Plastidip is marketed as a low risk coating for beginners, but it is anything but easy to get a professional result with the aerosol can. I've practiced and practiced and the learning curve is steep.
This is basically my experience with plastidip, you have to be mindful when applying it, but if done right it will last and look great.Just have to make sure to use light coats. That's the biggest mistake the vast majority of people make with any kind of spray system... going to heavy. Rattle can or spray gun alike.
Don't worry if you can still see the base layer after the first coat, or the second, hell even the third coat in some cases. Just go light and after a few coats, things will begin to get nice and solid.
Plastidip can benefit from light coats even more than paint as well. Until it actually cures it'll "bond" with each additional coat, so in the end it'll be one solid layer.
Spray one pass over the item, wait 15-30 minutes or so, do another, wait again, do another, wait again, do another.
Patience is the number one rule when painting.
Another tip to get even sprays and less clogging in rattle cans, soak it in warm water for a few minutes between each coat. More so this time of the year when it's still relatively cold, or if you keep your spray cans in a basement or underground garage that stays cool year round.
Got around to installing my HD-PLEX 160W and 330W adapter...
I just can't figure out why my system keeps getting soft restarts.... driver/chipset/power ...
I'm just throwing out the idea here of using a Mean Well EPP-200 PSU inside a S4 Mini case. @Kmpkt's Orangulan build showed a brick-less setup, two different configurations of using a HD-Plex DC-ATX inside the case with a GPU, but its size still rather limits the GPU options.
An EPP-200 has a 2" x 4" x 1.2" volume so it will fit easily in the front of the motherboard, the same place that is frequently used for the HD-Plex DC boards. The GPU area is left completely open and you no longer need an external power brick. You can't use a GTX 1080 with it, but it is possible to run a 1060 *and* have all the power supply parts completely inside.
That sounds like a good idea for those who are under a certain wattage. But if you ever plan to upgrade to a 1070 or 1080, is there any brick-less solution that will cover that option?The thing is that the Meanwell would output a straight 12V which means far less downconversion at the DC board (ie. less heat produced). Additionally, it has a smaller footprint than the 160W DC-DC (102x51x31 vs. 131x 52x40 - 60% of the size). Using a Pico 160XT, you would have a complete solution inside your case and would have no restriction on GPU length.
The thing is that the Meanwell would output a straight 12V which means far less downconversion at the DC board (ie. less heat produced). Additionally, it has a smaller footprint than the 160W DC-DC (102x51x31 vs. 131x 52x40 - 60% of the size). Using a Pico 160XT, you would have a complete solution inside your case and would have no restriction on GPU length.
Could you elaborate on your setup a little bit?
The Meanwell EPP 300 & 400 as well as the HDPlex 300 would be the only Nano-PSU options that I can think of that are viable for SFF (Cosel makes some really small 500W open frame units for about 500 USD each if money is no object). The unfortunate thing is that none of these is S4 friendly. The dimensions of the EPP-300 and EPP-400 units are 127x77x35 while the HDPlex is supposed to be 136x62x41. Hypothetically if the dimensions hold until production the HDPlex could be squeezed into the S4 if you don't mind chopping stuff up, but it'd be tight.
One fun tidbit while we're talking about AC-DC solutions is that the HDPlex 300 will be the only AC-DC solution I am aware of specifically designed to deal with desktop PC system spikes. One of the problems that arises with laptop bricks is they are only made to take about 10% above their rated wattage as they have batteries to buffer hardware power spikes. As such you either need to get something far above your needed wattage (i.e. Dell 330W) or run the risk of bricking your brick. I did this to a 150 dollar Razer AC-DC brick despite it being rated for 150W and me never seeing higher than 130W from the wall. The HDPlex will have plenty of momentary spike headroom for the present generation of GPUs.