The SFF and Mini-ITX thread

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Fruit Chewy: Feb 13, 2012; join whole squid

Got my Ncase in the mail yesterday and finally transplanted my build from box hell (build album). Loving this little thing but jesus christ was it a nightmare to assemble. I take it the "if I ever have to disassemble this I'll just kill myself" feeling isn't terribly uncommon?

On the bright side I can run AIDA64+Furmark with a 7700k@4.9 and a 1070@2.1 without either going over like 72 after half an hour.

# ¿ May 31, 2017 14:55

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# ¿ Nov 17, 2025 06:13

Fruit Chewy: Feb 13, 2012; join whole squid

I haven't done any A/B testing, I just put it all in and was happy with the results. I can't imagine that the fans are hurting anything since its running comfortably in the 60s under normal gaming loads. The fans never spin up to an audible level (Corsair ML120s, pretty drat quiet in the lower half of their rpm range).

# ¿ May 31, 2017 16:27

Fruit Chewy: Feb 13, 2012; join whole squid

Man I had a hell of a time with my Ncase build but I suppose a 240mm AIO is a little more unwieldy of a setup than a nice low profile air cooler.

# ¿ Jun 3, 2017 09:52

Fruit Chewy: Feb 13, 2012; join whole squid

HP Artsandcrafts posted:

So I'm looking to build a secondary pc and I wanted to keep it on the small side. I have most the parts picked out already so the only real question I have is which case to buy. The three goals I have for this build is keeping it entirely air cooled, try out Noctua fans, and use a more premium case. Here's the parts list https://pcpartpicker.com/list/J6bq2R .

My first and safest choice is the Caselabs Bullet BH2. Keeping it cool should be a breeze and I have actually found it cheaper than what they have it listed for on Amazon.

The next is the Ncase M1 and honestly this one scares me a bit. Keeping parts cool looks like a loving chore and the graphics card I'd like to use isn't ideal. I do have a little GTX 950 I can throw in but I'd probably replace it if I can get my 1070 sold. Either way I'd use the bottom fan mounts. And it looks like I'll need at least five or six fans for this build. Even with fan splitters I think it's going to to be close.

Last is the Dan A4-SFX v2, they're available on Kickstarter again. It actually looks like a much more straight forward build than the M1. I'd just have to substitute the NH-U9S for a Noctua NH-L9i.

Are there any other cases I should look at?

The Ncase M1 will honestly have zero issues with cooling if you set it up right. The 240mm AIO is a totally reasonable route for CPU cooling, and any non-blower card combined with bottom intake fans says pretty frosty too. If I do full synthetic load on both CPU and GPU while overclocked (7700k@4.9, 1070@+130/300), neither gets above 70-75. If I crypto mine on the 1070 for 16 hours and then pull off the side and poke around, the only thing hot is the GPU (still mid 70s), with no collateral heating of motherboard parts or anything.

Everything can basically breathe fresh intake air if you configure it right. My setup is both side fans pulling fresh air through the rad, both bottom fans pushing fresh air into the GPU. With decent pressure fans (I'm using ML120s) this surprisingly isn't too much positive pressure because the case is entirely vents so you get plenty of passive venting. The comedy option is to buy an accelero xtreme III to replace the GPU cooler and have the bottom fans (which nearly touch it) just exhaust case air through that. If you have any issues at all with GPU temps in either of these configurations you can use some different case feet (aftermarket AV equipment feet or whatever you have around) to lift it up another half inch or so and easily gain a few degrees.

Fruit Chewy fucked around with this message at 01:29 on Jun 12, 2017

# ¿ Jun 12, 2017 01:26

Fruit Chewy: Feb 13, 2012; join whole squid

Wistful of Dollars posted:

As mentioned previously, I do this and it's glorious. The bottom fans just horf air out the bottom. Fair warning though, getting all the little VRM and RAM heatsinks to stay on is a bitch.

I'm thinking that my next GPU will probably go the AIO 120mm route, though. Obviously bending hoses around in a tight space is a pain in the arse, but the Accelero is no walk in the park to install or mount either in a small case.

My mad scientist brain would love if the GPU in the M1 (or similar size case) could be mounted vertically a la Silverstone's 90° system so that you could have much clearer airflow from the bottom intakes go the rest of the system without a big, flat wall of GPU in the way. That said, I'm sure that engineering such a thing in such a small package is tricky and would inevitably create a larger case as a result.

On a scale of 1 to "totally not loving worth it", how much of a pain is the accelero? I'm debating between getting a EVGA 1080ti SC2 and just dealing with the slightly subpar thermals/acoustics or going whole hog founders edition plus accelero. Not feeling super amazing about pasting cheap little heatsinks onto a $700 PCB though.

# ¿ Jun 13, 2017 19:21

Fruit Chewy: Feb 13, 2012; join whole squid

VulgarandStupid posted:

I have the accelero on the FE, but it turns it into a 3-slot card, which is pretty bad for ITX case choices.

Unless you're part of the Ncase M1 Klub wherein it happens to line up perfectly to allow you to use case fans as GPU fans.

I'm definitely leaning toward that route though just because the more I dig the more I find people talking poo poo on EVGA's iCX cooler compared to the MSI/ASUS coolers that won't fit in this case.

# ¿ Jun 13, 2017 20:18

Fruit Chewy: Feb 13, 2012; join whole squid

I ended up just getting the SC2 because I figure I can get some mileage out of it with the stock cooler until I actually work up the courage to tear into it and put the accelero on. I've seen people use copper shims on the die to get around those tabs being in the way for hybrid kits so you could probably do the same, but I'd honestly rather just do it without the plates probably.

# ¿ Jun 15, 2017 17:31

Fruit Chewy: Feb 13, 2012; join whole squid

Yeah dual AIO is pretty common for nice M1 setups from what I've seen. You basically either end up with dual AIO or 240 CPU AIO and a gimmick accelero GPU it seems like. I'd probably just use both as intakes and then dump air out the bottom or something.

# ¿ Jun 16, 2017 09:39

Fruit Chewy: Feb 13, 2012; join whole squid

dy. posted:

I'm contemplating an M1 build and trying to decide what to do for CPU cooling (ie air or liquid AIO, and what to go with for either). I've never done an ITX build before. I already have a 1080 with an open-air cooler (Asus Strix) that I'd be using.

#1 priority is silence at idle, I don't mind a bit of loudness when things are cranking but also don't want a jet engine.
#2 priority is performance/temp.
#3 priority is price. I'll gladly pay an extra few bucks for something quiet and cool.

Any thoughts?

I went with the gen1 H100i in my build. It does a stellar job of cooling my 5.0ghz 7700k and has drat near zero noise at idle. I've never had any issues with pump noise but I've heard of other people encountering some trouble with it. I've got some nice corsair ML120 fans on it and have them set to basically never go above like 40%. I would prefer to go with high end air cooling but in that small of a space you're just not able to get the big quiet fans that you probably want.

# ¿ Jun 16, 2017 16:53

Fruit Chewy: Feb 13, 2012; join whole squid

Paul MaudDib posted:

And now I'm looking at HDPLEX passive case builds

How about this, a H5 (95W) with a 7700K or 6800K or a 1700 mITX/mATX board, and on the GPU bracket (hopefully this is also another 95W since it heatpipes to the opposite side? ) I can throw my 1080 in there and drop it to like -50% power limit

I can still get the 6800K at not-insane prices, thanks Microcenter. Then I just need some Asrock black magic

A passive build with a 6800k and a 1080? You absolute madman.

# ¿ Jul 13, 2017 03:40

Fruit Chewy: Feb 13, 2012; join whole squid

horchata posted:

Built my ncase x370 PC today. This took an hour longer than I wanted to since I had to keep looking at a picture reference as to what all the different screws do. Also the SF 600 power supply had the stiffest cables I've ever dealt with.

Yeah the total lack of accompanying documentation for the 2 pound bag of screws was pretty neat. Apparently if you split apart the individual wires of the huge bonded ribbons those cables are more manageable but I just angrily wrangled them instead.

# ¿ Jul 23, 2017 05:27

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# ¿ Nov 17, 2025 06:13

Fruit Chewy: Feb 13, 2012; join whole squid

Mind sharing the lengths? I have the same PSU/GPU and the z170 asrock which seems like the same layout.

# ¿ Aug 4, 2017 02:24

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Serious Hardware / Software Crap > The SFF and Mini-ITX thread