Building in the NCORE 100 MAX Mini-ITX Case
When it comes to building in the NCORE 100 MAX things are actually pretty easy. If you are planning on using a 2.5-inch solid state drive you are going to want to install that first. You install the 4 included pegs on the bottom of the drive and then simply press it down into the holes in the bottom of the main compartment of the case.
Before you continue you are going to want to remove the cable cover on the side of the case. This will give you more room to work with. Put the case on its side, then carefully slot in your motherboard and screw it in with the included screws. From here starting plugging in all of your cables to your motherboard. During this process I did notice that this case requires three fan headers (one for the exhaust fan, one for the AiO, and one for the fan on the radiator). Unfortunately our mini-ITX motherboard only has two fan headers. Luckily I have a splitter, but it is definitely something to keep in mind. Also be sure to plug in the riser cable to your PCI-Express slot in your motherboard.
Now to get the AiO installed. We are using an AMD motherboard so we did not have to install a backplate or anything like that on our board. We just had to install the AMD clips on each side of the AiO, apply the included thermal paste, and then carefully place the block on top of our CPU using the clips to secure it.
I would say the easiest part of our installation was our graphics card. It simply slots in on the opposite side of the case. We used a GALAX RTX 4070 Ti EX Gamer which is 336 mm long. The 12VHPWR cable coming from the included power supply easily connect and we are good to go!
Now it is time to clean up our cables a bit and tie things down. There are actually plenty of tie-down points and Cooler Master does include zip-ties.
