Power Supply HDPLEX 160W DC-ATX direct plug

[Stevo_]

So Larry decided to make the unit a bit bigger to make room for a detachable wire harness, probably something similar to the PICO-BOX Z4-200-ATX.

But he also put beefier components on it and early testing was able to pull 280W from the unit with passive cooling

Done and done! Never liked how I somewhat had to jam my original 160W HD into my S4. The newer version would fit better but was holding out for the direct plug version after using the mini-box 120W wide input.

 

[Kmpkt]

At the moment he's planning to put a modular 8 pin PCIe and SATA header on the board. Only the 8 pin EPS will be soldered onto the board. Holy crap at that wattage though. 280W is beastmode. Obviously he's decided to make it fully compatible with the 250W AC/DC unit which is super great news for us. Should be able to comfortably handle GTX 1070 and a low wattage CPU I'd imagine.

 

[jeshikat]

At the moment he's planning to put a modular 8 pin PCIe and SATA header on the board. Only the 8 pin EPS will be soldered onto the board

Ah, I misinterpreted his email then. While full modular would have been nice, there are space constraints so that seems like a reasonable compromise.

 

[Kmpkt]

I can't think of any situations where you wouldn't need the EPS as at least a 4 pin, so a soldered wire seems pretty reasonable. The only drawback I can see is if you want customizable length, but given the fact this is going to be made primarily for small form factor use, I'm hoping the length is spot on around 15 to 20 cm.

 

[jeshikat]

I can't think of any situations where you wouldn't need the EPS as at least a 4 pin

Well, there's me wanting to power just a GPU off it but I'm definitely not the target market, a "normal" user would indeed always be using at least half the CPU connector.

 

[jeshikat]

Oops, I misinterpreted one of his statements, the 280W test was referring to the 250W AC-DC unit and not the new DC-ATX.

The DC-ATX is more like 200W, so still a nice upgrade though.

 

[NateDawg72]

200 watts is still excellent!

Modular pcie & data is a nice touch too. I love the idea of not having to put the sata cables in the case if I had an M.2 SSD or something similar. I wonder how much bigger that makes the unit?

Is the ETA being pushed back now that modular sata/pcie is part of the design?

 

[jeshikat]

I'm not sure on the size.

Timeframe is uncertain since it's still in development.

 

[janas19]

Wow, this is great news! How firm is the October release? I'm planning an i3-6100, GTX 1050 rig and this will be my #1 choice if available. Also, any word on MSRP?

 

[Kmpkt]

I know it will be more than 28 USD less than the HDPlex 250 if that helps : )

 

[jeshikat]

I think the release will be pushed back a bit since the design has changed.

 

[Saltvann]

Do you know if we are talking weeks or months here?

 

[jeshikat]

If the test results are good then maybe weeks, if the new design needs more work then maybe months.

 

[jeshikat]

So I heard from Larry today and the unit has been redesigned and can now do 15A on the 12V (180W) and has gained modular wires, though probably in a different form than you're used to

Note: the prototype is missing the 24-pin ATX connector.

Current plan is to go to production in a few weeks if testing looks good.

 

[Kmpkt]

Larry should be sending out prototypes in the next week or so from what he last told me.

 

[robbee]

Neat! What's the input voltage gonna be? I'm hesitating between waiting for this or buying the Picopsu 160-XT. I'm kinda leaning towards the Picopsu, as the 12v input limits DC-DC conversion and heat generation...

 

[jeshikat]

Larry should be sending out prototypes in the next week or so from what he last told me.

Yes, said he'd be sending one out to me next week.

What's the input voltage gonna be? I'm hesitating between waiting for this or buying the Picopsu 160-XT. I'm kinda leaning towards the Picopsu, as the 12v input limits DC-DC conversion and heat generation...

16-24V like the other HDPLEX DC-ATX units. I don't think heat be much worse with the HDPLEX vs that PicoPSU, buck converters from 19V to 12V are pretty efficient.

 

[Phuncz]

So the green PCB is the AC-DC board, capable of 180W 12V DC ? Damn that looks small !

 

[jeshikat]

The stacked PCBs and the heatsink is the unit, not just the green PCB on top. So bigger than ideal but it can do all 180W on the 12V alone so great for eGPU applications.

That heatsink is from the current 160W DC-ATX unit, the production version will have a correctly sized heatsink.

 

[jeshikat]

I have my pre-production unit in the mail so review should be up later next week.