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

I just added a Noctua P12 to the side bracket and connected it with the included low noise adapter to my Asus Z270i Strix Gaming but the fan doesn't spin. It just barely moves forward and backwards. Would could I've done wrong?

//edit

Oh well, the P12 seems to be off when not needed and turns on if needed. Does this sound normal to you? I am not familiar with this.
With a LNA, some fans won't speed up when the motherboard is supplying low voltage. It should speed up when it's high enough in the fan curve.
Try turning it up in AI Suite, or the bios if you don't want to mess with that.
 
I removed the LNA now and the fan is recognized in the BIOS but as soon as the login screen from windows shows up the fan stops and AI Suite or HW Monitor show no fan.
 
We need a fan speed expert! (I just leave mine on either Standard Silent mode in the BIOS).
 
Well, I was a little bit wrong. After I removed the LNA adapter the fan was in fact labeled as "unknown" in the AI Suite and turned off at login because temps were to low. After letting Fan Xpert 4 run some tests the fans now spins with 250rpm according to AI Suite 3. Seems that everyting works now. Thanks for all the help.
 
Finished building in my Ncase yesterday and running some test (BF1 with competitive mind set :p).
I will just leave the imgur album link, I've already wrote a detailed post in portuguese and don't have time to translate all that to here. However, every imagem in the album has some kind of description (some more helpful than others).
In the end, I'm really happy on how this build ended up and it will only get better with custom cables.
 
Finished building in my Ncase yesterday and running some test (BF1 with competitive mind set :p).
I will just leave the imgur album link, I've already wrote a detailed post in portuguese and don't have time to translate all that to here. However, every imagem in the album has some kind of description (some more helpful than others).
In the end, I'm really happy on how this build ended up and it will only get better with custom cables.

An impressive X99 build. Great Imgur album with lots of insightful comments.
 
Finished building in my Ncase yesterday and running some test (BF1 with competitive mind set :p).
I will just leave the imgur album link, I've already wrote a detailed post in portuguese and don't have time to translate all that to here. However, every imagem in the album has some kind of description (some more helpful than others).
In the end, I'm really happy on how this build ended up and it will only get better with custom cables.

Very nice build, don't see many X99. Be sure to update us when you get the custom cables.
 
I like water cooling because the CPU block is a lot easier to install, less overall noise imo and I already have a H100i from my 2500k system

If I could find a nice CPU air cooler that fits in the N1 with my mobo (Z270i) then I would but every air cooler seems like they have an engineering team who's sole purpose is to make installing it a PITA

I use that mobo with a C14 and probably get the same temps. If anything is a pain with this case its fitting a AIO cooler in it, and then every time you want to open the case you'll need to prepare.
 
Hmm... So, quite clearly, not every SF450 is the same. I've been doing some stress testing on my 1st M1 build (the one that's still using an SF450) and the PSU fan is vastly quieter than the one on the PSU that I returned (the one that had coil whine).
 
I'll take a try at your questions:
  1. Yes. The NH-U9S is 125 mm tall and the CPU cooler height limit is 130 mm.
  2. I don't know, but every review that I read complains about the mounting system, so my guess is that it has not changed.
  3. I think you can mount a 120 mm fan in the drive cage and then mount a 3.5-inch drive above it in the cage. I only saw this a long time ago.
Alternatively, you could mount a 3.5-inch drive under the graphics card on the case floor against the rear panel, but that will be a warm place for it. Another option would be to put the 3.5-inch drive in an external enclosure. It would be better if you replaced the 3.5-inch drive with a 2.5-inch model. Seagate has a 5 TB model, and a couple of 4 TB ones as well.

Thanks for that. With that info I'm leaning towards the Dark Rock TF and just dealing with the mount if it lets me use more intake fans. I also had no idea that 2.5" drives came in capacities greater than 2TB, which is useful to know.

You really should look at other cooling options. I know you're in HK, why not take the train a short way to Shenzhen where they have electronics shopping malls for pc building? You can easily find one of the cooling options not readily available in north america. Scythe for example should be very easy to get over there. (I used to live in HK)

Do you mean SEG Plaza? I've been there a couple of times on exploratory trips. Whilst it's an absolutely fascinating area to visit, I have never found anything in the vein of serious enthusiast PC shops. Lots and lots of stores selling phone internals, LED lighting systems and generic PC places with low tier mechanical keyboards, and a single Alienware showroom. Could be that I still haven't been to the right part of half dozen or so buildings in the SEG Plaza area, but Shenzhen seems more an area for cheap and fun things rather than very specific high quality things.

I also spend an inordinate amount of time trawling the Hong Kong electronics malls just out of personal interest. I've come across the occasional store selling cooling solutions but they seem to be pretty short lived- there used to be cooling stores in each of the Wanchai centres, but they closed in the last two years. Last weekend I asked three places in the Golden Centre in Sham Shio Po about the Noctua U9S, and they were all carrying the discontinued U9B SE with the non-PWM fans.

Despite China being the place that makes all this high tech consumer stuff, it's way easier just to have it shipped back from the States :/

Perhaps I should call my future PC the High Carbon Footprint M1
 
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I'm joining the Ncase M1 crowd, after a long..long lust for this case. My build plans are as follows, with all parts ordered except for GPU cooling upgrade with several being from a previous sytem.

Ncase M1 V5 Silver

7700K - Cooled by NH-L12, Will be delidding.
Asus Z270i Strix
2 x 8GB DDR3000 Low Profile
Gigabyte G1 GTX 1070 (Plan to go 2x15mm 120mm bottom mounted fans and Raijintech Morpheus II Core, hopeful this is a fairly quiet solution)
Corsair SF600 PSU
950 Pro 256GB Boot, 500GB 850 Evo 2.5mm

I'm hoping temps aren't too wild with this case.

That is all for now, will post up some pictures as things come together. :D
 
Finished building in my Ncase yesterday and running some test (BF1 with competitive mind set :p).
I will just leave the imgur album link, I've already wrote a detailed post in portuguese and don't have time to translate all that to here. However, every imagem in the album has some kind of description (some more helpful than others).
In the end, I'm really happy on how this build ended up and it will only get better with custom cables.
I have the same MOBO, PSU, and Air cooler as you do, and I wish I had realized the 24-pin cable was going to be short. By some minor miracle, I was actually able to route the cable underneath one of the noctua fans and have just enough length left to force that sucker in there. Highly unrecommended. Great build!!
 
..... but Shenzhen seems more an area for cheap and fun things rather than very specific high quality things.....

THIS...... It's actually surprising how hard it is to find quality components.
But the same can be said for many places - it's easy to forget that generally people go for cheap rather than high quality. Such a shame!
 
I have the same MOBO, PSU, and Air cooler as you do, and I wish I had realized the 24-pin cable was going to be short. By some minor miracle, I was actually able to route the cable underneath one of the noctua fans and have just enough length left to force that sucker in there. Highly unrecommended. Great build!!
I found that when I was doing some research here, probably in your posts. Saw some photos of that. Good thing that I received the 24 extension with the used board or else it would sure be a problem.
 
ok so finally got my build done, for those with the Asus Z270i, how the hell do I turn off these breathing LEDs??

also, what's a good/safe overclock for my 7600k and 270i combo? Specific bios settings?
 
Does anyone know if the Palit GTX 1080 GameRock Premium will fit inside this case please?

I'm looking for the smallest and most portable case possible that fits it and this one looks promising.

Many thanks
 
Does anyone know if the Palit GTX 1080 GameRock Premium will fit inside this case please?

I'm looking for the smallest and most portable case possible that fits it and this one looks promising.

Many thanks

Technically the card fits, but there are two issues:
  1. The card height is 133 mm. The M1 limit is 140 mm. This leaves only 7 mm for the PCI-E power connectors and cables because the sockets on the Palit card are not recessed. You will need to buy low profile PCI-E power adapters in order to get the side panel onto the case.
  2. The card is listed as 2.5 slots thick, which is about 50 mm. This means that if you were planning on adding fans to the bottom of the M1 they cannot be the standard 25 mm thick fans. They would have to be thin fans.
 
It's not noticeable with headphones. I have open (Fidelio X2) and don't hear it. Noticeable with music off though. It's not annoying. Will be going full water loop soon to solve the noise problem.

Need it to be quiet. Need to hear those enemy footsteps when playing :p Switching to semi-open headphones too so I'm pretty sure the blower-style noise would bug me.
 
Many thanks Qrash, hugely appreciate that.

In terms of the PCI-E connectors, do you mean something like these? https://www.moddiy.com/products/Special-Mini-Low%2dProfile-8%2dPin-to-8%2dPin-PCI%2dE-Extension-Cable-(15cm).html

Yes, I think so, but I thought there were some with a 90 degree angle. Still, those wires and the shrink-wrap should be flexible. I'll see if I can find the ones that others have bought (I think from eBay).

UPDATE: If you search eBay for "PCI-E 8 pin 90 degree" there are several results including http://www.ebay.com/itm/90-Degree-F...801782?hash=item4d55d989f6:g:bTMAAOSwM4xXasdo
 
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NEW FAN WHO DIS? could it be final form? This Phanteks fan mounted to the C14 gave a 1-2C drop from the Gentle Typhoons and is far quieter. Highly recommend this fan to those of you with the C14. You can use the mounting clips that came with your C14 fans.

5.1 GHz+ here I come!

HLcCUKE.jpg
 
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so during my latest rebuild, I lost one of those case screws that screws that external expansion slot plate to the case. It's located on the backside of the N1 beside where you would screw in a GPU. It's like blocking plate.

Anyone know where I can replace these screws??
 
so during my latest rebuild, I lost one of those case screws that screws that external expansion slot plate to the case. It's located on the backside of the N1 beside where you would screw in a GPU. It's like blocking plate.

Anyone know where I can replace these screws??

Is it the same as the "G" screws that are used to mount the motherboard? According to the photo of M1 screws (link at www.ncases.com on the FAQ page) there should be 5 G screws so you should have an extra one to try.
 
THIS...... It's actually surprising how hard it is to find quality components.
But the same can be said for many places - it's easy to forget that generally people go for cheap rather than high quality. Such a shame!

HK is a little different, because so much of the good stuff is probably made less an hour away from here in anonymous factories over in Donguan! It's super frustrating that it has to travel by ship to the US, get trucked around warehouses there, then fly back to HK on a cargo plane.

On the upside, the M1 shipping was an unexpected bonus. It came straight from Taiwan so it took about 2 days to get to me and cost ten dollars to ship (I was expecting 50).
 
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HK is a little different, because so much of the good stuff is probably made less an hour away from here in anonymous factories over in Donguan! It's super frustrating that it has to travel by ship to the US, get trucked around warehouses there, then fly back to HK on a cargo plane.

On the upside, the M1 shipping was an unexpected bonus. It came straight from Taiwan so it took about 2 days to get to me and cost ten dollars to ship (I was expecting 50).

Nice that you got the case so quickly and at such a low shipping cost. It really is too bad you can't get good components locally, makes no sense to ship it around the world twice.
 
ok so after this new build, with basically all new parts, I have the same problem, sometimes it posts and sometimes it doesn't, no overclocking. Once it's on it's stable but it just has a problem powering on.

When I turn the power supply on, the LEDs on the mobo light up fine and the Corsair logo on my H100i pump lights up... but pressing the power button does nothing

Any ideas? I'm running out of them, maybe it's the power button?!? is there a way to bypass the power button and manually turn it on?
 
NEW FAN WHO DIS? could it be final form? This Phanteks fan mounted to the C14 gave a 1-2C drop from the Gentle Typhoons and is far quieter. Highly recommend this fan to those of you with the C14. You can use the mounting clips that came with your C14 fans.

5.1 GHz+ here I come!

HLcCUKE.jpg

Not gonna use the Noctua AF-15? That's what I planned to use, alongside a 120mm.
 
ok so after this new build, with basically all new parts, I have the same problem, sometimes it posts and sometimes it doesn't, no overclocking. Once it's on it's stable but it just has a problem powering on.

When I turn the power supply on, the LEDs on the mobo light up fine and the Corsair logo on my H100i pump lights up... but pressing the power button does nothing

Any ideas? I'm running out of them, maybe it's the power button?!? is there a way to bypass the power button and manually turn it on?
Could be a bad power button. Could try the paperclip method (short the power header pins on the motherboard) to see if it boots reliably that way. If it turns out to be the button that's bad, use the contact form or email on the website to request a replacement.
 
Could be a bad power button. Could try the paperclip method (short the power header pins on the motherboard) to see if it boots reliably that way. If it turns out to be the button that's bad, use the contact form or email on the website to request a replacement.

ok I think I found it!! I think there's something wrong with my outlets by my computer, I moved it over to another set of outlets on a different circuit and the computer turns on/off just fine now... maybe it's a grounding issue??

Could I have damaged my mobo/power supply by plugging it into a bad outlet? it seems to work now at the other outlet
 
I have a habit of buying way more fans than I need. I have three pairs of 140 mm fans with 120 mm mounting holes. I believe xcharlesy is using the third fan in the following list:

6Uibshw.png


(Sorry for the large image. Is there a way to create a table? I tried pasting BBCode after selecting the BB Code Editor, but it didn't work. All I saw was the BBCode in the Preview.)
 
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No need to run a bottom 120mm, and the A15 is simply not as good. Lower CFM / static pressure, plus aesthetics.

Maybe on paper but I doubt that translates to reality. Wasn't talking about a bottom 120mm, I meant a 120mm on the side bracket alongside the 140mm. When not using the side bracket you can't use a filter, no?
 
I have a habit of buying way too more fans than I need. I have three pairs of 140 mm fans with 120 mm mounting holes. I believe xcharlesy is using the third fan in the following list:

6Uibshw.png


(Sorry for the large image. Is there a way to create a table? I tried pasting BBCode after selecting the BB Code Editor, but it didn't work. All I saw was the BBCode in the Preview.)
Maybe on paper but I doubt that translates to reality. Wasn't talking about a bottom 120mm, I meant a 120mm on the side bracket alongside the 140mm. When not using the side bracket you can't use a filter, no?

You can use the side panel with the screen just to have a screen if you want. And thanks Qrash, as you can see it's got a slight edge in performance. Neither are really audible but I prefer the Phanteks looks.

To be clear: the best temps I've achieved in testing a large cooler like the C14 came from 2 120mm side mounted fans. Idle you won't know a difference, but on load it made about a 4-5C difference going from 2x Gentle Typhoon (1850rpm) to the PH-F140HPII. Tomorrow I will be testing 2 Noiseblocker e-Loop B12P's to see if they maintain the same temp or better and add some sound dampening to the Gentle Typhoons. GT's are great fans but 1 out of all 4 of mine sound different and I think there is some lightly audible vibration noise. (I'm very sensitive to sound).

In addition to all of this - in trying 2 Gentle Typhoon 120mm's on the bottom below my reference 1080ti they made literally no difference. In some cases my temps were actually 1C worse. This could be from a rise in ambient temperature or from hot air failing to get sucked out from too much over crowding.

I will never be a fan of using more fans than is necessary in this case. If I can stay under 70C @ 5.0 GHz with 3 fans total I'm going to take that.
 
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For anyone curious the Dark Rock TF cooler is preeeety dicey with the Asus Z270i motherboard. It interferes with the memory. I think it may work with memory with no heat spreader but there is still definitely contact and some deflection, I will have to decide whether or not to chance it.
 
So, is my SF450 power supply defective or not?
I was doing some more stress testing, running Hawken in the menus (which is pretty good for 100% GPU utilization) and Prime 95 at the same time.
This caused pretty much an instant reboot, and I've been having problems with the system's stability (occasional BSODs)

Temperatures looked fine on both the CPU and GPU when running Hawken/Prime95 individually, but *both* was a recipe for an instant restart.
The motherboard and CPU (Asus H87I-Plus/4790k) are known good and have been used stably since I got them. The videocard is new, but probably fine, so the power supply is the big question.

Specs:
Asus H87I-Plus/4790k
16GB ram
Windows 10 (recent upgrade; BSODs seen before upgrade)
Gigabyte Xtreme Gaming GTX 1070
Sandisk Extreme Pro 960GB


Kinda weary on the SF450, since in my other build, the first SF450 had coil whine, and the second had coil whine + was very loud at load and the fan didn't shut off after going back to idle. I switched to a SX700-LPT in that build after, and that's been fine. It passed the Hawken + Prime95 test with flying colors (same model of video card, 6700k)


Volume levels on this SF450 seem fine (the fan turns on under load, but runs at reasonable levels) and it doesn't have coil whine... but stability is a concern.
Am I pushing it too far (it *is* only a 450 watt, after all) or is it defective?
 
In addition to all of this - in trying 2 Gentle Typhoon 120mm's on the bottom below my reference 1080ti they made literally no difference. In some cases my temps were actually 1C worse. This could be from a rise in ambient temperature or from hot air failing to get sucked out from too much over crowding.

I've come across multiple references to bottom mounted fans being ineffective. Has anyone tested if this is a because the case is too low to the ground and interferes with any work that a bottom intake fan does?
 
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