Tired of oversized, poorly designed, cheaply-made mini-ITX cases, a group of enthusiasts banded together to design, fund, produce, and sell their ideal SFF enclosure, the NCASE M1. We managed to get hold of a sample and ran it through our demanding test set.
April 9, 2014 by Lawrence Lee
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Product
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NCASE M1
Mini-ITX Case |
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Manufacturer
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Original Price
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US$205
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At the end of every case review we usually discuss its strengths, weaknesses, and make suggestions for improvements in future revisions. More often than not our comments and advice go unheeded. It’s frustrating sometimes, seeing product after product land at our door with the same old flaws and annoyances. Some of the better manufacturers take steps to correct such issues but most just continue churning out enclosures of the same mold. Our readers who frequently build systems surely have similar sentiments — we’ve all thought to ourselves at some point, “I could design a better case than this,” but nothing ever comes of it. (One exception we know about is the route Mike Chin, SPCR’s founder, took with his ideas, which led to the Antec P180 and its progeny & copycats.)
In 2012, a pioneering group of enthusiasts on [H]ard|Forum decided to actually do it. Unsatisfied with the lack of high performance mini-ITX cases on the market, they designed their perfect SFF case, dubbed the NCASE M1, aided by input from the community and engineers from Lian Li. In early 2013, to get funding for prototypes and testing costs, they started a project on the crowdfunding site, Indiegogo, raising more than double their goal in donations from people across the globe in one month. The units were built by Lian Li, shipped, and tested with various components and configurations before the product was finalized. In August, they started a second round of funding, the actual purchasing phase of the process, requiring a minimum of US$67,500 in order to make a small production run possible. Priced at US$205 each, once again, they exceeded their goal by more than twice over, eventually shipping out more than 600 orders.
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We managed to acquire one of these units, and we have to say, it’s an absolute beauty. Aesthetics and build quality were two of the main complaints the designers had about currently available mini-ITX cases and the M1 addresses this nicely. Its exterior is pleasantly uniform and minimalist, it has a small footprint, and is decked out with 1.5 mm thick brush aluminum panels. NCASE also felt that many enclosures are larger than necessary with a lot of wasted space; the M1 is extremely efficient in this regard. Though the enclosure is only 12.6 Liters in volume, it supports up to 3 x 3.5 inch drives, a triple-slot graphics card, a reasonably large CPU heatsink, a single/dual radiator watercooling unit, and up to four 120 mm fans. Some of these features come at the expense of the others, e.g. some of the drives and fans share the same mounts, but it’s still an impressive list nevertheless.
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The M1 ships with an ATX power supply frame (ATX units are limited to 140 mm) as the stock frame is for SFX units, a set of four fan grills and filters, brackets to stack 2.5 inch drives in pairs, screws and grommets, and an internal PC speaker.
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The M1 is also offered in black, but the gleam of the silver version really stands out compared to the myriad of black cases out there. Accenting the sleek aluminum body are glittering case feet and a black front panel. The facia is slightly angled at the sides but doesn’t function as a door. The case is heavily ventilated at the top and on the upper portion of both side panels.
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Specifications: NCASE M1
(from the Indiegogo web page) |
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| Dimensions | 240 * 160 * 328mm, 12.6L (250 * 160 * 338mm overall) |
| Motherboard support | Mini-ITX, Mini-DTX |
| Liquid cooling support | Single 120mm or 240mm slim radiator |
| PSU | SFX, ATX (limited) |
| Drives | x 6 (5 + 1 using included adapter) |
| Fans | 3 x 3.5″ mounts: -1 on case floor -2 in removable side bracket (cannot be used with dual radiator) 3 x 2.5″ mounts: Vertically mounted slim slot-load optical drive |
| Front ports | 2 x USB 3.0, microphone and headphone jacks |
| Power button | red/blue power/drive activity LED |
| Material | Aluminum |
| CPU cooler limit | -Top-down coolers are recommended. -Height restriction: 130mm -Cooler cannot extend past the top of the board by more than 10mm. For many larger coolers, this limits motherboard choice to those with centrally-located sockets. -Large coolers that extend past the front of the board will prevent the 3.5″ HDD cage from being used. |
| Watercooling limit | -Sealed liquid coolers or integrated pump/block and radiator/res recommended. -Single 120mm or 240mm radiators only. -Thinner radiators only (under 40mm). -Fans in push/pull are not recommended due to space constraints. |
| GPU limit | -Rear exhaust cards recommended. -Max length: 12.5″ (slots 1 & 2), 11″ (slot 3) -Max width for cards up to 11.5″ in the first or second slot: 5.5″ (4.7″ at the PCIe power connectors) -Max width For cards up to 12.5″ or cards in the third slot: 4.4″ |
| Power supply limit | -SFX up to 130mm, modular or non-modular. -ATX support via included bracket is limited to 140mm non-modular PSUs with cards longer than 200mm. ATX PSUs are not recommended due to limited room for long cables. Caution: the AC inlet orientation on some ATX power supplies may prevent the angle plug from fitting, please check carefully. |
PHYSICAL DETAILS
According to our measurements, the NCASE M1 has dimensions of 25.1 x 33.3 x 16.0 cm or 9.9 x 13.1 x
6.3 inches (H x D x W), with a total volume of 12.6 Liters. It’s the smallest mini-ITX case we’ve tested that can accept a full-length graphics card. If you placed the M1 on its side, its layout is similar to that of the Node 304 with the power supply at the front of the case and drive placements hanging over it, though the airflow dynamic is completely different.
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ASSEMBLY
Assembling a system in a small mini-ITX is often a frustrating experience but this is one area where the M1’s nontraditional design gives it an advantage. The removable top cover in particular makes it infinitely easier to access the connectors running along the top of the motherboard. However, there is no clear strategy for tidying up all the excess cabling as there simply isn’t any room for such features.
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The M1 lacks cable management features; we stuffed much of the wiring into the area between power supply and hard drive. |
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TESTING
System Configuration:
- Intel Core i5-2500K processor
– 3.3GHz, 32nm, 95W - Scythe Samurai ZZ CPU cooler – stock fan at 9V/1800 RPM
- Asus P8H67-I Deluxe motherboard
– H67 chipset - ASUS Radeon EAH6850 DirectCU
graphics card - Kingston ValueRAM SODIMM memory – 2x2GB, DDR3-1333
- Seagate Barracuda XT
hard drive – 2TB, 7200 RPM, 64MB cache - SilverStone ST45SF-G – SFX power supply – 450W, 80 Plus Gold, modular
- Microsoft
Windows 7 operating system – Ultimate, 64-bit
Measurement and Analysis Tools
- Prime95
processor stress software. - FurMark
stability test to stress the integrated GPU. - GPU-Z to
monitor GPU temperatures and fan speed. - SpeedFan
to monitor system temperatures. - Seasonic
Power Angel AC power meter, used to measure the power consumption
of the system. - Custom-built, four-channel variable DC power supply, used to regulate
fan speeds during the test. - PC-based spectrum analyzer:
SpectraPlus with ACO Pacific mic and M-Audio digitalaudio interfaces. - Anechoic chamber
with ambient level of 11 dBA or lower - Various other tools for testing fans, as documented in our
standard fan testing methodology.
System temperatures were recorded with RealTemp, SpeedFan, and GPU-Z
at idle and on load using Prime95 (small FFT setting) and FurMark, an OpenGL
benchmarking and stability testing utility. Power consumption and noise levels were also measured.
Baseline Noise
As the M1 doesn’t ship with any fans, we armed it with two Scythe Slip Stream 1200 RPM 120 mm fans, initially equipped as intakes, one on the bottom of the case and one on the side.
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Stock Fan Measurements
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Voltage
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Avg. Speed
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SPL @1m
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12V
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1200 RPM
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28 dBA
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9V
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1050 RPM
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24~25 dBA
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7V
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900 RPM
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19 dBA
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5V
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720 RPM
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15 dBA
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Measuring mic positioned 1m at diagonal angle left/front
of case. |
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The Scythe fans have excellent acoustics and undervolt well, giving us a nice range of noise levels to work with. Typically our test configuration generates between 20 and 30 [email protected], making these fans an almost ideal match.
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The Slip Stream series is one of our favorites due to their smooth sound and strong performance in our fan tests. In the M1, they produced a pleasant broadband profile with a distinct lack of tonality.
TEST RESULTS
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System Measurements: CPU and Side Fan Configured for Intake
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System State
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Idle
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CPU + GPU Load
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System Fan Speeds
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5V / 720 RPM
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7V / 900 RPM
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9V / 1050 RPM
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GPU Fan Speed*
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1700 RPM
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2410 RPM
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CPU Temp
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31°C
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64°C
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62°C
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60°C
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PCH Temp
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31°C
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53°C
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52°C
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HD Temp
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37°C
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45°C
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49°C
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52°C
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GPU Temp
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38°C
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90°C
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GPU VRM Temp
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46°C
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92°C
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88°C
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84°C
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System Power
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59W
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261W
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260W
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[email protected]
(right side) |
25 dBA
(24 dBA) |
30~31 dBA
(29 dBA) |
31 dBA
(29~30 dBA) |
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*set as low as possible to maintain a GPU temperature of ~90°C on load.
CPU fan speed: 1800 RPM Ambient temperature: 21°C. |
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Our first test configuration has the CPU and side fan both acting as intake fans and the CPU fan spinning at 1800 RPM (9V), fast enough to maintain a decent CPU temperature but slow enough to not make a meaningful contribution to the system’s overall noise level. Sitting idle with the system fans at 5V / 720 RPM, the internals were quite comfortable with the CPU and PCH just above 30°C and the hard drive and GPU under 40°C. The machine’s SPL was a reasonable 25 [email protected] in this state, with the main noise source being the the VGA fan.
On full load, a GPU fan speed of 2410 RPM was required to keep the GPU at 90°C, pushing the noise level to over 30 [email protected]. Speeding up the system fans had no effect on the GPU core temperature, though the video card’s VRM benefited from the extra airflow. The CPU also cooled down by an additional 2°C at 7V, and again at 9V. Strangely, the hard drive actually got warmer as the fan speeds were ramped up. We can only surmise that the drive’s temperature sensor is located near the video card in our test system and the cooler air being brought in from the side fan trapped the hot air rising off the graphics card, preventing it from exiting the system. This would also explain why increasing the system fan speed didn’t improve GPU cooling.
Our mic is always positioned one meter away from the front/left of the enclosure at a 45° angle which puts the M1 at a noise disadvantage as its main fan positions are on that side. Measurements from the right side were 1~2 dB lower.
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Initially the system had an issue with hard drive vibration but as we discussed earlier, this was more or less solved with the addition of some foam blocks. You can see this in the frequency analysis as the 120 Hz spike corresponding to our test drive’s 7200 RPM motor stayed below 5 dB. Some tonal properties were introduced by the video card’s small fan which hums along at a low frequency, but the machine sounded fairly good, at least when idle. The GPU fan’s acoustics became harsher as its speed increased.
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System Measurements: CPU and Side Fan Configured for Exhaust
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System State
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Idle
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CPU + GPU Load
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System Fan Speeds
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5V / 720 RPM
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7V / 900 RPM
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9V / 1050 RPM
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GPU Fan Speed*
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1700 RPM
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1900 RPM
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CPU Temp
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32°C
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81°C
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78°C
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72°C
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PCH Temp
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31°C
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54°C
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50°C
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47°C
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HD Temp
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35°C
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49°C
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50°C
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49°C
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GPU Temp
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37°C
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90°C
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GPU VRM Temp
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46°C
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93°C
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90°C
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System Power
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60W
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270W
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267W
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266W
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[email protected]
(right side) |
25 dBA
(24 dBA) |
28 dBA
(26~27 dBA) |
29 dBA
(27~28 dBA) |
30 dBA
(28~29 dBA) |
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*set as low as possible to maintain a GPU temperature of ~90°C on load.
CPU fan speed: 1800 RPM Ambient temperature: 21°C. |
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Flipping the CPU and side fans to act as exhausts generated some interesting results. First of all, the CPU cooler was not nearly as proficient with this airflow dynamic — at system fan voltages of 5V and 7V, the temperature was over 15°C higher than the intake configuration on load. On the bright side, the GPU cooled down significantly, allowing us to turn down the fan speed by 500 RPM which ultimately led to a noise reduction at every system fan voltage we tested. This confirms our suspicions about the side fan preventing the heat from the GPU from exhausting properly. This is likely why NCASE recommends a video card with an exhaust-style cooler. The hard drive temperature was also more stable in this configuration, reaching an equilibrium.
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At idle, the acoustic character of the system was more or less the same as the intake configuration, but on load, the reduction in GPU fan speed gave us a smoother sounding machine.
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Case Comparison
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Case
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BitFenix Phenom MITX
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NCASE M1
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Lian Li PC-V354
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SilverStone Sugo SG09
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CPU
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Core i5-2500K
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Core i5-750
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CPU Cooler
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NH-U12P, Nexus 120 at 12V
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Samurai ZZ at 9V
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NH-C12P, Nexus 120 at 9V
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Hard Drive
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Barracuda XT 2TB
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EcoGreen F3 2TB
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System Fan Speeds
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1050 RPM
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900 RPM
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9V
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5V/9V
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GPU Fan
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4120 RPM
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2410 RPM
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1740 RPM
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1680 RPM
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CPU Temp
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73°C
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62°C
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59°C
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68°C
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PCH Temp
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59°C
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52°C
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–
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–
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HD Temp
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41°C
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49°C
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25°C
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24°C
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GPU Temp*
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90°C
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90°C
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88°C
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89°C
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GPU VRM Temp
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93°C
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88°C
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75°C
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85°C
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[email protected]
(right side) |
34 dBA
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30~31 dBA
(29 dBA) |
26 dBA
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24 dBA
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Ambient temperature: 21°C.
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Using the M1’s best cooling configuration as a comparison point, it can boast strong CPU cooling than similarly configured cases, despite using a smaller, less capable heatsink. However, both the hard drive and GPU cooling left a lot to be desired. The hard drive ran quite hot, and the GPU fan speed necessary to maintain our 90°C GPU temperature standard was relatively high, resulting in a fairly noise system.
AUDIO RECORDINGS
These recordings were made with a high resolution, lab quality, digital recording
system inside SPCR’s own 11 dBA ambient anechoic chamber, then converted to
LAME 128kbps encoded MP3s. We’ve listened long and hard to ensure there is no
audible degradation from the original WAV files to these MP3s. They represent
a quick snapshot of what we heard during the review.
Each recording starts with ambient noise, then 5~10 second segments of product
at various states. For the most realistic results,
set the volume so that the starting ambient level is just barely audible, then
don’t change the volume setting again while comparing all the sound files.
- NCASE M1 – Baseline – 2 x Scythe Slip Stream 120-M fans
— at 5V/720 RPM (15 [email protected])
— at 7V/900 RPM (19 [email protected])
— at 9V/1050 RPM (24~25 [email protected])
— at 12V/1200 RPM (28 [email protected])
- NCASE M1 – Core i5-2500K + HD 6850 test system (intake configuration)
— idle, CPU fan at 1800 RPM, GPU fan at 1700 RPM, system fans at 5V/720 RPM, (25 [email protected])
— load, CPU fan at 1800 RPM, GPU fan at 2410 RPM, system fans at 7V/1050 RPM (30~31 [email protected])
- NCASE M1 – Core i5-2500K + HD 6850 test system (exhaust configuration)
— idle, CPU fan at 1800 RPM, GPU fan at 1700 RPM, system fans at 5V/720 RPM, (25 [email protected])
— load, CPU fan at 1800 RPM, GPU fan at 2410 RPM, system fans at 7V/1050 RPM ([email protected])
FINAL THOUGHTS
Any trained eye can see that the NCASE M1 is a passion project even without knowing its origin story. It’s absolutely gorgeous and surprisingly compact considering the components it supports. The well-conceived design is so detailed that everything fits with very little room leftover. The vertical slot-loading 5.25 inch drive in particular was ingenious as it hides the increasingly unpopular optical drive option without using up much space. It’s also clear that usability was a key factor. Every panel pops-out easily, giving users unfettered access to every corner of the chassis during assembly, while the alternate drive/fan placements allow for some nice flexibility.
And of course we have to give big props to everyone involved with NCASE. We applaud the gumption and determination involved in designing, funding, producing, and distributing their own case. Projects like this wouldn’t be possible without crowdfunding platforms like Indiegogo, but bringing an idea like this to life still requires considerable effort. Creating a dream case that addresses issues you have with traditional design and making it reality is difficult. Criticizing cases is much easier — we’ll stick to that for the mean time.
The designers seemed to have built everything around their vision of ideal CPU cooling, that is a liquid cooler with single or dual radiators, or a large top-down cooler like the Noctua NH-C14 with a fan on the M1’s side panel acting as its intake. This latter option isn’t ideal as sucking cool air in from the outside cuts off circulation in the bottom portion of the case, where the graphics card resides. Flipping the side fan to exhaust can alleviate this problem but this in turn, reduces the efficacy of the CPU heatsink. NCASE recommends using a graphics card with an exhaust cooler and we have no doubt this works better but the majority of cards and aftermarket GPU coolers have a top-down airflow system. Typically, cooling a GPU is more difficult than a CPU, and thus deserves greater consideration. We’re not a big fan of the many self-contain water cooling units on the market but for this particular case they have more merit.
Our remaining complaints are relatively minor. The fan/drive frame is quite thin and not braced very well, which caused some hard drive vibration issues. We were able to rectify this with a simple modification but the bracket really should be thicker and better braced, perhaps screwed to the top of the chassis in addition to the sides. Furthermore, some kind of fan control would be appreciated considering most mini-ITX boards only have two fan headers and the case supports up to five. The filters included for the fans are a pain to install as they have to be held between the fan and the panel and screwed together in one go.
If you’re interested in the NCASE M1, unfortunately, there are simply none to be had currently, at least through official sources. The original production run was fully-funded and contributors got their M1’s for US$205 a pop, which was somewhat expensive, even when factoring in the small manufacturing scale. That said, some units have been resold for a profit as there simply aren’t any cases quite like it on the market right now. If you’re unwilling to pay a premium through back channels, bide your time as NCASE is working on a slightly tweaked second revision of the M1 with pre-orders tentatively scheduled for late April or early May. If it’s anything like the first version, you may want to order it immediately, even if you’re on the fence, if you wish to avoid the possible regret of missing out.
Our thanks to NCASE
for the M1 case sample.
The NCASE M1 is Recommended by SPCR
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