Water Cooled Mini-ITX Review: Dan Case A4-H2O Thermals, Noise, & Cable Management

[Music] for the second of our revised miniitx case reviews we're looking at this one this is the lean Lee Dan A4 H2O a case which is specifically designed for accommodating as the name suggests liquid cooling up in well it's kind of hard to see with all the stuff but it's in there we've got a 240mm liquid cooler in here hence the name H2O uh despite the fact that lean Le's website contains multiple instances of both H2O and H20 pretty sure it's supposed to be H2O so we're going to go with that the case also has some impressive GPU thermals for the size that we'll talk about later due to clever airflow management but there're drawbacks including the cable management now at the time of writing the Dan A4 H2O is available for $155 which puts it up against options like the fractal Tera that we recently reviewed uh which is above it at $180 and The Cooler Master nr200p for about $145 and that depends on the exact model but there are tons of mini ITX cases out there these days we're only just getting started rolling into more reviews of them uh this one we wanted to get to next because as another sandwich style Mini ITX box it has managed to position itself as one of the Main Stays at least variations of the Dan K this design goes way back and they've brought it Forward over the years so this is going to be an important one for us to continue developing our testing approach let's get started before that this video is brought to you by thermal Grizzly and the cryo sheet graphing pads these cryo sheets are molecularly stacked in the z-axis to encourage vertical direct thermal transfer from the IHS to the cooler cryo sheet pads are made to be easily applicable for a thermal interface and completely avoid past dry out because it's not paste it makes them particularly useful for lawn service life systems with minimal maintenance they come in mult multiple sizes for suitability on the most common laptops and desktop CPUs and you can learn more at the thermal Grizzly cryos sheets at the link in the description below okay so this is the Dan Case build we did we've got uh an sspd case over here as well we're considering but we're currently as I was saying in an exploratory part of our test methodology development process uh as we continue to iterate on things so you can check out our tarot review for more discussion on how specifically we're approaching ITX reviews and that's going to keep evolving but instead of recapping it all here just check out the terar review it'll be linked below and that will give you kind of the foundation you can see this one has things compartmentalized in two sides similar in only that aspect to the Terra but otherwise they're mechanically very different and uh thermally of course very different because of the cooler support So this deviates quite a bit from our last one which means some of the components have changed like the cooler but GPU compartments over here you can see that interestingly the card actually ends up upside down for this case and it's attached via Riser the power supply is back here behind it and then on this side we have the power supply showing through here we've switched that for this review as well and the rest of the system is over on this side surrounded by cables which is going to be something we talk about today so A4 H2O is a direct descendant of the original A4 sfx but with what it calls quote improved Hardware compatibility which mostly means it's larger to allow things like a triple slot modern GPU the next main difference is the H2O part the ability to mount that 240mm liquid cooler Radiator in the top of the case the original a4sfx only supported either 92 mm or 120 mm liquid coolers with heavy compromises there are other tweaks versus the h2o's precursor but most of the focus is on the liquid cooling given the name and so that's the only way we're testing it today now if you don't know know the Dan cases are manufactured by lean Lee and uh this is one way of telling is looking at how the Snaps are manufactured for the panels we actually have some old factory footage we'll dig up and show in here but uh where they're attaching these pegs to the panels for some of the original Dan cases on I think at the time that might have been an aluminum piece but this is made by lean Lee and lean Lee actually manufactures a lot of the cases that are on the market sometimes they're larger sometimes they're smaller but they act as a supplier for some of these Boutique manufacturers aside from the obvious potential for keeping CBU thermals more in check versus a small air cooler having the 240mm CLC take up essentially the entire top of such a case helps to prevent hot air from lingering inside this has an impact on other components in the case as well that we'll see an effect on in the thermal section one of the biggest features with this actually is the REM movable bottom panel where if you look at this I've already taken one screw out but it's got five screws that go in it and that gives you an access port to the bottom edge of the motherboard and also to cable management for underneath the power supply so this ends up being actually an extremely useful feature to have because with ITX one of the most important things is improving ease of installation by adding quality of life building features so panel comes up like this it is ventilated and there's also a an SSD Mount kind of throw thrown in there at the bottom and then once we get access to the underside we have better ability to manage the cables so this is more exposed you also have a decent amount of accessibility to plug in modular connectors if you're using and you should be a modular power supply for ITX makes a little easier to access the other edge of the video card and then in terms of motherboard access um we are also freed up a little bit along this edge here to make connections or manage cables now dimensionally the case measures in at 340 mm long 141 mm wide and 251 mm tall which is larger than the advertised as in on the website 326 by 140x 244 mm the difference between advertised and actual here especially at 326 versus 340 also means the calculated overall volume is 12 L rather than the 11 lit number that lean Lee declares this is another example of the manufacturer choosing to ignore protrusions like screws and case feet almost arbitrarily and again we stand by our decision to include those protrusions and this is a gripe we have with cases in general this isn't just a miniitx thing this is all cases sometimes they choose to ignore things that stick out of the back of the case so one such instance at copy text we saw a case and we'll see if they come to Market like this where they were electing to not count an additional 1 in protrusion out the back because it wasn't part of the structural case it was just a hard drive cage or something and at the end of the day our belief is pretty simple uh even if it's not counted towards the volume it should at least be counted towards as a protrusion the dimension whether that's width or depth or height whatever it is now this next part is part of the feedback we got on our Tara review from the audience part of that feedback was to include a footprint figure meaning the two-dimensional area that the case takes up on a desk now we integrated a lot of the feedback as you'll see in this review like switching power supplies from the community but some things were not integrating and we wanted to use this as an example of one of them so a an area calculation as a review metric doesn't make a lot of sense and really what you actually need is just simple length by width and that's kind of it as an example the A4 h2o's footprint calculates out to 479 cm squared so try to visualize that we think it's even less intuitive than volume and it mostly serves as a semi- arbitrary way to try and create one number to hierarchically ranked cases footprint loses the directionality of length and width measurements which are what matter for visualizing the area a case will take up on a desk a theoretical case that measured 50 mm wide by 400 MM long would have roughly the same 200 CM squ footprint as one that measures 141 mm by 141 mm it really doesn't tell you anything so this is just to say even as we continue to iterate and try to add fancy reviewer metrics and new types of testing uh a simple reminder that we don't always need fancy reviewer metrics sometimes you just need something you can get from a spec sheet even without people like us to tell you what it is so once again basic Dimensions if if they would measure them more honestly now we're going to get into the build notes this is talking about build quality and ease of installation and what this is meant to do the Dan Case as we worked on it it's extremely clear this is built to do one type of build and it's meant to do it very well and that's not a bad thing because we'd rather have a chassis that's designed for really one specific type of thing like including a large liquid cooler rather than something that tries to do everything and does nothing particularly well so getting into it then both the power supply and the radiator Mount to removable bra jackets within the case which has become a popular approach in small and large cases alike it gives flexibility to the designer and it can have ease of use advantages for the Builder once assembled the radiator and the bracket install without much hassle as long as there aren't too many wires to manage these fans act as the only active air flow for the rest of the case as well and there are no additional fan Mount locations there's basically zero wasted space in the motherboard side of the chassis everything fits extremely snuggly which if if you're trying to get the smallest thing possible with the largest Parts is a good thing the Asus z790 I motherboard that we're using has a particularly bulky rear IO cover that barely clears the radiator section at the top and we had to angle the board in from the bottom Edge first to make it fit the top edge of the board is barely accessible with radiator fans and plays but that can be mitigated by leaving the cooler out or not fully fastened into place until finished with the motherboard let's talk about power supply installation pretty straightforward except for one note which is that depending on where the on switch is located on your power supply the thickness of the cooling solution the size of the GPU all this stuff it can affect the accessibility of the power switch itself so we would recommend toggling it on before you install it however if you didn't toggle it on you can remove four screws which I've already done from the bracket for the cooler here you see we actually have a decent amount of movement still this will reduce as you clamp down the cables more of course and then that gu gets us access to the power switch and once this cooler is down we can still just barely access the outer edge of this but depending on your power supply it may become less accessible and more importantly depending on the length of the GPU you may end up blocking some of that channel now installing the GPU we found is easiest when you flip the case upside down it's not required but it does make it simpler we didn't encounter any real problems with this process and the space within the GPU chamber is generous considering the overall size of the case and the size of modern video cards we'll talk more specifics about GPU fitment a little later once the card is screwed in and the case is standing upright in its final position the GPU will end up oriented upside down thoroughly speaking in most instances being upside down like this won't really hurt anything so uh something like a vapor chamber is already in in a standard ATX case effectively in most designs it's worst orientation when it's like this and that's because you're Fighting Gravity at this point so being upside down uh in a horizont or I guess this would be a vertical in a traditional case upside down in a vertical uh installment like this isn't going to hurt the performance of the cooler in any meaningful way at least based on what we've researched and you can see our interview with nvidia's thermal engineer Malcolm Gutenberg for more discussion on the orientation topic for gpus there's some flexibility for two Slot Cards so two standoffs are included that allow the user to mount the GPU into the outer two slots rather than the or two this is intended to help by giving the GPU more direct access to fresh air through the side panel we tested both configurations for our thermal section later our main complaint with the A4 H2O is Cable Management it's more non-existent than it is bad there aren't any dedicated Cable Management features or tie downs le le just throws two cable ties and an implicit good luck into the box compacting the components this closely together leaves the user with very limited areas to shove or tie up cables there's really only under the power supply or in any area of the GPU side that isn't occupied by the GPU itself it's definitely workable we got it all to fit you'll just spend some time getting it to look really nice but in ITX this much is expected our fractal Lumin s24 RGB has individual cables for the fans and RGB of every component so fishing them through the case and later finding places for the excess length to go was a challenge or at least a challenge to make it still look good we could have managed the wires in a more tidy fashion elsewhere within the case but we wanted to keep the GPU side uncluttered for our GPU fitment testing the motherboard side of the case leaves the user without any other choices but to lay cables over the top of the board until they can go into a more permanent area of free space with careful planning and a lot of patience you can definitely end up with clean looking builds it's just not easy on the fit and finish the case is constructed in a straightforward almost formulaic way with flat exterior your panels attached to an inner frame via push pins in this respect it's similar to other the endly built cases like the sspd meshroom and the original end case M1 in terms of build quality despite the use of some thinner stamped Metals in a few places the case retains surprising rigidity where and this is even with four screws removed from the radiator tray where uh it is a a sturdy and stout build as it's assembled now you take pieces out individually sure you can get some Flex in there but once it's actually built uh it's structurally sound in a way that for something small that you might carry around is actually a positive for fitment of things the CPU Cooler clearance is only 55 mm but that's fine here because running an air cooler goes against the entire selling point of the H2O which is support for 2 40mm liquid coolers it is important to keep that clearance in mind though for the CLC pump Block it's best to opt for coolers where the tubes exit the side rather than thep top so as an example of this some of the deep cool coolers especially those older ones with the really funky designs they'd route the tube out and back in to circumvent the acitech patent things like that where the block starts getting taller uh might not actually clear or you might struggle to fully push down the panel same thing with like arctic's liquid coolers for the liquid freezer line for example where the tubes stick out of the top even in situations where you can accommodate something like that if you start to uh basically tin the tube too much you do potentially run into new concerns like either bowing the panel out in an unsightly way or restricting water flow if it's actually bent the upper area where the radiator and the fan sit measures at roughly 275 mm long 132 mm wide and 58 mm deep this is tight enough that users need to pay close attention to the dimensions of the cooler that you want to use the Arctic liquid freezer 2240 for example doesn't fit here the manual suggested to routing represents an ideal case that isn't easy to replicate with the fractal s24 CLC that we have we ended up needing to squish down on the tubes with the side panel to make it close but we don't think it's to a problematic degree ultimately it's worth experimenting with different mounting locations or tube directions for the best result now for GPU fitment the GPU side of the case is spacious and forgiving compared to the motherboard side video cards up to 322 mm long 150 mm tall and three slots or 60 mm thick are supported there's even considerable Space by ITX standards over the bottom of the upside down GPU installation of video cards is also pretty easy so the front of the case has a large cutout just a big hole in it where you can just slot it in or you have some maneuverability if you need to push it around for cable clearance so let's look at some large cards as an example installing the RTX 480 or 490 Founders edition cards is difficult but it's not impossible possible once it's in there it takes up almost all of the available space in such a way that makes us think the size of these coolers was a critical Dimension during the case design process since the vertical space is so generous even exceptionally tall cards like the Asus stricks Vega 64 that's obsolete will fit fine the XFX RX 7700 XT is too long to actually fit the one that we have but thanks to the open hole at the front it's technically possible for gpus of infinite length slot in one of the other pieces of feedback we got in our tarot review was on the power supply choice and we agreed with this one so uh despite some of the power capacity advantages of sfx L power supplies we've come to appreciate that a lot of users or a lot of Builders of ITX cases will just use an sfx power supply especially because modern ATX 3.0 power supplies that say 850 Watts even in the smaller form factor are sufficient for the majority of builds so we've actually switched to the fantex power supply we have in here for our ITX testing going forward as the standard and then we'll use the sfx L power supply in cases where we just want to see how it fits but not necessarily for say thermal testing or Baseline testing that said the A4 H2O does support SXL models with the obvious reduction of Cale management space below the power supply and for this one we'd agree with the commenters last time you should stick with regular sfx if you can because having all that extra space it starts to add up so that's all the build section now we're going to get into The Thermals and the Acoustics for the CES as we get into this keep in mind that our goal with ITX reviews is to review only the case so we're analyzing things like the impedance caused by the panels and the airflow path and the compactness of the components affecting thermals as well so because of that these results can't be compared to our other ITX case reviews due to different coolers that just becomes a cooler Benchmark we already do those separately and potentially du to different things like bio settings or fan speeds our default setup as we're calling it for the A4 H2O has the system had a fixed 62% fan speed on the CLC 100% on the pump the motherboard fans are off and the GPU is in the interior position with fans at 44% the GPU fan speed is chosen by the nominal fan speed under the standard V bios temperature targets while the CLC fan speed is chosen based on noise Targets this results in 36.5 DBA as measured in accordance with our old ATX case testing methodology which is outside of the chamber in a noise flooor of 26 DVA noise analysis from the Hemi an aoic chamber comes later the default setup at steady state had the PE cor average at 57° cus Delta over ambient locking the CLC fans instead to 100% dropped it by 5.4 de it actually outperforms the no side panels result which does have the reduced fan speed and that and the small change between no side panels and the default results stand as a testament to the efficient airf flow pattern that the A4 H2O provides but all of the air flow is directed through the top mounted cooler pulling air over most of the other components and the panels end up not being too restrictive as shown by our panelist test flipping the power supply around so that the fan faces the GPU isn't covered in the manual but it is possible in our testing it didn't change CPU thermals the same can be said for running the two slot RTX 470 in the outer position but the data leans slightly warmer on the averages that brings us to GPU thermals where we have the GPU die idle load hotspot and memory temperatures the default setup is actually the worst on the chart but the 53° over ambient load average is still completely fine that has Us in the 70s with ambient added in running the CLC fans at 100% didn't move the needle for the GPU despite extra air movement into the case but flipping the PSU to Aid the flow through 470 Fe dropped 2° C off the load and Hotpot readings versus default pulling the side panels gained a little more but as always it's just to illustrate the impedance caused by case design the real winner here and the interesting part is that the outer mounting position for two Slot Cards is actually useful that setup reduced our thermals between 6.8 and 8° off of core load memory and hotspot that's a massive gain for a GPU and that's without any changes to fan speed whatsoever that's because the GPU is now in a position to draw in fresh air from directly outside the case so the flow through exhaust has more space to blow into and that warmed air is immediate pulled out of the case by the CLC this is what an efficient and less restricted airflow path can do for you noise levels are simple for this one we've done a number of deeper explanations on our acoustic testing process now including our video showing the buildout of the Hemi ano chamber the news video that followed the terror review and the Rog Ally review you can check each of those videos if this process is as cool to you as it is to us but for this one we're just going to look at one chart because this isn't comparative against other ITX C cases again due to a change in components between the smaller Tera and the larger Dane we're only going to look at noise characteristics between the choice we found most impactful the GPU positioning there's no point comparing the Tera and the Dan Case for noise levels because they use different CPU coolers so it wouldn't be a comparison between the cases if you're running a two- slot card in the Dan Case especially with one that has a flowr area we'd strongly recommend using the outer position based on The Thermals but we need to see if that meaningfully impacted our Acoustics this will vary heavily based on the fan blade design of the GPU behind the panel but the Fe card uses a fairly standard modern blade design plotting the GPU stock position first we saw the noise profile of the case from straight on at 1 M distant was loudest in the 500 HZ to 900 HZ range loudest here just in the comparative against the other frequencies but not actually in a bad way overall even in this range the profile isn't indicative of any deviations that would be perceived as particularly unpleasant to a listener especially as caused by the case this makes sense the panels aren't perforated in a way that causes a whiny or turbulent noise from the fans that we used and from the air movement so we have a frequency spectrum that primarily represents the components Chosen and doesn't reflect much direct negative impact from the case adding the GPU outer position to the Chart there's functionally no difference in results moving our card to the outer position had significant thermal benefit and it didn't have any objective acoustic change so there's really no downside to doing it this way so the lean Lee A4 or Dan Case A4 H2O is a competent and small miniitx case it doesn't try to do a lot of things it does one or two things really well and that's about it so you don't get a ton of Freedom or flexibility in your design choices with how you're laying out this case that's fine as long as you're aware of it the case probably shouldn't try to do many more things at a size like this also in terms of pricing Mini ITX cases tend to run really expensive the fractal ter at 180 bucks uh there's plenty of like 200 plus or minus $20 ITX cases and at 155 it does end up being one of the more competitively positioned cases where yes there's some options like certain nr200p variants that actually are very worth considering even today that are nearby uh and there are a few ITX cases that are particularly relevant cheaper in price and we'll get to those but we're still adding ITX cases to our tasting so our opinions here for Value will change with time subjectively though the experience in both the design by Dan and the manufacturing by lean Lee really come through we liked working with the case it does have challenges primarily with cable management and with some motherboard access after the build But ultimately we think that they're able to cram in a lot of large components like a 240 mil CLC while keeping the smallest possible external footprint The Thermals are good and really impressive for the size particularly for a two slot flow through GPU like the 4070 Fe while we wouldn't recommend going wild with part selection compared to the fractal Tera we'd be way more comfortable with running higher end parts like a 13700 k or a 4080 in this box there's some thermal Headroom to spare even from our configuration now back to the note on price so despite being cheaper than things like the Tera or form Dia options it does feel a little expensive just strictly for what this is so ignoring the comparative where comparatively it looks like a better deal it's also not the highest quality materials uh they are using thinner stamped Metals in a lot of cases there's a lot of Steel there's no variation on material like the Tera can at least clean to the fact that it's stuck some wood to the case so for the materials themselves and the complexity of the case it does feel like it's a little on the expensive side and then you zoom out look at ITX and uh it's just that the whole Market segment is just more expensive than what you're used to from ATX for much more case and a lot of that has to do with well two factors one is just economies of scale there's lower volume still of ITX so manufacturing cost is higher and then the other one is Boutique Market where enthusiasts are willing to pay as for who this is for really it's going to be anyone who wants to get higher end components into an ITX box especially on the CPU side because having that clearance for the 240 uh CLC really opens up options having two large like as in normal size 120 mm fans also allows for a pressure system to develop where you're able to suck out any of the uh pockets of hot air I was I was trying to avoid saying the phrase Hot Pockets unless they pay me uh and um so it can pull out pockets of hot air a little bit easier and uh that's a benefit of this case because in a lot of other smaller boxes like the Tera there's not a lot of room for traditional fans and certainly not full thickness ones so going for a higher-end CPU with a larger cooler this is a good choice for you if you're a user who has no interest in hiring CPUs you're going with like an i5 nonk CPU the liquid coin's not of much interest unless you just want to run a really ridiculously low fan speed to get the lowest noise possible possible but there's other solutions to that too the people who might be the most frustrated by this are ones who want perfect cable management or if you're using a motherboard that you particularly need more access to it because as you fill this in it does get covered so that's it for this one we have a lot more to do with our ITX case reviews so uh we're still developing our processes our component choices things like that and as we add more cases uh we'll be able to publish basically a full hey here's the method ology as it's going to stand for all of the reviews but for now we're still in the exploratory phase so uh we'll continue working on these not sure which one we're going to look at next but we had a lot of good suggestions in the terot review and leave your request for the next ITX case review in the comment section here as well because we will be reading them please up vote each other so we can find the ones that people are most interested in and we'll buy or acquire that one next but that's it for this one thanks for watching as always you can go to store. gamas access.net to help us out directly by buying something like the solder mat I worked on or patreon.com Gamers Nexus and we'll see you all next time

Channel: Gamers Nexus

Views: 192,549

Keywords: gamersnexus, gamers nexus, computer hardware, dan case a4-h2o, dan a4-h2o review, dan case a4-h20, dan case a4-h20 review, lian li a4-h2o review, lian li a4-h20 benchmarks, lian li a4-h2o mini itx, dan case mini itx, best mini itx cases, mini itx round up

Id: 6LdxMEP65h4

Length: 28min 35sec (1715 seconds)

Published: Tue Oct 10 2023