I actually tried to figure out how to get in touch with the PR folks at ENC
case a couple of times before they eventually reached out to me because I
really wanted to review the NASA M1
since I first saw the crowdfunding campaign that brought it to life. It's
no great secret that I've got kind of a weird fetish for tiny feet that I mean
PCs. And the end case is on the extreme
end of what can be done to make a computer that uses standard components
as compact as possible. It's kind of
magic like the piece of camera tech that Brandon will be checking out in his
second hosted Linus Tech Tips video due out in a couple of days. So, let's get
started, shall we?
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The included accessories stood out to me right away. Most casem makers abandoned
wire fan grills due to their cost years ago, but you get four of those and
filters to go with them, a power supply bracket, and all of your mounting
hardware neatly sorted into little baggies for your consumption. If I had
to complain at this stage, though, it would be about the complete lack of
included documentation. There isn't even a little slip of paper that says, "Hey,
you can download the manual on the website here." Fortunately, I found this
image on their site without too much difficulty. And the site also has some
helpful tips for component selection, but it should be noted that most of it
is quite technically worded. And for a project like building a PC in the M1,
while it's enough for experienced builders, for folks who are new to
building PCs, I think it could be improved. The first step is to pop off
the front and all three ventilated panels on the sides and top. It should
be noted that I have the top panel with the slot load OD cutout in it, but this
can be swapped out for a plain one if you prefer not to have an optical drive
and not to have a slot for the one you don't have. With all of them off, it
reveals the skeleton of the case, which actually, other than the motherboard
tray, doesn't give us a ton of hints about how a computer is supposed to fit
in here. Again, a very experienced builders will probably be able to fight
their way through it using a combination of the FAQ compatibility and spec tabs
on the website, but uh for those who are less experienced, well, I guess that's
the point of people like me existing. So, let's do a tour of the guts of the
case together, shall we? At the front, you'll find two USB 3.0 0 ports, a power
switch with power and drive activity LEDs built into it, and front panel
audio jacks along with mounting holes to put the slimline optical or up to two 2
and 1/2 in drives between the front of the chassis and the bezel using fine
threaded spacer screws and rubber grommets and the handy dandy SSD
stacking plates, two sets of which come in the box. On the right hand side is
the motherboard tray with a cutout for easy cooler installation and absolutely
zero room for cable management. You can
run really small stuff between the motherboard and the tray if you're
desperate, but other than that, you'll be bundling everything over on the other
side of the motherboard under the power supply. Also over here, speaking of your
power supply, is the intake for your power supply, which will probably be SFX
if you don't want to give up mounting drives or a radiator on the left side.
The ability to use a modular power supply or the ability to install a
fulllength GPU, not worth it, IMO, especially with Silverstone's excellent
600 W SFX power supply as an option where you don't have to make any of
those compromises. And you even get zero RPM mode when it's not under heavy load,
making for a very quiet little system. While we're looking at the power supply,
the top of the case is mostly taken up by the mounting bracket for it. And this
cleverly routed AC power input extension with a good look at just how little
space was wasted in the width of this case once you fill it with hardware.
especially if it goes balls to the wall with an ROG board with that beefy
daughterboard mounted power delivery solution and 3/8 in tubing on your AIO
CPU cooler. It should be noted that had I not opted for a dual 120 mm radiator,
there's a bracket that sits where the forwardmost radiator fan is now that
holds up to two 3 and 1/2 in hard drives. And the space taken up by my
rearmost radiator fan would have been reserved for clearance for a CPU air
cooler. Around the back, we find mounting holes for an 80 or 92mm fan,
but I opted to leave this empty since my dual 120 mm radiator fans are pressure
optimized models configured as intakes with the rest of the case basically
acting as passive exhaust. Back here, we also find external water cooling
grommets. Definitely useful for the third party reservoir mount that some
users have installed back here and IO for the motherboard and curiously
actually three PCI slot covers allowing up to a triple slot card if you opt not
to install a 3 and 1/2 or 2 and 1/2 in drive using rubber grommets in the
bottom where we have this hard drive mounted. Another option down in the
bottom, thanks to the feet that keep the case up off the desk or floor, is a 120
mm fan in the back and a 120 mm fan in
the front. But again, neither of those are possible with that hard drive in
there. You can throw in an 80 or 92 in the front, but I opted not to since my
GPU intake is right there anyway. Which leads us finally to the left hand side
where we can see the system assembled. And we actually, no, actually, we really
can't see a whole heck of a lot of the system assembled. just the dual 120 mm
radiator and the GTX 780 Ti that I threw
in to find out if this sucker will throttle even one of the powerest
hungriest cards available. Powerist. So,
all that's left now then, I guess, is to start tearing it down so you can
actually see how all the guts fit in there. The radiator mounting bracket
comes off first with four screws revealing the CPU area and the
incredibly tightly packed motherboard connectors that just barely allow enough
clearance for my 16 gig memory kit to fit inside. Pulling out the GPU gives us
a better look at the rat's nest of cables in front the front of the case
where the video cards PCI Express power connectors are wrapped up and also a
better look at how much room there is for high-end large graphics cards. I
would seriously recommend sticking with a reference design like I have for this
build, but if you really wanted to, you could actually install something taller
than standard, like an ASUS Direct CU card or MSI gaming card. Just don't
expect the rest of your system temps to be very good, as we demonstrated in this
video here. So, I guess all that's left now is the conclusion. The M1 is a
stunningly strong first entry for a new manufacturer and delivers exactly what
it promises with a thoughtful internal layout that wastes no space and allows
your PC to be as quiet as it would be in a much larger case without compromising
on thermals. My GTX 780 Ti turboed up
around 1 GHz in Crisis 3 without even touching boost clock settings. Freaking
impressive. There are some sort of less
positive notes. Um, bits like the inclusion of different kinds of rubber
isolators without specifying which is for what and general documentation
deficiencies with ENC case relying on a thread on hard form to guide users
during the installation process. Not to mention that it's not exactly uh cheap,
pretty darn expensive, but if you're looking for something that's beautiful
and functional, the end result really does look like it's going to be worth
the effort. It's compact, gorgeous, and
not going to be easy for N Case to top if they want to try to build something
more compact that fits a full-size system. Speaking of beautiful, Massdrop
sent us a pair of headphones that actually really surprised me. These are
the Audio Legacy Elites, and they're beautiful. So, naturally, I expected
them to sound like junk, but I was dead wrong. A Audio has actually hit a nice
sweet spot with this between sound quality, price, and features with active
noise cancelling included, but also possible to just turn off if you don't
feel like replacing the AAA batteries. Uh, at the lowest drop point, by the
way, the price looks pretty darn impressive, which you can check out at the link in the video description. And
if you haven't heard of Mass Drop by now, well, then you must be pretty new to this here interweb show that we got
gosh darn it. They're a site that facilitates group buys, sourcing product
ideas through their community with polls and then working with distributors and
manufacturers to save you money on the products that you want to buy. They
carry a wide variety of different products from a multitude of industries
and their inventory changes all the time. So head over to Massdrop today
using our link that's drawups/inus
tech to check out these headphones, the Legacy Elites from Audio as well as all
their other awesome drops. Using our link doesn't give us a commission or
anything, but it does let Massdrop know that we sent you. So, please click that
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