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

Necere said:
I don't think it was any one thing that caused a drop in sales, but rather a combination of things over the past 10 months. And the drop was only relative - in fact, 2020 was our best sales year by a wide margin. It's just since the beginning of 2021 we reverted back to the level of our 2018-19 sales. I'm sure people building PCs while working from home and getting stimulus checks drove a lot of the demand last year.

I've also looked up stats, and after growing significantly during 2019-2020, 2021 also saw an overall drop in search volume and website traffic related to SFF (and perhaps PC building in general). Again, combination of factors at play: GPU shortage, high hardware prices, less stimulus money, people already built last year.

With regard to oversized GPUs, anecdotally at least I can say it hasn't helped. A number of times over the last year I've seen someone comment that they were able to snag xyz GPU, and wanted the M1 but the card wouldn't fit, so they have to look at other cases. In a normal market it would be less of an issue, but in this market you're lucky to get any GPU, so people can either get a different case or give up building a new PC altogether. The fact that there are decent cheaper mainstream SFF case options now makes it easier to choose something else as well.

As far as keeping the M1 look, honestly I'm just sick of people calling it ugly and outdated. And I know beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but too many times now I've seen people say they'd get an M1 except they don't like the front. I just don't want the looks to be a reason someone doesn't want it. And TBH, it doesn't really measure up to my own standards design-wise. It was the first thing I designed "for real," and I feel like I can and should at least try to do better.



V6 panels are backward compatible with all previous versions. I removed two of the studs on each side panel, so it's no problem to use the newer panels on the older cases. It's the the panels from V5 and earlier that won't work on V6+ because they have the extra studs and there are no longer the corresponding clips on the chassis.
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Okay, fair points. Thanks for the reply. I look forward to your next project! It has big (or small?) shoes to fill.
 
Qrash said:
I found a package of 10 clips for sale on eBay that claim to be compatible for the NCASE M1, as well as the Lian Li TU150 and PC-Q33 cases. The same search also revealed a free STL file for 3D printing the clips.
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FYI, I received these and they don't work with the NCASE M1. The material is not the same, its not elastic enough and seem too tight so the studs don't snap in. Not sure if its worth pursuing a refund for the cheap price, but I may notify the seller or leave a review so as to prevent other people from ordering these for the M1.

I remembered that the new side panels don't use two of the clips on the old V5 NCASE, so I removed those two clips and used them to replace the ones that were missing, and life is good... for now.
 
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Revenant_Knight said:
Necere did an interview if anyone wants to check it out. Link
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Good interview, thanks for sharing :) Still quite confused about these "additional factors" that led to the M1 being discontinued, especially as the decision evidently wasn't Necere's.

But every time I read "M1 Classic" I have to fight the urge to throw up a little. I hate it so much 🤣
 
Bawjaws said:
Good interview, thanks for sharing :) Still quite confused about these "additional factors" that led to the M1 being discontinued, especially as the decision evidently wasn't Necere's.

But every time I read "M1 Classic" I have to fight the urge to throw up a little. I hate it so much 🤣
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Honestly, I hope the next one will be called the M2. Keep it simple. Reminds me of BMWs. Feels right.
 
Bawjaws said:
Good interview, thanks for sharing :) Still quite confused about these "additional factors" that led to the M1 being discontinued, especially as the decision evidently wasn't Necere's.

But every time I read "M1 Classic" I have to fight the urge to throw up a little. I hate it so much 🤣
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Forgot to mention that I’m waiting on Wahaha to complete his for part 2.
 
Mannymal said:
FYI, I received these and they don't work with the NCASE M1. The material is not the same, its not elastic enough and seem too tight so the studs don't snap in. Not sure if its worth pursuing a refund for the cheap price, but I may notify the seller or leave a review so as to prevent other people from ordering these for the M1.

I remembered that the new side panels don't use two of the clips on the old V5 NCASE, so I removed those two clips and used them to replace the ones that were missing, and life is good... for now.
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Sorry those clips didn't work for you. Seems like false advertising on that eBay listing. I have some clips from my M1s that I can mail you. PM me your full name and address and let me know how many clips you need. I'll send them next weekend (I'm away on vacation now).
 
Qrash said:
Sorry those clips didn't work for you. Seems like false advertising on that eBay listing. I have some clips from my M1s that I can mail you. PM me your full name and address and let me know how many clips you need. I'll send them next weekend (I'm away on vacation now).
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That's very nice of you. I don't wanna make you go out of your way to do this since I manage to salvage two clips that were not being used by the newer style side panels, but if I had not been able to do that, I would have taken you on your offer.

It looks like the seller will refund me. He is asking me for help in making the clips better but I'm not sure I have the time to help him iterate.
 
Hit the hardware store with your current screws. I'm sure there is a precision screw that'll work just fine.
 
Sad to hear the news. I'm glad I got my v6.1 at the very end of last year. I previously had the v4 and upgraded for my most recent build.

I like the chamfered front, but I'm excited to see what new designs Necere and wahaha can come up with. I do like the appearance of a few other SFF cases more, but none beat the overall combination of looks, quality, features, and price the M1 offered.

M1 Classic is terrible. Agree with everyone else here.
 
Revenant_Knight said:
Unfortunately not. Wahaha wasn't able to finish his.
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Ah, that's disappointing. Appreciate your efforts though.

As an aside, I find the whole situation with the M1 suddenly being discontinued, seemingly completely out of the blue and without any real explanation as to why, to be a sad end for this iconic case. That, combined with the horrible stealth rebrand to "M1 Classic", has left a bit of a bad taste in the mouth for me personally.

I appreciate that there will be very good reasons for ceasing production, and that some of those reasons may be commercially sensitive, but it's all been a bit unceremonious and it's really disappointing that we've been left in the dark like this given the case's origins in the community. The fact the Necere himself seemed to be completely blindsided by the timing of the decision (and sorry if I'm misinterpreting here - this is all from my own personal perspective so I could be miles off here, and if so, I apologise) adds to the sense of disappointment.

Maybe this is just over-entitled whining on my part but I'd hoped for better. This thread was were it all started and it's a real shame that we didn't hear from the horse's mouth when it all ended.
 
Bawjaws said:
Ah, that's disappointing. Appreciate your efforts though.

As an aside, I find the whole situation with the M1 suddenly being discontinued, seemingly completely out of the blue and without any real explanation as to why, to be a sad end for this iconic case. That, combined with the horrible stealth rebrand to "M1 Classic", has left a bit of a bad taste in the mouth for me personally.

I appreciate that there will be very good reasons for ceasing production, and that some of those reasons may be commercially sensitive, but it's all been a bit unceremonious and it's really disappointing that we've been left in the dark like this given the case's origins in the community. The fact the Necere himself seemed to be completely blindsided by the timing of the decision (and sorry if I'm misinterpreting here - this is all from my own personal perspective so I could be miles off here, and if so, I apologise) adds to the sense of disappointment.

Maybe this is just over-entitled whining on my part but I'd hoped for better. This thread was were it all started and it's a real shame that we didn't hear from the horse's mouth when it all ended.
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I did think it was unprofessional to do it this way. I totally understand them discontinuing it. To do it suddenly without giving us a chance to get the spare parts we need... that was not cool.
 
Sorry guys. If it was up to me we would've done another run and had more parts for people. Sales fell a lot in 2021, so the writing was on the wall for the M1, but I still expected we'd do at least one more run.
 
Necere said:
Sorry guys. If it was up to me we would've done another run and had more parts for people. Sales fell a lot in 2021, so the writing was on the wall for the M1, but I still expected we'd do at least one more run.
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Appreciate the response, as I appreciate all of the responses from you and wahaha360 over the years.

I understand that there will have been good business reasons behind stopping production, and I don't know the details of the arrangements you have with Lian Li and how viable it might have been to do smaller or less frequent production runs. One thing I would say, however, is that as someone who got my M1 with a view to keeping it in service for as long as possible, I'm particularly annoyed and disappointed by the complete lack of notice that spares had gone EoL. Again, maybe this is just over-entitlement but I'd like to think that firms who want your repeat business would engage with customers a bit more. If I were to buy whatever new case NCase put out, as and when it happens (which obviously I understand has to be under wraps for now, but it has to be an assumption on my part that it does actually happen) what's to say that support for that case won't suddenly stop without any warning?

I get that it's natural for businesses to look ahead to the next product or next design, and there's been a fair bit of chat on SFFNet about new projects that Wahaha is involved with, but at the same time it does leave a bad taste in the mouth that the M1 community has just had the plug pulled on it unceremoniously. Even if there had been an option to gauge interest in one final spares run before production was terminated, that would have been preferable to finding out from an after-the-fact announcement on the website?

Really sorry if this comes across as whining. I love my M1 and I'm just sad that things have turned out this way.

As an aside, surely it can't be right that on the NCase website, I can apparently still order a black M1 (albeit for the princely sum of $9999.99) with a shipping date of "Week of Jan 24th" whereas the silver version is Sold Out?
 
Bawjaws said:
Appreciate the response, as I appreciate all of the responses from you and wahaha360 over the years.

I understand that there will have been good business reasons behind stopping production, and I don't know the details of the arrangements you have with Lian Li and how viable it might have been to do smaller or less frequent production runs. One thing I would say, however, is that as someone who got my M1 with a view to keeping it in service for as long as possible, I'm particularly annoyed and disappointed by the complete lack of notice that spares had gone EoL. Again, maybe this is just over-entitlement but I'd like to think that firms who want your repeat business would engage with customers a bit more. If I were to buy whatever new case NCase put out, as and when it happens (which obviously I understand has to be under wraps for now, but it has to be an assumption on my part that it does actually happen) what's to say that support for that case won't suddenly stop without any warning?

I get that it's natural for businesses to look ahead to the next product or next design, and there's been a fair bit of chat on SFFNet about new projects that Wahaha is involved with, but at the same time it does leave a bad taste in the mouth that the M1 community has just had the plug pulled on it unceremoniously. Even if there had been an option to gauge interest in one final spares run before production was terminated, that would have been preferable to finding out from an after-the-fact announcement on the website?

Really sorry if this comes across as whining. I love my M1 and I'm just sad that things have turned out this way.

As an aside, surely it can't be right that on the NCase website, I can apparently still order a black M1 (albeit for the princely sum of $9999.99) with a shipping date of "Week of Jan 24th" whereas the silver version is Sold Out?
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iirc, the parts that were available separate from the case were just extras that were manufactured during the production of the case and it's parts. After production for a particular case, whatever stock they had is what you have available, and I'm not aware of any separate runs being done.

That said, I'm not surprised they ran out relatively quickly, nor that they're eol. A separate production run just for panels could be very expensive, and might leave them with stock they have to store indefinitely, costing them even more, when they might only sell a few hundred sets.
 
my order for a current gen video card finally went through! I got a EVGA 3080 12GB Hydro Cooper. This forces me to resurrect my NCase for watercooling. I have two of the “ultra classics,” M1 og kickstarter edition and the M1 v2. When my old swiftech h220 pump/cooler custom loop failed, I thought about replacing it with an iceman pump and reservoir, but the iceman description says it's compatible with v4, v5, v6, so I assumed it wasn't compatible with either of my v1 or v2. I decided to nix that ncases completely and just aircool and migrate to my Dancase A4. Now with this gpu, I have to use one of my ncases cause the Winter One still hasn't shipped. Can anyone confirm that the iceman wouldn't be compatible with either v1 or v2 of my M1s?

If not compatible, any suggestions? Would be nice that I could use the same pump/reservoir in the winter one whenever it arrives
 
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ManufacturerModelLengthHeightThickness (slots)NotesCompatible?Fitment NotesFits with deshroud?
NvidiaFounder's Edition RTX 30903131383-slotNo
NvidiaFounder's Edition RTX 30802851122-slotYesConfirmed
NvidiaFounder's Edition RTX 30702421122-slotYes
ASUSROG STRIX RTX 3090/3080/3070318.5140.157.8No
ASUSTUF RTX 3090/3080299.9126.951.7Yes§†ConfirmedYes
ASUSDUAL RTX 3070 8G26713552Yes§Confirmed
EVGAXC3285.37111.152.2-slotYesConfirmed
EVGARTX 3080 XC3 ULTRA HYBRID GAMING262.8112.12 slotAttached AIOYes
EVGAFTW3300136.752.75-slotYes*§†Confirmed
GainwardRTX 3090/3080 Phoenix/Phoenix GS2941122.7-slotYes*†
GalaxRTX 3090/3080 SG31711361No
GalaxRTX 3070 SG317113~2.5 slotYes†Confirmed
GalaxRTX 3090/3080/3070 EX Gamer31612458No
GalaxRTX 3070 EX28512458Yes§
GigabyteAORUS RTX 3090/3080 XtremeNo
GigabyteAORUS RTX 3090/3080 Master31914070No
GigabyteRTX 3090/3080 Gaming OC32012955No
GigabyteRTX 3090/3080 Eagle OC32012856No
GigabyteRTX 3070 Eagle28211541YesConfirmed
GigabyteRTX 3090/3080 Vision32012655No
GigabyteRTX 3070 Vision28611551Yes
GigabyteRTX 3070 GAMING OC28611551Yes
GigabyteRTX 3090 TURBO26711140Yes
MSIRTX 3090 Gaming Trio/Gaming X Trio33514056No
MSIRTX 3080 Gaming Trio/Gaming X Trio32314056No
MSIRTX 3080 SUPRIM X33614061No
MSIRTX 3090/3080 Ventus 3X30512057Yes*†Confirmed
MSIRTX 3070 Ventus 3X30512152Yes*†Confirmed
MSIRTX 3070 Ventus 2X23212452Yes
PalitRTX 3090/3080/3070 GamingPro29411260Yes*†
PNYRTX 3090/3080/3070 XLR8 Gaming EPIC-X RGB Triple Fan29411259Yes*†
ZotacRTX 3080 AMP Holo317.8131.859.6Yes*Confirmed; reverse sag
ZotacRTX 3090 Trinity317.8120.758Yes*†Confirmed
ZotacRTX 3080 Trinity317.8120.758NoSee discussion starting here
Zotac3070 Twin Edge231.9141.341.5Yes†Confirmed, but certain combos may prevent installation

* Front I/O ports must be removed
§ Low profile PCIe power adapters must be used
† Installation may be difficult

This was taken from the ncase forum over at https://smallformfactor.net/
 
Still, Rocking an NCASE M1? Good temps and flow rate with this custom loop below on an AMD 5950x and 3080TI. Never breaks 46c after hours of gaming or stress testing. 34c Idle. Phanteks fans reach 80% to hold the max temps.


2 XSPC TX240 Ultra Thin Radiator
2 Phanteks T30-120 (Side Fans)
2 Noctua NF-A12x15 PWM Chromax Black(Bottom)
1 Aquacomputer OCTO Fan Controller
1 EK-Loop DDC 4.2 PWM
1 EK-Quantum Vector FE RTX 3080 Full Metal - Black S (GPU BLOCK)
1 IceManCooler NCase M1 DDC Water Tank
1 Bitspower Mono Block for ASUS ROG Crosshair VIII Impact (CPU)
1 Koolance Flow Meter
1 Koolance Filter
1 Aquacomputer temperature sensor inline G1/4


A little surgery to water-cool the GPU and reduce fan noise.
20220620_164945_GPUBlock.jpg
 
the NCASE M1 EVO looks like a nice next chapter for the NCASE. CNC machined and more details to come.

"The final specs will depend on the new Nvidia 40XX GPU and their AIB partner GPUs. Because Nvidia Founders Edition GPUs tend to be smaller than the AIB partner GPUs, we plan to finalize the specs when the GPU spec is confirmed."

Sounds like a good plan, since power and physical size of GPUs is getting cartoonishly large.
 
Bawjaws said:
Yeah, my M1 is still going strong. And still looks great.
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Same. I've got a v1 that's in perfect shape. I just upgraded the internals last month to a B760 mobo and 12400F proc, added a 2nd 1TB M.2 and slapped 64GB of RAM in it. Should last me a long time.
 
I bought two original M1 cases back in the beginning. The first one is still going strong. Its mainly just a regular PC rig for general work and surfing the net. The second case is still sitting in its box. I thought I would use it but so far haven't. I'm always buying a new case for my builds. Not building new rigs much these days. I do plan on one new build this year for one of my grand children. Might just break out that unused M1 finally.
 
Hey all, M1 v5 here looking to upgrade the system with a new motherboard which I guess will have new headers like USBC. What are my options for front panel ports? It would be a shame to look for a new case only because I cannot get proper ports on front. I also prefer the v5 for properly channeling air with no holes on the bottom of side panels. Most recent cases like EVO and M2 have holes everywhere which may work for some type of builds but not the one I have in mind.
 
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Rhialto said:
Hey all, M1 v5 here looking to upgrade the system with a new motherboard which I guess will have new headers like USBC. What are my options for front panel ports? It would be a shame to look for a new case only because I cannot get proper ports on front. I also prefer the v5 for properly channeling air with no holes on the bottom of side panels. Most recent cases like EVO and M2 have holes everywhere which may work for some type of builds but not the one I have in mind.
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maybe something like this
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:5330996
 
Rhialto said:
Hey all, M1 v5 here looking to upgrade the system with a new motherboard which I guess will have new headers like USBC. What are my options for front panel ports? It would be a shame to look for a new case only because I cannot get proper ports on front. I also prefer the v5 for properly channeling air with no holes on the bottom of side panels. Most recent cases like EVO and M2 have holes everywhere which may work for some type of builds but not the one I have in mind.
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I dunno what the backside of the M1 V5's front panel looks like. But, you might be able to pull out a USB-A and put one of these in there, instead:

https://www.amazon.com/SinLoon-Head...1728193133&sprefix=fron+usb-c,aps,181&sr=8-16

https://www.amazon.com/NFHK-Header-...1728193219&sprefix=fron+usb-c,aps,181&sr=8-21
 
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chameleoneel said:
I dunno what the backside of the M1 V5's front panel looks like. But, you might be able to pull out a USB-A and put one of these in there, instead:
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I could not find a picture of it unmounted but thanks I'll see if it can work. When I went to bed yesterday I was thinking of maybe trying to sell my M1 like it is and get a M2. My brain is in build mode and I think of all the possibilities.
 
Rhialto said:
I could not find a picture of it unmounted but thanks I'll see if it can work. When I went to bed yesterday I was thinking of maybe trying to sell my M1 like it is and get a M2. My brain is in build mode and I think of all the possibilities.
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I recently bought the M2 but havent built in it yet. I can say though that its super high quality and has a ton of matx options on top of itx, which is a huge upgrade.
 
workshop35 said:
I recently bought the M2 but havent built in it yet. I can say though that its super high quality and has a ton of matx options on top of itx, which is a huge upgrade.
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Yes I'm now spending many minutes in a day thinkering about next build, I love this. Does it mean you got the black rounded? I think it's the only one available for now.

Quickly yesterday when I saw mATX could fit in the M2 I thought hey maybe I could save a few $ going back to mATX but there are just no more mATX boards. ITX prices have skyrocketed in the last years.
 
Rhialto said:
Yes I'm now spending many minutes in a day thinkering about next build, I love this. Does it mean you got the black rounded? I think it's the only one available for now.

Quickly yesterday when I saw mATX could fit in the M2 I thought hey maybe I could save a few $ going back to mATX but there are just no more mATX boards. ITX prices have skyrocketed in the last years.
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Keep in mind the M2 is a fair bit larger.
 
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