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

Khers said:
Nvidia's current generation is off the charts for me as they lack support in macOS. Moreover, from my perspective it's not really the power consumption that's the concern but rather the fans on the GPU which would be the same had I chosen the Strix version of the 1060. While they may have spun less often, I would still have been annoyed by them.

Besides, considering Nvidia's market share, I'd rather support AMD to keep the competition alive so the GPU market doesn't end up the way the CPU market was between Bulldozer and Zen. ;)
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You're in luck. Nvidia just announced they will do MacOS drivers for their Pascal series cards. Provided you can wait few weeks.
 
with a room temperature of around 22.5°C the card idles passively at 55°C this is during light browsing.
im running a monitor at 2560x1080 and during a 30min furmark gpu stress test the card peaks at 73°C and then the fans catch up and holds it stable at 71-72°C the fans are at that point up to around 1840RPM and definetly audible.
this is with the default fan settings.
 
Hey everyone, as some of you know, I built this puppy in January. One of my friends has a Shapeoko XXL CNC Aluminum Cutter, so we spent the last 2 weekends trying to figure it out. It was pretty challenging to cut this, but we managed to do a pretty good job! This is the final piece I was working on before making the video blogs, so I'll link to those as soon as they are ready. I documented the whole liquid cooling, aluminum cutting, etc processes on video, so I will post those soon!

CRgrann.jpg
KPrNBL8.jpg

(still need to glue a glass panel onto the aluminum)
 
rfarmer said:
Got bored and pulled my case apart. Drained and cleaned the loop, redid the GPU tubing and installed new PSU cables. I like the solid black much better.

I have been running this comp 24/7 for nearly a year with the fans as intake, positive pressure. Have to say it works very well, I had very little dust in the case.
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Do you monitor your water temps at all? If so, what is your max water temp? Also, how are those fans?
 
mcbirds said:
Do you monitor your water temps at all? If so, what is your max water temp? Also, how are those fans?
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Yeah I monitor temps all the time, reason I went with watercooling. I have a 6600k OCed to 4.4 GHz and a GTX 1070, max temps on CPU are 50C and 42C on the GPU. When gaming I usually see mid 40s for the CPU and high 30s for the GPU.

The fans I really like, 73 CFM 1800 rpm max. They are audible at full speed but far from loud, they have a decent tone that doesn't irritate me.

When I first build this case I had a PCI 4 channel fan controller that seemed like a good idea at the time, being at the back of the case, under the GPU and all the monitor cables I ended up running fans full speed most of the time. I could hear the fans but they never bothered me. When I had the case apart I got rid of the fan control and now I'm running the PWM for the pump off the CPU header and the fans off the SYS fan header, set up a fan curve in the BIOS. Now they idle at 1100 rpm and are extremely quiet, full speed at 50C. Idle temps suffered just a bit, went from 23C to 26C at idle.
 
So the strix 1080ti fits hrm. Just needs slim fans it seems if you plan on still using the bottom 120mm fan options. I like this.
 
gsilver said:
So, I took off the shroud on my Gigabyte Xtreme Gaming 1070, and put in two SilentWings 3 120mm fans at the bottom as exhaust. After running an hour+ on Hawken in the menus (and for some reason, Snake Pass in the background, since I forgot to close it out, which ended up being 30-35% CPU load and 90-99% GPU load, and the fans set to run at 40% until reaching 80 degrees at which point it would rapidly increase, the GPU temperature stayed mostly below 80, and I see peaks of only 50% when the GPU fans started going up with high temperatures.
40% with the SilentWings is a lot better than 40% with the stock fans due to their bearing noise, so I'm pretty happy with the results. It's also vastly easier to get the card in and out of the case without the shroud. I ended up using the fan header that was by the power plugs, since the others didn't seem to make the fans spin up. Gigabyte does not make it easy to tell which are for fans and which are for their silly LED lighting.

The only real noise concern now is the power supply, but that only spins up to loud levels under very high load. Most of the time, I don't even hear it, even in gaming.
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Nice, I'm thinking of doing something similiar to whichever 1080 I get my hands on. But I have some questions for you:

1) how are the results compared to the Xtreme at stock in terms of temps?

2) where are the silentwings placed -- at the bottom or directly on the heatsink?

I certainly want to try what you did as it's both easier and cheaper to just remove the shroud and not change out the entire cooler of a CPU with a custom one. And also because I assume having the fans as exhaust rather than intake is much better for the case (especially the CPU) in general. That way my U9S doesn't suck up hot air pushed up from the GPU. I'm also planning to give the NCASE taller feet, so that the air flow is better.
 
La_Menthe said:
Nice, I'm thinking of doing something similiar to whichever 1080 I get my hands on. But I have some questions for you:

1) how are the results compared to the Xtreme at stock in terms of temps?

2) where are the silentwings placed -- at the bottom or directly on the heatsink?

I certainly want to try what you did as it's both easier and cheaper to just remove the shroud and not change out the entire cooler of a CPU with a custom one. And also because I assume having the fans as exhaust rather than intake is much better for the case (especially the CPU) in general. That way my U9S doesn't suck up hot air pushed up from the GPU. I'm also planning to give the NCASE taller feet, so that the air flow is better.
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1. I used the same fan curve, and it eventually heated up to the same temperature as before (at least on the GPU) but I'd say that it took a fair while longer to reach that temperature.
2. On the bottom. There is a small gap between the fans and the card

I'm also using a C14S with two slim 120mm fans on the side for intake (the lower fan on the C14s, a full-sized 120mm, is also facing down)
 
I truly hope Intel and the x299 platform has a legitimate full feature itx board and a reasonably priced 6 or 8 core. I ain't about that $1000 for a 6900k life atm. Maybe I'll have to settle for the gigabyte am4 itx board and an 1800x? The thought of having a portable 8 thread 16 core machine with a 1080ti and nvme storage just makes me giddy.
 
gsilver said:
1. I used the same fan curve, and it eventually heated up to the same temperature as before (at least on the GPU) but I'd say that it took a fair while longer to reach that temperature.
2. On the bottom. There is a small gap between the fans and the card

I'm also using a C14S with two slim 120mm fans on the side for intake (the lower fan on the C14s, a full-sized 120mm, is also facing down)
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How is the C14s with this config (temps, fan curve)? Let me understand this correctly: there's only one fan (a 120mm) on the C14s fir ubtajes, whereas' the side-bracket has two slim 120mm-fans (of which both are also intake). So the C14S has essentially a full-sized 120mm at the bottom and a slim one at the top? I never though of that...always had the idea the C14S would not fit the case.

I'm actually considering purchasing this cooler, as having fans getting air directly from outside of the case seems pretty essential. The way my U9S is with the 7700K, it's impossible to keep temps below 80C at load without having an additional 120mm intake-fan on the ride side of the fan-bracket to pull in air.
 
My U9S has been much better since I fitted the low noise adaptors to both fans. It's not hampered the cooling too much, but it's far, far less noisy. I've tweaked my fan curves a bit, too. The 120mm Noctua as a side intake is pretty quiet even without the LNA so I'm just running it without.

The front and middle of the case is cool as a cucumber, but the back still gets pretty toasty. There's obviously not enough cool air circulating round there, which isn't exactly a surprise. I'm contemplating adding a slim 92mm fan at the back, either as an exhaust or an intake, but it's going to be a bit of a tight squeeze and I'm not sure whether it'll add any benefit. I could rotate the U9S to horizontal and exhaust out of the back of the case, but remounting the cooler now the motherboard is in the case doesn't exactly appeal - whilst the M1 is a good case to build in given it's small size, it's still a massive pain in the backside to go poking around in there trying to remount the cooler.

As it happens, the PSU fan is probably the noisiest component at idle or doing light duty - it has an annoyingly high-pitched tone, no doubt because of the 80mm fan. However, it's drowned out by the other fans when things get loaded up!

One thing I did notice was that I can control the fan curves either through BIOS or via ASus's AI Suite, but annoying the BIOS doesn't have any settings for hysteresis, so you can't set any delays on the fans spinning up or down as temperatures spike. This causes the fans to rapidly spin up and then down every time there's even a slight loading on the CPU, which is actually more annoying that having the fans running at a constant, higher, rate. AI Suite does have this option, but to be honest I'd rather not have to run an application just for fan control, especially one as annoyingly intrusive as AI Suite - that widget constantly floating about in the corner of the screen is a pest. I was thinking about getting an NZXT Grid+ v2, but I've heard that they don't play nicely with PWM fans, which is a shame.
 
rfarmer said:
Yeah I monitor temps all the time, reason I went with watercooling. I have a 6600k OCed to 4.4 GHz and a GTX 1070, max temps on CPU are 50C and 42C on the GPU. When gaming I usually see mid 40s for the CPU and high 30s for the GPU.

The fans I really like, 73 CFM 1800 rpm max. They are audible at full speed but far from loud, they have a decent tone that doesn't irritate me.

When I first build this case I had a PCI 4 channel fan controller that seemed like a good idea at the time, being at the back of the case, under the GPU and all the monitor cables I ended up running fans full speed most of the time. I could hear the fans but they never bothered me. When I had the case apart I got rid of the fan control and now I'm running the PWM for the pump off the CPU header and the fans off the SYS fan header, set up a fan curve in the BIOS. Now they idle at 1100 rpm and are extremely quiet, full speed at 50C. Idle temps suffered just a bit, went from 23C to 26C at idle.
Click to expand...

I never has seen 120mm fans which can run at 1100 rpm extremely quiet, the most fans need 400-500 rpm to be really quiet and silent. What fans are you using? I use for my 240 radiator Noctua NF-P12 fans for push config, if I would run them at full speed (1300 rpm) they would be loud as hell. I let them run at idle at 850 rpm (for ambient noise quiet but far away from be silent) and at load 950 rpm (acceptable noise, but far away from be quiet), over 1000 rpm it get noisy. https://hardforum.com/threads/ncase...n-first-post.1717132/page-599#post-1042927553
 
AG1M said:
I never has seen 120mm fans which can run at 1100 rpm extremely quiet, the most fans need 400-500 rpm to be really quiet and silent. What fans are you using? I use for my 240 radiator Noctua NF-P12 fans for push config, if I would run them at full speed (1300 rpm) they would be loud as hell. I let them run at idle at 850 rpm (for ambient noise quiet but far away from be silent) and at load 950 rpm (acceptable noise, but far away from be quiet), over 1000 rpm it get noisy. https://hardforum.com/threads/ncase...n-first-post.1717132/page-599#post-1042927553
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NoiseBlocker NB-Multiframe M12-S3 73 CFM 120mm. I sit 3 feet from my computer and can't hear the fans, I have to get within 1 foot before I can hear them. To me that is quiet.
 
If I had known how good the 7700k + 1080Ti would perform, I would have gone ITX instead of mATX to leave the option open for SLI.

I'm finding my single Ti drives 3 1440p screens in NV Surround really well on the games I play the most - far better than I would have guessed - and I have not even started to OC anything.

I'm considering returning my Z270G for a Z270I and keeping it in my mATX case until I get everything I need to build out this case.

Are there any condensed guides for current hardware? I've been keeping up with a lot of this thread but was wondering if anyone had some kind of spreadsheet or hardware list or something.
 
DoubleTap said:
If I had known how good the 7700k + 1080Ti would perform, I would have gone ITX instead of mATX to leave the option open for SLI.

I'm finding my single Ti drives 3 1440p screens in NV Surround really well on the games I play the most - far better than I would have guessed - and I have not even started to OC anything.

I'm considering returning my Z270G for a Z270I and keeping it in my mATX case until I get everything I need to build out this case.

Are there any condensed guides for current hardware? I've been keeping up with a lot of this thread but was wondering if anyone had some kind of spreadsheet or hardware list or something.
Click to expand...

Code: 
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Xhd3QG2uIVBgQ7vHgpP_Bd_MNcrfxr8KJW2sY6g33so/edit#gid=10
 
HPM said:
Hi there,

I finished my first build a couple of weeks ago, but without a gpu. My original plan was to go for a GTX 1070, but when the 1080 Ti was announced I decided to wait for pricecuts for the 1080. I eventually found a great deal on a 1080 but then it suddenly wasn't available anymore and my order was cancelled. I really wanted to complete the build and start gaming, so I bought a EVGA GTX 1080 Ti Founders Edition instead!! :)

I am really happy with the end-result. The M1 is a great little machine... I really love it. The build was kind of straight-forward, but I did experience some challenges, especially with fitting the C14 cooler and attaching all the cables considering the PSU being so close to the motherboard. I'm kind of pleased with my cable-management!

Specs:
7700K
Noctua NH-C14 with stock fans
Asus Z270i
Crucial Ballistix Tactical 3000MHz
Samsung Evo 960 500GB
Sandisk Ultra II 960GB
Corsair SF600
EVGA GTX 1080 Ti
Ncase M1 v5

Here's a pic:

View attachment 20579 View attachment 20580
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Thanks for posting this - this is the roadmap I was looking for.
 
FWIW, I'll add my temps experience and results thus far. I couldn't source a C14 (non-S) like I originally wanted so I went with the C14S and a 120mm fan pulling air from below on it. This worked pretty terribly to the point I lowered my OC to 4.2 at around 1.2v or so and was still hitting 59-62C in games. So I decided to move to the H75 and long story short, I'm back at my original OC of 4.5GHz @ 1.28v and hitting a max of 65C after a couple hours of BF1. My first Titan XP (2016) still made its' way to 84 and 85C with a 70% fan cap and 85C temp tlimit. The new TXp for me hits around a max of 76C with 75% fan.

Specs:
4770K @ 4.5GHz (1.28v)
H75 using a PH-F120MP as intake
Gigabyte Z97N Gaming 5
G.Skill Ripjaw X 16GB @ 2133
Kingston HyperX Savage [480GB]
Mushkin Enhanced Reactor [1TB]
SF600
Titan Xp
M1 v5 with 2 additional PH-F120MP set to intake at the bottom

Pics show the 2016 Titan, but from the angles you see it, both cards are identical. I do need to get more pics as I did do a second rebuild and improved my cabling a bit further.

b5CwQcd.jpg


J2FHG0Y.jpg
 
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AG1M said:
Interessting you now the 2nd person which recommend me this NB fans for radiator usage, my M1 is around 60cm from me away and over 1000 rpm is really noisy.

View attachment 21653

I really don't want to change my fans, but I'm very curious about their ambient sound performance, thanks.
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Your case does sit closer and your hearing is possibly more sensitive. The Noctua NF P12 is rated at 19.8 db/A at 1100 rpm and the Noise Blocker is rated at 27 db/A at 1800 rpm. Probably close to the same level at 1100 rpm. So I don't think it will actually be any quieter.
 
AG1M: You should go with the NB Eloops. Trust me, it will be different. My case also sits next to me and after changing from the Noctua to the Eloops, i can now hear almost nothing.
 
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-H1N1- said:
AG1M: You should go with the NB Eloops. Trust me, it will be different. My case also sits next to me and after changing from the Noctua to the Eloops, i can now hear almost nothing.
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Glad to know it isn't just me. Another nice thing about the NB, they aren't that god awful brown. :p
 
rfarmer said:
Glad to know it isn't just me. Another nice thing about the NB, they aren't that god awful brown. :p
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You can get the Phobya NB-eLoop (1800rpm) if you want black ones, mines are working fine and stay silent at ~60%
yhPBmWgl.jpg
 
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Well, I'll probably look into the power supply fan swap this weekend.

I've started playing Yooka Laylee, which causes it to spin up sometimes in game + pretty much constantly in the menus, and it's the loudest fan in the system.
I know, a bit tricker than other fans, but probably worth it.
I've got a Prolimatech Ultra Sleek Vortex 120mm and a Silverstone FN123 available (plus required adapters). Which is likely to be better?
 
-H1N1- said:
AG1M: You should go with the NB Eloops. Trust me, it will be different. My case also sits next to me and after changing from the Noctua to the Eloops, i can now hear almost nothing.
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Do you have the same fans as rfarmer mentioned already, or what NB model you are using? I need some with 4-Pin PWM control that I can adjust the speeds over my mainboard. What is the difference between Noiseblocker NB-Multiframe vs Noiseblocker NB-eLoop?
 
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AG1M said:
Do you have the same fans as rfarmer mentioned already, or what NB model you are using? I need some with 4-Pin PWM control that I can adjust the speeds over my mainboard. What is the difference between Noiseblocker NB-Multiframe vs Noiseblocker NB-eLoop?
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http://www.performance-pcs.com/nois...silent-bionic-blade-pwm-fan-800-2000-rpm.html

The eLoop is a newer model, the one I linked above is a PWM 800-2000 rpm they also have a 400-1500 rpm version.

http://www.performance-pcs.com/nois...lade-pwm-fan-400-1500-rpm.html#Specifications
 
I finally landed a job in my field, and I'm now looking into upgrading to a gtx 1080ti and a 7700k, and I also want to custom watercool both cpu and gpu.
For this I'm planning to place a DDC pump in the bottom of the case.
However space is tight down there so therefore I got a few questions to those of you who custom watercool your GPU:

1. How much space is there between the gpu waterblock and the case floor?
2. What gpu do you have?
3. What gpu waterblock are you using?
 
StrawKite said:
I finally landed a job in my field, and I'm now looking into upgrading to a gtx 1080ti and a 7700k, and I also want to custom watercool both cpu and gpu.
For this I'm planning to place a DDC pump in the bottom of the case.
However space is tight down there so therefore I got a few questions to those of you who custom watercool your GPU:

1. How much space is there between the gpu waterblock and the case floor?
2. What gpu do you have?
3. What gpu waterblock are you using?
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1. About 45mm. You basically need a DDC top that has In/Out on the sides.
2. 1080, only a reference PCB card will fit in the NCASE with a waterblock on it.
3. EK but I know Bitspower and Watercool blocks also fit.
 
mcbirds said:
1. About 45mm. You basically need a DDC top that has In/Out on the sides.
2. 1080, only a reference PCB card will fit in the NCASE with a waterblock on it.
3. EK but I know Bitspower and Watercool blocks also fit.
Click to expand...
Thanks for taking your time :)

What I have planned for the pump is the following:
21mm tall Alphacool Laing DDC310
20mm tall top aquacomputer aquacover DDC
4mm tall G1/4 plug

Thats a total of 45mm, so it should fit right?
 
StrawKite said:
Thanks for taking your time :)

What I have planned for the pump is the following:
21mm tall Alphacool Laing DDC310
20mm tall top aquacomputer aquacover DDC
4mm tall G1/4 plug

Thats a total of 45mm, so it should fit right?
Click to expand...

Yeah that is a perfect setup. Where did you get the Aquacover DDC top from btw? I've been searching for awhile.
 
This is a bit of a wierd question, but can anyone tell me the lot number of their SF-600 that works properly and does NOT turn the fan on at idle?

Both the original and replacement SF600 I got from corsair turn the fan on and off repeatedly at idle (kill-a-watt reports 40W at the wall).
 
betaflame said:
This is a bit of a wierd question, but can anyone tell me the lot number of their SF-600 that works properly and does NOT turn the fan on at idle?

Both the original and replacement SF600 I got from corsair turn the fan on and off repeatedly at idle (kill-a-watt reports 40W at the wall).
Click to expand...
Ya my SF600 is weird like that, fan spins on boot but stops till I load up some games
 
{NG}Fidel said:
Good find, I hope it does fit.

Edit: I see the other comment regarding this, nevermind.
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jerryfrz said:
Much appreciated!
I'll wait for your update before deciding to get it or the Strix.
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Got the gaming X and it does fit (with caveats).
First being that obviously you have to clip off the side clip and pin on the back left.
Second being, depending on your power supply cables, it may not bend enough to clear side panel. I have sf600 and it produces a slight bulge of the side panel but doesn't bother me at all. Was planning on moving my case to other side of desk anyway.

Most importantly pics: http://imgur.com/a/7du74
 
Installed the Prolimatech Ultra Sleek Vortex into my SX700-LPT. I sort of wish that I soldered it, as it was difficult to get the wire in as-is and required some creative routing and tying, but it worked out alright.
I'll keep an eye out for any stability issues, but at the least, it's much quieter than before.

Stable, quiet under load, and damn-near-silent at idle.
And compact enough to discretely fit behind the computer monitor.
 
Here is my build finished, changed Strix 1070 to G1 Gaming to fit it to this case.

ed3wyW6.jpg

Cooling consist of birch plywood case which houses 2 X EK CE280 radiators, EK D5 pump and Aquaero 5. It is located under the desk, keeps the noise all down there. After 15 mins of Realbech I get 63C on CPU and GPU never hits over 40C.

Those wires are a mess, but I´m not going to fix them. I orderd a custom set from MODDIY and I should have ordered 10cm longer ATX cable.
 
Guys with problems with thr sf600, how do you measure the noise of the psu, did you just listen?
Because if you did this, then what you heard could very likely be a GPU or another component, they spin op and down like you describe.

I have an sf600 and when i turn of every other fan in the system i hear nothing at idle.
 
Koplari said:
Here is my build finished, changed Strix 1070 to G1 Gaming to fit it to this case.

ed3wyW6.jpg

Cooling consist of birch plywood case which houses 2 X EK CE280 radiators, EK D5 pump and Aquaero 5. It is located under the desk, keeps the noise all down there. After 15 mins of Realbech I get 63C on CPU and GPU never hits over 40C.

Those wires are a mess, but I´m not going to fix them. I orderd a custom set from MODDIY and I should have ordered 10cm longer ATX cable.
Click to expand...

You know we want to see the hidden radiator..... :cool:

Love the colour scheme... Very nice!
 
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