S4 MINI Classic (S4M-C)

[CubanLegend]

Only 1 92mm Redux fan... ( well 2, but that's just PWM vs no PWM )

http://noctua.at/en/products/product-line-redux
https://www.quietpc.com/nf-b9-redux-1600-pwm

hmmmm... the PWM version of that NF-B9 has a minimum RPM of 1600... Idk if it'll be quiet enough to compare to the NH-L9i's stock NF-A9x14 fan. And upon looking at reviews this taller fan (although it had a nicer color scheme) runs louder at lower RPMs compared to the NF-a9x14. The NF-A9X14 is quieter even at higher RPMs. MAYBE the Nf-B9 can be quieter if you applied the LowNoiseAdapter to it, but would it have the same performance at the NF-A9? I couldn't find a review that really compared both of these fans, both with and without the LowNoiseAdapter. :/

 

[Mobius]

hmmmm... the PWM version of that NF-B9 has a minimum RPM of 1600... Idk if it'll be quiet enough to compare to the NH-L9i's stock NF-A9x14 fan.

Are you sure? Noctua's product page says 350 rpm is the minimum.

 

[CubanLegend]

Are you sure? Noctua's product page says 350 rpm is the minimum.

Crap, you're right. I was reading the wrong row in that link you provided. it is indeed 350-1600rpm, thing is the NF-A9X14 is more low profile, and has a higher RPM to boot, while also maintaining a quieter operation than the NF-B9... so as far as I'm concerned, I'm not willing to sacrifice cooling performance and quiet operation for a color difference. I would totally love it if the NF-A9X14 was available in a neutral grey or even better, BLACK!

 

[TheDreamingMonk]

Are you sure? Noctua's product page says 350 rpm is the minimum.

It is 350RPM on the minimum.

 

[Phuncz]

Yeah I'm planning to put a redux fan on my build. Pretty sure it JUST fits in the S4.

I also have an 92mm Redux fan in my shopping list for my NH-L9i, but for my LZ7 case. The heatsink comes with the screws for 25mm thick fans, Noctua gives the best fan-service.

 

[TheDreamingMonk]

hmmmm... the PWM version of that NF-B9 has a minimum RPM of 1600... Idk if it'll be quiet enough to compare to the NH-L9i's stock NF-A9x14 fan. And upon looking at reviews this taller fan (although it had a nicer color scheme) runs louder at lower RPMs compared to the NF-a9x14. The NF-A9X14 is quieter even at higher RPMs. MAYBE the Nf-B9 can be quieter if you applied the LowNoiseAdapter to it, but would it have the same performance at the NF-A9? I couldn't find a review that really compared both of these fans, both with and without the LowNoiseAdapter. :/

Just off of base statistics provided by Noctua...


NF-A9x14

92x92x14
Max RPM - 2200
dB/A - 19,9
m³/h - 50,5
mm H2O - 1,64
4-Pin PWM


NF-B9

92x92x25
Max RPM - 1600
dB/A -17,6
m³/h - 64,3
mm H2O - 1,61
4-Pin PWM


You're looking at lower operating noise ( not a lot though, 2.3 dB/A ) and more CFM on the NF-B9

 

[CubanLegend]

Okay so here's a nice breakdown of Airflow, Noice, and Max Speed of all "quiet" 92mm fans from QuietPC.com

The NF-B9 REDUX 1600 & NF-B9 REDUX PWM seem to have a higher Airflow (CFM) and LOWER Noise level than the NF-A9x14 PWM while maintaining a lower max RPM at 1600 vs 2200... What I would like to see is performance numbers in relation to actual temperatures. They are so hard to come by.

 

[Curiosity]

Congrats on 100 pages, josh! : )

I think the NF-B9 will be quieter in open air, a lot of people were using or at least planning on using them in the A4-SFX and I had a pair on my old U9B-SE2 that were great.
The real question is will the tight fit mean turbulence or not.

 

[CubanLegend]

Congrats on 100 pages, josh! : )

I think the NF-B9 will be quieter in open air, a lot of people were using or at least planning on using them in the A4-SFX and I had a pair on my old U9B-SE2 that were great.
The real question is will the tight fit mean turbulence or not.

Well, we'll find out how it does in the S4-mini vs the NF-A9x14PWM because I just ordered my NF-B9-PWM here from Amazon. I paid a little extra for Prime shipping offered version, it should be here Tuesday, the day before my S4-mini/HDPLEX/1080mini should arrive.

HYPE!

 

[TheDreamingMonk]

Okay so here's a nice breakdown of Airflow, Noice, and Max Speed of all "quiet" 92mm fans from QuietPC.com

The NF-B9 REDUX 1600 & NF-B9 REDUX PWM seem to have a higher Airflow (CFM) and LOWER Noise level than the NF-A9x14 PWM while maintaining a lower max RPM at 1600 vs 2200... What I would like to see is performance numbers in relation to actual temperatures. They are so hard to come by.

It may not be a Noctua fan, but you can see the difference when running a thicker fan with more air flow;
http://www.dvtests.com/noctua-nh-l9i-test-and-review/

With the NF-A9x14 he stressed his CPU to 60C and 65C with the low noise adapter. With the Cooler Master fan he used, that dropped to 51C.

Granted, that Cooler Master fan is probably a lot louder comparatively, but the results will be similar. With a fan with more air flow you will drop temperatures. How much or little is hard to say with different fans.


http://www.coolermaster.com/cooling/case-fan/blade-master-92/

Speed (R.P.M.) 800 - 2800 R.P.M.
Air Flow (CFM) 15.7 - 54.8 CFM
Air pressure (mmH2O) 0.35 - 4.27 mm H2O
Noise 17 - 35 dBA

It is definitely louder, only has slightly more air flow than the A9x14 ( 4.3 CFM more ) you can see how much of a difference that change made. I'll chock most of that up to being thicker.

The NF-B9 has roughly 10 more CFM as well, so should perform a bit better.

 

[CubanLegend]

BTW In case anyone is wondering how my rig is setup right now while I wait for my HDPLEX, 1080mini and S4 mini...

COOL DISCOVERY: That PSU is actaully louder than the NH-L9i and it's stock fan, lol. In fact I can also hear my 5TB HDD (right one) seeking/clicking away louder than the CPU's HSF. The 7700K's cores idle at 33-36c with average of 35c while turboing to 4.5, at the stock 1.23vcore.

Sometimes I'll plop my 770 from my old build onto the z270i and this thing just FLIES even with such an old GPU, I've never had more than a 1070 with my OLD CPU... so when i get that 1080 and build my system... the combined CPU/GPU power will be a high level of performance that I've never experienced before. I can't wait!

 

[Curiosity]

I'm very tempted to do something similar, I'm waiting on my G-unique psu to ship/ arrive, so I've still got my parts in the Ncase.
Definitely considering moving into the S4 with my SSDs and PSU being external for now.
Not sure what I'd do for a power button though since I don't have the wiring to actually do up a vandal switch right now..

 

[CubanLegend]

I'm very tempted to do something similar, I'm waiting on my G-unique psu to ship/ arrive, so I've still got my parts in the Ncase.
Definitely considering moving into the S4 with my SSDs and PSU being external for now.
Not sure what I'd do for a power button though since I don't have the wiring to actually do up a vandal switch right now..

Do it, and order a power/reset switch extender like this one I have in my picture above or this one from Amazon (had prime shipping too). It's what I used with my OLD PC to have it placed in another room so I could mitigate temperatures in my bedroom. And it works great for a testbench.

EDIT: @Josh | NFC I have a question about your mini-ITX cooler video: what version of Prime95 were you running, what were your settings? i'd like to use the same settings to do some heat tests on my 7700k once I get my S4 mini in. I have the Zalman CNPS2X, the Scythe 120x12mm PWM to test as a combo, against the NH-L9i with the B9 redux PWM & the A9x14-PWM.

 

[cakePlease]

Has anyone attempted to build a X99 system with something like a 6800k/6850k in an S4 mini?

Edit: not for gaming, so i would likely get a lower powered/smaller GPU to compensate for the higher cpu power draw. But i guess the only concern is space for the CPU cooler, and Im unaware of anything that could fit...

 

[|||]

Yes

 

[Zero]

Got my S4 up and running.

Here's how it looked before I crammed in the HDPlex:

By the way, the HDPlex 250's ATX cables are NOT pin-compatible with the HDPlex 300. The 300 has a single cable and I wanted to use the shorter cable from the 250, so I got a little scared when I put everything together and nothing happened. Switched back to the 300 ATX cable and it posted fine.

The ASRock Z270 ITX Gaming motherboard has been out of stock for over a month now so I said screw it and got the normal ASRock Z270 ITX, which actually has more USB ports, has the M.2 drive on the top side, lower profile heatsinks for the chipset/VRMs, and is a great value at $120 compared to all the various "Gaming" brands from ASRock and others.

I used Aviator snips to sheer the ridges from the 120mm fan bracket, so that I could use the Cryorig 140mm fan and it would lie flush. It fits absolutely perfect, and the rubber grommets on the other side of the fan rest on top of the ram heatsinks, so no vibration at all.

The heatsink is a two-heatpipe, very low profile Thermaltake: https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835106152

Using it with the fan gets decent cooling performance at inaudible decibels, even two feet from my head. I'm running it at a fixed RPM.

The CPU I'm using is the 7700k Kaby Lake. What I actually did it slightly underclocked it (it usually runs 4.2ghz with 4.4 boost, but I clocked it to 4.0ghz and undervolted it all the way down to 1.08v (motherboard won't let me go lower). According to HWMonitor, this took the wattage while running Prime95 from 90 watts max while stock, all the way down to 50 watts max while running my configuration. I'm very pleased with this as now I have 55% less wattage for the cooling and less PSU to deal with, with just 4 to 9% less CPU speed.

The only thing making noise in the rig now is the Zotac 1080 Mini and *jeez* is it loud by my standards. The 100mm fan's lowest speed (37% fan speed) is an annoying low hum, and there's no way to hack it to make it quieter. If I tape the fan in place, the thermals hardly rise during benchmarking, but the card becomes near-silent because the 90mm fan is apparently plenty. Great heatsink design I guess! If anything, I'd consider using an adapter to run the 100mm fan off the motherboard so I could get the RPM lower than the minimum.

On the other hand, this 1080 also has pretty bad coil whine. Using Rivatuner to cap the frame limit to 75fps (to match my monitor) reigned it in somewhat, but more intensive games will still really make this card squeal. Googling anecdotes about Zotac suggests they have more coil whine issues than other brands, maybe they just use cheaper inductors. Or maybe the others are fine and I got a dud.

Word of warning, pay special attention if using the S4 Mini with VR. I snagged the headset cable and tipped the case over with a slam. To it's credit, no damage to the case or any components. Wireless VR can't come fast enough...

 

[Zero]

BTW, while I recommend bare RC/drone batteries for the best bang/buck, you can probably simply buy a Vagabond VLX spare battery to hook up - these are approved for air travel, which is nice, you just need to sort out a barrel jack connector. (a 24V 6.6Ah ebike/scooter battery should technically be travel-safe (<160Wh) if approved as well)

I wouldn't do that... the Vagabond VLX has a voltage of 25.4 at max state of charge, while the HDPlex 250 and 300 have a voltage range of 16-24. Maybe there's a bit more wiggle room past that, but you'd either be running it out of spec (possible introducing ripple, etc.) or just outright tripping the overvoltage shutdown on the PSU.

Plus, lithium iron phosphate, while safer than lithium ion, is heavier and lower power density. If you want to make a VR backpack I'd still spring for good old 18650 cells in a 5-series configuration, that would keep the pack within the HDPlex's ranges. Just wire it to a 5 series pack balancer and put as many in parallel as you need for the runtime you want.

Edit: This would be an example of the proper pack balancer to use with 18650 cells or any other lithium-ion 3.7v nominal batteries: http://www.ebay.com/itm/5-6-or-7-ce...18650-Battery-In-Out-Protection-/111091669495

The above balancer outputs 370amp sustained so that's plenty for this.

 

[Curiosity]

well, I did it.
Transplant mostly successful, though for some reason I don't think the 1060 is working? I need to poke around more.
Computer is working fine, the 1060 just isn't showing up in device manager, maybe something in the bios changed during the transplant.

Also worth noting, that RGB E-switch vandal switch I got works as a single color if you just wire the r, g, or b and a ground. I've got it wired to R right now and it's got a nice red glow.

 

[GreatestUnKnown]

Spoiler

well, I did it.
Transplant mostly successful, though for some reason I don't think the 1060 is working? I need to poke around more.
Computer is working fine, the 1060 just isn't showing up in device manager, maybe something in the bios changed during the transplant.

Also worth noting, that RGB E-switch vandal switch I got works as a single color if you just wire the r, g, or b and a ground. I've got it wired to R right now and it's got a nice red glow.

Is there a way to maybe have the main color for power then use a second for drive activity?

Btw nice keeb, just ordered my first keyset and artisan.

 

[Curiosity]

Turns out the writing on the little piece of PCB between the riser and motherboard isn't just for show aha
Follow directions, kids!

Is there a way to maybe have the main color for power then use a second for drive activity?

Btw nice keeb, just ordered my first keys at and artisan.

I imagine you could run 2 ground wires to the LED's ground pin without issue and wire the extra + to the color you want.
(Also I will be testing if this switch works with Aura RGB once I get around to getting a Z270I)