Asus ROG Strix Z390-I Compatibility Issues

Revenant

Christopher Moine - Senior Editor SFF.N
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Revenant Tech
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Just a quick heads up to NCASE M1 owners and potential owners. Today we built a system in an NCASE M1 V2.0. We used an ASUS ROG Strix Z390-I. This board has compatibility issues with the case due to the IO shield and rear VRM heatsink. The 92mm rear exhaust fan would not fit. Additionally the board is not compatible with the MSI Ventus 6G OC RTX 2060 due to back plate clearance issues.

That never stops us so out came the Dremel and a few minutes of cutting the plastic back plate down, I MADE it fit. Not for the feint of heart though, or people who care about the warranty. ^_^

Not sure about other versions of the case, but for the V2.0, get a GPU without a backplate if you're using the ROG Strix Z390-I mainboard. Additionally, don't plan on using the 92mm rear exhaust fan.
 
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Necere

Shrink Ray Wielder
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Does the motherboard itself fit in the case okay? How much room does the fan need to clear the I/O cover? Will ~1mm be enough?
 

Revenant

Christopher Moine - Senior Editor SFF.N
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The motherboard does fit.

It looks like it would need about 3 mm by eyeballing it. The system is in use now so it will probably be a while before I can measure it in person.
 

Mantark

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Thanks a lot for this information, that was close for me ;-)
So I'll prefer to go for the ASRock Phantom or Gigabyte Aorus. The 92mm exhaust fan is part of my planned cooling concept.

(plus, I'm one of those who care about warranty)
 

Revenant

Christopher Moine - Senior Editor SFF.N
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No problem.

If you don't mind me asking, what are you planning to build? I've built 4 different NCASE M1 cooling configurations on three different CPUs.
 

Revenant

Christopher Moine - Senior Editor SFF.N
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On a different note: I'm not real happy with the crap job MSI did to cool the memory on their 2060. They only cover half of the memory die while the VRMs get a miniscule heatsink. Ridiculous.



 
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Mantark

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Hi Revenant,

of course, my plans at the moment look like this:
  1. NCase M1 silver TG (just ordered, so I have some time for the other stuff ;-)
  2. MB ASRock Z390 Phantom (or Gigabyte Aorus?)
  3. CPU Intel 8700 (enough power for my usage, see below. I tend to the T model instead of K, because far lower power consumption in idle/low usage and almost the same speed as the K in games with turbo boost, according to a test on a german website. OC is not planned, delidding maybe yes, if I feel encouraged ;-)
  4. RAM 32 GB, type tbd
  5. GPU NVidia 2080, model tbd (idea: buy a cheap blower model and put an Accelero III on it, with 2x120 exhaust underneath. Also here, no OC planned so far - this could change over time. The new AMD VII Vega 20 seems to have 300W TDP, so looks like not an alternative here ;-)
  6. SSD Samsung 970 EVO Plus 1 TB
  7. PSU Corsair SFX 750 (seems to be the mainstream choice for SFF - are there better options or other suggestions?)
For cooling, I was intending to do a setup like this from Nanook, I like the look of the massive coolers. Blowing to the TG side panel, the rear 92 for intake and GPU 2x120 exhaust. I got hands on a used Noctua C14, so I can play with this option instead of C14S. Type & model of the fans tbd. By the way, is there any experience with top intake in the M1, eg 1x120? Haven't seen that so far.

I want to use the system in the living room, mainly for internet & gaming. Being no power-enthusiast, I prefer it to have a tendency towards quiet instead of super OC. Some stable 60 fps in games like Tomb Raider, GTA 5, Watch Dogs, Anno, Forza Horizon are fine for me. Preferrably in 2160p with high quality settings. Some constantly fan blowing noise in gaming is OK, under idle and internet it should be very quiet.

Any recommendations are welcome!

Hava a nice day,
Mantark
 

Revenant

Christopher Moine - Senior Editor SFF.N
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Long post ahead!

Sounds like you have one heck of a HTPC planned!

The system I just built in the M1 was an 8700 non-k. We used a Noctua L9-65 as the CPU cooler with a 120mm Nexus fan blowing as a side intake directly above the CPU. Tuning it to have a long term TDP of 85 watts as opposed to 65 watts, and setting the OS to high performance, we maintained a slight overclock (via B clock) at 4.4GHZ all core during 3D Mark stress test. The Asus board auto overclocks the B-clock if you enable XMP. It's annoying, but was stable.

My personal gaming rig is an NCASE M1 V5 with an Asus Z370, 8086K at 5GZ, and Founder Edition 2080. For CPU cooling I use an X52 240mm air cooler with Noctua 120mm fans and it BARELY can contain the heat from the 8086K at 1.38V. Barely... For GPU cooling, I simply added 2 Noctua 120x15 fans to the case bottom, and set them at 50%. The GPU OCs boosts to 1950 to 2050 mhz.

My previous gaming Ncase M1 set up, and the one I think is most in line with yours in terms of heat production, was a 6700K at 4.6GHZ at 1.35V, and 980TI blower at 1450mhz. For CPU cooling I used a Cryorig C1 with a Noiseblock 120x25mm fan at about 1500rpm. Directly above it, I positioned a side intake fan of the same make and model. It ran really, really well. The 980TI boosted to 1300mhz and later to 1450mhz when I added the 2 120x15mm intakes at the bottom of the case.

I've also built in the Dan A4SFX, the MI-6, Inwin 301, NZXT H200, Silverstone SG05, Fractal Design Node 202, Node 304, CustomMod 3.24L, and I have a Zotac EN1070.

Out of ALL of these cases, the NCASE M1 still rules supreme IMHO. That said...

I've used two Corsair 600 Watt units and I have to say, I HATE the cables they come with. I had very good luck with my Silverstone SFX 600 watt unit, no issues with the Silver 450 watt unit, and the Inwin 450 seems to be fine. I don't think you can go wrong with with the Silverstone or the Corsair. That said, I choose the Corsair for the last build, but I will not use those crap cables again.

The 8700 doesn't really need delidding until you start hitting cooling limitations such as the Dan A4SFX and other cases limited to sub 50mm cooling solutions. With the L9-65, I was able to run it at 85 Watts. I also have another 8700, quite possibly the worst CPU I've ever had voltage wise, that runs just fine with at 95 watts with a Noctua L12S. For your setup, I would consider seeing if the Cryorig C1 will fit your board, and then run a second fan as a side intake. It would provide excellent cooling for the CPU, RAM, and VRM. The 92mm exhaust wouldn't be necessary.

As far as the 8700 vs 8700T. You can always underclock an 8700, but you can't really overclock an 8700T. Or at least it gets more complicated. At idle, both CPUs will use about the same power setting for setting. The 8700 will get you more performance overall, and a far more stable minimum performance mhz.

Mainboard wise, personally I would get the Asus again, and then get a GPU without a backpanel. I like Asus boards, and I'm very familiar with them. Also the VRM solution seems to work well on this board. the Asrock has an actual heatsink on the VRM though only for the left side of the board. Still, it looks good and I think Buildzoid recommended it as well. You're not really overclocking so either should be fine. Focus on features and compatibility. Both should run a 9900K if you ever upgrade.

60FPS 4K gaming, particularly 4K gaming with Ray Tracing, is going to be 2080TI territory not 2080. 2080 is more a 1440P card. I run a 1440P HFR monitor and there are times I wish I had gotten the 2080ti instead.

As far as cards, I would stick with EVGA. Since the case has room, maybe a 2.5 or 3 slot card. 2 Slots if you want to do the case intakes in the bottom. I'm not unhappy with my founders edition, but the other cards do perform better at a dB per watt level.


TLDR: 8700 without a delid, Cryorig C1 with Noctua 120mm fan, 120mm fan side intake, large cooler variant of 2080-2080ti. Asus mainboard is great. Asrock would probably work better for you. I’d probably use a Corsair PSU with cablemod cables.
 
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Mantark

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@Revenant thank you for your detailed and sophisticated answer! Still have a few follow-up questions, though ;-)

Airflow:
As I ordered the NCase with TG window, the option with side intake will not be available and, additionally, optics of the inner parts optics matter. That's why I already bought a used C14 Cooling for CPU to mount an inner fan blowing towards the window. The look on the massive cooler fins through the window looks impressive on the pictures I've seen. For this setup, the 92mm rear intake is necessary for MB cooling, as far as I understand.

Also, for this setup a GPU exhaust is recommended. With stock coolers/fan combination this is not possbile. This is why I came to the idea of an Accelero III or Raijintek Morpheus plus 2x120 exhaust fans blowing through bottom of case. Unfortunately, this will kill warranty of GPU.

GPU: Yes, a 2080ti would be better of course, but cost per fps is horrible on this card. Not to mention it surpasses the limit of my budget - plus the warranty topic because of the cooler. Coming from a stock 2070 right now, which almost ist fast enough for my needs, a 2080 seems to be the best step. To take care of my budget, I'm also thinking about to keep my 2070, add the Accelero or Morpheus setup and try to do some (small) OC on it. Maybe this is enough power for some time for me. Or do you see an error in my plan?

CPU: Interesting suggestion to take the 8700 and maybe underclock it. The idea behind the 8700T is to have a CPU with very low power consumption in idle/low usage scenarios to avoid heat and fan noise. A german website ran tests in which the 8700T and 8700K were in games almost equal because of turbo boost. I have no experience in underclocking, but wouldn't this reduce CPU speed through all usage scenarios?

MB: Yes, the ASRock looks fine for me. I actually use an ASRock ATX MB with an Intel Ivy Bridge CPU since 6 years, rock solid thing.

PSU: Thanks for input about Corsair and Seasonic. Are the Seasonic stock cables better than Corsair? If not, I'll go for your suggestion of cablemods. Thanks! :-)

It's very nice of you to take that much time in giving ideas and suggestions, thank you a lot!
 

rfarmer

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Jul 7, 2017
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@Revenant thank you for your detailed and sophisticated answer! Still have a few follow-up questions, though ;-)

Airflow:
As I ordered the NCase with TG window, the option with side intake will not be available and, additionally, optics of the inner parts optics matter. That's why I already bought a used C14 Cooling for CPU to mount an inner fan blowing towards the window. The look on the massive cooler fins through the window looks impressive on the pictures I've seen. For this setup, the 92mm rear intake is necessary for MB cooling, as far as I understand.

Also, for this setup a GPU exhaust is recommended. With stock coolers/fan combination this is not possbile. This is why I came to the idea of an Accelero III or Raijintek Morpheus plus 2x120 exhaust fans blowing through bottom of case. Unfortunately, this will kill warranty of GPU.

GPU: Yes, a 2080ti would be better of course, but cost per fps is horrible on this card. Not to mention it surpasses the limit of my budget - plus the warranty topic because of the cooler. Coming from a stock 2070 right now, which almost ist fast enough for my needs, a 2080 seems to be the best step. To take care of my budget, I'm also thinking about to keep my 2070, add the Accelero or Morpheus setup and try to do some (small) OC on it. Maybe this is enough power for some time for me. Or do you see an error in my plan?

CPU: Interesting suggestion to take the 8700 and maybe underclock it. The idea behind the 8700T is to have a CPU with very low power consumption in idle/low usage scenarios to avoid heat and fan noise. A german website ran tests in which the 8700T and 8700K were in games almost equal because of turbo boost. I have no experience in underclocking, but wouldn't this reduce CPU speed through all usage scenarios?

MB: Yes, the ASRock looks fine for me. I actually use an ASRock ATX MB with an Intel Ivy Bridge CPU since 6 years, rock solid thing.

PSU: Thanks for input about Corsair and Seasonic. Are the Seasonic stock cables better than Corsair? If not, I'll go for your suggestion of cablemods. Thanks! :-)

It's very nice of you to take that much time in giving ideas and suggestions, thank you a lot!

Buy an EVGA graphic card, I had always heard that removing the cooler to add a waterblock would not void the warranty and the same is true for aftermarket aircoolers. I found this statement on their forum "Installing third party cooling solutions does not void warranty on our products. Just be sure to keep the original cooling solution as it will have to be on the card if it is ever sent in for RMA. Any physical damage such as burn marks, water residue or damage, or any damage to the PCB will void ALL warranties."
 

Mantark

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Feb 4, 2019
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Edit: EVGA cards are relatively expensive here, around 100 € more than other brands. So I read about warranty of different brands and want to share the results. These brands are tolerating cooler changes in terms of warranty (some under specific conditions):
  • Asus
  • EVGA
  • Gigabyte
  • MSI
  • Powercolor
  • XFX
I have this information from the german website computerbase, there you find also more details, eg. about OC and warranty. Maybe the warranty rules in other countries may vary. At least, my search pattern now is bigger than expected :-)

@Revenant I was also considering your suggestion of a "big" 2080. The price range between low/medium class to high end 2080 are almost 300 €. For this difference I can easily buy a massive GPU cooler like the Accelero or Morpheus and still save more than 200 € ;-)

Thank you guys for your information and help! (and sorry for language errors, I'm doing my best)
Now I'll have to wait for the NCase to arrive...

Mantark
 
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