Production SFFtime presents: N-ATX V2 - 15L evolution of console case that supports ATX size parts

Dream Claw

Cable Smoosher
Oct 10, 2022
12
25
CPU: i7-9700k with undervolt at 1.17v
COOLER: Big Shuriken 3 with Noctua NF A12x25
PASTE: Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut
GPU: EVGA FTW3 3080, 2.75 slot cared with undervolt at 937mv @ 1980MHz
MOBO: Aorus Z390 Pro Wifi
RAM: Corsair Vengence LPX @3000MHz
PSU: Corsair RM580x Gold
Cables: Pre-configured CableMod set for Corsair PSU

This is my first time building in a small form factor, and I have built 3 copmputers total in my tech journey unless you count the multiple times I have moved parts from my personal PC to different cases then the total is more like 7 lol.

So, I am not new to building, but I am nowhere near an expert, so I will keep it short and if you have any questions let me know and I'll be happy to answer.

I moved to the N-ATX from the Lian Li Lancool 2. The Lancool is fantastic case with a bunch of thoughtful features and I can;t say enough good things about it, but the foot print is quite large and I may be moving in the near future so downsizing my rig seemd like the right move.
See photos for size comparison.



The case arrived and the box had a few dings here and there but thankfully there was no damage to the case and nothing moved around inside the box.

Case assembly was simple and only took 15 to 20min. If your like me and moving parts over, I recommend cleaning your parts now.

I installed the motherboard and found that I recommend you install your cooler outside of the case. while there is a cutout in the back I found my back plate could not go into the motherboard while it was installed due to slight blockage.

I also recommend installing your cpu power cable now as getting it later will be possible, but more difficult in my experience. Once MOBO and cooler are in, try and boot the system if you can to check temps because if you need to re-seat the cooler this stage is the best one to do it at instead of at the end.

Next was the GPU and in my case the scale used for the GPU bracket was right on with my card as a 2.75slot. Unfortunately, the small piece for the pcie bracket on the card had bad threading on one side and the way my GPU sits one display port is blocked.

I was able to fix the threading fairly easily and thank fully I can use my other three ports so the one being block is no big deal, but your milage may vary.


At the PSU stage I have a PSA, if you have the front panel off so you could use it as an access for anything, make sure you re-attach it now as the PSU will block one of the points you need to bolt it on with.
Also make sure you have the PSU switched on before installation as the button is inaccesible-ish after install. You can stick something through the slates to press it, but probing with small objects on an High Wattage part like this definitely not the safest thing in the world.

Other than that PSU installation was smooth, and I needed up tucking the slack from the extension in the pocket where the switch is, which made a loop that acted as a nice channel for my CPU cable to run.

Also, I was going to install my 3tb hard drive, but ultimately decided to keep it as open as possible for cable space, which brings me to the next stage which I can only guess is the old SFF dilemma, CABLE MANAGEMENT!

That being said cable management wasn't terrible in my experience, but having CableMod cables helped a lot! If you can swing it I definitely recommend individually sleaved cables and even custom length ones to reduce excess if you can swing it.

CPU and MOBO power were fairly easy to run manage with the space between the RAM and PSU available and the mobo tray having a tie point following that same line down. Plugging them in was also easy since you can turn the case upside down for easier access to PSU slots.

Where I struggled a bit was the GPU cables. Plugging in to the PSU was no problem, but plugging into the GPU was much harder since clearance between the ATX PSU and GPU was not much and management was also not easy.
These cables have some length and needing three of them I just did my best to make a tidy cable run as I could and store it in the bottom right.


System booted up just fine and is wisper quite with the Noctua fan. I set the curve at 50% speed at 30c and have sacle up 10% speed per 10c increase with 100% being at 80c. Even at 100% Noctua fans are very quite and I just left my GPU fans on auto and doesnt go above 60% speed in most cases.

I only did some light temp testing. I ran heaven benchmark and Cinebench R23 for about an hour. My CPU cores averaged about 66c to 67c and my GPU also sat around 67c which is not bad at all. Definitely not to spicy for an SFF build!

Overall the experience with this case was excellent and will use it in the future when I eventually upgrade mobo and cpu!


If you have any questions, noticed something I may have left out, or advice to give me please feel free chime in!

Thank you.
 

MarcParis

Spatial Philosopher
Apr 1, 2016
3,616
2,705
@Dream Claw thanks for sharing your building experience!
We face similar issue on PSU block installation..:)
Regarding your GPU bracket, it is weird to see your gpu is not straight vertical.

At last did you face any troubles assembling side panel and stand?
 
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Reactions: Dream Claw

Dream Claw

Cable Smoosher
Oct 10, 2022
12
25
@Dream Claw thanks for sharing your building experience!
We face similar issue on PSU block installation..:)
Regarding your GPU bracket, it is weird to see your gpu is not straight vertical.

At last did you face any troubles assembling side panel and stand?
I did notice that it did not sit perfectly straight, the picture makes it look worse than it is, however I did everything I could think to correct it and no dice. I suspect it my be to to slight tension from the riser cable due to my GPU being a 2.75slot card and I am using an ATX MOBO, but I don' know for sure.

I did not have any issues with the side panels, did you have some issues with that?
 

riba2233

Shrink Ray Wielder
Original poster
SFF Time
Jan 2, 2019
1,631
2,105
www.sfftime.com
CPU: i7-9700k with undervolt at 1.17v
COOLER: Big Shuriken 3 with Noctua NF A12x25
PASTE: Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut
GPU: EVGA FTW3 3080, 2.75 slot cared with undervolt at 937mv @ 1980MHz
MOBO: Aorus Z390 Pro Wifi
RAM: Corsair Vengence LPX @3000MHz
PSU: Corsair RM580x Gold
Cables: Pre-configured CableMod set for Corsair PSU

This is my first time building in a small form factor, and I have built 3 copmputers total in my tech journey unless you count the multiple times I have moved parts from my personal PC to different cases then the total is more like 7 lol.

So, I am not new to building, but I am nowhere near an expert, so I will keep it short and if you have any questions let me know and I'll be happy to answer.

I moved to the N-ATX from the Lian Li Lancool 2. The Lancool is fantastic case with a bunch of thoughtful features and I can;t say enough good things about it, but the foot print is quite large and I may be moving in the near future so downsizing my rig seemd like the right move.
See photos for size comparison.



The case arrived and the box had a few dings here and there but thankfully there was no damage to the case and nothing moved around inside the box.

Case assembly was simple and only took 15 to 20min. If your like me and moving parts over, I recommend cleaning your parts now.

I installed the motherboard and found that I recommend you install your cooler outside of the case. while there is a cutout in the back I found my back plate could not go into the motherboard while it was installed due to slight blockage.

I also recommend installing your cpu power cable now as getting it later will be possible, but more difficult in my experience. Once MOBO and cooler are in, try and boot the system if you can to check temps because if you need to re-seat the cooler this stage is the best one to do it at instead of at the end.

Next was the GPU and in my case the scale used for the GPU bracket was right on with my card as a 2.75slot. Unfortunately, the small piece for the pcie bracket on the card had bad threading on one side and the way my GPU sits one display port is blocked.

I was able to fix the threading fairly easily and thank fully I can use my other three ports so the one being block is no big deal, but your milage may vary.


At the PSU stage I have a PSA, if you have the front panel off so you could use it as an access for anything, make sure you re-attach it now as the PSU will block one of the points you need to bolt it on with.
Also make sure you have the PSU switched on before installation as the button is inaccesible-ish after install. You can stick something through the slates to press it, but probing with small objects on an High Wattage part like this definitely not the safest thing in the world.

Other than that PSU installation was smooth, and I needed up tucking the slack from the extension in the pocket where the switch is, which made a loop that acted as a nice channel for my CPU cable to run.

Also, I was going to install my 3tb hard drive, but ultimately decided to keep it as open as possible for cable space, which brings me to the next stage which I can only guess is the old SFF dilemma, CABLE MANAGEMENT!

That being said cable management wasn't terrible in my experience, but having CableMod cables helped a lot! If you can swing it I definitely recommend individually sleaved cables and even custom length ones to reduce excess if you can swing it.

CPU and MOBO power were fairly easy to run manage with the space between the RAM and PSU available and the mobo tray having a tie point following that same line down. Plugging them in was also easy since you can turn the case upside down for easier access to PSU slots.

Where I struggled a bit was the GPU cables. Plugging in to the PSU was no problem, but plugging into the GPU was much harder since clearance between the ATX PSU and GPU was not much and management was also not easy.
These cables have some length and needing three of them I just did my best to make a tidy cable run as I could and store it in the bottom right.


System booted up just fine and is wisper quite with the Noctua fan. I set the curve at 50% speed at 30c and have sacle up 10% speed per 10c increase with 100% being at 80c. Even at 100% Noctua fans are very quite and I just left my GPU fans on auto and doesnt go above 60% speed in most cases.

I only did some light temp testing. I ran heaven benchmark and Cinebench R23 for about an hour. My CPU cores averaged about 66c to 67c and my GPU also sat around 67c which is not bad at all. Definitely not to spicy for an SFF build!

Overall the experience with this case was excellent and will use it in the future when I eventually upgrade mobo and cpu!


If you have any questions, noticed something I may have left out, or advice to give me please feel free chime in!

Thank you.

Hi, this is a very nice build, thank you for documenting it so well and it looks really nice in your setup!
I hope it is ok if I put it on our website under customer builds :)
 

MarcParis

Spatial Philosopher
Apr 1, 2016
3,616
2,705
I did notice that it did not sit perfectly straight, the picture makes it look worse than it is, however I did everything I could think to correct it and no dice. I suspect it my be to to slight tension from the riser cable due to my GPU being a 2.75slot card and I am using an ATX MOBO, but I don' know for sure.

I did not have any issues with the side panels, did you have some issues with that?
Weird for the GPU. Personnally I'm using 3 slots GPU with ATX MB with no issue (check my build log in my signature)

Regarding side panel I got those tapes on front/back panel screw hole.

Basically provided screw was too short (It damaged screw hole thread while holding side panel) and I was obliged to use longer screws as I keep opening my case to test it and make some changes.
 

Dream Claw

Cable Smoosher
Oct 10, 2022
12
25
Weird for the GPU. Personnally I'm using 3 slots GPU with ATX MB with no issue (check my build log in my signature)

Regarding side panel I got those tapes on front/back panel screw hole.

Basically provided screw was too short (It damaged screw hole thread while holding side panel) and I was obliged to use longer screws as I keep opening my case to test it and make some changes.
I had the same tape on my case, but it didn't seem like it impeded me being able to attach the side panel with the provided screws.
 

htowngator

Cable Smoosher
Jun 22, 2022
10
5
CPU: i7-9700k with undervolt at 1.17v
COOLER: Big Shuriken 3 with Noctua NF A12x25
PASTE: Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut
GPU: EVGA FTW3 3080, 2.75 slot cared with undervolt at 937mv @ 1980MHz
MOBO: Aorus Z390 Pro Wifi
RAM: Corsair Vengence LPX @3000MHz
PSU: Corsair RM580x Gold
Cables: Pre-configured CableMod set for Corsair PSU

This is my first time building in a small form factor, and I have built 3 copmputers total in my tech journey unless you count the multiple times I have moved parts from my personal PC to different cases then the total is more like 7 lol.

So, I am not new to building, but I am nowhere near an expert, so I will keep it short and if you have any questions let me know and I'll be happy to answer.

I moved to the N-ATX from the Lian Li Lancool 2. The Lancool is fantastic case with a bunch of thoughtful features and I can;t say enough good things about it, but the foot print is quite large and I may be moving in the near future so downsizing my rig seemd like the right move.
See photos for size comparison.



The case arrived and the box had a few dings here and there but thankfully there was no damage to the case and nothing moved around inside the box.

Case assembly was simple and only took 15 to 20min. If your like me and moving parts over, I recommend cleaning your parts now.

I installed the motherboard and found that I recommend you install your cooler outside of the case. while there is a cutout in the back I found my back plate could not go into the motherboard while it was installed due to slight blockage.

I also recommend installing your cpu power cable now as getting it later will be possible, but more difficult in my experience. Once MOBO and cooler are in, try and boot the system if you can to check temps because if you need to re-seat the cooler this stage is the best one to do it at instead of at the end.

Next was the GPU and in my case the scale used for the GPU bracket was right on with my card as a 2.75slot. Unfortunately, the small piece for the pcie bracket on the card had bad threading on one side and the way my GPU sits one display port is blocked.

I was able to fix the threading fairly easily and thank fully I can use my other three ports so the one being block is no big deal, but your milage may vary.


At the PSU stage I have a PSA, if you have the front panel off so you could use it as an access for anything, make sure you re-attach it now as the PSU will block one of the points you need to bolt it on with.
Also make sure you have the PSU switched on before installation as the button is inaccesible-ish after install. You can stick something through the slates to press it, but probing with small objects on an High Wattage part like this definitely not the safest thing in the world.

Other than that PSU installation was smooth, and I needed up tucking the slack from the extension in the pocket where the switch is, which made a loop that acted as a nice channel for my CPU cable to run.

Also, I was going to install my 3tb hard drive, but ultimately decided to keep it as open as possible for cable space, which brings me to the next stage which I can only guess is the old SFF dilemma, CABLE MANAGEMENT!

That being said cable management wasn't terrible in my experience, but having CableMod cables helped a lot! If you can swing it I definitely recommend individually sleaved cables and even custom length ones to reduce excess if you can swing it.

CPU and MOBO power were fairly easy to run manage with the space between the RAM and PSU available and the mobo tray having a tie point following that same line down. Plugging them in was also easy since you can turn the case upside down for easier access to PSU slots.

Where I struggled a bit was the GPU cables. Plugging in to the PSU was no problem, but plugging into the GPU was much harder since clearance between the ATX PSU and GPU was not much and management was also not easy.
These cables have some length and needing three of them I just did my best to make a tidy cable run as I could and store it in the bottom right.


System booted up just fine and is wisper quite with the Noctua fan. I set the curve at 50% speed at 30c and have sacle up 10% speed per 10c increase with 100% being at 80c. Even at 100% Noctua fans are very quite and I just left my GPU fans on auto and doesnt go above 60% speed in most cases.

I only did some light temp testing. I ran heaven benchmark and Cinebench R23 for about an hour. My CPU cores averaged about 66c to 67c and my GPU also sat around 67c which is not bad at all. Definitely not to spicy for an SFF build!

Overall the experience with this case was excellent and will use it in the future when I eventually upgrade mobo and cpu!


If you have any questions, noticed something I may have left out, or advice to give me please feel free chime in!

Thank you.

Very nice, I hope to get mine in a few weeks. I'm running the same GPU but in a blocked OptimusPC setup and ATX PSU but mATX mobo.

I want to drill out passthru for water connection between the GPU and mobo there in the picture. How much area is that? L x W?

 
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MarcParis

Spatial Philosopher
Apr 1, 2016
3,616
2,705
I had the same tape on my case, but it didn't seem like it impeded me being able to attach the side panel with the provided screws.
Pretty weird, but understandable as root cause could be miscelleanous.
For info, as I'm keeping open/close my "beloved" N-ATXv2 my first "longer" screw also failed (jam thread).
Thus just to be sure of using full thread length I moved to M3x20mm screw

It is doable on this location of the case, as there is free space behind.

At worst case (thread fully damaged) I would be able to use nut.

Overall I'm really enjoying my N-ATXv2 and it proved to be really efficient on GPU cooling...it is even slighter better my beloved Cerberus-X...more to read soon..:)
 

Dream Claw

Cable Smoosher
Oct 10, 2022
12
25
Very nice, I hope to get mine in a few weeks. I'm running the same GPU but in a blocked OptimusPC setup and ATX PSU but mATX mobo.

I want to drill out passthru for water connection between the GPU and mobo there in the picture. How much area is that? L x W?

I measured and the amount of space there is roughly 80mm from front of the case and roughly 42mm from the card to the back ventilation holes
 
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riba2233

Shrink Ray Wielder
Original poster
SFF Time
Jan 2, 2019
1,631
2,105
www.sfftime.com

riba2233

Shrink Ray Wielder
Original poster
SFF Time
Jan 2, 2019
1,631
2,105
www.sfftime.com
Pretty weird, but understandable as root cause could be miscelleanous.
For info, as I'm keeping open/close my "beloved" N-ATXv2 my first "longer" screw also failed (jam thread).
Thus just to be sure of using full thread length I moved to M3x20mm screw

It is doable on this location of the case, as there is free space behind.

At worst case (thread fully damaged) I would be able to use nut.

Overall I'm really enjoying my N-ATXv2 and it proved to be really efficient on GPU cooling...it is even slighter better my beloved Cerberus-X...more to read soon..:)

Glad that the temps are good!

I have included 8mm bolts with the next batch if anyone is having issues, but in general it should all be fine, just don't torque them too much. As soon as you feel the resistance that is probably enough and they will last.
 

Dream Claw

Cable Smoosher
Oct 10, 2022
12
25
Glad that the temps are good!

I have included 8mm bolts with the next batch if anyone is having issues, but in general it should all be fine, just don't torque them too much. As soon as you feel the resistance that is probably enough and they will last.
Temps are fantastic no pun intended.

My cpu tends to run around 110watts and with the Big Shuriken 3 with a Noctua, I have not had the temps breach 70c in my daily usage which is some productivity and gaming.

Now I do have an undervolt at 1.17v because by default the MOBO usually feeds you way more voltage than the CPU usually needs if your running it at stock. I think the fan being only 2mm from the side panel gives it enough room to breath, but not so much it circulates hot air from my 3080.

Same thing with the GPU, by default nvidia feeds the GPU WAY more power than is necessary. I am running mine at 2,000Mhz at 937mv and have had no stability issues but stock its at 1,237mv and my GPU was running 1960Mhz because of how hot it ran (Undervolt dropped temps around 12c on average). On top of that with this case and the GPU always having access to fresh air lets me run it no higher than 50% fan speed and keep things going no higher than low 70c range.

Because of this my build is whisper quiet.

My only concern may be dust, but that's the trade off with a case like this. Fortunately I have a datavac so I can dust every now and again and keep things clean.
 

riba2233

Shrink Ray Wielder
Original poster
SFF Time
Jan 2, 2019
1,631
2,105
www.sfftime.com
Temps are fantastic no pun intended.

My cpu tends to run around 110watts and with the Big Shuriken 3 with a Noctua, I have not had the temps breach 70c in my daily usage which is some productivity and gaming.

Now I do have an undervolt at 1.17v because by default the MOBO usually feeds you way more voltage than the CPU usually needs if your running it at stock. I think the fan being only 2mm from the side panel gives it enough room to breath, but not so much it circulates hot air from my 3080.

Same thing with the GPU, by default nvidia feeds the GPU WAY more power than is necessary. I am running mine at 2,000Mhz at 937mv and have had no stability issues but stock its at 1,237mv and my GPU was running 1960Mhz because of how hot it ran (Undervolt dropped temps around 12c on average). On top of that with this case and the GPU always having access to fresh air lets me run it no higher than 50% fan speed and keep things going no higher than low 70c range.

Because of this my build is whisper quiet.

My only concern may be dust, but that's the trade off with a case like this. Fortunately I have a datavac so I can dust every now and again and keep things clean.

This type of case attracts less dust and with datavac in hand I wouldn't worry about it :)
 
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