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There's a slightly improved version of the Dan A4 on Kickstarter again: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/33753221/dan-cases-a4-sfx-v2-an-ultra-compact-sff-case I figure it's the only reliable way to get it as the first version ones sold through retailers have been gone almost instantly. Dan isn't going to make any more after this, apparently he has a new project he'll be pursuing next. orcane fucked around with this message at 19:24 on May 28, 2017 |
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May 28, 2017 19:22
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If the case has enough room for the stock cooler, you don't need an aftermarket one for your Ryzen. The case allows for CPU coolers of up to 140 mm height, I don't know how large the boxed AMD cooler is, though. The X370 chipset is more expensive, while the additional stuff you get over B350 mostly isn't used on mini-ITX boards anyway, like more PCI-e slots that actually use the additional lanes or SLI support. I think it also has fewer native USB 3.1 Gen 1 ports, not sure how much that affects you or whether they make up for it with third party controllers on the mainboard. Here's a review that covers both mainboards in one article: https://smallformfactor.net/reviews/motherboards/fatal1ty-asrocks-x370-ab350-gaming-itxac-motherboards-reviewed You can save some money by getting a cheap Windows 7 key off SA-mart (eg.), those can still be upgraded to Windows 10, saving you $100+.
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Sep 6, 2017 15:09
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If you decide to get another Windows key and don't want to deal with Ebay or sites like Kinguin, here's the SA-mart thread I meant: https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3768345 Connecting your PC with a modern OS to a TV over HDMI is no pain at all. I built a living room PC based on the Fractal Design Node 202, it's a similar setup with a GTX 1050 Ti and I didn't have to set up anything to connect my fairly ancient Toshiba TV to it.
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Sep 6, 2017 18:25
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Dan is working on another case, this time slightly larger than the A4: https://hardforum.com/threads/dan-c4-h2o-a-water-cooled-sff-case.1944458/ It's still intended for SFX PSUs and ITX mainboards, but uses a fixed riser (the 3M one for the A4 is expensive and slows down manufacturing) and adds a bit more room (2 liters more) for water cooling parts and case fans. It also has a few more front panel connectors. I might sell my A4 for this, eventually. The additional size is no big deal to me and you gain some more flexibility for quieter/better cooling. [edit] Nevermind, the new one only has 60 mm CPU clearance, not 70, which limits it to water cooler or puny air ones like the L9i/a and Cryorig C7 again (Noctua eg. has two slightly thicker coolers which are 65 and 70 mm  )The other part I don't like is that video cards are still limited to 2 slots. All the good custom designs for eg. the GTX 1080 Ti (and Vega  ) use 2.5 slot coolers at least, so being restricted to lower end GPUs or lovely blowers (or bad custom coolers like the MSI Armor) is not great.
orcane fucked around with this message at 07:54 on Sep 25, 2017 |
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Sep 25, 2017 07:45
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Yeah it looks like the self-imposed restriction of staying under 10 liters and the decision to save cost and manufacturing time by going for a fixed riser instead of the flexible 3M one means the case is still nearly as restrictive overall as the A4. The additional room does buy you better watercooling, if you're looking for that (the A4 V2 has room for only the Asetek 545LC and you sacrifice the front USB for it). And lower overall cost, which is probably the main reason he's doing it.
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Sep 25, 2017 09:32
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horchata posted:Don't strix gpus not fit inside the ncase I think the Strix only moved up to 2.5 slot coolers with the GTX 1080 Ti, the previous ones were 2 slot.
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Oct 7, 2017 07:49
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That depends on what you mean by "nicest". The Ncase M1 certainly has a lot more flexibility when it comes to cooling thanks to the conventional setup - the main challenges of the really small SFF cases are airflow and clearance for CPU coolers. The M1 lets you add a pretty large tower cooler if you want to, and you can add tons of case fans for GPU cooling too. Really small cases (RSFF?) usually only have room for 2.5" drives, but as you're approaching mATX sized cases there should be plenty of options. It's still possible to make a cool and quiet PC with tiny cases, you just have to have the right parts eg. if you want to run a Core i7 k-CPU in a Node 202 you pretty much need to delid it and MacGyver the existing low profile CPU coolers to be more efficient or powerful (eg. zip-tie 120mm fans onto them or take the LP53 apart for its copper heatsink), and either pick a cooler GPU or undervolt a hotter one. And cables are a pain in all of them, my Dan A4 is a mess due to the power cables out of the SF450 PSU and I'm really considering custom cables for it.
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Mar 16, 2018 20:54
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Repaste, undervolt, delid. Does your case have any airflow at all?
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Apr 8, 2018 08:20
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I wouldn't say that. SFF systems with high end components require tweaking either way, and "overclocking" boards allow that. Both ways. It's just that the defaults are tuned towards higher power use/temperatures to get a bit more performance out of even non-overclocking parts (like non-K CPUs). Unfortunately this is at odds with a basic SFF setup where you don't have room for excessive tower coolers or multiple AiOs and lots of options for case fans for airflow. But I'm glad it's working now. I probably have to repaste my delidded 7700k, it goes up to 90°C in Prime95 and I don't think it should (it's fine in games with 70°C though).
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Apr 9, 2018 17:57
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HalloKitty posted:Full Copper Cryorig C7: http://hexus.net/tech/news/cooling/117383-cryorig-c7-cu-full-copper-heatsink-cooler-released/ Could be good with a different fan, if you don't mind using zip-ties I guess  It's unfortunate Dan aborted his 48mm (height) low profile cooler project, I had high hopes for that. But apparently one of the manufacturers he was working with took over some of his research and plans to do a similar cooler eventually.
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Apr 22, 2018 17:28
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Shanghaied posted:Speaking of which, what is the go-to cooler for a Dan A4 anyway? I'm assuming Cryorig C7 or Noctua L9i? Kinda really want to do a A4 build right now, but I'm not really sure how to cool a 8700k in something that small. ).You can put a different fan on top the L9i heatsink (it's tiny so you can fit a 25mm fan on it) or use a 14 or 15 mm Noctua (eg.) fan on top of a better heatsink like that of the C7 or LP53. People who run that sort of CPU also delid or undervolt. A 10-20 degree difference from delidding is huge.
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Apr 23, 2018 13:18
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I mean, the V1 is barely older than a year so "was running loud and hot for years" was kinda funny The V2 got the AIO/bottom fan mounts too. I just wish whatever manufacturer took over the HSLP-48 project does something with it and soon, all the cooler options for powerful CPUs are crappy in one or the other way.
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Jun 15, 2018 13:47
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Blowers are cheaper and easier to fit in (most 3rd party designs for the GTX 1080 Ti use 2.5 or 3 slot coolers which don't fit the A4) which I assume is a big part of why they're used in the A4. They're not necessary for cooling reasons, they actually get hotter and louder, as usual. Since the video card sits next to the side panel with ventilation holes in the A4 (unless you use the window edition), a 2-slot high-end open air card will just blow most of the hot air through those instead of into the case. The real challenge is going to be the CPU/VRM cooling, though. orcane fucked around with this message at 10:00 on Aug 19, 2018 |
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Aug 19, 2018 09:23
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Gangringo posted:I have a strategy for the CPU. It's not going to be cheap, but it's proven. I'll have to look up the model later but there's a really good copper heatsink that comes with a fan too big for the A4 but with a little jiggery pokery or some 3D printed brackets you can mount a slim noctua fan on it. Yeah the Thermolab/Cooltek LP53, it has a good heatsink you can use for Intel setups and strap a 15 mm height/90 or 120 mm diameter fan on top. I used zip ties and a Noctua NF-A9x14. Too bad the LP53 doesn't support AM4 CPUs, I really want to put in a Ryzen at some point. orcane fucked around with this message at 12:55 on Aug 20, 2018 |
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Aug 20, 2018 12:49
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Dan is using a Lian-Li riser in the A4 v3, maybe they're different/better now?
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Aug 25, 2018 06:42
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Humerus posted:How insane is it to use a dual fan type of GPU in the Dan Case? I've got the EVGA 2080 on pre-order to go into my ATX build now, but sometime after New Year's I'd like to upgrade my CPU which means a whole new motherboard and I've been wanting to go ITX for a while. Figure I should go all in when I do. If cooling is going to be awful in the Dan Case though, I would consider the Ncase M1. It's not much bigger but it looks like it uses a more traditional layout that would be better for an open fan GPU if I understand correctly? Cards with open air coolers have issues in cases which trap the hot air in compartments with limited or no airflow (eg. the Fractal Define Nano S). This is not the case in the Dan A4 without the window panel - GPU fans will blow most of the hot air out of the side panel ventilation holes (and somewhat heat up the side panel itself). The main restrictions in the Dan A4 for high-end builds are GPU size (height especially, since many manufacturers use 2.5- or 3-slot open air coolers for their fastest cards) and CPU cooling (because of the 48mm height limit). People put modern 6- and 8-cores in it but they're not boosting as high or for as long as in a bigger case. orcane fucked around with this message at 12:12 on Sep 4, 2018 |
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Sep 4, 2018 12:10
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Yeep posted:I finally got around to buying the insides for the Dan A4 v3 that I pre-ordered back in February and everything looks like it fits fine except when I try to put the side panels on the RAM is about 2mm too tall for the AIO pipes to fit over and the PSU cables stick out about 1mm too far from the bottom of the PSU for the fan to spin and I've managed to snap off two pins from the USB3 header on the motherboard trying to squeeze everything in and I can't decide if I should buy an ITX GPU, ditch the AIO for air cooling, ditch the case for an NCase or invent a time machine so I can go back in time 8 months and repeatedly kick myself in the dick every time I look at the Dan website. What specific parts do you have in there?
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Sep 11, 2018 08:22
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Corsair because the last time I was reading reviews the SF-line was better than the competition, and there are slightly better Platinum versions now (these apparently come with individually sleeved cables which should make them easier to install than the super stiff ribbon cables the original Gold versions use). Also the Corsair SF450/600 are SFX units, not SFX-L as listed in the OP. orcane fucked around with this message at 14:54 on Oct 25, 2018 |
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Oct 25, 2018 14:51
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A bigger ITX case is not "better" but it can have soundproofing and room for quieter cooling parts that take more room, but the size difference is quite enormous next to a Dan. The Dan A4 is great if you want your computer to be as small as possible while using standard parts (vs. something like the S4 mini that is even smaller but needs short GPUs and notebook-like PSUs), but the size limits you nonetheless. Since the A4 doesn't use any soundproofing it's at most roughly as loud as the parts in it under full load - so it depends on what you perceive as "loud" and what parts are in it. While it's possible to build a PC with the new i9 9900k and a founder's edition RTX 2080 Ti in a Dan A4, it's not going to be very quiet under full load because you can't use any huge air cooler or AIO, and most GPUs 1080 Ti and faster that are also reasonably quiet use 2.5 or even 3 slot cooling, which is too large for the A4. A setup with efficient mid-range components with an emphasis on quiet parts will not be "loud" to most people, though. I have an A4 with a i7 7700k and a GTX 1050 Ti, when it's idle it's completely silent but in stress tests the little 92mm fan on the tiny cooler runs at 2500rpm - very audible, but not loud in an annoying way to me. In games it's somewhere in the middle, audible but not loud by any stretch - however, I don't have it sitting right next to my ear on a desk. Either way, a Ryzen 7 2700 comes on a socket that AMD plans to keep for about two more CPU generations and it's alright to cool with eg. a Noctua L9a-AM4 in a Dan. You can also do the 2700X in a larger case with larger coolers. Or start with a Ryzen 5 2600 (6 cores) and upgrade the CPU again later. Either is not as fast as the new Intel 8-core i7/i9 but they're also much cheaper, and with some modern games using all the cores they can (eg. Battlefield, Ubisoft games), I'd say it's more "future-proof" to get a low priced 8 core CPU than a higher clocked 4- or 6-core part, unless you plan to play e-sports titles at high refresh rates or a lot of old, badly threaded/CPU-bound games like most MMOs. 32GB of RAM is the "future proof" option, but keep in mind mini-ITX mainboards usually only have two RAM slots so you'd have to buy two 16GB sticks which cost more than 4x 8GB would. The founder's edition RTX cards all fit into a Dan A4 but they don't shut off their fans while idle yet (to be fixed by a driver later, according to Nvidia) and they're generally a bit louder than the massive 3-slot coolers on third party cards. So, for playing in 1920x1200 for now, I would get a good dual-slot open air GTX 1070 Ti, GTX 1080 or RTX 2070 for a Dan, or 2.5/3-slot parts in a larger case that supports the GPU's size. A GTX 1080 Ti/RTX 2080 or even RTX 2080 Ti could be an option but they're overkill for your current monitor in games. If you want more performance just for deep learning, go all out on a RTX 2080 or 2080 Ti
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Nov 16, 2018 09:33
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havelock posted:It sounds like the a4 sells out everything to be as small as possible for standard parts. Does the next size up help noise any? Is that something like the ncase m1?  (I think) made this picture: As you can see the A4 is exceptionally small for having room for standard parts - the 50 mm CPU cooler clearance is really its biggest downside. It would only take about 1" more to fit much more potent coolers (eg. Noctua's NH-L9x65 or even NH-L12S) for cooler/quieter operation. The guy is making a slightly larger case - the C4 - which can take 2.5-slot GPUs so that's great, except CPU clearance is still a disappointing 62 mm (but there's room for larger radiators at least). Most SFF cases aren't particularly soundproofed either (unlike, say, a massive ATX case like a Fractal Design Define R6), but the larger cases with a more standard layout (like the M1 or all the cubes) can end up quieter because you can use larger heatsinks/fans instead of small fans which have to work harder, and you don't have components sitting at the outside of the case next to perforated side panels in order to optimize cooling, like in the Dan. Again, the A4 is not a jet engine unless you build it like one, but it's also not going to be silent outside of Windows and the same hardware in a larger mini-ITX case has the potential of running quieter/cooler. Basically fast/quiet/small, pick two. E: Something like the H200i works too, but with 26 liters isntead of 7.2 (Dan A4) or 12.6 (Ncase M1) I hope it has much better compatibility with parts and much better thermals/lower noise - that's not very small anymore
orcane fucked around with this message at 18:38 on Nov 16, 2018 |
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Nov 16, 2018 18:22
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buglord posted:Just gonna shout out that even the NH-L12 just barely "works" on keeping a i7 8700 (non-K) cool. You'll have to undervolt and play around with BIOS settings to not hit 95C when playing Overwatch or something. When it's all under control, you'll be generally at a balmy 80-85C on intensive games. I'm pretty stoked about the Nano S owls or something sent me, just because I can use an actually good cooler that isn't concerning me most of the time.
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Nov 16, 2018 19:01
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I guess the thermal design of the Dan A4 is really good then.
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Nov 16, 2018 19:16
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I agree. Buying custom cables for the SFX PSUs are easily more expensive (even if you just buy the Corsair premium cable kit) than upgrading to the platinum PSU directly. Fitting the super stiff SF 450 cables was a pain in the rear end in my Dan, and it basically makes it impossible to fit a fan or AIO under the PSU in the v2 or v3 cases.Llamadeus posted:The clearance is so restrictive that Dan designed an entire cooler around it, which seems like a good way to go if you're sticking to air cooling  ).
orcane fucked around with this message at 00:35 on Nov 17, 2018 |
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Nov 17, 2018 00:30
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Reality posted:Literally bought and install the sf600 gold in my dan a4 last night and wish I had read this post before I went to microcenter. It’s all true. https://www.corsair.com/us/en/Categ...ck/p/CP-8920202
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Nov 17, 2018 18:33
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The Nano S is pretty large for an ITX case so I wouldn't expect any issues, considering the case has room for a "standard" 2 intake/1 exhaust case fan + big CPU air cooler setup. I think the biggest challenge with that specific case is the clearance between GPU and an ATX PSU, a 2-slot GPU with open air cooler has no room to "breathe" - if you use a (eg. 600W) SFX PSU this won't be a problem, though. In a smaller HTPC case, air cooling is harder because you generally don't have the clearance for powerful heatsinks and fans (but small enough AIOs for the really tiny cases don't really exist anymore, either). Modern CPUs and GPUs all have the option to limit their TDP somehow, so even a tiny case could run a 9900k + RTX 2808 Ti, it just won't run them at turbo/boost clocks very long (or quietly, or possibly at all), and overclocking makes even less sense. In a large-ish ITX case, though, with enough room for 15 cm baby head CPU coolers? That's definitely possible.
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Dec 14, 2018 10:44
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A SFX PSU is much smaller than that, though: (via https://www.overclock.net/forum/25560812-post99.html) Another (SFX-L is slightly larger):  (via https://es.pcpartpicker.com/b/vT2RsY) Phone posted:I haven’t seen too many people talk about this, but is it possible to have a near silent (~30ish dB) air cooled SFF setup? As for the quoted part, it's going to depend entirely on what hardware and settings are being used so that's probably why. Like the poster above who did a Dan A4 with a Cryorig C7 - they solved this for their own requirements by using a lower TDP CPU, undervolting and other tweaks. Using a different fan/cooler could be an improvement (the C7 fan is bad and on top of that, it adds noise in the A4 due to turbulence because it sits too close to the side panel), but someone who tries to run higher TDP parts and trying to overclock will have a different experience. With your planned parts it *should* work with eg. a Noctua NH-D15(S) or NH-U14S (or comparably quiet alternatives), and a GPU with a good cooler (cheaper models often sacrifice cooling and run louder, due to smaller fans having to run faster on smaller heatsinks with fewer heatpipes, eg.) but it might require tweaks as well, eg. reduced CPU TDP and GPU power limit and undervolted parts allowing them to run cooler and fans to run slower. orcane fucked around with this message at 12:50 on Dec 17, 2018 |
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Dec 17, 2018 11:55
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Oh that pretty cool considering the sleeved cables are like $30 and the bracket is about  if you need to order them for the older (Gold series) PSU. The perforation shouldn't be a big deal unless you want to run a negative pressure setup.
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Dec 17, 2018 12:46
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So, Dan is changing the C4 case again. He's considering a flexible case layout that can both accommodate the original stacked/sandwich setup as well as a classic setup similar to the Ncase M1. This flexible layout would mainly require an increase in width to 140 mm (with special angled power connectors) or 149 mm. IMO this would make much more sense than the limited original design that only played well with AIOs and still had cooler/GPU size limits close to the A4. With the flexible setup you can fit up to a 3-slot GPU (width is going to be the limiting factor here) and bigger top-down or even small tower coolers (he mentions the Noctua C14 and U9S). He also had someone from SFFLab over to test his C4 prototype and both said the original layout and size is a pain to build in, and even though the measurements would allow for custom loops and 2.5-slot GPUs those are basically impossible to fit. In other news, EKL hosed up manufacturing of the Alpenföhn Black Ridge (the cooler that's loosely based on Dan's HSLP-48 project) and although it was released in late November, the fixed batch is still nowhere to be seen. Apparently it should come out towards the end of February but we'll see. I sent mine back before ever using it, because 5 out of 6 heatpipes were only barely soldered to the base plate. E: Also, apparently Asetek is making a new compact AIO (replacement or upgrade to the 545LC) which should help in the A4 and other cases of similar size. orcane fucked around with this message at 11:57 on Feb 15, 2019 |
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Feb 14, 2019 13:29
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The common recommendation (by the guy who made the Dan cases, even) is to do like notebooks and set a long term power limit in your BIOS (eg. 95W) - a 2700X / 9900k can still use all 16 threads and run max clocks on some of them for a short while, but they get limited to lower (boost) clocks quickly if you use software that utilizes most threads to 100%. This will still make the 92mm fans on tiny heatsinks run at 2500 rpm or whatever, so it's going to be audible (even with Noctua fans), but you're not going to run into actual thermal throttling unless you run this 24/7 in a hot room. In every day use and gaming you're not going to suffer much of a penalty compared to the default "TDP unlimited, MCE enabled" of a desktop board with baby head cooler, but it's obviously not going to be as fast, and the difference is more pronounced in something that uses all cores for a long time, like rendering or video editing. In raw numbers the CPUs with higher (default) clocks and more threads should still come out ahead. Everyone has to decide for themselves if that's worth the additional price of the faster CPUs. StabbinHobo posted:that looks really cool, I just watched a video of somebody cramming an i7-8700k and a 2080 in one though and it was like... too hard. I'd be perfectly willing to live with a case twice that size to have it be quieter and not an impossible puzzle. (though if i can just find something off the shelf to buy i guess i don't care about the puzzle). If you don't need the Dan A4's minimal size, I'd still go with a slightly bigger case like the Louqe Ghost, Ncase M1 or whatever else exists now with a volume of 10 to 20 liters. That lets you get proper air flow through the case, and use larger CPU coolers (or larger radiators) for higher performance or lower noise.
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May 1, 2019 10:18
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I have a Corsair SF 450 and a SF 600 Platinum in my computers and they/the cables are fine? They're really good PSUs in general. The SF line's original cables are pretty stiff which can be a pain for cable management in tiny cases but you can buy individually sleeved cables (and the Platinum PSUs come with them and the ATX bracket by default) and other than the cables being a tad long for tiny cases, they're much easier to use and I didn't notice anything wrong with plugs. Fitting the 24-pin power plug into new mainboards has always been a pain in the rear end. orcane fucked around with this message at 20:56 on May 15, 2019 |
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May 15, 2019 20:54
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Chikimiki posted:Shouldn't you be only using the manufacturers cables on the PSU, unless you want to fry your Mobo? The only reason I didn't use custom cables (yet) for my Dan A4 is because they're super expensive. Custom cables would solve a bunch of cable management issues I have in that case.
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May 16, 2019 10:53
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You can absolutely run a "95W" CPU (realistically they all use much more if they're allowed to) no problem in a Dan A4 with minimal tinkering, I ran both a 7700k (delidded with LP53 heatsink + Noctua NF-A9x14 fan) and a Ryzen 7 2700X (stock Noctua NH-L9a-AM4) in mine and the only way to get close to throttling temperatures is by running stress tests. There's no need to downgrade to 65W CPUs if you don't want to. What you do is set a long term power limit in the mainboard's BIOS, eg. to 95W. Both the old-ish AsRock Z270M-ITX/ac and the more modern Gigabyte B450 I Aorus Pro WiFi I tried had this option. The CPU will still reach its boost clocks, just not for as long (and not as many cores at once) but you usually only lose single digit % of performance compared to the same CPU fully unlocked in a larger case with a bigger cooler. The Black Ridge is an okay cooler but for the maximum performance you'll need to use VLP RAM and a 120mm fan, otherwise it's about on par with the Noctua NH-L9 variants. On most AMD boards it has compatibility issues because the retention mechanism for some insane reason supports old AMD sockets like FM2 so people had to file off parts of the brackets or they would collide with mainboard parts. Also people suggest using it in an intake configuration so it blows on the mainboard/VRM. If you get an AMD CPU you can just use the Noctua NH-L9a-AM4, its heatsink is larger than the Intel variant. The creator of the case also suggests using a fan duct (you can find templates for 3d printers on the internet for most of the common coolers/fans) to reduce noise and improve airflow, he says it dropped temperatures by about 5°C for him. On the NH-L9a-AM4 another option is to use a 120 mm fan (like the Noctua NF-A12x15) with a fan adapter. The case fan below the PSU is useless in my experience. It's almost entirely blocked off by cables and the PSU and mostly serves as a noise generator. The new mounting spot under the mainboard helps cool the board/RAM/VRM so that could help, but it's a super tight fit. It's not recommended to use non-Z platforms with Intel CPUs outside of minimum budget builds, because they have fewer PCIe lanes and even if you're not overclocking the CPU you lose the ability to run RAM over 2666 MT/s (which you should because 3000/3200 MT/s is equally cheap and helps with minimum framerates in games). In your targeted price bracket I would strongly suggest going with AMD though. With a good X470/B450 board you can potentially also get another upgrade in a year vs. Intel's current consumer socket being a dead end. The only challenge is getting a board that already has the BIOS update to support Ryzen 3000 - or finding a way to update it (computer shop, friend with 2000 series CPU, or the AMD upgrade kit where they send you a CPU just to flash the BIOS). AMD makes great CPUs these days and the 3rd generation Ryzen CPUs use less power - the Ryzen 5 3600 is as fast as the 6c/6t parts your Intel builds use, a 3700X would be even faster and have more cores/threads again and it has the same 65W TDP. Together with the MSI B450 I Gaming Plus and Gigabyte B450 I Aorus Pro WiFi the Asus Strix X470-I/B450-I are all decent mini-ITX boards for Ryzen, though the Asus parts are the the only ones of the four to have two M.2 slots. Also as far as I know you can't override the minimum RPM of the RTX FE cards, they don't have fan stop and can't be made to stop while idling. Nvidia claimed it was a software/firmware issue at some point but I'm pretty sure they have no intention to "fix" this. orcane fucked around with this message at 10:09 on Jul 15, 2019 |
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Jul 15, 2019 10:06
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The cables of the platinum PSUs are a tad too long but I found them a lot easier to fit than the stiff plastic cables of the non-platinum SF-series PSU I had before. Without an AIO and SATA drives you have plenty of space under the PSU to hide them though.
orcane fucked around with this message at 16:49 on Aug 4, 2019 |
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Aug 4, 2019 16:28
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It really depends on how much you value the size of the case. The Dan A4 is around 7 liters and it's basically the smallest volume that reasonably takes "normal" hardware (SFX PSU, mITX mainboard, full length 2-slot GPU). A Louqe Ghost S1 isn't much larger at 8 liters, with top hats you can get it much bigger though. A Node 202 has size restrictions for GPU and coolers that are closer to a Dan A4, but it's bigger (11 liters) but also much cheaper and uses a "desktop" form factor. The other "common" SFF cases are much bigger (Ncase M1 is almost 13 liters, almost twice the Dan's volume) which makes a huge difference because many GPUs today are 2.5- or even 3-slot designs (so you can get cooler/quieter ones if your case doesn't have a 2-slot limit), and having room for 120 or 240 mm radiators or 100+ mm tower coolers is a huge game changer compared to the about 50 mm clearance in the Dan A4 or Node 202.
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Aug 12, 2019 12:06
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I wonder if the full copper AXP 90 is going to be noticeably better at cooling CPUs in the A4, especially Ryzens since they don't have the option to use the LP53 heatsink (and the Blackridge is bad unless you want to take tools to the retention mechanism and use VLP RAM): https://smallformfactor.net/forum/threads/thermalright-axp90.11795/ Last weekend I built another A4 based on a Ryzen 3700X with a friend and while the Noctua cooler is fine in general, the Ryzen boost behaviour makes the fan spin up more often than I'd like (my friend is fine with it, he also has a Zotac RTX 2070 Super that sounds like a jet taking off when the fans spin up at launch, I don't know often they do while gaming though). Maybe a more potent heatsink could help (the one of the Noctua NH-L9 is just tiny).
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Nov 18, 2019 12:05
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You can technically fit two 2.5" drives (one if you're using the space below the PSU for something like an AIO or unnecessary auxiliary cooler) or more if you want to tape them somewhere, but that just adds more cable routing headaches so I strongly advise against using SATA drives in the DAN A4. My friend who originally wanted to put a 5 TB HDD into his A4 gave up and just got a 2 TB NVMe drive and an external HDD when he looked at some builds.
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Nov 30, 2019 10:54
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Lambert posted:The Dan A4 can fit three SATA drives, at least theoretically. Oh right you can fit two below the PSU, even though that would be pretty 
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Dec 2, 2019 15:59
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Partycat posted:One drive up front maybe one below the PSU (where everyone wedges a fan for whatever reason) or just tape it in wherever it goes I want to try to mount the fan below the mainboard but I doubt that will really help either.
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Dec 3, 2019 11:18
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The United States posted:LED Lighting 
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Jan 11, 2020 15:44
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Actuarial Fables posted:It depends on what kind of components you want to put in your system, what kind of performance you want out of them, and what specific case. What were you looking at? And watercooling isn't necessarily going to help because if you don't have room for proper air cooling you often don't have room for large radiators and large fans either, so pump noise + small fans spinning fast are still a thing.
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Feb 7, 2020 11:47
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