M1EVO is a CNC aluminium, modular ITX case equipped for both air and liquid cooling. It supports both ITX and mATX motherboards, however compatibility may vary. Case pricing starts at US$215, with optional tempered glass panel, vertical GPU riser kit and additional fan/radiator bracket sold separately.
SPECIFICATIONS
| MODEL | M1 EVO v1.X | EVO v2 |
| OVERVIEW | NCASE M1EVO is a remaster of the Small Form Factor (SFF) Icon M1 Classic. | M1EVO didn’t live upto the OG M1 designers vision (Necere). The M1 branding was to be reportedly dropped with v2, however this no longer appears to be the case. |
| MATERIALS | 3-15mm aluminium, CNC machined and anodised 1.0mm steel, powder coated side panels. | |
| DIMENSIONS | 366×160×256mm (L×W×H) | 366×166×256mm (L×W×H) |
| VOLUME | v1: 14.99 Litres | 15.55 Litres |
| CASE I/O | Power Button 2x USB-A 1x USB-C 1x USB-C passthrough adapter | Power Button2x USB-A1x USB-C1x USB-C passthrough adapter |
| MOTHERBOARD SUPPORT | Mini-ITX / Deep-ITX / Mini-DTX / Micro-ATX (mATX may limit hardware compatibility) | Mini-ITX / Deep-ITX / Mini-DTX / Micro-ATX (mATX may limit hardware compatibility) |
| COOLER COMPATIBILITY | 1. M1-Classic Config: up to 135mm max height with 4-Slot GPU 2. M1-EVO Config: up to 135mm max height with 4-Slot GPU3. M1-VGPU Config: up to 50mm max height with 4-Slot GPU | |
| RISER CABLE | 1. M1-Classic Config: Not Applicable 2. M1-EVO Config: Not Applicable 3. M1-VGPU Config: PCIe X16 4.0 | |
| GRAPHICS CARD COMPATIBILITY | 1. M1-Classic Config: up to 142 x 358.5mm, 4-slots thick 2. M1-EVO Config: up to 142 x 358.5mm, 4-slots thick 3. M1-VGPU Config: up to 165 x 358.5mm, 4-slots thick | |
| 2.5″ / 3.5″ DRIVES SUPPORTED | 5x 3.5″ or 6x 2.5″ drives (based on components/hardware) | |
| CASE FANS SUPPORTED | 2x 120 or 1x 140mm (next to motherboard) 2x side 120 / 140mm 2x top 120 / 140mm (radiator / fan bracket addon required for installation of top + side fans simultaneously; without splitting the included bracket set between top & side) | |
| LIQUID COOLING SUPPORT | 1x 120 / 140 / 240 / 280mm radiator / AIO 2x 240 (side / top + bottom) 2x 280 (side / top + bottom) 3x 240mm or 2x 280 + 240mm (for extreme users and requires specific hardware configurations and separate radiator bracket sold separately) | |
| POWER SUPPLY SUPPORT | SFX / SFX-L / ATX (ATX bracket sold separately) | SFX / SFX-L / ATX (ATX bracket sold separately) |
BUILD #1
| CASE | M1EVO v1.0 (vertical GPU layout) |
| MOTHERBOARD | Rog Strix B760-I Gaming WiFi (paid link) |
| CPU | Intel 13900K (paid link) |
| CPU COOLER | EK-AIO 280 DRGB (paid link) |
| GPU | RTX 4080 Super FE (paid link) |
| PSU | SilverStone Extreme 1200R (paid link) |
| RAM | 32GB Kingston FURY Renegade DDR5, 7600, CL38 (paid link) |
| STORAGE | 1TB + 2TB NVME (paid links) |
| AIO FANS | 2x SWP4 140’s (paid link) |
Micro-ATX motherboards and the rear 92mm case fan are not supported with the vertical GPU layout. Vertical layout also restricts the M1EVO to CPU liquid cooling only. If using an SFX-L power supply, you’ll be unable to install bottom 120mm case fan below the graphics card. The tempered glass side panel isn’t recommended in this layout due to the air flow restriction applied to graphics card.
CONCLUSIONS
NCASE M1EVO is a CNC aluminium chassis and is equipped for both air and liquid cooling. It also supports both ITX and mATX motherboards, which is a nice inclusion. It does have area’s that leave alot to be desired, but overall not bad.
Most 4090/4080 graphics cards aren’t compatible with 160mm wide EVO variants, without use of the vertical GPU kit. This limits the case to liquid cooling / AIO for CPU cooling.
NCASE suggests the use of 180° 12VHPWR adapters in reference layouts, but we highly advise against this due to the risk of connector melting. We’ve already seen cases of 180° degree ATX 3.0 adapter melting within SFFGurus discord.
180° 12VHPWR adapters also cause compatibility issues with side radiators/fan mounting. For those considering the M1EVO, it’s worthwhile waiting for the 166mm v2. The EVO v2 should address the issues of v1.X revisions and hopefully remove the need for 180° GPU power adapters in reference layouts with larger graphics cards.