ネプテューヌ mk2: ATX to mITX with Dan Case A4-SFX

[cityle]

Hello gals,

So I finally was able to put my hand on a Dan case at the almost retail price (had my eyes on that case since I knew its existence) and now it's being ship on my way. I decided to create a log to show you the process of building in it (and a mod I want to do, explain below).

Let the fun begin!
Feel free to share any insight and to answer my two questions below, as to ask for sexy pics afterward.
( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

But first I need to buy the parts for my build conversion. I'm keeping my GPU, CPU and ram, and I need some advice for the motherboard. Which one do you recommend me to take? The first one (below) is the expensive and beautiful one, and the second one is the cheaper one and still functionnal (but without any usb c). I'm leaning to choose the last one, to save on cost, but do you have any recommendations? (I need a top m.2 mount as there is no fan in the case and I'm worried that the m.2 ssd will be suffocating behind the board.)
https://ca.pcpartpicker.com/list/by9NTH
https://ca.pcpartpicker.com/list/WnL7gL

Also, I will move to the holy kingdom of NVME drive. But am I better off to buy the 500Gb 960 EVO that I know will be reliable and fast, and grab a 840 Pro 256 GB laying around in my house for my game drive (which will be sufficient for my needs), or go straight for the Intel 600p 1 TB that is slower? (the 1TB 960 EVO is kinda too expensive for me to choose).

Planned component:
CPU: i5-6400
GPU: EVGA GTX 960
RAM: 2x DDR4 HyperX Fury 8 GB
PSU: Silverstone 500W SFX-L
SSD: 500 GB 960 EVO + 256 GB 840 Pro or/ 1 TB Intel 600p
Motherboard: ASRock H270M-ITX or/ Asus ROG STRIX Z270i
Cooler: Silverstone AR05

For the fun part. My PC will go from that

To that

And I'm planning to do an acrylic extension to have a purple accent, like this picture, but the acrylic being thinner.

I'm open to suggestions and discussion. It's just a teaser that will be updated as the build progresses.

[cityle]

(Reserved for final pics)

[TheCaveman]

I'd go for the single 600p over the dual drive setup IMO. I'm a big fan of NVMe, I've been running PCIE SSD's for a long while now. So the neutered example of NVMe that the 600p isn't my favorite drive, but honestly its got read speeds much higher than Sata and you don't write nearly as often. A lot of people will scream to the heavens that NVMe is stupid on desktop, but IMO its nice to have and I experienced and noticed an increased snappiness over Sata.

An alternative option that you might want to look into is the Plextor M8Pe 1TB. There's a model on Newegg that comes with a heatsink to ensure it sustains high read and write performance, and at 1TB it can be found for $400. Its $50 more than the 600p, but $80 less than the Evo. It'll give you monster read and write performance, and I've personally found it to be a great drive. If you watch for sales you can get them super cheap too. I've got a 512GB Variant and I snagged it for $179.99 on a sale, which actually was cheaper than a 512GB 600p at that time.

[cityle]

In Canucktistan with our rupees the Plextor is almost the same price or more expensive than the Samsung one. And I know your feeling I begin to find that SATA 3 is slow for me (snappiness FTW).

[TheCaveman]

Ah, didn't catch that you were living in America's hat. Yeah, go for the 600p then. Save those maple stamped rupees and pay for those healthcare taxes or whatever. I don't have time to come up with a better joke than that. LOL.

Also, from what I've seen of the Dancase builds, wiring is tight so I would definitely go with an M.2 single drive to avoid running a sata power cable.

[Dynamic_Gravity]

ネプテューヌ

I am ready for the box Caterpillar mk2!

[cityle]

My case have been stuck at Mississauga since Sunday! (0_0) I've never seen that! The longest I've seen was 2 days for a package sent from Russia. Is it because my sender have an arab name or what!? (>_<) <-- pissy histy

end of rant
Well, gonna assembled my components tonight and put it in my actual case in the meantime.

[cityle]

(Warming: lot of pictures below)

I finally have received the so awaited case. It've been very helpful that I decided to assembled my components before as it simplified a lot the installation in the new case. So here's the case out of the box.

I already knew that it was tiny, but you cannot appreciate how tiny it is until you have it between your hands. You can see it on the picture next to the Fractal Design Define S and my Surface Pro 3.

I installed my LEDs, but I only used my two 60cm ones, not having enough space to add like one 30 cm. The three 30cm ones left will be use inside the acrylic accent. The led strips are magnetic so not very useful in an aluminium case but surprisingly didn't had to use that much of double sided tape as I was able just to snug them in place. Also I removed the ssd cage as I didn't had any and helped me later one to route my cable.

The motherboard and PSU installed. Was a bit challenging to snug away the usb 3.0 header cable and 10pins cable so they would not interfere with the side.

GPU installed and more cable routing done. I find it lovely in that small case.

And the panels reassembled. And gonna find a way to clean it properly...

Now my desk feels empty. (so tiny)

What is left is the acrylic accent. I still have not decided which thickness I want, probably will be between 0.5 and 1 cm. And also I'm thinking of adding a 3dprinted neptunia d-pad clip to add some customization, but I don't want to over do it. so will see after if it fits with the accent I will add. But the accent is not for tomorrow, gonna do that after having finished my semester so probably will give an update in 3 weeks about the project.

[Skelterz]

Damn I love SFF but it's a true pain in the ass.

The accent is going to look awesome

also Homura FTW!

[cityle]

If anybody is interested by the numbers, the case stay surprisingly cool with a 65W CPU and a GTX 960. Temp room at 22C.

At idle (the cpu fan set to run at 60% by default in the bios, and to ramp up at 100% from 60C) the CPU is around the high twenties, and after some Blackwake and stress testing in AIDA64 (about 8 minutes), it hovers in the high 40s (pretty much level off at 48C).

The ssd, if not under heavy writing, where it can go to the 60s, stay most of the time in the neighborhood of 45C.

The GPU on load seems to hit 60C, and stay at idle in the low 40s (factory curve, fans don't spin)

[Novasty]

Have you heard of our great Overlord Momus?

[cityle]

xD Also good taste in pixiv users.

[Novasty]

Wah?

[cityle]

Sorry, your profile picture from pixiv.

[Novasty]

HITEN if you are interested

[cityle]

ya, I know, I'm already subscribed to him. That was why I was saying you had good taste

[Gabe_Gabe]

Woah, that is a killer setup, love the purple colour scheme, and of course Neptunia pad lol.
What is that headphone cable also, seems proper heavy duty

[cityle]

The cable is one that I made myself with Mogami 2552 and a flat shoe lace has sleeving. Upclose pictures here https://forum.level1techs.com/t/post-what-new-thing-you-acquired-recently/88085/5361

[Kat]

That setup has too much waifu than I can handle.

[cityle]

A little side project related to the main project and my desire to have less cluster, and that I wanted to do for a long time; combining my ODAC and my 02 into the same unit.

You're supposed to use a nylon screw with bolts to secure the ODAC board in place, but I did it with double sided tape instead. Was the perfect thinness.

The new holes in the backplate that my brother drilled for me.

The final setup. Less cable and cleaner appearance = good