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

I love how the top of this case looks like the typical front of a nice case upside down- the odd slot accentuates the look... F....k! I can't wait to get mine! Thanks for the pics Cheese...
 
The_Cheese said:
rajeeves asked so politely I couldn't say no, so here are some pix with the silver panels on.

The case is very light in weight (as should be expected from an aluminum case) but is VERY rigid structurally. If I had to say something negative about it, the worst I could say is that the side panels seem somewhat easy to bend, if you aren't careful with them.
Click to expand...

Nice score. Heck, I'll say thanks for the huge donation just to help with the project (no I have nothing to do with the NCASE stuff).

What build do you plan on stuffing in it?
 
The_Cheese said:
The case is very light in weight (as should be expected from an aluminum case) but is VERY rigid structurally. If I had to say something negative about it, the worst I could say is that the side panels seem somewhat easy to bend, if you aren't careful with them.
Click to expand...

I have to say. THANK YOU FOR SHOWING US! :D

I can't wait for mine to come in... and welcome to the forums!
 
Could you possibly do a pic or two of the front - without cover installed, and maybe possibly one of the back of the front cover? If not, no worries, and thanks for your help in the campaign... I for one am grateful!
 
lemkeant said:
Nice score. Heck, I'll say thanks for the huge donation just to help with the project (no I have nothing to do with the NCASE stuff).

What build do you plan on stuffing in it?
Click to expand...

I like to be able to help others' dreams come true, and this time I scored an AWESOME case to boot! :D

I found an Asrock FM2A75M-ITX in the spares cabinet, along with a socket FM2 A10 5800K Black Edition, 16Gb (2x8) of GeIL PC3 12800 1600Mhz DDR3, an OCZ Solid 3 120Gb SATAIII SSD. We'll put that in the case for starters and see what shakes out. Air-cooled for now.

Hmm... I probably should find a power supply, too.
 
slabhatnik said:
Could you possibly do a pic or two of the front - without cover installed, and maybe possibly one of the back of the front cover? If not, no worries, and thanks for your help in the campaign... I for one am grateful!
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Okay, but then I have to go make dinner.;)

Inside the front bezel, black:
m1_inside_bezel_black.jpg


Front of the inside of the case (behind the bezel):
m1_front_face.jpg


Oh, and maybe you can see what's in store for the case, back there, too.:D
 
That is some spares cupboard.

Be careful with that mobo though! I heard reports of them catching fire/frying! Don't ruin your case or your house or yourself!
 
Thanks for the contribution to the project, and I'm happy to see you end up with the first case with the best serial number! Thanks for the photos. As excited as we all are, feel bad for bombarding you with all the questions!

A question.. are screws for the CD drive included? (suspect not). and are the fan filters the lian-li filters as per this item with the slotted holes?
http://www.frozencpu.com/products/1...ck_PT-AF12-3B.html?tl=g47c223s548&id=BV43IPM9


Must say your case looks pretty awesome! Little more flash than my ncase build ;)

 
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okwchin said:
Thanks for the contribution to the project, and I'm happy to see you end up with the first case with the best serial number! Thanks for the photos. As excited as we all are, feel bad for bombarding you with all the questions!

A question.. are screws for the CD drive included? (suspect not). and are the fan filters the lian-li filters as per this item with the slotted holes?
http://www.frozencpu.com/products/1...ck_PT-AF12-3B.html?tl=g47c223s548&id=BV43IPM9


Must say your case looks pretty awesome! Little more flash than my ncase build ;)

Click to expand...

Heh, yours is pretty sweet! Back in the day we would call that "econo" :D

If the accessory kits for the production units are the same as this one, it came with 4 of those very same Lian Li air filters:
m1_acc_fanfilters.jpg

4 120mm fan guards:
m1_acc_fanguards.jpg

And several bags of screws and grommets, all of which look like black blobs in glare-dappled plastic bags in my photos.

The hardware is all black, and all appears to be straight from the Lian Li catalog: 20 coarse fan screws in black, 15 tiny countersunk Philips that hold half the case together, 12 anti-vibration hard-drive mount thumbscrews in black, 5 Philips button head that hold the other half of the case together, 4 flat-head anti-vibration screws of unknown use, and 4 super-tiny screws of unknown use (seriously, they are like, wristwatch-screw small.)
 
Grats on the case and TY for your efforts and funding. Looking forward to some completed build pics :D
 
The tiny screws might be your slot loader optical drive mounting screws. Probably like less than 1/10" thick, maybe just over 1/8" long. (I'm a metric person, I would have called it 2mm diameter, 4mm long)

Sounds like a pretty comprehensive screw set, I would be happy with that.
 
Yeah, 2mm diameter and 4mm long is about right.

I am happy with the hardware; there are more screws and brackets than I am sure I will need.

I will, however, need to scare up a slot-loading slim optical drive.
 
okwchin said:
The tiny screws might be your slot loader optical drive mounting screws. Probably like less than 1/10" thick, maybe just over 1/8" long. (I'm a metric person, I would have called it 2mm diameter, 4mm long)

Sounds like a pretty comprehensive screw set, I would be happy with that.
Click to expand...

I think you're right. Necere did mention that slim ODD screws would be included.

The 120mm fan guards are a nice touch. Not sure how I can make use of them, at least while using the Lian Li filters. Might be useful if I get Demci filters made for the inside side panel.

I probably could've used a 92mm guard for the rear exhaust, but not really a big deal since they're only a few bucks if actually need one.
 
Thanks for the pic's TC, making it really really difficult to decide between black or silver for myself and which for my dad. The silver color looks exceptional.

Quick question, does your Silver front panel have NCASE on it like the black one?


The_Cheese said:
rajeeves asked so politely I couldn't say no, so here are some pix with the silver panels on.
And the right side:
m1_frontright_q_silver.jpg

Even the top:

The case is very light in weight (as should be expected from an aluminum case) but is VERY rigid structurally. If I had to say something negative about it, the worst I could say is that the side panels seem somewhat easy to bend, if you aren't careful with them.
Click to expand...
 
Iam918 said:
The silver color looks exceptional.

Quick question, does your Silver front panel have NCASE on it like the black one?
Click to expand...

Yes, it has NCASE just like on the black bezel, you can't see it well in my photos. In the photo you "quoted" you can see where the text is, at the bottom of the middle of the front panel.
Those silver panels do look really good. I was looking over the pictures again, and now I am thinking I might put the silver panels on the black chassis.
 
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Thanks The_Cheese for the pics! I ordered a black and a silver and your pics have basically helped me decide to make the silver case my main system :)
 
WiSK said:
Greetings from Portland, OR - did you know that Compact Splash, another of the recent custom mITX cases is being fabricated in that city? Coincidence? I'm surely making a connection where there is none. :D
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Interesting being a Oregonian myself :)

+1 [H]ardness for OREGON :D
 
WiSK said:
Greetings from Portland, OR - did you know that Compact Splash, another of the recent custom mITX cases is being fabricated in that city? Coincidence? I'm surely making a connection where there is none. :D
Click to expand...

Indeed, as the case came to me from elsewhere.
I haven't heard of Compact Splash... I will have to give that a look-see.
 
This is off-topic. Sorry.
Do any of you know of a website where I can buy quality SATA cables?
Preferably with a large selection of lengths and colors (yes, I'm going to sleeve, but still :p)
 
zyler said:
This is off-topic. Sorry.
Do any of you know of a website where I can buy quality SATA cables?
Preferably with a large selection of lengths and colors (yes, I'm going to sleeve, but still :p)
Click to expand...

Satacables.com has a decent selection of colors & lengths, but it seems the majority of their cables are still rated SATA-II instead of SATA-III (not really sure if it makes that much of a difference, or not). Newegg, Amazon & FrozenCPU also have a decent selection.

Let me know if you happen across any short SATA-III cables available with both right-angle and left-angle connectors.. preferably in yellow. I can't find any =)
 
Out of curiosity is anyone planning on getting a 290x gfx card for there M1?
 
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Yep, but it's not definite. It depends on the price. But it's either the R9 290X or the GTX 780. I'm partial to the R9 290X because it has some nice new tech I'm excited about. In a few days we'll know what it's going to be, price/performance wise.
 
Phuncz said:
Yep, but it's not definite. It depends on the price. But it's either the R9 290X or the GTX 780. I'm partial to the R9 290X because it has some nice new tech I'm excited about. In a few days we'll know what it's going to be, price/performance wise.
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My thoughts exactly, maybe we'll be gfx card M1 buddies Phuncz :)
 
Yeah I plan on getting an i7 4770k with the R9 290 card. Is the 450W SFX-G good enough?
 
AFD said:
Now I just need to decide if 4" or 8" SATA cable would be more suitable for the M1
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You will probably want the 8" cables; 4" -might- fit if you have your SATA devices mounted at the bottom of the case, under the video card, but you will certainly not have much slack there. 8" will probably not be enough to get to the optical drive, either.

I can dig up some SATA cables and take some pictures (using an Asrock FM2A75 mobo for reference) if that would help?

Okay, so I had nothing else to do right now and did just that... Here's a picture of the cables I tested:
cables.jpg

And here's one with the shortest cable tested:
65inchcable.jpg

I know that the drive is upside-down, but that's the way the connectors fit.
This is the same short cable with the drive in the inner-front face mounting position:
65inchcable2.jpg

To connect a 2.5 inch hard drive in the outside-front position, you would need a cable at least 10 inches long.
I um... wasn't able to test that, because all the connectors on those cables I grabbed are pointing in the wrong directions.
Also note that the 6.5 inch cable would be going through the side of a standard ATX power supply, were it mounted in place.
 
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Nivaku said:
Yeah I plan on getting an i7 4770k with the R9 290 card. Is the 450W SFX-G good enough?
Click to expand...

That's going to be a key thing to look for in the reviews (power consumption). If the R9 290x really does end up with a 270W TDP (unconfirmed, but that's what I'm seeing in the coverage), 20W more than the 780/Titan, then you're ever closer to maxing out the ST45SF-G (depending of course on what else you throw in the case).
 
The_Cheese said:
You will probably want the 8" cables; 4" -might- fit if you have your SATA devices mounted at the bottom of the case, under the video card, but you will certainly not have much slack there. 8" will probably not be enough to get to the optical drive, either..
Click to expand...

Whoa, thank you tremendously for checking all of that.. really do appreciate it!

I guess 8 or maybe even 10" cables would be best for me (maybe even longer, as I want them routed away from the center of the case as much as possible). For example, interior 2.5" drive upside down would have a down-angle connector at the motherboard, with cable routed against the right-side panel, over to a right-angle connector (angle directions I mentioned might be incorrect).

And for the 3.5" drives mounted upside down in the rack, I'd ideally like to get them long enough to remain connected with the rack removed and laying beside the case (not really sure how to route them with this idea, though).
 
I forgot about the rack, but I think 4 inch cables would -just- fit there. Maybe... you'd be better of with 6 inches there, as 4 might get you connectors that are -> <- that far apart. :mad:

And if you don't mind some advice from an old hand: make -absolutely- certain that you get your cable end directions right before you order them!! Otherwise you will end up like me, with a big box full of cables with the wrong ends on them.
 
Wow, thanks for the sata cable photos. Really means a more optimal length for that location is 8-10", or 200-250mm. Would 300mm-350 (12-14") be too long for setups where the cable is routed along surfaces like the power supply.
 
okwchin said:
Wow, thanks for the sata cable photos. Really means a more optimal length for that location is 8-10", or 200-250mm. Would 300mm-350 (12-14") be too long for setups where the cable is routed along surfaces like the power supply.
Click to expand...

I would say that, if you were running your cables behind an ATX power supply to the inner front mounting location, you would want cables in the 12" / 28cm range. Less than that, and you might not reach, and longer than about 14" / 33cm would likely leave you with extra cable length to hide.

I don't think you'd need more than 14" / 33cm to reach an optical drive or something mounted in the front outside HD mounting point.

Bear in mind that all this is if your motherboard has the SATA ports in the same place as the Asrock FM2A75M-ITX. If your 'board has the SATA ports in the 'top-left' corner (like some Gigabyte and MSI MITX mobos) you will need to add 6 inches / 15cm or more to your cable lengths.
 
drklu said:
Out of curiosity is anyone planning on getting a 290x gfx card for there M1?
Click to expand...

Yes, most likely.

I'd prefer a dual-gpu version (290x2, 295x?), but only if it would have a regular blower fan, and if SilverStone managed to produce a 500-550W sfx psu in the not too distant future (yes, I know they're working on it and that a release before Q2 2014 is unlikely). :)
 
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