Just an update : I will be heading to China again next week.
I found some on amazon by search "M3 x 6mm Phillips Flat Head"
I found some on amazon by search "M3 x 6mm Phillips Flat Head"
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Production Nouvolo Steck - SFF 8.7-11.2L ITX PC Case, supports liquid cooling
- Thread starter macbosco
- Start date
Let me check, I think I only have the SketchUp file with me. Is that ok?
Awesome! Thanks! By the way, I just placed this order for the full review. I am now ordering the screws as well. I should have all of this kit arriving on Monday! =D
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Ahahaha, I've ordered instead a Noctua L12S! I want to stay on air! (Already have my watercooled loop)Awesome! Thanks! By the way, I just placed this order for the full review. I am now ordering the screws as well. I should have all of this kit arriving on Monday! =D
By the way, I am so loving this case in my backpack. It fits like a glove, so much better than my RVZ02 ever did. That old case, trusty as it was, was so wide and long, it consumed all the space inside my backpack making it awkward to carry around my other zipped bags o' gear stashed inside with it. Now, with a top-of-the-line, high-end AIO en route, I wonder just how far I will be able to push my processor in the Steck? I am wondering now if 4.0 GHz is a possibility for my Ryzen 1700. Probably not, especially since going over 1.4V is highly discouraged, so I better restrain myself and just enjoy the frigid cool n' quiet temperatures the AiO will afford me.
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Hey everyone, I finally got everything installed and tested.
Specs:
Intel i7-7700 (not delidded)
Gigabyte H270 mITX
32GB RAM 2400MHZ
Gigabyte gtx 1050 ti
Noctua L9i
Corsair SF600 PSU and stock cables
Sandisk 256 GB Ultra 2 SSD
Crucial 1 TB SSD
Size for SFF (8/10)
The Steck is a great little sandwich enclosure with a good blend of compatibility, foot print and cable management. It's not the smallest chassis but you can pack quite a bit inside even without the top-hat. SFF chassis will always be a compromise between overall volume, component compatibility, and cooling performance and I'd say that the Steck falls between the Ncase M1 and the Dan A4 but with the added modularity permitting water cooling support.
Aesthetics (9/10)
Minimalist and sleek. The magnetic method of panel attachment means no hardware protruding from the frame and the consistent/smooth finish gives it a very professional feel.
Ease of installation (7/10)
The majority of installation was straight forward, particularly for the main components (Mobo, GPU, PSU), but I had quite a bit of trouble with the SSD caddies to accommodate 2x 2.5 inch drives without the top-hat. The two taller caddies (2x and 3x) don't fit under the PSU like I originally thought, and while there is space to put two SSDs into the smallest caddie, there are only holes drilled for a single drive and my Corsair SFX600's SATA power cables made it impossible even if I were to drill new holes. Because my GPU is shorter, I ended up sticking the 2nd SSD to the spine with some double sided tape, which isn't ideal, but it actually turned out looking fairly nice. I did really appreciate the gap behind the PSU to stuff cables and this would have been much easier with more compliant power cables.
Price (say for USD 190 full bundle, USD160 base unit only + shipping, for full retail price) (9/10)
Great price point considering the quality, number of expandable parts and thoughtful design.
Finishing (paintwork, metal work etc) (7/10)
The paint is great: very smooth and even with only a few small nicks around the vent holes on one panel (pretty damn good for a pre-production test model).
The metalwork is generally very high quality but I had a few issues with one side panel being a tad bit bowed and the spine flexing on me a little during the cable management process.These two phenomena led to some gapping between the panels in the final assembly. Maybe a small thickness increase on the spine and a slightly more robust attachment method to the end pieces could clean up the tolerance issues here.
Flexibility (9/10)
The Steck has a great ability to house almost any combination of hardware options, particularly with the expandable top hat. I know that it isn't meant as a travel case with the magnetic mounting method, but it might be a nice aftermarket option to have side panels with similar screw mounts to the glass for those people who'd like to use it as such.
Hardware Compatibility (9/10)
CPU: While I'm currently using a little L9i there is plenty of room for larger coolers, and I may look into upsizing to a Bigshurikan or L12S
PSU: My SF600 has super stiff cables and even then I managed to cram everything behind the little space and hide things nicely.
GPU: Huge space to accommodate all but the very largest GPUs. Fits my 1050ti and an SSD on the back without issue.
SSDs: Really my only small gripe from my difficulties with the caddies, but solid overall especially if you have at least one M.2
Thermals (6 / 10) (Edited 11/15 with Top Hat Results, Edited 11/23 with New Tests Rating (8/10))
Presently this is the one area where the Steck could use some considerable improvement. Running Prime 95 (with AVX) my i7 7700 at 4.0 GHz and 1.05 Volts would get really toasty with the side panels on.
Room Temp at ~23 C
L9i Fan at 2000 RPM
Fractal Venturi Fans ~900 RPM where inaudible.
Scythe Big Shuriken Rev B with 12mm Slipstream Fan at 2100 RPM (noticeably louder)
Noctua A12x15 ~1400 RPM
Test: Prime 95 (with AVX) for 1 hour
Steck L9i intake with Panel on: 90 C
Steck L9i intake with Panel off: 80 C
Steck L9i intake with Top Hat and 2X Fractal Venturi 120mm Fans and Panel On: 75 C
Steck L9i intake with Top Hat and 2X Fractal Venturi 120mm Fans and Panel Off: 71 C
Steck L9i intake with Top Hat and 2X Fractal Venturi 120mm Fans and Glass Panel: 82 C
Steck L9i exhaust with Panel on: 93 C
Steck L9i exhaust with Panel off: 85 C
Steck L9i exhaust with Top Hat and 2X Fractal Venturi 120mm Fans Exhaust and Panel On: 88 C
Steck L9i exhaust with Top Hat and 2X Fractal Venturi 120mm Fans Intake and Panel On: 76 C
Steck L9i exhaust with Top Hat and 2X Fractal Venturi 120mm Fans Intake and Panel Off: 74 C
Steck Big Shuriken Intake and A12x15 bottom intake (no top hat) with Panel on: 70 C
Steck Big Shuriken Intake and A12x15 bottom intake (no top hat) with Panel off: 63 C!!!
Node 202 with Filter: 87 C
Node 202 without Filter: 85 C
Update 11/15: Having a couple top mounted 120mm fans to exhaust hot air makes a world of difference, dropping 15 C with the magnetic side panel on, and staying nearly as cool as side panel off with the glass panel in place! This furthers my belief that even in a purely air-cooling setup that if a 30mm "short-top" existed, that it would alleviate the need for side panel perforation at all for lower powered CPUs.
Update 11/23: I finally managed to complete another whole slew of tests, this time with the L9i in exhaust and the Scythe Big Shuriken+A12x15. From the results it can be seen that the Big Shurkien and A12x15 drop the non-top-hatted temps from 90 C to a mere 70 C after 1 hr of Prime 95! These temps drop further to 63 C with the side panel off, which shows that even with a beefier cooler and additional intake fan that the panels impede the airflow by quite a bit. 70 C is still amazing for this size chassis, but with better ventilated side panels, the fan curves could likely be tuned down quite a bit.
The Steck was also noticeably louder under full fan speed than the Node 202 I moved things from. I think this is a further issue with the side panel vent pattern, but I need to test this further, potentially with other CPU coolers. I haven't tried it with water cooling, or fans in the top hat yet, but the fact that there is a 10 C difference with the panel on vs off points to an area to address in the next version.
Suggested Modifications
I'll work on getting these up soon.
Specs:
Intel i7-7700 (not delidded)
Gigabyte H270 mITX
32GB RAM 2400MHZ
Gigabyte gtx 1050 ti
Noctua L9i
Corsair SF600 PSU and stock cables
Sandisk 256 GB Ultra 2 SSD
Crucial 1 TB SSD
Size for SFF (8/10)
The Steck is a great little sandwich enclosure with a good blend of compatibility, foot print and cable management. It's not the smallest chassis but you can pack quite a bit inside even without the top-hat. SFF chassis will always be a compromise between overall volume, component compatibility, and cooling performance and I'd say that the Steck falls between the Ncase M1 and the Dan A4 but with the added modularity permitting water cooling support.
Aesthetics (9/10)
Minimalist and sleek. The magnetic method of panel attachment means no hardware protruding from the frame and the consistent/smooth finish gives it a very professional feel.
Ease of installation (7/10)
The majority of installation was straight forward, particularly for the main components (Mobo, GPU, PSU), but I had quite a bit of trouble with the SSD caddies to accommodate 2x 2.5 inch drives without the top-hat. The two taller caddies (2x and 3x) don't fit under the PSU like I originally thought, and while there is space to put two SSDs into the smallest caddie, there are only holes drilled for a single drive and my Corsair SFX600's SATA power cables made it impossible even if I were to drill new holes. Because my GPU is shorter, I ended up sticking the 2nd SSD to the spine with some double sided tape, which isn't ideal, but it actually turned out looking fairly nice. I did really appreciate the gap behind the PSU to stuff cables and this would have been much easier with more compliant power cables.
Price (say for USD 190 full bundle, USD160 base unit only + shipping, for full retail price) (9/10)
Great price point considering the quality, number of expandable parts and thoughtful design.
Finishing (paintwork, metal work etc) (7/10)
The paint is great: very smooth and even with only a few small nicks around the vent holes on one panel (pretty damn good for a pre-production test model).
The metalwork is generally very high quality but I had a few issues with one side panel being a tad bit bowed and the spine flexing on me a little during the cable management process.These two phenomena led to some gapping between the panels in the final assembly. Maybe a small thickness increase on the spine and a slightly more robust attachment method to the end pieces could clean up the tolerance issues here.
Flexibility (9/10)
The Steck has a great ability to house almost any combination of hardware options, particularly with the expandable top hat. I know that it isn't meant as a travel case with the magnetic mounting method, but it might be a nice aftermarket option to have side panels with similar screw mounts to the glass for those people who'd like to use it as such.
Hardware Compatibility (9/10)
CPU: While I'm currently using a little L9i there is plenty of room for larger coolers, and I may look into upsizing to a Bigshurikan or L12S
PSU: My SF600 has super stiff cables and even then I managed to cram everything behind the little space and hide things nicely.
GPU: Huge space to accommodate all but the very largest GPUs. Fits my 1050ti and an SSD on the back without issue.
SSDs: Really my only small gripe from my difficulties with the caddies, but solid overall especially if you have at least one M.2
Thermals (6 / 10) (Edited 11/15 with Top Hat Results, Edited 11/23 with New Tests Rating (8/10))
Presently this is the one area where the Steck could use some considerable improvement. Running Prime 95 (with AVX) my i7 7700 at 4.0 GHz and 1.05 Volts would get really toasty with the side panels on.
Room Temp at ~23 C
L9i Fan at 2000 RPM
Fractal Venturi Fans ~900 RPM where inaudible.
Scythe Big Shuriken Rev B with 12mm Slipstream Fan at 2100 RPM (noticeably louder)
Noctua A12x15 ~1400 RPM
Test: Prime 95 (with AVX) for 1 hour
Steck L9i intake with Panel on: 90 C
Steck L9i intake with Panel off: 80 C
Steck L9i intake with Top Hat and 2X Fractal Venturi 120mm Fans and Panel On: 75 C
Steck L9i intake with Top Hat and 2X Fractal Venturi 120mm Fans and Panel Off: 71 C
Steck L9i intake with Top Hat and 2X Fractal Venturi 120mm Fans and Glass Panel: 82 C
Steck L9i exhaust with Panel on: 93 C
Steck L9i exhaust with Panel off: 85 C
Steck L9i exhaust with Top Hat and 2X Fractal Venturi 120mm Fans Exhaust and Panel On: 88 C
Steck L9i exhaust with Top Hat and 2X Fractal Venturi 120mm Fans Intake and Panel On: 76 C
Steck L9i exhaust with Top Hat and 2X Fractal Venturi 120mm Fans Intake and Panel Off: 74 C
Steck Big Shuriken Intake and A12x15 bottom intake (no top hat) with Panel on: 70 C
Steck Big Shuriken Intake and A12x15 bottom intake (no top hat) with Panel off: 63 C!!!
Node 202 with Filter: 87 C
Node 202 without Filter: 85 C
Update 11/15: Having a couple top mounted 120mm fans to exhaust hot air makes a world of difference, dropping 15 C with the magnetic side panel on, and staying nearly as cool as side panel off with the glass panel in place! This furthers my belief that even in a purely air-cooling setup that if a 30mm "short-top" existed, that it would alleviate the need for side panel perforation at all for lower powered CPUs.
Update 11/23: I finally managed to complete another whole slew of tests, this time with the L9i in exhaust and the Scythe Big Shuriken+A12x15. From the results it can be seen that the Big Shurkien and A12x15 drop the non-top-hatted temps from 90 C to a mere 70 C after 1 hr of Prime 95! These temps drop further to 63 C with the side panel off, which shows that even with a beefier cooler and additional intake fan that the panels impede the airflow by quite a bit. 70 C is still amazing for this size chassis, but with better ventilated side panels, the fan curves could likely be tuned down quite a bit.
The Steck was also noticeably louder under full fan speed than the Node 202 I moved things from. I think this is a further issue with the side panel vent pattern, but I need to test this further, potentially with other CPU coolers. I haven't tried it with water cooling, or fans in the top hat yet, but the fact that there is a 10 C difference with the panel on vs off points to an area to address in the next version.
Suggested Modifications
- Slightly thicker spine to prevent flex and more rigid mounting solution to end pieces to tighten up gap tolerances.
- Side panels with a different vent configuration and slightly more rigidity. I will be playing around with some CFD here to propose some alternatives which improve ventilation without reducing strength.
- A dimmer LED on the front. While I love the recessed power button, the LED is presently super bright and almost a little obnoxious in a dark room when looking straight on.
I'll work on getting these up soon.
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Planned updates (in order of priority and feasibility), still need to discuss with factory on technical details:
Will be in China for a few days.
v1.1 (minor)
Will be in China for a few days.
v1.1 (minor)
- panels - strengthen (to be determined how)
- spine - strengthen, especially on both ends, possibly with ribs or folding edges
- spine - raise PSU bracket by 5mm, create more room for below (15mm fan)
- spine - enlarge back of motherboard cutout
- spine - make PCIe adapter standoff taller (6.5mm), better fitting gfx card with thicker backplate
- PSU bracket - PSU bracket thin out rims for compatibility with more PSU
- 1x HDD - revise 1x hdd bracket for aesthetics
- bottom - bottom panel add mount holes for 120/92x15mm fan, below PSU position
I would add that prototyping and simulating a few different side panel patterns, varying hole count density, hole size and hole geometry (circles, strips, etc.) would be very worthwhile. Not everyone wants liquid cooling or has a budget for it or high-end air cooling. Now, I understand that we are bumping up against the fundamental limits here of heat expelled per unit of volume. But I also think it is totally realistic to say that 3-5 degrees could be knocked off with some tweaking and testing of heat transfer and air current paths.
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Wonder if adding a fan at the bottom helps. Maybe test can be done just by sticking it there for now. I think 120mm fan can fit in there, tho without screws, maybe just use some double sided tape for the testing purposes.
I remembered I tried some testing with an open bench (Streacom BC1), Ryzen 1800x, L12S and Prime95, PSU shutdown on too much power draw after 10min+ I think... At the time I didn't investigate further as I thought prime95 was just a crazy piece of CPU burner...
Bottom panel - I would like to see a more opening. Especially on the area covered by the magnetic filter.
As it is, I was able to hit 3.9 GHz and ~1.34V on my Ryzen 7 1700 with the Steck’s motherboard side panel off. The temperature difference between no side panel and with the side panel was around 13 degrees which is rather significant. I think with some tweaking this can actually work a lot better. Even if you reduced temperatures down by 3 degrees, that would be a major selling point since it shows progress in a very tangible, important sense. Let’s be honest: thermals are huge for many users and some of those people are simply unwilling to use AiOs due to the risk or the price.
I am thinking, one of the implication of adding more holes, invite the Louqe's fanboys 
for another round...
for another round...
Perhaps try different geometry and/or a different pattern?I am thinking, one of the implication of adding more holes, invite the Louqe's fanboys
Let me meet with the factory first, discuss what possibilities there are.
If you are worried about the Louqe, use the DAN/Old Mac Pro pattern!
BTW, later I will send options!
Really you should be able to do any pattern you like. Making the holes bigger at least 5-8 mm then having about 2 mm of space for material should be ok.
