Log NFC S4M Brickless 2070 super + M2426 (the cleanest minimal build)

buttrmytoast

Trash Compacter
Original poster
Jun 2, 2018
52
27
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]
 
Last edited:

Desertf0x9

SFF Lingo Aficionado
Oct 13, 2018
101
50
That's some super clean cable management, way cleaner than my spew of cable mess behind my gpu haha.
 

Desertf0x9

SFF Lingo Aficionado
Oct 13, 2018
101
50
I may give the blower fan for the brick a shot. I have a Noctua on mine and I suspect that it may not been getting enough air flow being up against the top panel like that. Been having some stability issues which I think is power related. PC would or game would crash when I hit around 300 watts of power consumption between my CPU and GPU combined. I downclocked my GPU so I was only consuming about 200 watt which seems to be working without issues.
 

buttrmytoast

Trash Compacter
Original poster
Jun 2, 2018
52
27
I may give the blower fan for the brick a shot. I have a Noctua on mine and I suspect that it may not been getting enough air flow being up against the top panel like that. Been having some stability issues which I think is power related. PC would or game would crash when I hit around 300 watts of power consumption between my CPU and GPU combined. I downclocked my GPU so I was only consuming about 200 watt which seems to be working without issues.

Yeah it can't hurt to try it out. That was my fear too, not getting enough airflow with a standard fan. The blower fans are rated at lower air movement, but I think it's better due to being so close to the case, it should have an easier time breathing.
 

CubanLegend

Steely-Eyed NVFlash Man
Dec 23, 2016
832
1,011
smallformfactor.net
Wow so much about this build is so impressive! You managed a reverse-layout brickless S4M, but without the usual mods.. you did it in STYLE!

-all the little cable tie-downs are amazing
- I LOVE the low profile GPU wires you fashioned, and how perfect length they are to the DC-DC
-the hole in the AC/DC is genius
-The J-HACK 2426 is a piece of ART, wow
-and your heatshrink and solddering and cramming skills are impressive

All in all you did something amazing here, you took an already niche SFF build, and made it even MORE special and more clean! BRAVO! (I cant wait to see you tackle brickless S4M-C next!)
 

buttrmytoast

Trash Compacter
Original poster
Jun 2, 2018
52
27
Wow so much about this build is so impressive! You managed a reverse-layout brickless S4M, but without the usual mods.. you did it in STYLE!

-all the little cable tie-downs are amazing
- I LOVE the low profile GPU wires you fashioned, and how perfect length they are to the DC-DC
-the hole in the AC/DC is genius
-The J-HACK 2426 is a piece of ART, wow
-and your heatshrink and solddering and cramming skills are impressive

All in all you did something amazing here, you took an already niche SFF build, and made it even MORE special and more clean! BRAVO! (I cant wait to see you tackle brickless S4M-C next!)

Thanks man! Appreciate the sentiment

- Cable ties were a blessing, just saw them on performance pcs as "suggested items" when I was ordering some cable supplies and gave them a shot. I'm using some nice stiff cabling so they probably aren't 100% necessary but it made life so much easier to hold them down.
- The hole in the AC/DC was more of like a "screw it" moment hahah, I saw how the cable was running behind my motherboard tray and just thought it was so unnecessary, especially since I needed to solder longer cables anyway. Saw it as a way to kill two birds with one stone, hide my solder mess and reroute the cables in one go.
- Definitely check out J-Hack and send him and his products some love! (Discord, M2426 Thread, Product website) Word on the street is that he has some incredible projects coming up, so stay tuned!
- "and your heatshrink and solddering and cramming skills are impressive" I guess small hands aren't all that bad ?

Thanks again for the support! Will definitely be checking out your S4M-C brickless build log for a ton of inspiration when I get going on my next project
 
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Sealpup

Case Bender
New User
Aug 19, 2020
2
1
This is beautiful work, I have a few questions though

How do the hdplex dc-atx and the 2426 work together? Wouldn’t either one be sufficient by itself?

Also, did the gpu require any mods? Ive been wanting to upgrade my rig from a 1050to to the 2070s and other guys have said the mounting bracket needs modification.

Thanks for any insight!
 
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Reactions: matador1182

Thehack

Spatial Philosopher
Creator
Mar 6, 2016
2,800
3,650
J-hackcompany.com
This is beautiful work, I have a few questions though

How do the hdplex dc-atx and the 2426 work together? Wouldn’t either one be sufficient by itself?

Also, did the gpu require any mods? Ive been wanting to upgrade my rig from a 1050to to the 2070s and other guys have said the mounting bracket needs modification.

Thanks for any insight!

You should approach the M2426 more of a cable management solution than a DCATX power supply. It's designed to reduce wiring through black magic.

The hdplex 400 is designed to convert 19v to 12v for DCATX, so two different uses.
 

buttrmytoast

Trash Compacter
Original poster
Jun 2, 2018
52
27
This is beautiful work, I have a few questions though

How do the hdplex dc-atx and the 2426 work together? Wouldn’t either one be sufficient by itself?

Also, did the gpu require any mods? Ive been wanting to upgrade my rig from a 1050to to the 2070s and other guys have said the mounting bracket needs modification.

Thanks for any insight!

Hey there! Just to reiterate what @Thehack said, yeah the M2426 isn't stand alone. It requires taking 6 pins from the HDplex's 24 pin output (2x ground, 2x 12v, 1x 5svb, 1x PSON signal).

As for the GPU itself, no mods to the 2070 super in my case were required. In order to do this though you need to use the reverse PSU layout. This means putting the ACDC unit in the front and the DC-ATX unit at the bottom.

Let me kow ifyou have any other questions!

Thanks for checking this out.
 

Sealpup

Case Bender
New User
Aug 19, 2020
2
1
Hey there! Just to reiterate what @Thehack said, yeah the M2426 isn't stand alone. It requires taking 6 pins from the HDplex's 24 pin output (2x ground, 2x 12v, 1x 5svb, 1x PSON signal).

As for the GPU itself, no mods to the 2070 super in my case were required. In order to do this though you need to use the reverse PSU layout. This means putting the ACDC unit in the front and the DC-ATX unit at the bottom.

Let me kow ifyou have any other questions!

Thanks for checking this out.
Brilliant, thanks!
 

roshambembo

What's an ITX?
New User
Oct 6, 2019
1
0
This is totally awesome! How does the ACDC unit fit into the S4M next to the mobo? Mine is too wide to fit in where you put yours! Maybe I'm missing something...?
 

Aaronax

Minimal Tinkerer
New User
Sep 16, 2020
3
0
Thanks for this post. It's timely, as I've just started a build myself in the S4M using similar components. I opted for ASUS DUAL RTX 2070 Mini rather than Zotac's, but everything else is mostly the same.

Im curious, what's your overall power draw using the 2070 super? PC part picker told me that my components would draw about 429watts with the Zotac 2070 super, and only 399watts with the Asus card. I'd love to know how accurate their calculations are.

Also, I plan to use a portable monitor, something like the G-Story 17, or Asus's ROG Strix XG17. I'm thinking ill need to leave a little room to power those as well.

Awesome build, thanks for sharing it! Helps give me a little confidence for my own!
 

aromachi

Cable-Tie Ninja
Dec 18, 2019
150
137

buttrmytoast

Trash Compacter
Original poster
Jun 2, 2018
52
27
Thanks for this post. It's timely, as I've just started a build myself in the S4M using similar components. I opted for ASUS DUAL RTX 2070 Mini rather than Zotac's, but everything else is mostly the same.

Im curious, what's your overall power draw using the 2070 super? PC part picker told me that my components would draw about 429watts with the Zotac 2070 super, and only 399watts with the Asus card. I'd love to know how accurate their calculations are.

Also, I plan to use a portable monitor, something like the G-Story 17, or Asus's ROG Strix XG17. I'm thinking ill need to leave a little room to power those as well.

Awesome build, thanks for sharing it! Helps give me a little confidence for my own!


Hey! Thanks for the kind words and interest in my build. As for power draw, I don't have any issues. As @aromachi stated, you can look up real world power draw for these cards. Places like pc partpicker don't give an accurate reading of the power draw of these cards alone. I usually just google "Rtx [insert card name here] power consumption" and look for a review like this one on tom's hardware which told me somewhere in the ballpark of ~220 watts. Combining that with my relatively low power consuming CPU (i5-8600k non-overclocked) I knew I would be well within the 400 watt limit.

As for your additional concern of a portable monitor, I haven't used anything like that myself so you'll have to do the additional research on your own there (or perhaps someone else from this community can chime in).

As always thanks again for checking this out and do let me know if you have further questions that I can assist you with!
 

buttrmytoast

Trash Compacter
Original poster
Jun 2, 2018
52
27
This is totally awesome! How does the ACDC unit fit into the S4M next to the mobo? Mine is too wide to fit in where you put yours! Maybe I'm missing something...?

Hey there! Thanks for checking this build out. As @CubanLegend pointed out, you're probably using the AC-DC V1. I believe V2 is slightly smaller in order to accommodate front fitment in the S4M.

Additionally, I've heard that V3 is due to come out soon and should have similar dimensions to the V2 with the added advantage that the fan may be mounted internally rather than externally (or at least last time I reached out to Larry I think this is what he had said).

Let me know if there's anything else I can help with! Best of luck with your build!