Ghost of Noctua | EVGA × Noctua × Louqe (FTW3 in S1)

[u/eatsleep123]

With the arrival of the chromax NF-A12x25, good ol' tan and brown are as good as dead. Never forget the OG colors! Cerakote H-142 Light Sand and H-212 Federal Brown.

In daylight, from the back. The main panel coating appears more cream.

The main panel coating appears much more tan in lower light.

From another angle in the darker setting. The Tophats' color matches the RagTag's fairly well.

EVGA RTX 30 series FTW3 must be deshrouded to fit. 92mm fans sit nicely in the heatsink valley, and the NF-A9x14s just barely allow the side panel to slide over them.

Full Noctuation. Went with SF750 for mostly passive operation with the 5600X and RTX 3070. Only at 300W+ (infrequently, with undervolts) does the fan run at all.

Not 100% perfection, but satisfaction.

Stock mini-PWM connector, prior to cutting.

Shaved mini-PWM connector to fit EVGA RTX 30 fan headers.

Unfortunately a couple of protrusions had to be flattened for the desired fan placement.

Fan swaps in progress.

Test fit and placement.

Fan 1 test. Check.

Fan 2 test. Check.

Fan 3 test. Check.

All fans go.

We are faced with the most difficult decision of our life: honor the tradition and customs of our tan-and-brown upbringing and maintain a fight we cannot win, or...

https://imgur.com/uNejo9Q

Quick and dirty low-quality meme for your shitposting pleasure. Too lazy to put brown NA-SAVP1s on the chromaxes myself, sorry.

https://imgur.com/Gsb9aTz

[u/eatsleep123]

With the arrival of the chromax NF-A12x25, good ol' tan and brown are as good as dead. Never forget the OG colors!

But forget the Asus RTX 3070 Noctua Edition which takes up an astonishing 4.3 slots and has no chance of fitting in a Ghost S1. This Noctua'd EVGA RTX 3070 FTW3 takes up only 2.3 slots, so it does fit. While it admittedly can't cool quite as well as the NoctuAsus chonker, the system remains silent thanks to exhaust fans.

Parts list:

• Louqe Ghost S1

• 2 * Louqe Ghost S1 Medium Tophat

• Meta Customs Mountplate

• Meta Customs Radiator Bottomplate

• 4 * Noctua NF-A12x25

• Corsair SF750

• Noctua NF-A9x14

• pslate customs sleeved PSU cables

• Gigabyte B550I Aorus Pro ax

• AMD Ryzen 5 5600X

• Noctua NH-L12 Ghost S1 Edition

• 2 * 32GB Crucial Ballistix DDR4 3600C16 @ 1.35v

• EVGA GeForce RTX 3070 FTW3 Ultra

• 3 * Noctua NF-A9x14

• 3 * EK-Cable PWM Fan Adapter for GPU

• 2 * 180° PCIe power adapter

• 2TB Western Digital SN750

• SFF Noir Shadowlink Black

• 4 * small round rubber feet

Case panels were painted Cerakote H-142 Light Sand, and power button and tophats are in H-212 Federal Brown. You can see the full Imgur album for higher-quality photos.

Time permitting, hope to add gaming load temp logs in the next couple weeks. All I can definitively say at the moment is that CPU and GPU both run much hotter (like ~10°C difference in 22°C ambient) than the double decker deshroud setup, but that's expected because of the smaller fans and heatsinks in addition to being around half the volume when counting the required elevation for bottom exhaust.

Edit: Forgot to mention I cannibalized the Mk III's Cobalt RC260 Twinax riser cable for a higher-end build, and replaced it here with one from the FormD T1 for even more color-matching (though I guess you could argue the Noctua fans have a bit of blue on the sticker).

[u/JasonMHough → u/eatsleep123]

That Asus 3070 was such a missed opportunity... Ah well.

Great build btw!!

[u/eatsleep123 → u/JasonMHough]

Thanks. Yeah, I was almost excited when the rumors began milling, but 1) I wasn't going to try to fight to get it, and 2) SFF compatibility turned out to be garbage.

[u/Firm-Kiwi]

Damn, first time seeing someone change their PSU fan. Great build man!

[u/eatsleep123 → u/Firm-Kiwi]

Thanks. It's not a new mod by any means, but generally not advised unless you know what you're doing (mostly how you're hurting potential performance). We went with SF750 here due to the relatively low load, so the fan will rarely, if ever, spin. Just gotta be careful when working in the PSU and re-pin the fan connector correctly.

[u/eatsleep123 → u/eatsleep123]

Since there's been extra discussion and messages about this topic: Anyone who's interested in doing a fan swap like this, please make sure you honestly review both the Corsair SF Platinum PSU documentation and your use case before going ahead! Preserve your warranty, perhaps prolong your PSU lifespan, and maybe prevent some self-injury!

[u/THOT-Sauce69]

Usually i say non-chromax fans are ugly but you successfully made them look beautiful in that tan/brown case

[u/eatsleep123 → u/THOT-Sauce69]

Thanks. I'd normally go all grayscale too, but these fit the old-school theme nicely.

[u/xQcKx]

You made top hats look good

[u/eatsleep123 → u/xQcKx]

Thanks. There definitely still are visible gaps up close, but at least they mostly border consistent coatings of single-tone colors - on this unit, the original anodized panel colors were all over the place.

[u/Waff1es]

As someone with only Chromax fans, this is the only post that has made me wonder about my choices.

[u/eatsleep123 → u/Waff1es]

No doubt you're much safer with that decision in most cases!

[u/OVOBravo]

Wow, that deshrouded GPU with the 15mm slim fans fit so perfectly!

[u/thewipprsnappr]

This may have been answered already but I'm too lazy to sift through comments. How are the nf-a9x14s mounted to the GPU heatsink? Are they just held in place by pressure from the side panel?

[u/eatsleep123 → u/thewipprsnappr]

Hasn't been asked to my knowledge, but I'm glad you did, thanks!

During placement and test fit photos, yes, they were just held in place by the heatsink lips and the side panel (pretty much 0mm clearance).

However, the final build actually has the little vibration dampening pads on the heatsink side replaced by Gorilla mounting tape. This makes for a cleaner "assistance-free" slide of the side panels (sub-1mm clearance).

[u/lbibass]

I do wonder if it’s possible to get slightly better temps by setting the GPU fans to exhaust, like what people typically do in an Ncase M1 deshroud. Setting all the case fans to intake would help shove air through the GPU fine, and give the L12 a bit more air as well.

[u/diego97yey]

Gorgeous bro

[u/hereforthefeast]

If you described this case color design to me in words I would think it would look pretty bad but you've pulled it off - it looks amazing! Well done.

[u/eatsleep123 → u/hereforthefeast]

Same with the traditional Noctua fan colors. When I started building PCs I never would've thought I'd allow them, but here we are...

Thank you for the kind words.

[u/riba2233]

I love how both gpu and cpu coolers are right up to the side panels.. sick :)

[u/eatsleep123 → u/riba2233]

Yeah, I like to think this is near the maximum heatsink you can pack into the case without some NH-L12S bending. Best part is, there's no grinding against the panels on either side when sliding them in.

[u/eatsleep123]

A bit late here, but I just realized the Gold. Didn't receive a notification or message, so thank you to the kind stranger! 🙏

[u/wanderer1999]

It actually looks very classy with great noise/performance to boost. The key is always to lean in, and lean in all the way.

I'm curious on the performance/noise of the GPU, as I myself have the same cooler (except it's a 3080) and thought the fans are already very quiet. How was it?

[u/cpapp22]

necro but it sounds like you had someone else apply the cerakote so Im not sure if you know this or not, but I have a question regarding the cerakoted power button.

I cerakoted my top grill in polar blue a few years back and it requires baking it in an oven for prep/curing stuff. It appears both my color and your brown are in the same series (so same application steps) - does the metal outter portion of the power button separate from the electrical portion? Im a little apprehensive of baking the entire power button unit lol

[u/Dubious_Unknown]

I recently switched went from SF600 Gold to SF750. Significantly quieter than the SF600 Gold but I can still hear the fan when it turns on. Like, if my Gold was a 9/10 loud, the Platinum is a 3.5/10 loud.

I just remembered I have a spare 92mm Noctua slim fan laying around. I read up on replacing fans but have mixed results. Some people say it works just fine, some people claim it's too dangerous as the Noctua fan will not move as much air as the stock fan has. Read one story of someone having their PSU blow out because he switched fans.

What are your thoughts? Go for it or nay?