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

Is there a list somewhere of graphic cards that fit this case? Do the 980 Nvidia cards fit? Thanks.

EDIT: Seems they are the same size as the 770 I have in there now so it looks to not be a problem?
 
Is there a list somewhere of graphic cards that fit this case? Do the 980 Nvidia cards fit? Thanks.

EDIT: Seems they are the same size as the 770 I have in there now so it looks to not be a problem?

Look here. There is tons of info about most of the popular parts.

Reference 980 does fits w/o problem.
 
I'm running a HDPLEX 250W and Vodoo 350W power adapter. It fits perfectly right below the motherboard which allows me to run 2 radiators.

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woww
Buildlog?
 
@those who put an accelero xtreme iii on their graphics cards...

Where did you plug your fans into? Should I be getting PWM fans and plugging them into the GPU board itself? Or is it OK to just plug them into the mobo?
 
Has anybody had trouble with interference from the front panel USB3 ports? I have my wireless mouse receiver plugged into one, and I've noticed that if I plug a thumb drive or SD card reader into the other, my mouse is unusable for a few seconds, then extremely jumpy for a while after that. I've also noticed poor wireless mouse performance in general.

I did some research, and found this:

http://www.usb.org/developers/docs/whitepapers/327216.pdf

According to that white paper, USB3 ports are capable of producing interference in the 2.4Ghz spectrum.

I'm not sure if the shielding on the front ports is the culprit, but I've been trying for a while to figure out why I have so many issues with my wireless mouse, as well as extremely poor Bluetooth performance. Just curious if anyone else has noticed similar behavior.
 
I'm running a HDPLEX 250W and Vodoo 350W power adapter. It fits perfectly right below the motherboard which allows me to run 2 radiators.
Very nice!
Buildlog will be much appreciated yep!
Wondering how the HDPLEX 250W can cope with CPU + GPU + pump + 4 fans + RAM + M2 + ...? No o/c I guess.
 
@those who put an accelero xtreme iii on their graphics cards...

Where did you plug your fans into? Should I be getting PWM fans and plugging them into the GPU board itself? Or is it OK to just plug them into the mobo?

I used this to connect two NF-S12B fans to graphics card. And then, most important(!), I used the Maxwell Bios Tweaker to give the fan controller the correct fan specs. If this is not done you won't be able to achieve the correct fan speed/noise levels you desire, even if you are using fan tuning software like evga precision. (if this is not done the results will vary depending on the original fan that was attached)
I am very pleased with my results and I highly recommend it this way :)
 
@those who put an accelero xtreme iii on their graphics cards...

Where did you plug your fans into? Should I be getting PWM fans and plugging them into the GPU board itself? Or is it OK to just plug them into the mobo?
Gelid has an adapter for a mini-plug from a GPU to a 4-pin fan connector, I attached a PWM splitter to use two PWM fans with the built-in fan controller on the GPU. As icc0rz said, you do want to be able to adjust the fan curve, I use MSI Afterburner for that.
 
Thanks for the compliments guys! I'll put a build log together sometime today. As for PSU coping with overclocking.... Im not sure. I don't intend to overclock the 5820K at all.
 
Gelid has an adapter for a mini-plug from a GPU to a 4-pin fan connector, I attached a PWM splitter to use two PWM fans with the built-in fan controller on the GPU. As icc0rz said, you do want to be able to adjust the fan curve, I use MSI Afterburner for that.

But as I've pointed out before, you don't have to use the card for that:

Another VERY cool option SpeedFan also has, is the ability to adjust any fan automatically based on GPU temperature. No messing around with adapter cables, just plug any old fan into the motherboard and off you go.

So to answer the last of bencho's questions, there is no harm in simply plugging the fans into the motherboard. If they are fast enough and you can stand the noise, you don't even need any fan control.
 
Just an update for everyone on the overclock.

Skylake 6700K topped out at 1.3V at 4.6GHZ on the Cryorig C1. I had to add an intake fan on the fan bracket. 24-7 Prime stable.

The 980TI overclock topped out at 1450mhz using stock fans and no case fans.
 
That was already done for V3. It's as high as it can go.

I believe Agent_Duchess meant that the H75 cannot be installed with both its fans (it comes with two), as that would make it too thick. People have successfully installed two AIOs - each with their own fan - in the M1.

Yeah, I had just read that the two fans didn't have too big of an impact and it was crowded anyone so I just went with 1. You can install both fans with the H75, but I've been happy with just the 1 installed.
 
Hey guys, just looking for a little advice around cooling before I start ordering parts for v5. I was planning on buying a 970 with a blower cooler but I'm not that impressed with the options at the moment. I've started looking at EVGA 970 SSC ACX 2.0+ but I'm worried it'll throttle or cause other components to cook.

I don't plan on overclocking and want to stick to air cooling at this stage. Can I keep this cool and quiet with a case fan or two or should I go back to a blower? If I can, what placement and direction is likely to work the best for the fans?

Thanks in advance

Other parts:
Asus Z170I PRO GAMING
Intel Core i5-6500
Noctua NH-L9x65
Silverstone 500W SFX-L
Noctua NF-F12(s)
 
I don't plan on overclocking and want to stick to air cooling at this stage. Can I keep this cool and quiet with a case fan or two or should I go back to a blower? If I can, what placement and direction is likely to work the best for the fans?

Yes, but I'd get the NH-L12 instead unless you already have the NH-L9x65. In my area, these coolers cost the exact same and the L12 is better.
Radial fans are better for overall case temps, but you can make it work. As I see it, the loudest component is often the GPU cooler. The advantage of a non-reference cooler is that the GPU, which needs it the most, gets far better cooling at the same noise level or the same cooling at lower noise levels. I'd rather have a somewhat loud CPU cooler and a somewhat loud GPU cooler than a silent CPU cooler and a turbine.

While you might not even need it, my experience with the MSI 970 is that side exhausts help a ton with GPU cooling. Other people have used bottom intakes or ducts. Alternatively, you could try bottom exhausts (I don't know of anyone who's tried this with a GPU cooler that pushes the air upwards, but it could be an interesting experiment). Given that you are running a stock i5, you should have enough headroom to sacrifice CPU cooling for GPU cooling.

No matter what, I will bet you that the card will not overheat, it's just a question of how loud it will be. Same obviously goes for a stock i5 with an aftermarket cooler.
 
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Thanks XelNika, that makes a lot of sense. I might start off with a single side fan on exhaust and see how I go. Better to add fans as needed I suppose.
 
Hello guys,
I went through the thread and noticed that not much people using r9 390. Base on the google doc, seems that the MSI and ASUS Strix version don’t fit. Do you guys recommend any r9 390 that can fit in the case? Thanks.
 
Just do it.

The NCASE has pretty much ruined all other cases for me in terms of both quality and the overall experience (including the building process and support).
 
Well, after lurking on this thread for the past year or so, I've finally pulled the trigger and pre-ordered a V5. Planning a build similar to yours, Deceptoid, with Noctua fans as ik hoping for mild overclocks, but low noise and my last Noctua was perfect for that.

Anyways, would love to hear your about your progress and thought processes, as you buy parts, so keep posting. I'll do that same.
 
EVGA 970 SSC ACX 2.0+ but I'm worried it'll throttle or cause other components to cook.

Hey Deceptoid. I'm running a EVGA GTX 770 w/ACX which is a "240W" card (in reality about 200W max, probably only a *little* hotter than yours). It does kick out a lot of heat but the ACX heatsink seems to do its job admirably. I use 2x hollowed out 120mm fan housings as makeshift ducts to the bottom of the case and using openhardwaremonitor i haven't recorded the fan loads above 82% in Furmark. So no throttling that I can detect!

It does heat up my HDDs a bit (but not above 55C). I'm also running a lower-TDP processor (65W - same as yours) - it's not stressed by the extra heat at all. Just make sure you've got some headroom on your CPU fan profiles.

I run a Noctua fan on my CPU too and the loudest fans in the case under full benchmark/gaming load are always the EVGA's.
 
Hello M1 owners,

Recently, after hours of google jockeying using more booleans than I care to ever use again, I was able to find and purchase a unopened M1 V3 from a nice Canadian who bought it as an impulse buy! I know the V5 is open for pre-orders but I wanted the case to build into before I traveled home for the holidays and the M1 is perfection. After I found the case I have basically spent the last 4 days combing over these forums, the build forums for all versions, and SFF forums to get an idea of components that would fit and that meet my gaming needs. I have seen some amazing builds in this case, pure eye candy.

I am doing an all air cooled M1 because I want to take it as a carry on and didn't want to deal with any AIO liquid cooler issues and with my components I bought I don't think it calls for it.

Here is my planned build:

Motherboard: Gigabyte G1 Gaming GA-Z170N Gaming 5
CPU: Core i-5 6600 6M Skylake
CPU Cooler: NH-L12 Noctua
Memory: G.Skill TridentZ 16 GB DDR4 3000
GPU: MSI 980 6G Gaming V1 (had this from my home build)
Fans: 5x Noctua NF-F12 iPPC-3000 PWM
PSU: Silverstone SFX 600-G
Solid-Drives: 2x Kingston 120GB SSD's and 1x 2TB WD Black drive
I bought the 5th NF-F12 to replace the 120mm on top of the NH-L12 to color match it to my build (black/red).

Mainly I was hoping for any advice on how to properly set up the fans (intake/exhaust,etc) and where to put filters. My current idea is from looking at individuals builds (mainly ESD and Phuncz posts were inspirational).

Current idea for fan set up:
- Bottom 2x 120 mm fans as intake, I know this won't help the blower GPU much but it will keep cold air coming into the case/keep air moving/possible help to CPU (if it makes it past the long GPU). Eventually I want to set up a Arctic GPU cooler like in Phuncz's build.
- Side 2x 120 mm fans as intake, put cold air onto the CPU and motherboard
- Back - do you think a 90mm fan acting as exhaust would help if I can fit one?

Now where should I put filters and do you put a filter on the PSU? I was concerned if I should because I have read a few users say that puts a great deal of stress on the PSU as those Demiflex filters are very fine mesh.

I really appreciate any help or advice and thank you so much for reading my post, I apologize for its length.

Cheers,
Nightwing86
 
What a brilliant success story this is. Congrats to all involved! Here's hoping I'll still be able to buy a v5 silver ODD case after Christmas!
 
Anyways, would love to hear your about your progress and thought processes, as you buy parts, so keep posting. I'll do that same.

Sure, I'll keep you posted on how I go. I imagine builds like mine (and yours), are pretty common and I can't see there be any complications when building. My selection has focused on quality, quiet parts that will still handle my gaming/work needs.

Hey Deceptoid. I'm running a EVGA GTX 770 w/ACX which is a "240W" card (in reality about 200W max, probably only a *little* hotter than yours). It does kick out a lot of heat but the ACX heatsink seems to do its job admirably. I use 2x hollowed out 120mm fan housings as makeshift ducts to the bottom of the case and using openhardwaremonitor i haven't recorded the fan loads above 82% in Furmark. So no throttling that I can detect!

It does heat up my HDDs a bit (but not above 55C). I'm also running a lower-TDP processor (65W - same as yours) - it's not stressed by the extra heat at all. Just make sure you've got some headroom on your CPU fan profiles.

I run a Noctua fan on my CPU too and the loudest fans in the case under full benchmark/gaming load are always the EVGA's.

Thanks for the info. That's reassuring that I'm not going to turn this thing into an oven. I'll keep the ducts idea in mind if I start running into temp. issues.
 
@ Deceptoid and branwright: I'm in the same boat. I'm waiting for the V5 and planning a very similar build:

GPU: GTX 970 MSI
MoBo: Asus Z170I PRO GAMING
CPU: Intel Core i7-6700k
Cooler: Nh-l12
PSU: Silverstone SX500-LG
Case fan: Nf-A15 PWM + Nf-B9 PWM

However be cautious about the cooler/MoBo combo. I already have the z170i & the Nh-l12, and it seems that vertically, either the cooler extend past the motherboard's top edge (which might thus not fit in the M1) or the PCIe slot might be blocked by the tip of the heat-pipes (preventing the GPU form being installed).

And the Cooler cant be installed horizontally since the ram stots are too close on one side and the heatsink is too high in the other.

I don't have any GPU on hands, so I can verify, but keep that in mind when buying :)
 
Hello M1 owners,

Recently, after hours of google jockeying using more booleans than I care to ever use again, I was able to find and purchase a unopened M1 V3 from a nice Canadian who bought it as an impulse buy! I know the V5 is open for pre-orders but I wanted the case to build into before I traveled home for the holidays and the M1 is perfection. After I found the case I have basically spent the last 4 days combing over these forums, the build forums for all versions, and SFF forums to get an idea of components that would fit and that meet my gaming needs. I have seen some amazing builds in this case, pure eye candy.

I am doing an all air cooled M1 because I want to take it as a carry on and didn't want to deal with any AIO liquid cooler issues and with my components I bought I don't think it calls for it.

Here is my planned build:

Motherboard: Gigabyte G1 Gaming GA-Z170N Gaming 5
CPU: Core i-5 6600 6M Skylake
CPU Cooler: NH-L12 Noctua
Memory: G.Skill TridentZ 16 GB DDR4 3000
GPU: MSI 980 6G Gaming V1 (had this from my home build)
Fans: 5x Noctua NF-F12 iPPC-3000 PWM
PSU: Silverstone SFX 600-G
Solid-Drives: 2x Kingston 120GB SSD's and 1x 2TB WD Black drive
I bought the 5th NF-F12 to replace the 120mm on top of the NH-L12 to color match it to my build (black/red).

Mainly I was hoping for any advice on how to properly set up the fans (intake/exhaust,etc) and where to put filters. My current idea is from looking at individuals builds (mainly ESD and Phuncz posts were inspirational).

Current idea for fan set up:
- Bottom 2x 120 mm fans as intake, I know this won't help the blower GPU much but it will keep cold air coming into the case/keep air moving/possible help to CPU (if it makes it past the long GPU). Eventually I want to set up a Arctic GPU cooler like in Phuncz's build.
- Side 2x 120 mm fans as intake, put cold air onto the CPU and motherboard
- Back - do you think a 90mm fan acting as exhaust would help if I can fit one?

Now where should I put filters and do you put a filter on the PSU? I was concerned if I should because I have read a few users say that puts a great deal of stress on the PSU as those Demiflex filters are very fine mesh.

I really appreciate any help or advice and thank you so much for reading my post, I apologize for its length.

Cheers,
Nightwing86


Those Noctua ippc 3000 are REALLY LOUD! I originally bought them thinking i could turn them down, but even turned down they are loud. I had two of them and they drove me insane, i dont know if you can cope with 5 haha I ended up just swapping them for the regular dodobrown NF-F12 PWM ones
 
@ Deceptoid and branwright: I'm in the same boat. I'm waiting for the V5 and planning a very similar build:

GPU: GTX 970 MSI
MoBo: Asus Z170I PRO GAMING
CPU: Intel Core i7-6700k
Cooler: Nh-l12
PSU: Silverstone SX500-LG
Case fan: Nf-A15 PWM + Nf-B9 PWM

However be cautious about the cooler/MoBo combo. I already have the z170i & the Nh-l12, and it seems that vertically, either the cooler extend past the motherboard's top edge (which might thus not fit in the M1) or the PCIe slot might be blocked by the tip of the heat-pipes (preventing the GPU form being installed).

And the Cooler cant be installed horizontally since the ram stots are too close on one side and the heatsink is too high in the other.

I don't have any GPU on hands, so I can verify, but keep that in mind when buying :)
Hey Anshur, that is exactly what I was afraid of, so I'm glad that you've pointed it out. What's the plan? Thinking about the NH-C14S instead?
 
The iPPC-2000 PWM are very tolerable. Using my ASRock motherboard's silent fan preset they stay at 700-800RPM at low loads and spin up to ~1100RPM at full load.
 
I personally find the NF-F12's at 500rpm to be silent, which isn't an issue for the original PWM model. Unlike the iPPC which are meant for industrial use where noise is rarely a factor.
 
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Those Noctua ippc 3000 are REALLY LOUD! I originally bought them thinking i could turn them down, but even turned down they are loud. I had two of them and they drove me insane, i dont know if you can cope with 5 haha I ended up just swapping them for the regular dodobrown NF-F12 PWM ones

Thanks Chanberg, Phuncz, and friend'scatdied for replying! This is all good information to know, I definitely plan to set them up at their lower ~750 setting at low load so hopefully that won't be too loud. I am not very picky when it comes to noise but I am when it comes to performance. I would have preferred to purchase the iPPC-2000 PWM but at the time there was very few of them available and the iPPC-3000 were on sale for lower than the 2000's. Hopefully my trust in using PWM was not terribly mis-placed haha xD.

As far as the fan set-up, does my proposed set up sound fairly standard for creating positive pressure? Should I put a smaller 92 fan in the rear to exhaust?

Any help on these two questions is appreciated!

Thank you again everyone,
Nightwing86
 
In my opinion the 92mm should only be occupied if your case has a desperate need for airflow. With multiple 120mm fans as intake and the open character of the case (when the top isn't blocked somehow), it should not require a fan there and it will just end up being one more source of noise, one more fan to clean and one more available fan header required.
 
I will say that the NF-A9x14 becomes noisier more quickly than any of the other fans in my case (NF-F12-2000, SP120 high-performance PWMs and ACX 2.0).

Too lazy to get rid of it but even with my build temperatures have been good.
 
I will be using Enermax Twister Pressure 120mm fans in my M1 when it arrives (not sure if I'll be using 2 or 4 of them yet in the M1 as things needs to be installed and tested). At the moment I am using 4 of them in a Lian Li small ATX case and they are very quiet. They have a switch on them to cap the maximum speed but I have all mine set to maximum and control the speed using the BIOS. I was going to use EK Vardars but liked the idea of the max speed switch and so far am more than pleased with them.
 
Hi OK I searched the forum and Googled this as well, I could not find an obvious answer. The small speaker that come with the M1 fitting kit. Do I just leave it dangling or does it clip in someplace?

Thanks
 
It's wires should hold it up just fine. Being just useful for BIOS beeps, many don't bother though
 
On the subject of speakers, does anyone know of an internal speaker that would work well with this case? I like having the versatility of a small built in speaker and can't remember where I've seen one in a build.
 
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