Production RCC-MID2 | compact industrial style vertical case

[REVOCCASES]

Build is finally complete, as I managed to get a 6900xt.

Parts : Gigabyte B550i, 5600x, EK-120, 2x16gb G-Skill Trident Z 3200c14 @3600c15, Sapphire 6900XT reference, ssd Sabrent nvme pcie3 1TB, corsair SF750

About the case,
I like : aesthetics, good cooling from design & vents, surface finish
I do not like : not easy to build in (I had to disassemble a lot of times due to hardware failures so I got better at it), one thread to attach outer panel was done (fixed by using a larger screw)

An idea to check (mainly to help accessibility when building inside) : instead of a panel in U shape & a cover, 2 panels in L shape. Also a couple more attachements screws may increase rigigity.

Overall I love the case, it fits my needs as main rig. Over time I will see if it is easy to transport and and if the cover panel does not get flimsy.

Many thanks for your feedback on the prototype and sharing your build!

Apologies for the thread issue. This has been resolved with the V1.0 update. My powder coating supplier used the thread holes to fix the prototype parts during coating if that is going to cause you any trouble, just let me know...

I like your idea using L shaped case parts. I'll look into this for a possible Rev. 2 depending on popularity of the case.

 

[REVOCCASES]

Just a short update: I've put a few MID2 cases on my shop. This batch is only limited to 8 cases in total.

REVOCCASES - SHOP

For those who would like to do a custom loop in the MID2, here some ideas to check out:


GPU focused build with 325mm GPU clearance

• Radiator: TX120 Ultrathin Radiator
• Fan: Noctua NF-A12x15 PWM chromax.black.swap
• CPU Head / Pump: Eisbaer LT Solo, Aquanaut, or similar

CPU focused build with 280mm GPU clearance

• Radiator: Koolance HX-CU420V
• Fan (2x): NF-A12x25 (push/pull)
• CPU Head / Pump: Eisbaer LT Solo, Aquanaut, or similar

From what I read in the T1 thread the HX-CU420V should perform similar like an Aluminum 240mm AIO, which is quite amazing.

Production - FormD T1 Classic (READ FIRST POST)

Is there any precise eta on the feb rma batch (ik in march, but which day)?

smallformfactor.net

For air cooling I have just ordered one ID-Cooling IS47K for testing. If that works as expected it would give you a whopping 345mm GPU clearance while you can still use a quite powerful CPU.

 

[REVOCCASES]

ID-Cooling IS-60 EVO came in today (IS47K wasn't available ATM). It's basically the same cooler like the IS47K but with another 120mm ARGB fan on top.

Cooler comes with everything you need, except a backplate. I don't understand why they don't sell it a few bucks more expensive and add one in the box, especially given the size/weight of that cooler.

well, then we just use the standard AM4 backplate and drill away the standoffs

with the 120mm fan on top, the IS-60 EVO does not fit in the MID2, so just remove it

the 92mm fan is normally mounted as PULL but without the 120mm PUSH fan it might be better to flip the small fan and make it PUSH trough the fins like the Blackridge.

with the modded AM4 backplate, the screws are a tiny bit too short but with a little push they still work fine

before putting a build together I thought it might be a good idea to check the performance of that cooler on an open bench. seems that was a good idea....

The IS-60 EVO performs way worse than I expected if only using the 92mm fan at the bottom:

During stress testing with my 3800X I am reaching 95C pretty fast. But worse than that: this setup is really noisy, even on idle.

I had big hopes that this cooler would perform much better comparing to my IS-30 but it seems to be the exact opposite. Maybe the Blackridge would do the trick, but I have no way to get my hands on one of those.

For comparison: the IS-30 with an ID Cooling 92x15mm fan could keep my 3800X at around 90C under stress testing and is much more silent since there is nothing causing turbulences.

UPDATE: After flipping the fan on the IS-60 EVO back to PULL and applying another thermal paste, I am now getting a solid 75C during stress testing. One issue still remains: this cooler is much more noisy compared to the IS-30. Maybe a Noctua fan swap would help.

So I went back, installed the IS-30 again and did some gaming (Tomb Rider): open bench, 3800X & IS-30 & 92x15mm fan : 70 to 75C average

Seemed good enough for me, so I put everything in the MID2 for testing. Clearance between the cooler and the GPU backplate is about 22mm.

After playing TR for about 30 minutes I got an average of 75 to 80C on the 3800X ... not too bad ...

I know, this setup is certainly nothing for enthusiast but you definitely can run a "65W TDP" CPU with an IS-30 or NH-L9 in the MID2 and you will gain 345mm GPU clearance by doing so.

EDIT 25.02.21: after reading through the IS-47K thread I will try to flip the fan on the IS-60 EVO back to PULL. Seems some people got better performance doing so. But I doubt noise-wise it will be better than the IS-30.

EDIT 26.02.21: after flipping the fan on the IS-60 EVO back to PULL and applying another thermal paste, I am now getting a solid 75C during stress testing. One issue still remains: this cooler is much more noisy compared to the IS-30. Maybe a Noctua fan swap would help.

 

[REVOCCASES]

short update concerning the IS-60 EVO:

I flipped the fan back to PULL and also applied another thermal paste. Not sure which of both was to blame for the high temperatures I've seen yesterday but this helped a lot. I am now getting a solid 75C during stress testing and average 69C during gaming in the MID2. Only remaining issue I observed is the noise. Compared to the IS-30 this is really annoying.

Anyways, I can confirm that the Blackridge, IS-30, NH-L9, IS-47K &Co. will work for the MID2 if you want to go for an air-cooled setup.

 

[robbee]

Nice tests, thanks for that. The temperature difference between ID-30 and IS-60 is impressive albeit being louder. Really shows that there is a lot to gain from going from 40mm clearance (IS-30, NH-L9) to 50mm clearance (IS-47K, BR, C7).

What do you think causes the much louder noise though? Is it just faster fan speed, turbulence, or a noisier fan in general?

 

[REVOCCASES]

Nice tests, thanks for that. The temperature difference between ID-30 and IS-60 is impressive albeit being louder. Really shows that there is a lot to gain from going from 40mm clearance (IS-30, NH-L9) to 50mm clearance (IS-47K, BR, C7).

What do you think causes the much louder noise though? Is it just faster fan speed, turbulence, or a noisier fan in general?

Temperature and cost wise the IS47K aka IS-60 EVO seems really good. Really not sure why it performed so bad in my first test. I suspect something was wrong with the thermal paste or mounting since usually coolers should work better in PUSH config according to my experience. That is also the standard orientation on the IS47K. Guess I'll flip the fan again to make sure when I have time.

I think the noise comes by design. No matter how you flip the bottom fan, there is not enough clearance to prevent turbulences. The fan itself is not noisy if I put it on the IS30. IIRC the Blackridge leaves a few mm below the fan so I guess it should be less noisy. I could try to use the fan from my IS30, this one is only 13mm high so I would gain at least a little bit clearance in PUSH config. With the 15mm fan it's more or less a press-fit.

BTW, did you have some time to cut the panels for your case?

 

[robbee]

Alright, that's too bad because I thought it would perform very similar to the BR both noise and performance-wise.

Panels are being cut slowly but surely. Got 4 our of 6 panels at the moment. I'm cutting with a diode laser and not your usual CO2 laser, so it all takes a bit longer. A also had to replace a faulty stepper which was causing axis shifts so that set me back a couple of days.

By the way, since you were mentioning watercooling radiators earlier, I would love to see this with a custom AIO using the Aquanaut and the Koolance radiator!

 

[REVOCCASES]

Alright, that's too bad because I thought it would perform very similar to the BR both noise and performance-wise.

Panels are being cut slowly but surely. Got 4 our of 6 panels at the moment. I'm cutting with a diode laser and not your usual CO2 laser, so it all takes a bit longer. A also had to replace a faulty stepper which was causing axis shifts so that set me back a couple of days.

By the way, since you were mentioning watercooling radiators earlier, I would love to see this with a custom AIO using the Aquanaut and the Koolance radiator!

Very looking forward to your final build and curious which vent pattern you chose. Which model is your laser cutter?

Yeah, I would also love to see someone building a custom loop in the MID2 but I guess this might take a while given my cases are not that popular.

 

[robbee]

Very looking forward to your final build and curious which vent pattern you chose. Which model is your laser cutter?

I went with the initial hexagonal pattern for now, I may cut other patterns later on.

The laser is an Ortur Laser Master 2, it's a cheap 7W diode laser that's actually meant for engraving but it can cut wood and dark acrylic up to 3mm thick with a couple of passes. Gets the job done!

 

[REVOCCASES]

today I tested the IS47K aka IS-60 EVO together with the 9213 fan from my ID-COOLING IS30 and I'm pretty satisfied with the results...

due to the added clearance the cooler runs much more quiet. thermals did also improve. having mounted the fan as push I am getting a solid 72C on my CPU during stress testing at reasonable noise levels.

 

[REVOCCASES]

I know, a lot of people are concerned about dust...

Today I had to remove my GPU because I needed it to test another project I am working on. Good opportunity to see if dust is an big issue in the MID2:

I have used the case for about 4 month now, mainly for gaming after work. Power-ON time is about 600 hours in total. Not too bad IMHO.

This is how my stuff looks if I don't wipe dust for a few weeks (yes, I live in a very dusty area):

 

[lasek]

Small updates to achieve much quieter operation with a 5600x
- Changed the EK-120 fan for a NF-F12
- Turned off PBO for a fixed OC 4.6ghz @1.2V

Also, I notice that the half top part of the case ends up acting as a radiator, which is nice.

Please someone do a custom loop in there !

 

[REVOCCASES]

Small updates to achieve much quieter operation with a 5600x
- Changed the EK-120 fan for a NF-F12
- Turned off PBO for a fixed OC 4.6ghz @1.2V

Also, I notice that the half top part of the case ends up acting as a radiator, which is nice.

Please someone do a custom loop in there !

Thanks for the update.

Not a custom loop, but also impressive ... he posted the link on Reddit ... RTX3090 and 5900X in the MID2


Maybe I should also try that "tape mod" on the rad ...

 

[lasek]

hope he underclocks the 5900x !

 

[Elaman]

Maybe I should also try that "tape mod" on the rad ...

It is comforting to see other people also trying it!
Difficult to say if it actually helps, but with such a small radiator any small tweak is welcome.

 

[REVOCCASES]

just a small update for my personal MID2 build:

looking at the price development of GPUs I will certainly not upgrade my RTX2080S anytime soon, but I thought at least I could upgrade some other stuff...

• CPU: 4650G -> 3800X
• Motherboard: ASROCK A520 -> ASROCK X470
• RAM: 16GB DDR4 3200 -> 32GB DDR4 3600
• Cooling: ID-Cooling FROSTFLOW 120 -> ENERMAX LIQMAX III 120

most of the components I just took from my other builds but the AIO and the KLEVV RAM is new:

I already had one LIQMAX II before but I took it apart for some other projects. IMO this is one of the best performing budget 120mm AIOs available.

Compared to the LIQMAX II, version III comes with a few changes. It seems they are using another rad with less FPI and a (factory-) fill port. Probably to safe cost.

They also modified the CPU head a bit. The coldplate is still pretty thick copper and the pump is still running very quiet but they use "safety screws" and you can't open it anymore with a normal screwdriver (modding was clearly easier with the previous one). Surface finish is also not as smooth as the old LIQMAX I have. Newer does not always mean better I guess. Hopefully the cooling performance is still comparable with the one before...

Installation of the ENERMAX CPU head is a bit tricky and unfortunately they did not improve anything here. But they changed the tubes. The new ones are a bit more flexible and sleeved.

the R7 3800X is certainly more power hungry compared to the 4650G - so despite ENERMAX claims that this AIO is capable for up to 300W TDP - I went with a PUSH/PULL configuration this time. Fortunately my RTX2080S is not very long & high, else this would not fit and the tubes of the AIO would be impossible to route in the case with PUSH/PULL fans (the ENERMAX tubes are really long).

build complete - perfect fit - almost no space wasted

before I could run some tests with the new setup, I had to take apart the build three times cause it would not POST... after two hours of troubleshooting I finally found out that for some reason the KLEVV RAM was not compatible with the BIOS version I had on the X470 board. Luckily the latest BIOS update fixed that and it's running totally fine now.

Was it worth the upgrade? Definitely yes. Believe it or not, the 3800X with the LIQMAX III PUSH/PULL runs about 10C cooler compared to my 4650G with the FROSTFLOW AIO. Faster CPU plus better thermals = double win.

 

[Elaman]

just a small update for my personal MID2 build:

looking at the price development of GPUs I will certainly not upgrade my RTX2080S anytime soon, but I thought at least I could upgrade some other stuff...

• CPU: 4650G -> 3800X
• Motherboard: ASROCK A520 -> ASROCK X470
• RAM: 16GB DDR4 3200 -> 32GB DDR4 3600
• Cooling: ID-Cooling FROSTFLOW 120 -> ENERMAX LIQMAX III 120

most of the components I just took from my other builds but the AIO and the KLEVV RAM is new:

I already had one LIQMAX II before but I took it apart for some other projects. IMO this is one of the best performing budget 120mm AIOs available.

Compared to the LIQMAX II, version III comes with a few changes. It seems they are using another rad with less FPI and a (factory-) fill port. Probably to safe cost.

They also modified the CPU head a bit. The coldplate is still pretty thick copper and the pump is still running very quiet but they use "safety screws" and you can't open it anymore with a normal screwdriver (modding was clearly easier with the previous one). Surface finish is also not as smooth as the old LIQMAX I have. Newer does not always mean better I guess. Hopefully the cooling performance is still comparable with the one before...

Installation of the ENERMAX CPU head is a bit tricky and unfortunately they did not improve anything here. But they changed the tubes. The new ones are a bit more flexible and sleeved.

the R7 3800X is certainly more power hungry compared to the 4650G - so despite ENERMAX claims that this AIO is capable for up to 300W TDP - I went with a PUSH/PULL configuration this time. Fortunately my RTX2080S is not very long & high, else this would not fit and the tubes of the AIO would be impossible to route in the case with PUSH/PULL fans (the ENERMAX tubes are really long).

build complete - perfect fit - almost no space wasted

before I could run some tests with the new setup, I had to take apart the build three times cause it would not POST... after two hours of troubleshooting I finally found out that for some reason the KLEVV RAM was not compatible with the BIOS version I had on the X470 board. Luckily the latest BIOS update fixed that and it's running totally fine now.

Was it worth the upgrade? Definitely yes. Believe it or not, the 3800X with the LIQMAX III PUSH/PULL runs about 10C cooler compared to my 4650G with the FROSTFLOW AIO. Faster CPU plus better thermals = double win.

EK had a very interesting blog post series about this: https://www.ekwb.com/blog/push-pull-or-push-pull-on-radiators/. I think think the cooling improvement is respectable, the tweak needed is not so big, and it can be a life savior in this kind of vertical style cases.

 

[REVOCCASES]

EK had a very interesting blog post series about this: https://www.ekwb.com/blog/push-pull-or-push-pull-on-radiators/. I think think the cooling improvement is respectable, the tweak needed is not so big, and it can be a life savior in this kind of vertical style cases.

EK indeed does have a really helpful "knowledgebase" on their website.

I still might try the tape mod to see if I can gain anything from that but for now it's running really well.

Played two hours Horizon Zero Dawn yesterday and the 3800X didn't go over 62C with my custom fan curve at 50 ~ 60% PWM.