NCASE M1 version changelog and suggestions thread

Interesting, what else can you say? It has been discussed before and wasn't really doable because...


The most viable option for creating a window is inset window behind side panel, this will compromise thermals and GPU compatibility, so it's not going to be an NCASE product.

I also just updated the initial post with the compromises:

The compromises are:
1) can't get the fan bracket with dual 120mm fan on the side to work
2) GPU compatibility reduced by 3mm


For people with builds at lower system TDP, maybe the compromises are worth it.

Does this come as part of a new revision (v6)?

No, this part is not an NCASE branded part, so it's not part of the M1. It's upgrade made for SFFLAB
 
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The most viable option for creating a window is inset window behind side panel, this will compromise thermals and GPU compatibility, so it's not going to be an NCASE product.

I also just updated the initial post with the compromises:




For people with builds at lower system TDP, maybe the compromises are worth it.



No, this part is not an NCASE branded part, so it's not part of the M1. It's upgrade made for SFFLAB

One of the main reasons I wouldn't opt for a window in the M1 is the removal of the main filtered intake and the reduced thermals. But you know with the number of windows that you see on M1s that there are plenty of people that will do it anyway, might as well provide them with an easy to switch replacement panel.

Any other type of M1 modded products planned for this SFFLAB? You have me curious.
 
I wish the entire stock side panel could be clear but i trust you guys know why it's not viable.
 
Making a *inset window for the M1 as extra part (not part of standard M1).

The compromises are:
1) can't get the fan bracket with dual 120mm fan on the side to work
2) GPU compatibility reduced by 3mm

The M1 will remain at version 5 (since nothing on the M1 is changing), the part will be ordered separately.

It will not be a NCASE product, the part will be launching under a new website called SFFLAB.
OMG OMG OMG - That is what most(if not all) have been waiting for ;)
 
One of the main reasons I wouldn't opt for a window in the M1 is the removal of the main filtered intake and the reduced thermals. But you know with the number of windows that you see on M1s that there are plenty of people that will do it anyway, might as well provide them with an easy to switch replacement panel.

Any other type of M1 modded products planned for this SFFLAB? You have me curious.

OMG OMG OMG - That is what most(if not all) have been waiting for ;)

When you get the amount of emails we do asking for it, despite the compromises, I just gave up.

I'm making it so people stop emailing me about how disappointed they can't have it (despite the compromises).
 
When you get the amount of emails we do asking for it, despite the compromises, I just gave up.

I'm making it so people stop emailing me about how disappointed they can't have it (despite the compromises).


Tempered glass or acrylic? Will it be a full piece or will it have cutouts (either in the steel or vent holes)? So I take it that it will "protrude" 3mm inside the case?

Price?
 
One meeeeeeeeeeeellion dollars!

TG is spendy, thicker, and harder to work with IIRC. I believe a polycarbonate pane was being looked at for other projects, which would be a good compromise between TG and acrylic. If I were going with a glass side panel, I'd likely prefer a sandwiched poly over acrylic if possible. But then my M1 is placed out of the way, and not a showpiece, so....
 
Tempered glass or acrylic? Will it be a full piece or will it have cutouts (either in the steel or vent holes)? So I take it that it will "protrude" 3mm inside the case?

Price?

It's a cutout window.

The tooless pin and studs does not integrate into full windows (glass or PC or Acrylic) cheaply. So in order to support all versions of the M1, it has to be a cutout.

Thickness is also an issue. Acrylic is 2mm, glass is 3mm, but the glass is transparent.

If people want to spend $80 on a window, it can be 1.5mm thick (flush with current case) with integrated toolless studs. I'm betting people don't want to spend the money.
 
Both of those have the USB Type C port on the rear I/O. Neither has a USB 3.1 Gen 2 front panel header.
 
I think TG is the right way to go for the window, the kinds of people who would buy an M1 and then want a window on it would spend the extra money. A lot of these builds would have custom water cooling, custom cables, etc. so money is clearly not a big concern for those folks. Do it right, glass looks much better.

As for losing the side bracket - clearly you're trading performance/temperature for looks here. You'd either do the bottom 240mm + thick 92mm rear rad custom loop setup, or you'd stick with a non-topdown air cooler, .e.g the U9S and rely on bottom intake to feed the case, or maybe you can do short GPU + 120mm AIO on the bottom. Not terrible sacrifices if you want a show-off friendly tiny build. I'm all for it!

By the way, the new Define R6 features push-pins + tempered glass for the side panel (first case manufacturer to do that). Maybe you can use their OEM?
 
Look what came in the mail today - official M1 window kit.


sbhKp6Wl.jpg
W9ku5d7l.jpg


I have just got both the tempered glass and acrylic version.


One of them will be offered as the an upgrade kit via SFFLAB.


The window kit is NOT compatible with side mounted fan bracket, therefore the 3.5" HDD cage will NOT work either.

However, there are so many emails about the window kit despite the trade offs, I just gave up and decided to make it official.
 
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Look what came in the mail today - official M1 window kit.


sbhKp6Wl.jpg
W9ku5d7l.jpg


I have just got both the tempered glass and acrylic version.


One of them will be offered as the an upgrade kit via SFFLAB.


The window kit is NOT compatible with side mounted fan bracket, therefore the 3.5" HDD cage will NOT work either.

However, there are so many emails about the window kit despite the trade offs, I just gave up and decided to make it official.
Fucking floored, that is gorgeous. WANT WANT WANT.
 
Look what came in the mail today - official M1 window kit.


sbhKp6Wl.jpg
W9ku5d7l.jpg


I have just got both the tempered glass and acrylic version.


One of them will be offered as the an upgrade kit via SFFLAB.


The window kit is NOT compatible with side mounted fan bracket, therefore the 3.5" HDD cage will NOT work either.

However, there are so many emails about the window kit despite the trade offs, I just gave up and decided to make it official.

Is there any ETA on when you will begin stocking this?

Which one do you lean towards? Acrylic or glass?
 
If I may, I'd highly suggest the one that sits flush with the case; either TG or acrylic. Both versions could easily be tinted with a custom cut tinting film; but sitting flush with the rest of the case would be definitely the ideal solution.
 
I guess the acrylic one can also gets all the holes which would be more complex on the glass?
 
Amazing! I've been waiting for this for a while.

Definitely go with glass over acrylic. This is a premium case, glass makes a lot more sense. And I agree with MultiDoc, the glass needs to be flush with the panel. Is there no way to do this? Perhaps take a cue from the Fractal R6? Flush all glass panel + push pins.
 
Amazing! I've been waiting for this for a while.

Definitely go with glass over acrylic. This is a premium case, glass makes a lot more sense. And I agree with MultiDoc, the glass needs to be flush with the panel. Is there no way to do this? Perhaps take a cue from the Fractal R6? Flush all glass panel + push pins.

Hmmmm but then the glass panel would protrude past the front panel due to the width. With a custom front panel it could look amazing, but without it would look like one of the many DIY jobs.
Shame really.. I'd LOVE a seamless panel like the R6.
 
Bit of a random thought here but just humor me a bit. Would a flex-ATX PSU bracket, in the necessary orientation, theoretically allow for full mATX support in the M1? It's just a quick thought, I didn't look very deep into it, so it may very well be impossible let alone feasible.
 
Bit of a random thought here but just humor me a bit. Would a flex-ATX PSU bracket, in the necessary orientation, theoretically allow for full mATX support in the M1? It's just a quick thought, I didn't look very deep into it, so it may very well be impossible let alone feasible.

Micro ATX spec is taller than what the M1 can fit.

s1plzaXm.png
BT51Pqhm.png





I'm making a separate 15L Micro ATX to compliment the M1. PlayfulPhoenix and I will make announcement at Computex in JUN.
 
Damn i didn't expect a lateral window. I guess I shoudn't have stuffed it with Noctua fans...
 
Amazing! I've been waiting for this for a while.

Definitely go with glass over acrylic. This is a premium case, glass makes a lot more sense. And I agree with MultiDoc, the glass needs to be flush with the panel. Is there no way to do this? Perhaps take a cue from the Fractal R6? Flush all glass panel + push pins.

I have the R6 with window. This feature is in play for the Micro ATX case comping up.
 
Would it be possible to make a 3.5" HDD bracket that attaches to the front 2.5" mounting holes? Then maybe you can use HDDs with the window panel.

I'm not sure how this guy did it:

20150627_131538_HDR_e2.jpg
 
I've already ordered a tempered glass window so it might be a bit late to ask.. I plan to build with a reference pcb 1080ti with an EK waterblock on it, do you think this will this fit with the window I ordered?
 
I've already ordered a tempered glass window so it might be a bit late to ask.. I plan to build with a reference pcb 1080ti with an EK waterblock on it, do you think this will this fit with the window I ordered?

Do you know the width of the EK block? The tempered glass is only 3mm thick.
 
It looks like the block extends about 28mm past the top edge of the card, 29.7mm with the included cover that I don't plan on using.

Going to be close. Case has 140mm max width for the GPU, reference GPU is 111mm + 28mm = 139mm.
 
Hmm. The 28mm was a guess on my part looking at a diagram, I just found the spec for the plexi version of the terminal for the block and that states 25mm.. 25mm + 111mm plus 3mm for the window = 139mm so it might just scrape in lol

Edit: Confirmed it manually measuring the block I had in it's box.. the terminal is 25mm wide or just under.. Which is good to know because this is the block that will go on any Geforce FE card.
 
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For the record, I did not approve of nor endorse the M1 windowed side panel. My stance has always been that a window was not a good fit for the M1, due to the functional compromises that would have to be made and the potential to introduce incompatibilities with e.g. tall GPUs or waterblocks. Consequently, Dan (wahaha360) developed the windowed panel on his own, and is offering it as an SFFLab-branded product. Any questions or issues regarding the windowed panel should be directed to him/SFFLab.
 
For the record, I did not approve of nor endorse the M1 windowed side panel. My stance has always been that a window was not a good fit for the M1, due to the functional compromises that would have to be made and the potential to introduce incompatibilities with e.g. tall GPUs or waterblocks. Consequently, Dan (wahaha360) developed the windowed panel on his own, and is offering it as an SFFLab-branded product. Any questions or issues regarding the windowed panel should be directed to him/SFFLab.

Good to know. I think as long as you are aware of the limitations, it's nice to have a window option. You can easily rely on bottom intake and/or rear intake to make plenty of CPU and GPU cooling options work.

The decreased clearance is a real concern though, in that people may not be aware of it. I think it's worth including information on either the NCase M1 Compatiblity page or on the window panel page. Right now it just says "...will impact the clearances available on the interior of the enclosure." By how much? W360, could you please let us know and include the information on SFFLab?
 
Would it be possible to make a 3.5" HDD bracket that attaches to the front 2.5" mounting holes? Then maybe you can use HDDs with the window panel.

I'm not sure how this guy did it:

20150627_131538_HDR_e2.jpg

I realize I'm replying to myself, but I just realized you can attach the HDD bracket to the PSU mounts. Directly for SFX-L and with a 92mm-to-120mm adapter for SFX. So that's an option if you absolutely must have a 3.5" HDD. They're not exactly show-off worthy, but then neither is a PSU, and some of the new high-capacity HDDs do look kind of cool, like the Seagate 12TB.
 
Good to know. I think as long as you are aware of the limitations, it's nice to have a window option. You can easily rely on bottom intake and/or rear intake to make plenty of CPU and GPU cooling options work.

The decreased clearance is a real concern though, in that people may not be aware of it. I think it's worth including information on either the NCase M1 Compatiblity page or on the window panel page. Right now it just says "...will impact the clearances available on the interior of the enclosure." By how much? W360, could you please let us know and include the information on SFFLab?


It will interfere with GPU height by 2mm, since the glass is 2mm thick.
 
I realize I'm replying to myself, but I just realized you can attach the HDD bracket to the PSU mounts. Directly for SFX-L and with a 92mm-to-120mm adapter for SFX. So that's an option if you absolutely must have a 3.5" HDD. They're not exactly show-off worthy, but then neither is a PSU, and some of the new high-capacity HDDs do look kind of cool, like the Seagate 12TB.
Could you explain it a little more? How exactly do you attach the HDD bracket to the PSU mounts? Sorry if I'm being dense.
 
Could you explain it a little more? How exactly do you attach the HDD bracket to the PSU mounts? Sorry if I'm being dense.

An SFX PSU has a 92mm fan. You'd install the PSU with the fan facing inward. Then you'd need to attach a 92-to-120mm adapter (look them up on Amazon) to the PSU fan mounts and then attach the HDD bracket (which has 120mm mounts) to the adapter. If using an SFX-L PSU you can mount the HDD cage directly to the fan mounts as SFX-L uses a 120mm fan.

It's not exactly an elegant solution as you would limit airflow to the PSU, and also accessing the cables under the PSU won't be easy and mounting/unmounting the bracket will be a pain. But it's an option nevertheless.
 
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