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

Anyone considering using the Asus 670 Mini for their build, or is this just a bad idea due to it not having a true blower style cooler since it's partially open on the sides?

I like the idea of having a shorter GPU so that I can have a bottom-rear fan blowing into it, and then another bottom-front fan directing air towards the HDD cage. I'd prefer a mini 680 or 770 if they ever make one, but would probably settle for the 670 if the cooler design doesn't flood the case with hot air. Also thought about sealing up the 670 Mini's cooler, forcing all the air to exhaust out the PCI bracket, but I'm guessing that might not work as planned.
 
What is the best air CPU cooler with an asrock z87-e it's? Seeing as noctua c12 and 14 won't fit?
 
AFD said:
Check out the new Thermalright AXP-200. It won't fit the Asus boards (lots of pics of it on the ROG ITX, but hangs outside the board or blocks the PCI slot), but looks like it fits ok on the Asrock boards without blocking the PCI slot..

http://www.fashaoyou.net/Article.asp?id=75806
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The only thing that might be an issue with that cooler on that board is that in the M1 the heatpipes will point down, which is not ideal since gravity will be working against the liquid on its return trip from the fins. It should still work, but it will likely have some negative impact on the cooler's performance.

Aside from those offset 120mm coolers like the AXP-200 (which are probably all going to have the heatpipe issue on a board with the socket at the top), you're looking at coolers with 92mm fans. One top-down cooler in this size class is the Scythe Samurai ZZ, which seems to be a decent performer for its size. Another possible contender is this upcoming 92mm top-down Noctua recently showed at Computex, which looks to be a higher performance version of the NH-L9.

Another option to consider is a 92mm tower cooler under 130mm tall, such as the Noctua NH-U9B SE2. You give up the side intake fan over the motherboard, but as long as you're using an intake fan on one of the other mounts, it should manage to keep things reasonably cool.
 
Necere said:
The only thing that might be an issue with that cooler on that board is that in the M1 the heatpipes will point down, which is not ideal since gravity will be working against the liquid on its return trip from the fins. It should still work, but it will likely have some negative impact on the cooler's performance.
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You're right, thanks! I wasn't paying attention to the orientation of the AXP-200 in the link I posted.

nh_c12p_orientation.jpg
 
Hey Necere, I was just looking at my NH-L12 and noticed the heatsink sticks out past the motherboard a fair deal when used with my P8Z mobo with the centrally installed processor. Do you know what the clearance is from the top of the mobo to the top of the case, or more specifically, do you know if the p8z77-i + nh-l12 combo will work in this space?

Thanks!
 
imode said:
Hey Necere, I was just looking at my NH-L12 and noticed the heatsink sticks out past the motherboard a fair deal when used with my P8Z mobo with the centrally installed processor. Do you know what the clearance is from the top of the mobo to the top of the case, or more specifically, do you know if the p8z77-i + nh-l12 combo will work in this space?

Thanks!
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It's about 10mm from the top edge of the motherboard to the top of the case.

Interestingly, the NH-L12 extends further from the CPU centerline (88mm) than the NH-C12 (85mm). It's also slightly wider. The NH-C12 only fits with the heatpipes pointing toward the front or rear, and not up, so it's quite likely the same is true of the NH-L12.
 
Necere said:
The NH-C12 only fits with the heatpipes pointing toward the front or rear, and not up, so it's quite likely the same is true of the NH-L12.
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Do you happen to know if a rear 92x14 exhaust fan will fit with the C12 cooler installed?
 
Today I picked up a 4770k cpu for this case. Looking forward to buying a case in the near future. :D
 
drklu said:
Or go water, check this. http://www.ekwb.com/news/364/19/
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That's interesting. With watercooling for the motherboard there should be even less of a concern about not having a dedicated exhaust fan. Although, how much heat would be put into the loop? The power consumption of the Impact seems fairly high: http://www.ocaholic.ch/modules/smartsection/item.php?itemid=1050&page=21.

Would watercooling the CPU, GPU and motherboard all at once be too much for a 120 mm dual radiator to handle? I would like to run the fans at nearly inaudible speeds if possible, at least at idle. For silent operation, maybe it would be better to skip watercooling on the motherboard and let it be passively cooled while focusing the watercooling on just the CPU and GPU.
 
You guys really need to lay out how international shipping is going to be handled. The most important question being what company will be used?
 
In for two :D

Now, since I only purchased one slot in the earlier prototype campaign, will I only one get "shipped early" or are we going in one big push?
 
So much for keeping it on the down low, lol. Guess I should've figured people wouldn't keep it contained. Oh well, I hope we can make sure everyone that wants one will get one.

DarkStryke said:
You guys really need to lay out how international shipping is going to be handled. The most important question being what company will be used?
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Indeed. Maybe we can get a list of preferred companies from our backers for different countries.

Machupo said:
In for two :D

Now, since I only purchased one slot in the earlier prototype campaign, will I only one get "shipped early" or are we going in one big push?
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I'm not in charge of shipping, but I would think if you're on the list w360 will be handling all orders for those first.
 
If it's Canada, then the only real option is US postal. DHL, FedEx and UPS bend us over with brokerage processing charges (which have nothing to do with tax / import duty).

The alternative is UPS air, but with a parcel the size of a case that would get quite expensive fast.
 
Necere said:
So much for keeping it on the down low, lol. Guess I should've figured people wouldn't keep it contained. Oh well, I hope we can make sure everyone that wants one will get one.
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LoL, thats what I assumed but its out of the bag now. Now, everyone go buy so we meet the goal by this time tomorrow. :p
 
SithSolo1 said:
LoL, thats what I assumed but its out of the bag now. Now, everyone go buy so we meet the goal by this time tomorrow. :p
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Heck yeah! Think I'm #45 (after the 2 early-ship lists, dang it)

Hope I did everything right.. I've never rushed to try and place an order so fast in all my life. Now the long wait until Dec/Jan is just gonna blow =(

Glad I was checking here, since there's no mention of this on the 1st round updates yet.
 
600 cases? Holy foock, I am now driving to home from grandmom and I think I can buy the case in about 8 hour, I hope so much that there is these cases available by then.
 
I don't really see the option, but how would I go about getting 2 cases? Do I just manually specify 410?

oop, I see it :) nevermind
 
vero said:
That's interesting. With watercooling for the motherboard there should be even less of a concern about not having a dedicated exhaust fan. Although, how much heat would be put into the loop? The power consumption of the Impact seems fairly high: http://www.ocaholic.ch/modules/smartsection/item.php?itemid=1050&page=21.

Would watercooling the CPU, GPU and motherboard all at once be too much for a 120 mm dual radiator to handle? I would like to run the fans at nearly inaudible speeds if possible, at least at idle. For silent operation, maybe it would be better to skip watercooling on the motherboard and let it be passively cooled while focusing the watercooling on just the CPU and GPU.
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Yeah this is a good point, would you guess the cpu and mobo would be the same block or are we talking just the mother board? They say it's a "full cover" block so that sound's like it cover's everything. Does that include ram as well? If so I think this would be a good solution though I do feel your concerns with dropping more heat to an already stressed cooling system. My plan was to get the highest quality rad/fans to push the single rad to the highest efficiency possible.
 
Though I can't pay until the end of next week, I will get a case as I'm on the early shipment list, right?
 
xinux said:
Though I can't pay until the end of next week, I will get a case as I'm on the early shipment list, right?
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The early shipping list is *not* a reservation list, and was never claimed to be. The production campaign is first-come, first-serve. That said, we're going to try to accommodate everyone that wants one and is on the list, one way or another. 600 units is a soft cap, we'll put it that way.
 
Necere said:
The early shipping list is *not* a reservation list, and was never claimed to be. The production campaign is first-come, first-serve. That said, we're going to try to accommodate everyone that wants one and is on the list, one way or another. 600 units is a soft cap, we'll put it that way.
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Ok, I see. Really hope I will be able to get my hands on the case, after following for so long..
The thing that caught me off guard was that I had to pay when making the pledge; of what I can remember of my earlier pledges you pay when the deadline is reached. That maybe only is the case with kickstarter though.
 
xinux said:
Ok, I see. Really hope I will be able to get my hands on the case, after following for so long..
The thing that caught me off guard was that I had to pay when making the pledge; of what I can remember of my earlier pledges you pay when the deadline is reached. That maybe only is the case with kickstarter though.
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Yeah, it seems to be different with IGG. They don't release the funds until the funding goal is reached though (with fixed funding anyway, which is what we're doing).
 
Sorry if these questions were already asked...

1) There will be no early shipments for the people who helped fund the first campaign?..because production will not start until this current campaign is funded? Correct?

I don't mind, it was worth funding this project anyway..

2) There will only be 600 cases of the M1 made?

I really like the idea of having a "limited production" case :)
 
MiLk said:
Sorry if these questions were already asked...

1) There will be no early shipments for the people who helped fund the first campaign?..because production will not start until this current campaign is funded? Correct?

I don't mind, it was worth funding this project anyway..

2) There will only be 600 cases of the M1 made?

I really like the idea of having a "limited production" case :)
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1. If you funded the first campaign at the proper price point, you get priority when purchasing an actual copy of the case. Doesn't matter when production starts. This is my understanding, Nec and W360 may have a correction.

2. That depends on what Necere does with his designs. :)
 
No email but the campaign is live and 66 duders already pledged? Shit, you guys should've giving me a heads-up. :X
 
M4rk said:
No email but the campaign is live and 66 duders already pledged? Shit, you guys should've giving me a heads-up. :X
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You should've got one... might've got caught by your spam folder? Regardless, it's posted to the old campaign now, so everyone should be notified.
 
Necere said:
You should've got one... might've got caught by your spam folder? Regardless, it's posted to the old campaign now, so everyone should be notified.
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I'll check but it's cool, I've been subscribed to this thread for months now and reading updates via email. It's been pretty crazy in spots and I've jumped into the conversation less and less as my responsibilities at my current job grew and grew, but I'm glad we've gotten to this point finally. Here's two hundred bux, spend 'em wisely. :)
 
So I contributed to the production campaign, but what does that mean if I also contributed to the early shipment list? Are they even cross-referencing the lists?
 
drats! i just saw this. i'm number 80-something. was hoping to score one with a lower serial number :p
 
illli said:
drats! i just saw this. i'm number 80-something. was hoping to score one with a lower serial number :p
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Eureka! said:
So I contributed to the production campaign, but what does that mean if I also contributed to the early shipment list? Are they even cross-referencing the lists?
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I'm sure Necere and W360 will check the lists before issuing any cases, since backers at a certain level on the earlier campaign were promised earlier shipping. I'm guessing it doesn't matter what "number" you are when paying for your pledge, since the earlier list will be taken into account.

Also do the cases even have serial numbers on them? Did I miss something somewhere, because I don't remember seeing them any place.
 
M4rk said:
I'm sure Necere and W360 will check the lists before issuing any cases, since backers at a certain level on the earlier campaign were promised earlier shipping. I'm guessing it doesn't matter what "number" you are when paying for your pledge, since the earlier list will be taken into account.

Also do the cases even have serial numbers on them? Did I miss something somewhere, because I don't remember seeing them any place.
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From the campaign:

Standard features

...
"-1st edition numbered serial plate"
...
 
Would you look at that; managed to borrow the money from a friend, at 6am on a sunday morning.
Can't wait to get my hands on this!
 
M4rk said:
I'm sure Necere and W360 will check the lists before issuing any cases, since backers at a certain level on the earlier campaign were promised earlier shipping. I'm guessing it doesn't matter what "number" you are when paying for your pledge, since the earlier list will be taken into account.

Also do the cases even have serial numbers on them? Did I miss something somewhere, because I don't remember seeing them any place.
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yep. in the description: -BLACK, brushed and anodized exterior* -Matte black painted interior -1st edition numbered serial plate -Cables for front USB, audio, power -All screws and mounting hardware. silver option is there but they made a correction, its $1 extra instead of .01 extra.

i'm assuming serial plate will have a serial number :)
so you think early shipping would also mean lower serial number? i'm not really sure what early shipping actually meant. i figured they'd just get shipped out first before the others, but i guess would be nice to put them in the front of the line first before the others... but then how would they determine the order of early shipment backers?
 
Glad to see my two favorite configurations black/black and silver/black. Both look very nice. I really hope that everyone who wants one gets as many as they want. I stumbled on the campaign a couple of hours after it stated. Got my notification about 30 minutes later.

On another note, I'm investigating getting a custom reservoir made for the case. Any interest would probably improve the chances of getting it made. Not trying to profit, just trying to get a manufacturer interested enough to manufacture. Any suggestions for improvement? Thinking maybe to recess the cap screws, bevel the lid, or maybe go with 1/4 inch instead of 3/8 inch top to reduce depth.

qloj.png

http://imageshack.us/g/545/qloj.png/
 
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