 I actually tried to figure out how to get in touch with the PR folks at NCase a couple of times before they eventually reached out to me because I really wanted to review the NCase 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 NCase 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? Save on select Intel Core i7 processors and 730 series SSDs with instant rebates during Valentine's week February 14th to 21st 2015 click now to learn more. The included accessories stood out to me right away most case 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 ODD 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, 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 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 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 two and a half inch 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 full-length GPU, not worth it IMO especially with Silverstone's excellent 600 watt 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 1⁄8 inch tubing on your AIO CPU cooler. It should be noted that had I not opted for a dual 120 millimeter radiator there's a bracket that sits where the forward most radiator fan is now that holds up to two three and a half inch hard drives and the space taken up by my rear most radiator fan would have been reserved for clearance for a CPU air cooler. Around the back we find mounting holes for an 80 or 92 millimeter fan but I opted to leave this empty since my dual 120 millimeter 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 I owe for the motherboard and curiously actually three PCI slot covers allowing up to a triple slot card if you opt not to install a three and a half or two and a half inch 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 millimeter fan in the back and a 120 millimeter 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 may actually we really can't see a whole heck of a lot of the system assembled just the dual 120 millimeter radiator and the GTX 780 Ti that I threw in to find out if this sucker will throttle even one of the poweriest 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 DirectCU 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 Crysis 3 without even touching boost clock settings. Freaking impressive. There are some sort of less positive notes. Bits like the inclusion of different kinds of rubber isolators without specifying which is for what and general documentation deficiencies with end case relying on a thread on hard form to guide users during the installation process not to mention that it's not exactly 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 gonna be worth the effort. It's compact, gorgeous, and not going to be easy for end 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 A-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. 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 Massdrop by now well, then you must be pretty new to this here interweb show that we got and got and earned 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 draw.ps Slash Linus Tech to check out these headphones the legacy elites from A-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 link in the video description when you sign up and while you're down there we also have a link to support us you can buy a cool t-shirt like this one give us a monthly contribution or change your Amazon bookmark to one with our affiliate code so whatever you're buying like new power cables or whatever else it is you buy on Amazon we get a small kickback that kind of thing helps us out A lot thanks again for watching and as always don't forget to subscribe