but this time with the upcoming 3600X + B550 boards and A12X25 fans instead. Hoping for improved thermals all around. If anyone considers selling their C14, let me know.

 

Has anyone testet to use a blower style graphics card without the cooler cover? Such that, 2 Noctua 120x25mm Fans directly blow on the cooler as in-take fans.

 

My guess is that would be pretty bad. The shroud works as a duct for the radial fan, if you remove it will blow air in every direction instead of through the heatsink, so it will be pretty much useless. Also, the heatsink is pretty small, tunned for high pressure and an specific airflow orientation, so even if you duct the axial fans directly to the heatsink, cooling will not be good. If you do not duct it, most of the airflow will also go everywhere instead of through the heatsink.
But who knows... maybe its worth testing it.

 

Thats the interesting point. I thought about the EVGA RTX 2080 Blower, where you can clearly see the cooler part. The interesting would be the direct hot air transport out of the case without the noisy radial fan. But seems like nobody tried it before.

 

I came up with the question, because I finished my first Ncase M1 build. It's great, but the bottom fans get a bit loud when they reach >800 RPM. Think, there is some room for optimizations.

Spoiler: Pictures

System Spec:

• AMD Ryzen 2700X
• Asus ROG Strix X470-I
  
• 32GB TridentZ RGB
• Samsung 960 Pro - 512GB
• EVGA RTX 2080 XC Gaming
• Corsair SF600 v1
• Noctua C14S with 140mm fan
• 2x Noctua NF-A12

 

Necere, I hope you can answer this question. I picked up a used laptop blu ray drive to put in my NCASE M1 V4. It didn't come with any mounting screws. Do you know what size screws (see photo with screw hole circled) I should use to mount this in the NCASE M1? And maybe where I can get these?

Thanks!

 

I'm sure you could get them from digikey, or a local hardware store (not big box, unless you want to cut the screws to length). Size, im not sure. Maybe M2, not too long.

 

Remove the shroud. GPU fan + bottom fans is just a redundant addition of more fans, when you can get about same cooling temperatures without the GPU fans (by far the loudest part) present. Also, try the bottom Noctua fans as both outtake and intake to see which yields best result. For me, outtake was the best.

 

M2 screws, and you should've gotten a few with the case in the bag with the rest of the screws.

I hate to tell you this though - that drive isn't compatible with the bracket. Slim optical drives come in two sizes (generally): 9.5mm and 12.7mm thick, and the bracket only supports the 12.7mm variety, as stated on the M1 product page on SFFLab. It's no consolation, but I've completely redesigned the bracket for V6 to support both sizes going forward.

 

Thanks for the replies. That's too bad about the 9.5mm size not working (although the holes seem to line up with the bracket). I tested it out with a couple of thin paper clips bent to stick into the holes and it seemed to be OK. However, the drive would only rip at 2.1x speed (verses my external ASUS drive that does so at 6.5x). I'd probably be better off putting a 4 Tb 2.5" (15mm thick) drive in the front (if it fits) to boost my storage to 10 Tb anyway.

 

It will fit, I had a 7mm SSD plus a 9.5mm HDD mounted in the front of mine.

 

Ok now we know there is a V6 coming...

 

Check out this post on SFF, Necere talks about all the planned changes.

 

hello, come back to M1 after a long time

- Aorus z390i (https://www.aorus.com/Z390-I-AORUS-PRO-WIFI-rev-10=)
- 9700k @ 5.00GhZ/1.35V+ Noctua NH-L12S (https://noctua.at/fr/nh-l12s)
- 2080 ti inno3d ichill black (Rad 240mm) @1.00V/2130MHz (http://www.inno3d.com/products_detail.php?refid=386)
- PSU Corsair SF750 (https://www.corsair.com/us/en/Categ...pply-Units-Advanced/SF-Series/p/CP-9020186-NA)

Very quiet, incredible when you see power dissipated
GPU <60°C nearly silent
CPU @ 5GHz <85°C (bench)
CPU Stock <70°C (bench)
CPU Stock <60°C (in heavy demanding games)

Direct exhaust of GPU hot air, everything stay cool inside
CPU hoit air push by slim 120 trough rad then sucked by GPU rad

bad pictures sorry

such a great case

 

It should fit. I have two 2.5" SSDs stacked on the front of my M1, at a combined depth of 14mm, and they fit with a tiny bit of room to spare (but only about 1mm). Necere is the best person to ask for a definitive answer, though.

 

Do those fans on the case floor actually do anything, given that your GPU has a block and radiator? Are the case floor fans intakes or exhausts?

 

They are intakes.
Yes they help air circulation in the case, as they are wider than the GPU, I've got better temps when activated, you can feel the air flow even if they are close to the GPU. I do not make them spining very fast (max 1200), else they get noisy because of restriction.
But No they do not "directly" cool the GPU, they only help circulation from the bottom to the rad. This card has a kind of waterblock all over the PCB so direct air on it do nothing for sure.

 

Yeah, that makes perfect sense - and it did occur to me just after I posted! It's definitely good to have some airflow into the case.

 

Quick question for you all, if I may. I've been reading this thread for years and have seen most configurations under the sun at some point, but at the same time I'm not quite sure what to do regarding a potential upgrade I have in mind, so any advice would be gratefully received

I'm looking to upgrade my GPU, and I have my eye on an EVGA 2070 XC which is a 2-fan card that's the standard 2-slot width and under 11 inches long. I'm currently running a 6700K with a U9S, with a second 92mm Noctua fan on the rear of the case (as an exhaust) and a 120mm Noctua on the side panel (as an intake). I'm contemplating adding one or maybe two 120mm fans to the case floor to aid with GPU cooling, but can't decide whether it's better to go for standard 25mm thick fans here or to go for slim 15mm fans instead. My reasoning for the slim fans is so that there's a bit of a gap for air circulation rather than the fans being super tight to the GPU. My current GPU is a 660Ti which is also two slots thick, but a blower, and I didn't find adding a 25mm thick fan to the case floor did much of anything for temperatures, but that might just be because it's a blower rather than an open cooler.

Any thoughts as to whether slim fans are a better option than standard thickness ones? Low noise is a big priority for me so I'm concerned about turbulence with either option. I'm also undecided as to whether the fans should be intakes or exhausts, or whether I should reverse the existing fans so that air is drawn in the back of the case and then exhausted out of the side. That's easy enough to play around with, but I'd rather not have to buy two sets of fans for the case floor if I make the wrong choice initially!

Cheers!

 

For sure, fans on the floor must be intake, never opposite to GPU fans of the 2070XC.
I would go for standard 25mm, no problem they are near the GPU, it will push air through the GPU and help GPU fans.
Slim fans only if your GPU is > 2 slots
Bigger fan = higher static pressure = more flow for lower speeds = lower noise, pretty sure

 

I have the 2080XC in the Case and can say the NF-A12 working fine. I have only a bit "noise" when I torture the graphics card over a long time. Then the EVGA fans are spinning up to 1600 rpm and they are loud.

Overall, you will need fans underneath it, because of the airflow through the case. Else you will reuse the hot air from the card.

 

An other question, will someone test the new Asetek as in-take on the backside of the case? With the TG side panel I would expect it to be better than the U9S.
https://www.asetek.com/newsroom/press-releases/2019/asetek-introduces-645lt/