max card length: 306mm (inc bracket)
7.25 liters!
A4-SFX ITX https://www.dan-cases.com/
Any SPCR love for the DAN?
Moderators: NeilBlanchard, Ralf Hutter, sthayashi, Devonavar
Re: Any SPCR love for the DAN?
I have seen this before and the packaging is impressive. What worries me is how quiet you can make a system with that little CPU cooler headroom. There seems little mention of this on the site and it is shown with a stock cooler which will not be good.
What is perhaps more promising is that there is a lot of ventilation on each side so components are exposed to a bit of natural airflow. Maybe a low powered passive config would be possible?
What is perhaps more promising is that there is a lot of ventilation on each side so components are exposed to a bit of natural airflow. Maybe a low powered passive config would be possible?
Re: Any SPCR love for the DAN?
I've had a further few thoughts about this in detail. Some interesting things:
- PCI-E riser cable supports gen 3 and 4 PCI-E. Most only support PCI-E 2.0. I can't find any retailer for this 3M riser cable but maybe it is available elsewhere?
- My own view is that the drive bays are wasted space as M.2 is now prevalent. If space is so vital, you're better off without these larger parts.
- Volume calculations are not always by the same methodology. Here the feet and rear protrusions are not included in the 7.25 litres. If you include them you get 7.5 litres. It might seem a small amount but between different cases of this size it may make a big difference.
- CPU cooler height is limited to 48mm including fan. This restricts choices enormously if you have any designs on quietness and power. The Scythe Kozuti or Noctua NH-L9i come to mind but can they manage high TDP CPUs?
- CPU cooling seems designed around reference blower coolers which aren't quiet. It's strictly twin slot and the close proximity to the side panel may not mean a quiet experience. It is likely that the fan will spin up further. Things like the Asus DirectCU coolers might suffer badly with this than the reference design as they are axial rather than blowers. An Accelero S3 might fit passively but may not be ideally ventilated for it's 135W TDP. On something low power, no problem though. Passively a cooler with fins running across the card might work better given the chimney effect that you could form. A Gelid IcyVision is a possibility with the fans removed or an Accelero Xtreme with the fans removed. That would probably be OK up to a GTX970 (148W) passively. If not, a thin fan positioned between the card and the cooler might be possible?
- PSU is SFX-L. This means SFX is also possible as there are only 2 SFX-L PSUs. SFX-L allows a 120mm fan to be used however PSU ventilation is so good that a semi-passive unit might be able to run fanlessly even under heavy load. Possibly a PSU could be de-fanned to run entirely passively (the fan itself impedes cooling slightly if stationery).
I had a similar design in my head which would have foregone the aim of high end graphics cards and allowed positive pressure from the front through CPU, graphcis card and open frame PSU in around 5 litres but no idea if it might work. This particular design has obviously been designed and tested so is known to work. Perhaps it can be modified though?
- PCI-E riser cable supports gen 3 and 4 PCI-E. Most only support PCI-E 2.0. I can't find any retailer for this 3M riser cable but maybe it is available elsewhere?
- My own view is that the drive bays are wasted space as M.2 is now prevalent. If space is so vital, you're better off without these larger parts.
- Volume calculations are not always by the same methodology. Here the feet and rear protrusions are not included in the 7.25 litres. If you include them you get 7.5 litres. It might seem a small amount but between different cases of this size it may make a big difference.
- CPU cooler height is limited to 48mm including fan. This restricts choices enormously if you have any designs on quietness and power. The Scythe Kozuti or Noctua NH-L9i come to mind but can they manage high TDP CPUs?
- CPU cooling seems designed around reference blower coolers which aren't quiet. It's strictly twin slot and the close proximity to the side panel may not mean a quiet experience. It is likely that the fan will spin up further. Things like the Asus DirectCU coolers might suffer badly with this than the reference design as they are axial rather than blowers. An Accelero S3 might fit passively but may not be ideally ventilated for it's 135W TDP. On something low power, no problem though. Passively a cooler with fins running across the card might work better given the chimney effect that you could form. A Gelid IcyVision is a possibility with the fans removed or an Accelero Xtreme with the fans removed. That would probably be OK up to a GTX970 (148W) passively. If not, a thin fan positioned between the card and the cooler might be possible?
- PSU is SFX-L. This means SFX is also possible as there are only 2 SFX-L PSUs. SFX-L allows a 120mm fan to be used however PSU ventilation is so good that a semi-passive unit might be able to run fanlessly even under heavy load. Possibly a PSU could be de-fanned to run entirely passively (the fan itself impedes cooling slightly if stationery).
I had a similar design in my head which would have foregone the aim of high end graphics cards and allowed positive pressure from the front through CPU, graphcis card and open frame PSU in around 5 litres but no idea if it might work. This particular design has obviously been designed and tested so is known to work. Perhaps it can be modified though?