Jonsbo C2 and PicoPSU (my first build)

[tuckfrump]

15 years past since my last build I decided do get myself a new rig to do a bit of office work and light gaming. My wife was quick to point out the importance of a small and aesthetic chassi so after some digging around I found the Jonsbo C2 to fit the purpose. I also wanted it to be somewhat silent and with decent temps and since I like to mess around with things I don´t know anything about I ended up powering the whole thing with a PicoPSU.

Ordered the Jonsbo and the 200w 19v PicoPSU from China and Aliexpress and hoped for the best. Also scavanged around for other used parts on the interwebs; found a 240w 19V Dell laptop charger, a Vengeance lpx DDR4 8gig kit, a Kingston a1000 500gig nvme, a gammaxx 400 cpu cooler and a Ryzen 2200g APU. The Asrock b450m-hdv M-ATX and the Noctua fan I bought brand new for a good price. Also bought an ATX back plate.

While searching for info on the Jonsbo C2 I found this site and the review by confusis. It had me a bit worried about temperatures, especially since I planned on doing some overclocking. Not that I really need it (I only planning on playing some old wow private servers and wow classic) but again, I like messing around with new things and learning from the process. So i bought the Noctua fan confusis used and mounted at the bottom, since I weren´t gonna use any harddrives or SSDs other than Kingston NVME stick. Also I put the AMD wraith stealth cooler which came with the ryzen APU as a chassi cooler at the back. Had to buy an adapter to fit the Dell charger to the DC connector on the Pico and an ATX cable extension since the one that came with the Pico was ridiculously short.

Took me 2 days to complete the build cus damn was it tight. Now I´m a big guy (100+ kg powerlifter with abnormal hand size) so it was an absolute pain to work in this chassi. Perhaps I should have tried to mount the tower cooler last, cus it was constantly in the way. If I need to change out any part now I will need to disassemble the whole damn rig basically.

Finally tried some light overclocking. CPU from 3.5 to 3.8, GPU from 1100 to 1500, RAM from 2400 cl14 to 3200 cl16. Could probably push more but I´m good for now. Temps are good so far (around 29C idle and 70+ in Prime95). VRM could possbily be running hot, I don´t know. Flipped the top cover to add some more air vent.

Overall I´m very happy so far. It´s such a small and light rig I could easily carry it with me. It is also fairly silent and cool. Runs very stable and there is a lot of power for such a cheap amount of money. All in all I spent just under 500 euros.

 

[Windfall]

Imo, get an HDplex or a 160XT. That one you got is probably a cheap rip-off, and I wouldn't trust my hardware with it.

 

[Choidebu]

Cool build! Impressed you can build all that with less than 500 euros.

Btw, that bottom fan def needs more clearance. Taller case feet perhaps?

 

[el01]

15 years past since my last build I decided do get myself a new rig to do a bit of office work and light gaming. My wife was quick to point out the importance of a small and aesthetic chassi so after some digging around I found the Jonsbo C2 to fit the purpose. I also wanted it to be somewhat silent and with decent temps and since I like to mess around with things I don´t know anything about I ended up powering the whole thing with a PicoPSU.

Ordered the Jonsbo and the 200w 19v PicoPSU from China and Aliexpress and hoped for the best. Also scavanged around for other used parts on the interwebs; found a 240w 19V Dell laptop charger, a Vengeance lpx DDR4 8gig kit, a Kingston a1000 500gig nvme, a gammaxx 400 cpu cooler and a Ryzen 2200g APU. The Asrock b450m-hdv M-ATX and the Noctua fan I bought brand new for a good price. Also bought an ATX back plate.

While searching for info on the Jonsbo C2 I found this site and the review by confusis. It had me a bit worried about temperatures, especially since I planned on doing some overclocking. Not that I really need it (I only planning on playing some old wow private servers and wow classic) but again, I like messing around with new things and learning from the process. So i bought the Noctua fan confusis used and mounted at the bottom, since I weren´t gonna use any harddrives or SSDs other than Kingston NVME stick. Also I put the AMD wraith stealth cooler which came with the ryzen APU as a chassi cooler at the back. Had to buy an adapter to fit the Dell charger to the DC connector on the Pico and an ATX cable extension since the one that came with the Pico was ridiculously short.

Took me 2 days to complete the build cus damn was it tight. Now I´m a big guy (100+ kg powerlifter with abnormal hand size) so it was an absolute pain to work in this chassi. Perhaps I should have tried to mount the tower cooler last, cus it was constantly in the way. If I need to change out any part now I will need to disassemble the whole damn rig basically.

Finally tried some light overclocking. CPU from 3.5 to 3.8, GPU from 1100 to 1340, RAM from 2400 cl14 to 2800 cl14. Could probably push more but I´m good for now. Temps are good so far (around 29C idle and 70+ in Prime95). VRM could possbily be running hot, I don´t know. Flipped the top cover to add some more air vent.

Overall I´m very happy so far. It´s such a small and light rig I could easily carry it with me. It is also fairly silent and cool. Runs very stable and there is a lot of power for such a cheap amount of money. All in all I spent just under 500 euros.

Now, that is a DANK fan mount in the back!

 

[NFSxperts]

Looking good! You could try cleaning up the cable management near the front fan.
Did you can small cuts on your hands after working on this case?
Here is confusis' C2
and my C2 build

 

[tuckfrump]

Looking good! You could try cleaning up the cable management near the front fan.
Did you can small cuts on your hands after working on this case?
Here is confusis' C2
and my C2 build

Yeah, I tried to clean up the cables but it was just so damn tight. I don´t think it´s quite as bad as in the pictures though. They don´t cover as much of the fan as it seems, cables are mostly below the cpu fan. Damn ATX cables are a mess. Those are some bad pics I quickly shot with my shitty phone. Also that is a really small m-atx motherboard. The ram sticks are basically right next to the heatsink under the fan and the 20 pin atx connector is placed right next to the ram. Tiiiight.. Thankfully the lpx are low profile.

Didn´t get any cuts. Actually didn´t notice any sharp edges at all iirc.

 

[tuckfrump]

Looking good! You could try cleaning up the cable management near the front fan.
Did you can small cuts on your hands after working on this case?
Here is confusis' C2
and my C2 build

I remember watching your build btw. I think thats when I made the final decision on going with a Pico. Is that cpu fan pulling the air out of the case or pushing it? Flipping the cpu fan would have helped me tremendously.

 

[tuckfrump]

Now, that is a DANK fan mount in the back!

Honestly don´t know if it is of much use. I suspect it´s the one making the most noise too.

 

[tuckfrump]

Imo, get an HDplex or a 160XT. That one you got is probably a cheap rip-off, and I wouldn't trust my hardware with it.

Rip-off of what? Pico´s have been around for a long time haven´t they? And what is it that I need to worry about? Degrading over time or? I´m just asking since I´m an absolute beginner. The power is more than enough it seems (overclocking and hours of torture testings) Not that I doubt the american made are of higher quality (even though their components are china made too) but for twice the price? Besides, I needed a 19 volt Pico. And this Pico felt quite solid with a large PCB mounted on a heavy chunk of heatsink.

 

[tuckfrump]

Cool build! Impressed you can build all that with less than 500 euros.

Btw, that bottom fan def needs more clearance. Taller case feet perhaps?

Agree. It´s a bit too tight beneath it. The temps are surpisingly low though. Atm all the temps (cpu, gpu, mb, drive) all hover around 30C with some pretty decent overclockings.

 

[Choidebu]

Rip-off of what? Pico´s have been around for a long time haven´t they? And what is it that I need to worry about? Degrading over time or? I´m just asking since I´m an absolute beginner. The power is more than enough it seems (overclocking and hours of torture testings) Not that I doubt the american made are of higher quality (even though their components are china made too) but for twice the price? Besides, I needed a 19 volt Pico. And this Pico felt quite solid with a large PCB mounted on a heavy chunk of heatsink.

True that. As long as you exercise caution when ordering them, all's good. I can see that the unit looks solid and with proper components.

 

[Windfall]

Rip-off of what? Pico´s have been around for a long time haven´t they? And what is it that I need to worry about? Degrading over time or? I´m just asking since I´m an absolute beginner. The power is more than enough it seems (overclocking and hours of torture testings) Not that I doubt the american made are of higher quality (even though their components are china made too) but for twice the price? Besides, I needed a 19 volt Pico. And this Pico felt quite solid with a large PCB mounted on a heavy chunk of heatsink.

True that. As long as you exercise caution when ordering them, all's good. I can see that the unit looks solid and with proper components.

Oh, I had assumed you had just ordered a generic one.

 

[NFSxperts]

I remember watching your build btw. I think thats when I made the final decision on going with a Pico. Is that cpu fan pulling the air out of the case or pushing it? Flipping the cpu fan would have helped me tremendously.

Good thing you didn't get any cuts. Perhaps they improved the QC.
The cpu fan is in pull since I already got a bottom intake fan.
WIll you be adding a gpu later?

 

[tuckfrump]

Good thing you didn't get any cuts. Perhaps they improved the QC.
The cpu fan is in pull since I already got a bottom intake fan.
WIll you be adding a gpu later?

Perhaps I should have done the same and have that big ol fan pull from the other side of the heatsink. It would have spared me a few headaches. I wonder what the temps would have been like? As of now , I'm running it severely overclocked, ram @3200cl16, gpu @1500 cpu @3.8 and it stays cool believe it or not. I'm amazed at the value of both the jonsbo chassi and the Asrock board.. And that cheap Pico ofcourse.

I am most likely never adding a gpu. The only games I'll be playing is just some old warcraft probably and the ryzen is easily overpowering it.