Power Supply HDPLEX 250W GaN Passive AIO

DASBOOT

Airflow Optimizer
Dec 31, 2017
248
216
The design is larger than the std FLex Atx dimensional standard architecture for depth which is 150mm. This new supply is a Flex variant much closer to the dimensions of the HDPlex 400 watt AC/dc being 170 mm 10 mm more on both ends. A very small case option, although not the smallest in the world of sff, for this, would be the NFC Skyreach Tiny:
 
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motherofass

Caliper Novice
Oct 19, 2019
22
9
Oh, shame, never seen a skyreach in stock or at a reasonable price. Good to see GaN becoming a thing though. Hope to see a fanless flex option soon
 

DASBOOT

Airflow Optimizer
Dec 31, 2017
248
216
Oh, shame, never seen a skyreach in stock or at a reasonable price. Good to see GaN becoming a thing though. Hope to see a fanless flex option soon
Just bought one delivered in days, and a custom order of front bezel and feet shipped as well. Just because it says preorder doe not mean you wait years. Patience is a virtue!
and you get what you pay for, Lian Li quality, or you can have some stamped steel crap that has been collecting dust in stock for cheap. Cheap is Cheap!
 

msystems

King of Cable Management
Apr 28, 2017
781
1,366
This power supply should be near perfect pairing for mid range DIY eGpus, as it is roughly the same width of a 2.5 slot GPU's thickness (or -- a 2 slot, with backplate breathing room to spare), and it is the same or less length. I will be looking to incorporate it into my Deskmini "Backpack" concept where it can rest directly below an inverted GPU. Since a GPU is about 110mm wide (~120mm after riser) and a STX board is 155mm wide, the GaN brick can fit in the unused space below the GPU and not increase the footprint.


(x300 + evga 3060ti XC Note: above riser is incorrect - in the final layout, the card fans would be facing outwards and it would be flush)


Compared to the 400w DC-ATX, yes it's slightly bigger, but a lot of that power was being wasted on mid-range card (only need a consistent 250w really). So to get roughly the same footprint and lose the AC brick is really cool.

Unfortunately the 250w GaN only has 20 amps on 12v rail, so it will take a bit of undervolting to make mid range cards play nice with it.

Edit: oops I was thinking it only had 200w available on 12v but its 240w, which is quite excellent
 
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Tyrael

Cable Smoosher
Jun 5, 2022
11
9
Was anyone able to get one of these? I've been checking email/spam folder for updates. ETA June?
 

DASBOOT

Airflow Optimizer
Dec 31, 2017
248
216
They have not shipped other than samples for reviewers. If fact almost every item HDplex sells is listed out of stock, as some items are discontinued and still show out of stock as the website has not been updated to reflect what will no longer be produced. I do not know if he has discontinued linear power supplies but I have a feeling...
I personally think the dropping 19 volt and not making the GaN variable 12/19v is a sales blunder, but I think the marketing idea Larry may have weighed was, now that they are making Gan bricks that are smaller and more efficient it would be hard to compete and make a profit with the internal AC/DC. The fact is, nothing looks as clean as an internal ps; VS A PLASTIC BOX (small or large) with two cords, and this is what you will have to use with a thin ITX board unless you want a linear PS or Steel cheese grater Meanwell.
 

Curiosity

Too busy figuring out if I can to think if I shoul
Platinum Supporter
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M...M...M...M...Multi-Tier...Subscriber...
Apr 30, 2016
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They have not shipped other than samples for reviewers. If fact almost every item HDplex sells is listed out of stock, as some items are discontinued and still show out of stock as the website has not been updated to reflect what will no longer be produced. I do not know if he has discontinued linear power supplies but I have a feeling...
I personally think the dropping 19 volt and not making the GaN variable 12/19v is a sales blunder, but I think the marketing idea Larry may have weighed was, now that they are making Gan bricks that are smaller and more efficient it would be hard to compete and make a profit with the internal AC/DC. The fact is, nothing looks as clean as an internal ps; VS A PLASTIC BOX (small or large) with two cords, and this is what you will have to use with a thin ITX board unless you want a linear PS or Steel cheese grater Meanwell.
I haven't tested it, but maybe thin itx boards will take 12v as readily as the A/X300 boards do?
 

DASBOOT

Airflow Optimizer
Dec 31, 2017
248
216
There are some 12/19 boards but most are 19. The voltage from the DC external jack is wired in parallel with the 2 or 4-pin internal Molex so when a brick is used the positive pin(s) are hot! This is why you cannot use both internal and external at the same time. I would surmise you would have a better chance with a 35-watt TDP processor but no way 65-watt unless it is a dual voltage board.
 

Valantar

Shrink Ray Wielder
Jan 20, 2018
2,201
2,225
I am definitely unhappy!! The only real good option now is an audiophile component quality linear power supply from Ali Express that puts out 19v. Such as this: 19 Volt linear power supply. Bricks ARE CRAP! THEY ALL RUN EXTREMELY HOT AND HAVE CHEAP COMPONENTS IN THEM. The cords then come with are crap. And for me, a brick is only good for two things running my laptop and as a Test PS for board testing. I just purchased an adjustable DC power supply so I would not have to use a brick anymore for my testbed. The direction to phase out the internal 19 volts PS reflects the fact that mini- itx, not thin itx, is the market to be catered to. Is bigger better?
While you're right that power bricks are generally crappy, linear power supplies are ... let's say questionable in their own right. Efficiency is downright horrible, typically in the 50-60% range, and of course they are huge AF, being essentially anti-SFF in every way. They do deliver incredibly smooth power though.

As gaming laptop manufacturers move to GaN bricks, there should be some decent options out there for high power 19V setups. And while bricks are annoying, you can always strip them down and rig some form of internal mounting. Optimal? Not even slightly. Doable? With the required skill and tools, yes. And, crucially, high powered GaN bricks need to use relatively high quality components as they will be concentrating a lot of heat in a very tiny box with no ventilation or even efficient convection cooling due to the plastic casing.

Also, thin-ITX is ... well, not dead, but an incredibly tiny niche. I doubt there's enough of a market to sustain any type of business on producing custom 19V PSUs for thin-ITX builds. And, in HDPlex's case, moving to direct 12V is of course a significant boost in efficiency and PSU simplicity, finally getting rid of the unnecessary dual voltage conversion setup of their previous systems. This is a great improvement IMO, as the vast majority of HDPlex builds do not actually use 19V. It obviously leaves those wanting 19V in the lurch, but sadly that's a necessity if one wants to improve the efficiency and compactness of HDPlex's setups.

As for existing 19V solutions, there are quite a few medical/industrial ~19V PSUs out there that could be used in a suitable case. Here's an open-frame 500W TDK-Lambda version rated at 95.5% efficiency in a 127x76.2x34mm/5x3x1.5" package (500W with a fan, 300W with convection cooling). Its ripple is a bit high at 360mV p-p, but my experience with these medical/industrial PSUs is that their ratings are very conservative. Here's a detailed datasheet. MeanWell's similar 12V PSUs often operate around half their rated ripple. And, of course, with any 19V system the motherboard will be doing its own smoothing, and ATX ripple/noise numbers don't really apply. Here's a semi-enclosed 450W model from CUI in the same form factor (slightly larger due to the enclosure, at 127x86.6x50mm/5x3.4x2") (and here's a variant of it that has a fan included), rated at 92% efficiency and 190mVp-p (datasheet). And, of course, there are quite a few other options - you just have to look in new places, like Mouser, Elfa Distrelec, and similar industrial suppliers. Another great thing about these industrial PSUs is that they come with detailed technical drawings, tell you exactly what connectors they require, and often provide .STEP files for including them in 3D models.
 

Tyrael

Cable Smoosher
Jun 5, 2022
11
9
Has anyone got theirs yet? Shipping by july 31 --> email saying it will be shipped by 8th --> week later nothing?

Are they sitting on a container ship somewhere?
 

smitty2k1

King of Cable Management
Dec 3, 2016
967
492
This looks incredible. I've been a 12v Meanwell fan for a while but this seems to open up options beyond a 75w GPU.
 

NateDawg72

Master of Cramming
Aug 11, 2016
398
302
Received mine yesterday.

Did a very quick before & after wall meter comparison with my outgoing power supply, a Meanwell RPS-400-12-C paired with a PicoPSU.
I expected only a small difference but was surprised, it is significant.

System is a Ryzen 5 5600x (tuned for low power) + RTX A2000

Code:
             RPS-400-12    HDPlex 250wGAN
Idle*        58w*          44w*
CBR23        90w           80w
Furmark      146w          132w
CB+Fur       160w          142w
*Take idle numbers with a grain of salt
 

lemmo

Trash Compacter
Feb 17, 2017
46
30
Thanks for the measurements, good to get a sense of the performance uplift you get with GAN plus the HDPlex quality.

I received mine today (in Australia). I'm well away from building this into a system, but initial impression from unpacking is good build quality as ever with HDPlex.

But I can't get over the contrast between the compact, finely crafted case and the unwieldy mass of chunky cables. Once you start to use all those, you are likely to be plus 200W, and you'll need a bigger case. And then you're competing with the standard ATX power supplies...
 

NateDawg72

Master of Cramming
Aug 11, 2016
398
302
But I can't get over the contrast between the compact, finely crafted case and the unwieldy mass of chunky cables.
I like having proper ATX support for boot & shutdown, but the mass of cables really take away from the compactness imo. Once you account for the 24 pin nastiness, the PSU is waaay thicker than the 25mm the PSU itself occupies. I think I have a JHack M2427 from a build that didn't work out. I'll wire that up sometime and see how it works with the HDPlex. I badly want a simplified ATX standard, where is ATX12VO??

Still, you can power quite a lot with one of these. I see it has support for running multiple together, but... $$$ yikes one is already a lot

Edit: Also running at ~150w load it gets very hot to the touch. I recommend not doing the "temperature touch test" if you're pulling 200-250w 😂
Edit: "waaay thicker" is an exaggeration, but it sure would be nice to have less cables.
 
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k0n

Cable-Tie Ninja
Jul 3, 2019
213
280
Nice to hear that some are finally receiving them. Can't wait for mine, I was impatient and already started a case... 360*200*60mm.

4,32L and room for 2,75 slot 198mm graphics cards. It will be useless for me if the Hdplex ends up barely not fitting :/

 
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robbee

King of Cable Management
n3rdware
Bronze Supporter
Sep 24, 2016
855
1,335
Once you account for the 24 pin nastiness, the PSU is waaay thicker than the 25mm the PSU itself occupies.

How much are the connectors recessed into the case? Or in other words, how much does the connector protrude the 25mm before the wires start?
 

NateDawg72

Master of Cramming
Aug 11, 2016
398
302
How much are the connectors recessed into the case? Or in other words, how much does the connector protrude the 25mm before the wires start?
The connectors are slightly recessed. The protrusion is all in the cables that you would connect to it. Since they are all grouped up as tight as can be on one end, it shouldn't be hard to manage it.
 

NateDawg72

Master of Cramming
Aug 11, 2016
398
302
Nice to hear that some are finally receiving them. Can't wait for mine, I was impatient and already started a case... 360*200*60mm.

4,32L and room for 2,75 slot 198mm graphics cards. It will be useless for me if the Hdplex ends up barely not fitting :/

Looks like you left room for the cables between GPU & Motherboard? Should be perfect 👍