Enclosure Logic Supply MC600 Questions/Advice

zovc

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I'm interested in starting a project with a mc600 as i've just recently got a gigabyte 1070 itx. Will I have issues with putting it in due to its height (131mm)?

Also after reading the thread - novice question but will a HD plex 250 fit? Is a 200W external brick enough?

I'm pretty sure your card will fit by itself, but I don't know if there will be enough room for your power connector(s) to plug into it--it might require a mod. It's possible that flipping the card like we talking about would help with that. If you look at this post from @breakfast, you'll see there's well over 131mm in the 'expansion card area' of the case, but you start cutting into the room meant for side panel fans. (Though if you're cutting holes for your GPU--and I think you should be--those side panel fans might not be super crucial.)

Regarding the power supply, I agree with @Runamok81. A 250W power supply probably won't be enough. If you got a specialized CPU, like a T (or I think S?)-series Intel chip, it would be rated for 35W and you might be able to get away with it and your 1070 but it would still be a gamble. There are the ~5-25W Atom chips, but those are soldered-on and many of the motherboards are starting to show their age... you'd also probably be sacrificing gaming performance to go with one of those.

300W is a much more comfortable power budget for a 'full-power' GPU like a 1070 or up, and it should leave you with enough headroom to use nearly any processor under load alongside of the card. It's worth noting that you can go over budget with most power supplies, but it isn't necessarily safe and to do it over prolonged periods could be a recipe for trouble.

If you're (for some reason) committed to making the 250W supply work, you can experiment with undervolting the CPU and GPU to try to make sure your system doesn't get overloaded... but at that point it starts begging the question of why you're spending on a 1070, but aren't willing to spend on a good enough power supply.
 

zovc

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I finally got shipping confirmation from Galax! The card should be in on the 22nd, according to the tracking. But it's coming from Alaska and I'm in Louisiana, so that seems pretty fast. @Biowarejak also 3D printed a bracket for me and that should be on its way soon for us to see how that works out!

This is pretty exciting and I can actually start figuring out how things fit together. Doing some napkin math, it looks like there's only ~27mm between my GPU and the side of the case. I was holding out hope that I could fit some form of power supply there but that's seeming a little unrealistic. I'm pretty doubtful I'll be able to fit a 300W or even a 160W HDPLEX AC-DC in there. With a low-profile GPU it would be pretty feasible, if one chose a shorter GPU it might also be possible to mount a power supply between the card and the front panel.

This is a total shot in the dark, I know: but are there any ~250W (or preferably higher) AC-DC supplies that are only ~25mm tall? the cooling solution from my GPU might be able to help move air around it if it needs that.

I tried asking about this on reddit but didn't get any particularly useful answers... Are there any cool doohickeys/accessories I could plug into my USB headers? I'm pretty committed to making a custom front panel so I can add fitment for stuff even if it's just extra USB ports. (Which is what I'll probably end up with and is useful, it just seems a little boring!)

How hard would it be to fit an optical disc drive in here? What are some of the smaller ones out there? I prefer slot-loading for their aesthetic, but am more curious than I am committed to an ODD.
 
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Biowarejak

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I tried asking about this on reddit but didn't get any particularly useful answers... Are there any cool doohickeys/accessories I could plug into my USB headers? I'm pretty committed to making a custom front panel so I can add fitment for stuff even if it's just extra USB ports. (Which is what I'll probably end up with and is useful, it just seems a little boring!)

How hard would it be to fit an optical disc drive in here? What are some of the smaller ones out there? I prefer slot-loading for their aesthetic, but am more curious than I am committed to an ODD.

As for the USB things, there are plenty of odd USB powered devices that you could plug into the internal header using the same adapter that Linus did in his DIY Rear IO Lighting video. What comes to mind as something useful though is like an SD card reader or something. Let me know, I can make a mount for you. Amazon probably has some neat stuff too.

Oh, and I have an ODD from my HP Pavilion Slimline I could trade you if you wanted to go with one of those.
 
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zovc

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I'm worried about internal adapters mostly because of the extra height they add. It seems miniscule but a lot of them look like they're about as tall as a stick of RAM. I'll probably poke around on Amazon today, but I get the feeling I'm going to find a lot of things I'm not looking for trying to use terms like 'internal usb header.' :S

Is there any chance I could get the dimensions of that ODD? Does it connect via conventional SATA?
 
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Ceros_X

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I'm worried about internal adapters mostly because of the extra height they add. It seems miniscule but a lot of them look like they're about as tall as a stick of RAM. I'll probably poke around on Amazon today, but I get the feeling I'm going to find a lot of things I'm not looking for trying to use terms like 'internal usb header.' :S

Is there any chance I could get the dimensions of that ODD? Does it connect via conventional SATA?

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B016RPA2N6/?tag=theminutiae-20

Obviously adds height, perfect for wireless keyboard and mouse usb dongles (may limit range a little) or wifi if you are using a super old board. I tried one out in my Deployment Box build but later scrapped it
 
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zovc

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The Galax 1070 Mini fits in the MC600 with a little bit of room to spare! The side fan interferes just a bit, but I wasn't planning on using it anyway.

(The first two pictures of that album are the S4 Mini.)

 

Biowarejak

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Looks good! I just got the brackets packed up but I'll PM you the ODD dimensions
 
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zovc

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Ok, so I'm playing around with the fitment of components and it doesn't seem like there's any way to fit the HDPLEX 160W AC-DC brick in the case. That's a bummer, but we can always use an external brick!

I don't have a HDPLEX 300W handy, but I'm not sure even that would be able to fit into the case, honestly. Do I have any smaller options for distributing about ~250W of DC power throughout my system if I'm using an external AC-DC brick?
 

zovc

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Jan 5, 2017
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I had an idea while driving to pick a friend up for dinner, I think I might be able to fit one of the HDPLEX AC-DC units in the case. According to the information I'm working off of, the big dimensional difference between the 160W AC-DC and the 300W AC-DC is 10mm in the 'width' of the unit.

Here's a picture (sorry for the poor quality and the mess) of me fitting the 160W against the opening behind the front panel. I only need to take off a little bit of material to allow the unit to pass through there. The 300W is allegedly 62mm vs the 52mm of the 160W in this dimension... which I'm eyeballing here but I'm pretty sure I can take off this little bit of material and an additional 10mm to fit a 300W HDPLEX in that slot. From here, the idea is that my custom front panel has a bit of a cavity in it for me to put the AC-DC power supply on one side and the DC-ATX power supply on the other side. I could easily add as much as ~3/4" depth with a veneer on top to cover the holes under the 'front panel.'
 

Runamok81

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Are you facing the GPU up or down? The HDPlex 250W will fit in this orientation.

 
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zovc

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I'm hoping to face it "upwards" like you have it. I'm happy to hear the HDPLEX 300W DC-ATX fits right there. Do you have that board fixed in there a certain way? Tape?

I wonder if there's enough room for the AC-DC power supply with it oriented like that.
 

Runamok81

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I had holes drilled in the lid, you can see them here, but I didn't use them.

There was a level of inconvenience of having the HDPlex bolted to the lid. Every dissamble of the lid meant pulling up wires from the base. It looked cleaner and was more convenient to NOT bolt the HDPlex 250W to the lid. So, it just rests in the case. There's so much in there, it's not moving at all.
 
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zovc

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I'll need to do some hacking, and measuring, but I'm considering adding ~3/4" to the front panel and trying to put the 300W HDPLEX AC-DC (when it comes out) and the 300W HDPLEX DC-ATX (what you have) on each side of the framing of the front of the case. The working measurements we have for the AC-DC mean it'll be a pretty tight fit and that I'll have to remove a lot of material on one side to make it work.

The case is 64mm tall and the AC-DC is supposedly going to be 62mm that needs to fit there. XD

But I need to make sure there's enough height clearance for the AC-DC between either it and the GPU or it and the motherboard/24-pin connector.
 
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zovc

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Hey @Runamok81 and @jottwehh, how long are your PCI-e riser cables? Would you recommend the same cable/length?

I think it was jottwehh who ended up using a cable off of ebay?
 

zovc

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Jan 5, 2017
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Okay, well I got an Artesyn CPS250-M power supply in (24V variant) today. I need to get my hands on quite a few tools and supplies before I can actually start tinkering with it, but according to its specs (and my testing with the 1070 Mini), it should have enough juice to power my system. If all goes well, I won't need an external brick. I also heard the HDPLEX 300W AC-DC is coming out so I could always try making it fit (though I honestly don't know if it's possible) if this doesn't work out. Learning will be done either way!
 
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CC Ricers

Shrink Ray Wielder
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@zovc, that PSU looks like a good alternative to the Meanwell if 200W isn't enough power for your needs, and it's the same size. How much did it cost you? I also assume you're going to force cool air for the PSU?
 

zovc

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Jan 5, 2017
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@zovc, that PSU looks like a good alternative to the Meanwell if 200W isn't enough power for your needs, and it's the same size. How much did it cost you? I also assume you're going to force cool air for the PSU?

It was about $80 with free shipping. If you look around on Artesyn's page for it, you'll stumble upon their list of vendors. I looked at one and it was something like $77 without free shipping, the second one I looked at was like $84 with free shipping. They both required me to sign up and I was feeling too lazy to compare every vendor's price (especially if I needed to log in to calculate shipping on each site), so I went with the free shipping.

I'm going to try getting by just letting the GPU push air onto the PSU, where it's positioned, it'll be taking the majority of exhaust from the GPU's cooler. If I have to, I'll figure out a way to force a 40mm fan near it and hack up an enclosure.