NCASE M1 v3 Build Thread

Urelure said:
I don't know if I'm understanding your question correctly, but generally even smaller cards (as in less tall) tend to compartmentalize the case in such a way that hot air in the GPU "compartment" gets trapped and recirculated to some degree. This is a known issue for all open air coolers and will be for the strix too. A few ways to mitigate this:
1. Bottom fans: Increases air pressure in bottom compartment and helps push cold air into the GPU. Problem: Noise, and it would ruin the entire point of fan less mode which is the main selling point of the strix.
2. Ducting: Bottom ducts that force the GPU fans to get air from under the case on the outside. Problem: Hard to make it look nice.
3. The PCI bracket plate: The plate thet screws in over the PCI brackets on the back of the case can be removed to offer significantly improved air exhaust capabilities. Some people have reported a 5C temp improvement by doing this.

This issue doesn't need to be a deal breaker, but I suspect it might be hard to keep the temps down there low enough over time to really benefit from the fan less mode of the card. That is just my guess though. I would (and plan to) go with a short itx-style 970 instead. It should offer way better airflow.
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I used the 970 Mini in my build and temps aren't excessive under load. Internal case temp hits ~50-55C under heavy gaming load. This is with no ducting or fans underneath, so it seems like air is able to move around well enough. I'll try removing the PCI bracket plate as mentioned to see if it helps.

One downside to the 970 Mini is that the fan doesn't have a silent mode - it will always be on. It's very gentle at idle though, so you probably won't hear it over the other system fans.
 
Maelwys said:
I used the 970 Mini in my build and temps aren't excessive under load. Internal case temp hits ~50-55C under heavy gaming load. This is with no ducting or fans underneath, so it seems like air is able to move around well enough. I'll try removing the PCI bracket plate as mentioned to see if it helps.

One downside to the 970 Mini is that the fan doesn't have a silent mode - it will always be on. It's very gentle at idle though, so you probably won't hear it over the other system fans.
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Good. This confirms that short cards do improve airflow. With these kind of temps I wouldn't bother removing it. It's is useful when you have big cards that block airflow, but in your case the airflow should be good anyway. I doubt you will see much difference.
 
everything is here, and my M1 left customs last night and should be here Monday.

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Went ahead and set up my Rog Swift, which replaced my vg278he, huge improvement, my 780 is only pushing about 100fps in bf4, so, hopefully the new 980 pushes harder.

I almost went with the asus 970 DC Mini, but I think the small amount of extra noise and loss of space from the 980 sc/acx will be worth it.

Also, I got a copy of 8.1 pro, but i'm thinking of sticking with 7 pro, what do you guys think?
 
Hallo,

i ordered a ncase last week, too. i want to replace my sg05 and use a Silverstone SFX-L PSU.
could somebody look how long a GPU could be to fit without problems. my favorite is the zotac 970 with 204mm length,

thank you very much.
 
VampireVendetta said:
Also, I got a copy of 8.1 pro, but i'm thinking of sticking with 7 pro, what do you guys think?
Click to expand...

I say go for it. I was a hardcore Windows 7 aficionado, but I bit the bullet and upgraded to 8.1 for this build only because I saw that 10 would be a free upgrade. After using it for a bit now, I have to say that 8.1 is just fine. Metro isn't front and center now - and for some reason I find it much more usable in its current incarnation than I did in 8. It's an evolution now, not a jump, and a good upgrade on the path to Windows 10, which I have heard from a lot of people will be worth it.

HotteX said:
could somebody look how long a GPU could be to fit without problems. my favorite is the zotac 970 with 204mm length,
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Shouldn't be an issue, even with the 500-L PSU. Max video card length is 12.5" or 315mm.
 
Maelwys said:
Shouldn't be an issue, even with the 500-L PSU. Max video card length is 12.5" or 315mm.
Click to expand...

That could be a issue, depending on if your card has a back plate and how much "gpu bend" you're comfortable with.
 
Power Supply: ST45SF-G
CPU: 4670K
CPU Cooler: Corsair H80i
Motherboard: Asus Maximus VI Impact
Memory: Ripjaws 8GB
Graphics Card: EVGA GTX 750 Ti
Hard Disk: Samsung 850 EVO 500gb

I fit the H80i by rotating it 360 degrees to wrap the tubing a push air out of the case. Single fan.

Running Prime SmallFFT I reached 84*C core temperature according to HWMonitor within 2-3 minutes. This seems high to me, what do you think?
 
Blk said:
That could be a issue, depending on if your card has a back plate and how much "gpu bend" you're comfortable with.
Click to expand...

Yes, thats the reason why i want wo know how many space you have for the gpu to fit bevor the psu.

my favorite gpus the evga gtx970 acx2.0 or the Zotac GeForce GTX 970.
 
HotteX said:
Hallo,

i ordered a ncase last week, too. i want to replace my sg05 and use a Silverstone SFX-L PSU.
could somebody look how long a GPU could be to fit without problems. my favorite is the zotac 970 with 204mm length,

thank you very much.
Click to expand...
204mm is fine. You have the length of the motherboard (170mm), a ~6mm gap to the PSU, then another 27-34mm until the modular connectors on the SX500-LG. So 203-210mm total without even reaching the cables. And of course they can bend, so that's not a hard limit.
 
Tripwyr said:
Power Supply: ST45SF-G
CPU: 4670K
CPU Cooler: Corsair H80i
Motherboard: Asus Maximus VI Impact
Memory: Ripjaws 8GB
Graphics Card: EVGA GTX 750 Ti
Hard Disk: Samsung 850 EVO 500gb

I fit the H80i by rotating it 360 degrees to wrap the tubing a push air out of the case. Single fan.

Running Prime SmallFFT I reached 84*C core temperature according to HWMonitor within 2-3 minutes. This seems high to me, what do you think?
Click to expand...

That is high. I'm running the same configuration - H80i, single push fan (fan -> rad -> outside) - and my core temps cap at 55C after 30 minutes of burn test. Check your mounting and try re-seating the waterblock to make sure you have good contact to the CPU.

You did remember to plug in the pump, right? :D
 
Maelwys said:
That is high. I'm running the same configuration - H80i, single push fan (fan -> rad -> outside) - and my core temps cap at 55C after 30 minutes of burn test. Check your mounting and try re-seating the waterblock to make sure you have good contact to the CPU.

You did remember to plug in the pump, right? :D
Click to expand...

I'll have to try reseating it. Do you have a picture of how you mounted the rad? You scared me asking about the pump, but it lights up so I'm pretty sure it is plugged in. I have the fan plugged into the motherboard instead of the pump though IIRC.
 
Tripwyr said:
I'll have to try reseating it. Do you have a picture of how you mounted the rad? You scared me asking about the pump, but it lights up so I'm pretty sure it is plugged in. I have the fan plugged into the motherboard instead of the pump though IIRC.
Click to expand...

You should be able to hear the pump - it's not loud but not silent either. CPU fan should report ~2500 rpm. AFAIK the H80i is not controllable from the header.

Two photos of my (mostly) finished build. Cables are running a bit rampant, but don't appear to be hurting airflow:

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The H80i had to be mounted vertically (hoses closest to the VC) so I could fit a 120mm fan next to it. Hoses are coiled somewhat to get everything to fit. This also means that the rad can't be mounted to the bracket before the bracket is in place - rad stays where it is though when the bracket is removed because it is somewhat wedged top and bottom.

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Top picture showing fanmod on the ST45SF and bracket configuration. Both 120mm fans run at ~1K rpm and are silent at idle. I also have them connected direct to the motherboard. Also note I moved the power connector to the middle slot.
 
case: m1 v3 silver, no odd
psu: silverstone sx500-lg with fan removed, stock cables
mobo: maximus vii impact, no addon cards except for fans
cpu: 4770k 4.6ghz @ 1.27V
cpu cooler: noctua nh-c14
memory: 2x8gb crucial ballistix tactical 1866 cl9
fans: 2x gentle typhoon ap-14, 900rpm idle, 1400rpm load
gpu: reference gtx 970, stock clocks
ssd: crucial mx100 512gb

side
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top
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"cable management"
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everything else:
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i'm wondering why i got this small case again when my monitor takes up 3x the space... :D
 
Longtime member, but I mostly lurk these days. It really is great to see the PC community flourishing again. I sure had a blast back in the '90s and '00s. I've had many Lian-Li cases over the years. When I stumbled upon the M1 project a few months back, I wrote it off as too pricey, even with Lian-Li manufacturing. ;)

After trying to resurrect my current µATX-based "communal household PC" with a couple cheap cases and minor upgrades, it was time to take the plunge and go with the M1 and all-new hardware.

So after all that said, I love this thing!! There are SO MANY incredible details that make this thing a pleasure to work on. Anyway, my build is comprised of:

CPU: i5-4690K
Motherboard: Asus H97I-Plus
Video Card: Gigabyte N970IXOC (short-PCB GTX 970)
PSU: Silverstone SX600-G (SFX PSU)
Ram: G.Skill DDR3 F3-2400C11D-16GXM (16GB)
CPU Cooler: Corsair H105 (240mm radiator)
SSD: Samsung 850 Pro (256GB)
OS: Windows 7 64-bit Home Premium (wish I had gone for Enterprise/Ultimate for AppLocker)

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Obligatory Coke can shot:
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In situ:
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Edit: Currently overclocked at 4.1ghz. Even without any fans other than the stock GPU cooler and the AIO watercooler, CPU temps are about 29-31c at idle and haven't seen much over 47c at load so far using Prime95. Might be time to run some benchmarks that stress both CPU and GPU. I was planning to add a small exhaust fan on the back of the case, but now I'm not so sure it needs it. Only additonal mod I'm considering would be some quieter fans on the AIO cooler. The stock Corsair fans are not terribly obnoxious at non-gaming temps, but under load, they are NOT quiet.
 
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Maelwys said:
You should be able to hear the pump - it's not loud but not silent either. CPU fan should report ~2500 rpm. AFAIK the H80i is not controllable from the header.

Two photos of my (mostly) finished build. Cables are running a bit rampant, but don't appear to be hurting airflow:


The H80i had to be mounted vertically (hoses closest to the VC) so I could fit a 120mm fan next to it. Hoses are coiled somewhat to get everything to fit. This also means that the rad can't be mounted to the bracket before the bracket is in place - rad stays where it is though when the bracket is removed because it is somewhat wedged top and bottom.


Top picture showing fanmod on the ST45SF and bracket configuration. Both 120mm fans run at ~1K rpm and are silent at idle. I also have them connected direct to the motherboard. Also note I moved the power connector to the middle slot.
Click to expand...

Corsair Link is reporting ~2200 RPM on the pump, but I still can't hear it. I didn't realize I had forgotten to install Corsair Link, so when I installed that it actually improved temperatures significantly. The temperature no longer immediately jumped to 80+, but it still reached 81*C after about 10 minutes.

I don't know what could possibly be wrong to be seeing these kinds of temperatures.
 
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all done/ couldn't get the Cryorig C1 to fit, at all. Ended up using the Noctua C14, works great!
Also I wasn't digging the 500w psu pushing on the card so I swapped out for the 600w SFX and it's perfect.

Video of it running HERE
 
I have to say, after getting mine running with the H80i, doing it again I think I'd go the air-cooled C14 route. Build looks so much cleaner and is probably quieter as well.
 
ASRock Z77 mobo has lead me to decide between Noctuas NH-U9S and NH-D9L. On the one hand, U9S is superior in cooling, but quite tall. On the other hand, the D9L would fit with a slim fan on the side bracket. Even though both noctuas could handle a small OC, a corsair h80i would allow for a far greater one.

Decisions, Decisions, Decisions...
 
How does the C14 work with a side panel installed? I'd have to imagine that would diminish the cooling capability and noise characteristics.
 
bubblethumper said:
How does the C14 work with a side panel installed? I'd have to imagine that would diminish the cooling capability and noise characteristics.
Click to expand...

It works great. I haven't done temp testing with the panel off though so I don't know the difference. I have no idea how much a bottom fan (under the heatsink) would improve temps, if at all. I actually removed the stock 140mm fan due to it being voltage regulated, and opted for attaching a Corsair SP120 QE PWM on the side bracket instead. It sits a few mm from the heatsink and my temps never exceeded 70C running prime95. I have a very noise optimized fan curve. The fan actually turns off at idle. Most of the time the fan is just barely spinning. I would expect temps to be better with the 140mm fan. I actually might consider testing that. I have enough fans to test several different orientations. I really don't think it matters if you attach the fan to the heatsink or bracket.The reason I went for bracket, is because the closed corner design on the corsair fans makes them impossible to attach to the heatsink using the Noctua clips, and those were the fans I had lying around. I have a 4690K @ stock clocks, no dust filters.
 
One might say I got impatient with my case still just saying departing L.A. for the last 7 days.

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VampireVendetta said:
Hang in there man, I waited a week for it to clear customs and then another week for it to leave la and come to Miami
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I am, I was just tied of staring at boxed components. Hopefully it will be here soon. Also people weren't joking about the SX600. By far my loudest component. Very ready for M1 to show up so I can see what modifications I'll habe to do to the PSU casing to fit its Noctua replacement.
 
bubblethumper said:
How does the C14 work with a side panel installed? I'd have to imagine that would diminish the cooling capability and noise characteristics.
Click to expand...
works pretty well for me

strangely the nf-p14 is a lot louder/more turbulent when the sidepanel gets near it. however if you put a dust filter in between the side panel and the fan, it becomes better.

for my maximus vii, i dont think a second fan underneath helps much because it's a tight fit with the vrm daughterboard at the top and so hot air cant escape from that area. besides, since there was only room for a 120mm fan on the bottom, i could only use my gentle typhoons (only decent fans i have) and it was really really difficult to fit the screwdriver through the tight blades.

right now i just use 2 ap-14s on the radiator bracket and the c14 still cools well enough for my [email protected],4.6ghz. load temps are in the 80s for x264 stress testing. it goes up to high 90s and throttles for prime95 and whatever but i dont care because i usually never run anything more intense than x264 anyway
 
Hi folks, first of all, thank you everyone for sharing all of your builds and insight. I have a cooling question about my build. Keep in mind I've made some decisions that I'm going to have to stick with at this point.

The relevant parts of my setup for my question:

PSU: SilverStone 500-L (Mounted with fan facing out side of case)
GPU: ASUS 970 Mini
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D9L (currently with a 2nd NF-A9 attached)

On-hand but not yet installed (2x Noctua NF-F12)

A bit overwhelmed by the different options here. I'm open to returning the two 120mm fans if there is something else I should get, but ideally I just want to get the best temps out of what I have already purchased.

I guess the main questions are:
Should I keep the 2nd A9 on the CPU cooler or move it to rear exhaust?
Should I mount the two F12's on bottom for intake or on side for exhaust?

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated! I really love this case.

Spielman
 
Not 100% sure, but I don't think a 25mm fan will fit on the side bracket (rear) with a 110mm cooler installed. If it does happen to fit, I'd probably stick one F12 on the side blowing towards the D9L and the other F12 on the bottom (rear) blowing air into the 970 Mini (using the included low-noise adapter, just to provide a little fresh air).

For the A9 fans, I'd probably leave one in the center of the D9L (blowing towards the rear), with the other mounted at the rear exhaust blowing out the back (I'd also use an LNA on this one, since their 92mm fans are a fair bit louder than their 120's).

There's likely a good chance you really don't need that many fans, but it's not really hurting anything imo (as long as you can keep noise in check using whatever combo of mobo PWM control and LNA).


Also, another option would be to mount the PSU with fan inward, and then mount one of the F12s on the side rack (front) to potentially keep the SX500-LG in semi-fanless mode longer (and to also better muffle any fan noise from the PSU).
 
Case came in! Build is more or less complete. Latest security update nerfed the NVidia driver for OS X so currently downloading an older 10.10.1 installer which should resolve that. Other than that just have to finish the kext modifications to get the built in wifi and Bluetooth working. That and more cable management plus finding ways to make the PSU not the name of my existence. I have the 3 pin to 2 pin cable and an 80 mm Noctua for it, just want to make sure everything is working within my return period before I go off modifying things. Was going to do a push/pull on CPU but with side intake it wouldn't fit, will probably put it on the bottom for GPU intake and order the thin Noctua 92mm for the push fan.

Here is my build, I'm in OS X provably 70% of the time or more. Really only boot to Windows for games and real Excel. Upgrading from a 3770k/GTX 670 build because my prior FT02 case was far too large for my new sit/stand desk. Plus it felt so excessive with it being so empty inside. This was origin ally supposed to be just buying a corsair 250d and a new motherboard, but the M1 was too nice to not get its own new build. Don't plan on doing much overclocking only got the 4790k due to Intel promotion for $100, and the 980 due to EVGA discount through my company.

Asrock Z97E-ITX AC
Intel i7 4790k
Noctua NH-U9S
16 GB Crucial Ballistix Sport VLP
Evga GTX 980 Superclocked reference cooler
2x 500 GB Samsung 850 EVO (one for windows, one for hackintosh)
4 TB Western Digital Green
Panasonic slot loading bluray burner
Silverstone SX600-G (by far noisest thing in the build)
Noctua NF-F12 side intake
Acer B326HK monitor (stuck pixel, swapping out. May go for 34" 21:9 curved)
Swan MK200 Mark III speakers
Logitech K750 Mac keyboard, custom mechanical Mac keyboard on the way
Logitech Performance MX
Apple Magic Trackpad

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Gallery
 
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I ended up removing the backplate of my GTX 980 in order for it to not bend by the intruding cables of SX500-LG. While you still cannot really call this ”clearance", I prefer to have it this way.

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Hey Guys,

This is my first time building a PC so I want to ask for some assistance. The following components are what I plan to put into my NCase M1, once it gets here.

Case: NCase M1 V3 (No Optical Drive)
Motherboard: ASRock H97M-ITX/AC Mini ITX LGA1150 Motherboard
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory
CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor
CPU Cooler: Corsair H100i 77.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler
Graphics Card: MSI Radeon R9 290 4GB TWIN FROZR Video Card
SSD: Crucial BX100 500GB 2.5" Solid State Drive
PSU: Silverstone 600W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular SFX Power Supply


My biggest concern is with the GPU... will it fit? is a 600W PSU enough?

Also, I want to put two fans on the bottom of the case as intake but am unsure which ones I should go with. Any recommendations would be appreciated.
 
chaeid said:
Hey Guys,

This is my first time building a PC so I want to ask for some assistance...
Click to expand...

Pro tip;) It isn't necessary to double post in more than one thread. People will be following all of them anyway and it just makes it harder to have a proper discussion.
 
AFD said:
Not 100% sure, but I don't think a 25mm fan will fit on the side bracket (rear) with a 110mm cooler installed. If it does happen to fit, I'd probably stick one F12 on the side blowing towards the D9L and the other F12 on the bottom (rear) blowing air into the 970 Mini (using the included low-noise adapter, just to provide a little fresh air).

For the A9 fans, I'd probably leave one in the center of the D9L (blowing towards the rear), with the other mounted at the rear exhaust blowing out the back (I'd also use an LNA on this one, since their 92mm fans are a fair bit louder than their 120's).

There's likely a good chance you really don't need that many fans, but it's not really hurting anything imo (as long as you can keep noise in check using whatever combo of mobo PWM control and LNA).


Also, another option would be to mount the PSU with fan inward, and then mount one of the F12s on the side rack (front) to potentially keep the SX500-LG in semi-fanless mode longer (and to also better muffle any fan noise from the PSU).
Click to expand...

Thank you both for your recommendations! I moved one of the 92mm fans to rear exhaust, and split the difference with the two 120mm...one of them went directly under the small gpu as bottom intake, the other went on the side of the case as intake, offset from the CPU (would not fit directly across from CPU).

I ran some benchmarks, overclocked CPU to a conservative 4.4GHz and overclocked the GPU for a 15% performance increase. Thanks!
 
VampireVendetta said:
Hang in there man, I waited a week for it to clear customs and then another week for it to leave la and come to Miami
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It looks as if they tried to drop off mine yesterday. I was not scheduled to work. The tracking page has it as undeliverable on delivery attempt 1. Do you think they will try to deliver it today, Sunday March 29th?
 
blinkmus said:
It looks as if they tried to drop off mine yesterday. I was not scheduled to work. The tracking page has it as undeliverable on delivery attempt 1. Do you think they will try to deliver it today, Sunday March 29th?
Click to expand...

Since it is USPS they won't, I would just contact your post office and have them hold it there for you to pick up. I did that for mine the moment it hit my local pot office and I was able to catch them before it even went out for the first delivery because I was going to be at work all day.
 
Nice looking builds guys, it gives me inspiration! =). I'm going to keep it short as not to clutter this thread. I'm looking for some build help in a M1 V3 and I created a post here. So if y'all wouldn't mind chiming in I would GREATLY appreciate the advice especially from you guys.
 
Hi guys, how are you? This is the build I'm making (parts already owned in green):

Case: NCASE M1 V3 with ODD (ordered a week ago, and waiting shipping confirmation)
MB: Asus Z97I-Plus (also thinking about the VII Impact, any advices here?)
CPU: Intel Core i5 4690K
Cooler: Corsair H80i
RAM: GSkill TridentX 8GB (2x4) 2400 CAS 10 or some Kingston Fury or Savage modules (I like the looks and low profile)
GPU: MSI GTX 970 Gaming 4G
PSU: Silverstone 450W ST45SF-G with PP05-E cables (which would give me the opportunity to try and sleeve the original cables)
HDD: WD Black 1TB SATA III
SSD: Samsung 850 EVO 256GB

Like the title says, I'm wondering if I should go Air Cooled or do a full custom Water Loop for this case. I aim to overclock the CPU (4.6GHZ) and the VGA. Money of course is a problem. Do you think my current configuration is OK for this purpose?

On the other side, maybe you can help me with the following. If air cooled, I will mount both the HDD and SSD in the side panel bay, whereas if I do a full custom water loop, they would be sitting below the VGA at the case floor (SSD over HDD). In both cases, do I need to get some kind of adapter or the case comes with everything bundled?

Thank you so much!

Cheers,
Juan
 
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