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

Just wanted to chime back in to report that the Dark Rock TF wouldn't fit; memory/heat sink/heatpipe clearance wasn't an issue - the problem was that socket on my board cause the heat sink to overhang the PCI-E Slot, preventing the video card from being used.

This might be an issue with the mobo I have - I suspect anything with a larger than 60mm 'radius' will interfere with the slot placement, which might also include the Noctua C14 - I may just have to stick with what I have for now until a otherboard/CPU upgrade
 
I just realized you guys would probably appreciate the picture /u/NJM1112 from Reddit took of my setup at Quakecon. :)

uTqkIk3.jpg
 
Nice Union Flag (and Ponyo wallpaper). Are you using that iPad as a remote client, or it is just a case to hold the display panel and a DP->eDP converter board?
 
How's the noise level of the U9S versus something like the Kabuto II (with a 120mm fan)? Thinking of getting a 980Ti hybrid and need to make room for it :)
 
A 60% keyboard and the NCase M1 are a perfect match from a transportation point of view. Cool setup!
 
What are you using as your monitor and stand?

Nice Union Flag (and Ponyo wallpaper). Are you using that iPad as a remote client, or it is just a case to hold the display panel and a DP->eDP converter board?

A 60% keyboard and the NCase M1 are a perfect match from a transportation point of view. Cool setup!


Thanks guys. :)

It's the same LCD they use in the iPad 3/4/air, and the adapter board by Abusemark, and an unbranded iPad 3 shell+standard replacement bezel/ glass for the iPad 3.
The stand is this one, which lets me swivel the monitor how I please while matching everything and looking super professional. I got theidea to use an arm from Wendell of Tek Syndicate, though he used a standard lamp arm which was a little bulky/ jankly looking for me.

Definitely a perfect match with the 60%, I can fit that whole setup in a backpack and it only weighs 21lbs!
 
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Looks like there are a whole lot of iPad LCD to DP adapters out there. Interesting. Never seen this before.

In your case does the adapter board sit outside or inside the iPad shell?

Where do you reside and how long did it take for it to arrive from Japan?
 
I've got it inside the shell, for maximum iPad-ness. :)

If I'm remembering right, it took about a week to get to Kennesaw GA.

Here's a rough album of how I did it, but I'm going to embed detailed pictures here.

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Very nice. I'm tempted to build one myself.

Are you able to power it with an on-board USB port or do you need an external charger?
 
Do it!
It's totally usable without the ipad shell, I just wanted to be able to use the stand I did.

On board USB! I've ziptiesd the DP and USB cable together so they'll always be together.

I'm planning on trying to do something else using the same panel for quakecon next year, we'll see if it works out. ;)

Edit:
I think the whole think cost me around $150-

$50 - LCD
$35 - Controller board
$10 - Single shell (most are $30+ and branded though)
$30 - Stand
$8 - Bezel
$15 - Glass

Though if you aren't doing a stand it would be <$100.
 
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Where did you find a shell for only $10?

Is the bezal the gasket that sits between the shell and the front glass?
 
From what I've seen, there are, but they usually are a lot larger than the one I used for the ipad.
Plus it seemed like all the laptop LCD's that had a decent resolution were more expensive than the iPad LCD if I remember right.

I found this eDP display from a Vaio, but haven't found a controller board for it yet.

Edit to reply to vipz

There was a guy who had gotten some from a friend or something and just wanted them gone- I was very lucky in that regard.
The bezel is indeed the little gasket between the glass and shell, it's not really important, but it does finish the look a little.
 
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The AbleHD was a kickstarter project that brought 15" portable HDMI monitors. They were supposed to be bringing out a successor, however no word has been heard for a very long time.
 
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I ordered the adapter. I'll get the LCD and most likely also a cellular shell so that hopefully I can avoid having to cut into the aluminum.
 
If you could, please post back with the performance of the C14! I got the U9S so it would be interesting to see how these two Noctua coolers compare in the M1.

Interesting, Xelnika! I'm satisfied with the noise on my H100i setup (two NF-F12s), but the C14 was certainly quieter. Let us know how it goes with the OC. I hadn't heard about the 3 x 120 mm fan setup, and if you can hit a good OC quietly, I'd definitely consider going back.

So I've spent the past three days trying out different setups.

Test setup:

ASUS Maximus VI Impact
SX600-G
4770K @ 4 GHz
I settled for a 4 GHz overclock because I didn't know how the NH-C14 would perform and I wanted the results to be comparable.
MSI 970 Gaming 4G Twin Frozr
Since it has a non-reference cooler, it dumps the heat inside the case. This means that it affects CPU temps more than a reference cooler would and benefits from exhaust fans to draw hot air away. I left the fan on auto so the temperature differences are actually smaller than they would've been with a constant fan speed.

Configurations tested:

H100i 2x intake
H100i 2x exhaust
NH-C14 3x intake
NH-C14 2x intake (CPU push/pull) + 1 exhaust (front side fan)
NH-C14 3x exhaust
NH-C14 2x exhaust (CPU push/pull) + 1 intake (front side fan)

All fans are 120 mm fans @ 1400-1500 RPM.
I used the bundled Corsair SP120 fans for the H100i.
I used 2 Arctic F12 PWM fans for the NH-C14 and one of the SP120's as the 3rd fan.

Testing method:

First, I ran 10 mins of Unigine Valley to heat the GPU.
Then I started a Prime95 26.5 (non-AVX) blend test while still running Unigine Valley. The reason I run Prime95 and Unigine together is that the heat from my GPU raises CPU temperatures a lot so testing CPU and GPU separately isn't representative of real use.
The reason I ran the GPU test on its own before starting Prime95 is that the increased CPU usage makes GPU usage drop so the maximum GPU temp was reached before Prime95 started.

Results:

H100i 2x intake
http://i.imgur.com/aeX4WtO.png

H100i 2x exhaust
http://i.imgur.com/9WGRCIY.png

NH-C14 3x intake
http://i.imgur.com/Q7hSAxa.png

NH-C14 2x intake (CPU push/pull) + 1 exhaust (front side fan)
http://i.imgur.com/oqOKh9G.png

NH-C14 3x exhaust
http://i.imgur.com/TsqtDg0.png

NH-C14 2x exhaust (CPU push/pull) + 1 intake (front side fan)
http://i.imgur.com/a3SugJB.png
Analysis of results:

For GPU temps, the results are:
NH-C14 3x exhaust > H100i 2x exhaust > NH-C14 2x intake + 1 exhaust > NH-C14 2x exhaust + 1 intake > NH-C14 3x intake = H100i 2x intake

For CPU temps, the results are:
NH-C14 3x intake = H100i 2x intake > NH-C14 2x intake + 1 exhaust > NH-C14 3x exhaust = H100i 2x exhaust > NH-C14 2x exhaust + 1 intake

Basically, the NH-C14 with 3 fans roughly matches the H100i with 2 when both are moving air in the same direction. The tiny differences in CPU and GPU temps are usually within margin of error.
However, the NH-C14 3x intake had better MB and HDD temps than the H100i 2x intake. Similarly, the NH-C14 3x exhaust had better MB and HDD temps than the H100i 2x exhaust in addition to having slightly lower GPU temps.
Last but not least, the NH-C14 has a lower noise floor because the H100i has a pump that always runs at full speed.

The NH-C14 2x intake + 1 exhaust and NH-C14 2x exhaust + 1 intake configurations were the odd ones out.
The NH-C14 2x intake + 1 exhaust config managed MB, CPU and GPU temps between the pure intake and exhaust configurations, making it a sort of jack of all trades. The only downside was unusually high HDD temps for some reason.
The NH-C14 2x exhaust + 1 intake configuration had by far the highest CPU temperature and didn't improve GPU temperatures noticeably. Completely pointless.

It's worth noting that I didn't try different fan speeds. The coolers might scale differently with higher/lower fan speeds.

The TIM application and mount might also have made a difference. Perhaps my H100i mount was bad. I certainly didn't go into this expecting the NH-C14 to match the H100i.

Conclusion:

Overall there is no reason for me to choose the H100i over the NH-C14. The NH-C14 can provide better GPU temperatures and similar CPU temperatures while having a lower noise floor.
 
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Was just thinking, what would happen if you set a barrier between the gpu (with a non-reference cooler), and the vent, with fans blowing in exhaust through that vent? If you only allowed air coming from the top of the gpu's exhaust to exit there and the other fans were set for intake, would the gpu cooler naturally pull in fresh air?
 
The steel fan-bracket arrived today, after needing to be shipped again. Looks like a decent solution, good job !
 
Hey guys,
I figured I might share my current build inside the M1 as this forum gave me lots of tips and ideas concerning the case.
My build is not quite complete, it's missing some new storage and cable-management.

Current specs are:
Board: ASUS Impact VII
CPU: Intel i7-4790K
RAM: 16GB Corsair Dominator Platinum DDR3 1866MHz
Graphics Card: Palit GeForce GTX 970 (Reference/Short PCB)
PSU: Silverstone ST45SF-G 450W (With Noiseblocker 80mm fan)
CPU Cooler: Corsair H105 with SP-120 Silent PWM Fans
GPU Cooler: Arctic Accelero Twin Turbo 3 (without shroud, nor backplate heatsink)
SSD: SanDisk 256GB

The Impact VII was my personal favourite, as I wanted a read and black color scheme and it also offered everything that I needed. In the future I plan on installing an M.2 SSD as the main boot drive.

The i7 probably was overkill for what I mostly do, which is gaming. But occasionally I do start up After Effects or Photoshop and it really does help quite a bit with rendering.

16 Gigs of memory seemed reasonable and I simply liked the design, which is why I chose the Dominator Platinum RAM.

I used to have a GTX 770 Phantom in there but that thing was MASSIVE and I got a good deal on a 970. The reference cooler was rubbish so I decided to investigae in aftermarket coolers. From a couple articles, I gathered that the Arctic Accelero Extreme was too long in combination with my specific graphics card, so I opted for the Twin Turbo. I saw on one post here (forgive me for not remembering by whom it was) that the Twin Turbo fit snuggly with two 120 mm fans at the bottom. And sure it does (see Images below). It's quite a tight fit but it works and it works well.
Quick Info: If you ever plan on using any type of aftermarket cooler on a reference 970 (short PCB), make sure to get a flat VRM heatsink like this one: https://www.caseking.de/prolimatech...e-gtx-670-660-ti-mit-kurzem-pcb-zura-221.html
The standard VRM heatsink is way to tall (see image blow) to fit with the Twin Turbo or most other coolers.
EbTwnh0l.jpg


At the time of my initial build, the SFX-600 by Silverstone wasn't out, yet, so I had to go for the 450W, which works fine, but I had to replace the fan inside, because it was sooo loud :( Once Corsair releases their 600W SFX PSU I might look into that and see if it's any good.

Originally I wanted to do a dual 240 rad watercooling loop, but due to budget constraints I chose the H105. I believe my i7 has a bad heatspreader, because under Prime95 I got up to 95°C (YES I checked the thermal paste...twice...) on Intel Burn Test it reaches around 70°-75°. It does turbo to 4.4GHz all the time so maybe that plays a role as well. I haven't had the time to look into the problem in depth and during gaming it doesn't exceed 60° so I guess I'm fine for now.

Within the next month I plan on getting two Samsung EVO 850 500GB SSDs and pairing them in Raid 0. I suppose a terrabyte of SSD space is enough for all my games.. for now at least. I also plan on getting one or two 1 TB 2.5 inch HDDs for backup and long term storage.

I would also like to have custom sleeved cables for almost everything but that remains a future project, for now :(

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Just finished mine. It's one hell of a squeeze with a thick dual 120mm radiator. Having the 24 pin ATX connector on the top of the board instead of side didn't help either. Only a couple millimeters clearance between a 15mm SSD mounted to the front and the radiator as well. Anyway, made it fit with the following:

ASRock X99E-ITX
Xeon E5-1620v3
32GB DDR4 Samsung ECC Reg
nVidia GTX 970 (reference)
Intel 750 400GB NVMe SSD
Corsair H105
Silverstone ST45SF-G
 
So you have the Intel SSD connected via an Asus Hyper Kit inserted into the M.2 socket? How was that?
 
Not sure if this is allowed, but it isnt my ebay listing, there is a new v1 on ebay for sale that might interest some of you guys.
 
Overall there is no reason for me to choose the H100i over the NH-C14. The NH-C14 can provide better GPU temperatures and similar CPU temperatures while having a lower noise floor.

Epic post, Xelnika! Thanks. Surprising results, indeed. You've convinced me, so I'll be cracking my case open and going back to the C14 for some tinkering. If I come up with anything interesting, I'll report. Nicely done, and Corsair should take note.

On a side note, I also appreciate your posting of the GPU temps. I'm about to upgrade soon from a blower 760, and reading this thread has made me very wary of going with an open-style cooler, but your 3 x intake C14 and 2 x intake H100i setups have the 970 topping out at 74 and 75 C under max load, respectively. Those temps seem perfectly fine to me. Maybe the story would be different with a 980 ti and its higher TDP, but the MSI Twin Frozr 970 or 980 are looking like good options. The "Zero Frozr" feature (fans off at idle) seems just awesome, as well.
 
I believe my i7 has a bad heatspreader, because under Prime95 I got up to 95°C (YES I checked the thermal paste...twice...) on Intel Burn Test it reaches around 70°-75°. It does turbo to 4.4GHz all the time so maybe that plays a role as well. I haven't had the time to look into the problem in depth and during gaming it doesn't exceed 60° so I guess I'm fine for now.

I had the same issue with the same motherboard/cpu. Turns out I had LN2 mode on, which is a physical pin you have to move on the small fan daughterboard, and not something you can just change in the BIOS. Maybe it shipped that way, or maybe I accidentally moved it when I built the PC, not sure. Check in the BIOS if it says you are running in LN2 mode (Top of the Tweaker page), and if you are, open it up and move the pin over. My Prime95 temperatures are much more reasonable now.
 
Do it!
It's totally usable without the ipad shell, I just wanted to be able to use the stand I did.

On board USB! I've ziptiesd the DP and USB cable together so they'll always be together.

I'm planning on trying to do something else using the same panel for quakecon next year, we'll see if it works out. ;)

Edit:
I think the whole think cost me around $150-

$50 - LCD
$35 - Controller board
$10 - Single shell (most are $30+ and branded though)
$30 - Stand
$8 - Bezel
$15 - Glass

Though if you aren't doing a stand it would be <$100.

I'm so tempted to build one of those into one of the side panels of an ncase.
 
I'm so tempted to build one of those into one of the side panels of an ncase.

Do it!

Someone at Quakecon not far from me had two 240mm rads, a reservoir, MCP350, and had built the panel into the right side of the case. It was amazing, unfortunately I only had my phone so I didn't get a picture.

He used angle aluminum to frame the LCD and just cut away some of the holes to make room for the adapter.
 
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Anyone have any luck or experience using smaller tower coolers like the Thermalright True Spirit 120M, or Noctua U12S?
 
I can say that with the fans on ULNA's the old Noctua U9B-SE2 is as close to silent as you can probably get, so 92mm doesn't always mean noisy.

I idle around 45C, and top out playing games around 65C, which is just fine IMO.

Edit: 3570K @ Stock
 
Epic post, Xelnika! Thanks. Surprising results, indeed. You've convinced me, so I'll be cracking my case open and going back to the C14 for some tinkering. If I come up with anything interesting, I'll report. Nicely done, and Corsair should take note.

On a side note, I also appreciate your posting of the GPU temps. I'm about to upgrade soon from a blower 760, and reading this thread has made me very wary of going with an open-style cooler, but your 3 x intake C14 and 2 x intake H100i setups have the 970 topping out at 74 and 75 C under max load, respectively. Those temps seem perfectly fine to me. Maybe the story would be different with a 980 ti and its higher TDP, but the MSI Twin Frozr 970 or 980 are looking like good options. The "Zero Frozr" feature (fans off at idle) seems just awesome, as well.

I was very pleasantly surprised by the MSI card. The cooler is just amazing. My temperatures are lower than on my old 7950 despite the slow fans on the new one.
I made a custom fan curve for my 7950 which set the fans to 2000-2500 RPM under load and my temps would hit high 80's whereas the MSI 970 has yet to pass 75 C at 1600 RPM.
The only cooler I've used that could compete is the ASUS DC2, but they don't fit in the NCASE.
I'll do some testing with a higher CPU overclock and a GPU overclock soon.
 
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