My new PC (Inspired by LTT) Noctua NH-D15 cooled MITX Build

[Business Corgi]

So I built this machine after doing a ton of research and watching this LTT video.

I originally started out with the intention of transferring everything I could from my mid tower into an ITX case for greater portability. What I ended up doing was building an entirely new PC, transferring nothing but my SSD, HDDs, and GPU. This is primarily because I was coming from an i7-4690K and much to my chagrin, MITX Z97 motherboards have all but fallen off the face of the planet Earth. My local Micro Center had the Gigabyte Z97N but I bought (and hated) that board. I sold the 4690K for $200 to fund the 6700K ($300 at Micro Center). I bought a cheap PNY SSD and Pentium G3258 to have that other machine set up as a PLEX server and Steam streaming machine in the living room.

 

Anyway, without further adieu: https://pcpartpicker.com/b/MgYrxr

 

 

I've since come to my senses and removed the badges from the side of the case.

 

I have it going into an ROG Swift alongside a Visio P55-C1 4K-HDR monitor. My keyboard is an old IBM Model M from 1993 and my chair is a Herman Miller Aeron. Not pictured is the little laptop stand I use for my mouse and huge mousepad.

 

As much as I love this case one thing I'd like to see Phanteks improve is airflow. This case is designed for water cooling but the top mount is far from ideal for rad placement because of the tiny slits for air intake/exhaust. I've gotten better results with the Noctua NH-D15 than I did with the Corsair H100i V2 which I bought for this case and returned. A modest OC (4.5GHz) brings idle temps in the mid 20's in a cool room, load temps peak in the mid-upper 60's. The Corsair brought me well into the 30's/70's and was considerably louder to boot with the same OC profile and ambient temperature conditions. I had the rad mounted as an intake on top with two high static pressure Noctua fans as intakes in the front.

 

So that's another thing, if you're going to use the front of the case for intake fans you really ought to go with high static pressure due to the closed off nature of the front of the case. The hardest thing to cool in this case is the GPU due to the small amount of clearance between the bottom of the card and the PSU basement/drive cage. I feel like I may be able to improve my current temps by consolidating my data to a single 4TB WD Black and utilizing a mount either above the GPU behind the MOBO panel. By doing so I could remove the drive cage and eliminate the HDDs/HDD Cage as an impediment to airflow. By trial and error, I found that a short PSU (140MM) made a difference as well.

Last but not least, the exhaust fan. The exhaust fan is a special 15MM fan from Prolimatech and adding it made a bigger difference than I thought possible. A full thickness fan will not fit with this CPU cooler (heatsink fins and back of case are about 1-2 MM too close). I used this machine without a rear exhaust for a while because I figured that the cooler is so close to the back of the case that it probably wouldn't matter. I was wrong. Adding this fan cut CPU temps by 5-7 degrees Celsius.

 

Overall, this is pretty big for an ITX build but it's clean and rewarding and it looks nice in my opinion. I have some critical things to say regarding the case but don't take it the wrong way: if your goal isn't to get the smallest case possible, the Evolv ITX is the best mITX option on the market IMHO. Best doesn't equal perfect though, and the following improvements would bring the case dangerously close to perfection.

My advice to Phanteks: add filtered ventilation to the top and front of the case. Make the top removable. Despite being very roomy for an ITX case I still struggled to mount the fans on the Noctua due to how hard the clips are to reach. Being able to pass my hands through the top would eliminate issues like that. The basement cover for the GPU and drive cages bumps right up against the bottom of the GPU. With good fans and a low ambient temperature this hasn't proven to be too big a problem for me but during the summer months who knows. If there was any way to give the GPU just a bit more room to breath. Just another half inch would probably make a pretty big difference. I went with a short PSU with GPU breathing room in mind (the basement has vent holes) but I'm thinking of other things I can do to improve airflow. Maybe consolidate the 1 TB and 3 TB to a single 4TB? That way, i can mount the single HDD somewhere else and remove the drive cage entirely, leaving nothing to impede the airflow from the lower front intake. I digress...

 

I didn't build this to be ostentatious. I built this to be a stable, sensible powerhouse ITX build. All the parts were picked for performance over aesthetic appeal but I can't help but be satisfied with how it looks. It's got a certain utilitarian charm. 

 

So what do you think?

[m0k]

nice.

[Bleedingyamato]

You say that the exhaust fan is 15mm but your part list says 140mm.  Might want to fix that.  >_>

 

I like the look of the case but defintely agree that the front panel should be open more but with a filter.    Like the front of the Corsair Spec-M2 Micro-ATX case.

 

Overall it's very nice but I'd think changing the CPU cooler to something less bulky would improve airflow.  Like a Cryorig H7.  I recently used one in a build I did as a birthday present for close friend of mine and the H7 is really nice.

[Business Corgi]

15mm thick.