M1 Dusk – Last of the NCASE M1 builds
This build is so long overdue, that the NCASE M1 that I’ll be unboxing tomorrow, for the first time, has already been discontinued.
I thought the name Dusk was appropriate, not only with the sun setting on M1 case production back in October, but also because this build consists almost entirely of black components with no RGB.
Planned vs final configuration
The configuration has changed over the 18 months it’s taken to gather all the components, with some of them being bought, and then sold and replaced, during that time.
The initial plan was for a Ryzen 3600 paired with a GeForce 2070 Super, but this has now changed to the Ryzen 5800X, and a 10GB GeForce 3080 (the most expensive purchase, aside from my monitor).
The 2TB Samsung EVO Plus SSD that I planned to use as a second drive has had to go into my laptop, and so that will now be replaced by a 1TB WD SN550 instead.
Then, just as I thought the parts were finalized last week, a friend mistakenly purchased a Corsair SF750 SFF PSU for his ATX system. He found the cables were too short, so I offered to buy him a comparable Corsair ATX Power Supply, and we swapped power supplies.
The SF750 should give me some additional headroom with the more powerful CPU and GPU I’ve ended up with, as the SF600 I had bought may have been cutting it close.
Usage
Recently I’ve been struggling to get work done on my 2017 Lenovo Carbon X1 laptop. I’ve also been working from home a lot more since COVID-19 struck, and no longer require something as portable.
I’ll mainly be doing video and photo editing using Adobe Premiere Pro, After Effects, Lightroom Classic, and Photoshop, but I may try switching to DaVinci Resolve, to reduce monthly subscription costs.
If I have the time I’d like to try and learn the basics of Blender this year too.
Lastly, I also want something for gaming when I do have some free time. I’m hoping to at least play through some of my ever growing back catalog of games. Damn all those Steam sales!
The Components
Peripherals
The build will probably take a few days as I’d like to film it, and post some videos.
However, I won’t be able to upload any videos until I’ve finished, as I need the completed system to do the editing. So, for now, I’ll just try and post some photos as I go.
I’m still not sure to what extent I’ll document everything. I was initially planning to do an unboxing video for each component, and include all the measurements, as this is a SFF build.
Now, I feel that outside of a few key components like the graphics card, those unboxings may not be very useful or interesting to most.
If there’s anything in particular that you would like a closer look at, or measurements for, then let me know. I’ll be happy to get out my calipers or a measuring tape, and add some more detailed photos or video.
This build is so long overdue, that the NCASE M1 that I’ll be unboxing tomorrow, for the first time, has already been discontinued.
I thought the name Dusk was appropriate, not only with the sun setting on M1 case production back in October, but also because this build consists almost entirely of black components with no RGB.
Planned vs final configuration
The configuration has changed over the 18 months it’s taken to gather all the components, with some of them being bought, and then sold and replaced, during that time.
The initial plan was for a Ryzen 3600 paired with a GeForce 2070 Super, but this has now changed to the Ryzen 5800X, and a 10GB GeForce 3080 (the most expensive purchase, aside from my monitor).
The 2TB Samsung EVO Plus SSD that I planned to use as a second drive has had to go into my laptop, and so that will now be replaced by a 1TB WD SN550 instead.
Then, just as I thought the parts were finalized last week, a friend mistakenly purchased a Corsair SF750 SFF PSU for his ATX system. He found the cables were too short, so I offered to buy him a comparable Corsair ATX Power Supply, and we swapped power supplies.
The SF750 should give me some additional headroom with the more powerful CPU and GPU I’ve ended up with, as the SF600 I had bought may have been cutting it close.
Usage
Recently I’ve been struggling to get work done on my 2017 Lenovo Carbon X1 laptop. I’ve also been working from home a lot more since COVID-19 struck, and no longer require something as portable.
I’ll mainly be doing video and photo editing using Adobe Premiere Pro, After Effects, Lightroom Classic, and Photoshop, but I may try switching to DaVinci Resolve, to reduce monthly subscription costs.
If I have the time I’d like to try and learn the basics of Blender this year too.
Lastly, I also want something for gaming when I do have some free time. I’m hoping to at least play through some of my ever growing back catalog of games. Damn all those Steam sales!
The Components
- NCASE M1 v6 (not the 6.1 unfortunately) - Black
- Corsair SF750 Platinum SFF Power Supply
- AMD Ryzen 7 5800X Processor
- Noctua NH-U9S chromax.black CPU Cooler
- MSI B550I Gaming Edge ITX Motherboard
- 32GB (2x16GB) HyperX Fury DDR4-3733 CL19 RAM
- 10GB EVGA GeForce 3080 XC3 Ultra Graphics Card
- 2TB Sabrent Rocket NVMe 4.0 SSD
- 1TB WD SN550 NVMe 3.0 SSD
- Additional Noctua NF-A9 chromax.black Fan for CPU Cooler
- 2x Noctua NF-A12x15 chromax.black Fans
Peripherals
- Alienware AW3821DW 38-inch 3840x1600 Monitor
- Drop Alt Mechanical Keyboard (Kaihua Speed Silver Switches)
- Logitech G502 Lightspeed Mouse
- Drop + Sennheiser PC38X Headset
- Topping DX3 Pro Headphone DAC/Amplifier
The build will probably take a few days as I’d like to film it, and post some videos.
However, I won’t be able to upload any videos until I’ve finished, as I need the completed system to do the editing. So, for now, I’ll just try and post some photos as I go.
I’m still not sure to what extent I’ll document everything. I was initially planning to do an unboxing video for each component, and include all the measurements, as this is a SFF build.
Now, I feel that outside of a few key components like the graphics card, those unboxings may not be very useful or interesting to most.
If there’s anything in particular that you would like a closer look at, or measurements for, then let me know. I’ll be happy to get out my calipers or a measuring tape, and add some more detailed photos or video.
Last edited:
