Advice NCASE M1 questions

[Dawelio]

Hello everyone,

So here's me asking our wonderful community some questions that I have of this case, which I've recently really been drawn back to, due to it's small footprint, yet not being as extremely compact as the Dan A4.

This is mostly for those who obviously has or have had this case, and also has experience with the questions at hand.

1. Is it worth putting like dual Noctua NF-F12's in the bottom as intakes, that blows directly up onto your GPU? Or is it more of a case of diminishing return, where there's little to no point in having fans there at all?

2. Does anyone have the Noctua NH-U9S chromax.black cooler? How does it fare? I've never really used an air cooler before and planning on using this on my 3700X, non overclocked, just at barebone stock. Although I've reached that point in life where I just want my PC to work and enjoy it. Hence why I'd like an air cooler, which eliminates a lot of poential failure factors. The only thing that can break in this regard are the fan(s), which is an easy replacement. Now I don't distrust Noctua, far from it, hence why ordering this cooler. But just thought of asking to see if anyone has any experience with it.

3. Does anyone know of any dust filters for the side panels of the NCASE M1? I know there's one included with the V6.1 on the bottom and on the internal side bracket. But I'm thinking of maybe getting some custom ones for the entire side panel ventilation parts.

4. Is there any point in putting another Noctua NF-F12 on the internal side bracket, as intake for the cooler or is this more or less pointless?

5. Maybe a dumb one to ask, but I do it anyway, since I have no experience with ASRock. I'm debating between the ASUS ROG STRIX B550-I GAMING motherboard and the ASRock B550 Phantom Gaming-ITX/ac. Now I don't like the active cooling fan on the ASUS board, that small fan just creeps me out for some reason, the same way those tiny chipset fans on the previous gen motherboards.

I do like the clean serial 4 port USB on the back of the ASrock one as well, in comparison to the nuked I/O on the ASUS. I mean, was someone drunk when they designed it? Why does no manufacturer just put the USB ports togheter instead of putting them all over the place?.

Thanks everyone!

Best regards,
Dawelio

 

[elvendawn]

Hi @Dawelio,

I only have experience with some of those questions, here's my thoughts on it:

1) Depends. Yes if you plan on deshrouding, otherwise probably not, it will just create turbulence and shorten the life of the GPU fans for maybe a handful of degrees.

2 and 4) I read the U9S is a popular cooler for the N1, however if you want to use the side bracket I used the C14S with 1 A12 under the color and one on top attached to the side bracket for great effect.

 

[tinyitx]

1) From your description, I get it that you do not plan to remove the shroud+fan of the display card.

If so, then I think it is not a case of diminishing return but it is a case of how you want to design the airflow path inside the case.

So, let me comment in general:-

The display card is likely to have a feature of zero rpm, allowing the card's fans to stop when the gpu is under, say, 50C. If you consider the card by itself alone, then this is fine. But I think you should look at the whole picture, ie the entire case airflow. I mean, the 2 case bottom fans bring in fresh ambient air to cool the card as well as supply air to other components (CPU, SSDs etc).

They are on all the time and the fan curve is adjusted according to the CPU temp (preferably). So, even when the card is not hot enough to turn on its own fans, the 2 case bottom fans will still be spinning to intake fresh air into the case actively. Additionally, these air will cool the display card, delaying the need for the gpu fans to come alive. This has the benefit that the 2 case bottom Noctua fans being more quiet than the two (or three) gpu fans.

 

[tinyitx]

2) Regarding air cooling 3700X, NH-U9S should be OK. But if I were you, I prefer max cooling and thus will prefer Thermalright Silver Arrow 130. Temp will be lower and less noisy (due to a larger fan spinning lower). This, of course, is a relatively thing and it is up to your personal preference/tolerance of temp/noise.

Seems you are after a black looking one (ie chromax.black). SA130 has a graphene version (a limited version). It claims to lower the temp but do not count on it for more than a couple degrees. Just go for the look, if you can find one.

Lastly, if you have two 120mm bottom case fans as intake (and probably with a rear 92mm exhaust case fan), then the entire case might become pressure positive at all times (depending on the fan curves, of course). If so, then you will not need dust filter for the side panel. This will also answer your question #3.