DAN A4-SFX: The smallest gaming case in the world

Boil said:
I am locked into the Intel CPUs, as I am building a Hackintosh…

I am looking at getting the i5 6600 myself; the 65w power draw seems good to me for a SFF chassis…
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That's why I like it.

Plus being so picky about noise levels overclocking and me don't mesh too well. especially with smaller coolers.


The 6600T has a 35W TDP ;)

The only downside to that though is that the only place I've found it so far is on Amazon for $280. Not sure that TDP drop is worth $50.
 
Ouch…! I have seen the i5 6600 going for as low as 185 bucks on Newegg, currently sitting at 205 bucks…

Yeah, I do not know if I would want to pay the difference for the lesser wattage chip…
 
You could always undervolt your chip or set a TDP limit in the BIOS if your board supports that.
 
It seems a bit silly to be questioning a ~50% price bump for a chip thats half the TDP. It should go without saying that the T model is the among the cream of the crop (performance per watt-wise) and should command a bit of a price premium. OTOH, if you're going to add a discrete GPU on air, that cooler is going to likely dominate the noise profile at load, and a low-TDP CPU may not justify the premium.
 
It's not that I don't think the extra cost isn't worth it in general, more than I'm not sure it's worth it to me.

I'll make my decision once I see what Zen has to offer, and what the C7 sounds like in person. :)

Also, TechPowerUP reviewed the C7 today.
 
Hi all! New to posting here after lurking for awhile, obligatory 'case is awesome, cant wait to get it, etc'.

I have a couple questions about my build for the upcoming case and I thought the discussion here would be a good place! I was originally planning on 980ti/4790k, and I was also interested in getting an M.2 drive for the OS. I wasn't so sure about putting the drive behind the mobo, but after seeing the posts above about U.2 SSDs, I will probably be doing that instead.

In that case, Will I be able to get a socket 1150 motherboard with U.2 support, or will I need to move to 1151 and get a Skylake processor? I suppose it wouldn't hurt, but I feel that a 4790k might be a little cheaper when it's time to buy. I would also assume that more motherboard will be released following the ASUS Impact VIII that also support U.2.

My second question is whether or not a reference GPU design is necessary in this case. I was planning on the MSI 980ti Twin Frozr Gaming card, but if the case design really does cater to reference designs better, I can get one of those instead.

Let me know if I can clarify anything, or if I did something wrong here. Thanks!
 
As far as I know the Impact VIII is the first/ only motherboard (Definitely first and only ITX mobo) to have U.2 built in, until the Impact VIII you had to use the Hyperkit which connected through M.2. (Too thick to put behind the mobo)

I don't think it caters to one or the other significantly, but I think dondan determined that non-reference open air coolers did/ do slightly better.
 
CanadianLazrBear said:
Hi all! New to posting here after lurking for awhile, obligatory 'case is awesome, cant wait to get it, etc'.

I have a couple questions about my build for the upcoming case and I thought the discussion here would be a good place! I was originally planning on 980ti/4790k, and I was also interested in getting an M.2 drive for the OS. I wasn't so sure about putting the drive behind the mobo, but after seeing the posts above about U.2 SSDs, I will probably be doing that instead.

In that case, Will I be able to get a socket 1150 motherboard with U.2 support, or will I need to move to 1151 and get a Skylake processor? I suppose it wouldn't hurt, but I feel that a 4790k might be a little cheaper when it's time to buy. I would also assume that more motherboard will be released following the ASUS Impact VIII that also support U.2.

My second question is whether or not a reference GPU design is necessary in this case. I was planning on the MSI 980ti Twin Frozr Gaming card, but if the case design really does cater to reference designs better, I can get one of those instead.

Let me know if I can clarify anything, or if I did something wrong here. Thanks!
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If there are no LGA 1150 boards with U.2 support it may be possible to use an M.2 to U.2 adapter on an LGA 1150 board that has an M.2 slot. An important thing to keep in mind is that LGA 1150 doesn't have the extra PCIe lanes on the chipset to support PCIe 3.0 x4 speeds on the M.2 slot without taking some away from the 16x slot on the GPU. Thus, to use these super fast PCIe 3.0 x4 SSDs your GPU will be operating at PCIe 3.0 8x bandwidth. Shouldn't be a major bottleneck though!

Given that there is great airflow on the side of the case for the GPU fans to draw cool air from the outside you should be okay without going with a reference blower design!
 
Curiositie said:
As far as I know the Impact VIII is the first/ only motherboard (Definitely first and only ITX mobo) to have U.2 built in, until the Impact VIII you had to use the Hyperkit which connected through M.2. (Too thick to put behind the mobo)

I don't think it caters to one or the other significantly, but I think dondan determined that non-reference open air coolers did/ do slightly better.
Click to expand...

jb1 said:
If there are no LGA 1150 boards with U.2 support it may be possible to use an M.2 to U.2 adapter on an LGA 1150 board that has an M.2 slot. An important thing to keep in mind is that LGA 1150 doesn't have the extra PCIe lanes on the chipset to support PCIe 3.0 x4 speeds on the M.2 slot without taking some away from the 16x slot on the GPU. Thus, to use these super fast PCIe 3.0 x4 SSDs your GPU will be operating at PCIe 3.0 8x bandwidth. Shouldn't be a major bottleneck though!

Given that there is great airflow on the side of the case for the GPU fans to draw cool air from the outside you should be okay without going with a reference blower design!
Click to expand...

Thanks! I think I'll stick with my idea of using an open air cooled GPU. As far as the M.2/U.2 drive, I didn't know that LGA 1150 lacked the extra PCIe lanes. I guess for the time being I will have to plan around 1151. ;)

I'm a bit relieved that I won't have to deal with finding a PCIe x4 M.2 drive that fits on the back of a motherboard, but now I'm hoping to find a cheaper U.2 SSD, or that the Intel 750 drops a bit in price for the 400 gb drive.
 
The Noctua cooler they're using in their charts is the L9x65, not the L9i.

The L9x65 doesn't fit in the A4. :)

nhl9x6516.jpg
 
I saw Steve-S was being active on Overclock.net, and asked him about the availability for the C7.
Got this response.

I'm kind of embarrassed by how excited I am to hear this.

Steve-S said:
Some shipping and supply issues caused major delays to our USA shipment. But from what I am hearing, it will be all in Newegg's warehouse......... TOMORROW!!!!
Give and take 1~2 business for processing tops, the C7 should be available on Newegg before the end of the week!
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TunnelVision said:
I'm intrigued by the idea of de-lidding a Skylake processor for low temps and noise with these small coolers.
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IKR? It sounds like the perfect plan! Just delid and do it right and get your rig both quieter and faster!
Too much fear of damaging the chip, though...
 
As as isn't soldering the heatspreader it can worth it willing take risk.

Personally once I can afford to upgrade to skylake I'll try delidding my 3570K.
If I fail, I'll upgrade, if I succeed, I keep the 3570K.
 
Because I don't use a logo at the front, to have a very clean front, I want to ask you what logo on the backside do you like more?

Bottom or Top?

logo.jpg4eu6u.jpg
 
I agree, the bottom logo looks more subtle, and fits in better. It kinda mirrors the cutout above the PCIE slots. :)
 
I also like the bottom logo more on the back for the reasons above.

Additionally, I see you have a "No. 00001" on the logo. I hope you'll include these individual unit numbers for the final run!
 
I agree. Bottom looks better.

I just became aware of this case. I'm absolutely in love with it. I'll be building a tiny, SFF machine for my wife soon and am looking into the smallest cases possible. It's down to this or the Osmi.
 
Ok, thank you all for the feedback, then I will use the bottom location ;)
 
I saw that on OCN and I hope some people in the SoCal area are interested in pitching in :p

Then again my temps barely hit 60c
 
ElAntonius said:
Really the most important comparison as it pertains to this case is how it does vs the L9I and the LP53/Thermalright combo. The former is, I'm guessing, the standard choice for this case, and the latter represents (IIRC) the best performance.

If it performs well without the inconvenience of the LP53/Thermalright combo it's going to be a solid winner.
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Which Thermalright fan are you referring to?
 
So I've been lurking forever but after seeing this case, I had to join. Its a beautiful work of art.

Any word/ or estimated time length when we will be able to purchase it in the US.
 
As of how it looks now, expect around February to March next year. But if dondans deal with the reseller works, you will buy it from the reseller and get it quickly :)

@dondan The logo on the back. Is it a standard adhesive sticker or a metal plate?
 
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