Hey all! New member here, finally worked up the nerve to join and show my Nr200. Came from a CM Q300L, loving the NR case! Please excuse my lack of cable management. Awaiting parts for custom cables.
Jeez, what a mess...
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NR200 Owner's Thread
- Thread starter McPhee
- Start date
Jeez, what a mess...
Anyone else using their NR200 as a server case?
Having a 3d printer means I was able to print a few bits for putting 2.5" SSD's in the slot covers and 2x 3.5's on the side brace, wondering if anyone else has more drives in there than originally designed for and if might be able to pick up some ideas or other POV's for mods..
Having a 3d printer means I was able to print a few bits for putting 2.5" SSD's in the slot covers and 2x 3.5's on the side brace, wondering if anyone else has more drives in there than originally designed for and if might be able to pick up some ideas or other POV's for mods..
Man of Honour
- Joined
- 16 Jul 2009
- Posts
- 8,847
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- Edinburgh
Yes but you need to remove the top Metal Cover; not sure its really doing anything anyway
Arctic P12's. Very good and much cheaper than Noctua
White V2 on its way for my AM4 ITX build on a budget. My current PC is Intel Sandy Bridge (2500k) so should be a good leap even though I’m keeping my RX570 GPU for now. Sourcing a mix of 2nd hand and new parts.
With the V2 it seems AIO is the way to go, so I’m going to try an ID gaming Frostflow 280mm and see if it fits/performs well. The obvious choice (arctic freezer III) apparently don’t fit due to rad thickness.
Will update as build progresses next week!
With the V2 it seems AIO is the way to go, so I’m going to try an ID gaming Frostflow 280mm and see if it fits/performs well. The obvious choice (arctic freezer III) apparently don’t fit due to rad thickness.
Will update as build progresses next week!
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Right, it's built and running Linux like a dream for my gaming library.
Specs:
AMD Ryzen 5800x
ASUS RoG Strix B550i
Kingston FURY 32GB DDR4 3600MHz
MSI Armor RX570 8GB
Corsair SF600 PSU
ID Cooling Frostflow X 280mm AIO
Kingston FURY Renegade 1TB PCIe 4.0 m.2 (boot)
Some observations from the build process:
- Whilst the v2 is seemingly designed for AIO cooling primarily, the fitting of anything other than the standard one included in the v2 MAX (which I'm not sure is actually available separately?) is a PITA. I did a bit of research and found one other person running an ID Cooling 280mm AIO so I went with that. Some people were running more expensive AIOs with screens and RGB etc. but it seems like such a waste, especially in this case. The Frostlow X 280mm has 400mm tubing, which is only big enough if you route over the top - it won't go around the PSU like the MAX AIO does. You'd probably need 450mm-500mm tubing to do that. An annoyance for sure but can be overcome. The Frostflow X also cannot rotate the pump mounting freely - only two positions 180 degrees apart on AMx sockets, so that can also be a constraint when positioning and running the tubes. The outlets do turn, which is essential.
- Routing the ATX power was a PITA. I even have a nice braided extension, but if you don't have flexible enough cables or are brave enough to really bend and clamp down with cable ties, the power cable can interfere with GPU. In the end it was OK with the Corsair cable alone, but I wish it was a bit easier.
- Don't bother with 3.5in HDDs... my game storage was here - I bought an m.2 drive (which is amazing!) for boot, which I'm also using for games for now until I get another 2TB+ to put in the back.
- Consider not bothering with 2.5in drives. They fit, but actually the extra cabling, particularly for power, creates a routing challenge again.
- EDIT - adding this one: If you have a 2-slot GPU, you cannot fit it to the outmost slots on the GPU mount as the riser cable is not long enough. It has to be fitted to the innermost slots. I had tried that at first as it gave more room for pump outlets and the ATX cable routing as well as a 3.5" drive on the PSU cage, but had to change it back and abandon the HDD as above.
I'll upload some photos soon.
On performance, I'm seeing massive gains (50-60%) in most of my titles from the 2500k platform before. It's amazing, I never realised how CPU bottle-necked I was, but I do game at 1080p. The power that comes in such a small package is so cool. I had a Corsair Obsidian 650D before which seems HUGE now.
Overall I'm happy with this case and most of the component choices, but I have to say the other routes you should ALSO consider are:
- Buy the NR200 v1 and air-cool for ultimate reliability
- Buy the NR200 v2 MAX and gamble with the included PSU and AIO - simple build process
Specs:
AMD Ryzen 5800x
ASUS RoG Strix B550i
Kingston FURY 32GB DDR4 3600MHz
MSI Armor RX570 8GB
Corsair SF600 PSU
ID Cooling Frostflow X 280mm AIO
Kingston FURY Renegade 1TB PCIe 4.0 m.2 (boot)
Some observations from the build process:
- Whilst the v2 is seemingly designed for AIO cooling primarily, the fitting of anything other than the standard one included in the v2 MAX (which I'm not sure is actually available separately?) is a PITA. I did a bit of research and found one other person running an ID Cooling 280mm AIO so I went with that. Some people were running more expensive AIOs with screens and RGB etc. but it seems like such a waste, especially in this case. The Frostlow X 280mm has 400mm tubing, which is only big enough if you route over the top - it won't go around the PSU like the MAX AIO does. You'd probably need 450mm-500mm tubing to do that. An annoyance for sure but can be overcome. The Frostflow X also cannot rotate the pump mounting freely - only two positions 180 degrees apart on AMx sockets, so that can also be a constraint when positioning and running the tubes. The outlets do turn, which is essential.
- Routing the ATX power was a PITA. I even have a nice braided extension, but if you don't have flexible enough cables or are brave enough to really bend and clamp down with cable ties, the power cable can interfere with GPU. In the end it was OK with the Corsair cable alone, but I wish it was a bit easier.
- Don't bother with 3.5in HDDs... my game storage was here - I bought an m.2 drive (which is amazing!) for boot, which I'm also using for games for now until I get another 2TB+ to put in the back.
- Consider not bothering with 2.5in drives. They fit, but actually the extra cabling, particularly for power, creates a routing challenge again.
- EDIT - adding this one: If you have a 2-slot GPU, you cannot fit it to the outmost slots on the GPU mount as the riser cable is not long enough. It has to be fitted to the innermost slots. I had tried that at first as it gave more room for pump outlets and the ATX cable routing as well as a 3.5" drive on the PSU cage, but had to change it back and abandon the HDD as above.
I'll upload some photos soon.
On performance, I'm seeing massive gains (50-60%) in most of my titles from the 2500k platform before. It's amazing, I never realised how CPU bottle-necked I was, but I do game at 1080p. The power that comes in such a small package is so cool. I had a Corsair Obsidian 650D before which seems HUGE now.
Overall I'm happy with this case and most of the component choices, but I have to say the other routes you should ALSO consider are:
- Buy the NR200 v1 and air-cool for ultimate reliability
- Buy the NR200 v2 MAX and gamble with the included PSU and AIO - simple build process
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Its way harder to build in with 280mm AIO and ATX PSU. 240 AIO and SFX PSU is the play for an easier build experience in all NR200 versions IMHO
I agree, dont bother with 3.5", but the two 2.5" mounts are fine with nice SATA cables and nice PSU cables
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I dont know how many of you guys bought 9070 XT recently and mounted it in nr200, but it was a real pain, doable, but painful 
Now, i'm wondering, what CPU cooler I should get in that case. Options are limited by height obviously.
What are all the options we have here?
Now, i'm wondering, what CPU cooler I should get in that case. Options are limited by height obviously.
What are all the options we have here?
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I took off original feet and put some soft pads. Its easier to push case around plus GPU nicely hoovers my desk now
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NR200 as a server case works quite well. Obviously depends on the server requirements, but you do end up with a big of extra space in there
Works well for me, both of my machines are now iTX.
I wanted the NR200 Max kit or whatever it was called, with the PSU, AIO and all the bits, it never came back into stock so I went for the bare NR200, idea being I had the NR200, SSUPD Meshiliscious and the NZXT H1v2 as I wanted to find an iTX case that would fit my needs, the H1v2 was markedly worse than the Meshy and the NR200, so my main rig is now in the Meshy, server was moved from a Node304 to the NR200 and the H1v2 went to a build for the offspring, and has since been sold leaving the NR200 and Meshy still here...
Currently running the following in the NR200
AMD AM4 5700g
Aorus x570 iTX board
64Gb DDR4
2x NVME on the board, one for OS, the other for VM storage.
2x 2.5" SSD's on a controller card, 1x 1tb for cache, 1x 4tb part of the data pool
2x 8tb WD Reds in the data pool
All running on Windows 11 with Hyper-V for the VM side of things, Drivepool for the drive pooling and Scanner for drive checking etc.
Also got a USB-C 2.5Gbe NIC for the VM's access to the network.
Plan is now to retire the 5700g/AM4 side of things and get a Strix B760i like I have in my main rig, and convert this to an LGA1700/13500/64Gb DDR5 box, all because I have a spare 1700 CPU
I wanted the NR200 Max kit or whatever it was called, with the PSU, AIO and all the bits, it never came back into stock so I went for the bare NR200, idea being I had the NR200, SSUPD Meshiliscious and the NZXT H1v2 as I wanted to find an iTX case that would fit my needs, the H1v2 was markedly worse than the Meshy and the NR200, so my main rig is now in the Meshy, server was moved from a Node304 to the NR200 and the H1v2 went to a build for the offspring, and has since been sold leaving the NR200 and Meshy still here...
Currently running the following in the NR200
AMD AM4 5700g
Aorus x570 iTX board
64Gb DDR4
2x NVME on the board, one for OS, the other for VM storage.
2x 2.5" SSD's on a controller card, 1x 1tb for cache, 1x 4tb part of the data pool
2x 8tb WD Reds in the data pool
All running on Windows 11 with Hyper-V for the VM side of things, Drivepool for the drive pooling and Scanner for drive checking etc.
Also got a USB-C 2.5Gbe NIC for the VM's access to the network.
Plan is now to retire the 5700g/AM4 side of things and get a Strix B760i like I have in my main rig, and convert this to an LGA1700/13500/64Gb DDR5 box, all because I have a spare 1700 CPU