S4 Mini - An ULTRA-SFF Chassis shipping this December!

Did anybody see Patrick Norton rave about his new S4 build on TWiCH this week? Judging by the views, probably not. It's not a super popular show, but still, nice to have an endorsement like that from someone as respected as Patrick.

He's apparently putting up an entire build video for TekThing as well, which will likely be more detailed and better produced, but unfortunately it's behind a paywall for Patreon supporters.
 
Wow that's awesome.

I have no idea how he found my chassis...but he bought it full price. First class dude IMO. :cool:
 
I very rarely see a case and go "I MUST HAVE THE THING! I MUST HAVE THE THING!"
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Patrick is great, and I wish the show had more viewers. He spoke about it a few weeks ago, presumably before he'd bought the case, so I'd been waiting to see what he would do with it. He mentioned that he was trying different coolers to try to coax better thermals from his 6700, so you might reach out to him with some tips. Ryan Shrout, the co-host from PC Perspective, doesn't seem to have much interest in mini-ITX, but Sebastian Peak has been very enthusiastic about some of the enclosures on the forum, such as the M1 and the A4.

Anyway, congratulations. Hopefully this and the TekThing coverage will bring more attention to the S4 Mini!
 
So, after about a week running my system (i5-6600 + 16GB DDR4-2400) cooled by an L9i, I can say I'm very impressed by the case's cooling ability. Those huge vents are very effective! Also, until I installed that cooler I didn't really appreciate how tight things are in this case! I've used the cooler before in larger cases like the SG05 and such, and it's always kinda felt small and almost inadequate. In this case that cooler feels absolutely massive!
I don't have graphs or anything at the moment, but I'm getting average lows in the mid 30's, highs in the mid 50's. I'm blown away by the performance.
 
Well I've got an ASUS GTX970 DirectCU Mini on the way. Anyone else have this card? While it does look to be on the big side, I do think there'll be room for the power connection, though just barely. I'll snap photos when I get everything tied down.
 
redivulpis said:
Well I've got an ASUS GTX970 DirectCU Mini on the way. Anyone else have this card? While it does look to be on the big side, I do think there'll be room for the power connection, though just barely. I'll snap photos when I get everything tied down.
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I haven't seen any pictures of it yet; if you took some that would be great!

You probably will have to install the DC power connector after you install the GPU. Good luck, and thanks for the updates!
 
NFC said:
I haven't seen any pictures of it yet; if you took some that would be great!

You probably will have to install the DC power connector after you install the GPU. Good luck, and thanks for the updates!
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Yeah, I think so too. I'm going to take the opportunity to adjust the mounting holes a bit too. Right now the HDPlex connector is being held in with one screw. It's stable, but not solid, and that hulk of a power brick's cable is thicker than a standard C5/5 power cable, and not super flexible yet. I should have the card in tomorrow and plan to install it over at my friend's place since he has a much better lit work space.
 
It Lives!!
http://imgur.com/a/wF2gO
So now for the post-op. The card does fit, snugly, but workable. the only real issue I had getting the thing in was the power cable, but that had more to do with one of the 8-pin connectors being the wrong kind. Not sure what happened there, but the other one fit fine after some cable folding. I also had to rethink the mounting solution for the HDPlex, as the double-not-actually-velcro strips I had initially used made about 1/8" difference in clearance for the SATA power connector.
Eventually I got everything smushed in and working, but since I forgot to have Josh drill the alternate power connector mounting holes the connecter is currently kinda wedged in between the video card and the floor of the case with a strip of the aforementioned double-not-actually-velcro strips. It works, -ish. I'm able to plug in the power connector, which is also wrapped in the same stuff to sort of support the monster heavy cable, but if I'm not careful it pushes the jack back into the case where the connector can't make a positive connection. For now it just means I'll be running without panels until I can adjust those mounting points.
The only other snag I hit had nothing to do with the S4 Mini. ASUS's card shipped new, looked amazing. The PCIe plate though was a little bent at the botton, ostensibly to provide a little extra tension support for the card, but due to the small operating space, the very slight bends made it impossible to fully seat the card. This was easily fixed with some tape-wrapped multi-tool pliers, after which, the card went in without any major hiccups.

So far I've tested with Fallout 4, XCOM, and a few other games. The HDPlex doesn't seem to have any trouble feeding this little monster.

Let me know if you guys want any more angles on anything as well.
Ultimately I plan to swap the SSD's for a single NVMe drive on the motherboard and ditch the SATA drives altogether, as well as sleeve or stain all of the cables (leaning toward the latter, but they'll be cut and remolexed either way.

Now the big question for you guys. What are your experiences un-poo-brown-ing Noctua fans. I don't 'hate' the color, but it just doesn't jive with the rest of the build. Also, in you experience what would the harm be if I were to remove the bar code stickers on the motherboard and GPU? Might just cover them with electrical tape instead.
 
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Nice case nfc! When this supports fastest sff gpu its gonna be mine, well done!
 
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Hi redivulpis,

How are the temps on the Asus GTX 970? Are you running the CPU and GPU overclocked? What's your total wattage like coming from the HDPLEX? I have an i5-6600k and a Gigabyte GTX 970 Mini on my S4 Mini. I have the CPU running at 4.5GHz stable and at 60-62C on Heaven benchmark. However, I throttled back the GPU to 90-95% power limit because I was seeing the power consumption go over the 250W mark (using a kill-a-watt). I didn't want to push the HDPLEX past its limit as I am on a second one already (first one suddenly died).

From your pictures we had similar challenges building our S4 Minis...

1. The slots where the GPU's angle brackets are supposed to go into are a bit tight and took some finessing to get the bracket in there...pretty sure it's not gonna come out easily.
2. The space above 8-pin socket on the GPU is tight, making insertion and removal of the PCI-E cable difficult, so I made a short PCI-E extension cable.
3. I also forgot to tell Josh to drill new holes for the HDPLEX connector so I have the HDPLEX 19V DC port mounted just using one screw. Seems to hold just fine.
4. I positioned the HDPLEX exactly like yours. The 24-pin ATX connector was hitting the edge of the motherboard, so I had to move the HDPLEX to the left to take advantage of the space between the GPU and the motherboard. Also didn't use the included velcro as the added thickness to the HDPLEX made inserting the cables more difficult.
5. Cable management is a b*tch given that the HDPLEX 24-pin ATX and PCI-E cables are too long! I briefly toyed with the idea of shortening and re-crimping both cables, but finally decided to just wrap the cables in electrical tape and tidied them up with zip-ties. I re-routed the 12V ATX cable at the back of the motherboard and ran it along the PCI-E slot which meets the HDPLEX directly.

Here's a pic of how it all turned out:

7.jpg

20160129_000516.jpg
 
rpc72 said:
-snip-
Click to expand...

First of all your build looks great! I kinda want to track down one of those cases now, it'd be an amazing option for transporting the rig to LANs.
As for temps, I haven't run any benchmarks yet, but I can do that this evening. Running games like Fallout 4, Evolve, etc. I see both CPU and GPU sit at low 70's. Not sure on the power draw as I've misplaced my kill-a-watt, but I plan to buy a new one anyway, so I'll report back soon. I'm running a non-K i5-6600 at about 3.8GHz (17% oc via BIOS auto-setting), and the GPU is sitting at stock clocks with power limit set to about 94% (actual limit is based on temp set to 75*C). So far everything is stable, and it only reaches those temps under really demanding games. That said, before the GPU was installed the CPU idled around 35*, and now it's about 10* higher. Not really surprised at that and I'm not concerned. I suspect a lot of that cable spaghetti is blocking the air flow of the L9i. I'm going to try reversing the fan to see if that changes anything.
Eventually I do plan to chop the cables down and hard mount (dbl-sided tape) the HDPlex, but for now everything is fairly secure just being friction fit.
 
So, has anyone done any testing on NVMe SSDs on the back of the motherboard? I'm looking at the Samsung 950 Pro 512, but I'm a little concerned about thermal throttling. I'll be installing a heatsink either way (and by heat sink, I mean a piece of copper thermal-glued to the chips, possibly with some kind of heat pad interfacing with the case frame/side panel)
 
redivulpis said:
So, has anyone done any testing on NVMe SSDs on the back of the motherboard? I'm looking at the Samsung 950 Pro 512, but I'm a little concerned about thermal throttling. I'll be installing a heatsink either way (and by heat sink, I mean a piece of copper thermal-glued to the chips, possibly with some kind of heat pad interfacing with the case frame/side panel)
Click to expand...

Is there even space to install heatsinks? There seems to be around 2mm clearance between the chips and the metal casing of the S4.
 
I have got another question. It seems to be possible to install a 37mm Noctua L9i cooler and a slim 12mm fan. Would it be possible to install a 48mm-ish HSF then? (asking because official limit on your website is 40mm) Thanks :)
 
rpc72 said:
Is there even space to install heatsinks? There seems to be around 2mm clearance between the chips and the metal casing of the S4.
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Not sure yet. I've found some copper plates on amazon as well as thermal glue, but I don't have the SSD yet. I think I might have a 44mm SSD to get measurements from though, as I figure the thickness (for lack of adequate verbage), should be similar. That said I think one of Josh's posts shows a board with the 950 Pro installed, but no sinks.

Aircoookie said:
I have got another question. It seems to be possible to install a 37mm Noctua L9i cooler and a slim 12mm fan. Would it be possible to install a 48mm-ish HSF then? (asking because official limit on your website is 40mm) Thanks :)
Click to expand...

There's only a few millimeters if that between the stock fan and the case panel. You might be able to fit a slim fan between the sink without the stock fan in place, but I'm pretty sure anything taller would have to be passively cooled as I'm not sure there are any sub 12mm thick fans around.
 
redivulpis said:
There's only a few millimeters if that between the stock fan and the case panel. You might be able to fit a slim fan between the sink without the stock fan in place, but I'm pretty sure anything taller would have to be passively cooled as I'm not sure there are any sub 12mm thick fans around.
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Thank you, I basically needed to know whether Cryorig C7 will fit, because it's the same height as the Intel stock fan.
 
Aircoookie said:
Thank you, I basically needed to know whether Cryorig C7 will fit, because it's the same height as the Intel stock fan.
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Honestly, if you go into it accepting the possibility that it *won't* fit, you might try it. I'd considered it myself, but it looked as though the C7 is about 2mm too tall. The stock intel HSF's do fit, but they touch the side panel when in place, so they'd be the absolute tallest option. For the Intel HSF it's not an issue, since it's inverted, but the C7's fan is on the top which could be impeded by the side panel.
 
redivulpis said:
So, has anyone done any testing on NVMe SSDs on the back of the motherboard? I'm looking at the Samsung 950 Pro 512, but I'm a little concerned about thermal throttling. I'll be installing a heatsink either way (and by heat sink, I mean a piece of copper thermal-glued to the chips, possibly with some kind of heat pad interfacing with the case frame/side panel)
Click to expand...

I haven't seen any problems in my testing. The chips run cooler than I expected.

lPlyoou.jpg

mVrUJHH.jpg


hyperborea said:
What is this screen/carrying case combo?
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It's a GAEMS Case, maybe a Vanguard. I have several I purchased for demoing the S4 Mini system myself. Two are pretty much unused and if you contact me about them when you purchase an S4 I can cut you a deal. But no selling on this board, so I'll leave it at that.
 
BTW using a can of VHT Vinyl Dye you can dye those Noctua fans black and not worry about paint build up. I used to hate how much they stood out...but now I kinda embrace them as a unique look.
 
NFC said:
BTW using a can of VHT Vinyl Dye you can dye those Noctua fans black and not worry about paint build up. I used to hate how much they stood out...but now I kinda embrace them as a unique look.
Click to expand...

Awesome, I'll look into that. That's the same stuff you used on the cables as well IIRC.
 
This case is beyond awesome.

6700T + picoPSU + short GTX 950 v2 (75W PEG-less just released by asus/msi) + m.2 pcie 4x ssd

makes a beastly low power 4.2L system with full HEVC decoding capabilities, and super neat cabling (more like "near zero" cabling with the picoPSU and the PEG-less GTX 950)

I was wondering, let's say I want to dust filter the sides and maybe I'm also paranoid about little pieces of metal from a messy enviroment (like little screws) falling through the vents, would attaching something like this magnetic/adhesive filter to the inner side of the panels be possible or wise:

Rectangle Dust Filter 240mm

?

What would the right size be to filter every vent of the side panels while at the same time concealing (from outside view) the magnetic/adhesive frame of the DEMCI filter?

One could even get creative with the available mesh colors to create see-through-the-vents effects :)

Anyway this is all really exciting, and will be even more so when kaby lake + nvdia Pascal + intel Optane SSDs will be available.
 
Is it Pascal yet? I need this case in my life but I can't justify it until a mini Pascal card comes out that's better than my full-size 970... :(

Also wow, I didn't realize just how amazing that gunmetal powdercoat looks... I almost like it better than the navy blue, and that's saying a lot. How much extra does the navy blue cost anyway? And you said the gunmetal was going to be around 50-60 dollars because you're doing it in bulk, right?
 
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superblockio said:
Is it Pascal yet?
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No, just a lower power version of Maxwell GM206, in the form of a couple (both long and ITX-sized) of bus powered GTX 950.

It's notable for two reasons
- it's the first time in 2 years (since 750ti) a PEG-less nvidia card is out
- contrary to 750TIs (and any AMD card), GTX 950s are perfect 4K HEVC HDMI 2.0 cards for HTPCs

The relevant cards (ITX-sized) for this build are

- Asus MINI-GTX950-2G
MINI-GTX950-2G - Overview

- MSI GTX 950 2GD5T OCV2


One less cable in the case...with much more capability than an old 750ti...
 
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smaller said:
This case is beyond awesome.

6700T + picoPSU + short GTX 950 v2 (75W PEG-less just released by asus/msi) + m.2 pcie 4x ssd

makes a beastly low power 4.2L system with full HEVC decoding capabilities, and super neat cabling (more like "near zero" cabling with the picoPSU and the PEG-less GTX 950)

I was wondering, let's say I want to dust filter the sides and maybe I'm also paranoid about little pieces of metal from a messy enviroment (like little screws) falling through the vents, would attaching something like this magnetic/adhesive filter to the inner side of the panels be possible or wise:

Rectangle Dust Filter 240mm

?

What would the right size be to filter every vent of the side panels while at the same time concealing (from outside view) the magnetic/adhesive frame of the DEMCI filter?

One could even get creative with the available mesh colors to create see-through-the-vents effects :)

Anyway this is all really exciting, and will be even more so when kaby lake + nvdia Pascal + intel Optane SSDs will be available.
Click to expand...


7.5" x 11" would safely cover the vent holes. The system is aluminum, however, so magnetic strips won't work, I'm afraid. I've mentioned this before--although I haven't ever tested filters for this chassis, there are no intake or exhaust fans. The system could bake with mesh covering the filters.

I would recommend standing the system upright with the bezel side as the base if you are worried about stuff falling through. Also in this position dust buildup is minimal.


Thank you for your compliments!!! :D



superblockio said:
Is it Pascal yet? I need this case in my life but I can't justify it until a mini Pascal card comes out that's better than my full-size 970... :(

Also wow, I didn't realize just how amazing that gunmetal powdercoat looks... I almost like it better than the navy blue, and that's saying a lot. How much extra does the navy blue cost anyway? And you said the gunmetal was going to be around 50-60 dollars because you're doing it in bulk, right?
Click to expand...

Thanks man. Everything was going amazing for my "low cost" gunmetal, but we have had some major setbacks. I'm trying to resolve them but at this point I can't promise anything despite being 99% sure it was going to work out before. The Navy Velure Wrinkle is a $150 option.
 
smaller said:
No, just a lower power version of Maxwell GM206
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Well that's pretty cool I suppose. I just hope we don't have to wait too long for ITX-sized 970 equivalents when they unveil the new Pascal cards. The wait to Pascal is long enough as it is!
NFC said:
Thanks man. Everything was going amazing for my "low cost" gunmetal, but we have had some major setbacks. I'm trying to resolve them but at this point I can't promise anything despite being 99% sure it was going to work out before. The Navy Velure Wrinkle is a $150 option.
Click to expand...
Oh well, no problem. Honestly, I don't think I'd mind paying full price for it. Also... Just how much extra are custom colors that you haven't done yet? Like, say I wanted kind of a dark metallic purple. Not glossy like the orange one, more like the texture of the navy velure. I don't know how easy or hard that is, and maybe I shouldn't be asking in the forum but oh well. :D
 
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What is the best cpu cooler for this case? I'm guessing most are just using 65W cpus at most, anybody undervolting their unlocked i5/i7 skylakes?
 
I plan on buying a s4 in the coming weeks but in the mean time I have been underclocking/undervolting my 4790k. I don't have a killowatt but have been using hwmoniter to track my before and after cpu wattage.

With all default settings and turbo boost enabled, hwmoniter is showing cpu wattage at ~89 Watts under 100% load. I then set voltage to 0.800 (lowest my motherboard will let me go) and set all cores to 3.5ghz (board won't let me set per core clocks under default turbo speeds), I was hitting around ~58 Watts. Changing clock speeds to 3.2ghz reduced wattage to right around ~45.

Overall I am very happy with the results, cpu still performs even better then I thought it would. Tempatures also dropped around 15c after the test, that's using a cryorig c7. Ran valley and heaven as well with scores staying around 10 points from one another.
 
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I wanted to put feet on my S4 when it's horizontally oriented, but wanted to be able to remove them for vertical orientation....
So I bought some magnets...
06401888_01_52c7e5ec-e232-4023-bdf0-5dc6f31e15f9_grande.jpeg

adhesive-10mm-dia-x-1mm-n42-neodymium-magnet-0-58kg-pull-p2823-1603_image.jpg


I put the thin neodymium magnets on the inside of the top cover of the S4. The magnets have adhesive on one side, making the install very easy.
Now I just align the magnets on the other side, until they find the internal magnets and click.
 
rpc72 said:
I wanted to put feet on my S4 when it's horizontally oriented, but wanted to be able to remove them for vertical orientation....
So I bought some magnets...

<snip>


I put the thin neodymium magnets on the inside of the top cover of the S4. The magnets have adhesive on one side, making the install very easy.
Now I just align the magnets on the other side, until they find the internal magnets and click.
Click to expand...

Incredibly cool idea. Think I'll try this out myself if that's ok
 
rpc72 said:
I wanted to put feet on my S4 when it's horizontally oriented, but wanted to be able to remove them for vertical orientation....
So I bought some magnets...

I put the thin neodymium magnets on the inside of the top cover of the S4. The magnets have adhesive on one side, making the install very easy.
Now I just align the magnets on the other side, until they find the internal magnets and click.
Click to expand...


Are you some kind of wizard?
 
eutholevonik said:
I plan on buying a s4 in the coming weeks but in the mean time I have been underclocking/undervolting my 4790k. I don't have a killowatt but have been using hwmoniter to track my before and after cpu wattage.

With all default settings and turbo boost enabled, hwmoniter is showing cpu wattage at ~89 Watts under 100% load. I then set voltage to 0.800 (lowest my motherboard will let me go) and set all cores to 3.5ghz (board won't let me set per core clocks under default turbo speeds), I was hitting around ~58 Watts. Changing clock speeds to 3.2ghz reduced wattage to right around ~45.

Overall I am very happy with the results, cpu still performs even better then I thought it would. Tempatures also dropped around 15c after the test, that's using a cryorig c7. Ran valley and heaven as well with scores staying around 10 points from one another.
Click to expand...

Oh, so the C7 DOES fit? That's exciting! Might consider switching over to that from the L9i considering those temps...

rpc72 said:
Let me know what feet you end up using :)
Click to expand...

Will definitely do that!
 
Guys, Sapphire is doing a Year of the Nitro giveaway this month for a S4 Mini and a R9 380 4GB Nitro.

There aren't alot of hoops to jump through, so might as well take advantage of it if either of these prizes interests you!

Year of the Nitro - April Giveaway
 
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