NCASE M1: a crowdfunded Mini-ITX case (updates in first post)

WiSK said:
I tried an AX240 in the M1 and it's not very convenient. I would suggest the EX series as it has similar cores/fins, but is much thinner.
Click to expand...

thanks for the tip, was actually planning on using an AX240 as my main rad
 
noobzilla said:
Is there a deadline to order the extra panels or is it the same as the M1 (June 22, 2014)? I want to wait a little bit and see if no-ODD white panel set becomes available.
Click to expand...

Wondering the same thing, as I'm looking to order the same thing :D. Silver panel set with no ODD slot.
 
Gandergray said:
For additional information, particularly component information, see related Posts 10224, 11361 and 11378.

Not surprisingly, this combination of radiators and fans, i.e., the upper side panel mounted 120 radiator and bottom mounted 240 radiator, both with thinner fin density and slim fans, and the restricted air flow for the bottom mounted 240 radiator, does not have the cooling prowess of an upper side panel mounted 240 radiator with higher fin density and 25mm fans. Nonetheless, this configuration seems to be able to competently handle gaming and other GPU intensive tasks.

The results of the Heaven test are fairly representative of the higher temperatures that I observe while gaming.

The GPU water block seems to perform well. But, I’d like better cooling for the CPU, and thus, I’m considering direct mounting of the CPU cooler to the CPU die. See for example, the quality work performed by Idontcare: http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2285595 . Even if I don’t mount the CPU cooler directly to the CPU die, once I obtain one of the Silverstone 600 watt SFX power supplies, I’ll probably install a 240 radiator with higher fin density and 25mm fans on the upper side panel—as contemplated by others in this thread.

In order to improve airflow around the bottom mounted 240 radiator, I considered taller feet, but decided against them. I may, however, create short pedestals for the feet.

I think the bottom mounted 240 radiator is a viable option for supplemental cooling.
Click to expand...
Thanks for that bit of info Gandergray! :)

Phuncz said:
Could you link to those posts, please ? I don't think there is an easy way to find them.
Click to expand...
see related Posts 10224, 11361 and 11378.
;)
 
noobzilla said:
Is there a deadline to order the extra panels or is it the same as the M1 (June 22, 2014)? I want to wait a little bit and see if no-ODD white panel set becomes available.
Click to expand...
Everything will be combined into one production order, so yeah, deadline is the same.

WiSK said:
It might have been mentioned, and there's a link to Taiwan Postal Services. Here's my understanding of it.

TW Air $74: direct from factory, shipped by air; 10-14 days
TW Surface Airlift $49: direct from factory, low priority air shipping; 21-22 days
TW Surface $34: direct from factory, then very slowly across the ocean; 75-90 days
US Economy $20: guessing it goes first to Wahaha360, who then forwards it on; 6-8 weeks
Click to expand...
Yup. US economy will be USPS from the US.
 
Yay my Asus Z77 ITX and Noctua C14 arrived! But I think I may be screwed without the Ncase here yet. The C14 can only be installed in one orientation (heatpipes on rear fan), which will block my only exhaust. I guess I can just keep my case open for 2.5 months :p
 
noobzilla said:
Yay my Asus Z77 ITX and Noctua C14 arrived! But I think I may be screwed without the Ncase here yet. The C14 can only be installed in one orientation (heatpipes on rear fan), which will block my only exhaust. I guess I can just keep my case open for 2.5 months :p
Click to expand...
Great choice. I'm planning on buying another C14 for my 2nd M1. You don't really need an exhaust fan in this case. My temps are great without it.
 
noobzilla said:
Yay my Asus Z77 ITX and Noctua C14 arrived! But I think I may be screwed without the Ncase here yet. The C14 can only be installed in one orientation (heatpipes on rear fan), which will block my only exhaust. I guess I can just keep my case open for 2.5 months :p
Click to expand...

I think the rear fan is mostly placebo when working as an exhaust. Because of all the holes around it, it might be drawing some cool air from outside and blowing it out again. Not saying it's a bad thing because the same holes also dissipate heat when you have no rear fan.
 
Gandergray said:
For additional information, particularly component information, see related Posts 10224, 11361 and 11378.

Furmark Burn-in Benchmark (Resolution: 1920 x 1080)
Ambient Temperature: 23ºC
Fans—Highest RPM: 1305, 1317, 1305 (Maximum Specified RPM: 1300)
Pump—Highest RPM: 4128 (Maximum Specified RPM: 4500)
GPU—Highest Temperature: 61ºC
CPU—Highest Temperature by Core: 76ºC, 72ºC, 71ºC, 64ºC

Heaven Benchmark 4.0 (Resolution: 1920 x 1080)
Ambient Temperature: 25ºC
Fans—Highest RPM: 1309, 1319, 1317
Pump—Highest RPM: 3276
GPU—Highest Temperature: 56ºC
CPU—Highest Temperature by Core: 72ºC, 67ºC, 64ºC, 72ºC

Prime95 Version 28 with Heaven Benchmark 4.0 (Resolution: 1920 x 1080)
--> ABORTED AFTER 12 MINUTES <--
Ambient Temperature: 26ºC
Fans—Highest RPM: 1304, 1310, 1388
Pump—Highest RPM: 4530
GPU—Highest Temperature: 54ºC
CPU—Highest Temperature by Core: 91ºC, 91ºC, 91ºC, 91ºC


Not surprisingly, this combination of radiators and fans, i.e., the upper side panel mounted 120 radiator and bottom mounted 240 radiator, both with thinner fin density and slim fans, and the restricted air flow for the bottom mounted 240 radiator, does not have the cooling prowess of an upper side panel mounted 240 radiator with higher fin density and 25mm fans. Nonetheless, this configuration seems to be able to competently handle gaming and other GPU intensive tasks.

The results of the Heaven test are fairly representative of the higher temperatures that I observe while gaming.

The GPU water block seems to perform well. But, I’d like better cooling for the CPU, and thus, I’m considering direct mounting of the CPU cooler to the CPU die. See for example, the quality work performed by Idontcare: http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2285595 . Even if I don’t mount the CPU cooler directly to the CPU die, once I obtain one of the Silverstone 600 watt SFX power supplies, I’ll probably install a 240 radiator with higher fin density and 25mm fans on the upper side panel—as contemplated by others in this thread.

In order to improve airflow around the bottom mounted 240 radiator, I considered taller feet, but decided against them. I may, however, create short pedestals for the feet.

I think the bottom mounted 240 radiator is a viable option for supplemental cooling.

Additional photographs follow:

crqm.jpg




v783.jpg




lakv.jpg




vn23.jpg




5dyi.jpg
Click to expand...


Your loop, the pump is is pumping from reservoir? Because i saw some full loop wc on ncase, they are not pumping fluid from reservoir. Is this the compromise?
 
How far apart are the tubing holes on the rear (without the grommets)? Plus what is the diameter. Trying to figure out if my res fill fit.
 
noobzilla said:
Yay my Asus Z77 ITX and Noctua C14 arrived! But I think I may be screwed without the Ncase here yet. The C14 can only be installed in one orientation (heatpipes on rear fan), which will block my only exhaust. I guess I can just keep my case open for 2.5 months :p
Click to expand...

The top panel is an exhaust too isn't it? I find the rear panel does well as an exhaust naturally, due to the low resistance opening. Without a 92mm fan, it permits flow pretty well.
 
Last edited:
Just put in an my order for one in silver with an ODD slot.
Super excited. :D

I can't wait to try to fit 2x240mm rads in it~
 
Curiositie said:
I can't wait to try to fit 2x240mm rads in it~
Click to expand...

same here

the only other thing I'm waiting for is i7 4790K OC results from the masses (it should be available on the 20th this month).

at computex, the OC competition they hosted yielded 5.5 GHz on air with all four cores and hyperthreading and a 'non-binned chip'

hopefully the average chip can get to 5 Ghz without much problems :cool:
 
lazimutha said:
http://hardocp.com/article/2014/06/09/intel_devils_canyon_good_bad_ugly#.U5dJEekg-70

:(
Click to expand...

I wouldn't be too concerned as it is an engineering sample. I'm more interested in the average OC people can achieve here at hardforum, over at OCN, etc. one or two engineering samples doesn't set the standard ;)

As for the testimony from ODMs... well, i'm not sure how many ODMs they interviewed, or how many chips the ODMs tried.

the other thing is that even on this engineering sample, we see that the chip runs much cooler than a 4770k would at 1.36V... I'm wondering if i'll actually need to delid since I actually don't have a nice vice-grip atm
 
Last edited:
okwchin said:
The top panel is an exhaust too isn't it? I find the rear panel does well as an exhaust naturally, due to the low resistance opening. Without a 92mm fan, it permits flow pretty well.
Click to expand...

I wont be worried when I put my parts in the M1 when it arrives in August, but right now I'm using Rosewill R101. My PSU sits above the motherboard so I'm guessing it will take in all the hot air.
 
vmem said:
same here

the only other thing I'm waiting for is i7 4790K OC results from the masses (it should be available on the 20th this month).

at computex, the OC competition they hosted yielded 5.5 GHz on air with all four cores and hyperthreading and a 'non-binned chip'

hopefully the average chip can get to 5 Ghz without much problems :cool:
Click to expand...

I'm not even going to be OC'ing or using hot components, I just want maximum cool and quiet. :)

3570k +560ti (which will be upgraded to a midrange Maxwell card)
 
So... I've been running an Asus P8Z77-I Deluxe with an i5-3570K and R9 290X (neither is OCed) with no issues for some time. The CPU and the GPU are both cooled with my H220 with Noctua NF-F12 fans. Not surprisingly, I'm using the Silverstone ST45SF-G.

However, after reinstalling The Witcher 2 and trying to play through it again, I have had nearly constant Asus Anti-Surge errors with my computer turning off without warning. No BSOD, nothing, just off. I did notice the top panel is uncomfortably warm at this point.

Thinking it was perhaps my temps, I manually set the H220 fans to 100% in Speedfan, which did not help the issue. Tried disabling the anti-surge stuff in BIOS based on another thread, didn't help.

I've played many other games for many, many hours at a time and have never had this issue. I even have a bad habit of pausing games and walking away for a few hours with the stuff running and that's never caused an issue either.

Thoughts? Has anyone else noticed any particular issues with The Witcher 2 and why it might be responsible for crashing my system?
 
thefivetheory said:
So... I've been running an Asus P8Z77-I Deluxe with an i5-3570K and R9 290X (neither is OCed) with no issues for some time. The CPU and the GPU are both cooled with my H220 with Noctua NF-F12 fans. Not surprisingly, I'm using the Silverstone ST45SF-G.

However, after reinstalling The Witcher 2 and trying to play through it again, I have had nearly constant Asus Anti-Surge errors with my computer turning off without warning. No BSOD, nothing, just off. I did notice the top panel is uncomfortably warm at this point.

Thinking it was perhaps my temps, I manually set the H220 fans to 100% in Speedfan, which did not help the issue. Tried disabling the anti-surge stuff in BIOS based on another thread, didn't help.

I've played many other games for many, many hours at a time and have never had this issue. I even have a bad habit of pausing games and walking away for a few hours with the stuff running and that's never caused an issue either.

Thoughts? Has anyone else noticed any particular issues with The Witcher 2 and why it might be responsible for crashing my system?
Click to expand...
Try turning down the übersampling setting first? That one is known to produce some beautiful effects but way too much for modern systems.
 
JaccoW said:
Try turning down the übersampling setting first? That one is known to produce some beautiful effects but way too much for modern systems.
Click to expand...

I think I have that disabled but I'll check at home. Thanks! Really hoping I can get this to not happen as I really love my M1.
 
JaccoW said:
Try turning down the übersampling setting first? That one is known to produce some beautiful effects but way too much for modern systems.
Click to expand...

Witcher's "Ubersampling" is just full scene supersampling AA. It's nothing unique to Witcher. Tomb Raider (2013) also has supersampling as an ingame AA option if you want to try the same thing in a different game.
 
Peter_364 said:
will there be a new spreadsheet for new builds or should we just add to that one?
Click to expand...

AFD said:
Since the changes to M1 v2 are relatively minor, I think it would be really nice for v2 users to continue adding to the current spreadsheet, but with new columns added to differentiate between v1 and v2.
Click to expand...

okwchin said:
As to how we deal with the future data. Could move the buyers tab to a later page, and bring a new tab to the front, so V2 users will default to the new forward page, and it will keep the V1 data intact, separate, and keep it accessible.
Click to expand...

Buyers has been renamed "V1 Buyers", and a "V2 Buyers" tab has been created (made separate, as many columns applicable to V1 [serial, priority list] won't make sense for V2, and vice versa). "V2 Buyers" is up front, so people coming to it for the first time should be directed to the appropriate location. Hopefully Wahaha360 won't mind that I encroached on his tab to add the new model numbers off of the ncases.com website, and build out the validations for the new Buyers options.

Statistics and Charts (with the exception of the Buyer Pivot) have been updated to account for V1 vs V2 vs Total. If and when V2's start shipping, we can make a new Buyer Pivot for them to fret over which country is getting the short end of the Taiwanese loading dock.

Added a new column to the "cooling solutions" tab for flagging V1 vs V2.
 
Geoffrey4283 said:
Buyers has been renamed "V1 Buyers", and a "V2 Buyers" tab has been created..
Click to expand...

Everything looks good to me, and good thinking by filling in the v1 entries already existing under "cooling solutions" as "v1".. thanks again!
 
thefivetheory said:
Son of a... I must have disabled a different setting on accident previously. Disabled this and all seems well.. thanks!
Click to expand...

good to know that you solved it... however this still indicates that the 'ubersampling' feature is somehow maxing out the 450W on the PSU.

all the more reason to wait for Maxwell and or that 600W SFX PSU:D
 
vmem said:
good to know that you solved it... however this still indicates that the 'ubersampling' feature is somehow maxing out the 450W on the PSU.

all the more reason to wait for Maxwell and or that 600W SFX PSU:D
Click to expand...

Word. I'm kind of sad that Silverstone made the 500W model with the larger, presumably quieter fan, but I suppose 600W in the smaller form factor is the more impressive product. Or maybe they fixed their fan noise "issue". That sucker is pretty loud, though.
 
thefivetheory said:
Word. I'm kind of sad that Silverstone made the 500W model with the larger, presumably quieter fan, but I suppose 600W in the smaller form factor is the more impressive product. Or maybe they fixed their fan noise "issue". That sucker is pretty loud, though.
Click to expand...

I'm not using that extra 100W anyway, so I'll go for the 500W one. And thus rid my case of any fans smaller than 120mm.
 
cowsgomoo said:
I'm not using that extra 100W anyway, so I'll go for the 500W one. And thus rid my case of any fans smaller than 120mm.
Click to expand...
Same here. From my measurements I can tell it should fit. Though as it looks right now I will probably have to wait till next year to fill the case itself.
It does give me some more time to do some design and planning. :)
 
I'm guessing this question is going to pop up:

The Asus 780 Strix and 280 Strix won't fit the NCASE due to width (or "tallness") based on posted dimensions:

Asus 780 DirectCU II - 1.6" (Doesn't fit)
Asus 780 Strix - 1.7"

Asus 280X DirectCU 1.5" (Doesn't fit)
Asus 280 Strix - 1.5"

Too bad, fans being off up to 65C in the NCASE with rpm slowly rising from there would be a fantastic for those on air looking for silence.
 
Necere said:
It should be fairly obvious if you think about it: having the grille between the filter and the bracket won't work because then how will the filter attach to the ferrous strips? I don't think the grilles will fit between the bracket and side panel anyway.

So to answer the question: fan>grille>bracket>filter.
Click to expand...

So I reseated the cooler on my GTX780 eVGA FTW edition and got 90 degrees on furmark. Still it's clearly SLIGHTLY cooler and not throttling as bad as when it was hitting 94. I might just try some slim fans in the bottom to feed air or ducting it and leave it at that. It's not like I'll be using the card at 100% load normally anyway.
 
FWIW, we are now at T-minus ten days until pre-ordering of the M1 ends. So for those who may be procrastinating, or for people who remain on-the-fence about ordering one, just be mindful of the nearing deadline! ;)
 
Speaking of which, I'm wondering if there will be another 1000 sold, or if it's going to be a bigger/smaller run?

I mean, has the exposure of various case builds over the last 6 months increased interest significantly?
 
Vittra said:
I'm guessing this question is going to pop up:

The Asus 780 Strix and 280 Strix won't fit the NCASE due to width (or "tallness") based on posted dimensions:

Asus 780 DirectCU II - 1.6" (Doesn't fit)
Asus 780 Strix - 1.7"

Asus 280X DirectCU 1.5" (Doesn't fit)
Asus 280 Strix - 1.5"
Click to expand...
You're right that they won't fit, but you have the wrong dimension. 1.5" (~38mm) is the thickness (how many slots it takes up), which isn't the issue. It's the width (or the traditional term, height) of the card, which is 5.8" in the case of the ASUS GTX 780 Strix. That's a bit over a quarter inch too wide for the M1.

WiSK said:
Speaking of which, I'm wondering if there will be another 1000 sold, or if it's going to be a bigger/smaller run?

I mean, has the exposure of various case builds over the last 6 months increased interest significantly?
Click to expand...
Compared to the first production campaign, the number of orders has been a bit lower. At the current rate, we may reach 500 orders by the 22nd, but it will be close.
 
One the one hand, I'd actually heard of the M1 in time to get an order in for this run (via SPCR), so it's certainly got a lot more exposure. On the other, a lot of people who want one now already have one.
 
Finally set-up my Asus Z77 and Noctua C14. I got owned by cables :(

@ Necere. Maybe advertise on pc forums and sites like tomshardware? Or I guess have mods (if you know anyone) bump their M1 reviews and just say it's available for pre-order.
 
Necere said:
Compared to the first production campaign, the number of orders has been a bit lower. At the current rate, we may reach 500 orders by the 22nd, but it will be close.
Click to expand...

That's a shame, but I hope it will still be enough to cover your costs. :)
 
EdZ said:
One the one hand, I'd actually heard of the M1 in time to get an order in for this run (via SPCR), so it's certainly got a lot more exposure. On the other, a lot of people who want one now already have one.
Click to expand...

To me it actually seems like there was less coverage on this run. I even missed pre-ordering until two days after the start, because I put too much faith in the notification mail. The email actually ended up in my spambox, which I normally never check. But my semi-compulsive lurking on this thread got me notified anyhow. :)
However last time I saw the first indiegogo through newssites and the like. And then more on the first production. This time however I have not noticed anything. I'm not sure why that is, but my guess would either be it no longer being considered "news" or me checking the wrong newssources. ;)

Either way I'm happy I ordered one. :D
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top