-
Save 15% on ALL SFF Network merch, until Dec 31st! Use code SFF2024 at checkout. Click here!
DAN A4-SFX v4.1
- Thread starter dondan
- Start date
Hi All,
Simple panel mod in order to improve cooling.
- 92/25mm Fan for the CPU on the Noctua L9i.
- 92/25mm Fan below the PSU.
- 92/14mm Fan below the Motherboard.
- New Aluminum panels with holes fitting my computer setup.
All PSU cables are self-made to minimize as much as possible obstruction of airflow.
CPU/PSU/GPU fans are only able to take air from outside. (no hot air recycling)
Bottom Fans can only exhaust hot air produced inside the case.
I think that such a small case need a bit of optimization if I want to use a RTX 3080ti. It is a challenge and the key, in my opinion, is to improve the air cooling.
I put on the back of the PSU an extra temperature sensor in order to evaluate the hot behind the graphic card, regarding this particular design of the nVidia FE.
The Corsair SF750 allows a continuous power output for up to 50°C, then the de-rating curve applies. I think, the PSU can deliver still good power even a 60°C.
(see a good corsair article: https://www.corsair.com/uk/en/blog/what-is-in-the-wattage)
Using Unigine Superposition, in game mode, I load the GPU 100% for a total power demand of 350W. (see red curve below)
- The GPU core reaches 75°C.
- The extra sensor reports 55°C behind the PSU. Thinking that fresh air coming from outside in the other side by the PSU fan, the temperature inside the PSU should be lower!
(That is why, flipping the PSU is, in my opinion, a bad idea)
This is a Workstation, The CPU is a Xeon 6cores with a C246 Intel chipset. The Intel reference design puts the memory slots at the bottom of the mainboard, where it is on the left for most game counterparts. But the mainboard, an AsrockRack (server division of Asrock), uses only a 4 PIN non-standard ATX connector (red cable in the picture below) instead of the 24PIN. A lot less cable inside the case
It is still under progress, need some painting to make honey comb covers and panels black!
any comments are welcome.
Simple panel mod in order to improve cooling.
- 92/25mm Fan for the CPU on the Noctua L9i.
- 92/25mm Fan below the PSU.
- 92/14mm Fan below the Motherboard.
- New Aluminum panels with holes fitting my computer setup.
All PSU cables are self-made to minimize as much as possible obstruction of airflow.
CPU/PSU/GPU fans are only able to take air from outside. (no hot air recycling)
Bottom Fans can only exhaust hot air produced inside the case.
I think that such a small case need a bit of optimization if I want to use a RTX 3080ti. It is a challenge and the key, in my opinion, is to improve the air cooling.
I put on the back of the PSU an extra temperature sensor in order to evaluate the hot behind the graphic card, regarding this particular design of the nVidia FE.
The Corsair SF750 allows a continuous power output for up to 50°C, then the de-rating curve applies. I think, the PSU can deliver still good power even a 60°C.
(see a good corsair article: https://www.corsair.com/uk/en/blog/what-is-in-the-wattage)
Using Unigine Superposition, in game mode, I load the GPU 100% for a total power demand of 350W. (see red curve below)
- The GPU core reaches 75°C.
- The extra sensor reports 55°C behind the PSU. Thinking that fresh air coming from outside in the other side by the PSU fan, the temperature inside the PSU should be lower!
(That is why, flipping the PSU is, in my opinion, a bad idea)
This is a Workstation, The CPU is a Xeon 6cores with a C246 Intel chipset. The Intel reference design puts the memory slots at the bottom of the mainboard, where it is on the left for most game counterparts. But the mainboard, an AsrockRack (server division of Asrock), uses only a 4 PIN non-standard ATX connector (red cable in the picture below) instead of the 24PIN. A lot less cable inside the case
It is still under progress, need some painting to make honey comb covers and panels black!
any comments are welcome.
Made a little cpu fan duct mod for the A4-SFX. Compatible with the Noctua NH-L9a-AM4 CPU cooler that I believe most of us are using. It is 3D printed in PLA, doesnt use support material (for the printer i used) and just snaps on to the top of the fan, so no installation tools or fasteners required.
This duct fills the gap between the CPU fan and the case side panel so that the CPU is only drawing external air for its intake. I made it flare outwards so that the intake cross sectional area is not restricted at all by the side panel's perforations. I'm noting about 3C lower temps running the timespy CPU test. But considering how much the fan throttles up when it hits 80C, the temp delta would be a lot greater if the CPU fan was set to constant speed. Because my EVGA 3060ti never gets very loud, this has noticeably lowered my PC's fan noise during regular use. Could look in to sharing the 3D file if people here are interested. Cheers
This duct fills the gap between the CPU fan and the case side panel so that the CPU is only drawing external air for its intake. I made it flare outwards so that the intake cross sectional area is not restricted at all by the side panel's perforations. I'm noting about 3C lower temps running the timespy CPU test. But considering how much the fan throttles up when it hits 80C, the temp delta would be a lot greater if the CPU fan was set to constant speed. Because my EVGA 3060ti never gets very loud, this has noticeably lowered my PC's fan noise during regular use. Could look in to sharing the 3D file if people here are interested. Cheers
Hi all, got myself Dan case A4 few days ago, so i registered here, to share experiences, learn few things, and to thank creator for very very awesome case 
.
I got 4 windows machines, and 2 macs, and i thinker a lot with my windows PCs, its a hobby i enjoy.
I decided to make small 4k capable gaming machine, that must be silent as priority, and cool as second one, with no hit on performance.
This are the parts i used:
Asrock H410 ITX
Intel Core i5 10400F
Noctua NH-L9i
Kingston HyperX 16GB
ADATA Xps 1TB NVMe
Palit GeForce RTX 3060Ti Dual fan
Silverstone SX 500W
Dan Case A4-SFX
Installation was fast and easy. The GPU performance and noise in gaming was not. Fans are average, so they where making a lot of noise, because GPU was at 80C max, but boost was low at 1650MHz. I was not happy with that, so i went and bought 2x NF-A9x14. That didn't help at all, no matter if i put them intake or exhaust, or 1 intake 1 exhaust.
I cant stand noise, so I went back to store and bought 2x NF-A12x15, took off GPU shroud and fans, and put Noctua baby on the GPU.
Then went to BIOS, setup all the fans, boot up, launch afterburner, undervolted the GPU, fired the games, and yeah it worked like a charm.
Whole PC is silent, cool, and performance i excellent, max temp 75C, boost up to 1950MHz, depending on the game, average is around 1900MHz.
I am happy with whole machine, just need to buy SSD cooler, since i don't like the temperature on it, it goes up to 70C.
Here is the link to the pictures, since i just registered cant post pictures here:
drive.google.com
.I got 4 windows machines, and 2 macs, and i thinker a lot with my windows PCs, its a hobby i enjoy.
I decided to make small 4k capable gaming machine, that must be silent as priority, and cool as second one, with no hit on performance.
This are the parts i used:
Asrock H410 ITX
Intel Core i5 10400F
Noctua NH-L9i
Kingston HyperX 16GB
ADATA Xps 1TB NVMe
Palit GeForce RTX 3060Ti Dual fan
Silverstone SX 500W
Dan Case A4-SFX
Installation was fast and easy. The GPU performance and noise in gaming was not
. Fans are average, so they where making a lot of noise, because GPU was at 80C max, but boost was low at 1650MHz. I was not happy with that, so i went and bought 2x NF-A9x14. That didn't help at all, no matter if i put them intake or exhaust, or 1 intake 1 exhaust.I cant stand noise, so I went back to store and bought 2x NF-A12x15, took off GPU shroud and fans, and put Noctua baby on the GPU.
Then went to BIOS, setup all the fans, boot up, launch afterburner, undervolted the GPU, fired the games, and yeah it worked like a charm.
Whole PC is silent, cool, and performance i excellent, max temp 75C, boost up to 1950MHz, depending on the game, average is around 1900MHz.
I am happy with whole machine, just need to buy SSD cooler, since i don't like the temperature on it, it goes up to 70C.
Here is the link to the pictures, since i just registered cant post pictures here:
Public - Google Drive
drive.google.com
Cool pictures and colors and perfect A4 config.
If you like to improve it even more get a 3d printed fan duct (maybe in yellow) from the A4 faq page on dan-cases.com or get the new Noctua fan ducts. Should give 500rpm lower fan speed or 5-6 °C better temps.
If you like to improve it even more get a 3d printed fan duct (maybe in yellow) from the A4 faq page on dan-cases.com or get the new Noctua fan ducts. Should give 500rpm lower fan speed or 5-6 °C better temps.
Yes, I plan to buy NA-FD1, not so much for temps, since they are fine, but for reduced speed fore sure, more silence is win
If you are referring to me, what standoff do you mean? I dont have any standoff applied
Thanks for sharing your experience! Your build looks nice!Hi all, got myself Dan case A4 few days ago, so i registered here, to share experiences, learn few things, and to thank creator for very very awesome case
I got 4 windows machines, and 2 macs, and i thinker a lot with my windows PCs, its a hobby i enjoy.
I decided to make small 4k capable gaming machine, that must be silent as priority, and cool as second one, with no hit on performance.
This are the parts i used:
Asrock H410 ITX
Intel Core i5 10400F
Noctua NH-L9i
Kingston HyperX 16GB
ADATA Xps 1TB NVMe
Palit GeForce RTX 3060Ti Dual fan
Silverstone SX 500W
Dan Case A4-SFX
Installation was fast and easy. The GPU performance and noise in gaming was not
I cant stand noise, so I went back to store and bought 2x NF-A12x15, took off GPU shroud and fans, and put Noctua baby on the GPU.
Then went to BIOS, setup all the fans, boot up, launch afterburner, undervolted the GPU, fired the games, and yeah it worked like a charm.
Whole PC is silent, cool, and performance i excellent, max temp 75C, boost up to 1950MHz, depending on the game, average is around 1900MHz.
I am happy with whole machine, just need to buy SSD cooler, since i don't like the temperature on it, it goes up to 70C.
Here is the link to the pictures, since i just registered cant post pictures here:
Public - Google Drive
I am also not happy with GPU noise of my EVGA 2060 Super and I was thinking of replacing the shroud. Undervolting and a lower power target helped a fair bit, but I am still not happy.
As you said you replaced the shroud and undervolted, did you test undervolting before modding the GPU?
You did connect the fans to the mainboard? How did you set the fan curve, which sensor did you use?
What i did, after modding is, put 75% power target and 75C temperature target in Afterburner, Core Clock +150Mhz, Memory Clock +1000Mhz. This is done by try/error process. Just move sliders for core and memory clock, until game crashes, then you will find sweet spot.
After that download this, https://github.com/Rem0o/FanControl.Releases
Fans are connected to motherboard, and BIOS controls are not optimal so i tried fancontrol and it works wonders
In fancontrol let it do automatic sensor detection, then you can use HW monitor, to see which fan is which in fancontrol, then you just rename them to CPU, GPU and Case fan.
Then you set Curve for GPU fans (and assign them to GeForce sensor) in drop down menu, and that is it.
After that download this, https://github.com/Rem0o/FanControl.Releases
Fans are connected to motherboard, and BIOS controls are not optimal so i tried fancontrol and it works wonders
In fancontrol let it do automatic sensor detection, then you can use HW monitor, to see which fan is which in fancontrol, then you just rename them to CPU, GPU and Case fan.
Then you set Curve for GPU fans (and assign them to GeForce sensor) in drop down menu, and that is it.
Last edited:
is anyone able to confirm if the MSI Radeon RX 6600 XT MECH 2X 8G V1 fits? Specs show as 215 x 128 x 42 mm and seems A4 is limited to 40mm, but seems depending where the extra 2mm is, that it might fit?
I'd like to order the A4, but limited GPU options making it difficult to find one guaranteed to fit.
Thanks!
I'd like to order the A4, but limited GPU options making it difficult to find one guaranteed to fit.
Thanks!
Hi! I have published a post on my blog about the Noctua NA-FD1 fan duct, very satisfied with the improvements obtained.
Post link: Improved temps with NA-FD1
Post link: Improved temps with NA-FD1
This is the full screenshot of the hardware monitor.
As you can see I had clocks data folded. It wouldn't be enough though, as the max clock would probably be the same. I would have needed to add the clock of some cores in the graph. Agree, it would have been interesting to check.
As you can see I had clocks data folded. It wouldn't be enough though, as the max clock would probably be the same. I would have needed to add the clock of some cores in the graph. Agree, it would have been interesting to check.
Hey all,
You think this might be the only "mod" needed to get the rest of the 3080 lineup to fit (with the side panel open which I do anyway)? Usually I don't do these things but
1. I've had this case long enough where it has done the job well
2. I can probably get an rtx 3080, but I don't have control over which brand, so I need to be flexible.
mod:
I have the V2 A4.
edit: Spoke to the modder of this case. He had to leave the riser "floating" because of the angle. Also blocks one of the DP ports in the back because of said angle. Yeah, nevermind on that possibility.
You think this might be the only "mod" needed to get the rest of the 3080 lineup to fit (with the side panel open which I do anyway)? Usually I don't do these things but
1. I've had this case long enough where it has done the job well
2. I can probably get an rtx 3080, but I don't have control over which brand, so I need to be flexible.
mod:
I have the V2 A4.
edit: Spoke to the modder of this case. He had to leave the riser "floating" because of the angle. Also blocks one of the DP ports in the back because of said angle. Yeah, nevermind on that possibility.
Last edited:
Speculating a bit, do you think we could go back to standard 2 bay drive gpu configuration as raytracing gets tamed and we continue into smaller nodes? Sort of how the maxwell gtx 970 had a mini variant a couple gens after fermi?
