Hey all wanted to share my rendition of a brickless 2070 super S4M (and possibly the cleanest one you've seen 
). The case itself is fully unmodded. I have modded a few of the other parts to accommodate some cable routing which I'll detail below
Some pictures first to show the end result:
What's inside?
CPU: i5-8600k (Delidded w/ Thermal Grizzly Conductonaut)
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-L9i Chromax
Mobo: Asus z370i w/ MOSFET heatsinks
RAM: Corsair vengeance LPX 16gb (8x2) @ 3000Mhz
GPU: Zotac RTX 2070 Super Mini (w/ 2x Noctua NF-A9 PWM fans)
Storage: Samsung 970 Evo 1tb with cooler
PSU: HDplex 400w (AC-DC and DC-ATX) + J-hack's M2426 unit
The build process itself:
A few notes first... All cables were custom made / fitted with the exception of the original CPU noctua fan (since it was basically the perfect length). The case itself is unmodded though I did mod a few of the other hardware parts for a cleaner cable route which I'll point out below. General layout is AC-DC unit in the front with the DC-ATX unit on the bottom. I've also opted for the DC-ATX unit in reverse from what other brickless 2070s builds have done with the 24 pin facing the 'back' side of the case
First up, general case and wire layout:
Few notable things here:
- The AC-DC unit rides up really close to the top of the case. I was afraid there wouldn't be enough clearance for the included 40mm fan to breath enough air so I installed a 40mm blower fan instead. I bought one on amazon and resoldered it with the perfect length wire. The mounting holes don't line up correctly so I've just taped it on and held it in with friction from the top plate. The spacers I'm using are actually just the anti-vibration pads that were included with the chromax noctuas.
- In order to get the AC wires to form more neatly inside the case I drilled a hole in the AD-DC unit plate and rerouted the wire inside to come out the 'top' side of the hdplex. It's also been resoldered with my own wiring to be the correct perfect length to the AC inlet.
- The AC inlet itself was ordered from mouser since the included one didn't align properly with the mounting holes. The one I've linked there is a perfect fit on the holes, just need to shave down some of the excess plastic to make it fit on the inside of the case.
- I drilled a hole straight through the corner of one of the noctua fans to route cabling through. This allowed me to place the AC-DC unit as far down as possible while still allowing cables to pass through. This was convenient as it left just enough clearance at the top for the 40mm fan. Also just looks nicer when put together as some of the cabling is hidden.
- I have the power button cable (also custom length/fitted) routed on the other side as it's just the right size to fit in a small groove on the back of the case.
- The two noctua fans were wired directly back up to the 2070s as I wanted the GPU to have direct control over the fans/fan curve. The noctua wires are incredibly thin and this was a headache to deal with, but I got it in the end.
Second up, Motherboard and M2426 Unit:
- For the MOSFETs I used some copper heatsinks that I got from titanrig. They seem to work pretty well, the thermal adhesive tape that comes with them is absolute garbage though
- CPU is an i5-8600k that has been delidded with thermal grizzly conductonaut, keeps the CPU nice and cool. Could have probably gone with a newer CPU / mobo combo as the HDPLEX can power it, but I had this i5 combo on hand
- Lastly, the pièce de résistance is J-hack's M2426 unit. If you haven't seen him before, definitely check him and all his products out. His M2426 unit is aptly named as it's a 24pin plugin unit that only requires 6 cables (i.e. 24 cables to 6 -> M2426). The 6 cables are (PSON signal, 5Vsb, 2x 12v and 2x ground). In my case I used some thick 15AWG for the 12v and ground cables so I just had 1 for each, reducing that bulky 24 wire mess down to just 4 wires. This thing is an absolute beast and I encourage you to check out J-hack. He makes incredible super high quality products. This is actually an early unit, he was kind enough to reach out to me and offer one for my use in this project. It's completely modular and symmetric. It also allows for CPU power as well (Taking in 12v power from one side and passing it through to the other)! Even if you don't plan on using it in this case or with an HDPLEX you can use it in any scenario with any off the shelf PSU if you want to tidy up your build.
- I'm using an innovation cooling graphite thermal pad instead of traditional TIM. While it isn't as great in real use as something like noctua NT-H1, it's clean and not messy and the performance difference is within a few degrees. On an i5 it probably won't mean that much of a difference.
- Side note, the M2426 unit also has pins for SATA connection (5v). In my case I'm using this to power a fan that's cooling my NVME drive heatsink.
Third up, GPU and final assembly:
- Man getting this GPU to fit was a pain in the ass. The clearance between the GPU and the HDPLEX DC-ATX unit is about 5mm so using lowprofile connectors is still a no-go. I didn't want to remove the top heatsink of the DC-ATX unit either. At first I tried using 180 connectors, and while those actually do fit and work, it would have made cable routing weird since the cables would go up then right back down. I don't have the facilities on hand to PCB fab so I just opted to make my own low profile direct wires as you can see in the pics below. I also made some low profile connectors to go into the DC-ATX unit to help facilitate wire bends, this seems to have worked out well.
- Luckily the power button that I bought has pretty low depth and doesn't seem to interfere with the GPU
Closing notes:
- This was an incredibly fun build where I definitely learned a ton (especially on soldering...). Couldn't have done it without the help of @Thehack, so thank you so much man! Keep up the great work.
- I wanted to make the cleanest build that I was capable of, all the wires you see here are custom fitted (except the CPU fan). Shoutout to MDPCX for making insanely high quality cable materials. All the wires you see there are their silver hookup wire series (15, 17, and 23 AWG).
- There's probably more I can improve upon and stuff, but if anyone has any questions or suggestions please feel free to drop them in the comments down below!
[I'll add a few more pictures here later of it all assembled with the side panels on]
). The case itself is fully unmodded. I have modded a few of the other parts to accommodate some cable routing which I'll detail belowSome pictures first to show the end result:
What's inside?
CPU: i5-8600k (Delidded w/ Thermal Grizzly Conductonaut)
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-L9i Chromax
Mobo: Asus z370i w/ MOSFET heatsinks
RAM: Corsair vengeance LPX 16gb (8x2) @ 3000Mhz
GPU: Zotac RTX 2070 Super Mini (w/ 2x Noctua NF-A9 PWM fans)
Storage: Samsung 970 Evo 1tb with cooler
PSU: HDplex 400w (AC-DC and DC-ATX) + J-hack's M2426 unit
The build process itself:
A few notes first... All cables were custom made / fitted with the exception of the original CPU noctua fan (since it was basically the perfect length). The case itself is unmodded though I did mod a few of the other hardware parts for a cleaner cable route which I'll point out below. General layout is AC-DC unit in the front with the DC-ATX unit on the bottom. I've also opted for the DC-ATX unit in reverse from what other brickless 2070s builds have done with the 24 pin facing the 'back' side of the case
First up, general case and wire layout:
Few notable things here:
- The AC-DC unit rides up really close to the top of the case. I was afraid there wouldn't be enough clearance for the included 40mm fan to breath enough air so I installed a 40mm blower fan instead. I bought one on amazon and resoldered it with the perfect length wire. The mounting holes don't line up correctly so I've just taped it on and held it in with friction from the top plate. The spacers I'm using are actually just the anti-vibration pads that were included with the chromax noctuas.
- In order to get the AC wires to form more neatly inside the case I drilled a hole in the AD-DC unit plate and rerouted the wire inside to come out the 'top' side of the hdplex. It's also been resoldered with my own wiring to be the correct perfect length to the AC inlet.
- The AC inlet itself was ordered from mouser since the included one didn't align properly with the mounting holes. The one I've linked there is a perfect fit on the holes, just need to shave down some of the excess plastic to make it fit on the inside of the case.
- I drilled a hole straight through the corner of one of the noctua fans to route cabling through. This allowed me to place the AC-DC unit as far down as possible while still allowing cables to pass through. This was convenient as it left just enough clearance at the top for the 40mm fan. Also just looks nicer when put together as some of the cabling is hidden.
- I have the power button cable (also custom length/fitted) routed on the other side as it's just the right size to fit in a small groove on the back of the case.
- The two noctua fans were wired directly back up to the 2070s as I wanted the GPU to have direct control over the fans/fan curve. The noctua wires are incredibly thin and this was a headache to deal with, but I got it in the end.
Second up, Motherboard and M2426 Unit:
- For the MOSFETs I used some copper heatsinks that I got from titanrig. They seem to work pretty well, the thermal adhesive tape that comes with them is absolute garbage though
- CPU is an i5-8600k that has been delidded with thermal grizzly conductonaut, keeps the CPU nice and cool. Could have probably gone with a newer CPU / mobo combo as the HDPLEX can power it, but I had this i5 combo on hand
- Lastly, the pièce de résistance is J-hack's M2426 unit. If you haven't seen him before, definitely check him and all his products out. His M2426 unit is aptly named as it's a 24pin plugin unit that only requires 6 cables (i.e. 24 cables to 6 -> M2426). The 6 cables are (PSON signal, 5Vsb, 2x 12v and 2x ground). In my case I used some thick 15AWG for the 12v and ground cables so I just had 1 for each, reducing that bulky 24 wire mess down to just 4 wires. This thing is an absolute beast and I encourage you to check out J-hack. He makes incredible super high quality products. This is actually an early unit, he was kind enough to reach out to me and offer one for my use in this project. It's completely modular and symmetric. It also allows for CPU power as well (Taking in 12v power from one side and passing it through to the other)! Even if you don't plan on using it in this case or with an HDPLEX you can use it in any scenario with any off the shelf PSU if you want to tidy up your build.
- I'm using an innovation cooling graphite thermal pad instead of traditional TIM. While it isn't as great in real use as something like noctua NT-H1, it's clean and not messy and the performance difference is within a few degrees. On an i5 it probably won't mean that much of a difference.
- Side note, the M2426 unit also has pins for SATA connection (5v). In my case I'm using this to power a fan that's cooling my NVME drive heatsink.
Third up, GPU and final assembly:
- Man getting this GPU to fit was a pain in the ass. The clearance between the GPU and the HDPLEX DC-ATX unit is about 5mm so using lowprofile connectors is still a no-go. I didn't want to remove the top heatsink of the DC-ATX unit either. At first I tried using 180 connectors, and while those actually do fit and work, it would have made cable routing weird since the cables would go up then right back down. I don't have the facilities on hand to PCB fab so I just opted to make my own low profile direct wires as you can see in the pics below. I also made some low profile connectors to go into the DC-ATX unit to help facilitate wire bends, this seems to have worked out well.
- Luckily the power button that I bought has pretty low depth and doesn't seem to interfere with the GPU
Closing notes:
- This was an incredibly fun build where I definitely learned a ton (especially on soldering...). Couldn't have done it without the help of @Thehack, so thank you so much man! Keep up the great work.
- I wanted to make the cleanest build that I was capable of, all the wires you see here are custom fitted (except the CPU fan). Shoutout to MDPCX for making insanely high quality cable materials. All the wires you see there are their silver hookup wire series (15, 17, and 23 AWG).
- There's probably more I can improve upon and stuff, but if anyone has any questions or suggestions please feel free to drop them in the comments down below!
[I'll add a few more pictures here later of it all assembled with the side panels on]
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