ULTRA MINIMAL Ncase M1 BUILD...

[Yardankerty]

Hi all - planned build is for a portable productivity PC (3D animation & rendering).
Mild Overclocking of CPU may happen. Build will be happening in LA/USA, need to start later this week.
I want it to be light and minimal for travel - with as few components and cables as possible:


Ncase M1 (ordered)

i7-7700K

EVGA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti SC (Does not require power supply cable! Nice!)
or
GIGABYTE GeForce GTX 1070 Mini ITX OC

Corsair SF600

DARK ROCK TF
or
Noctua NH-D9L

SAMSUNG 850 EVO M.2 2280 500GB

ASUS ROG STRIX Z270I GAMING LGA 1151

CORSAIR Vengeance LPX 32GB (2 x 16GB) 288-Pin DDR4 3000

Case Fans - Be Quiet! Silent Wings 3



Thoughts and advice appreciated.


cheers!

 

[Ganelon]

The Dark Rock TF is bigger than you think, I promise you. The D9L is a better option, as is the U9S. Go for either of those. Also, you don't need the 600W power supply. I have the 450 version in my Z170 system with a 1070 and it's perfectly fine. Save yourself some money there. Also, I would go with a Gigabye mobo over the ROG Strix- the Z270n-WIFI is perfectly adequate, or you could wait for the Gaming 5 version that's coming soon. It's down to preference I suppose but I've had better experiences with Gigabyte; they seem more durable and look better IMO, plus they're better priced than ROG stuff.

The 1050 Ti isn't exactly the best for price-to performance but that's up to you. The 1070 mini only requires a single 8-pin power cable, so it's really minimal in terms of extra routing. I recommend the beefier card for sure. Again, Gigabyte is great.

 

[Yardankerty]

The Dark Rock TF is bigger than you think, I promise you. The D9L is a better option, as is the U9S. Go for either of those. Also, you don't need the 600W power supply. I have the 450 version in my Z170 system with a 1070 and it's perfectly fine. Save yourself some money there. Also, I would go with a Gigabye mobo over the ROG Strix- the Z270n-WIFI is perfectly adequate, or you could wait for the Gaming 5 version that's coming soon. It's down to preference I suppose but I've had better experiences with Gigabyte; they seem more durable and look better IMO, plus they're better priced than ROG stuff.

The 1050 Ti isn't exactly the best for price-to performance but that's up to you. The 1070 mini only requires a single 8-pin power cable, so it's really minimal in terms of extra routing. I recommend the beefier card for sure. Again, Gigabyte is great.

Thanks Ganelon - good advice. I figured since the SF600 & SF450 PSU's weigh the same amount I might as well go for the higher wattage so that it's future proof...

So you are suggesting the GA-H270N-WIFI mobo? Are there no issues running the m.2 drive on the back of the board in the Ncase M1?

On the cooler - I really want to see if I can fit the Dark Rock TF - I know there is some conjecture on the Ncase google doc about it fitting - if I extract it from it's packaging and test it out very carefully I hope I can return it if it doesn't fit...

 

[Ganelon]

So you are suggesting the GA-H270N-WIFI mobo? Are there no issues running the m.2 drive on the back of the board in the Ncase M1?

The m.2 slot will be fine in any case; there are always standoffs that are higher than the clearance of the m.2 SSD. And yeah, the H270N-Wifi is fine if you're not planning to overclock. If you do want to overclock, you need the Z270N-Wifi or the Z270N-Gaming5. The Z270N-Wifi is the deal, though, it's so well priced compared to other ITX overclocking boards with similar features.

On the cooler - I really want to see if I can fit the Dark Rock TF - I know there is some conjecture on the Ncase google doc about it fitting - if I extract it from it's packaging and test it out very carefully I hope I can return it if it doesn't fit...

Don't even try, dude, seriously. It's not worth your time. Even if it did fit, it would have no good clearance, so the cooling would be worse than one of the smaller Noctua coolers due to significantly poor airflow. The NH-U9S is your best option.

 

[xla]

It's odd to read such strong opinion against the Dark Rock TF. Finished a similar build couple days ago and couldn't be happier with the Dark Rock. Clearance is a mood point with the m1 as all sides are perforated and airflow is never hindered significantly. If you want an idea how the TF fits I uploaded some pics for feedback on another build.

Would second the advice of going for the smaller PSU, esp. as you are going for a small gpu. Would spend that money on even faster RAM.

Personally I had better experience with ASUS boards on z170/z270 itx for reasons of build quality, pcb layout, features and stability/OC capabilities. I wouldn't shy away from the more premiumn board when going with the top of the line CPU.