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

[Longbow072]

Q- I have a Samsung SSD 500gb and a 850 Evo M.2 currently.

Since I can soucre a 1Tb 970 Pro for 377 bucks Im tempted to upgrade and simplify my drives. Ditch the 850 and run one as the boot and game drive with my generic SSD as additional storage for media, documents, and music, essentially stuff that doesnt need fast speeds or get accessed much.

Good plan? Trying to upgrade proof this fucker as much as possible when I do the swap.

Also, any experiance on ASRock Fatality Z370 Gaming Minit ITX boards? Seeing this as a viable alternative to the more expensive Asus Z370 I boards which are getting scarce and this hard to find cheap.

 

[macbosco]

Q- I have a Samsung SSD 500gb and a 850 Evo M.2 currently.

Since I can soucre a 1Tb 970 Pro for 377 bucks Im tempted to upgrade and simplify my drives. Ditch the 850 and run one as the boot and game drive with my generic SSD as additional storage for media, documents, and music, essentially stuff that doesnt need fast speeds or get accessed much.

Good plan? Trying to upgrade proof this fucker as much as possible when I do the swap.

Also, any experiance on ASRock Fatality Z370 Gaming Minit ITX boards? Seeing this as a viable alternative to the more expensive Asus Z370 I boards which are getting scarce and this hard to find cheap.

Actually I am now using ASRock Fatality Z370, it is a good choice. I have another Asus Strix (but for Ryzen). Asus Strix is better looking but their sleep mode is a bit wonky... maybe I haven't set it up properly.

If you go m.2 (nvme) definitely use that as boot drive. For SSF personally I would go m.2 and just plug usb drive for storage. I prefer not to keep data in internal storage. It's a hassle to transfer when you upgrade or move on to a new rig.

 

[macbosco]

@macbosco Did you try the L12S with the fan as Intake? I am very busy this week, but curious! Maybe we can get better temp than now!

I haven't tried blowing inwards. It is setup to blow outwards when comes in the box. I have read in reddit that VRM temp maybe better blow inwards but with more air turbulence and noise. I wonder if it would be better to use the standard tower block heatsink/cooler if you prefer it to push air in. I feel L12S design is a trade off for having the option to push air out but with less fin area comparing with a standard heatsink block.

 

[Longbow072]

Hey awesome! Thats what I was thinking, plus up the space by 250 Gb and get a faster drive overall, and maybe throw my 500 gb in there to get a really solid storage drive for low impact files and overflow.


Fabio_ Worth the expense of time to experiment for SFF cases, but it seems that every case that has a direct pressure out of the case from exhaust or drawing air from a lower tempt to feed a higher temp tends to produce a better outcome. Might be very case specific due to the general difference air flow wise on SFF cases, specifically ones that aren't made to a high number and thus have good market penetration to build up a consumer knowledge base.

 

[fabio]

Hey awesome! Thats what I was thinking, plus up the space by 250 Gb and get a faster drive overall, and maybe throw my 500 gb in there to get a really solid storage drive for low impact files and overflow.


Fabio_ Worth the expense of time to experiment for SFF cases, but it seems that every case that has a direct pressure out of the case from exhaust or drawing air from a lower tempt to feed a higher temp tends to produce a better outcome. Might be very case specific due to the general difference air flow wise on SFF cases, specifically ones that aren't made to a high number and thus have good market penetration to build up a consumer knowledge base.

I guess I will try this weekend. I was curious because seems that the Black RIdge in the DAN case perform better as intake! Only curiosity to understand better this beautiful world of SFF!

 

[Longbow072]

Placed my order for my H100i Platinum 240 AIO cooler, 8700k, AsRock Z370i Fatality Mobo, and picked up a sweet score of a 1 Tb Samsung 970 Evo m.2 NVME drive to streamline my storage.

 

[dumplinknet]

I guess I will try this weekend. I was curious because seems that the Black RIdge in the DAN case perform better as intake! Only curiosity to understand better this beautiful world of SFF!

By "intake" do u mean blowing towards the CPU? Or intaking the hot cpu air and blowing it towards the heatsink?

 

[fabio]

By "intake" do u mean blowing towards the CPU? Or intaking the hot cpu air and blowing it towards the heatsink?

Intake for me is: grabbing air from outside, pulling through the heatsink' fins and blowing the hot hair against the motherboard and cpu.

 

[fabio]

So, tested the Noctua L12S with the fan Intaking air from outside:

In Prime the frequencies are lower 4.1 VS 4.3 (compared to the Exhasut configuration) - Same temps.

During the Intel BurnTest, the temps were lower of4 degrees

BUT, the motherboard and SSD temp are worse, and the fan is louder!!!

Because of that, I suggest the Exhaust config!

After this test, finally I've mounted my CUSTOM AIO!!

Hardware Lbas GTS Nemesis 240

x2 Darkside Gentle Typhoon 2135RPM

ALphacool Eisbaer LT 240 + Shortened Tubes + 1 more 90 degrees fitting

I can post the temp, but really, with this setup the 9900K can stay continuosly at 4.8/4.9GHz with temps around 80/85 degrees!!

 

[macbosco]

So, tested the Noctua L12S with the fan Intaking air from outside:

In Prime the frequencies are lower 4.1 VS 4.3 (compared to the Exhasut configuration) - Same temps.

During the Intel BurnTest, the temps were lower of4 degrees

BUT, the motherboard and SSD temp are worse, and the fan is louder!!!

Because of that, I suggest the Exhaust config!

After this test, finally I've mounted my CUSTOM AIO!!

Hardware Lbas GTS Nemesis 240

x2 Darkside Gentle Typhoon 2135RPM

ALphacool Eisbaer LT 240 + Shortened Tubes + 1 more 90 degrees fitting

I can post the temp, but really, with this setup the 9900K can stay continuosly at 4.8/4.9GHz with temps around 80/85 degrees!!

Love your mod panels . You cut the tubings yourself?

 

[dumplinknet]

So, tested the Noctua L12S with the fan Intaking air from outside:

In Prime the frequencies are lower 4.1 VS 4.3 (compared to the Exhasut configuration) - Same temps.

During the Intel BurnTest, the temps were lower of4 degrees

BUT, the motherboard and SSD temp are worse, and the fan is louder!!!

Because of that, I suggest the Exhaust config!

After this test, finally I've mounted my CUSTOM AIO!!

Hardware Lbas GTS Nemesis 240

x2 Darkside Gentle Typhoon 2135RPM

ALphacool Eisbaer LT 240 + Shortened Tubes + 1 more 90 degrees fitting

I can post the temp, but really, with this setup the 9900K can stay continuosly at 4.8/4.9GHz with temps around 80/85 degrees!!

This is amazing. Looks great!

 

[Allhopeforhumanity]

And in your case as well, Intake from the L9i, and exhaust bottom or top.

Updated Testing!

With the magic of double sided tape, I managed to get a noctua A12x15 mounted under the power supply as an intake and 2X 2.5" SSDs next to the GPU. I also got a Scythe Big Shurkien Rev B in there to replace the L9i.

Tearing the whole thing down to remanage all of the cables was a bit tricky with the Corsair SF600, as they are crazy stiff, but 4 hours of creativity later and my Steck is running as cool as its ever been at a mere 70 C with the CPU side panel on and 63 with it off!

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 11/23: 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.

 

[fabio]

Updated Testing!

With the magic of double sided tape, I managed to get a noctua A12x15 mounted under the power supply as an intake and 2X 2.5" SSDs next to the GPU. I also got a Scythe Big Shurkien Rev B in there to replace the L9i.

Tearing the whole thing down to remanage all of the cables was a bit tricky with the Corsair SF600, as they are crazy stiff, but 4 hours of creativity later and my Steck is running as cool as its ever been at a mere 70 C with the CPU side panel on and 63 with it off!

All of this is amazing!! Thank you man!!

 

[fabio]

Love your mod panels . You cut the tubings yourself?

Yes! Very easy!
Open the fill port on the pump
Remove one radiator’s fitting to help the drain
Remove the cables,
Measure them and cut them
Put all together again.
Fill the system form the port in the Pump, shaking everything and doing slowly to avoid air it.
Done!

 

[fabio]

One screenshot of TEMPS and FREQUENCIES after 1 HOUR of Prime95, SmallFFT Test.

The CPU is a little monster; of course with no limits and the MCE enabled, it has a 250W TDP consume!

 

[macbosco]

Is anybody looking into setting up a "hackintosh" with this? I may do so later after I have launched this project (with website/KS). Definitely cheaper than buying a mac pro from Apple?

 

[Longbow072]

Allhopeforhumanity- Can you throw up a photo of were you stashed everything and mounted the cables? I might have to do that with an extra 500 gb SSD I have that i don't want to pitch or let sit as extra storage, but I want to throw fans below to help draw air upward.

 

[Allhopeforhumanity]

Allhopeforhumanity- Can you throw up a photo of were you stashed everything and mounted the cables? I might have to do that with an extra 500 gb SSD I have that i don't want to pitch or let sit as extra storage, but I want to throw fans below to help draw air upward.

Yeah, I'll get some photos when I get home later. I was hoping to borrow a DSLR, which is why I hadn't put any up yet, but ill take some cell phone shots for you tonight.


Basically, I took the extra long SFX-600 cables and folded them carefully then pinched them down using pliers so that they could fit either behind the PSU or between the motherboard and the spine. Its kind of hard to see from the photos since they are hidden pretty well. Then i took the remaining SATA cables and folded them above the PSU and they are being held down by the power cable extension. For the 2 SSDs, one is double sided taped to the spine next to the GPU and opposing the PSU, and the other I taped on its side edge to the back plate. I had to keep the SSDs spaced like that to fold the SATA power cable between them and out of the way.

 

[dumplinknet]

Is anybody looking into setting up a "hackintosh" with this? I may do so later after I have launched this project (with website/KS). Definitely cheaper than buying a mac pro from Apple?

Count me in!

 

[Longbow072]

Thanks. I'm looking forward to tearing in to mine and getting it built...

I hate the APO system and how long it takes to get mail, but I guess I should feel lucky that I can even GET mail out here. I have some velcro tape but almost positive its to thick. Time to order some thin two sided tape.

Is their anywhere I could look for custom length cables for small FF builds? I'm reminded I'm missing the necessary mini zip ties... balls.