DAN A4-SFX v4.1

[KulaHI]

I'm not entirely sure about these spacers, I mean a slight increase might do us good as some new gpu's are just a little more than 2 slots. But a line should be drawn at 2.5 cards, because anything further would only provide us access to gpu's that are never meant to be in a case like this. And they would increase the size considerably to match the Ghost S1 or FormD T1 - which might be better options at that size, them allowing the use of 120mm case fans too (due to wider frames not just panels).
The main selling point of the Dan A4 compared to them is that it is thinner and smaller. This is the option it currently provides for anyone who are fine with 6 core cpu's and 2 slot graphics cards (like some 3070 or 3060ti) - which is realistically about 90% of people. With only increasing the side panels, we just make an inferior S1 or T1 from the A4 that is an overall better case for a humbler config due to it handling them well while being even smaller than them.

What I would not mind though, is increasing the FRAME on the gpu side just by a slight 3mm only, so that those new gen graphics cards that are a little more than 2 slots due to their shroud designs would fit. 3mm only might just be a worthy sacrifice - small enough, but would net the most amount of compatibility for that price. And the increase in frame would look better than a side panel that looks a little off compared to the other. And it would also further expand the usecase for 120mm aio's too (which we might see more of due to the upcoming itx gpu's that are in sight).

I see what you mean. But there are a lot of customers like me who have just purchased the case and are finding the available GPU options that fit this case are slim to none due to the state of the market. So in my situation, I'm really not interested in purchasing another case that's been widened to fit thicker cards, I consider myself lucky at having even gotten this one which was not even my first color choice. The reality is that if a current 2 slot GPU becomes available with a cooler form factor that's greater than 2.0, I'm buying it even if the cover won't close and hope that eventually:

1. Dan offers a spacer to allow the use of the stock panel
2. Dan offers a replacement panel to allow taller 2 slot cards
3. Use the panel template to create a custom acrylic panel with a cutout for whatever GPU I end up with.

 

[Yueyue123]

OCUK will get stock from Caseking in the next weeks.

thanks dan! will w360mod get any stocks soon?

 

[aporias]

Hey Everyone back again seeking advice:

Current setup in Dan A4:

• L9A(with duct) on a Ryzen 5 2600 (stock)
• 3060 Ti Founders w/ Undervolt currently 1996 MHz @ 956mV
• Corsair SF600
• Two Noctua 92mm x 14mm(exhaust of course)
• Single M.2 SSD
• Corsair vengeance 32GB @ 3200 (stock)

My cpu fan is mostly at 40% then curves out and runs higher maybe 60%-70%(whatever the default is for an MSI B450 mobo) and my other two fans are just constant at about 45%.

Max temps when doing the most intensive thing on my computer is APEX legends. GPU has gotten to 78 C a few times but I imagine its brief as it was the max stated on HWinfo( I forgot to save the CSV that day).

Now that I have provided that background, I am looking to OPTIMIZE my air cooled set up the best I can without increasing noise. I really like how 40% sounds and I'd love for my 3060 Ti Founders to ramp up as little as possible. My options I was considering:

1. Swap for a 25mm fan below PSU. My assumption is that Noctua still makes the best fan in this class as well.
2. Run some sort of fan curve on the GPU(any ideas?)
3. Look into getting some Noctua a4x10's
4. Taller feet mod for possible airflow.
5. replace 3060 ti fans with Noctua if possible(last resort)

I am looking for recommendations for the list above in what will be the most effective etc.

Thanks,

@nhatminh2h That seemed to be in regards to the 3080FE which has that intake/exhaust fan setup. The 3070 FE and 3060 ti FE have a traditional dual fan set up. So my assumption is that exhaust for the psu fan is still optimal on the latter. Maybe @dondan can confirm?

I have also looked how to get a similar setup running. If you have not done it already you can offset the graphic card to the outside with additional 5mm motherboard spacers on the pci-e riser, in order to create a wider gap between the backside of the gpu and the psu. I would then look into setting the fan under the psu as intake so it blows fresh air into this gap. I would not replace the 3060ti fans as they are really very good (at least compared tp the previous RTX20xx FE fans). If you have the new Dan Case with the pci 4 riser it should also be no problem adding a custom bracket above the motherboard and use an Akasa fan 10mm x 80mm with a grill fan as exhaust.

Ultimately it seems that the most important part is creating that gap between the gpu and psu to run the 30xx cards. This cards are really not designed for that case that is why i use a Founders Edition RTX2080ti@0,875v with an EVGA Bios Flash to get the best noise / performace ratio.

Please do post an update with what you have tried and what worked for you

 

[nhatminh2h]

@nhatminh2h That seemed to be in regards to the 3080FE which has that intake/exhaust fan setup. The 3070 FE and 3060 ti FE have a traditional dual fan set up. So my assumption is that exhaust for the psu fan is still optimal on the latter. Maybe @dondan can confirm?

Even though they look different, the Founder 3070 and 3060ti both have the flow-through design, you can see this clearly from the fact that they have no side vents. The difference mainly comes down to the length of the card-the 3080 PSU side fan is directly on top of the fan, whereas the 3070 and 3060ti are shorter so they are off by a little bit

 

[peacecraft_M]

Even though they look different, the Founder 3070 and 3060ti both have the flow-through design, you can see this clearly from the fact that they have no side vents. The difference mainly comes down to the length of the card-the 3080 PSU side fan is directly on top of the fan, whereas the 3070 and 3060ti are shorter so they are off by a little bit

TIL

thanks a bunch for that

@aporias
Looking into those 5mm spacers and changing my fan under my PSU to intake Tomorrow. Thanks!

 

[Hellow]

You don't need to flip your PSU with the 70

 

[peacecraft_M]

You don't need to flip your PSU with the 70

Sorry for the confusion. I made an edit to be more clear

 

[Misjn]

Oof, these riser cables aren't too durable I guess. Had my setup for a little under a year now and took my mobo off to upgrade the wifi module, put it back and got no picture on monitor after that. Setup works fine with GPU directly in the mobo PCIe slot so broke the riser cable just by disconnecting/reconnecting the cable once after the initial setup a year ago. Help me @dondan !

 

[dondan]

Got your rma request. On the sended pictures I can't see a defect, but you will get an replacment.

 

[daddelbud]

Oof, these riser cables aren't too durable I guess. Had my setup for a little under a year now and took my mobo off to upgrade the wifi module, put it back and got no picture on monitor after that. Setup works fine with GPU directly in the mobo PCIe slot so broke the riser cable just by disconnecting/reconnecting the cable once after the initial setup a year ago. Help me @dondan !

Wow, you must be unlucky. I've torn my Dan apart 20+ time and never had issues.

 

[dondan]

Same here ^^

 

[broseph11]

I recall reading about someone doing it, though this may have been speculation about doing so rather than an actual attempt.
IIRC in addition the panel extension this (would) require carving away the lip of the frame since the XT's shroud sits nearly flush with the bracket.

Yep you're absolutely correct. Improvise, adapt and overcome.

 

[biopunk]

Has anyone done or seen a GPU performance comparison between 3M PCIe 3.0 riser vs no riser?

 

[broseph11]

Has anyone done or seen a GPU performance comparison between 3M PCIe 3.0 riser vs no riser?

I would really like to know if any of these risers work with the DAN case.

 

[dondan]

Has anyone done or seen a GPU performance comparison between 3M PCIe 3.0 riser vs no riser?

There perf. diff is not meassureable.

 

[biopunk]

There perf. diff is not meassureable.

Even in Gen4 mode? Asking because the Linkup riser seems to have a measurable perf. impact in Gen4 mode compared to Gen3.

 

[dondan]

Yes because they change it resistant after becomming hot. I am in contact with the manufacturer and the last two generation samples was not stable in the A4-SFX. In a open bench test it was. The newest version (already in sale) is rdy for test but i didn't found the time to do it.

So without the last test only the 3M and Simtec (Ghost) cables are rdy for gen4 in the A4. I have also another sample from a unknown Taiwan supplier that I will test in the next weeks. In my test the 3M offers the same score as directly socket usage.

 

[broseph11]

That is much better. Wish we could get official extensions in the same color.

 

[nhatminh2h]

TIL

thanks a bunch for that

@aporias
Looking into those 5mm spacers and changing my fan under my PSU to intake Tomorrow. Thanks!

Yeah no biggie.

Just had some spare time between my exams so I did a quick test to change the direction of the fan under the PSU. Just did a simple stress test with Heaven and recorded the temperature with HWInfo64.

Initial impression is that with the PSU fan flipped, the GPU runs about the same but also with 100-300 more RPM. I don't have the equipment for audio levels but it was also significantly louder.

The CPU side panels around the bottom fan area were also quite warm to the touch, possibly due to the heat build-up by the intake fan.


The preliminary conclusion is that leaving the fan as exhaust is better, and considering the result I'm not sure if it's worth it to do further testings. But I'm quite inexperienced with testing hardware and using HWInfo(as you can see from my janky graph) so my experiment is not quite set up right and there could be errors.

 

[gffermari]

There could be a new A4-SFX Plus version of the case with 2.5-3 slot card support, natively.
The original A4 can remain as it is since it covers 90+% of the cards, anyway.