Power Supply A Guide to 12V PSU

[Thehack]

In open air or inside a case? At what ambient (room/inside case) temps?

Updated that post. Any particular setup you're interested in?

 

[jeshikat]

Nope, just wanted clarification. Posting temps like that without noting ambient and setup isn't very useful and is a pet peeve of mine.

Because you could be testing in open-air, outside, in Alaska, in which case those temps suck. Or inside a case, but still outside, in western Australia, in which case those temps are fantastic

 

[Thehack]

1060 Stress test success!

Temperatures inside my case.

Ambient 25.3C
Case panel near PSU 39C
Heatsink ~64-68C

 

[Sicaris]

Awesome! Is this with the EPP-200 without direct cooling?

 

[Thehack]

Awesome! Is this with the EPP-200 without direct cooling?

The EPP-300-12 actually.

 

[Sicaris]

Oh well I guess that was too much to hope for! Still great to see its working well.

 

[CC Ricers]

I would like to get a 1060 up and running with an air-cooled EPP-200. That's my end goal for it.

 

[Kooki]

When you say heatsink 64-68C, you mean those small heatsinks attached to the AC-DC?

The way I see it your case has very good air flow all around even with those two fans on lowest RPM. Though the fan is not blowing air right on top of the AC-DC, have you tested how high its temperature gets if you leave just the heatsink by itself? I see you tested a very "light weight" system with it running just by convection, though I wonder about how it would perform with the stepped up hardware setup.

 

[GentlemanShark]

Plug-in DC modules' 'goodness' is more important if you're using a 19V supply. If you're using 12V, then those modules are almost entirely acting as a passthrough for 12V, and only need to deal with 3.3V and 5V loads (which are pretty tiny for modern PCs), so is only handling the conversion a few tens of watts at most itself. But at 19V, the plug-in modules needs to do the work of converting all the power the machine is using.
Conversely, if you're using 12V then you're in theory a little more vulnerable to the foibles of your 12V AC-DC solution. If it can't handle peak current, there's nothing the plug-in module can do about it. At 19V the presence of a DC-DC converter means some current spikes will be 'smoothed out' to below the level that would trip out the AC-DC solution.
But in practice, I suspect 19V is more vulnerable to peak transient loads. 19V AC-DC bricks are almost universally laptop PSUs, so not intended to handle power spikes at all. 12V AC-DC supplies in general seem to be designed to be more tolerant of a wide range of load behaviors, because they're not aimed at charging laptops but instead powering equipment directly. The tradeoff is that laptop bricks are mas-produced so can be had cheaply, whereas 12V AC-DC supplies are less common and generally aimed at a market with higher margins, so more expensive.

tl;dr:
19V: Cheap bricks, more expensive plug-in modules, more heat generated by plug-in module, vulnerable to power spikes.
12V: More expensive AC-DC solutions, cheap (er) plug-in modules, less heat generated by plug-in modules, potentially less vulnerable to power spikes (down to your chosen AC-DC solution to handle).

As most of us in this thread are planning on using a G Unique or other 12v DCATX, what would you say the kind of cooling a solution would need? I'm planning on draw around 350-400 watts with a GTX 1080 and an i7 7700k with a Meanwell EPP-400 and a 400 watt G-unique. Since you state it the DCATX is a pass through, would it require more cooling than a flat mounted (parallel with mobo) CPU cooler's over draft? I realize the actual step-down converter (EPP-400) would probably benefit more from it, so what would you suggest?

 

[Thehack]

As most of us in this thread are planning on using a G Unique or other 12v DCATX, what would you say the kind of cooling a solution would need? I'm planning on draw around 350-400 watts with a GTX 1080 and an i7 7700k with a Meanwell EPP-400 and a 400 watt G-unique. Since you state it the DCATX is a pass through, would it require more cooling than a flat mounted (parallel with mobo) CPU cooler's over draft? I realize the actual step-down converter (EPP-400) would probably benefit more from it, so what would you suggest?

The convection rating assumes no airflow, so if you are not overclocking, it'd be okay if you can move some air with a nearby cooler. If you do decide to overclock, putting you above 300W you should have direct cooling, similar to how a regular ATX PSU is.

This is just speculation though without hard data.

i'll do a temp test without the side fan pushing air, but the case would have to be open since I need to allow air to reach the CPU.

 

[GentlemanShark]

The convection rating assumes no airflow, so if you are not overclocking, it'd be okay if you can move some air with a nearby cooler. If you do decide to overclock, putting you above 300W you should have direct cooling, similar to how a regular ATX PSU is.

This is just speculation though without hard data.

i'll do a temp test without the side fan pushing air, but the case would have to be open since I need to allow air to reach the CPU.

No overclocking, just a stock i7

 

[Thehack]

No overclocking, just a stock i7

Should work fine with some indirect flow. You'd have about less than 300W consumption.

 

[Lone]

I finally received my EPP-200-12, and just finished wiring and booting up my system!

There is one thing I was wondering about though. The EPP-200-12 doesn't have a ground pin on the AC input (only two of the three pins are present). I'm assuming the ground from the C14 would be connected to the case? Is this a good thing to do, or is it optional? If I had a housing for the EPP-200-12, I imagine it could be connected to that housing instead. Is this just like the ground wire in an electrical outlet?

 

[Thehack]

I finally received my EPP-200-12, and just finished wiring and booting up my system!

There is one thing I was wondering about though. The EPP-200-12 doesn't have a ground pin on the AC input (only two of the three pins are present). I'm assuming the ground from the C14 would be connected to the case? Is this a good thing to do, or is it optional? If I had a housing for the EPP-200-12, I imagine it could be connected to that housing instead. Is this just like the ground wire in an electrical outlet?

Very nice. The grounding pin is one of the mounting holes located next to the AC input. You should notice that it has solder around the hole. Refer to the Data sheet for more information.

 

[EdZ]

I finally received my EPP-200-12, and just finished wiring and booting up my system!

There is one thing I was wondering about though. The EPP-200-12 doesn't have a ground pin on the AC input (only two of the three pins are present). I'm assuming the ground from the C14 would be connected to the case? Is this a good thing to do, or is it optional? If I had a housing for the EPP-200-12, I imagine it could be connected to that housing instead. Is this just like the ground wire in an electrical outlet?

Yes, either the ground pin will need to be connected to the chassis (if the chassis is conductive), or it will need to be 'double insulated' (extra insulation layer between the PSU itself and the chassis). These are both different ways of implementing safety measures to prevent a fault that results in a live conductor contacting the case from setting the case to live mains voltage and potentially causing injury/death if you were to touch the case.
Your chassis appears to be metal, so I would absolutely recommend attaching the ground pin to the case, generally by adding a crimp-on connector that can be inserted under an existing screw that screws into the chassis, and by scraping off any paint/coating under the connector so it makes good electrical contact with the chassis.

::EDIT:: Beaten to it by Thehack

 

[CC Ricers]

I'm very close to ordering a EPP-200-24 and finally go brick-less with my system I'm choosing the 24v version because it's the only one compatible with my HD-Plex 160w board (the older version with separate 24 pin cable). When I have that wiring with the Meanwell set up and working, I can then easily transition to a direct plug-in board to get rid of cable clutter.

 

[Lone]

Very nice. The grounding pin is one of the mounting holes located next to the AC input. You should notice that it has solder around the hole. Refer to the Data sheet for more information.

Not sure how I missed the grounding symbol! There's even two of them.

Yes, either the ground pin will need to be connected to the chassis (if the chassis is conductive), or it will need to be 'double insulated' (extra insulation layer between the PSU itself and the chassis). These are both different ways of implementing safety measures to prevent a fault that results in a live conductor contacting the case from setting the case to live mains voltage and potentially causing injury/death if you were to touch the case.
Your chassis appears to be metal, so I would absolutely recommend attaching the ground pin to the case, generally by adding a crimp-on connector that can be inserted under an existing screw that screws into the chassis, and by scraping off any paint/coating under the connector so it makes good electrical contact with the chassis.

::EDIT:: Beaten to it by Thehack

Thank you. Since the ground locations in the specifications are PCB mounting holes, I imagine connecting the ground directly to the case is essentially the same as connecting it to the PCB, which is then attached to standoffs, which are then attached to the case/PSU enclosure?

 

[EdZ]

Thank you. Since the ground locations in the specifications are PCB mounting holes, I imagine connecting the ground directly to the case is essentially the same as connecting it to the PCB, which is then attached to standoffs, which are then attached to the case/PSU enclosure?

That is correct.

 

[Thehack]

Not sure how I missed the grounding symbol! There's even two of them.



Thank you. Since the ground locations in the specifications are PCB mounting holes, I imagine connecting the ground directly to the case is essentially the same as connecting it to the PCB, which is then attached to standoffs, which are then attached to the case/PSU enclosure?

Essentially yes. However I would measure the resistance between the end of the plug (the grounding prong if you use a plug similar to US spec) to the chassis and to the PSU ground point. Neither measurements should be above .5ohms.

 

[stefan33]

Excuse me: It's possible to use this:
http://www.hd-plex.com/HDPLEX-160W-DC-ATX-Power-Supply-16V-24V-Wide-Range-Voltage-Input.html
with one Meanwell PSU? if yes wich one? I need around 150W. Thanks.