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

Cristan said:
AMD just announced the RX480 on Computex. It will be fast enough for VR and will cost a mere $199. It should go on sale at June 29, so it should be well on time for the A4-SFX. I'm not a 100% sure whether I will get one, but I'll definitely check out the benchmarks when it arrives.
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Yeah ... and rather disappointing. It requires two of them in CrossFire to even try and match the 1080 GTX ... and they didn't even mention the 1070, which would be roughly on par with these in CrossFire ... and for less money. This is not as good of a deal as it seems, honestly ... and since you need two of these to be on par with NVIDIA's current offerings, it wouldn't make much sense to just buy one of these if you're trying to pack as much power into your SFF case as possible.
 
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cowsgomoo2 said:
Not sure anyone posted this before, but I found another compatible cooler.
It says in the specs that it's 45mm high.
http://www.idcooling.com/Product/detail/id/21/name/IS-40
Also, if people don't want to pay out the ass for the 90mmx14mm thick Noctua fan, they have the 90mmx15mm PWM fan sold separately for a lot cheaper.
IS-40.png
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Best budget heatsink for this case - can handle stock only. C7 maybe ~4Ghz but only LP53 with Noctua/Thermalright fan can go further since it's all copper. Absolute best is the X99 Xeon one - Dynatron T318 as someone else was trying ITT but only works on particular m-itx mobo (narrow).

But it might be possible to do a passive cooling solution with Dynatron K129 - Dynatron Corporation - the leading manufacturer of CPU cooling products.

316WX5QjRXL.jpg


With a 6700K it should in theory work at stock (and you can always undervolt and/or underclock and/or delid it).

Get a passive GPU (or just set the fan speed really low on the non-reference 1070/R9 480), Corsair SF600 (since it remains under 30db at ~300W which the new cards shouldn't hit) and voila - silent PC :)
With full passive there's no fans as well! All in 7.25L.
 
The Fragile said:
Yeah ... and rather disappointing. It requires two of them in CrossFire to even try and match the 1080 GTX ... and they didn't even mention the 1070, which would be roughly on par with these in CrossFire ... and for less money. This is not as good of a deal as it seems, honestly ... and since you need two of these to be on par with NVIDIA's current offerings, it wouldn't make much sense to just buy one of these if you're trying to pack as much power into your SFF case as possible.
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While that may be true, the 1080 costs three times as much as many people are willing to pay for a GPU. If the X480 lands at £200, it might still be the best many can/want to afford :)
 
I looked up the LP53 and while it would seem to cool alot better then the C7, the pricing throws me off massively. I can only find it for like 60+20-40 shipping or 100 with 20 shipping. Nah I'm good with a $15 C7 and a using noctua's 120mm fan clips on a Prolimatech Pro-usv14 or a Coolermaster XtraFlow 120mm slim.
 
cowsgomoo2 said:
Not sure anyone posted this before, but I found another compatible cooler.
It says in the specs that it's 45mm high.
http://www.idcooling.com/Product/detail/id/21/name/IS-40
Also, if people don't want to pay out the ass for the 90mmx14mm thick Noctua fan, they have the 90mmx15mm PWM fan sold separately for a lot cheaper.
IS-40.png
Click to expand...

Have not tried this, but I have this fan the the noctua one, and this is equally as good as the noctua one. It super cheap to buy separately.
 
KizakuraVolt said:
I looked up the LP53 and while it would seem to cool alot better then the C7, the pricing throws me off massively. I can only find it for like 60+20-40 shipping or 100 with 20 shipping. Nah I'm good with a $15 C7 and a using noctua's 120mm fan clips on a Prolimatech Pro-usv14 or a Coolermaster XtraFlow 120mm slim.
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I am not quite sure why a number of people believe that the LP53 will perform better in this case. Dan's tests (linked below) between the two, while may not be 100% comparable showed the C7 appears to perform a decent amount better, at least when the LP53 is paired with the Thermalright TR-TY100. I wonder how long we will have to wait for a better sub 48mm height cooler to come out, perhaps a wider cooler that goes out of the Intel keep-out zones. Might be nice to have a low profile cooler with direct-contact heat-pipes as well.
DAN A4-SFX: The smallest gaming case in the world
 
KarateOC said:
I am not quite sure why a number of people believe that the LP53 will perform better in this case. Dan's tests (linked below) between the two, while may not be 100% comparable showed the C7 appears to perform a decent amount better, at least when the LP53 is paired with the Thermalright TR-TY100. I wonder how long we will have to wait for a better sub 48mm height cooler to come out, perhaps a wider cooler that goes out of the Intel keep-out zones. Might be nice to have a low profile cooler with direct-contact heat-pipes as well.
DAN A4-SFX: The smallest gaming case in the world
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The results were calculated on a lower tdp based cpu.

The only way to figure this out completely is for the case to come out and to test both. Or someone to get the c7, lp53 and both fans and test it.

I'm doing a power build for the first one and might do a full passive one for a relative or friend.

Or...



If the C1 is barely trading blows with the LP53 (running stock fan) noctua fan will easily beat the c7 and c1.

C1 > C7 and its much taller so its higher performance as well. Therefore c7 loses to LP53.

Of course, none of this matters if you're not overclocking - just get a C7 and you'll be set. This is mainly for those going to Overclock to 4GHz+ On ivy/broadwell-E/Skylake.

chx until someone tests (or you're willing to also buy) a passive copper block dynatec K129 for the CPU to see if it'll suffice for stock we can't be certain.
The case has enough open vents though for airflow and the GPU might just be enough for airflow movement if it's got fans (assuming a modern passive block GPU exists at some point) due to the 7.25L size.
 
50 more silver cases were added to the kickstarter! (from 350 to 400)
I probably will back it but about 5 months is a long time to wait
 
raildex1 said:
But it might be possible to do a passive cooling solution with Dynatron K129
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that would never work. passive systems use heatsinks bigger than anything that can fit in this case. skylake is very efficient, but it would still throttle down very quickly using a sandwich for a heatsink
 
What protection do we have as a buyer? I'm not implying any red flags, but I've never been part of a kickstarter campaign.
 
Honestly, next to no protection from Kickstarter. You're not explicitly buying a case, you're funding a project. The campaign must make 'every reasonable effort' to deliver on all rewards, but stuff happens all the time where projects have trouble.
 
Hanakuso said:
What protection do we have as a buyer? I'm not implying any red flags, but I've never been part of a kickstarter campaign.
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As for the kickstarter, you're just hoping everything goes well and the creator will fulfill his promises if everything goes smoothly. Dondan is working with Lian-Li and 3M, two big name companies. As for the product itself, you get a 2 year warranty.
 
Hanakuso: It is like JoeH823 and raazman said. The best thing you can do is read this thread to form an opinion about me. You will see I do all the best I can, to achieve my goals. I have strong partners like 3M and Lian Li that help me to make it happen. So you have to decide if you trust or not.
 
dondan said:
Hanakuso: It is like JoeH823 and raazman said. The best thing you can do is read this thread to form an opinion about me. You will see I do all the best I can, to achieve my goals. I have strong partners like 3M and Lian Li that help me to make it happen. So you have to decide if you trust or not.
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I've been following this thread for about a year and already bought 5 CPU coolers for this case alone. (I found the LP53 + slim 15mm Delta fan to work the best).

The main reason I feel comfortable buying this case is you seem upfront. It just would of been nice to have some type of protection while we wait.
 
Hanakuso said:
I've been following this thread for about a year and already bought 5 CPU coolers for this case alone. (I found the LP53 + slim 15mm Delta fan to work the best).

The main reason I feel comfortable buying this case is you seem upfront. It just would of been nice to have some type of protection while we wait.
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Have you tested the coolers in a case similar to this one? I'd like to see a more extensive tests on coolers from Dondan as there are conflicting benchmarks on other sites.
 
MrLahn said:
While that may be true, the 1080 costs three times as much as many people are willing to pay for a GPU. If the X480 lands at £200, it might still be the best many can/want to afford :)
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The 1070 is $380 ... which is less than two of these. They're demonstrating two of these to meet the 1080 for $500 (which is only $100 less than the 1080, but uses nearly twice the wattage and requires two cards). The 1070 is $120 less than this in a single card. This might be a good budget card for use as a single card, but it's a joke for using two of them (not to mention the space that takes up). And since we're in a SFF thread ... the 1070 would make a lot more sense for price-to-power than this AMD card. I'm just failing to see the appeal unless all you're planning on doing is VR, since it's optimized for it. But even then ... I'd still rather have a 1070, which according to recent benchmarks is going toe to toe with the Titan X and 980 Ti and even beating them in certain areas. I'll wait and see benchmarks before passing judgment. The AMD video left a lot to be desired.
 
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raazman said:
Have you tested the coolers in a case similar to this one? I'd like to see a more extensive tests on coolers from Dondan as there are conflicting benchmarks on other sites.
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I tested them bare with my Ncase M1 side panel sitting 1-5mm away, depending on the height of the cooler.

Nothing scientific, just a few benchmarks and stability test. Worse result was the ID-Cooling IS-VC45. Best was LP53 + Delta fan.
 
Great work Dan i'm in for a black one.

I need some advice on CPU and mobo. 6600K with z170 or 6700 with cheeper mobo? The OC will be limited by the C7 and the cost will be similar. I will only game on it.
Any mobo that will look great with the C7?
 
Hi dan
What is the exact dimension from the PSU to the left side panel in the GPU area is it 45mm like the max width for a GPU? Or is there some more room :)?
Cheers
 
Here is a updated list for GTX 1080 compatibility (no warranty on accuracy):

Asus (measure the height from bottom of PCIe Socket to top)
  • ASUS ROG Strix GeForce GTX 1080 OC = fit (2mm over dualslot isn't a problem)

EVGA (measure the height from bottom of slot bracket to top)
  • EVGA GTX 1080 = fit
  • EVGA GTX 1080 ACX 3.0 = fit
  • EVGA GTX 1080 SC GAMING ACX 3.0 = fit

Gainward
  • Gainward GTX 1080 Phoenix = incompatible in width
  • Gainward GTX 1080 Phoenix GS = incompatible in width

Gigabyte
  • Gigabyte GTX 1080 G1 = no data (from the pictures compatible)

Inno3D
  • Inno3D GTX 1080 HerculeZ Twin X2 = no data (from the pictures compatible)
  • Inno3D iChill GeForce GTX 1080 X4 = incompatible in width and length
  • Inno3D iChill GeForce GTX 1080 X3 = incompatible in width and length

KFA2
  • KFA² GeForce GTX 1080 = fit
  • KFA² GeForce GTX 1080 EX OC = fit

MSI (measure the height from bottom of PCIe Socket to top)
  • MSI GTX 1080 AERO 8G = fit
  • MSI GTX 1080 AERO 8G OC = fit
  • MSI GTX 1080 GAMING X 8G = could be to high (too high power socket)
  • MSI GTX 1080 ARMOR 8G = could be to high (too high power socket)
  • MSI GTX 1080 ARMOR 8G OC = could be to high (too high power socket)

Palit
  • Palit GeForce GTX 1080 GameRock = incompatible in width
  • Palit GeForce GTX 1080 JetStream = incompatible in width
  • Palit GeForce GTX 1080 Super JetStream = incompatible in width

Zotac
  • Zotac GTX 1080 AMP! = no data (from the pictures compatible)
  • Zotac GTX 1080 AMP! Extreme = incompatible in width
 
Boil said:
How is the air going to get into the chassis to feed the GPU…?!?
Click to expand...

Well the mod will be more like opening up the case by the aluminium distancer, dependeing how much the gpu cooler are sticking out.

Curiositie said:
If anyone had even the smallest amount of doubt as to if the Gigabyte 1080 XTREEEEME would fit in the A4, doubt no more! :p
Click to expand...

Yeah, I hade this on my mind actually... but I think I will get the Asus ROG once the 1080TI is coming out.
 
dondan said:
Here is a updated list for GTX 1080 compatibility (no warranty on accuracy):

Asus (measure the height from bottom of PCIe Socket to top)
  • ASUS ROG Strix GeForce GTX 1080 OC = fit (2mm over dualslot isn't a problem)

EVGA (measure the height from bottom of slot bracket to top)
  • EVGA GTX 1080 = fit
  • EVGA GTX 1080 ACX 3.0 = fit
  • EVGA GTX 1080 SC GAMING ACX 3.0 = fit

Gainward
  • Gainward GTX 1080 Phoenix = incompatible in width
  • Gainward GTX 1080 Phoenix GS = incompatible in width

Gigabyte
  • Gigabyte GTX 1080 G1 = no data (from the pictures compatible)

Inno3D
  • Inno3D GTX 1080 HerculeZ Twin X2 = no data (from the pictures compatible)
  • Inno3D iChill GeForce GTX 1080 X4 = incompatible in width and length
  • Inno3D iChill GeForce GTX 1080 X3 = incompatible in width and length

KFA2
  • KFA² GeForce GTX 1080 = fit
  • KFA² GeForce GTX 1080 EX OC = fit

MSI (measure the height from bottom of PCIe Socket to top)
  • MSI GTX 1080 AERO 8G = fit
  • MSI GTX 1080 AERO 8G OC = fit
  • MSI GTX 1080 GAMING X 8G = could be to high (too high power socket)
  • MSI GTX 1080 ARMOR 8G = could be to high (too high power socket)
  • MSI GTX 1080 ARMOR 8G OC = could be to high (too high power socket)

Palit
  • Palit GeForce GTX 1080 GameRock = incompatible in width
  • Palit GeForce GTX 1080 JetStream = incompatible in width
  • Palit GeForce GTX 1080 Super JetStream = incompatible in width

Zotac
  • Zotac GTX 1080 AMP! = no data (from the pictures compatible)
  • Zotac GTX 1080 AMP! Extreme = incompatible in width
Click to expand...
Nice!
 
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Ya know, with Pascal being released, I wonder if there will be any actual good SFF gpus.. I wouldn't mind a 1070 in this if it saved room.

And when I mean SFF gpus I mean like half height cards. Having a 1070 the size of the MSI 750ti? YAS PLZ
 
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KizakuraVolt said:
Ya know, with Pascal being released, I wonder if there will be any actual good SFF gpus.. I wouldn't mind a 1070 in this if it saved room.

And when I mean SFF gpus I mean like half height cards. Having a 1070 the size of the MSI 750ti? YAS PLZ
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While that would be neat, I really doubt it will happen.
The 1070 is a 150w card like the 980, and we never even saw short 980's. :(
 
Curiositie said:
While that would be neat, I really doubt it will happen.
The 1070 is a 150w card like the 980, and we never even saw short 980's. :(
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But we HAVE seen mITX-sized 970s… And those used around 145 watts or so…

I am pretty sure we will see some mITX-sized 1070s, and I can only HOPE we might see a mITX-sized 1080…!

Maybe the 1070s will follow in the path of the reference 970s; stripping them of their outer housing, heatsink, and blower fan will result in a short board like one would see when stripping down a reference 970…?!?

Then a full-coverage water block & backplate turn the remainder into a water-cooling capable mITX-sized GPU…! ;^p

EVGA-GeForce-GTX-970-4GB-GDDR5-%2804G-P4-1970%29.jpg


evga970pcb.jpg


ek-fc-970-gtx_na_fit_800.jpg


EKFC970-GTX_Backplate---Black_front_800.jpg


Taa daa…! Full-length reference card becomes mITX length water cooled card…!

;^p
 
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Rorschach said:
dondan, regarding the MSI 1080, on the website it says it is 140 mm tall.

GTX 1080 GAMING X 8G | MSI Global | Graphics card - The world leader in display performance

Do you thing something like this will increase the odds of fitment?

Sleeved PCI-E 6 pin 90 deg. forward & left pwr extender 4" low profile ALL BLK

and 1x 8 pin variant but i cant't find one right now.
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According to one of Dans CAD drawings on another forum it looks like there is closer to 152mm clearance from the bottom of the PCI-e slot to the roof of the case, but only 142mm to the push pins, so if you can keep clear of the push pins it might be alright. I would like to see more CAD drawings showing the absolute limits of the other dimensions (height, length, width) of videos cards that can fit in this case.

Dan A4 SFX Future Build
 
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Excellent. I see. Thank you. I want the 1070 MSI Gaming and i presume it will be the same as the 1080, and as they say hope for the best, prepare for the worst.
 
Boil said:
But we HAVE seen mITX-sized 970s… And those used around 145 watts or so…

I am pretty sure we will see some mITX-sized 1070s, and I can only HOPE we might see a mITX-sized 1080…!

Maybe the 1070s will follow in the path of the reference 970s; stripping them of their outer housing, heatsink, and blower fan will result in a short board like one would see when stripping down a reference 970…?!?
Taa daa…! Full-length reference card becomes mITX length water cooled card…!

;^p
Click to expand...

I was also hoping we'd see some GTX 1070's with short PCBs (not quite mITX) like the GTX 970. The GTX 970's that we saw like this all used blower coolers, and were made by PNY, EVGA, and GALAX. So far, the only other blower style cooler that's been pictured that's not founders edition on the GTX 1070 is GALAX's:
Galax to have three GTX 1070 graphics cards - Galax - News - ocaholic

If you look closely, you can see on the custom blower cooler pic that the PCB extends the entire length of the cooler, suggesting that this will not be a short PCB design like we saw with the GTX 1070 :(

I think we'll have to wait for some actual mITX GTX 1070's–– which I bet will come sooner or later. Does anyone remember how long it took for mITX 970's to release after the initial wave of 970's? My recollection was GTX 970 launch in September 2014, ITX sized variants in December 2014.
 
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