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

I mean the backplate. I started wondering after reading this post at pcpartpicker. (ctrl+f "backplate" to get to the post) The builder fit it, but a commenter thought the backplate was on wrong (builder bent the backplate to put it on). Just want to verify this one way or another as whether I go M.2 or not is going to determine a lot of things. When I looked at all the LGA 1151 ITX mobo pictures that have M.2 on the back on Newegg, they are all in the same spot, so they would all be similarly blocked if that is indeed the case.
 
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It is possible that the (quite large) backplate of the C7 covers the m2, although Cryorig has provided an alternate mounting kit with just screws because of compatibility problems with the MOSFETS on the backside of the Z170i Pro Gaming. m2 will fit with it. If you bought one of the first C7, where it wasn't included, they send it to you for free if you ask for support.
 
I aswell am still on the fence about the i7-6700K vs i7-6700 topic. I was already leaning towards the 65W chip... until I've read this review of the i7-6700. This review indicates that the i7-6700K will only use ~5 Watts more power under heavy load than the i7-6700. Therefor undervolting the i7-6700K should give satisfactory results. Even if we were to compare both CPUs at stock clocks - 4x 3.7GHz vs 4x 4.0GHz (K) - the i7-6700K is 8.1% faster, while it is only 11.2% more expensive (measly 34€ at least here in Germany). I also expect the Cryorig C7 to show better cooling results in the A4-SFX as opposed to it being used in a closed case. So I'd probably shoot for the i7-6700K since it applies the full boost to all 4 cores, could be overclocked* and will hold a better resale value than its non-K sibling.

*would test if 4.2 were achievable at an acceptable sound level with a custom fan curve and adjusted voltages


Something else I was wondering... Why do people plan to use Nvidia's FE edition cards? dondan's tests showed that open air cooling solutions will yield better results in the A4-SFX (apart from all the other benefits you'll get).
 
itschop said:
Huge development to the M2 SSD space!

Some retailers already stocking!

512GB M2 SSD for $190
  • Max Sequential Read Up to 1775 MBps
  • Max Sequential Write Up to 560 MBps
  • 4KB Random Read Up to 128,500 IOPS
  • 4KB Random WriteUp to 128,000 IOPS
Click to expand...

Yeah, this one looks interesting the 512GB seem to have a good price/performance on paper. Hopefully reviews will begin pop up in a few days.
Especially interested in thermals comparing to Samsung 950 series.
 
Dethroy thanks for the post, I was also pretty torn on whether to go with the 95W TDP 6700K vs the non K but based on your post and the fact that the C7 is rated for 100W anyway (I have no intention to overclock) I think I will go 6700K or 7700K for the next build and take my chances. I don't expect much issues as mine is a pure gaming rig anyway

For the FE, the only reason I am using it is because I already have it. I prefer the blower design for my current ITX build which has very poor ventilation. If buying a new GPU for the Dan A4, I would definitely go AIB instead
 
spda242 said:
Yeah, this one looks interesting the 512GB seem to have a good price/performance on paper. Hopefully reviews will begin pop up in a few days.
Especially interested in thermals comparing to Samsung 950 series.
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Will be interesting to see how it faires against the Samsungs SM961 (which is imho the smarter pick than the 950 Pro). Prices seem to be almost identical: SM961 = 198€ vs 600P = 197€.
 
Dethroy said:
Will be interesting to see how it faires against the Samsungs SM961 (which is imho the smarter pick than the 950 Pro). Prices seem to be almost identical: SM961 = 198€ vs 600P = 197€.
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Haven't heard about 961 until you mentioned it :O Doesn't seem to available yet (Atleast not in my country)? Only two retailers even mentions it so far :( and the Intel one are scheduled to be here in a few days. Do we know when 961 will be available?

I might have to buy my new components (intended for A4-SFX) really soon due to that I have an annoying incompatiblity issue with my new Asus Strix 1080 (non OC) and my current Z77 MB.
 
Dethroy said:
Will be interesting to see how it faires against the Samsungs SM961 (which is imho the smarter pick than the 950 Pro). Prices seem to be almost identical: SM961 = 198€ vs 600P = 197€.
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According to what I've found, the SM951 has a strange throttling behavior where it drops to 2 MB/s when above a the threshold temperature and then goes full-speed once the SSD has cooled down. Check this review (in german, i've put it through google translate). So I would say that the SM951 would be a bad choice for in the A4-SFX. About the 950pro I'm also unsure since it also throttles but it's throttling behavior is much more stable, reaching a steady state speed.

I'm hoping the new intel drives will handle themselves much better at high temperatures, or at least cause the prices to drop.

spda242 said:
Haven't heard about 961 until you mentioned it :O Doesn't seem to available yet (Atleast not in my country)? Only two retailers even mentions it so far :( and the Intel one are scheduled to be here in a few days. Do we know when 961 will be available?

I might have to buy my new components (intended for A4-SFX) really soon due to that I have an annoying incompatiblity issue with my new Asus Strix 1080 (non OC) and my current Z77 MB.
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The SM951 launched as an OEM drive only, it was only sold to laptop manufacturers. However, since the 950pro didn't exist when it was released, and thus it was the only m.2 NVMe option at the time, many people boughed it through resellers such as ramcity
 
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If Samsung follows the way they did with the sm951, the 960 pro won't be that far from release. Correct me if i'm wrong but those OEM models don't get any official support or firmware updates.
 
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Jann5s said:
According to what I've found, the SM951 has a strange throttling behavior where it drops to 2 MB/s when above a the threshold temperature and then goes full-speed once the SSD has cooled down. Check this review (in german, i've put it through google translate). So I would say that the SM951 would be a bad choice for in the A4-SFX. About the 950pro I'm also unsure since it also throttles but it's throttling behavior is much more stable, reaching a steady state speed.

I'm hoping the new intel drives will handle themselves much better at high temperatures, or at least cause the prices to drop.



The SM951 launched as an OEM drive only, it was only sold to laptop manufacturers. However, since the 950pro didn't exist when it was released, and thus it was the only m.2 NVMe option at the time, many people boughed it through resellers such as ramcity
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Sorry to burst your bubble, but I wasn't writing about the SM951...
 
Hi guys,

I have a friend who is really in need of a Dan Case, if any of you want to sell yours now he will be more than happy to take yours off of your hands.

Please PM me or e-mail me on [email protected]


Thanks,
 
looking at this thread for a while before I made this account, like the guy above me's friend I too would like a case , my brother wants to make an identical build as me but his can wait, I bought cosmos 2 a few years ago thinking id never need a bigger case, now I want the most compact one
 
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rude said:
Hi guys,

I have a friend who is really in need of a Dan Case, if any of you want to sell yours now he will be more than happy to take yours off of your hands.

Please PM me or e-mail me on [email protected]


Thanks,
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Nobody has any, they are still being manufactured (except some prototypes for reviews). Your friend will be able to get one from a retailer shortly after backers get theirs, don't worry ;)
 
Dethroy said:
Sorry to burst your bubble, but I wasn't writing about the SM951...
Click to expand...

You are completely right, I didn't know of the sm961 and I was confusing it for the sm951. It turns out the sm961 is newer than the 950pro (and better and cheaper but with less 3 year warranty instead of 5 and without software)
 
CknSalad said:
For those still undecided about which psu to choose, FireWolfy states that the highest power consumption using a Kil-a-Watt was 255w using an i7 6700K and Gigabyte ITX 1070. Thus, it seems that a GTX 1080 and i7 should run fine with the Corsair SF450 as the wall power consumption should be around 300w.
Click to expand...

What about a few of the higher end 1080s that use almost as much power than a 980 Ti? I know the 980 Ti max draw hovers around 250 (with the exception the EVGA Classified at 300, for instance), but the EVGA 1080 FTW and Classified can draw 215 and 245 watts, respectively. If you're looking at either of those cards (and especially the Classified), does that change the answer at all?
 
barvis said:
What about a few of the higher end 1080s that use almost as much power than a 980 Ti? I know the 980 Ti hovers around 250 (with the exception the EVGA Classified at 300, for instance), but the EVGA 1080 FTW and Classified use 215 and 245 watts, respectively. If you're looking at either of those cards (and especially the Classified), does that change the answer at all?
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The EVGA 1080 FTW should be fine. Until the voltage is unlocked via a custom bios, the most I see a 1080 FTW use is around 200-205W. Typically, it should be around 315w (+/- 10W depending on game and settings). Take into account power efficiency (assume 90%), that would mean roughly 63%. At the very worst while gaming, you will see around 65% psu load, which is fine.

Honestly, unless you are thinking of selling your gpu (GTX 1080 FTW) as those tend to have better resale value, I would just go with the GTX 1080 SC. It uses the reference board, but cools a lot better than reference and overclocks still well that it falls 2-3 fps short on average. Overclocking in general just seems a bit underwhelming due to Pascal's efficiency. Maybe that will change with the 1080 TI, who knows.
 
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CknSalad said:
The EVGA 1080 FTW should be fine. Until the voltage is unlocked via a custom bios, the most I see a 1080 FTW use is around 200-205W. Typically, it should be around 315w (+/- 10W depending on game and settings). Take into account power efficiency (assume 90%), that would mean roughly 63%. At the very worst while gaming, you will see around 65% psu load, which is fine.

Honestly, unless you are thinking of selling your gpu (GTX 1080 FTW) as those tend to have better resale value, I would just go with the GTX 1080 SC. It uses the reference board, but cools a lot better than reference and overclocks still well that it falls 2-3 fps short on average. Overclocking in general just seems a bit underwhelming due to Pascal's efficiency. Maybe that will change with the 1080 TI, who knows.
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I was actually looking at the SC myself. :) I was honestly just surprised when I saw those high numbers on EVGA's website and grew curious.
 
barvis said:
I was actually looking at the SC myself. :) I was honestly just surprised when I saw those high numbers on EVGA's website and grew curious.
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It is merely saying the power envelope allowed is up to that due to more power phases (at least double the number) for the FTW or Classified.

Overclocking in Pascal is highly dependent on Silicon Lottery this time around, so it does not seem really matter which aftermarket air-cooling gpu brand (Asus, Gigabyte, EVGA, MSI, etc) you get unless you want to for up an extra $100 (classified, lightning) for possibly 3-5 more fps at most.

Modest gtx 1080 or 1070 overclocks seem to add only around 15W or so. I wonder how many people will actually put in a 980 TI or 1080 TI in their Dan A4.
 
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From what I see, it seems that you will range from 2050MHz - 2135 MHz peak for core speed. I think unfortunately the average seems to be around 2050 MHz, while 2088MHz is above average. It is unknown how conservative and thus how much a GTX 1080 can be overclocked with a more aggressive bios with unlocked voltage.

It is obvious that Nvidia's focus was a lot more on pushing efficiency and testing the 16nm process.
 
Ca11idus said:
I looked into doing the same thing with the same cooler. I would invert the power supply so the rad would dump the hot air in the psu and then the psu would dump it outside of the case. The Dan A4 only has some 40-45mm clearance for the gpu compartment. The rad with the fan is 37mm but you have the tubes that don't really bend that well and if it doesn't have enough clearance then it might just reduce or stop the flow of the coolant due to the extreme bends.

I would go with the C7 and a full sized GPU. But if you are brave I would love to see if it does fit.
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I made my own very simple 3D model based on the pictures of all the components and the case. If you use a SFX PSU instead of an SFX-L it should fit without a problem. With SFX-L it would probably not fit and if it does it would do so just barely. For me this isn't really a problem. I will just make it fit with the help of a 3D-printer, a mill and loads of other tools. xD
Of course I haven't bought the parts yet, the idea is to wait until the case arrives and then properly measure everything to make sure it can work.
 
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CrazyManCan said:
I was considering the ASUS Z170I PRO GAMING:
https://www.amazon.com/DisplayPort-...d=1472667323&sr=8-1&keywords=z170i+pro+gaming

Pairing that with a i7 6700k 4ghz. I saw in the OP he mentioned mITX support but just wanted to make sure there isn't some specific issues with certain motherboards since I've never done a mini build before.
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That's fair, I think because this is the internet "any" came across as more of a 'are there mitx mobos that fit this case' instead of what I think you meant which was more along the lines of 'are there any known compatibility issues with specific boards'

That one should be fine
 
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Philfreeze said:
I made my own very simple 3D model based on the pictures of all the components and the case. If you use a SFX PSU instead of an SFX-L it should fit without a problem. With SFX-L it would probably not fit and if it does it would do so just barely. For me this isn't really a problem. I will just make it fit with the help of a 3D-printer, a mill and loads of other tools. xD
Of course I haven't bought the parts yet, the idea is to wait until the case arrives and then properly measure everything to make sure it can work.
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Well, an SFX PSU will deff give it the clearance needed for the hoses. I might do the same thing now to keep my 5820k under 80°C during load.
 
Hello everyone,

Question in regards to the Dan Case A4-SFX as far as compatibility goes.

MOBO: Asrock X99-ITX
GPU: Pascal Titan X

With the above components in mind is it possible to fit an Intel 750 SSD beneath the GPU / PSU and connect to the motherboard via M.2 to U.2 add-on card? Or would adding such a card interfere with the selection limited selection of coolers for the CPU even further?

Thank you very much!
 
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Hello everyone,

Maybe I missed something in this thread, but is there any reason to wait the sending of PCI riser before starting the build of the cases ? It seems it could have been parallelized since Dan will verify and send himself each case to us. Sorry if this have been already discussed ...
 
Ooops said:
Hello everyone,

Maybe I missed something in this thread, but is there any reason to wait the sending of PCI riser before starting the build of the cases ? It seems it could have been parallelized since Dan will verify and send himself each case to us. Sorry if this have been already discussed ...
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I guess if 3M failed to deliver the risers permanently for some reason, Dan will not sit there with 1500 semi-unusable cases. He could then refund the money instead because he would be unable to deliver the case as advertised. Such a big company like 3M is not likely to screw up that badly though :D Another reason could be that the risers are directly delivered to Lian Li, so they may already assemble them inside the case right when it is made.
 
Probably thr latter: if the risers are delivered first, then when the cases are manufactured and assembled everything can be done all at once. If the risers are late, then the cases get manufactured, then assembled, then for every single case someone has to be paid of open up the case again, install the riser, QC to make sure that nothing got broken/damaged/displaced/misplaced during this step (e.g. ding the side panel, lose a screw, etc), and repackaged again. That's a lot of wasted labour costs.
 
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The risers will be directly dilivere to Lian Li. Lian Li will start manufacturing 4 weeks before the riser will arrive.
 
Victheslik said:
Hello everyone,

Question in regards to the Dan Case A4-SFX as far as compatibility goes.

MOBO: Asrock X99-ITX
GPU: Pascal Titan X

With the above components in mind is it possible to fit an Intel 750 SSD beneath the GPU / PSU and connect to the motherboard via M.2 to U.2 add-on card? Or would adding such a card interfere with the selection limited selection of coolers for the CPU even further?

Thank you very much!
Click to expand...

yeah it will work with an asus hyper kit but the ssd it taller then a standard ssd, why not get a Samsung 950 to fit the m.2? or an asus Maximus impact 8 mobo it has a u.2 connector , Im thinking of getting the 750 myself, but for mostly gaming its not going to but worth the price
 
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Ah yes, I hadn't seen it was screwed to the case, I thought the riser was just a spare part, you know wrapped in plastic. I understand now the process :).
 
I have decided to move on to a laptop instead of desktops for portability, I want to sell my kickstarter slot, any takers?
 
voodosheeb said:
yeah it will work with an asus hyper kit but the ssd it taller then a standard ssd, why not get a Samsung 950 to fit the m.2? or an asus Maximus impact 8 mobo it has a u.2 connector , Im thinking of getting the 750 myself, but for mostly gaming its not going to but worth the price
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No adapter, no bottleneck ... ;) It's my choice.

Disk 0: SAMSUNG 950 PRO M.2 512GB PCI-Express 3.0 x4
Max Sequential Read
Up to 2500 MBps
Max Sequential Write
Up to 1500 MBps
4KB Random Read
Up to 300,000 IOPS (4KB, QD32)
Up to 12,000 IOPS (4KB, QD1)
4KB Random Write
Up to 110,000 IOPS (4KB, QD32)
Up to 43,000 IOPS (4KB, QD1)
Disk 1: SAMSUNG 850 PRO 2.5" 2TB SATA III 3-D Vertical
Max Sequential Read
Up to 550 MBps
Max Sequential Write
Up to 520 MBps
4KB Random Read
Up to 100,000 IOPS
4KB Random Write
Up to 90,000 IOPS
 
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