DAN A4-SFX v2

[Selder]

Hi guys,

 

FB told me beginning this week that it was one year ago that the first version of the DAN A4-SFX case was delivered, a couple of days later that build was finished.

 

Early Januari version 2 of the DAN A4-SFX case arrived, and slowly the new internal components arrived, and I was able to finish the build Tuesday.

 

With this thread I wanted to take the liberty to show you guys the finished build.

 

 

 

 

These are the internal components.

• Dan A4-SFX v2
• Intel Core i7-8700K Boxed
• Asus ROG Strix Z370-I Gaming
• Asus GeForce GTX 1080Ti Turbo
• Asetek 545LC
• Noctua NF-A9x14 PWM, 92mm
• Corsair Vengeance LPX CMK32GX4M2D3200C16
• Samsung 960 Pro 1TB
• Corsair SF600
• Corsair Premium PSU Cable kit

Other peripherals are: 

• Logitech Brio 4K Ultra HD
• TP-Link USB 3.0 7-Port Hub
• HP Omen X 35 Black
• Audioengine A2+ Black
• Logitech G Pro (Qwerty)
• Logitech Pro Gaming Mouse
• Logitech G240 Cloth Gaming Mouse Pad
• Logitech G440 Hard Gaming Mouse Pad
• Logitech G933 Black
• Oculus Touch Black
• Oculus Rift

 

Installing the motherboard is a piece of cake.  Installing the Asetek 545LC with the Noctua fan too.

 

 

 

But then the challenges started Because of the SFF-size of the DAN A4-SFX, there's not a whole lot of room to route the ATX cables decently.  I first tried routing them between the motherboard and the center plate of the case, but the retention bracket of the Asetek 545LC didn't leave much room.

 

 

I tried installing the motherboard with higher standoffs, but that didn't work.  I like to have the backplate installed too, and the connectors were too skewed.

 

 

So then just route the ATX cables from the CPU side to the GPU side.  I needed the space on the CPU side to have enough room for the tubes of the Asetek 545LC.

 

 

This is how the cables exited on the GPU side.  I could then only hope that there was enough room between the Noctua fan and the GTX1080Ti...

 

 

And there was! 

 

 

It is as if they were made for each other.  The space between the Noctua and the GTX1080Ti is exactly the height of 1 ATX cable.

 

 

After a bit of fiddling I was able to tuck away the ATX cables decently enough.

 

 

Meanwhile on the CPU side of the case I was able to mount the Asetek 545LC on the i7 8700K without any issues.

 

 

View from the CPU and top-side, you can see the tubes of the Asetek 545LC protruding the case, I wasn't sure I could install the sidepanel on that side.

 

 

But my fear was unneeded, there is enough clearance to install the side panel, phew!

 

 

 

Old delidded 7700K on the left, new not-yet-delidded 8700K on the right.

 

I'll get my professional-grade-photo-taking girlfriend to take some high quality photo's over the weekend.  With the plexi glass my iPhone-camera-photo-taking-skills are urgh... 

 

 

Also, RGB is life! 

 

As I said, I didn't delid my 8700K yet, I first wanted to see the performance of the Asetek 545LC.  

 

 

These are the temperatures after a lengthy Quake Champions session at 3840x1440 100Hz ultra quality.  Not too shabby at all, obviously these aren't the best temperatures available, but all well within the thermal limits of all components.

 

Added a mirror for optimal viewing pleasure...

 

This v2 build is done, there's not a whole lot on my to do list.  Maybe add a very small case-fan at the bottom to push some cool air over the motherboard since it doesn't have any airflow.  And maybe add an ROG addressable LED strip or something for more LED-porn.

 

Not surprising I'm very happy with the new little gaming case

Thanks for reading!

[dizmo]

Looks sexy! I like it.

I'm still torn between this or an M1. The M1 is so much cheaper..

[Damascus]

10 minutes ago, dizmo said:

The M1 is so much cheaper..

Better rad clearance as well (480mm total)

[dizmo]

9 minutes ago, Damascus said:

Better rad clearance as well (480mm total)

Aye! Though I'd likely use a locked chip. The cooler Dan is working on looks pretty solid. I've got a year to decide though. Maybe Corsair will release a mind blowing ITX case. 

[Damascus]

5 minutes ago, dizmo said:

Aye! Though I'd likely use a locked chip. The cooler Dan is working on looks pretty solid. I've got a year to decide though. Maybe Corsair will release a mind blowing ITX case. 

Yeah, big reason I didn't go with an m1 is how hard it is to get an x99 itx board.

[Selder]

The LOUQE Ghost S1 should arrive in April, going to rebuild my rig then...

[For Science!]

Looks super nice! I was also torn by this one and the M1 as well. I went the M1 route, but I really like the tiny footprint on the A4-SFX.

[RuffRuffmcgruff]

Nice cable management, 1 ATX cable of width is crazy lucky! 

[amvoith]

Nice rig. I started with the M1 and then went to the A4v1 last year. Both great choices. 

[WhatTheHell]

Very clean, I'd probably start putting power tools to the case to increase airflow video card end but even with your setup they're still good temps

(got any for stress tests?)

the closed loop systems are banging on small form builds,

 

Good effort.

[Leighspped]

were you happy with just the Corsair replacement cables? I'm trying to decided on custom length or not

[Selder]

The individually sleeved Corsair cables are tye perfect length! The ATX8, the ATX24 and both PCIe (to the GPU) cables are just fine as they are.

[Selder]

So yeah, about those high-end MVNe M.2 SSD...

 

That MVNe SSD is screaming fast, like nothing else I have ever had in game-pc at home.

A benchmark doesn't say a whole lot, but the whole system just feels snappier then the old i7 7700K Intel MVNe U.2 (M.2 wirth a cable) 400GB.

 

 

I currently have this Samsung 960 Pro 1TB installed on the front M.2 slot of my Asus ROG Strix Z370-I Gaming, my i7 8700K is cooled by a Asetek 545LC, so the only fan in my system is the one on the radiator of the latter (and yes, also a fan in my Corsair SF600 PSU).

 

The other night I was playing Quake Champions while recording my gameplay via nVidia Shadowplay and downloading Destiny in the background.  Both plexi-glass sidepanels were installed.

 

When I quit Quake Champions my system felt very slow and didn't seem to register any input from mouse or keyboard. After a few seconds Quake Champions quit, and I could see my desktop.  I immediately thought there was something wrong with the temperatures of either my CPU or GPU. HWMonitor showed the temperatures of the GPU as somewhere around 80°C, well within the margin of 91°C for a GTX1080Ti.  The non-delidded i7 8700K was something around 70°C, very happy with the Asetek 545LC.

 

But then I took a look at the temperature of the Samsung 960 Pro, it showed as 91°!  Reading the internet there is no official information about thermal throtteling for a Samsung SSD, but test show that it begins to lower performance at around 75°C.

 

I rebooted the system and the UEFI bios displayed a message like  "consider replacing HDD".  I left the system off for a couple of minutes, and it booted just fine afterwards.

 

This makes me believe those heatsinks in the Asus ROG Strix Z370-I Gaming are there for a reason.  But because of the watercooling there is no airflow around the heatsinks of the SSD. 

 

So, I'll need to add a fan to blow fresh outside air around the heatsinks of the motherboard.

 

Currently have this as solution until I find a more final solution:

 

 

 

With the Noctua Fan blowing air on the heatsinks of the SSD, the temperatures now never exceed 40°C.  This is after a SSD stresstest of about an hour.

 

 

 

 

I found some aluminium rods of the exact same diameter as the punch-holes in the top of the DAN A4-SFX case.  I'm going to try to make some decent installation system for the Noctua fan of these.  Obviously I'll keep you guys posted

 

[Selder]

Updated the 40mm Noctua fan's mounting system, it's now attached via a single M2 25mm standoff.

Looks better

 

 

[userzero]

Nice parts!

[Tyver]

I have a couple questions. I've been following this build and using it to base mine off of. Only difference is graphics card, harddrives, and RAM. 

 

So my first question is do you have any advice on getting the PSU in alongside with the fan and rad? I can't seem to get enough room. 

 

Also, what screws did you use to mount the fan to the rad? As well as, the rad to the case? Did you have to go get any? All the screws I have that came with my case and other parts are either too long or the wrong size. I have been forced to pull a thermal take engine 27 off my old build just to get the computer running since I can't get the liquid system in and mounted. 

 

Do you think the side panels are causing the issue with your M.2, in addition to the large capacity of said M.2? Since the plexi panels have no holes and all. My case has the regular panels and a 512 GB M.2 (960 as well) instead. I have been watching my thermals and my M.2 never got above 45 C.  Granted the Engine 27 is kinda a fan so it might be getting some from flow from that but I would think having the side holes would help out significantly. 

[ewook]

You sir put my build to shame. That was one heck of a nice setup!

[Selder]

Getting the radiator of the Asetek 545LC and the Noctua NF-A9x14 in place together with the PSU cables from the SF600 PSU is .... challenging   When you begin the build it seems that there is no way it'll all fit, but when working on it, it slowly comes together, and it fits like a glove.  There is 0 space wasted, those 3 components are packed and pressed against each other.  Once it's finished you'll have a hard time believing that it actually fits.

 

The original PSU cables of the Corsair SF600 were too stiff, and I couldn't get it to work with them.  You can bend the Corsair individually sleeved premium cables shorter than the original cables, and like I said the space between the Noctua on the rad and the GPU (GTX1080Ti Turbo = blower style card) is exactly 1 PSU cable.

 

To connect the radiator to the bottom plate of the chassis I used the same screws which are used to attach the drive caddy, I also left the rubber washers, don't know if that matters much for anti-vibration.  I used ""DIN912 M3X20 Black" screws to attach the Noctua fan to the radiator, the screws of the radiator are too long and won't fit.

 

The aluminium "sandwich" heatsink of the Asus Strix Z370-I Gaming cools both the M.2 SSD ánd the Z370 chipset.  The Z370 chipset is directly underneath the M.2 slot, the heatsink connects them both and cools them both.

 

Heatsinks only work when you have airflow, if there is no airflow, the think aluminium block acts as an insulator, the exact opposite of a heatsink.  If you're running a conventional air cooler on your CPU, the excess air will generate airflow over the heatsink and thus cool the M.2 SSD and Z370 chipset. Also: most likely the 1TB 960 runs hotter than the 512GB version.

 

I hope I answered your questions, don't hesitate to ask anything else!  

 

 

 

[Rosinbole]

Hi again @Selder!

 

I was just wondering: Any reason that you chose to have the fan on top of the rad as an outtake...? I was thinking of putting the fan underneath the rad and make it act like an intake... any problems with that that which I've not thought of?

[Selder]

Putting the fan between the bottom of the chassis and the radiator doesn't leave enough room to bend the tubes of the AIO.  That together with ATX cables in the same area will make it even more challenging to get everything in there...

 

And ehhh, I don't know if it is an outtake fan ... it will pull air through the radiator from outside/bottom of the case, and then push the "hot" exhaust air through the PSU (I believe the PSU can take some heat, it also has its own fan)

[Tyver]

Thanks for all the help. I will look into a way to mount a fan on the inside as well. I will let you know what I find, if it may help you. 

 

I can also confirm for the previous poster, that there is no room to route the tubes if you mount the fan under the rad. It barely fits as is. 

[Selder]

took some glamour shots yesterday

[Selder]

Currently designing my own custom plexiglass sidepanel.  I'll need to stop because it'll be too hard to choose later on

 

[Guest]

Love the build but i find it ridiculous that DAN had to put the brand name in the see through side panel. Kinda ruins it for me

[Selder]

"some" cutout is needed for some necessary airflow.  But as you can see, you can easily design and have your own designs made