List of Mini-ITX/DTX motherboards with a Key A header (for front panel USB C)

lordzorg

Trash Compacter
Oct 27, 2019
51
28
"Funnily", the only motherboard that has a type E / USB C header is the ASUS Crosshair VIII Impact, but that one does not support a custom loop in the Ncase. I received the MB and RAM yesterday, it's all pretty and shiny and RGB, but clearly a lazy job on ASUS's side to make it DTX, a clear middle finger to many SFF cases. The DTX part has the sound and extra SATA ports, neither of which are useful to me, headset is USB, and I use NVME only.
 

lordzorg

Trash Compacter
Oct 27, 2019
51
28
Thanks! I have no experience w/ the M1 but everyone so far said not possible. Very intrigued! How and where did you fit the rad(s)? Did you post images of your system somewhere? :)
 

draic

Chassis Packer
Feb 7, 2018
14
15
Thanks! I have no experience w/ the M1 but everyone so far said not possible. Very intrigued! How and where did you fit the rad(s)? Did you post images of your system somewhere? :)
here you go:


The M.2 board does not interfere with the fittins and there is enough room to take it out, with the fittins still in place

You need to mod the AM4-brackets of the pump to fit the motherboard, but not much of a problem.

The backplate of the motherboard intereferes with one of the sidepanel pins of NCases prior to v6
 

lordzorg

Trash Compacter
Oct 27, 2019
51
28
here you go:


The M.2 board does not interfere with the fittins and there is enough room to take it out, with the fittins still in place

You need to mod the AM4-brackets of the pump to fit the motherboard, but not much of a problem.

The backplate of the motherboard intereferes with one of the sidepanel pins of NCases prior to v6

Thank you for sharing this! So this would have 240x120mm rad and 2x 120mm slim fans at the bottom? That is my concern.

Does this DTX part of the motherboard not interfere with that? I guess you have the rad mounted on the side, same as with an AIO?
I quite like the FrozenQ M1 reservoir, just googled it :)
 
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draic

Chassis Packer
Feb 7, 2018
14
15
Thank you for sharing this! So this would have 240x120mm rad and 2x 120mm slim fans at the bottom? That is my concern.

Does this DTX part of the motherboard not interfere with that? I guess you have the rad mounted on the side, same as with an AIO?
I quite like the FrozenQ M1 reservoir, just googled it :)
Bottom rad is not possible, correct. No concern to me. After the picture I installed an m.2 to pcie riser to put a 10gig network card in the third slot, so I couldn't fit a rad down there anyways.
 

lordzorg

Trash Compacter
Oct 27, 2019
51
28
Bottom rad is not possible, correct. No concern to me. After the picture I installed an m.2 to pcie riser to put a 10gig network card in the third slot, so I couldn't fit a rad down there anyways.
Ok understood, thank you!

Basically, my rant about the DTX formfactor is still valid imho. Bottom rad not possible b/c DTX. If I go custom loop, I want to see my loop, and then there is nowhere to put the rad... The Impact is a good board of course, but given the price, it's still relatively weak, as I wrote about some time earlier in this thread. DTX, no TMP, excessively large riser card. ASUS has a fairly weak X570 Strix and a fairly impractical Impact this time. Neither are bad, but neither are really amazing either.
 
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Plaklijm

Cable-Tie Ninja
Jun 18, 2019
164
87
Ok understood, thank you!

Basically, my rant about the DTX formfactor is still valid imho. Bottom rad not possible b/c DTX. If I go custom loop, I want to see my loop, and then there is nowhere to put the rad... The Impact is a good board of course, but given the price, it's still relatively weak, as I wrote about some time earlier in this thread. DTX, no TMP, excessively large riser card. ASUS has a fairly weak X570 Strix and a fairly impractical Impact this time. Neither are bad, but neither are really amazing either.
you can use the 92mm/90mm rad, but thats far not enough
 
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wildwest

Efficiency Noob
Jan 4, 2020
5
3
If I'm going to forgo the front panel USB C port on the 6.1, is it possible to open up the IO block and remove the 19pin cable completely to save space inside?

I've just dropped on an AMD kit with a Gigabyte X570 Aorus Pro which doesn't have the internal header.

The next board up just to get the extra internal header (as someone already mentioned) was going to cost as much as the CPU and I couldn't justify it when I don't even have any USB C devices for my PC.
 

lordzorg

Trash Compacter
Oct 27, 2019
51
28
If I'm going to forgo the front panel USB C port on the 6.1, is it possible to open up the IO block and remove the 19pin cable completely to save space inside?

I've just dropped on an AMD kit with a Gigabyte X570 Aorus Pro which doesn't have the internal header.

The next board up just to get the extra internal header (as someone already mentioned) was going to cost as much as the CPU and I couldn't justify it when I don't even have any USB C devices for my PC.
You can remove individual cables but then you will essentially have a hole at the front I/O. I finished my two builds in the M1 and have to say, while the case is very nice overall, the front-panel cables should be modular and the cables itself thinner, maybe even shorter. It was a bit of a pain to cable manage those. For the X570-I Strix, I did not want to give up USB-A, but I did not care for 3.5mm audio and since the board does not have a USB-C header, that one was not necessary. Would have been nice to remove audio and USB-C cables, keeping USB-A, and not having holes in the front.
 
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Plaklijm

Cable-Tie Ninja
Jun 18, 2019
164
87
You can remove individual cables but then you will essentially have a hole at the front I/O. I finished my two builds in the M1 and have to say, while the case is very nice overall, the front-panel cables should be modular and the cables itself thinner, maybe even shorter. It was a bit of a pain to cable manage those. For the X570-I Strix, I did not want to give up USB-A, but I did not care for 3.5mm audio and since the board does not have a USB-C header, that one was not necessary. Would have been nice to remove audio and USB-C cables, keeping USB-A, and not having holes in the front.
Just build my pc this morning, and i completly agree with the cables being wayyy to thicccc. It was pretty difficult to get my fans and GPU in the underside of my case without those interfering with everything. But i didnt want to bend them to much because I was afraid to snap them off. Im thinking of completly removing the front IO when i upgrade my GPU, so i have a few months to decide if i want the front io or not. Modular would also be nice, because i dont use the USB-C and the headphone jack, and sometimes the usb 3.0, so removing those first two would help a lot with keeping everything a lot cleaner and building in the case a lot easier!
 

Necere

Shrink Ray Wielder
Original poster
NCASE
Feb 22, 2015
1,719
3,281
You can remove individual cables but then you will essentially have a hole at the front I/O. I finished my two builds in the M1 and have to say, while the case is very nice overall, the front-panel cables should be modular and the cables itself thinner, maybe even shorter. It was a bit of a pain to cable manage those. For the X570-I Strix, I did not want to give up USB-A, but I did not care for 3.5mm audio and since the board does not have a USB-C header, that one was not necessary. Would have been nice to remove audio and USB-C cables, keeping USB-A, and not having holes in the front.
Just build my pc this morning, and i completly agree with the cables being wayyy to thicccc. It was pretty difficult to get my fans and GPU in the underside of my case without those interfering with everything. But i didnt want to bend them to much because I was afraid to snap them off. Im thinking of completly removing the front IO when i upgrade my GPU, so i have a few months to decide if i want the front io or not. Modular would also be nice, because i dont use the USB-C and the headphone jack, and sometimes the usb 3.0, so removing those first two would help a lot with keeping everything a lot cleaner and building in the case a lot easier!
Have either of you seen any cases that come with thinner cables? AFAIK the cable thickness is pretty standard for the industry.

The cable lengths were chosen to be able to reach any possible header location on the motherboard with a bit of slack left for cable management. Notice that several boards have the Type E header way up in the upper rear corner - about as far away from the front I/O as you can get. That's why the Type C cable is as long as it is.
 

lordzorg

Trash Compacter
Oct 27, 2019
51
28
Just build my pc this morning, and i completly agree with the cables being wayyy to thicccc. It was pretty difficult to get my fans and GPU in the underside of my case without those interfering with everything. But i didnt want to bend them to much because I was afraid to snap them off. Im thinking of completly removing the front IO when i upgrade my GPU, so i have a few months to decide if i want the front io or not. Modular would also be nice, because i dont use the USB-C and the headphone jack, and sometimes the usb 3.0, so removing those first two would help a lot with keeping everything a lot cleaner and building in the case a lot easier!
I did end up leaving them in there, and I did bend them quite a bit albeit carefully, nothing happened but ymmv. I routed them from front-middle to front-motherboardside, USB-C and USB-A up alongside the PSU, the audio straight through. I managed to fit all that AND an ASUS Strix 5700 XT GPU, no further mods to the case, but it was a bit of a pain getting it in there! Getting it out again is even worse. I had to lift up the GPU 2mm with little sticky pads from the front-IO so that the GPU fan does not interefere with the square Front-IO cable sockets. GPU is at a minimal angle, but without window - who cares.

Have either of you seen any cases that come with thinner cables? AFAIK the cable thickness is pretty standard for the industry.

The cable lengths were chosen to be able to reach any possible header location on the motherboard with a bit of slack left for cable management. Notice that several boards have the Type E header way up in the upper rear corner - about as far away from the front I/O as you can get. That's why the Type C cable is as long as it is.
No complaint at all, the case is fantastic, and the cables are standard there is no issue, the smaller the case, the more difficult it gets ofc, and idk if it would be easy enough / economically sensible to get modular cables, maybe an optional front-IO panel metal bracket with only USB-A for those w/o USB-C header and without the need for 3.5mm would be interesting, but not sure how many care for that in the end. :)
 
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Andrejhoward

Case Bender
New User
Jun 22, 2020
2
1
Thank you so much for this thread and updating it.

I just got 2 H1 cases and I'm working on getting boards :p ... Gotta be patient but I want those headers.