Production Nouvolo Steck - SFF 8.7-11.2L ITX PC Case, supports liquid cooling

[Poblopuablo]

Anyone here have a steck, vlp ram, l12s and some time to test an idea? I'm wondering if performance on the l12s would be improved by a bottom mounted 120mm 25mm thick fan, and if so is it practical or even enough to make it a reasonable thing to consider..... I know that a lot of motherboards my not be able to do this because of tall components on the motherboard, but it's a thought that recently crossed my mind and it seems very interesting!!! Since vlp ram is ~19mm tall and standard ram is close to 30-32mm tall, ram clearence wouldn't be an issue. ?????? I could see this as a new king of air cooling in this case... Granted it fit, and performed well. I know vlp ram isn't too expensive (~23$ for a 8gb stick of adata ram off of AliExpress) but i don't have a l12s. so it would be a lot of $ to get, just to test an idea.

Just found someone trying a similar config. Not nearly as impressive as I would have thought.



Albeit it's only an 8400, with the larger fan, 10% higher fan speed, it only had only a 2-3° difference. It might perform better with a higher tdp chip.

 

[MadMonK85]

Hello comrades
I also want to write a couple of ideas about placing a 2.5" HDD/SSD in the case. Like many owners of this case, I stuffed the main SSD between the front panel and the power supply. I tried to install my old HDD (9 mm thickness) in other places of the case and the only place where it would be possible without of particular problems, installing a hard disk is right under the PSU (if there is no 120mm fan there.) But it was not so simple. The PSU should be installed either higher or deeper in the case.
Therefore, a couple of small recommendations appeared for the manufacturer of the case (and at the same time a couple of ideas for other users on modifying the frame for the PSU):
1. Make additional holes on the upper plane to move the PSU inside the case to instal the HDD/SSD between the side panel and the PSU (you may need an additional bracket to fasten the HDD/SSD).
2. Increase the size of the support frame for the PSU and make additional holes so that the PSU can be installed higher (about 5 -7 mm).

Spoiler: Some photos explaining my suggestions

 

[RaldiH]

Hello guys ,finally received my case yesterday so for those who do wonder how long it takes for delivery in Europe ( France for me ) the case got shipped on December 11 and i got December 23 so that's about a week and a half , pretty fast all things considered !

About the case , neatly packaged the box had taken some beating but thanks to the foam all parts where intact . I was positively surprised by the quality of the painting and the structural integrity of the part . The only minor negative point if i had to pick one is that there where some dirty stains ( i guess the white color doesn't help either ) probably made during the packaging process or something , still managed to clean those off with some electronic cleaner spray ( tried isopropylic alcohol prior to that but it didn't worked ) but yeah maybe that's something to watch for the future . Here is my build :



Not finished yet , still waiting for modding parts to get home , i was planning to redo the painting in some shade of grey but honestly i have to admit white grew on me .

Merry Christmas and happy new year to Nouvolo and all the community members ! May the new year bring us more sub 10L goodies ??? .

 

[Poblopuablo]

Hello guys ,finally received my case yesterday so for those who do wonder how long it takes for delivery in Europe ( France for me ) the case got shipped on December 11 and i got December 23 so that's about a week and a half , pretty fast all things considered !

About the case , neatly packaged the box had taken some beating but thanks to the foam all parts where intact . I was positively surprised by the quality of the painting and the structural integrity of the part . The only minor negative point if i had to pick one is that there where some dirty stains ( i guess the white color doesn't help either ) probably made during the packaging process or something , still managed to clean those off with some electronic cleaner spray ( tried isopropylic alcohol prior to that but it didn't do the job ) but yeah maybe that's something to watch for the future . Here is my build :



Not finished yet , still waiting for modding parts to get home , i was planning to redo the painting in some shade of grey but honestly i have to admit white grew on me .

Merry Christmas and happy new year to Nouvolo and all the community members ! May the new year bring us more sub 10L goodies ??? .

Is there a reason you took the fan shroud off? Aesthetics? Or didn't fit? Also, did what timings are you at on that ram kit? 4000 is pretty high for a Zen+ CPU.

 

[RaldiH]

Is there a reason you took the fan shroud off? Aesthetics? Or didn't fit? Also, did what timings are you at on that ram kit? 4000 is pretty high for a Zen+ CPU.

Yes there is a reason , i actually had already removed the fan shroud and fans prior to this build to make it fit in my Node 202 with two 25mm fans , didn't bother to reassemble the shroud since as i said the build is not finished yet and i will have to take it apart so the disassembly will be much more convenient without the shroud .

About the ram kit i wrote 4000Mhz to identify the specific kit but im not running at 4000Mhz , i just got the kit so it's running at 3200 and i haven't played with timings so those should be pretty loose . When i get back home this week i will go with whatever Ryzen Dram Calculator has to offer as fast preset for 3600Mhz and if that turns out to be stable go from there , this being said if i can hit 3600Mhz with tight timings i will probably be a happy camper .

 

[Xaeons]

Someone actually did it. I guess I won't have to mod my case after all

 

[BrziHR]

@Nouvolo are there any plans for a small stack that would fit 2 slim 120mm fans?

 

[Allhopeforhumanity]

@Nouvolo are there any plans for a small stack that would fit 2 slim 120mm fans?

He said previously that it was under consideration for 2.0 but nothing was in the works yet. I made a 28 and an 18mm slim stack design that you can 3D print if you're interested: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3827933

 

[BrziHR]

He said previously that it was under consideration for 2.0 but nothing was in the works yet. I made a 28 and an 18mm slim stack design that you can 3D print if you're interested: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3827933

Hey man thats awesome. A friend has an ender 3 pro. Can it be printed on that?

 

[Allhopeforhumanity]

Hey man thats awesome. A friend has an ender 3 pro. Can it be printed on that?

I broke both stacker units into 2 pieces, so you should be able to print on anything with a 150mm bed length. Just gotta glue the two together in post.

 

[RaldiH]

@Nouvolo are there any plans for a small stack that would fit 2 slim 120mm fans?

Yeah that's something im really interested in aswell , and im sure we are not the only ones .

He said previously that it was under consideration for 2.0 but nothing was in the works yet. I made a 28 and an 18mm slim stack design that you can 3D print if you're interested: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3827933

Don't get me wrong your work is appreciated and cool but since not many of us have 3D printers something more official and more ''solid'' would had been welcome .

 

[mcs_dodo]

Hey guys so I'm at the point where I only need to choose a graphics card and a case and I'm still thinking about a couple of these, the steck was interesting for me until someone on a YouTube review told me it was not recommended at all for air travel (which I might do a lot) because of the magnet panels and the general sturdiness of the case, anyone here to confirm? Otherwise I will probably get the Dan a4. Thanks!

I guess that a few of these would fix it for you.

 

[Poblopuablo]

@Allhopeforhumanity, willing to make a standard ~60mm thick 3d printed file for a user in need?

Also, if anyone has a black steck unit, this guy is looking for one.

 

[Xaeons]

Do the 3d printed top hat have screws for 120mm fans or do I need to have that bracket from the original tophat?

 

[sami hx]

After loooong time of planing and waiting in can finally Show you my high end itx build.

i9 9900k
Rtx 2080 ti Zotac Amp
Gigabyte Aorus iTx z390
Asetek 645 w/ Black Noctua Fan
Patriot Ram 3733 Mhz
Samsung 970 Evo 1TB M.2
Corsair Sf 750 PSU
Custom Cables by Ray
Nouvolo Steck v1.1 White w/ Selfmade sidepanel

Peris.
Logitech G Pro x Headset
Logitech G pro Wireless Mouse
Logitech G pro Keyboard
Logitech c922 Webcam
Logitech Gamepad

 

[Mistercloudz]

After loooong time of planing and waiting in can finally Show you my high end itx build.

i9 9900k
Rtx 2080 ti Zotac Amp
Gigabyte Aorus iTx z390
Asetek 645 w/ Black Noctua Fan
Patriot Ram 3733 Mhz
Samsung 970 Evo 1TB M.2
Corsair Sf 750 PSU
Custom Cables by Ray
Nouvolo Steck v1.1 White w/ Selfmade sidepanel

Peris.
Logitech G Pro x Headset
Logitech G pro Wireless Mouse
Logitech G pro Keyboard
Logitech c922 Webcam
Logitech Gamepad

Temps?

 

[Allhopeforhumanity]

@Allhopeforhumanity, willing to make a standard ~60mm thick 3d printed file for a user in need?

Also, if anyone has a black steck unit, this guy is looking for one.

I think he may have reached out to me on thingiverse. I'm happy to make a 60mm, or any other size if someone needs a thicker one for a thicker radiator or something. I've parameterized the model such that it's literally a 1 number change.

Do the 3d printed top hat have screws for 120mm fans or do I need to have that bracket from the original tophat?

You use the top plate that comes with the base unit. You'll have to drill a few holes in the 3D printed top to secure the plate since its tough to accurately print holes that small on most printers.

 

[sami hx]

Temps?

While gaming I have 65-69 degrees Celsius with the gpu and 65-74 with the cpu depend on the game. I will undervolt both and check the temps again! What I love on the steck is that for gaming I can remove the side panel due to the magnets and so achieve wa better temps!

 

[Xaeons]

You use the top plate that comes with the base unit. You'll have to drill a few holes in the 3D printed top to secure the plate since its tough to accurately print holes that small on most printers.

Can you maybe post a picture? So would I also need to drill holes on my top plate as well?

8 holes for 2x120mm fans + X number of holes to secure the top plate to the 3d printed tophat?

Also, has anybody tried repainting their Steck? What process did you take?

 

[Allhopeforhumanity]

Can you maybe post a picture? So would I also need to drill holes on my top plate as well?

8 holes for 2x120mm fans + X number of holes to secure the top plate to the 3d printed tophat?

Also, has anybody tried repainting their Steck? What process did you take?

I can probably put something together this weekend, but I'll be away from home until then.

Basically the holes you need to drill in the stack unit will line up with the screw mounts on the front and back plate for those small flat head M3s. I got a pack of 4 longer flatheads from the hardware store at just longer than my 18mm slim stack so that I didn't need to countersink mount points.

I think I misunderstood your original question regarding the top plate as the fan mounting bracket and not the ventilated top plate as I interpreted it. That fan mounting bracket does indeed only come with the stack unit and is not included in my slim stack model. I can take some measurements of the fan bracket and see if it would be reasonable from the stiffness/strength perspective to 3D print separately, or if additional structure would need to be integrated directly into the stack unit to support a radiator and fans.

With regard to repainting, you'll likely need to strip the powder coat to get a nice finish that doesn't flake off. I haven't done it on the Steck in particular, but in general you'll probably want to chem strip and then sand/bead blast the surface prior to a repaint.