CPU Gallium Nitride PSU Deskmini X300

Maxkmk

Caliper Novice
Original poster
Mar 17, 2023
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Hi, I am looking for an external Gallium Nitride powersupply for my Asrock Deskmini X300. Can you suggest me some models with a decent quality. The PSUs should have at least 200W, clean power delivery without much ripple and a fitting Plug to the deskmini X300 so I don't need to use an adapter.

Thank you very much
 

Maxkmk

Caliper Novice
Original poster
Mar 17, 2023
23
11
Hi, thank you for the suggestion. The deskmini needs a powersupply with a 5,5 x 2,5 mm connector and 19V
 

msystems

King of Cable Management
Apr 28, 2017
781
1,366
Hi, I am looking for an external Gallium Nitride powersupply for my Asrock Deskmini X300. Can you suggest me some models with a decent quality. The PSUs should have at least 200W, clean power delivery without much ripple and a fitting Plug to the deskmini X300 so I don't need to use an adapter.

Thank you very much
I've been using the SlimQ 240w for quite a while without issue. There is also a new 150w model with a DC barrel which is much smaller, but I haven't tested it.



 
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BaK

King of Cable Management
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May 17, 2016
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Necroing sorry...

I'm very very late to the party but I might just pull the trigger and buy an X300.
Or wait for the X600 which is coming soon, but an AMD5 CPU and DDR5 will certainly add to the cost, and I don't really need more power.

That's why I'm eyeing GaN PSUs, in hope to find a small one that I could tear down and put inside the case for a brickless build.

There is also a new 150w model with a DC barrel which is much smaller, but I haven't tested it.
150W
20V - 7.5A max
78 x 76.5 x 3.0mm -> 0.18 liter
$80

This SlimQ unit is already nice, but there are now smaller and cheaper options, like this 120W fast GaN charger from Xiaomi:


120W
20V - 6A max
55.6 x 55.7 x 28.1mm -> 0.09 liter
$30

What do you guys think, am I dreaming or could it work to power an X300 (5600G + 2x SO-DIMM + 2x M.2 + 1x fan)?
 
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msystems

King of Cable Management
Apr 28, 2017
781
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Some of us have experimented and found that USB-c chargers are not true replacements for power supplies with DC barrel output, something gets messed up in the usb-pd delivery protocol and it doesn't work as intented, or rather, it works but inconsistently between devices/chargers

To give it a try you need a usb-c to barrel "dummy trigger" cable, or usb-pd dummy trigger pcb
 

BaK

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May 17, 2016
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Thanks a bunch @msystems for pointing me into the right direction! :thumb:

I now understand better your statement specifying the SlimQ having a DC barrel output.

After some browsing looking for your proposals, I saw you and others already had interesting talks about that here in the forum:

To give it a try you need a usb-c to barrel "dummy trigger" cable
Since I want a brickless build, such a cable is not really suitable. But as one could be handy for some early testing, I still checked what was available.

One corresponding cable was linked in the thread above, but is 12V only.
After some digging, I've found this one which is up to 20V / 5A / 100W:


With the 120W Xiaomi GaN charger in mind, I thought the 100W max was too low.
So I've then stumbled upon this Xiwai cable, 20V / 7A / 140W:


But as you can see in the picture above, they say:
Output: DC5.5mm male, DC20V 7A 140W Max.(Also support 135w/100w/65w power output).
No mention of 120W as an output power, which would correspond to the 6A delivered by the Xiaomi charger.
Hopefully that's not an issue? o_O


or usb-pd dummy trigger pcb
Here I've found lots of these tiny PCB units, such as this one:


But as it seems to be the case for all of these boards, the max supported current is 5A.
No luck in finding a unit dealing with 6A or more.
Would that mean the choice of a 20V GaN charger is limited to 100W max? o_O



To resume, am I right thinking there are the following options?
1) Limiting the power needs in the X300 BIOS to not go beyond 100W, and go with a 100W GaN charger along with a 20V 5A trigger board
2) Get a 120+W GaN charger with a cable such as the Xiwai mentioned above
3) Use a SlimQ 150W
 

SFFMunkee

King of Cable Management
Jul 7, 2021
659
655
Thanks a bunch @msystems for pointing me into the right direction! :thumb:

I now understand better your statement specifying the SlimQ having a DC barrel output.

After some browsing looking for your proposals, I saw you and others already had interesting talks about that here in the forum:


Since I want a brickless build, such a cable is not really suitable. But as one could be handy for some early testing, I still checked what was available.

One corresponding cable was linked in the thread above, but is 12V only.
After some digging, I've found this one which is up to 20V / 5A / 100W:


With the 120W Xiaomi GaN charger in mind, I thought the 100W max was too low.
So I've then stumbled upon this Xiwai cable, 20V / 7A / 140W:


But as you can see in the picture above, they say:
Output: DC5.5mm male, DC20V 7A 140W Max.(Also support 135w/100w/65w power output).
No mention of 120W as an output power, which would correspond to the 6A delivered by the Xiaomi charger.
Hopefully that's not an issue? o_O



Here I've found lots of these tiny PCB units, such as this one:


But as it seems to be the case for all of these boards, the max supported current is 5A.
No luck in finding a unit dealing with 6A or more.
Would that mean the choice of a 20V GaN charger is limited to 100W max? o_O



To resume, am I right thinking there are the following options?
1) Limiting the power needs in the X300 BIOS to not go beyond 100W, and go with a 100W GaN charger along with a 20V 5A trigger board
2) Get a 120+W GaN charger with a cable such as the Xiwai mentioned above
3) Use a SlimQ 150W
I'd be extremely cautious trusting those sorts of boards with high power, not just in terms of the soldering (but that too) but even just the traces on the PCB often aren't really designed for that sort of continuous power throughput.

You're better off avoiding USB-C supplies and looking for a 'dumb' 19V or 20V DC supply.

You can actually run from 12V, but keeping in mind that the lower the voltage, the higher current that will be needed for the same power output. That means thicker wires, hotter connectors etc. (I wouldn't trust a barrel jack with the 10+A you'd need for 12V, for example)

Just my 2c anyways

::EDIT::
There's all sorts of high-power GaN laptop supplies - disclaimer: I have zero clue as to which are good or not, but an example is here https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005006429881124.html
 
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duynguyenle

Airflow Optimizer
Aug 20, 2019
328
330
Thanks a bunch @msystems for pointing me into the right direction! :thumb:

I now understand better your statement specifying the SlimQ having a DC barrel output.

After some browsing looking for your proposals, I saw you and others already had interesting talks about that here in the forum:


Since I want a brickless build, such a cable is not really suitable. But as one could be handy for some early testing, I still checked what was available.

One corresponding cable was linked in the thread above, but is 12V only.
After some digging, I've found this one which is up to 20V / 5A / 100W:


With the 120W Xiaomi GaN charger in mind, I thought the 100W max was too low.
So I've then stumbled upon this Xiwai cable, 20V / 7A / 140W:


But as you can see in the picture above, they say:
Output: DC5.5mm male, DC20V 7A 140W Max.(Also support 135w/100w/65w power output).
No mention of 120W as an output power, which would correspond to the 6A delivered by the Xiaomi charger.
Hopefully that's not an issue? o_O



Here I've found lots of these tiny PCB units, such as this one:


But as it seems to be the case for all of these boards, the max supported current is 5A.
No luck in finding a unit dealing with 6A or more.
Would that mean the choice of a 20V GaN charger is limited to 100W max? o_O



To resume, am I right thinking there are the following options?
1) Limiting the power needs in the X300 BIOS to not go beyond 100W, and go with a 100W GaN charger along with a 20V 5A trigger board
2) Get a 120+W GaN charger with a cable such as the Xiwai mentioned above
3) Use a SlimQ 150W
I believe USB-PD specs maxes out at 5A for all modes (100W=20V*5A, 140W=28V*5A and 240W=48V*5A)

So any cables or chargers that says it can do more than 5A is some sort of non-standard implementation and therefore not strictly specs-compliant (that includes the cable you linked as well as the xiaomi brick).

The SlimQ charger appears to respect PD specs for the type C ports, higher wattages/amperages are only available via the 19V barrel jack.
 
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BaK

King of Cable Management
Bronze Supporter
May 17, 2016
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Thanks everyone for your inputs! :thumb:

I'm guessing you've seen all the 20V 240W ones 42x70x115mm or 127x63x33mm sort of sized
Looking for the smallest solutions, I was more focused on lower wattage than 240W since the 5600G is not going to draw more like 120W.

I'd be extremely cautious trusting those sorts of boards with high power, not just in terms of the soldering (but that too) but even just the traces on the PCB often aren't really designed for that sort of continuous power throughput.

You're better off avoiding USB-C supplies and looking for a 'dumb' 19V or 20V DC supply.
I believe USB-PD specs maxes out at 5A for all modes (100W=20V*5A, 140W=28V*5A and 240W=48V*5A)

So any cables or chargers that says it can do more than 5A is some sort of non-standard implementation and therefore not strictly specs-compliant (that includes the cable you linked as well as the xiaomi brick).

Even though there is a new spec from Apple letting USB-C reaching 140w (28V / 5A) As @msystems mentionned it in this thread https://smallformfactor.net/forum/threads/misinformation-gan-laptop-charger.18007/post-270571,
140w on usbc is interesting, (I would be interested in seeing it applied on a picopsu), however I was a bit confused how it does that since, official max 20v spec is 5A max. I looked it up and its based on a new spec apple made- 28v @5a. Therefore you'd need a dummy cable to negotiate this 28v spec if going for DC barrel implementation and a pico accepting 28v. Or a picopsu with usbc input which doesn't exist (yet)
USB chargers have indeed too many drawbacks, I am then going for DC barrel only!

So this leaves the SlimQ 150W Gan, with 0.18 liter.
And the GaN laptop chargers such as the 240W / 0.19 liter one kindly proposed by @SFFMunkee. Smallest I found are 0.16 liter (92x64x28mm 130W, 150W, 170W or 180W) here: https://www.aliexpress.com/store/911577318/pages/all-items.html
Once tore down, the volume could probably be cut down a bit, so maybe these ones are also interesting: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005006171762521.html

But before making my choice, I want to compare the GaN PSUs to the 'regular' 19V PSUs. As proposed in the above thread, there are indeed 19V PSUs available from well-known manufacturers. Let's see that in my next post! :)
 

BaK

King of Cable Management
Bronze Supporter
May 17, 2016
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I should have started with 3D modeling the X300 motherboard in order to find the sweet spot where to put the PSU.
That's what I did and it turns out there is one and only place, above the M.2 port. With a 37mm CPU cooler such as the NH-L9i-a, I measure an available space of around 30 x 30 x 110mm:


So unfortunately, even the GaN PSUs are too big and they will need anyway to be installed next to the mobo, adding extra volume.
And as keeping this extra volume as low as possible requires the slimest PSU, the regular PSUs seems to be a better choice in that regard.
According to Digikey or Mouser, there are indeed many open frame 19V PSUs with dimensions of 102x51x30mm. Quite close to the SlimQ dimensions or the Gan PSUs I mentionned above with 92x64x28mm.
And while the 102mm is not annoying as it does not exceed the length of the motherboard, the 51mm vs 64mm is a win for the regular PSU!
So I am probably going the safe route and choose a regular 19V PSU, such as the MornSun LOF225-20B19.
 

BaK

King of Cable Management
Bronze Supporter
May 17, 2016
930
931
The x300 STX board takes 12V as input too, these are generally easier to source. If the 4x2" form factor suits you, they come in very low profile versions:

https://www.digikey.nl/en/products/detail/eos-power/ULP180-1012/10124857 https://www.digikey.nl/en/products/detail/cui-inc/VOF-180-12/7695855
Thanks a lot!
I had a look for 12V PSUs but did not catch such thin ones! My Digikey-fu needs improvement...
As I've seen that discussed in another thread, going 12V means either soldering the PSU output cables to the motherboard directly, or use a DC-Barrel that can stand 10A.
But as shaving off 10mm is very tempting, I will look into it!