Power Supply Advice for power: Ryzen R3 1200 + R9 Nano

Petano

Caliper Novice
Original poster
Aug 24, 2017
27
21
I am doing my build of ITX system and currently it developed to stage where I have power issues.

Setup:
Case: Loggic Supply MC600
MB: Asrock X370
CPU: Ryzen R3 1200
RAM: 2x8GB Kingston

PSU:
HD-PLEX 400
AC/DC
Mean Well 20V GST280A20-C6P http://www.meanwell.com/webapp/product/search.aspx?prod=GST280A

I got into situation that my Mean Well brick thanks to Asus R9 Nano white is running on the edge. (with MSI RX560 it worked fine).
I got even issues to boot system. It restarted about 1-2 second after booting which was clearly over-current protection of brick and booted after several initial resets. It helped that I managed to get into system and undervolted CPU and memory and It boots now every time (at least 10/10 tries. I will keep testing it). Also maybe R9 Nano power part components burned-in meanwhile (cards was for more than year somewhere in stock) I will confirm this theory with more tests.
Anyway obviously currently I am on power edge and have decision in front of me:

1) Replace just brick and purchase Dell 330W brick and keep hd-plex. I like this idea because it is simplier. I have concerns if even 330W brick can hold power spikes caused by R9 Nano. That Mean Well is big f*cking heavy brick which can hold over 30% overload so I wonder what peaks R9 Nano is really generating. Also there are a lot of fakes on market for multiple prices so I am in danger to purchase fake. I have way how to purchase 100% Dell Original but it is pricey (approx 170Euro)

2) Go 12V way with G-Unique PSU and moddel dell brick. PSU looks perfect but I have small concerns about modded brick because it is common step with above. Question is if even modded 330W brick can hodl R9 nano. On the other hand huge gain would be less space occupied inside by PSU so I won't be limited to sub 170mm lenght card like I am right now.

3) any other way? (I am not giving up my R9 Nano because it is beauty ;-))

I would welcome your experience with power spikes and Dell 330W.
(once in OS I can undervolt R9 Nano about -60mV and card is running fine and finish 3d Marks etc. and whole system consumes about ~240W)
 

Thehack

Spatial Philosopher
Creator
Mar 6, 2016
2,800
3,650
J-hackcompany.com
Have you tried undervolting it? The fury family responds very well to undervolt. Do it both on the CPU and GPU. You can trim a lot of power while not giving up on much performance.

Do it with a regular spare PSU and keep undervolting and then onto limiting clocks to where you find a good compromise between power and performance.
 

zovc

King of Cable Management
Jan 5, 2017
852
603
I haven't done a lot of specific looking into it, but I've heard that the R9 Nano does not play nicely with many "DC-ATX" power solutions. That is, systems that use an external AC-DC power brick along with an internal DC-DC power supply. If I'm not mistaken, it has to do with how harshly the R9 Nano "spikes" its power usage, where most AC-DC power adapters are designed to prevent that sort of thing from happening and it can cause them to fail. (The idea being to protect your laptop from a power surge, I think?)

Do some searching around the forms about the R9 Nano specifically on here and hopefully folks have found suitable power supplies/solutions for it. I'm pretty sure your GPU is the culprit, if I had to guess.

If it turns out that your AC-DC power supplies aren't playing nicely with your GPU, you might be able to look into folks who offer modified AC-DC power supplies and see if they can help. I know @guryhwa offers modified Dell 300W AC-DC units, but I don't know if they are capable of accommodating a R9 Nano.
 

Thehack

Spatial Philosopher
Creator
Mar 6, 2016
2,800
3,650
J-hackcompany.com
I haven't done a lot of specific looking into it, but I've heard that the R9 Nano does not play nicely with many "DC-ATX" power solutions. That is, systems that use an external AC-DC power brick along with an internal DC-DC power supply. If I'm not mistaken, it has to do with how harshly the R9 Nano "spikes" its power usage, where most AC-DC power adapters are designed to prevent that sort of thing from happening and it can cause them to fail. (The idea being to protect your laptop from a power surge, I think?)

Do some searching around the forms about the R9 Nano specifically on here and hopefully folks have found suitable power supplies/solutions for it. I'm pretty sure your GPU is the culprit, if I had to guess.

If it turns out that your AC-DC power supplies aren't playing nicely with your GPU, you might be able to look into folks who offer modified AC-DC power supplies and see if they can help. I know @guryhwa offers modified Dell 300W AC-DC units, but I don't know if they are capable of accommodating a R9 Nano.

I think the issue more in line with how power hungry yet small form factor the Nano is. Usually we don't get small form factor but power hungry cards since those two are usually on the opposite side but here we are with an 8 pin GPU that is the size of a 1050 ti. We end up forgetting to power target it for a high end card cause it's so small and cute.
 
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Petano

Caliper Novice
Original poster
Aug 24, 2017
27
21
Well originally I had MSI RX560 and system worked like a charm. I've just got greedy on FPS and fell in love with Nano.
Anyway for time being I purchased Corsair SF600 and currently use it externally. Funny part is sf600 is significantly smaller than MW brick.
Down side is cable mess hanging out from back of case.

I was thinking actually which PSU hit overcurrent protection during peaks. Most likely MW brick but eventually could be also HDPlex. I'll see if I will be in the mood to let it tested...

SF600 is working great paired with rest of the system ;-)
 
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