NFC Systems S4 Mini #72 Build

[Zackmd1]

Hello guys!

Relatively new to the site but I just wanted to share my S4 build! First of all I would like to thank Josh from NFC for answering all of my questions and for getting my S4 shipped out quickly! Josh truly made an excellent SFF case! I have no complaints with the build quality and everything fit perfectly!

Now on to the build! Specs are listed below...

• Gigabyte GA-Z170N-WIFI
• Intel Core i5 6500
• Noctua NH-L9i Cooler
• 16gb DDR4 2133mhz Kingston HyperX Fury memory
• 2 120gb SSD's (mixture of 840 pro and intel SSDs as I had those lying around)
• 1 1TB USB 3 external HDD for steam library
• EVGA GTX960 SC Mini ITX
• Pico 160XT PSU Customized (more on that below)
• Xbox One 215 watt power brick

The main objectives for this SFF build were to make a console killer on a budget under $800 and be capable of supporting macOS (Hackintosh). In day to day tasks I usually use macOS and while gaming I of course use Windows 10 with steam.
This build was built around the Xbox One Power Brick that I had lying around from a dead Xbox One.

I prefer this brick over others because it is purposely designed to remain on for extended periods of time (Xbox One standby mode), it is decently quiet, and provides the most power I can find for a 12V power brick of its size. Distributing the power is of course a MiniBox Pico 160XT PSU that as been modified with 18 gauge sleeved wiring and 14 gauge power in wiring. In order to adapt the Pico to the xbox brick I cut the power connecter away from the dead xbox one motherboard and wired up 4 18 gauge wire leads in as seen below. These leads then terminate into 14 gauge wiring all the way up to the pico. This should be more then enough to handle the expected wattage of the system.

Speaking of system wattage... I did some testing while I had all of my parts out of the S4 case to see just how much power the system was drawing during various use cases. The results of my testing are listed below.

Idle: 40-50 watts
Typical usage (Internet, Office, etc): 55-60 watts
100% CPU load: 90-100 watts
100% GPU load 30% CPU (typical gaming load): 150 watts with peaks around 170 watts
Full Load 100% CPU 100% GPU: 205 watts with peaks as high as 230 watts

As you can see I am well within the Xbox One power brick rating for most of the usage cases. At artificial full system load my power does peak around 230 watts but I saw no stability issues and the Xbox One brick handled it without issue.

Because of the size of the xbox one power connector this required a bit of modification to the S4 Mini's power connector mounting. I basically started by cutting away a rectangle area starting from the cutout for the video card mount to almost the outer diameter of the stock hole as seen in the pic below. From here I removed the 5mm Aluminum trim and drilled two holes in the GPU vent panel as mounting points. Using custom plastic standoffs I then screwed in the xbox one power connector and achieved this result

As you can see, everything that I could sleeve is sleeved.

After these modifications to the S4 the rest of the install was pretty straight forward. I ended up using a different riser card as NFC's riser cards are out of stock. I purchased an "ezdiy" 10cm riser from amazon and it works pretty well! I lost some but not much performance from the 960 but I believe that has to do with the bends required to fit this riser card in. Below are the final build pictures! I still have some work to do with the SATA cable routing but for now they will remain. Let me know what you guys think!

 

[Josh | NFC]

VERY nice cut for the DC jack, and great build log!

I actually want to switch over (or back to, depending on how you look at it) to OSX as I spend so much time in front of Premiere, and I miss Final Cut. Maybe you can answer some of my questions later

 

[Kooki]

Sorry for the broken Xbone, but great use of the brick! Everything looks so clean as they're all sleeved!

 

[Zackmd1]

VERY nice cut for the DC jack, and great build log!

I actually want to switch over (or back to, depending on how you look at it) to OSX as I spend so much time in front of Premiere, and I miss Final Cut. Maybe you can answer some of my questions later

Haha feel free to! I spent the last 2 months researching the parts required to have a system up to my standards for stability! It is not exactly easy but with the right combination of hardware it is possible to have one computer for everything! Xbox (even more so now with xbox anywhere titles), mac desktop (cheaper and more powerful then a mac mini), and PC!

 

[Phuncz]

Nice mod, clean build, well done !

 

[MrTiny]

Awesome!

 

[Zackmd1]

Final piece of the puzzle! Scotch self stick clear rubber feet!

 

[MrTiny]

Taller feet are suggested to avoid gpu overheating problems if i remember correctly.

 

[Zackmd1]

I was looking for taller feet but was unable to find any in stores. My current GPU shows no signs of overheating though. It's load temp is only 1-2 degrees shy of the open test bench setup I had before. I will continue to monitor it though!

 

[Josh | NFC]

I really like these conical bumper feet and have been using them for clients who request them.

 

[Cain]

Who is the true #72 ?

http://i.imgur.com/QZ2ioFc.jpg

 

[Zackmd1]

Ha! Good question! Josh!?

 

[Josh | NFC]

Uhoh...

Cain, can you PM me with your order number--I have Zack's handy. I need to get this fixed ASAP so I don't get all the serials wrong. Was it 6212016 perchance?

I accidentally made one customer's box with the card and the invoice, screws, velcro, and then got it mixed up so I made another one up that was a duplicate and I accidentally shipped that out. I've been trying to find out today who I got mixed up.

Sorry about this >.<

 

[Zackmd1]

Uhoh...

Cain, can you PM me with your order number--I have Zack's handy. I need to get this fixed ASAP so I don't get all the serials wrong. Was it 6212016 perchance?

I accidentally made one customer's box with the card and the invoice, screws, velcro, and then got it mixed up so I made another one up that was a duplicate and I accidentally shipped that out. I've been trying to find out today who I got mixed up.

Sorry about this >.<

It is no problem!! Just let me know if and when I should change my title!

 

[Zackmd1]

So according to the rumors, the RX 470 will be released tomorrow.... 110 watts and near if not exceeding 970 performance.... I think a new GPU might be in my immediate future....

 

[zhl146]

! Someone who has modded the pico for 18 gauge wire!

If you wouldn't mind, could you explain some of the details in your modding? I have been asking in the s4 mini thread here about it. Did you just splice some 18 gauge into the existing harness, or did you make new harness(es) from scratch? I would be very interested to know!

 

[Zackmd1]

! Someone who has modded the pico for 18 gauge wire!

If you wouldn't mind, could you explain some of the details in your modding? I have been asking in the s4 mini thread here about it. Did you just splice some 18 gauge into the existing harness, or did you make new harness(es) from scratch? I would be very interested to know!

The "best" way to go about modding the Pico would be to create new harnesses from scratch and source both the pins and connectors for the Pico. The issue with this is that through my research, I was unable to find any pin that was compatible with the Pico connectors and 16 gauge wire. The connectors are simply to small to support that gauge. So I just ended up cutting the Pico harness about .5-1 inch ( the shorter the better) from the connector and spiced in my 16/18 gauge harness. I didn't bother touching the CPU wiring as I only have a 65 watt CPU. If going with a K variant and interested in overclocking I would suggest beef up that CPU harness as well.

Been running the setup for about a month now on the Pico and Xbox One power supply and have had absolutely no issues with stability! Peak power numbers are a little high though for my liking so I disabled the IGPU and undervolted the I5 some.... Got my 65 Watt processor down to 45 Watts with no hit in clock speed or performance. While I was at it, I overclocked the Kingston RAM to 2666Mhz with no jump in temperature or power. Makes me think that all of the Kingston memory chips are the same and are just factory limited in speed. Next up is getting that more efficient Pascal or Polaris GPU. Just waiting on official RX 470 benchmarks before I decide between it and a GTX 1060.

The ultimate goal is to have a VR ready PC at the lowest power consumption possible (and price). Right now from leaked benchmarks, the RX 470 seems to match the R9 290 which meets the minimum spec for VR. The 1060 gives more assurance about being VR ready but is also $100 more expensive..... Decisions decisions.....

 

[BirdofPrey]

Given how many pixels VR pushes, and the fact that framerate issues can exacerbate simulator sickness, I wouldn't go for the minimum spec.

 

[CXH4]

The "best" way to go about modding the Pico would be to create new harnesses from scratch and source both the pins and connectors for the Pico. The issue with this is that through my research, I was unable to find any pin that was compatible with the Pico connectors and 16 gauge wire. The connectors are simply to small to support that gauge. So I just ended up cutting the Pico harness about .5-1 inch ( the shorter the better) from the connector and spiced in my 16/18 gauge harness. I didn't bother touching the CPU wiring as I only have a 65 watt CPU. If going with a K variant and interested in overclocking I would suggest beef up that CPU harness as well.

Been running the setup for about a month now on the Pico and Xbox One power supply and have had absolutely no issues with stability! Peak power numbers are a little high though for my liking so I disabled the IGPU and undervolted the I5 some.... Got my 65 Watt processor down to 45 Watts with no hit in clock speed or performance. While I was at it, I overclocked the Kingston RAM to 2666Mhz with no jump in temperature or power. Makes me think that all of the Kingston memory chips are the same and are just factory limited in speed. Next up is getting that more efficient Pascal or Polaris GPU. Just waiting on official RX 470 benchmarks before I decide between it and a GTX 1060.

I have been looking at your thread for a while now because I plan on doing a similar build to yours, I was also interested in knowing how to wire the Pico PSU, because I have no experience in: wiring, soldering, etc. and wish to push as much power and performance out of it as possible with a little overhead as well. Perhaps pictures or a video on how to do this would be greatly appreciated, and excellent work on your build and modding of your PC. Definitely inspired me.

 

[zhl146]

I have been looking at your thread for a while now because I plan on doing a similar build to yours, I was also interested in knowing how to wire the Pico PSU, because I have no experience in: wiring, soldering, etc. and wish to push as much power and performance out of it as possible with a little overhead as well. Perhaps pictures or a video on how to do this would be greatly appreciated, and excellent work on your build and modding of your PC. Definitely inspired me.

To be honest, unless you are using a brick that is higher wattage than the default one pico-box supplies, you probably don't need to mod the wires. We're probably just being a bit OCD here and I want my wires to be sleeved to about the same thickness.

If you still plan to go through with it, I would suggest buying the right tools. Most of the stuff you can get from a reputable store like MOD ONE (https://mod-one.com/). They will supply you with:

- New wire
- New pins
- New molex connectors
- heatshrink
- sleeving (optional)
- crimping tool
- pin removal tool (if you plan on reusing anything)

You'll also probably also need a soldering iron and some solder and I would recommend that you get a nice wire stripper to make things easier and more uniform.

The basic idea is to use uninterrupted runs of new wire wherever possible and only splice (connect two wires together) when you absolutely have to. When you want to splice, make sure you solder the two wires together (look up a youtube video for this one).

As far as using new wire.

1) Cut it to the length you want
2) use a wire stripper to strip off 1/4 inch or so of insulation
3) use your crimper to crimp on the molex pins
4) sleeve it if you want
5) throw on the heatshrink
6) activate heatshrink
7) insert molex pins into connectors

Since you'll basically be recreating the original harness more or less, you can follow their pinning. If you want to learn more or if you want to alter it more, you can always look at a pin-out diagram.

I've only been asking other people for help, so I figured I would try and contribute. There are video guides out there too if you want a video walkthrough. It's fairly simple, but you need patience to get good results.

Hope this helps!