S4 MINI Classic (S4M-C)
- Thread starter Josh | NFC
- Start date
Well to each their own. But that wraparound aluminum is one of the selling points of S4. And I bet it cost a good percentage for the total cost of the case.
Would also be curious to see if Josh plans more S4 runs. I wonder what will the last serial number be.
I also made the suggestion if there can be a clear panel option, though I wanted it for the flat piece facing the top of the motherboard, not the wrap-around piece. Josh wouldn't be able to do that, so it will have to be done as a DIY solution, such as cutting your own acrylic sheet.
Thanks for the info, that helps me out a ton. When you say 100% are you referring to the CPU, fans or both?
CPU. Fan I didn't do anything specific with, it was running at ~1400 RPM iirc. (does 600-1900). I just stuck a linux live usb in and ran stress (https://people.seas.harvard.edu/~apw/stress/) with 28 threads doing sqrt then monitored temps.
Awesome... that is extremely encouraging. I now feel confident that I can run a system with a 6800K.
Yeah, I'm imagining 140W TDP is pretty doable, though also keep in mind that this was also with a 45W max TDP graphics card doing nothing, so trying to get a real graphics card running with that may be interesting. With the LGA 2011-3 on the Asrock board options I've seen are basically that heatsink or a couple I've seen from Supermicro. I also saw a Korean one that apparently has better thermals than the Dynatron by a bit, but it actually had a closed top (they're all designed for horizontal airflow in 1u cases) which I figured probably wouldn't work super great trying to pull air through vertically.
Hehe... Linus reviewing all these L33T expensive barebones SFF systems when we've been one step ahead of the game the whole time
I have some updates to report in my testing.
My latest build is actually the first time i'm powering any system with the Pico PSU, and while the pico is rated for peak 200W, i'm having some difficulty with getting it to run smoothly.
(I've built and rebuilt the S4 so many times i've lost count now)
If you missed my previous post here regarding unigine benches, my system specs are:
Gigabyte H170N-Wifi
i5-6500
16GB Ram
M.2 SSD
Zotac 1060 mini
Pico PSU 160 + 192 W adapter.
So while i was running benches, i didn't really pay attention to the system. I just let it sit there while it does it thing. My S4 is purely just for benches, i use my main PC as my daily driver.
TL;DR
I wouldn't recommend the Pico if you are using it out of spec as I am (65W CPU + 120W GPU + system load) - it's only rated for 160W with a peak of 200W. I'm pretty sure during system spikes, some of the USB ports get their power cut, and that causes the intermittent mouse tracking / keyboard inputs. It will ultimately impact your gaming experience if you push the system to it's limit. If you really wish to pursue the pico, i would perhaps suggest using a 35W "T" variant of the CPU.
A couple of caveats:
1) I haven't tested this at a 1080p scenario - maybe everything will work fine, who knows.
2) Perhaps if i used a larger wattage adapter, instead of the 192W adapter, it could have taken alittle more punishment
3) Could be my motherboard drawing more watts, though unlikely.
Conclusion:
Buy a HDPlex and a 330W adapter if possible.
Pico would likely work for something like the 1050 or RX 460.
If anyone else has seen this issue please let me know, and for anyone else whos' running their >100W GPUs off the pico, also share your experiences.
Cheers
Shaun
My latest build is actually the first time i'm powering any system with the Pico PSU, and while the pico is rated for peak 200W, i'm having some difficulty with getting it to run smoothly.
(I've built and rebuilt the S4 so many times i've lost count now)
If you missed my previous post here regarding unigine benches, my system specs are:
Gigabyte H170N-Wifi
i5-6500
16GB Ram
M.2 SSD
Zotac 1060 mini
Pico PSU 160 + 192 W adapter.
So while i was running benches, i didn't really pay attention to the system. I just let it sit there while it does it thing. My S4 is purely just for benches, i use my main PC as my daily driver.
But just so happens I went for a small house party with friends and i thought, hey why not, let's bring the mini and my rift over and we can play "Keep talking and nobody explodes" (really good game btw). So once i'm there, i set everything up and when windows boots, i'm having trouble moving the mouse around. It sits there frozen for a few seconds, disappears, then comes back again intermittently. At this point i'm like WTF dude you were working fine just an hour ago, so i reboot, and when it comes on again, the same problem happens.
But i somehow managed to run oculus and let my friends have a go at oculus dreamdeck etc. Now, while running dreamdeck, or any rift games, I didn't seem to face any gameplay issues (at this time my mouse was unplugged, using xbox controller).
I had a call with Josh and he mentioned that a few people have had these sorts of freezing issue before, though noone could really pin point the reason why. So today I did some further non scientific tests.
I hooked up the system to my 4K tv, and again while booting windows or using windows in any fashion, the mouse is just 85%... the other 15% it's frozen or missing (i'm just drawing circles randomly with the mouse). I started Doom and played around with it - now i'm running 4K resolution, and honestly it's pretty damn amazing that the 1060 can run this without breaking a sweat - almost no tearing or dropped frames... at first. About 45 minutes into the game, now i start to drop frames like crazy, especially a particular portion of the map where there's frozen plants everywhere. Everything goes into slo mo and it's obvious something about the system is crapping out. Nonetheless it never ever shuts down or hangs, it always pushes through and after i walk out of that area it goes sorta back to normal. But after that episode, it doesn't feel right and i feel it's going below min frame rates and is just overall sluggish.
About this time i'm suspecting a power issue - because while 4K gaming may impact how the video card can handle graphical load, displaying a 4k desktop or a 1440P desktop, SHOULD NOT have any mouse lags. Also the fact that gaming was smooth until certain portions of the game also point to power draw hitting a peak during intense scenes and slowing everything down.
So i again, rebuilt the S4 with a HDPlex this time, and windows booted with no issues whatsoever. Mouse works like a charm, tracks are accurate. I played doom for another hour or so (didn't go back to the frozen part though, hence unscientific test) with zero lag or dropped frames.
But i somehow managed to run oculus and let my friends have a go at oculus dreamdeck etc. Now, while running dreamdeck, or any rift games, I didn't seem to face any gameplay issues (at this time my mouse was unplugged, using xbox controller).
I had a call with Josh and he mentioned that a few people have had these sorts of freezing issue before, though noone could really pin point the reason why. So today I did some further non scientific tests.
I hooked up the system to my 4K tv, and again while booting windows or using windows in any fashion, the mouse is just 85%... the other 15% it's frozen or missing (i'm just drawing circles randomly with the mouse). I started Doom and played around with it - now i'm running 4K resolution, and honestly it's pretty damn amazing that the 1060 can run this without breaking a sweat - almost no tearing or dropped frames... at first. About 45 minutes into the game, now i start to drop frames like crazy, especially a particular portion of the map where there's frozen plants everywhere. Everything goes into slo mo and it's obvious something about the system is crapping out. Nonetheless it never ever shuts down or hangs, it always pushes through and after i walk out of that area it goes sorta back to normal. But after that episode, it doesn't feel right and i feel it's going below min frame rates and is just overall sluggish.
About this time i'm suspecting a power issue - because while 4K gaming may impact how the video card can handle graphical load, displaying a 4k desktop or a 1440P desktop, SHOULD NOT have any mouse lags. Also the fact that gaming was smooth until certain portions of the game also point to power draw hitting a peak during intense scenes and slowing everything down.
So i again, rebuilt the S4 with a HDPlex this time, and windows booted with no issues whatsoever. Mouse works like a charm, tracks are accurate. I played doom for another hour or so (didn't go back to the frozen part though, hence unscientific test) with zero lag or dropped frames.
I wouldn't recommend the Pico if you are using it out of spec as I am (65W CPU + 120W GPU + system load) - it's only rated for 160W with a peak of 200W. I'm pretty sure during system spikes, some of the USB ports get their power cut, and that causes the intermittent mouse tracking / keyboard inputs. It will ultimately impact your gaming experience if you push the system to it's limit. If you really wish to pursue the pico, i would perhaps suggest using a 35W "T" variant of the CPU.
A couple of caveats:
1) I haven't tested this at a 1080p scenario - maybe everything will work fine, who knows.
2) Perhaps if i used a larger wattage adapter, instead of the 192W adapter, it could have taken alittle more punishment
3) Could be my motherboard drawing more watts, though unlikely.
Conclusion:
Buy a HDPlex and a 330W adapter if possible.
Pico would likely work for something like the 1050 or RX 460.
If anyone else has seen this issue please let me know, and for anyone else whos' running their >100W GPUs off the pico, also share your experiences.
Cheers
Shaun
Thanks for the feedback..
You know even HD plex 250w+Voodoo 350W could be barely acceptable for GPU.. On my R9 Nano, it was due to high current peak. We have also feedback of GTX 970 with melted hd plex..
For me, the best and safest remain on external SFX power supply (see my signature)...with that , true cooling/integration potential of NFC S4 mini is revealed..
You know even HD plex 250w+Voodoo 350W could be barely acceptable for GPU..
On my R9 Nano, it was due to high current peak. We have also feedback of GTX 970 with melted hd plex..For me, the best and safest remain on external SFX power supply (see my signature)...with that , true cooling/integration potential of NFC S4 mini is revealed..
Thanks for the feedback..
You know even HD plex 250w+Voodoo 350W could be barely acceptable for GPU..
For me, the best and safest remain on external SFX power supply (see my signature)...with that , true cooling/integration potential of NFC S4 mini is revealed..
Now i'm worried - i was excited to test the 1070
I guess the safest option is to underclock the GPU and use a "T" proc, if we really want to use the HDPlex.
But time will tell!
Have you tried this yet? The picture on Digi-Key doesn't quite match the header on my pico as far as I can tell. Let us know your experiences!
