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

Very nice job.

Thanks!

Unless they are 12.5 mm SSDs (if those exist), you didn't have to.

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Ah; I have my rad flipped the other way around as it reduced the stress on the hose connectors (I was following the natural set of the hose). Nice solution though. My setup...

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Love seeing different takes on the same problem.
 
Hi there!

I am just preping my order for my new NCASE build. I need an HDD for Apple TimeMachine. I want to use the following cooling though

Noctua NH-C14 with 2 side fans and 2 fans in the case floor. So that means I cannot use the HDD bracket on the case side and do not have space for the HDD on the floor.

Any idea if I can fit the 3.5" HDD on the back side of the front panel? Or can only 2.5" HDDs fit there? In which case I'd get a laptop HDD for the backup...
 
Hi there!

I am just preping my order for my new NCASE build. I need an HDD for Apple TimeMachine. I want to use the following cooling though

Noctua NH-C14 with 2 side fans and 2 fans in the case floor. So that means I cannot use the HDD bracket on the case side and do not have space for the HDD on the floor.

Any idea if I can fit the 3.5" HDD on the back side of the front panel? Or can only 2.5" HDDs fit there? In which case I'd get a laptop HDD for the backup...

Noctua NH-C14 means you can't use the HD drive cage, or put a side fan in. You can however put a 92mm fan in the rear, and a 120mm fan on the bottom.

You will not be able top fit a 3.5" HDD in the bottom of the case with a 120mm fan on the bottom (very easily) think angled SATA cables and thin/narrow PSU cables. Also, users have reported when using a high powered GPU the heat coming off the GPU causes the HD on the bottom to heat up.

From what you're looking to do, you may want to re-consider the Noctua NH-C14 so that you can still use the drive cage.

Hope this helps
 
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Actually, you can fit a second 120 mm fan on the front half of the side bracket with the NH-C14 installed even if you use the 140 mm fan it comes with on top of the heatsink.
 
Actually, you can fit a second 120 mm fan on the front half of the side bracket with the NH-C14 installed even if you use the 140 mm fan it comes with on top of the heatsink.

I know people have reported this, but I'm literally looking at this thing on the V5 and see no way to put both in, got any reference pictures or build instructions that might explain how it's possible?
 
So, how exactly does this NH-C14 fit the ASRock X99e-ITX? Sorry for the crosspost but maybe people who read this thread more than the motherboard thread have a quick answer
NH-C14 X99
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I have the narrow ILM kit but the brackets still don't fit (last pic). The brackets for the stock cooler fit (3rd pic) I suppose but that means I can only put the cooler one way, right?
 
I am tr
I know people have reported this, but I'm literally looking at this thing on the V5 and see no way to put both in, got any reference pictures or build instructions that might explain how it's possible?

I am travelling today and have limited internet access. Many NH-C14 owners originally used 120 mm fans on the heatsink because they mounted the top fan on the side bracket and that's the fan size it was made for. The heatsink itself overlaps the front half of the fan bracket, but it's height still leaves room for 25 mm thick fans on both halves of the side fan bracket.

I think most owners assumed that the top fan could not be one of the stock 140 mm fans and still allow a 120 mm fan on front half of the side bracket, but then someone posted a photo here that showed it was just barely possible. The fan mounting slots in the bracket were lengthened starting in the 3rd or 4th revision of the case and this made it even easier. One owner even posted a photo where he had Noctua's NF-A15 fan mounted on the bracket over the heatsink and he still was able to attach a 120 mm fan beside it. I have since personally confirmed this fits, but the 150 mm fan has to be shifted so far back that it doesn't cover as much of the heatsink. I think a round 140 or square 120 mm fan is best for over the heatsink.
 
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i,

regarding the demcifilters :Search
so I should order 2 sides 1 up 1 down an 1 rear?
what are the square pack dust for?
also do you think tha the silverstone filter will be working with a corsaire PSU?

Would greatly appreciate your help on this one.
 
i,

regarding the demcifilters :Search
so I should order 2 sides 1 up 1 down an 1 rear?
what are the square pack dust for?
also do you think tha the silverstone filter will be working with a corsaire PSU?

Would greatly appreciate your help on this one.
The square 120mm filters with the notched corners are the ones I designed for the M1.

g41Rbtj.jpg


These can be used on any of the four 120mm fan mounts (two on the side bracket, two on the bottom). They are designed specifically so that the adhesive magnetic strips they come with won't cross any of the vents (which would cause the exposed sticky side to accumulate dust), and to clear the 120mm fan screws, regardless of how far or close together the fans are mounted to eachother (this is why they are separate). Keep in mind that the M1 comes with a one piece magnetic dust filter for the side bracket since V4, so there's no need to order filters for the side if you have a V4+.

I also designed the filter for the Silverstone ST45SF, which is just an 80mm filter that will fit on any of the SFX PSUs with 80mm fans (Silverstone ST30SF, SX600-G, and other brands; they are NOT designed for the SFX-L PSUs). Demcifilters are quite restrictive, however, and I believe some people have had PSU overheating problems when using these filters on the PSU.

All of the other filters you see (the one piece side, bottom, and top filters) were designed by someone else, and may have some of the issues the "official" ones are designed to avoid. Whether those are issues for you depends on your specific build and personal tolerance for such things. The convenience and cleaner appearance of the one-piece filters may be worth the trade off for you. I also did not design any filters for the top or rear, so the non-official filters may be useful if you want those covered.

Do note that the right side vents (behind the motherboard) do not provide sufficient clearance between the side panel and chassis for the Demciflex filters.
 
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Noctua NH-C14 means you can't use the HD drive cage, or put a side fan in. You can however put a 92mm fan in the rear, and a 120mm fan on the bottom.

You will not be able top fit a 3.5" HDD in the bottom of the case with a 120mm fan on the bottom (very easily) think angled SATA cables and thin/narrow PSU cables. Also, users have reported when using a high powered GPU the heat coming off the GPU causes the HD on the bottom to heat up.

From what you're looking to do, you may want to re-consider the Noctua NH-C14 so that you can still use the drive cage.

Hope this helps

As mentioned by Qrash, I think the fans will fit when removed from the heat sink and attached to the side bracket (140mm and 120mm next to each other).

And I do want 2x 120mm fans in the bottom.

But my question is regarding the 3.5"HDD. Can I fit it on the rear side of the front steel panel? I know I can fit a 2.5" drive there...
 
But my question is regarding the 3.5"HDD. Can I fit it on the rear side of the front steel panel? I know I can fit a 2.5" drive there...
No, you can't. If you know the dimensions of things, it's obvious: an SFX PSU is 63.5mm wide, a 3.5" HDD is ~100mm wide - added together that's over 163mm right there. The entire case is only 160mm wide.
 
Just today got my NCASE M1 v5, and boy am I pleased with the quality of it!

I have one question though does anyone know if Gigabyte 980 TI xtreme gaming, fit in this case? I know that G1 fits, seen tons of pictures. Here is comparison of dimesions of aforementioned GPU's. Sadly there is no information in the spreadsheet about it :/

Thanks for any answers whatsoever.

It looks like it should fit, based on the dimensions and pictures. The PCIe power connectors are recessed, so that shouldn't be a problem. The only potential issue might be the rear corner of the PCB which could interfere with the side panel clip, but it doesn't appear to be nearly as tall as the ASUS Strix cards, so there's a decent chance it will fit without having to mod anything. Take a look at the detailed GPU size restriction drawing for reference.

It's an extra exhaust port. That looks like a Titan Z, which is a dual GPU blower design where half the exhaust comes out the front of the card. Normally in the M1 that would get trapped behind the front panel.

This card from Gigabyte fits. I have it myself.

If you plan to mount it in the two lower slots (using a pci-extender) the shroud is to long.

I'll take some photos tomorrow and show it.
 
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Here you see the Gigabyte 980ti extreme gaming with the stock heatsink but without the stock fans.
The fans I use are Noctua NF-F12s and the black ones are frames from Scythe Slip Stream Slim's (fan removed.)
I went this way, as I want to have an as quiet as possible pc.

Temps are around 63c(800rpm) at load and 50c(345rpm) in idle.
The fans are barely audible at load and inaudible in idle. I'm very happy.

The Gigabyte 980ti extreme fits just fine with the stock fans in the top two slots, but If you want to install it in the lower slots, you would need to cut the shroud at the red line.

QxP3TgO.png
 
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I am still wondering what setup to choose for cooling / storage.

Here the components I have chosen:
- i5 6600K (overclocked to 4,5 Mhz)
- Asus Z170I PRO GAMING
- Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4 2x8 GB
- Gigabyte GeForce GTX 960 Windforce 2X OC 4GB
- 2x Crucial MX 200 500GB
- 1 TB WD Red HDD 3.5" OR Hitachi Travelstar HDD 2.5"
- CPU cooler Noctua NH-C14
- 2x Noctua NF-S12A PWM 120

Setup option 1 (2.5" HDD as TimeMachine backup):

- CPU cooler Noctua NH-C14 with 2 side fans (140mm and 120mm) -> HDD cage removed
- Two Noctua NF-S12A fans in the case floor
- 2.5" HDD mounted agains the back of the front panel for TimeMachine backup

Pro / Con
+ maximum air flow
- Laptop HDD with potentially more noise

Setup option 2 (3.5" HDD as TM backup)

- CPU cooler Noctua NH-C14 with 2 side fans (140mm and 120mm) -> HDD cage removed
- One Noctua NF-S12A in the case floor at the rear below the short graphics card
- One 3.5" HDD mounted on the case floor at the front.

Pro / Con
- reduced air flow due to only one fan on the case floor
+ 3.5" HDD, reduced noise

Which direction would you go? Do I have enough air flow with just one fan in the case floor?

EDIT:
Just ordered everything and went for Option 1 - improved air flow.
 
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I am still wondering what setup to choose for cooling / storage.



Setup option 1 (2.5" HDD as TimeMachine backup):

- CPU cooler Noctua NH-C14 with 2 side fans (140mm and 120mm) -> HDD cage removed
- Two Noctua NF-S12A fans in the case floor
- 2.5" HDD mounted agains the back of the front panel for TimeMachine backup

I may have missed an example, but my understanding is that if you use the 140mm cooler fan, there isn't room for an additional 120mm side fan (which is why I asked the question a few weeks ago as to whether it would be better to have the NH-C14 140mm fan by itself or to instead ditch it in favour of 2 x120mm side fans).
 
I may have missed an example, but my understanding is that if you use the 140mm cooler fan, there isn't room for an additional 120mm side fan (which is why I asked the question a few weeks ago as to whether it would be better to have the NH-C14 140mm fan by itself or to instead ditch it in favour of 2 x120mm side fans).
It's possible with the V4 and later side bracket, as long as the 140mm fan has 120mm mounting holes.
 
Hello !

I've got a problem installing my two 2.5" SSD's behind the frontpanel of my V2.

It's not about the case, more about my PSU cables. I mounted them with the added
plates, so my SSD's are very tight and there is no space for power plugs, not even
for one SSD.

So my question is, does anyone use adapters to fit the power plugs?

greetings from germany !
 
Hello !

I've got a problem installing my two 2.5" SSD's behind the frontpanel of my V2.

It's not about the case, more about my PSU cables. I mounted them with the added
plates, so my SSD's are very tight and there is no space for power plugs, not even
for one SSD.

So my question is, does anyone use adapters to fit the power plugs?

greetings from germany !

Mind sharing a picture? Did you post them side-by-side or up/down?
 
Ok I should have googled before, I'm just gonna buy a
cheap 4pin Molex to 2xSATA Power adapter, but thx for ur fast answer !
 
Hello !

I've got a problem installing my two 2.5" SSD's behind the frontpanel of my V2.

It's not about the case, more about my PSU cables. I mounted them with the added
plates, so my SSD's are very tight and there is no space for power plugs, not even
for one SSD.

So my question is, does anyone use adapters to fit the power plugs?

greetings from germany !


Not sure what you mean, there is room.

ZWSSncUl.jpg
 
Hello !

I've got a problem installing my two 2.5" SSD's behind the frontpanel of my V2.

It's not about the case, more about my PSU cables. I mounted them with the added
plates, so my SSD's are very tight and there is no space for power plugs, not even
for one SSD.

So my question is, does anyone use adapters to fit the power plugs?

greetings from germany !

I also would like to know, wht you mean. In my M1 it fits perfect. Greetings from and to Germany ;)

btw: The Corsair SF450 arrived yesterday at my neighbour :p
 
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Quick question: I plan on having a GTX 980ti (blower) on the two top PCIe slots and a 120mm-long PCIe card right underneath it. The 980ti should reach far enough to go over the extra card, but I've never used a blower reference design before and its fan seems kinda small at least on pictures. Would it be wise to fit an extra fan on the case's floor under the GPU's own intake, or is it enough to rely on the blower?
 
Quick question: I plan on having a GTX 980ti (blower) on the two top PCIe slots and a 120mm-long PCIe card right underneath it. The 980ti should reach far enough to go over the extra card, but I've never used a blower reference design before and its fan seems kinda small at least on pictures. Would it be wise to fit an extra fan on the case's floor under the GPU's own intake, or is it enough to rely on the blower?

How do you plan on adding the additional PCIe card? If you use a standard mITX motherboard, then you have only one PCIEe slot. If you use a riser with splitter then it will use that single slot, so you won't be able to put the GPU in the top two PCI slots. Unless you want to connect this second PCIe card to some other port on the motherboard (miniPCIe?) using some kind of adapter. Or maybe insert the PCIe splitter into the mobo's PCIe slot, place the splitter below the motherboard with GPU being turned upside down? Or maybe you have one of those mDTX motherboards that have two PCIe slots? But if I remember correctly, they have the second PCIe slot right below the first one, so the double slot GPU would block the second slot. You have my curiosity...
 
Currently planning out a custom loop for my new nCase v5 - a lot of measuring and research involved.

Trying to figure out where I can mount a pump; either I go a ITX card like the Fury Nano and mount it on the bottom of the case or opt for elsewhere...

I've seen these four holes on the front of the case and they almost look like they match the mounting pattern on the EK D5 pumps.

xtop-revo-d5_acetal_incl_pumppwm_1_800_1.jpg


Does anybody know what these are for?

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I've seen these four holes on the front of the case and they almost look like they match the mounting pattern on the EK D5 pumps.



Does anybody know what these are for?

View attachment 1085
"Reserved for future use," which probably won't happen. Your suspicion is correct, actually - I put those four holes in for a pump mounting bracket, because I wanted to leave open the possibility of an extension to the top of the case to house a radiator, and that would have been an ideal spot for the pump. The holes themselves weren't designed to attach a specific pump, though.
 
Your suspicion is correct, actually - I put those four holes in for a pump mounting bracket, because I wanted to leave open the possibility of an extension to the top of the case to house a radiator, and that would have been an ideal spot for the pump. The holes themselves weren't designed to attach a specific pump, though.

Interesting indeed, thanks!

I don't have the case in front of me, but looking at that picture I just realised there probably wouldn't be enough clearance for a pump and a side mounted rad + fans would there?

The other option I've been entertaining is mounting a DDC on the rear 92mm fan grille - problem is, I've measured it with a two stacked 120mm fans mounted to the side mount and it seems I'll only have 31mm of clearance.

Back to the drawing board!
 
The EK D5 Revo will fit in the bottom with a 240mm rad (I'm using a Black Ice GTS) and 25mm fans, its just a matter of adjusting where the fittings are. I'm doing the tubing this weekend, but here's a quick phone pic:

IMG_6089.JPG


A DDC on the bottom will fit below a GPU also, but will need both outlets on the side (eg AquaComputer):

Ncase%20M1%20-26.jpg
 
The EK D5 Revo will fit in the bottom with a 240mm rad (I'm using a Black Ice GTS) and 25mm fans, its just a matter of adjusting where the fittings are. I'm doing the tubing this weekend, but here's a quick phone pic:

[/snip]

A DDC on the bottom will fit below a GPU also, but will need both outlets on the side (eg AquaComputer):

[/snip]

They both look good!

My problem isn't so much I can't figure out where I want to put it however, it's where it'd fit...the idea I'm toying with is using EK Coolstream SE 240 rads and Gentle Typhoons - top and bottom. Get ready for the fruits of my search...

The thinnest you can get the combo I'm looking at is 46mm - 26mm for the rad, 25mm for the fans, and utilising the 5mm gap between the rad core and frame.

By that, I mean taking the frame off, placing the fans on the core, installing some rubber mounts and putting the frame back on it makes it around 5mm shorter...in theory, anyway.

There are posts that have managed to fit a combo like that...even with a 30mm rad, for example:

The skinny of it is; I trimmed the housing of the fan's push side to fit into the shroud of the radiator. I then cut the other side of the radiator so the air could escape, and in the inlets of the GPU WB would fit.


Other than that particular post, all the others that have a bottom rad use slim fans, and they look like they're mighty close to fouling on the waterblocks' outlets...and they're 41mm high (26mm Coolstream SE + 15mm Silverstone FW121), which doesn't leave much room...

View attachment 447

As you can see, not a whole lot of space for those poor 15mm's, maybe 8mm at most :(

In that pic you can see that the outlets are pretty much sitting on the fans, but other than that there is the required room.

By using the rubber mounts it means you can trim off the corners on the push side which may give you some more wiggle room, like this guy did on the inner edges here:


Which brings me to "where can the pump go?"

If I were to get a ITX GTX970 or Fury Nano, I could just mount the pump above the front 120mm fan - but I want to leave my options open in terms of GPUs.

I could use a Swiftech Apogee Drive II, which is the solution that's looking most likely.

Try to make a D5 fit vertically in the front of the case, like I was discussing with Necere earlier in the thread. Although by the looks of it it wouldn't interfere with front-mounted 2.5" drives, it would foul on the top rad.

Last options is mount it to the rear 92mm grille - internally would limit me to a maximum of 31mm height for the pump, give or take. Externally, which I'd rather not do, would give me all the room I please.


Anyway, sorry for the long post, but engineering so much into so little is why I got the nCase in the first place. Unfortunately that also means a lot of work lol.

If anybody has a similar setup, any of the setups I quoted and has a set of digital calipers, or have some other ideas feel free to chime in :)
 
How do you plan on adding the additional PCIe card? If you use a standard mITX motherboard, then you have only one PCIEe slot. If you use a riser with splitter then it will use that single slot, so you won't be able to put the GPU in the top two PCI slots. Unless you want to connect this second PCIe card to some other port on the motherboard (miniPCIe?) using some kind of adapter. Or maybe insert the PCIe splitter into the mobo's PCIe slot, place the splitter below the motherboard with GPU being turned upside down? Or maybe you have one of those mDTX motherboards that have two PCIe slots? But if I remember correctly, they have the second PCIe slot right below the first one, so the double slot GPU would block the second slot. You have my curiosity...

3 slots mATX (Gigabyte GA-H110M-S2HP here). Haven't tried to fit it yet but should theorically be okay albeit tight.
 
Question for people with multiple SSDs: As you can see by my sig I have 3 SSDs to mount. Right now I have 2x mounted opposite each other with the included brackets on the INSIDE of the case. By opposite I mean one power/sata connector side is UP and the other is pointed DOWN so I can fit connectors. For the 3rd SSD I was going to mount it behind the front panel since I dont need an optical drive.

Does anyone have a recommendation for some compact SATA connectors/short SATA cables? My current cables are all right angle which will make the bend weird for the 3rd SSD and they are also a bit long and fairly inflexible which makes this a real pain.

Edit: Amazon preferred if you have a link or something. I usually buy cables from Monoprice but their short cable is a horrible blue.
 
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It wasn't too tight, I just decided not to install it because it wasn't necessary. I actual removed the rear fan because I found that it made my cpu and gpu temps rise (oddly enough) and I might add it back in and mess around with the fan setup a bit.

The gpu rests on the fan grill and it isn't being pushed up in any way. If anything, I actually used to have a problem with the card sagging due to the weight of some of the cables behind the hdd cage, but I've fixed it since this picture was taken.

3 slots mATX (Gigabyte GA-H110M-S2HP here). Haven't tried to fit it yet but should theorically be okay albeit tight.

Ah, yes, I forgot about those not-really-mATX motherboards... ;) Anyway, I found this old post from Evangelion, who had two 120mm fans under blower style gpu and he removed the rear one, leaving only the front one (the one blowing into gpu's cooler), so I assume this was beneficial to temperatures, but maybe he can comment as well.
 
Ah, yes, I forgot about those not-really-mATX motherboards... ;) Anyway, I found this old post from Evangelion, who had two 120mm fans under blower style gpu and he removed the rear one, leaving only the front one (the one blowing into gpu's cooler), so I assume this was beneficial to temperatures, but maybe he can comment as well.

The picture with the two Corsair fans on the bottom is a really old pic. I purchased 1 Noctua NF-F12 and put it under the GPU, and the rear fan was a Noctua NF-S12A (had one around from a previous build). I removed the rear fan (the NF-S12A) and gave it to my brother because he needed a new fan (the S12A wasn't really doing a good job either way because of the Demciflex filter) but I've since added a second NF-F12 in the rear since those pictures were taken.

As for temps, I didn't notice a change without the rear fan. Again, I think it was because it was up against a restrictive filter. I've also changed the layout of all of the fans since then. I used to have all of my fans set to intake, but now the only intake fans are the two NF-F12s at the bottom. The NF-A15 is set to exhaust and so is the NF-A9x14, although I might just end up removing that fan. I changed the layout because I was having temperature problems with my HDDs with positve pressure, and flipping those two fans to exhaust helped me out a lot.


My i7 4790k (currently at stock) usually never goes above 70c (30c while idling) and my HDDs hover around 40c - 45c after gaming for a while (32c - 37c while idling). My GTX 780 ti (also running at stock) always hits 83c, but then again thats how nvidia designed it.
 
I get around 26-28C idle and 49-52C load in an ambient room of 24C.

But if GPU is at full power as well as my CPU then my temps go way up to 72-75C

Because I think the Silverstone fans can only do so much pulling in air through the bottom and through a slim radiator

I would get much better temps if I had a second radiator side mounted, but I wouldn't be able to see inside. Guess that's the compromise I'm making lol

What I might do is what WithAlligators did and trim a 25mm fan and the rad itself, maybe then I'll be able to get some better temps and still give the air room to escape
 
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I get around 26-28C idle and 49-52C load in an ambient room of 24C.

But if GPU is at full power as well as my CPU then my temps go way up to 72-75C

Because I think the Silverstone fans can only do so much pulling in air through the bottom and through a slim radiator

I would get much better temps if I had a second radiator side mounted, but I wouldn't be able to see inside. Guess that's the compromise I'm making lol

What I might do is what WithAlligators did and trim a 25mm fan and the rad itself, maybe then I'll be able to get some better temps and still give the air room to escape
You can try to mount a 9cm radiator at the rear fan position.
 
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