Ncase M1 and NZXT Kraken 52x

[sp3cialck]

Hi there! I'm building my first ITX and ordered the new M1 case and i'm already thinking about, what would be the best position to place the radiator fans in the M1 ( to get the lower temps as possible ). As intake ( pulling fresh air thru the radiator inside the M1 ) or outake ( pushing the hot air outside the M1 )!? Ps: I gonna use 2 noctua fans on the bottom!
Any advice?

 

[sp3cialck]

I think i found the best way, pull air thru the radiator with the fans inside!

 

[rfarmer]

Hi there! I'm building my first ITX and ordered the new M1 case and i'm already thinking about, what would be the best position to place the radiator fans in the M1 ( to get the lower temps as possible ). As intake ( pulling fresh air thru the radiator inside the M1 ) or outake ( pushing the hot air outside the M1 )!? Ps: I gonna use 2 noctua fans on the bottom!
Any advice?

If you aren't cooling your GPU you will get the best temps pulling air from the outside.

 

[Amonchakai]

In this video, he reports that it is a little better to have the fan inside which pull air outside through the radiator :

 

[Revenant]

This was an issue I dealt with extensively before switching to the Cerberus X from the NCASE M1. I have a 2080 Founders Edition, and an 8086K at 1.36V for a 5GHZ all core OC. I was using a V5 NCASE M1. Prior to the 2080FE, I was using a blower model 980ti. I ran an X52 with Noctua A12 fans.

With the 980ti in place, I added two slim Noctua fans at 40% speed. They raised my OC on my card to 1450mhz from 1300mhz. At the time, I was running the X52 as an intake.

I swapped the 980ti blower for the Founders Edition 2080. My system immediately began to overheat. The 2080FE was dumping 250 watts of heat into the case, as opposed to the 980ti blowing it out the back of the case. The case got too hot to touch, and the GPU was heavily thermally throttling even with the bottom fans set for 100%.

I then swapped my X52 fans to exhaust. This fixed the GPU and case overheating, but now the CPU was melting itself at the OC. Even stock, it was running hot.

I was able to achieve a balance by setting the X52 to intake, running bottom fans as intake, and using a 92mm exhaust fan. However, I could never get the full OCs of either my CPU or GPU, and the system was now LOUD. My CPU was stuck at 4.6ghz all core OC, and the GPU topped out at 1.85ish GHZ.

Everyone complains at how loud blower fans are, and on test benches, they can't stack up to axial fans. But in the real world, in a small case like this, my blower 980ti made my whole system MUCH quieter then the axial fan 2080FE. If you are going to run a bone stock setup, and not OC anything, then this could work. If you run a hot CPU like me, get a blower card.

How did I fix the issue? I didn't. I gave up, and bought a bigger case (Cerberus X). I could have gone with the Cerberus, but I want to use this case for the next few builds, and MATX is basically dead for now which is a shame. VRMs on ITX boards are limited, and MATX has a lot more room. I installed an X62 with Noctua 140mm fans as intakes at the bottom, and a 92mm fan behind the CPU as exhaust. I plan to put one or two more slow 120mm fans at the top. I also added 10mm foam to the thick steel side panel. My system is now at an acceptable noise level, and runs very cool. But I cheated... My system DOES run at 5GHZ Prime Stable 24-7 OC on the CPU, and 2050mhz on the GPU though.

I LOVE the NCASE M1. When I built my first one, I had the aforementioned 980ti with 6700K on a Cryorig C1, and it worked wonderfully. It's a brilliant design, and I will build in it again. The V6 will be even better, and the new side panel might help alleviate some of the issues I had. However, if you're going to build it, pay close attention to the limitations of the case.

 

[Amonchakai]

Thanks for the feedback, very interesting.

 

[sp3cialck]

This was an issue I dealt with extensively before switching to the Cerberus X from the NCASE M1. I have a 2080 Founders Edition, and an 8086K at 1.36V for a 5GHZ all core OC. I was using a V5 NCASE M1. Prior to the 2080FE, I was using a blower model 980ti. I ran an X52 with Noctua A12 fans.

With the 980ti in place, I added two slim Noctua fans at 40% speed. They raised my OC on my card to 1450mhz from 1300mhz. At the time, I was running the X52 as an intake.

I swapped the 980ti blower for the Founders Edition 2080. My system immediately began to overheat. The 2080FE was dumping 250 watts of heat into the case, as opposed to the 980ti blowing it out the back of the case. The case got too hot to touch, and the GPU was heavily thermally throttling even with the bottom fans set for 100%.

I then swapped my X52 fans to exhaust. This fixed the GPU and case overheating, but now the CPU was melting itself at the OC. Even stock, it was running hot.

I was able to achieve a balance by setting the X52 to intake, running bottom fans as intake, and using a 92mm exhaust fan. However, I could never get the full OCs of either my CPU or GPU, and the system was now LOUD. My CPU was stuck at 4.6ghz all core OC, and the GPU topped out at 1.85ish GHZ.

Everyone complains at how loud blower fans are, and on test benches, they can't stack up to axial fans. But in the real world, in a small case like this, my blower 980ti made my whole system MUCH quieter then the axial fan 2080FE. If you are going to run a bone stock setup, and not OC anything, then this could work. If you run a hot CPU like me, get a blower card.

How did I fix the issue? I didn't. I gave up, and bought a bigger case (Cerberus X). I could have gone with the Cerberus, but I want to use this case for the next few builds, and MATX is basically dead for now which is a shame. VRMs on ITX boards are limited, and MATX has a lot more room. I installed an X62 with Noctua 140mm fans as intakes at the bottom, and a 92mm fan behind the CPU as exhaust. I plan to put one or two more slow 120mm fans at the top. I also added 10mm foam to the thick steel side panel. My system is now at an acceptable noise level, and runs very cool. But I cheated... My system DOES run at 5GHZ Prime Stable 24-7 OC on the CPU, and 2050mhz on the GPU though.

I LOVE the NCASE M1. When I built my first one, I had the aforementioned 980ti with 6700K on a Cryorig C1, and it worked wonderfully. It's a brilliant design, and I will build in it again. The V6 will be even better, and the new side panel might help alleviate some of the issues I had. However, if you're going to build it, pay close attention to the limitations of the case.

At moment my setup is:

Z390 Phantom Gaming-ITX/ac
i9.9900K not OC
Asus RTX 2080ti Dual
NZXT Kraken x52

And i gonna change the x52 fans to Noctua NF-A12x25 PWM and put 2x NF-A12x15-PWM 120mm at the bottom to pull fresh air to GPU! As sugested by you on an old post!

 

[Revenant]

At moment my setup is:

Z390 Phantom Gaming-ITX/ac
i9.9900K not OC
Asus RTX 2080ti Dual
NZXT Kraken x52

And i gonna change the x52 fans to Noctua NF-A12x25 PWM and put 2x NF-A12x15-PWM 120mm at the bottom to pull fresh air to GPU! As sugested by you on an old post!

I’m going to suggest you double up on the A12x25s on the bottom of your GPU has space for it

 

[audiokollaps]

This was an issue I dealt with extensively before switching to the Cerberus X from the NCASE M1. I have a 2080 Founders Edition, and an 8086K at 1.36V for a 5GHZ all core OC. I was using a V5 NCASE M1. Prior to the 2080FE, I was using a blower model 980ti. I ran an X52 with Noctua A12 fans.

How did I fix the issue? I didn't. I gave up, and bought a bigger case (Cerberus X). I could have gone with the Cerberus, but I want to use this case for the next few builds, and MATX is basically dead for now which is a shame. VRMs on ITX boards are limited, and MATX has a lot more room. I installed an X62 with Noctua 140mm fans as intakes at the bottom, and a 92mm fan behind the CPU as exhaust. I plan to put one or two more slow 120mm fans at the top. I also added 10mm foam to the thick steel side panel. My system is now at an acceptable noise level, and runs very cool. But I cheated... My system DOES run at 5GHZ Prime Stable 24-7 OC on the CPU, and 2050mhz on the GPU though.

I LOVE the NCASE M1. When I built my first one, I had the aforementioned 980ti with 6700K on a Cryorig C1, and it worked wonderfully. It's a brilliant design, and I will build in it again. The V6 will be even better, and the new side panel might help alleviate some of the issues I had. However, if you're going to build it, pay close attention to the limitations of the case.

Lurker here.

This is super heartbreaking to hear, i just got my Ncase M1 V6 and did a build in it. And i have been miserable trying to fix my heat issues for two days now. I run a 3700X on a X570 Gigabyte ITX board. Its cooled by a Corsair H100i Pro which does a good job. But my biggest pain is my damn RTX 2080 Founders card. It just gets too damn hot and the fans are unbearable in this case.

I have tried undervolting to around 900mv but the cards still goes above 84c.

I have two Noctua fans under the GPU blasting air from the outside into the case, the fans on the AIO are also doing the same.

 

[YESWEKEN]

did you guys with FE cards experiencing heat issues ever try undervolting the card at all?
I'm new to undervolting so I'm looking around for anyone who has posted anything about successfully undervolted their GPU and with what software they used to accomplish it.

I have my Ncase mounted under my desk so the bottom of the case seems to get an ample supply of cool ambient air and I haven't had any issues with noise or heat with my 2080Ti FE yet. My system is in a First edition (v1) ncase. But I haven't attempted any overclocking yet.

 

[audiokollaps]

I have undervolted my Founders 2080 but it literally does nothing in my M1 V6 case. The heat just builds up a bit slower but it will get to 86c in no time. I really don't care about the heat, what ruins my experience is how loud the Founders card gets. Also i did the undervolt in MSI Afterburner.

 

[Revenant]

Lurker here.

This is super heartbreaking to hear, i just got my Ncase M1 V6 and did a build in it. And i have been miserable trying to fix my heat issues for two days now. I run a 3700X on a X570 Gigabyte ITX board. Its cooled by a Corsair H100i Pro which does a good job. But my biggest pain is my damn RTX 2080 Founders card. It just gets too damn hot and the fans are unbearable in this case.

I have tried undervolting to around 900mv but the cards still goes above 84c.

I have two Noctua fans under the GPU blasting air from the outside into the case, the fans on the AIO are also doing the same.

That's the price one pays for overclocking. I've since switched up my Cerberus X a bit. the 280mm X62 is now mounted vertically to the front. I also put two 120x15mm Noctuas on the top to vent heat. The PSU is now in the rear mount. Aside from my PSU getting raging hot, everything else works well.

I think for your set up, you need to switch your CPU fans to exhaust. That will pull a lot of heat out of the case. Also add a 92mm exhaust if you have the room. The catch is, no overclocking your CPU. Probably...

 

[audiokollaps]

That's the price one pays for overclocking. I've since switched up my Cerberus X a bit. the 280mm X62 is now mounted vertically to the front. I also put two 120x15mm Noctuas on the top to vent heat. The PSU is now in the rear mount. Aside from my PSU getting raging hot, everything else works well.

I think for your set up, you need to switch your CPU fans to exhaust. That will pull a lot of heat out of the case. Also add a 92mm exhaust if you have the room. The catch is, no overclocking your CPU. Probably...

I will try and set the rad fans as exhaust to see how well it handles that.

 

[YESWEKEN]

My system is built in a NCase M1 first edition, so the case doesn't have all the optimizations that came with all 5 revisions after it, but so far, the case at it's core is really well designed so my temps seem fine. My system includes:

• Core i9 9900K
• G.SKILL TridentZ RGB Series 32GB CL 14-14-14-34
• ASUS ROG STRIX Z390i motherboard
• NZXT KRAKEN X52
• 2 x Noctua NF-A12x25 PWM Fans (mounted to the Kraken x52, intake orientation)
• CORSAIR SF750 750 Watt PSU
• CORSAIR MP510 1920GB NVMe PCIe Gen3 x4 M.2 SSD
• NVIDIA GeForce 2080 Ti FE

There are no other case fans installed at the moment.
The CPU idles at 35-37 degrees C and the GPU idles at 45 degrees C. Under load, the CPU rarely ever goes past 75 degrees, this is running prime 95 "small".
The GPU seems to top out at about the same range, but a little higher, at about 78-79 degrees C.
my normal ambient temps are usually around the 26-28 degrees C ballpark.

I spent a lot of time routing cables so that there is no obstruction between the radiator/fan assembly and the psu/mobo. I wanted to avoid having any bunches of cables between the radiator fans and the rest of my components. I don't know if it helps, but it looks great and the results seem to be excellent as well.
The whole system is mounted under my desk and has mostly unobstructed airflow from all sides. Probably going to try messing around with undervolting to see if boost clocks stay at boost levels for longer. Then maybe I'll play around with overclocking a bit, my current temps seem to have some headroom there.

 

[Revenant]

My system is built in a NCase M1 first edition, so the case doesn't have all the optimizations that came with all 5 revisions after it, but so far, the case at it's core is really well designed so my temps seem fine. My system includes:

• Core i9 9900K
• G.SKILL TridentZ RGB Series 32GB CL 14-14-14-34
• ASUS ROG STRIX Z390i motherboard
• NZXT KRAKEN X52
• 2 x Noctua NF-A12x25 PWM Fans (mounted to the Kraken x52, intake orientation)
• CORSAIR SF750 750 Watt PSU
• CORSAIR MP510 1920GB NVMe PCIe Gen3 x4 M.2 SSD
• NVIDIA GeForce 2080 Ti FE

There are no other case fans installed at the moment.
The CPU idles at 35-37 degrees C and the GPU idles at 45 degrees C. Under load, the CPU rarely ever goes past 75 degrees, this is running prime 95 "small".
The GPU seems to top out at about the same range, but a little higher, at about 78-79 degrees C.
my normal ambient temps are usually around the 26-28 degrees C ballpark.

I spent a lot of time routing cables so that there is no obstruction between the radiator/fan assembly and the psu/mobo. I wanted to avoid having any bunches of cables between the radiator fans and the rest of my components. I don't know if it helps, but it looks great and the results seem to be excellent as well.
The whole system is mounted under my desk and has mostly unobstructed airflow from all sides. Probably going to try messing around with undervolting to see if boost clocks stay at boost levels for longer. Then maybe I'll play around with overclocking a bit, my current temps seem to have some headroom there.

Those are excellent results for a positive pressure M1 with FE card! What games are you running, and what res/frame rate are you running them at?

 

[YESWEKEN]

Those are excellent results for a positive pressure M1 with FE card! What games are you running, and what res/frame rate are you running them at?

Been away from gaming for awhile so I'm catching up on some older games. One of the newer titles I've been playing is the new CoD that came with my video card, then there's No Man's Sky, Doom, and Deus Ex Mankind Divided. Deus Ex Mankind Divided still manages to stress out my 2080 Ti, it's still a great looking game. Also, probably because I'm running a 34" Ultra-Wide LG G-sync display. At 3440 x 1440 Deus Ex runs at about 65-80 fps. Doom and CoD run considerably faster but I haven't benchmarked them. I will probably do that when I find some time to undervolt or overclock.

Besides the games like Doom and CoD that always seem to run really fast, I'm only aiming for a fps range of up to 120 hz because that's the max for my LC. Most games with plenty of eye-candy turned up seem to fall around there at this resolution and video card combo anyways.