Redrum - AsRock Fatal1ty + OBT Mini Test Bench

[Kmpkt]

Finally got around to building out my new OBT Mini in a nice enough fashion to be worthy of sharing with the community (my photos are still awful though - sorry). For those unfamiliar with the OBT Mini, it is an absolutely ITX-based premium test bench recently released by @Trouffman and the other fine folks over at the Open Benchtable Project.

As you'll notice, I managed to put the KMPKT Dynamo Mini and Dynamo 360 to work on my bench as the flexibility of the unit made it an easy fit. Anyhow, I'll likely write a proper review at some point, but for now enjoy the photos and feel free to ask any questions you may have about the build.

The OBT mini completely collapsed and easily portable

Deployed and ready to go

Gotta get a shot of the Dynamo 360 and Mini in place

Fully loaded with an i7-7700K and Zotac 1080 Mini

Here you can see the Dynamo 360 nicely nestled under the Zotac 1080 Mini

And the whole unit ready for testing (running off HDPlex 300W AC-DC)

 

[AleksandarK]

AWESOME.

You really hit the color combinations.

Photos are super chisp. What camera are you using?

 

[Kmpkt]

Sony A6000

 

[chingi5]

Finally got around to building out my new OBT Mini in a nice enough fashion to be worthy of sharing with the community (my photos are still awful though - sorry). For those unfamiliar with the OBT Mini, it is an absolutely ITX-based premium test bench recently released by @Trouffman and the other fine folks over at the Open Benchtable Project.

As you'll notice, I managed to put the KMPKT Dynamo Mini and Dynamo 360 to work on my bench as the flexibility of the unit made it an easy fit. Anyhow, I'll likely write a proper review at some point, but for now enjoy the photos and feel free to ask any questions you may have about the build.

The OBT mini completely collapsed and easily portable

Deployed and ready to go

Gotta get a shot of the Dynamo 360 and Mini in place

Fully loaded with an i7-7700K and Zotac 1080 Mini

Here you can see the Dynamo 360 nicely nestled under the Zotac 1080 Mini

And the whole unit ready for testing (running off HDPlex 300W AC-DC)

If I understand correctly both Dynamo 360 and Dynamo mini are DC-ATX converters, right?
I've seen several builds where both of these are used, can you please explain what is the reason?
Does the Dynamo 360 power the Dynamo mini? Or they are working in parallel to reduce load on each of them?
Does using them at the same time increase the power output to 560w?
Does this reduce cable clutter over using a single converter unit?

Please excuse my ignorance as I do not completely understand how these converters work.
I've ordered an HDPlex 160w converter to use with my 750Ti but want to upgrade in the future to a beafier card (1060 may be) so would the 160w unit cut it if I use a powerful enough brick? And how much watts does the power brick have to be?

 

[Kmpkt]

The Dynamo Mini is a standalone DC-DC converter that takes 16-24V input and provides everything you need to run a standard PC including 24 pin ATX, 8 pin EPS, SATA and 6+2 pin PCIe.

The Dynamo 360 is also usable as a standalone for some PC systems, but has no way to power a 24 pin ATX on its own. It can power SATA and 2 x PCIe 6+2 directly providing up to 360W of power. Where the Dynamo 360 differs from other DC-DC converters on the market is that is has not just a 16-24V power in, but also a 16-24V power out acting as an AC-DC converter passthrough. This means you can plug in a Dynamo Mini to the 16-24V power out header in order to power your ATX motherboard via 24 pin ATX cable and 8 pin EPS cable. In addition to the Dynamo Mini, you can also use the included 6 pin Molex to barrel connector to power virtually any mini-PC board in place of a standard ATX based motherboard. These include (but are not limited to) Micro STX, Mini STX, Intel NuC, Hades Canyon NuC, Devil's Canyon NuC and Thin Mini-ITX.

The simplest and primary intended use case scenario is to use the two Dynamo units in combination. In doing this, you will have a total DC power solution that provides up to 520W of total rated wattage (should be able to do 560W comfortably). If you have access to a very large AC-DC supply like the Eurocom 780W, you can plug the AC-DC supply into the 16-24V power in header on the Dynamo 360 and the Dynamo Mini to the 16-24V power out header. Note that if you choose to go this route, you may need to get a custom power in header for the Weipu many of these power supplies use. @Josh | NFC can do these for you.

As an alternative, you can plug the Dynamo mini into a single AC-DC unit (HDPlex 160W AC-DC is the best example) and then plug the Dynamo 360 into a second and separate AC-DC supply (HDPlex 300W AC-DC is the best example). If you prefer external AC-DC bricks, this would also allow you to do a dual brick solution with (for example) a Razer 165W laptop adapter powering the Dynamo Mini and a Dell 330W AC-DC powering the Dynamo Mini.

On some motherboards, the power monitoring functions won't allow synchronized powering on and off of the two units. To solve this problem, the Dynamo 360 ships with a 2 pin sync cable. Through use of 2 pin headers on both units, this cable allows the units to synchronize power on and power off states when operating from two different AC-DC supplies. Using the above example with the HDPlex 160W + 300W, you have a power solution that provides 460W of rated power with the capacity to handle momentary power spikes into the realm of 560W

With respect to cable clutter, this was one of the primary reasons I chose to design this unit. If you place the Dynamo 360 close to the GPU you can get away with one or two very short custom cables rather than long cables that traverse your entire case. Additionally I am trying to work on a PCB based connector not unlike the EVGA Powerlink to allow direct plugging of the Dynamo 360 to the back of your GPU. The use of the Dynamo Mini in place of a standard ATX 24 pin cable quite literally removes 20 wires from your case. When compared to the HDPlex 400W DC-ATX (which often requires use of a very short and inflexible 24 pin cables in the NFC S4M) this makes building much easier and cleaner. Finally with the option of running SATA cables from the Dynamo 360 and/or the Dynamo Mini, you can simply choose the shortest route that requires the least cable bulk.

With respect to upgradability, buying the Dynamo Mini now will provide you with a very simple upgrade path later through the addition of a Dynamo 360 to your system.

I hope this answers you questions sufficiently @chingi5 . If not, please feel free to ask away in this thread or alternatively via PM.

 

[chingi5]

The Dynamo Mini is a standalone DC-DC converter that takes 16-24V input and provides everything you need to run a standard PC including 24 pin ATX, 8 pin EPS, SATA and 6+2 pin PCIe.

The Dynamo 360 is also usable as a standalone for some PC systems, but has no way to power a 24 pin ATX on its own. It can power SATA and 2 x PCIe 6+2 directly providing up to 360W of power. Where the Dynamo 360 differs from other DC-DC converters on the market is that is has not just a 16-24V power in, but also a 16-24V power out acting as an AC-DC converter passthrough. This means you can plug in a Dynamo Mini to the 16-24V power out header in order to power your ATX motherboard via 24 pin ATX cable and 8 pin EPS cable. In addition to the Dynamo Mini, you can also use the included 6 pin Molex to barrel connector to power virtually any mini-PC board in place of a standard ATX based motherboard. These include (but are not limited to) Micro STX, Mini STX, Intel NuC, Hades Canyon NuC, Devil's Canyon NuC and Thin Mini-ITX.

The simplest and primary intended use case scenario is to use the two Dynamo units in combination. In doing this, you will have a total DC power solution that provides up to 520W of total rated wattage (should be able to do 560W comfortably). If you have access to a very large AC-DC supply like the Eurocom 780W, you can plug the AC-DC supply into the 16-24V power in header on the Dynamo 360 and the Dynamo Mini to the 16-24V power out header. Note that if you choose to go this route, you may need to get a custom power in header for the Weipu many of these power supplies use. @Josh | NFC can do these for you.

As an alternative, you can plug the Dynamo mini into a single AC-DC unit (HDPlex 160W AC-DC is the best example) and then plug the Dynamo 360 into a second and separate AC-DC supply (HDPlex 300W AC-DC is the best example). If you prefer external AC-DC bricks, this would also allow you to do a dual brick solution with (for example) a Razer 165W laptop adapter powering the Dynamo Mini and a Dell 330W AC-DC powering the Dynamo Mini.

On some motherboards, the power monitoring functions won't allow synchronized powering on and off of the two units. To solve this problem, the Dynamo 360 ships with a 2 pin sync cable. Through use of 2 pin headers on both units, this cable allows the units to synchronize power on and power off states when operating from two different AC-DC supplies. Using the above example with the HDPlex 160W + 300W, you have a power solution that provides 460W of rated power with the capacity to handle momentary power spikes into the realm of 560W

With respect to cable clutter, this was one of the primary reasons I chose to design this unit. If you place the Dynamo 360 close to the GPU you can get away with one or two very short custom cables rather than long cables that traverse your entire case. Additionally I am trying to work on a PCB based connector not unlike the EVGA Powerlink to allow direct plugging of the Dynamo 360 to the back of your GPU. The use of the Dynamo Mini in place of a standard ATX 24 pin cable quite literally removes 20 wires from your case. When compared to the HDPlex 400W DC-ATX (which often requires use of a very short and inflexible 24 pin cables in the NFC S4M) this makes building much easier and cleaner. Finally with the option of running SATA cables from the Dynamo 360 and/or the Dynamo Mini, you can simply choose the shortest route that requires the least cable bulk.

With respect to upgradability, buying the Dynamo Mini now will provide you with a very simple upgrade path later through the addition of a Dynamo 360 to your system.

I hope this answers you questions sufficiently @chingi5 . If not, please feel free to ask away in this thread or alternatively via PM.

Ah, I see now. Thank you for very very detailed response, I really appreciate it!

 

[jtd871]

The Dynamo Mini is a standalone DC-DC converter that takes 16-24V input and provides everything you need to run a standard PC including 24 pin ATX, 8 pin EPS, SATA and 6+2 pin PCIe.
The Dynamo 360 is also usable as a standalone for some PC systems, but has no way to power a 24 pin ATX on its own. It can power SATA and 2 x PCIe 6+2 directly providing up to 360W of power.

[snip]

As an alternative, you can plug the Dynamo mini into a single AC-DC unit (HDPlex 160W AC-DC is the best example) and then plug the Dynamo 360 into a second and separate AC-DC supply (HDPlex 300W AC-DC is the best example). If you prefer external AC-DC bricks, this would also allow you to do a dual brick solution with (for example) a Razer 165W laptop adapter powering the Dynamo Mini and a Dell 330W AC-DC powering the Dynamo Mini.

@Kmpkt, please confirm that the Dell 330W brick would be used with the Dynamo 360, not the Mini as stated above where I've added emphasis.

 

[Kmpkt]

You could use the 330W with either, but each unit will be limited to the wattage of it's AC-DC supply. As an example, if you use a HDPlex 160W AC-DC with the Dynamo 360 and try to push over 160W you will trigger overcurrent protection on the 160W AC-DC and shut your system down. If you put the Dell 330W on a Dynamo Mini and push the unit beyond it's capabilities then you will overcurrent protection at somewhere around 210 to 220W and shut your system down.

If you want to run the most effective Dual AC-DC Dynamo Combo then you put the Dell 330 on your Dynamo 360 and a smaller AC-DC power supply on your Dynamo Mini.

 

[Hank0]

I know this is designed as a mini test bench. Anyone using this in a permanent setup as it looks pretty sharp. I'm running a pretty silent setup and don't mind it on the desktop, ASUS ROG z370i MB, i5-8400 with Noctua CPU cooler and MSI RX-560 (set to 0% fan speed and runs 25C for normal use). One question I have is with my SFX power supply (Corsair SF450), doesn't look like there is much clearance for the fan.

 

[GiancarloCP]

Nice build!

 

[el01]

Awful photos? They look great (as with the rest of the build!)