Powering a PCI-e riser with a 12v power brick

cleveland

Master of Cramming
Original poster
Sep 8, 2016
455
240
As the title sugests, i wanna know if there's an easy way to power a riser like this



with a 12v brick.

No, I'm not minning criptos, just searching for a clean and good way to add an external GPU to my Mini-box M350 rig.
 

Valantar

Shrink Ray Wielder
Jan 20, 2018
2,201
2,225
Should work fine, just get a brick capable of providing 75W at the very least (which translates to 6.25A - I'd add at least 30W/2.5A on top of that for safety) and either find one with a 6-pin Mini-fit connector or mod/adapt one to the required connector. This would ideally be a relatively high quality brick, as there'd be minimal filtering of the power going into the GPU from it, and noisy power could lead to instability or even hardware damage (not all power bricks conform to ATX power specs, after all).

That riser is pretty much only suitable for mining, though. It's a PCIe x1 riser, so it would bottleneck even a low-end GPU when gaming. There are x4 or x8 options that would be far better.
 

Valantar

Shrink Ray Wielder
Jan 20, 2018
2,201
2,225
I'm all ears now.
I'm assuming you want to route it out of a relatively small opening - please correct me if I'm wrong here :)

Here's an x4 riser, available in various lengths. It doesn't have a power input, though, but I think it has the mounting holes for a 4-pin power plug - you could likely solder it yourself, or look around for a version with it already attached. x4 is likely the best compromise between a compact/easily routed cable and performance - an x8 cable would be twice the width.
 

cleveland

Master of Cramming
Original poster
Sep 8, 2016
455
240
I'm assuming you want to route it out of a relatively small opening - please correct me if I'm wrong here :)

I'm interested in building the most simple eGPU possible. The riser you linked is good, but not enough for my needs, since there's no power correction on board and the cable looks really frail.
 

Valantar

Shrink Ray Wielder
Jan 20, 2018
2,201
2,225
I'm interested in building the most simple eGPU possible. The riser you linked is good, but not enough for my needs, since there's no power correction on board and the cable looks really frail.
I doubt that the cable is actually that thin - photos I've seen of other variants from the same brand look far thicker. I suspect it's just the render making it look less durable than reality. Given that cheaper risers than this use relatively thick ribbon cables, I don't see any reason to suspect this to be less durable than those, at least. As for the power issue, as I said there are powered versions out there, I just couldn't find one in the minute I spent looking this up :) Still @kotproger 's version does look far superior (but probably more expensive too!).
 

dfrgu

Trash Compacter
Mar 11, 2019
51
43
You might be interested in this solution.

Can be powered by both ATX and DC (Dell 8pin 220w DC Brick.) power supplies.

Final cabling might look like this
 
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Valantar

Shrink Ray Wielder
Jan 20, 2018
2,201
2,225
You might be interested in this solution.

Can be powered by both ATX and DC (Dell 8pin 220w DC Brick.) power supplies.

Final cabling might look like this
That looks sweet! Not cheap, though. Also illustrates how ADT-link's flex cables definitely aren't as thin and flimsy as renders might make them look :)

BTW, does Dell actually sell a 12V 220w brick? Do you have a part number?
 
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cleveland

Master of Cramming
Original poster
Sep 8, 2016
455
240
You might be interested in this solution.

Can be powered by both ATX and DC (Dell 8pin 220w DC Brick.) power supplies.

Final cabling might look like this
Sweet Jesus! That's EXACTLY what i was looking for!

Thanks a lot, @dfrgu! The only one complaining about your finding is my bank account! LOL
 
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