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

short question: does a single 15mm harddrive (Seagate-ST4000LM016) fit behind the front panel?
 
keshley said:
Way I see it, bottom radiator is good for dropping fan speed a few hundred RPM on the side radiator. So primarily good for noise requirements, not for cooling requirements. Probably a few things that can be done to offset this, but I'm not taking my system apart until next GPU upgrade, so will be a while before I try a few things.
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Yeah, but many people want to see their water cooling. The radiator on the side makes that rather impossible. And a bottom radiator also heats up the case even more I think, which is not good for the PSU whose fan will ramp up more. All in all, I think Ncase looks gorgeous with a side panel window and water cooling using only bottom radiator, but not with great results.

The other route to go would be to support a radiator on the top or front. But then the PSU location might have to be relocated, and yeah, we are back to a more traditional design and air flow, I guess. Which I don't mind, because I would still pay premium for the materials, optimizations, and attention to details that we are lacking totally from the mass produced "garbage" from big OEMs today. Another example, I can see a slightly broader and longer A4 variant with radiator on top, and pump and reservoir in the front. Maybe noise dampened front with intake fans, or bottom intake fans. Relocated PSU to the bottom, probably. I don't think that design has been totally explored yet, although perhaps doesn't make sense.
 
RIRed48 said:
Got the stripped screw out.... blasted it out w/drill..... no prisoners.

I have 2 Vardar F4-120ER and 2 Noctua NF-F12... to replace the stock fans on the Corsair H100i V1 AIO... use which ones? For exhausting the air. From the outside of the case looking in, I should see the case radiator bracket, the radiator, and the 2 Vardar or Noctua fans in that order, correct?

For now, no other fans for cooling. If I use the Vardars, I can't tell which way the air flows thru....

Confused (what else is new) how to attach the fans to the radiator, and then to the case radiator bracket...anyone w/ details.

Thx.
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I have both fans too and I had the same issue - I don't know why there is no marker to indicate the airflow.

The Noctuas are less noisy. The Vardars are well audible even if they run at lowest speed. Do you have the same? I wounder whether they might be defective, but that seems unlikely - two fans at the same time. I have replaced the EKWB fans with the Noctuas.
 
The C14 seems to be the cooler of choice for top-down in the M1, but I'm surprised that people are still able to find them in stock for a reasonable price! With the C14S out, it seems harder and harder.

Has anybody done a build with the C14S? I'm looking into it and it seems like it would work fine with the bottom fan only.
 
uminded said:
For the extra $25 the K is an easy buy, sometimes they go on sale for the same price even. However I have been reading that the 91W K version is pushing the thermal envelope of the M1 case a bit so that will be my ultimate decider. I figured the NH-C14 blowing out would be able to handle the 91W load better.



Chose the Silverstone for the 0rpm idle feature. Will look at the Corsair version, thanks. I also have the Molex crimp tool and pins, sockets, etc so I can easily custom size my cables.
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bit_rot said:
The C14 seems to be the cooler of choice for top-down in the M1, but I'm surprised that people are still able to find them in stock for a reasonable price! With the C14S out, it seems harder and harder.

Has anybody done a build with the C14S? I'm looking into it and it seems like it would work fine with the bottom fan only.
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That depends on your definition of "reasonable". :) I paid $80 for mine.

The c14s works with a slim top fan, and then you can mount a normal 120mm fan on the other side of the bracket which might be good enough for intake
 
I think when it comes to a power supply for the m1 it is hard to go wrong with the SF series from Corsair. If you want more control of the cooling and noise however I can recommend fitting a 25mm fan to the outside of the psu and removing the standard fan. This will allow you to control the fan via the motherboard. Just remember to check the temperature of the exhaust before and after to make sure the psu gets adequate cooling.
 

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Delirious5037 said:
I think when it comes to a power supply for the m1 it is hard to go wrong with the SF series from Corsair. If you want more control of the cooling and noise however I can recommend fitting a 25mm fan to the outside of the psu and removing the standard fan. This will allow you to control the fan via the motherboard. Just remember to check the temperature of the exhaust before and after to make sure the psu gets adequate cooling.
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Looks like my build! I replaced the slim 80 mm fan on my Silverstone SX600-G with an external 92 mm Noctua NF-A9 FLX (3 pin) and have it set to full speed for now. So far the noise is acceptable and I know my PS is getting enough airflow.

I'm a bit concerned the external PS fan decreases the path for my NH-C14 to exhaust through, but it looks like my high CPU (4790K) temperatures are due to the CPU and not the lack of exhaust space or the mounting of the NH-C14. I've redone the C14 mounting several times, always without any improvement in the Prime95 temperatures. Next step: delidding that CPU! Next weekend.
 
Chapeau said:
Okay so I thought I should post a PSA about noise and temperatures for the bottom rad only build. . .

In short: HORRIFIC

1) The slim Silverstone fans (FW 121) just don't have the grunt to drive air through the radiator. Even with the case on its side, very little air moves through the rad even at full fan speed.
2) The issue of lack of bottom vents + low clearance to the bottom of the case may also impact temperatures. However, the first issue really prevents any meaningful experimentation.
For example - I tried elevating the entire case on blocks to about 1 1/2 inches, but the lack of flow meant that temperatures didn't drop beyond a few degrees Celsius.

My actual temperatures:

Idle: CPU ~ 28 deg
GPU ~ 30 deg

Load: CPU ~ 75 deg
GPU ~ 56 deg

Strangely, there is quite a big difference between processor temperatures. This is something that I'll need to look into (Improperly bled waterblock? Poor TIM application?). I'm open to suggestions and help on this one! Please!! (y)

Compared to air cooling, CPU temp has jumped 15 degrees with the only consolation being the GPU temp which is better than AIO. Actually if I could get both temps in this range I'd be quite happy.

Finally in terms of noise - It's not a happy story. Subjectively it's no worse than a loud laptop fan, but it's not what you want from a rather expensive build.
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I am running a side 240mm rad and the temp on my 6600k at load is 48C, my GTX 1070 at load is 42C. I would take a look at your TIM application, the cpu and gpu should be closer than that.
 
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If anyone was curious, I recently installed an EVGA GTX1080 FTW Hybrid card into my M1 NCASE. Please excuse the wire management near the PSU. I plan to redo that over the weekend. For now, I just wanted to get it up and running to see if the card was not defective (which it's not) and verify that everything worked properly when gaming and benchmarking. I'm happy to report all works well and the setup is amazing. Let me know if you have any questions about this type of build.

System specs:

Intel Core i5 6600K @ 4.5Ghz
Corsair H55 AiO CPU Cooler
Gigabyte Z170N Gaming 5 motherboard
16GB Corsair Vengeance 3200Mhz DDR4
EVGA GTX1080 FTW Hybrid
Samsung Pro 950 512GB PCI-E NVMe M.2 SSD (W10 Pro)
Samsung EVO 850 1TB SSD (storage)
Panasonic Blu ray writer slim drive
Corsair SFX 600W PSU
M1 NCASE
 

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Guess who's going to do just that this afternoon? Ha...

I think my strategy will be to swap the radiator for something with significantly lower FPI. At the moment the EK 240 SE is 22FPI which is fairly high.
I've got my eye on a Hardware Labs Nemesis GTS which drops all the way down to 16FPI.

Fundamentally, if I can't get the airflow, I just can't dump the heat from the loop to make it work.

I've got 6mm of clearance from the lowest point of the GPU to the top of the fan atm. If I can cut trim down the new radiator shroud, I should be able to keep most of this.
 
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Chapeau said:
Guess who's going to do just that this afternoon? Ha...

I think my strategy will be to swap the radiator for something with significantly lower FPI. At the moment the EK 240 SE is 22FPI which is fairly high.
I've got my eye on a Hardware Labs Nemesis GTS which drops all the way down to 16FPI.

Fundamentally, if I can't get the airflow, I just can dump the heat from the loop to make it work.

I've got 6mm of clearance from the lowest point of the GPU to the top of the fan atm. If I can cut trim down the new radiator shroud, I should be able to keep most of this.
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I have the Black Ice Nemesis 240 GTS and I can say it is a great radiator, you will be happy with it. Honestly I haven't heard great things about the EK slim rads.
 
rfarmer said:
I have the Black Ice Nemesis 240 GTS and I can say it is a great radiator, you will be happy with it. Honestly I haven't heard great things about the EK slim rads.
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Funny you say that: Whilst the rest of the EK parts were quite good, the radiator was by far the worst component. None of the edges line up properly, the side "plates" are visibly bent with some gaps, the ports don't come out of the radiator perpendicularly and it smells strongly of what I assume is flux. Even after rinsing it with boiling water it still smells.

Good tip on the Nemesis - it was my original choice if not for the fact that the EK was marginally slimmer.
 
Chapeau said:
Funny you say that: Whilst the rest of the EK parts were quite good, the radiator was by far the worst component. None of the edges line up properly, the side "plates" are visibly bent with some gaps, the ports don't come out of the radiator perpendicularly and it smells strongly of what I assume is flux. Even after rinsing it with boiling water it still smells.

Good tip on the Nemesis - it was my original choice if not for the fact that the EK was marginally slimmer.
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That's the radiator I have in the bottom of my M1. It performs noticeably better than the SE, so you should be much happier with it (think it's about 30% more dissipation at low fan RPM). The SE really is an odd duckling. Designed to fit into tight spaces, but then with an FPI count that just doesn't make sense for that very same application...
 
Nothing super earth shattering here... But I finally got the fans and curves set up to good temps and relatively quiet on my build. Here's update on my thermals / settings:

6700K @ 4.4ghz, cooled by a C14

GTX 1080 FE @ 2050 boost, cooled by Accelero heatsink

New thermals:
CPU Prime95(max heat torture) / GPU Unigine Heaven 1440p ultra:
72/72 (initial spike)
68/68 (after 20 minutes)

Overwatch 1440p 144hz epic settings
50 / 70 after 20 minutes

The biggest change with setting the front side fan to exhaust. It allowed the hot air from the GPU to exit the case. I didn't like the bottom fans as exhaust, because the hot air would deflect off my desk and blow at me and my NAS.

Here are how all my fans are configured:
  • NF-A9X14 exhaust - running on MB case fan header (normal mode)
  • NF-F12 "lower" fan on C14 intake, with a low noise adapter - running on MB CPU fan header (normal mode)
  • Side rear SP120 HP 3-pin fan as "upper" C14 intake, powered by Grid+ v2 & CAM (Silent mode)
  • Side front SP120 HP 3-pin fan exahust, powered by Grid+ v2 & CAM (45% idle, 75% load curve)
  • Bottom rear SP120 HP 3-pin fan, powered by Grid+ v2 & CAM (Silent mode)
  • Bottom front SP120 HP 3-pin fan, powered by Grid+ v2 & CAM (45% idle, 75% load curve)
For some reason, setting both the side fans (or both bottom) to the same fan curve / mode causes the fan to spool up and down. At idle, the 4 SP120 fans are at about 1000 rpm, and at load they run at an acceptable 1762 rpm.
 
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I'm new here and a new member of the Ncase M1 club!

My aunt in cali just got my v5 earlier, I ordered the case last Aug 19. FYI I didn't get a tracking number.
 
Learning_mode said:
I'm new here and a new member of the Ncase M1 club!

My aunt in cali just got my v5 earlier, I ordered the case last Aug 19. FYI I didn't get a tracking number.
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I'm glad things worked out! I'm looking forward to seeing your build - How did you go getting parts?

Brenex said:
what about adding something like this in line add the back of the case's fan grill?
http://www.xtremerigs.net/2015/11/08/hwlabs-nemesis-140-gts-radiator-review/
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Thanks for the suggestion! A quick measure to check and this definitely won't fit. In fact - I think the largest rad that could fit in the back there is a 92mm or even an 80mm.
The motherboard and the rear I/O reduces the space to around 105mm. There are some micro rads on the Hardware Labs website but they're 54mm thick!! Wow!

I did see this arrangement which was quite interesting. 92mm alphacool rad + ncase M1 Unfortunately, I'm using a FrozenQ reservoir in that location already.
 
Does anyone know the pcb height of the Gigabyte GTX 1070 mini? The reason I am asking is I might be able to get it for cheap and will be fitting it with an accelero twin turbo III anyway. It seems to me the shroud and heatpipes of the stock cooler add some extra height to it. So basicly what I am wondering is if this card is to wide for the Ncase.
 
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Delirious5037 said:
Does anyone know the pcb height of the Gigabyte GTX 1070 mini? The reason I am asking is I might be able to get it for cheap and will be fitting it with an accelero twin turbo III anyway. It seems to me the shroud and heatpipes of the stock cooler add some extra height to it. So basicly what I am wondering is if this card is to wide for the Ncase.
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You can always find the physical dimensions of any card at their manufacturers website, usually under the spec tab
 
Hi there

Planning on a Ncase M1 build (the enemy, Dan A4-sfx is too far in the future, and I fear it might run too hot) but seeing how it ends up at $300 ($75 just for import) I take all help and advice I can get to make it worth it. And apologies to add on to the “do this build work” pile

So to get to it:
I am thinking no overclocking initially. The main purpose is gaming and HTV Vive fun, with video editing as secondary. The trick is to cool this so it doesn’t melt after a few hours’ intense use. Aesthetics mean near to nothing for me, so 50 shades of diarrhea brown Noctua is no problem, and I would prefer traditional cooling over water-cooling.
Considering noise levels, it would be awesome to take some consideration to this, but not if sacrificing decent temperatures, and I will expect it to make some noise nonetheless

So, any suggestions to the components, and what fans (and placement and so on) would you recommend for sufficient cooling?

Best regards Cherry Dude
 
WadeAK78 said:
Can I fit a Dark Rock TF on an Asus Z170I PRO GAMING and an EVGA 1080 FTW Hybrid in here?
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From what I gathered reading this forum, the dark rock TF will conflict with your GFX card on the Asus Z170i. There is a reference on the spreadsheet accordingly. The only Z170 board it will fit seems to be the Gigabyte Z170n Gaming 5. Sadly, this one is out of stock almost everywhere apart from the US. It looks like ther will be a rev. 1.1 of the board, but could not get infos of release or availability from Gigabyte.
I just got a PCIe riser card (don't buy cheap) to use with the asus board. This will put the gfx card in the bottom two slots ant the dark rock TF will fit.

It has also been mentioned here, that both with the Noctua C14 and the dark rock TF, an additonal 120mm radiator from a gfx card will not fit into the front slot of the fan bracket.
 
Cherry Dude said:
Hi there

Planning on a Ncase M1 build (the enemy, Dan A4-sfx is too far in the future, and I fear it might run too hot) but seeing how it ends up at $300 ($75 just for import) I take all help and advice I can get to make it worth it. And apologies to add on to the “do this build work” pile

So to get to it:
I am thinking no overclocking initially. The main purpose is gaming and HTV Vive fun, with video editing as secondary. The trick is to cool this so it doesn’t melt after a few hours’ intense use. Aesthetics mean near to nothing for me, so 50 shades of diarrhea brown Noctua is no problem, and I would prefer traditional cooling over water-cooling.
Considering noise levels, it would be awesome to take some consideration to this, but not if sacrificing decent temperatures, and I will expect it to make some noise nonetheless

So, any suggestions to the components, and what fans (and placement and so on) would you recommend for sufficient cooling?

Best regards Cherry Dude
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Yeah that Dan A4-sfx is a cool looking case, too much money and way too little cooling for the CPU. But it is cool. As far as the SF450 goes I have a OCed 6600k, GTX 1070, 2 fans, M.2 SSD, 2.5 SSD, 2.5 HDD and my pump for my loop all running off a SF450 with no problem at all. Very quiet too.
OuterVision Power Supply Calculator Check your system there, I plugged everything in including my OC voltages and still came up with less than 400 watts. The SF450 will actually put out just over 500 watts before shutdown.
 
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rfarmer said:
Yeah that Dan A4-sfx is a cool looking case, too much money and way too little cooling for the CPU. But it is cool. As far as the SF450 goes I have a OCed 6600k, GTX 1070, 2 fans, M.2 SSD, 2.5 SSD, 2.5 HDD and my pump for my loop all running off a SF450 with no problem at all. Very quiet too.
OuterVision Power Supply Calculator Check your system there, I plugged everything in including my OC voltages and still came up with less than 400 watts. The SF450 will actually put out just over 500 watts before shutdown.
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Thanks for the input rfarmer
Agree with the Dan case.
From the calulator it seems like the 450 will be sufficient, which is pretty cool. Why put in a PSU with huge wattage if you are not going to use it.
 
rfarmer said:
Well glad you got your case, now build it man. :D
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Will do, when I get the case from her in December when she attends a wedding somewhere here the Philippines lol I could've just had the case directly shipped here but I'm paranoid it might get damaged when it reaches our customs. But yea, I'm slowly gathering parts. Ordered the FrozenQ res but damn they take their time shipping the item do they? Ordered aug 25 and they said they will ship it on Monday, the reply I got from them is that they updated my order status to "awaiting shipment".

Chapeau said:
I'm glad things worked out! I'm looking forward to seeing your build - How did you go getting parts?
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FrozenQ res ordered, apogee drive ii to follow and I still have 3 months til I get my case so I still have time to complete the parts :p
 
Learning_mode said:
Will do, when I get the case from her in December when she attends a wedding somewhere here the Philippines lol I could've just had the case directly shipped here but I'm paranoid it might get damaged when it reaches our customs. But yea, I'm slowly gathering parts. Ordered the FrozenQ res but damn they take their time shipping the item do they? Ordered aug 25 and they said they will ship it on Monday, the reply I got from them is that they updated my order status to "awaiting shipment".
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Yeah this seems to be a problem with there guys, took them 10 days to ship mine after ordering and another user on here had an even longer wait. Least you are not in a hurry for yours, it was the last part I needed to complete my loop and had to wait an additional 4 days after my case arrived.
 
Hi everybody!

I'm a new member on hardforum and a proud owner of an Encase M1 V5 since yesterday. I am a first-time builder and I'm absolutely amazed by the design and build-quality in real-life. I am really looking forward to start my gaming build!
Because I am a first-time pc builder I would like to get some feedback on the following components I'd like to use:

- CPU: i7 6700k (maybe some overclocking in the future)
- CPU cooler: Noctua NH-C14 (is the only component besides the m1 I already own. Managed to get one from amazon. Is it possible to use the bottom 140mm fan in combination with mobo/psu?)
- Mobo: Asus Z170i pro gaming
- Ram: 16GB Kingston Hyper X fury/savage (don't know the difference or whether it matters)
- SSD: Sandisk ultra II 960GB
- GPU: EVGA GTX 1070 Founders Edition or EVGA GTX 1070 SC or FTW (blower-style is recommended and I would be happy to use the FE, but would the SC or FTW be a problem for overall temps considering the different cooling and higher TDP? They are basically the same price in my country)
- PSU: Silverstone sx600g or Corsair sf600 (I understand the corsair maybe better quality but the cables are a lot stiffer? What about the connectivity?)

Looking forward to your comments. Thanks in advance!

Greetings,

HPM
 
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Hi there again! I'm not finding this info... What is the diameter of the holes on the back?
 
Cherry Dude said:
Thanks for the input rfarmer
Agree with the Dan case.
From the calulator it seems like the 450 will be sufficient, which is pretty cool. Why put in a PSU with huge wattage if you are not going to use it.
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For efficiency's sake. The closer to 0% and 100% usage you get, the lower the efficiency of the PSU It's not a symmetric curve, however, so a proper balance needs to be reached for max efficiency. Higher capacity PSUs will generally run cooler at the same wattage than lower capacity PSUs too. So it's not madness :)

That said, the gains can be marginal, or quite noticeable, just depends on the build and PSU.
 
keshley said:
For efficiency's sake. The closer to 0% and 100% usage you get, the lower the efficiency of the PSU It's not a symmetric curve, however, so a proper balance needs to be reached for max efficiency. Higher capacity PSUs will generally run cooler at the same wattage than lower capacity PSUs too. So it's not madness :)

That said, the gains can be marginal, or quite noticeable, just depends on the build and PSU.
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Right, that makes sence. Will look more into it, but the 450 or 600 it is! :)
Any advice on cooling? I have predominantly seen Noctua both for CPU and case fans, but a few post include Alpenfohn Atlas and others.
 
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