Completed The MI-6 Microtower Case: Performance in 6.7L

[vitorfernandes87]

Mine arrived yesterday after being 1 week at border customs.
My actual case is a Lian-li PC-Q33B which is already a small and beautiful case, but the CCD MI-6 is PERFECT!
I can't wait to change my computador to this case, but before I need to buy a cooler for my i5 6600k.

 

[Prothea]

I got mine yesterday as well. Waiting on my Vega Nano to arrive tomorrow, but I already have a 1600 on an Asus B450I with an L12S inside and waiting.

 

[rfarmer]

I got mine yesterday as well. Waiting on my Vega Nano to arrive tomorrow, but I already have a 1600 on an Asus B450I with an L12S inside and waiting.

Any problems fitting the L12S?

 

[Jello]

Hey @rfarmer , did you see a performance increase using the Prolimatech fan on your Big Shuriken? I'm going to be using a Xigmatek Janus cooler, and was thinking of getting either the Prolimatech or Cryorig XT140 to get some additional airflow over the mobo.

 

[rfarmer]

Hey @rfarmer , did you see a performance increase using the Prolimatech fan on your Big Shuriken? I'm going to be using a Xigmatek Janus cooler, and was thinking of getting either the Prolimatech or Cryorig XT140 to get some additional airflow over the mobo.

I got like 3 - 5C better temps and much quieter.

 

[Prothea]

Any problems fitting the L12S?

I haven't buttoned it up yet, but I'll post my results tomorrow when I do. It should be a tight fit, but the heat sink should barely sit flush with the case sides.

 

[Prothea]

Vega Nano arrived today and was the last piece to go inside the case.

Only started it up and did a little BIOS adjustments with the new mobo, but no issues so far. Component list is:

• Ryzen 1600 (undervolt and OC to be applied later)
• Asus B450I Mobo
• Crucial MX500 500GB M.2 SSD
• Powercolor Vega Nano (UV/OC soon)
• SF600 Gold
• Noctua NH-L12S
• Noctua slim 92mm fan (stolen from a L9a and added nuts due to fan lacking threads)

Of note, there was a small blemish on the front of the case but I don't mind it. The L12S sits flush with the case side so I'll have to see how that affects performance like past users have seen. Also, stock ribbon cables are a huge pain to work with, and I found they're the main source of my problems when assembling due to difficulty to bend and push on the sides of the case. This may have caused one of the case wall screws to not fully align with the hole when fully inserted, but it's barely noticeable.

Overally, really like the look of the MI6, and I see it as having much more potential than my Node 202 setup. I'm looking forward to putting it through its paces in the future. And custom paracord-sleeved cables are going to be a must-purchase in the near future.

EDIT: For whatever reason the full album isn't embedding, but see here for all the pictures

 

[vvv]

Just a heads up for picking PSUs:
EVGA 550 GM SFX PSU did not cleanly fit into the PSU slot due to the bezel surrounding the on / off switch at the top on the back of the PSU. You can technically screw it into place, but it does cause the top bar that goes across the PSU gap to bend outwards slightly. This is probably be due to manufacturing tolerance, but thought I would note it here. I am probably going to file down the bezel around the switch to get it to fit. (It does fit correctly if the PSU is upside down but that's not going to work haha.)

Unfortunately I can't find any decent PSUs with the on / off switch located to the side of the socket rather than above or below, but that would allow you to circumvent the tolerance issue.

Update:
I used a nail clipper to file the bridge below the MI-6 metal plate down around 0.5mm ~ 1mm and it fits.

 

[rfarmer]

Build looks great, nice to see the L12S able to fit. Looking forward to your thermal performance. I would have seriously considered the Vega Nano if it had been available when I did my build.

 

[firewolfy]

Vega Nano arrived today and was the last piece to go inside the case.

Only started it up and did a little BIOS adjustments with the new mobo, but no issues so far. Component list is:

• Ryzen 1600 (undervolt and OC to be applied later)
• Asus B450I Mobo
• Crucial MX500 500GB M.2 SSD
• Powercolor Vega Nano (UV/OC soon)
• SF600 Gold
• Noctua NH-L12S
• Noctua slim 92mm fan (stolen from a L9a and added nuts due to fan lacking threads)

Of note, there was a small blemish on the front of the case but I don't mind it. The L12S sits flush with the case side so I'll have to see how that affects performance like past users have seen. Also, stock ribbon cables are a huge pain to work with, and I found they're the main source of my problems when assembling due to difficulty to bend and push on the sides of the case. This may have caused one of the case wall screws to not fully align with the hole when fully inserted, but it's barely noticeable.

Overally, really like the look of the MI6, and I see it as having much more potential than my Node 202 setup. I'm looking forward to putting it through its paces in the future. And custom paracord-sleeved cables are going to be a must-purchase in the near future.

EDIT: For whatever reason the full album isn't embedding, but see here for all the pictures

Great build pics and that L12S is a monster! I have found heating the cables with a hair dryer helps so you can pre-form the bends.

 

[firewolfy]

Just a heads up for picking PSUs:
EVGA 550 GM SFX PSU did not cleanly fit into the PSU slot due to the bezel surrounding the on / off switch at the top on the back of the PSU. You can technically screw it into place, but it does cause the top bar that goes across the PSU gap to bend outwards slightly. This is probably be due to manufacturing tolerance, but thought I would note it here. I am probably going to file down the bezel around the switch to get it to fit. (It does fit correctly if the PSU is upside down but that's not going to work haha.)

Unfortunately I can't find any decent PSUs with the on / off switch located to the side of the socket rather than above or below, but that would allow you to circumvent the tolerance issue.

Update:
I used a nail clipper to file the bridge below the MI-6 metal plate down around 0.5mm ~ 1mm and it fits.

Man, sorry to hear about that fit problem. I mainly surveyed the Corsair and Silverstone PSU fit up. Glad you found a solution though.

I'll have to do another survey of components before the next run and tweak where needed.

 

[picov]

Component list is:

• Noctua NH-L12S

Did you try to mount the Noctua NH-L12S with heatsink fins rotated by 90 degrees? Probably the bottom fan could push more air between them with the air flow that will exit from the top of the case.

 

[Jello]

Got me case last night, first glance was very impressive, am hoping to get my PC in it tonight.

 

[Jello]

Alright so got my build in. There were no AM4 brackets available for my Xigmatek cooler, so I hopped down to a local store and got a Reeven Brontes. Reviews online seemed pretty good, and I'm not going for some crazy overclocks so it should cool my R7 1700 just fine. Did have to trim a few of the fins to get it to clear the metal casing around the rear audio i/o, but it squeezed in. Also grabbed some short SATA data cables in red.
Lastly I'm planning on getting some custom red and black cables made for it, as the stock Corsair SF cables are an absolute PAIN. Will share some pics once i'm happy with it all. Would love to get a Vega Nano for a full AMD build, but I can't justify spending that much money on it since I'm only playing at 1080p, and my GTX1070 does absolutely fine in that.

Love the case @firewolfy , looks fantastic.

 

[nicb6]

Mine arrived this week, so excited!
I can confirm that a 92x92x25mm fan at bottom fits in the "minimalist version" in combination with a Corsair SF600 Platinum. The PSU connectors touch the fan but it seems that this doens't cause any problems.
The GPU really does get hot in my case as well. I'm using a Gigabyte RTX 2070 ITX. But with some undervolting and reapplying the thermal paste I was able to drop the temps significantly.

[/IMG]

 

[firewolfy]

Mine arrived this week, so excited!
I can confirm that a 92x92x25mm fan at bottom fits in the "minimalist version" in combination with a Corsair SF600 Platinum. The PSU connectors touch the fan but it seems that this doens't cause any problems.
The GPU really does get hot in my case as well. I'm using a Gigabyte RTX 2070 ITX. But with some undervolting and reapplying the thermal paste I was able to drop the temps significantly.

[/IMG]

@nicb6 -- great to see and hear about your build. You stepped up and got a 2070 too! Curious how you tested the GPU and how bad were the temps before and after your fixes?

 

[rfarmer]

Mine arrived this week, so excited!
I can confirm that a 92x92x25mm fan at bottom fits in the "minimalist version" in combination with a Corsair SF600 Platinum. The PSU connectors touch the fan but it seems that this doens't cause any problems.
The GPU really does get hot in my case as well. I'm using a Gigabyte RTX 2070 ITX. But with some undervolting and reapplying the thermal paste I was able to drop the temps significantly.

[/IMG]

I'm curious about the temp differences too, might have to try that with my Inno3d 2070. Build looks great btw.

 

[Prothea]

Quick update: My MI6 survived a 6k mile plane trip back to my base successfully and without any damage or jostling of the internals.

I've been playing RE2 extensively for the last week, as in that's basically all it's been used for. At stock settings, the Ryzen 1600 (w/ L12S) has been going strong at low-to-mid 50 degrees. The Vega Nano is another story; at stock, the thing is hot and loud, clocking in at an average of 80 degrees with about 40 to 50% fan speed.

I UVed the CPU to 1.29V with a small OC of 3.6, and I'm seeing good results for still hovering around 55 degrees. The Nano is going to require a bit more fiddling to get it right; I bumped the voltage down for P6 and P7 to around 1050mV from 1200mV, upped the mem core timings slightly to 880Mhz, and increased power limit to 25%. None of these settings are too out there for a new Vega user to do to increase performance, but I'm seeing relatively little change in temperature or fan speed.

I might end up replacing the thermal paste and playing around with the CHA fan curve. If not that, then I just need to accept it's a hot boi and possibly wait for the small loft.

 

[nicb6]

@firewolfy @rfarmer
Well reapplying the thermal paste yielded only about 2°C. But undervolting from stock 1.05V to 0.862V made a huge difference with around 13°C less! So in total 15°C cooler. But in fact, I still accept temps around 78-80°C, but the fan runs with 1000rpm less

 

[rfarmer]

@firewolfy @rfarmer
Well reapplying the thermal paste yielded only about 2°C. But undervolting from stock 1.05V to 0.862V made a huge difference with around 13°C less! So in total 15°C cooler. But in fact, I still accept temps around 78-80°C, but the fan runs with 1000rpm less

That is what I am looking for. If I can keep the temps of my Inno3d 2070 about 5C lower I can keep it below 80C and the fan speed much lower. Did you test to see what kind of performance impact the lower voltage had?