Hi, recently became interested in the SFF idea and found out about the website and the forum. While I've been lurking for a couple of weeks and reading up on stuff, I still have some questions that I need clearing up on which is, as you guess, why I'm starting this thread. I have an old..ish Haswell PC that I'm relegating to a HTPC/Gaming PC while I buy a relatively portable HEDT replacement that I should drag to and back from work (I'm mentioning that here as well because if anyone would like to give some advice on a portable PC for a workstation level performace, it'd be most welcome).
I would like to create a fanless build with this hardware: Asus Z97 ATX board, 16GB DDR3, Asus R9 290, some spare 2.5" SSD/HDDs lying around.
I'm mostly into playing emulated retro games (which I also record on a separate NAS/PC) so the most demanding use cases are PS2, Wii and Dreamcast emulation. In my experience with PCSX2 and Dolphin, it's mostly the CPU which gets taxed and GPU is usually much under utilized leaving me to think there is good headroom for undervolting and underclocking as R9 290s are notoriously power hungry under full gaming load. I also have an older GTX560 collecting dust somewhere if that turns out to be a dead end.
With that in mind, I'd like to cram this setup into an HDPlex H5 Gen2 which should ideally outlast the core components for another rebuild or two. Building with the future in mind, I'd prefer to purchase the 400W DC-ATX. Speaking of parts lying around, a Dell DA-2 220W brick is available to me which in the past served as part of an eGPU setup but I don't know if it can be mated to the HDPlex PS unit. I'd welcome any advice on the build (power and cooling wise) and whether I should purchase another external brick or go with the DA-2 that I already have. Thanks in advance, have a good day.
I would like to create a fanless build with this hardware: Asus Z97 ATX board, 16GB DDR3, Asus R9 290, some spare 2.5" SSD/HDDs lying around.
I'm mostly into playing emulated retro games (which I also record on a separate NAS/PC) so the most demanding use cases are PS2, Wii and Dreamcast emulation. In my experience with PCSX2 and Dolphin, it's mostly the CPU which gets taxed and GPU is usually much under utilized leaving me to think there is good headroom for undervolting and underclocking as R9 290s are notoriously power hungry under full gaming load. I also have an older GTX560 collecting dust somewhere if that turns out to be a dead end.
With that in mind, I'd like to cram this setup into an HDPlex H5 Gen2 which should ideally outlast the core components for another rebuild or two. Building with the future in mind, I'd prefer to purchase the 400W DC-ATX. Speaking of parts lying around, a Dell DA-2 220W brick is available to me which in the past served as part of an eGPU setup but I don't know if it can be mated to the HDPlex PS unit. I'd welcome any advice on the build (power and cooling wise) and whether I should purchase another external brick or go with the DA-2 that I already have. Thanks in advance, have a good day.
