Power Supply Best way to power an R9 Nano with an external source

[Therandomness]

I'm looking for a power brick of sorts that'd be able to power an R9 Nano. Catch is that there's no space inside my planned case for a HDPLEX PSU or anything like that... I mean, I've already found a way to adapt an Xbox 360 power brick to have a PCIe 8 pin connector but since that max wattage that thing can put out is only 203W I think that it's not enough to deal with the nano's spikes.. Any help? c:

 

[iFreilicht]

Have a dig around this forum, especially the S4 Mini Thread. People had countless issues powering the R9 Nano, even with the toughest of bricks.

 

[Therandomness]

Have a dig around this forum, especially the S4 Mini Thread. People had countless issues powering the R9 Nano, even with the toughest of bricks.

Another issue would be since it's an STX board, I can't really think of a way to trigger the PSU to turn on...

 

[zhl146]

Your most stable bet would probably to run an external SFX PSU and short the 5V to PS_ON. With the time and money you will most likely have to invest to get the R9 Nano to work (and maybe not perfectly) I think you may be better off investing in a 1070 ITX if that will also fit inside your case.

Does your board have an onboard DC-DC converter? If so, you may want to make sure that the barrel connector can handle the current.

It also was not clear if you were planning on running an entirely separate brick for your GPU. If so, I think things get easier. The XBOX 360 brick you are talking about is actually rated up to 260 watts I believe. I think people were having success running 330 watt bricks for their whole system. I am guessing under a gaming load that this would be around 280 or so for the GPU alone. Unfortunately, you are correct about the spikes and I am not sure if I would trust the xbox brick to handle that. You can always give it a shot. As far as getting it to turn on, you would probably have to forego automatic power and instead have a manual switch.

Best of luck!

 

[Therandomness]

Your most stable bet would probably to run an external SFX PSU and short the 5V to PS_ON. With the time and money you will most likely have to invest to get the R9 Nano to work (and maybe not perfectly) I think you may be better off investing in a 1070 ITX if that will also fit inside your case.

Does your board have an onboard DC-DC converter? If so, you may want to make sure that the barrel connector can handle the current.

It also was not clear if you were planning on running an entirely separate brick for your GPU. If so, I think things get easier. The XBOX 360 brick you are talking about is actually rated up to 260 watts I believe. I think people were having success running 330 watt bricks for their whole system. I am guessing under a gaming load that this would be around 280 or so for the GPU alone. Unfortunately, you are correct about the spikes and I am not sure if I would trust the xbox brick to handle that. You can always give it a shot. As far as getting it to turn on, you would probably have to forego automatic power and instead have a manual switch.

Best of luck!

The 1070 ITX is too long. Now you know how small my case will be And yes I was planning on running the Nano on it's own brick. I'm not sure about the DC-DC convertor, but my dad (yes I'm still young) gave me the idea to use one of these PSUs: http://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/SBQAAOSwA3dYJoZ~/s-l1600.jpg (12v 40A, 480W) I'm not too sure about them though... also, I'd need to get some 5V lines for molex because of the various risers I'll be using, and that could be done through a 12v to 5v converter, right?

EDIT: I've figured it out know, using a 12v to 5v variable DC-DC convertor coupled with that PSU in the picture I can get everything I need.

 

[zhl146]

Awesome, just make sure that your 12v - 5v converter can handle the amperage required. I'd be interested to see your project. It seems to me that your power bricks will almost take up more space than your case at this point. Unless your case is finalized, I would think about eliminating both bricks in favor of a single external SFX power supply. It will take up less space and most likely be more efficient than the meanwell? that you linked.

 

[Therandomness]

Awesome, just make sure that your 12v - 5v converter can handle the amperage required. I'd be interested to see your project. It seems to me that your power bricks will almost take up more space than your case at this point. Unless your case is finalised, I would think about eliminating both bricks in favour of a single external SFX power supply. It will take up less space and most likely be more efficient than the Meanwell? that you linked.

Case is 1.428 litres and using an STX motherboard means there has to be one power brick. I'll be cheating though and will have the radiators/pump/res on the outside. It's able to handle 15A and (at 5v) that should be enough to provide the 75W of PCIe slot power that the GPU requires.

 

[Kmpkt]

This might be helpful for you

https://hardforum.com/threads/i5-nuc-and-gtx980.1865546/

Also probably undershooting the mark for the R9 Nano, but this is the brick he's using to power the GTX 980

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00CFGVWXG/?tag=theminutiae-20

I might consider waiting for Vega as there will likely be a new Nano and given the efficiency improvements over the previous generation should make a build like this vastly more possible.

 

[iFreilicht]

I'll be cheating though and will have the radiators/pump/res on the outside.

Haha that is indeed super cheaty. I guess as long as the WC gear gets its own box and you can remove it with QDs, you could technically still say the case is its own entity.

 

[jeshikat]

Your most stable bet would probably to run an external SFX PSU and short the 5V to PS_ON.

PS_ON has to be shorted to ground for the PSU to turn on.

also, I'd need to get some 5V lines for molex because of the various risers I'll be using, and that could be done through a 12v to 5v converter, right?

Are you talking for the BPlus M.2 to PCIe slot adapter?

 

[zhl146]

PS_ON has to be shorted to ground for the PSU to turn on.

Righto, typo

Case is 1.428 litres and using an STX motherboard means there has to be one power brick.

You can just solder a barrel connector to ground and 12V from the SFX PSU and that will work fine for power to the mobo.

 

[jeshikat]

You can just solder a barrel connector to ground and 12V from the SFX PSU and that will work fine for power to the mobo.

Unless the board only takes 19V in.

 

[Therandomness]

Haha that is indeed super cheaty. I guess as long as the WC gear gets its own box and you can remove it with QDs, you could technically still say the case is its own entity.

I guess so, but that adds cost, something I'm not exactly wanting to be high.. I guess I can just wait

PS_ON has to be shorted to ground for the PSU to turn on. Are you talking for the BPlus M.2 to PCIe slot adapter?

Yeah I am (or, well, some adaptor I found on eBay). I know PCIe gen 2.0 x4 will limit the bandwidth quite a lot but it's not enough to make me worry that much..

Righto, typo You can just solder a barrel connector to ground and 12V from the SFX PSU and that will work fine for power to the mobo.

Unless the board only takes 19V in.

Yeah it's a 19v board (Asus H110S2)

 

[jeshikat]

Yeah I am (or, well, some adaptor I found on eBay). I know PCIe gen 2.0 x4 will limit the bandwidth quite a lot but it's not enough to make me worry that much..

Just be sure to double-check whether the adapter you get needs 5V or 3.3V. The PCIe slot is actually 3.3V but some adapters take 5V and convert it to 3.3V while others need straight 3.3V in.

2.0 x4 is still plenty for most games.

 

[Therandomness]

Just be sure to double-check whether the adapter you get needs 5V or 3.3V. The PCIe slot is actually 3.3V but some adapters take 5V and convert it to 3.3V while others need straight 3.3V in.

2.0 x4 is still plenty for most games.

Well, it uses a floppy header (molex to floppy adaptor ftw!) which probably isn't a good sign... but it also uses the all the cables from the molex so I'm assuming it uses 5v... Unless I'm completely wrong.

Just as a side-note, I'm trying so hard to get it under 1.5 litres but still be able to fit everything... the current case-only volume is 1.495 litres (6.5*16.2*14.9cm) And another question, would a single thick 140mm radiator be able to deal with an R9 Nano and 6600k (will get for free essentially)?

 

[jeshikat]

If it comes with a floppy to Molex adapter you should be fine, Molex only has 12V and 5V. If it comes with a floppy to SATA adapter you'll need to be more careful because SATA power has 12V, 5V, and 3.3V.

 

[Therandomness]

If it comes with a floppy to Molex adapter you should be fine, Molex only has 12V and 5V. If it comes with a floppy to SATA adapter you'll need to be more careful because SATA power has 12V, 5V, and 3.3V.

Yeah it comes with a floppy to molex. Now I'm assuming using that meanwell thing and a 12v to 5v converter is alright? I guess the next hardest thing will be cramming everything into 1.4~ litres of case

This might be helpful for you

https://hardforum.com/threads/i5-nuc-and-gtx980.1865546/

Also probably undershooting the mark for the R9 Nano, but this is the brick he's using to power the GTX 980

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00CFGVWXG/?tag=theminutiae-20

I might consider waiting for Vega as there will likely be a new Nano and given the efficiency improvements over the previous generation should make a build like this vastly more possible.

One slight issue is that the card itself must not be longer than the locking part of the PCIe slot on it. So 6 inches is the maximum length, and I have the sinking feeling that AMD aren't going to pull a Nano this gen...

 

[Kmpkt]

As far as dissipation of heat, I think a single 140mm thin radiator will probably be pushing it if you plan on using both the GPU and CPU anywhere near capacity.

Also worth considering is that the Nano spikes like a mofo and will likely fry any brick you try to throw at it. As you can see here, it will go as high as ~430W by itself when under load.(http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/amd-radeon-r9-nano,4285-9.html)

Apart from the fact that you're going to have a very hard time finding a power brick that can handle that, it is also a lot of heat to dissipate if it's happening frequently.

I have been playing with what I assume is almost this exact build lately (AsRock H110 mSTX, 6700T and Nano in my case) and I came to the conclusion that the Nano isn't a safe bet for this sort of build. I'd personally recommend going with the 1060 and just accept the fact that you're going to need to be a tad closer to 2L in case volume for this build. The 1060 uses less than half the power of the R9 Nano at idle and in the exact same benchmark peaked at 142W maximum consumption (http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/nvidia-geforce-gtx-1060-pascal,4679-6.html).

Just my two cents, but would love to see this sort of build come to fruition as I've been playing with it myself for a while now

 

[Therandomness]

As far as dissipation of heat, I think a single 140mm thin radiator will probably be pushing it if you plan on using both the GPU and CPU anywhere near capacity.

Also worth considering is that the Nano spikes like a mofo and will likely fry any brick you try to throw at it. As you can see here, it will go as high as ~430W by itself when under load.(http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/amd-radeon-r9-nano,4285-9.html)

Apart from the fact that you're going to have a very hard time finding a power brick that can handle that, it is also a lot of heat to dissipate if it's happening frequently.

I have been playing with what I assume is almost this exact build lately (AsRock H110 mSTX, 6700T and Nano in my case) and I came to the conclusion that the Nano isn't a safe bet for this sort of build. I'd personally recommend going with the 1060 and just accept the fact that you're going to need to be a tad closer to 2L in case volume for this build. The 1060 uses less than half the power of the R9 Nano at idle and in the exact same benchmark peaked at 142W maximum consumption (http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/nvidia-geforce-gtx-1060-pascal,4679-6.html).

Just my two cents, but would love to see this sort of build come to fruition as I've been playing with it myself for a while now

-snip-

Hmmm.. I'll keep the 1060 in mind, but I'll probably stick with the Nano (partial AMD fanboy, I must admit...). With a sight increase in width (and volume, but not by much), it could probably easily fit a mini 1060 (watercooled because I need it to be single slot). As I've been toying about with that idea earlier, I've assumed that using this in the 12v 40A (480W, will hide under desk) flavour should be enough for the 8 pin, even factoring in the huge spikes and a 12v to 5v 15A Converter (75W, should be fine for the PCIe slot power). What's fun is that every side of the case except the top and bottom will have some form of I/O... (Back: Motherboard I/O, Right: GPU power, Left: GPU display, Front: Front Panel I/O) Also, how about a thick 140mm radiator for a Nano and 6600k?

 

[Kmpkt]

General rule of thumb from what I've read (not that I am a super experienced water cooler) is one 120mm rad per component. A 140mm single has about 70% of the surface area of a 240mm rad while a 180 single has about 113% of the surface area. I'm sure having a thicker rad, better fans, etc. can mitigate things to a point and perhaps this would be adequate for your setup. I think if you were to use something like an EK thermosphere on the 1060 which needs relatively little dissipation when compared with the Nano would probably work. Furthermore with a bit of tweaking you could probably underfoot your 6600K without compromising performance depending on your application.

Also with respect to your power supply choice, it actually appears to be larger than a standard SFX power supply by about 50% (215 x 113 x 49 mm) vs (125 x 100 x 63.5), have you considered just using an external SFX like MarcParis did in his S4 Mini Build?