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

Is somebody interested in a build with an Asus Rog Strix 5700 XT O8G or has experience with the installation? (v5)

 

Hi, bit excited here it's been dispatch!

Yep, that's my NCASE M1 on it's way to the UK. My new pastime will be tracking my M1, sad but true!

 

Mine is also on the way in fact it is already in Germany at customs......

 

It's arrived in the UK... now awaiting Custom clearance.

 

I have a user manual for M1 V6 here. It's a WIP right now, but should be useful for you guys.

 

Lucky me, sometimes my post ist usles, they had it and should have been here yesterday but no, now its on the way to customs..... And I have to pick it up myself..... It's okay but sometimes they bring it to me and I have to pay the fees at the door

 

Collected myself just now, if your in the UK the import tax was 20.50 pounds and Parcel Force charged 12 pound handling.

Just waiting on the rest of my components, should be tomorrow at the lastest and then the build!

Thanks for the manual appreciated.

 

Import tax in Germany where the usually 19%.... Had to pay 40 Euro,

Anyway i transferred my build from v3 to v6 and there are some points

- more space for my aio, movement left to right is cool so I could move the aio far left and have more space for 2ssd back to back

- the bracket for the sfx psu feels a little flimsy compared to the v3, a screw to the front of the case would have made it a lot more stable

-I mounted a odd on the front bracket had to left out the screw on the low left side because it would have hinder the mounting of the adapter for power and sata cabel

Will upload some pictures later

 

I agree on the PSU mount. I don't particularly like it.

The ODD mount, I think, uses only 4(?) screws, two on one side, two on the back. I don't have a spare slotted cover, nor do I want to cut a slit for one, so I just have an ODD drive sitting pretty.

 

had to remove the realy small screw at the bottom so the plug would go a bit deeper maybe it would have worked with the screw in it , the plug would be at an angle and not realy deep

 

Pre-V6, the ODD tray attached to the optical drive with 4 screws, 2 on the left and 2 on the right. In the V6 the ODD tray uses 3 screws, 1 on the left and 2 on the bottom.

The V6 tray has a small piece of metal plate on the lower left side where the pre-V6 ODD tray had a hole for a screw. Maybe you could carefully measure and mark where the hole needs to be so that you could use a second screw on the left side, like the pre-V6 ODD tray.

However, it may be that the small piece of metal doesn't cover the threaded hole in that area so my idea won't work. Can you post a photo of the left edge of the ODD tray with the drive installed?

 

hi , thanks for the idea , i just wanted to menttion it for maybe a future v6.5 or so and maybe its only my odd becuase its needs a adapter and no one else will have this "problem" what it is not because the 2 screws left hold it realy well

anyway some picturtes








anyway its not that i have ocd or somethink like that but i will take my build apart again , got myself a asus z390 with onboard header for the usbc front header ;D

 

In the first photo the drives threaded hole is visible so it's not covered by the ODD tray's small black metal fold. Oh well. At least it's being held tight enough.

 

I have some tweaks in mind for the SFX bracket in the next minor revision that should keep the PSU in place better. Won't be adding a screw at the front of the case, though.

I see, seems like the slim SATA adapter is the culprit. Not sure what else I could do about that. As you've observed though it does still work fine with only two screws holding the drive.

Yeah, I would've added another screw hole there but I needed that part of the flange for the screw that secures the ODD bracket to the chassis.

 

is there any 3d print stl or mod available for a front IOless panel? want to try and make my own instead of waiting for the official kit.

 

Not that I'm aware of.

 

For those few who have stuck a 3900x into their Ncase M1 how is it doing performance/heat wise? Just curious.

 

so I swaped the asrock z370 gaming itx against a Asus z390i gaming just for the usbc front panel

It seems the Asus bios hath some limitations active every time I run Cinebench r20 after around 50% it drops from 4.7 to 4.1

No temp problems in fact they are great, what I found out till now if everything is on auto within the bios it limits itself to 95watt tdp

Will upload some pictures later of this v6 build.... I like it

 

Hi everyone,

Sorry if this is a dumb question, but I'm struggling to find an answer.

I'm trying to find the GPU compatibility list for the M1 V5. I assume there was a change in the compatible dimensions between V5 and V6, based off the change log:

• Enlarged chassis front GPU passthrough to facilitate GPU installation and provide more room for oversized GPUs
• Removed four panel mounting clips from side flanges to reduce incidence of oversized GPU conflicts

Was there a change in the supported dimensions and if so, can anyone point me to where the supported GPU's list is?

I've searched for a while and haven't found clear answers.

Thanks heaps

 

In addition to the changes you listed the V6 has a more compact Front I/O and I believe a lower cable connection to allow slightly more room for large cards. The best references for graphics card compatibility are listed in the opening post of this thread by the M1's designer:

• A user-contributed Google docs spreadsheet, covering parts and compatibility ( edits are public and affect everyone - be careful!)
• GTX 1080 compatibility list

The second link has two drawings that show the dimensional limits at the bottom of the case for large cards.

 

NuttCase N1 is complete! https://photos.app.goo.gl/xhfDvVotnqLobBdd7

 

Looks like a very tidy build. Are you using the original power supply cables or custom cables? Also, what are the components of the system?

 

Yeah, that hole at the front would have made installing my STRIX 970 a bit easier. One side clip had to go on my V5 and the GPU HSF had to be disassembled to even fit (then reassembled after somewhat moving into place).

Also, the only AM4 board with an USB-C header is still the ASUS C8I? I just wish it wasn't so expensive for what it offered.

 

Thanks! After rebuilding my v5 dozens of times over the past year, I feel like I was well prepared for my v6 rebuild, haha. PSU cables are unsleeved custom lengths. Main specs are 9900k + 2080 Ti.

 

Unsleeved custom lengths? I hadn't seen that before. Sleeved cables look bulkier than original cables, but make up for that by being the exact length needed with no excess to fold or tuck away somewhere. Plus, they can be coloured. Still, I think your cables have a sleek appearance that I may consider copying in the future. Plus, no reason the wires themselves can't be coloured.

 

like i promised some randome pictures of my rebuild v6 ;D

 

cool but pleasse put a grille on that noctua!

 

It's really cool that there is now a premium 2-slot MicroATX board that fits in the M1, the ASUS Maximus XI Gene. It would have been great if they'd given it 4 DIMMs though. ASRock should make a TR4 board in that form factor.

 

While the board itself fits in the case, it's 244mm deep, and even with the PSU mounted flush to the front, there's only 241mm available. So there's going to be 3mm of overlap. The PSU is offset to the left a bit so it'll clear the board's PCB, but the 24 pin ATX connector is right on the edge and will very likely be a problem.

 

Ah dream ruined. So you're saying with the stock V6 front mount it won't fit at all, you have to double-sided tape the PSU to the front (and toward the left panel) and then it'll barely fit, but the 24-pin probably won't fit?

Turns out the board is nearly a year old, yet this is the first time I'm hearing of it, from OptimumTech's video.

 

Even if you did that I'm not sure it would clear. I think the only possibility is to rig up some way of mounting the PSU to the fan bracket, so it's oriented lengthwise - like the standard mounting, but on the other side.

 

Someone did it:





They screwed the PSU in one place from the front somehow and then wedged it between the 24-pin and the front panel at a slight angle with double sided tape. Not exactly an ideal solution, and it still interfered with the board a little and bent that start button.

I think what you're suggesting makes the most sense, you could use a 92-to-120mm adapter (or an SFX-L PSU) and mount it to the fan bracket. Or double-sided tape it to the front panel by the narrow side, would be less secure, but 3M tape is super strong. Of course then your cooling options are limited.

It's fun to think about, but no real practical reason to do it, unless you need another PCIe card. Now, if they made an X299 or TR4 board like that...

 

Ah yeah, I even commented on the reddit post, didn't I. He does mention the PSU is wedged between the ATX connector and the case, and includes a pic. The front PSU mount in V6 makes this about as possible as it can get, but clearly still far from ideal.

 

I'm a V2 owner here, would like to know which month will the usb-c front i/o upgrade kit be advertised on sfflab ? Would be great if theres a "notify me" / mailing list to keep us updated. Thanks.

 

Curious, how much space is there left with the V6 front mount between the PSU and the front wall? Do they almost touch? And is the PSU centered or slightly toward the left-side panel?

 

Hi All

My NCASE M1 v6 has been up ard running for about two weeks. Spec and thoughts below:

Motherboard Rog Strix B450-I Gaming. Had the Bios updated by supplier (Scan UK 10 pounds)

CPU Ryzen 5 3600

Air Cooler Noctua NH-D9L with included 95mm Fan

PSU Corsair SF600 Gold 600W

Intel SSD6 SSDPEKNW020T8 2048.4 GB M.2 Drive, and my only drive. Boot 18-19 sec. Games, lol just fantastic!

Memory Corsair Ryzen DDR4 2x8GB 3200MHz Had to pull one on 1st Boot to get to Bios.

GPU MSI AMD RADEON RX 5700 This is the reference card build.

Original Mouse Deathadder Expert
Original Keyboard Phantom RGB
Original Monitor Dell U2515H 2560x1440

Window 10 Pro

Added after 1st week:

Noctua NF-S12A PWM as intake sided mounted. Case Fan header.

Noctua NF A9 PWM Exhaust inside attached to rear vents. The original NF-A9 + Second run off the supplied fan spliter (Included with the added second fan)

Your probably wondering why the two additional fans... well Ryzen 5 seems to run hotter than intel at idle, case at the top rear was also getting a little warm.
So bought this : Phobya temperature sensor, it was very cheap Amazon.

The Temp Sensor has been inserted inside my cooler, just for interest 28c @ idle, 34c under load Grim Dawn Max settings.
CPU @ idle anything from 40-50c Max I have seen under load 64c

Ryzen 5 Apparently, the more you cool the more power it will draw, higher temps. Ryzen continues to do this till it reaches its sweet spot 62c
It will do this becase it's constantly Boosting! In my case from 3.6Ghz- 4.2GHz So yes, I've seen all my cores hit 4.2 at once with 2-3 cores all the time, just watch the temps.

Sorrry about that, the case NCASE M1 v6

Well, I've been looking at the NCASE N1 for years couldn't quite justify the price to myself, but having come from a PARVUM case i thought it was time.

The build quality is like that of a watch simply superb with fantastic attention to detail, the best I've ever seen. The additional screws, bracket, filters, optional front panel (used in my case)
Fan grills, alternate power supply bracket, and rubber gromets is all you could wish for.

I'm now the proud owner of the BEST Small Form Factor Case you can buy at a reasonable price, not aware of anything better currently available.

 

I don't know yet. I'll suggest that to w360.

It does touch; the way the bracket works is to hold the PSU against the wall of the case for stability. The PSU is offset to the left by a few mm.

 

Anyone have their spec list up yet on this build?

 

Got my new x570 build up and running over the weekend.

The chipset fan (X570 I Aurus Pro WiFi) sounds like death. I set the PCH fan curve to silent, but it's still audible from 20 feet away. It's a high pitched whine that even has a death rattle at times. It's constantly switching between different speeds, which makes it even more annoying. It doesn't turn on at idle, but starts up under any sort of load.

The cooling around the PCH should be fairly good. I have a Noctua C14 on the CPU with two 140mm fans as intake, as well as a 92mm rear exhaust fan, and a NF-A12x25 PWM next to the C14 as an extra intake, plus two more under the GPU as exhaust.

I've ordered a NF-A4x20 PWM and a 4-pin VGA adapter (the PWM connector Gigabyte uses for the chipset fan header) to attempt to replace the stock fan. There's no way I could tolerate it.

 

This is the first report I've read about such a noisy X570 chipset fan. I had seemed like the motherboard companies were choosing good quality fans. Let us know how the 40 mm Noctua does in both noise and cooling.