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Power Supply HDPLEX 160W DC-ATX direct plug

MarcParis

Spatial Philosopher
Apr 1, 2016
3,672
2,787
The power button is high enough up that I don't think the power button on the S4 will impede this unit. If you look at @CubanLegend 's Acrylic Ant Man you can see how he avoids the 24 pin connector in his build with a short bodied Bulgin. Furthermore you can't have the 24 pin connector any further towards the top of the board than on the Z270i Strix:




The one problem I'm finding is RAM is really tight. I used it on a build I'm playing with right now that uses two sticks of the G.Skill Trident Z and couldn't actually use the DIMM furthest from the CPU. I'll be thinning my custom unit down by 2-3mm as a result.
Well you know i owned nfc s4 mini with pico box z4-atx-200 with mb gigabyte z170n gaming 5, and i can guarantee you it was a blocking point...i destroyed a vandall button due to this..:)
 

Jonny727272

Airflow Optimizer
Feb 26, 2017
275
218
I haven't seen anyone address the issue directly, will the new v4 be compatible with the z270i Strix Mobo assuming someone is using both ram slots?
 

Kmpkt

Innovation through Miniaturization
KMPKT
Feb 1, 2016
3,382
5,936
I think it will depend very much on the bulkiness of the RAM you're using. If you have a thick heatsink like on the G.Skill Trident Z or Trident Z LED, you're going to have some issues. I will be in my office tonight playing around with this and will try to take some photos.
 
Last edited:

Jonny727272

Airflow Optimizer
Feb 26, 2017
275
218
I think it will depend very much on the bulkiness of the RAM you're using. If you have a thick heatsink like on the G.Skill Trident Z or Tridend Z LED, you're going to have some issues. I will be in my office tonight playing around with this and will try to take some photos.
I have the Corsair LPX sticks. I don't think it'd be an issue.
 

Kmpkt

Innovation through Miniaturization
KMPKT
Feb 1, 2016
3,382
5,936
It's not a height issue, but a width issue on the RAM. I also imagine different boards have slightly different spacing on the 24 pin and the DIMM slots. I have a Z270 Fatal1ty and Z270i Strix I'll test this out on tonight.
 

JosephEK

Cable-Tie Ninja
Mar 6, 2017
175
84
What kind of discrete GPU can I use with this thing assuming I'm using a 65W TDP CPU like an R5 1600?

In the article James Schell says he got a GTX 1060 to work with it, but that card uses 120W according to nVIDIA. I wonder what kind of CPU he paired with that 1060, was it one of those lower power T series CPUs?

Would I be able to pair an R5 1600 with an RX 460? Or would I have to go even lower with an RX 550 perhaps?
 

Jonny727272

Airflow Optimizer
Feb 26, 2017
275
218
What kind of discrete GPU can I use with this thing assuming I'm using a 65W TDP CPU like an R5 1600?

In the article James Schell says he got a GTX 1060 to work with it, but that card uses 120W according to nVIDIA. I wonder what kind of CPU he paired with that 1060, was it one of those lower power T series CPUs?

Would I be able to pair an R5 1600 with an RX 460? Or would I have to go even lower with an RX 550 perhaps?
TDP =/= power draw. Check out Tom's hardware posts about power draw. They measure each card and CPU. For example, the GTX 1060 SC can pull up to 200w at peak. And the i5 7000 series can get up to 70w or 80w even though their tdp is 65w.
 

VegetableStu

Shrink Ray Wielder
Aug 18, 2016
1,949
2,619
Just to add: whenever you see TDP, read out Thermal Design Point. It's measured in watts, but it's the heat, not electricity.
 

EdZ

Virtual Realist
May 11, 2015
1,578
2,107
TDP ~ average power draw (though average power draw at full load for Intel's and Nvidia's specced devices tend to be a bit below rated TDP rating, vice versa for AMD's TDP rating). Almost every watt of electricity you put into an IC will be turned into heat, with the output 'power' from bus interfaces being a mere rounding error.
Peak power draw can have transients well above average power draw (indeed, over longer durations this gap between TDP and peak output is what allows 'turbo boost' to exist). For normal ATX/SFX/FlexATRX/1u supplies that actually meet the ATX specifications this peak load is a nonissue, as the ATX spec requires them to handle high transient load spikes like this. Even for DC-ATX supplies, transient loads should not be a problem.
The problem comes when you use non-ATX supplies, namely laptop bricks. Laptop bricks are designed to charge a laptop battery, which has a nice stable steady power draw. They are not designed to handle spikes in load and do not have the components to safely deal with them, so instead have 'agressive' overcurrent protection that will cut out the power supply if you go even a bit above the rated spec (or they have no overcurrent protection and the power supply just fails and lets out the magic blue smoke).
It is in this case where you need to aim top use a brick whose rated power output is at or above the peak power load your components can draw. Even that is not always enough, because the rate of change of power draw (the 'slew') can also trip protection if it is too fast (again, ATX compliant supplies have to hit a minimum slew rate of 2.5 amps per microsecond. Laptop supplies do not). The R9 Nano, for example, ramped up and down its power draw so aggressively that it caused laptop bricks to trip out even when their raw watt rating implied they could handle the peak load.
 
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JosephEK

Cable-Tie Ninja
Mar 6, 2017
175
84
TDP =/= power draw. Check out Tom's hardware posts about power draw. They measure each card and CPU. For example, the GTX 1060 SC can pull up to 200w at peak. And the i5 7000 series can get up to 70w or 80w even though their tdp is 65w.
I just don't get why it's harder to find products with actual power consumption listed alongside their TDP. I do understand they're not the same though.

The reason I was suggesting an RX 460 is because I already know that it can't possibly be using over 75 Watts because that's from what I've been told all that you can draw without extra PCIe connectors.

I have asked this numerous times in numerous places and everyone seems to say that my suggested combo (R5 1600+RX 4/560 would work, but I admit I'm still worried.

So if I add the 75W of the GPU with a sort of "worst case scenario" that Johnny pointed out above with a CPU that draws 80W (I'm pretty sure AMD and Intel are different, so IDK how different an i5 7000 series is from an R5 1600 in power draw or how TDP is measured)

Those added together are ~155W Onto that I have to add literally everything else:
Motherboard,
RAM,
Storage,
Fans,
Peripherals

Like what happens if that goes over 160W? Would it just not work or break? I've never come close to using an underrated PSU on more powerfully rated hardware in a PC

Something like this is really cool, but I'm just so worried because I don't know a lot of the technical stuff about PSUs. I passed Basic and Digital electronics in HS and that's it. I was initially going to try an SFX-L PSU because I could get SFF without the smaller noisier fans, but this seems even better because it's even smaller and needs no fans at all, but I'm limited by my knowledge which is why I'm here asking questions I guess.
 

Kmpkt

Innovation through Miniaturization
KMPKT
Feb 1, 2016
3,382
5,936
I just don't get why it's harder to find products with actual power consumption listed alongside their TDP. I do understand they're not the same though.

TDP is a simple metric for matching heatsinks to CPUs as far as I can tell. Most system builders have power supplies that can manage far higher wattages than their requirements, so I don't think power draw is much of a consideration for them. I've mentioned this before, but I think a wiki entry of sorts with nominal, maximum and momentary peak loads for popular hardware would be pretty cool to throw together.
 
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malcky

Chassis Packer
May 7, 2017
20
8
If its of any help....I built my son a computer based on the following components:

i5 6500 cpu (65w TDP)
GTX1060 graphics card (120w TDP)
Asus Z170i pro gaming mini itx motherboard
Samsung NVME 512gb M.2 SSD
G.Skill 2x8gb 3200mhz DDR4 memory

I plugged the computer into a wattmeter plug, and on idle the computer pulls 36w of electricity, and when he played GTA 5 it was between 160w and 190w....I never seen it go above 200w while I watched it for a few minutes doing idle and gaming.
 

Jonny727272

Airflow Optimizer
Feb 26, 2017
275
218
If its of any help....I built my son a computer based on the following components:

i5 6500 cpu (65w TDP)
GTX1060 graphics card (120w TDP)
Asus Z170i pro gaming mini itx motherboard
Samsung NVME 512gb M.2 SSD
G.Skill 2x8gb 3200mhz DDR4 memory

I plugged the computer into a wattmeter plug, and on idle the computer pulls 36w of electricity, and when he played GTA 5 it was between 160w and 190w....I never seen it go above 200w while I watched it for a few minutes doing idle and gaming.

Thanks for the info. I feel that's nearing too close to the 200w peak of the unit. I'm just hoping more of the 300w dc-atx units come into stock soon!
 

jeshikat

Jessica. Wayward SFF.n Founder
Original poster
Silver Supporter
Feb 22, 2015
4,969
4,784
In the article James Schell says he got a GTX 1060 to work with it, but that card uses 120W according to nVIDIA. I wonder what kind of CPU he paired with that 1060, was it one of those lower power T series CPUs?

It was with the same i5 7600K.

The system wasn't stable, certain load combinations would cause a shutdown, but I'm suspecting it's the Dell brick to blame. I'll know for sure once I have the chance to test the 160W DC-ATX with the 300W AC-DC.
 
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malcky

Chassis Packer
May 7, 2017
20
8
If its of any help....I built my son a computer based on the following components:

i5 6500 cpu (65w TDP)
GTX1060 graphics card (120w TDP)
Asus Z170i pro gaming mini itx motherboard
Samsung NVME 512gb M.2 SSD
G.Skill 2x8gb 3200mhz DDR4 memory

I plugged the computer into a wattmeter plug, and on idle the computer pulls 36w of electricity, and when he played GTA 5 it was between 160w and 190w....I never seen it go above 200w while I watched it for a few minutes doing idle and gaming.

One thing I should mention about the above build.....that was using a normal PSU, a BeQuiet 500w pure power 10 to be exact.....I was mearly referencing the power consumption of the build....just in case people thought I was using the HDPlex DC-ATX unit.
 

Rabarbersaft

Cable Smoosher
New User
Apr 5, 2017
8
0
It would be sweet if I could run this along my HD300w. So I could use the 300 for upcoming vega and power the 24pin with this or the pico160w I allready own.
 

Kmpkt

Innovation through Miniaturization
KMPKT
Feb 1, 2016
3,382
5,936
My Dynamo unit does this and I will hopefully have the final version posted soon. You can hook the HDPlex 160W AC-DC to the Motherboard/CPU and the 300W to the GPU.
 
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CC Ricers

Shrink Ray Wielder
Bronze Supporter
Nov 1, 2015
2,234
2,557
Oh my, first it was more modular and pretty... then it was all black cables... and now it's even thinner! Okay, total meltdown... ;-)

And those gunmetal gray caps...
Makes it even harder to choose between this or the G-Unique. Both look really good.