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

Only thing is they don't take $230 as their value, they only take 2960 TWD as the value which is $123 and for that according to my local Canada Post the import charge is nothing.
You can even ask, I have already. Canada Post told me that if it were 2960TWD than the import charge on me is nothing.

Most likely the 123 CAD valuation the value is the replacement cost to NCases, not the retail price. They most likely (ironically) put that value down intentionally to minimize your customs charges while still reflecting the insurance coverage they would need should something happen to the case in transit. I know when I order products from HDPlex and they come via Hong Kong this is the practice that is used.
 
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Most likely the 123 CAD valuation the value is the replacement cost to NCases, not the retail price. They most likely (ironically) put that value down intentionally to minimize your customs charges while still reflecting the insurance coverage they would need should something happen to the case in transit. I know when I order products from HDPlex and they come via Hong Kong this is the practice that is used.

Makes sense, either way though my import charge will be 0 for this item if it were at the correct price.
Some provinces get charged $40 in Canada & other's 0. Mine is 0.
 
Wondering why you didn't go with Asus Z370-i strix?
Personal preference or a specific reason?

The Asrock board has HDMI 4K @ 60hz via the HDMI port (requires 3rd party chip), Thunderbolt 3, and PCI-E bifurcation.

By comparison the ROG Strix has 2x M.2.

Keep in mind that "ROG Strix" aren't true ROG boards - it's a new mid-range lineup by Asus. The "Maximus" line remains the true ROG series.
 
The Asrock board has HDMI 4K @ 60hz via the HDMI port (requires 3rd party chip), Thunderbolt 3, and PCI-E bifurcation.

By comparison the ROG Strix has 2x M.2.

Keep in mind that "ROG Strix" aren't true ROG boards - it's a new mid-range lineup by Asus. The "Maximus" line remains the true ROG series.

I wasn't aware of that actually.
In terms of reliability & constant updates is Asrock any good? Atleast compared to Asus? Mostly thinking about the z170 mini-itx boards. So, z170i, z170n, z170 fatal1ty.
Asus has always had a very high success rate with reliability although I don't know too much about gigabyte, msi, and asrock mobo's.
Thanks.
 
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After many, many months of my M1 sitting on a shelf taunting me I was finally able to transfer my components into it. No build log and anything because that's been beaten to death at this point and there really isn't anything standout about my parts list to warrant another one.

Just wanted to give a shoutout for an incredible case. I was worried the build would be difficult because of how tiny the case is, but it ended up being the most pleasant build I've ever done. Kudos for that.
 
After many, many months of my M1 sitting on a shelf taunting me I was finally able to transfer my components into it. No build log and anything because that's been beaten to death at this point and there really isn't anything standout about my parts list to warrant another one.

Just wanted to give a shoutout for an incredible case. I was worried the build would be difficult because of how tiny the case is, but it ended up being the most pleasant build I've ever done. Kudos for that.

Well build logs may have been done to death but we still like to see pictures, even if yours doesn't incorporate any new designs.
 
My two cents..

It seems to me that a fair way to settle this dispute would be to use the calculators provided to determine an agreed upon "fair" customs and brokerage charge based on the true value of the case. Subtract that amount from the 101 CAD to get the amount that has obviously been overcharged in error by either Canadian Border Services Agency or Canada post. Split that amount between you which would be a refund of somewhere in the neighbourhood of 30-40 CAD from NCASE. In this situation you've split the liability which ultimately belongs to a massive lumbering bureaucracy that stopped giving a shit the second they received the customs payment.

So 185 USD is 230 CAD. Putting 230 CAD into the calculator gives 11.50 CAD. Apparently Canada Post charges a 9.00 CAD brokerage fee bringing the appropriate total to 20.50. Subtracting that from the 101 CAD basically gives 80 bucks. Refund of 40 CAD sound fair?

This way NCases isn't paying you to take their case out of their cost of the case, and you're not getting ripped off by the powers that be for the full amount. Not a perfect solution by any means, but in this case no one has to be the bad guy and no one has to get publicly slandered.

They said they won't pay me a single penny & I have to pay for it all.
 
They said they won't pay me a single penny & I have to pay for it all.

nor should they, welcome to Canada. ncase has no fault in this, its our Crappy Canadian duty system at fault. I had to pay nothing for mine in Ontario.

the only way to ensure going forward you don't get hit with ridiculous brokerage fees is to have ask the seller to mark it RMA and insured value only (this is not an invoice), or if they are willing mark the value for much less or the package as a gift. otherwise they base brokerage fees on the full retail on the invoice, PNY messed this up every time I had an RMA and had to pay brokerage on warranty returns all the time and learned the hard way( and stopped buying PNY since all their cards died on me) . of course thats probably against the rules but either way our brokerage system is retarded and needs fixed

I had to pay 90$ on a 120$ Access Point years ago, 160$ brokerage on a 120$ waterpump, both times were in error on their part but good luck getting them to do anything about that.
 
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is it at all possible to buy the power switch and the wires that connect it to the motherboard? today i was plugging my headphone/microphone into the front audio/microphone jack of my M1 and as i was pushing the connectors in, my computer shut down! my guess is that the power switch is faulty.
 
The 4 GPU* project is complete!

*3 are external

Ended up surprisingly tidy considering the insane wiring.



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What's this sticker on the rear vent? Just cosmetic?

How does the SF600 go powering all those cards?

The SF600 powers the cards quite comfortably. It's not even that loud or hot. I have the side bracket fans at 2000 RPM feeding it fresh air. I run the cards at 70%, so total power draw = 105W + 105W + 105W + 175W = 490W + CPU at idle/web browsing = ~15W + rest of system = ~10W. If doing anything CPU-intensive, I turn off a card.

I should note that I have a massive air purifier next to my desk, so I can't hear anything from the computer... I would honestly not do this otherwise as I am runnnig the 1070s fans at 70% and the 1080 Ti fans at 80% + the SF600's noise at 500W draw + 4 Gentle Typhoons @ 2000 RPM. Without the air purifier's white noise, which is quite soothing albeit loud, this system is like a small server rack. I have Demciflex filters on all intakes and all external graphics cards' fans, so I'm managing dust quite well.
 
Looking for an answer from someone who's done extensive research on air cooler's especially in the ncase m1.

I'm getting a Asus Z270i ROG Strix & looking for a air cooler to cool 6700k.
I obviously wanted to go the Noctua U9S route but not a fan of the brown fan colours. Noctua recently came out with their new chromax black fans but they won't be coming out with 92mm one's for the u9s.

1) Dont want brown fans. 120mm brown noctua fans are okay because they are coming out with black 120mm one's but not 92mm.
2) I don't want to deal with dark rock TF fitment issues.
3) That leaves us with Noctua NH-L12S, Cryorig C1, Cryorig C7, Cryorig H7, Crying M9, etc... (don't know other manufacturer's with cpu cooler's).

My question to you is based upon my criteria which cooler is the best overall for - cooling, zero noise at idle, & overclocking? Basically which one is the best based upon my criteria?

Thanks.
 
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Why are you so dead against the standard Noctua fans? Sure, the colour isn't great, but it's not like you can see them inside the case, and the performance is great.

In any event, Noctua do non-beige 92mm fans - check out their Redux line. But you'd be adding a fair bit of cost for no performance gain and aesthetic improvement on a component that you can't actually see inside the case.
 
Or there's paint.... ;)
The U9S is an excellent cooler!

1. ABS or nylon primer
2. Paint
3. Clearcoat

Mr Hobby and Tamiya are excellent. Then you can match the colour to your other components...

Won't affect performance although it does add up a little with the cost of paint.
 
Doesn't look like he answered this question, but going by what he said, I'm guessing it is a magnet for the demciflex filter, although it doesn't look like a fan is installed there currently/yet.

Apologies. Yes, it's a Demciflex filter magnet. Currently not using it.
 
Looking for an answer from someone who's done extensive research on air cooler's especially in the ncase m1.

I'm getting a Asus Z270i ROG Strix & looking for a air cooler to cool 6700k.
I obviously wanted to go the Noctua U9S route but not a fan of the brown fan colours. Noctua recently came out with their new chromax black fans but they won't be coming out with 92mm one's for the u9s.

1) Dont want brown fans. 120mm brown noctua fans are okay because they are coming out with black 120mm one's but not 92mm.
2) I don't want to deal with dark rock TF fitment issues.
3) That leaves us with Noctua NH-L12S, Cryorig C1, Cryorig C7, Cryorig H7, Crying M9, etc... (don't know other manufacturer's with cpu cooler's).

My question to you is based upon my criteria which cooler is the best overall for - cooling, zero noise at idle, & overclocking? Basically which one is the best based upon my criteria?

Thanks.

The Noctua C14 is the best air cooler for the M1. It's been discontinued for a while and becoming hard to find. I was lucky to snatch one earlier this year, but I don't see any available now in any of the regular places. With it, you can use any 120x25 fan.

The Noctua C14S is too tall to use in the M1 with 25mm fans. You need 15mm fans. That being said, it's still the best cooler if you are okay with slim fans. Noctua's NF-A12x15 is by far the best 120x15 fan, but it doesn't come in black... The Scythe Slip Stream is good, but it's 12mm, so not ideal for this. There's also the Silverstone FW121, but it's blue. Here are some more options:

https://www.frozencpu.com/cat/l3/g3...t_Fans_-_PWM-120mm_x_15mm_PWM_Fans-Page1.html

If you don't want slim fans, then the U9S is a good choice and you can get Noctua's NF-B9 Redux fans for it, which are grey.

There are probably other good top-down options besides the Dark Rock TF, I haven't researched in a while, so I'll let others give advice. L12S and C1 are good options, but a bit underwhelming. H7 won't fit.
 
The Noctua C14 is the best air cooler for the M1. It's been discontinued for a while and becoming hard to find. I was lucky to snatch one earlier this year, but I don't see any available now in any of the regular places. With it, you can use any 120x25 fan.

The Noctua C14S is too tall to use in the M1 with 25mm fans. You need 15mm fans. That being said, it's still the best cooler if you are okay with slim fans. Noctua's NF-A12x15 is by far the best 120x15 fan, but it doesn't come in black... The Scythe Slip Stream is good, but it's 12mm, so not ideal for this. There's also the Silverstone FW121, but it's blue. Here are some more options:

https://www.frozencpu.com/cat/l3/g3...t_Fans_-_PWM-120mm_x_15mm_PWM_Fans-Page1.html

If you don't want slim fans, then the U9S is a good choice and you can get Noctua's NF-B9 Redux fans for it, which are grey.

There are probably other good top-down options besides the Dark Rock TF, I haven't researched in a while, so I'll let others give advice. L12S and C1 are good options, but a bit underwhelming. H7 won't fit.

There's the Silverstone fn123 and the rosewill RASF-141213, don't know how they compare to noctua in noise or performance, though.
 
There's the Silverstone fn123 and the rosewill RASF-141213, don't know how they compare to noctua in noise or performance, though.

According to specs by Noctua and Silverstone:

NF-A12x15:

1850 RPM, 94.2 m^3/h airflow, 23.9 dba, 1.53 mm H20 static pressure

FN125:

2000 RPM, 55.3 m^3/h airflow, 23.5 dba, 1.52 mm H2O static pressure

Nearly identical in every stat except airflow where the NF-A12x15 murders the Silverstone with 75% more airflow. So yes, not really close, but if you must have monochrome fans, it seems like an okay option.
 
For comparison, rosewill reports 50-55 CFM (84.9m^3/hr) and 20-25dBA. Since the range is so narrow and operating RPM range so wide, I'd expect static pressure to be pretty good, but there's no way of knowing how rosewill may have skewed the numbers, and in practice it might not be so good.
 
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Wonder how good a cryorig c1 can get compared to a noctua u9s when you put a 25mm thick fan on it instead of the 15mm it comes with.

Also wonder how good the C1 would be with another fan on left the side bracket shooting fresh cool air straight at it. Noctua U9S size allow for that.
 
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There are probably other good top-down options besides the Dark Rock TF, I haven't researched in a while, so I'll let others give advice. L12S and C1 are good options, but a bit underwhelming. H7 won't fit.

Another top-down to consider is the scythe kabuto 3. I have seen some very positive reviews for it. One review said it was even more quiet than the Dark Rock TF and the cooling performance was good too.

I am considering replacing my DarkRock TF with the kabuto 3 for a few reasons.

I would prefer to use 120mm fans in order to minimize how much air gets pulled throug the fan from the inside of the case instead of getting fresh air from the outside. I figure that because the side vent holes are sized for 120mm fans, using larger fans results in more air getting recirculated from inside the case.

I think that using 120mm fans will maximize how much air gets pulled in through my fan filters, and so I would have less dust in my case.

lastly, and most importantly, after installing the Dark Rock TF, my graphics card has been thermally throttling. I think this is because there is less air being brought in from the side vents. Before the Dark Rock TF, I had 2 side 120mm fans, now there are none. If I can rotate the TF 180 degrees, I should be able to put a 120mm fan back in the front side position, and I think that would fix the problem, but I'm not sure if I will be able to make that rotation because I think the caps on the end of the heat pipes will hit the back of the case if I try to rotate the TF that way.
 
https://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/7034/cryorig-c1-cpu-cooler-review/index6.html

According to tweaktown reviews the Cryorig C1 beats the Noctua U9S in cooling.
Although, they are both stock meaning U9S has 1 fan but on the other hand the Cryorig is also only using the 15mm slim fan instead of a full 25mm thick fan.
Another thing is the Cryorig C1 gives you room to add a 120mm on the left side bracket giving it fresh air head on.

What do you guys think?

I saw a post on page 445 which shows a person using a Cryorig C1 but he needed a PCEI riser card to install the GPU 1 slot down or the C1 would touch the top of the GPU.
His motherboard layout & location of cpu slot is very similar to the Asus Z270i Strix.


Not sure.
 
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Are there any better blower coolers for the GTX 1070 or 1080 besides the standard FE ones?

Still trying to figure out how to upgrade my GTX 780 :)
 
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