S4 MINI Classic (S4M-C)

[hat1324]

Absolutely love this community, so many responses!

I'm not actually getting a BSOD at all - the machine just "loses" power and turns back on again. Event Viewer logs show a kernel power loss event right at the time the Mini dies. I play primarily Company of Heroes 2 and BF1 -- resets have only occured on these games, normal usage has never had any issues.

1. The 24-pin 16-24V HDPLEX looks awesome! Will definitely check it out and potentially buy one just to have a backup PSU. (My Mini is now my main PC for work/play and I'm about to finish moving to another country!)
2. If I went down the HDPLEX 300W path, wouldn't I need the extra drilling near the power inlet to fit the HDPLEX power connector?
3. As for Non-SC mod, it's essentially flashing the 1060 BIOS with the EVGA "Gaming" SKU BIOS vs. Superclocked
4. Strange, as I did some pretty heavy testing with the 1060 after I flashed it and it seemed to hold its own with no tunings to PrecisionX.
5. By different brick, do you mean another Minibox 192W brick, as the PicoPSU is 12V input only?

Whoops, sorry. I thought you were using the 250W/300W unit from HDPLEX. That said, does the light on the AC adapter go out when your computer shuts down like that?

 

[hat1324]

I wonder if that voids your warranty

I'm going to guess no, but only because I once had a Gigabyte 280X where I trimmed off the end of the shroud and they said it was fine for RMA.

 

[eutholevonik]

Don't ask. I'm embarrassed...

Sharpie.

I was going to use red spray paint, but my hands don't seem to be delicate enough for the intricacies of the GPU shroud when trying to use painter's tape. I'm ashamed.

Aren't they stickers?

 

[LodisKnight]

Aren't they stickers?

Nope. I wish. It's painted on.

 

[eutholevonik]

Nope. I wish. It's painted on.

Aw man

Wishing thinking I guess, I remember some of their older models having stickers.

What kind of temps are you getting with the 1070 mini?

 

[mtl171]

Just received my S4 mini today!

And more excitingly, I've managed to fit a Zotac 1070 Mini (idea courtesy of @1461748123) while maintaining the HDPlex PSU connector in its stock position. Primarily this was accomplished by placing one of the screw mounts of the connector over part of the GPU (its barely short enough). I then routed the power cable on the front side of the card before passing it back to the front.

Overall, it seems to work though I've yet to verify the temperatures. Not sure if I would recommend it as I'm sure I bent a couple heatsinks in the process.

 

[eutholevonik]

Just received my S4 mini today!

And more excitingly, I've managed to fit a Zotac 1070 Mini (idea courtesy of @1461748123) while maintaining the HDPlex PSU connector in its stock position. Primarily this was accomplished by placing one of the screw mounts of the connector over part of the GPU (its barely short enough). I then routed the power cable on the front side of the card before passing it back to the front.

Overall, it seems to work though I've yet to verify the temperatures. Not sure if I would recommend it as I'm sure I bent a couple heatsinks in the process.

Would love to see more pictures of the overall system. Curious to see the temps as well.

 

[Josh | NFC]

 

[ricochet]

C

Would love to see more pictures of the overall system. Curious to see the temps as well.

Concur, please post a full system pic so we can see the full layout and HDPLEX PSU. Cheers,

 

[fjbruening]

Cleverly, who knew the Gigabyte Z170MX Gaming 5 isn't the same as the Gigabyte Z170N Gaming 5.

my S4 mini arrived today! Perfectly packed and protected and I really love the workmanship. It's an awesome case! Thanks Josh.

So I got all my boxes of stuff that have been arriving from Amazon recently, and started opening them up on the kitchen table.

Imagine my chagrin when I realize my MB is WAY too big for the S4. I then realized I bought the Z170MX instead of the Z170N.

Before I return the MB, I'm curious what's the consensus on MB's for the S4. I could go with the Z170N, but I was curious if there's another MB you guys would recommend?

I'm running an i5 6600, the Pico powersupply, and would like an MB with m.2 if possible, but I guess I can return that too if necessary...

Thanks in advance.
Francis

 

[mtl171]

Would love to see more pictures of the overall system. Curious to see the temps as well.

C

Concur, please post a full system pic so we can see the full layout and HDPLEX PSU. Cheers,

Build log with more pics here: https://smallformfactor.net/forum/threads/nfc-s4-mini-178-dusk.1458/

Cable management is a bit tragic so far especially with the 24 pin crammed against the RAM. The HDPlex is currently temporarily secured with some double sided tape as its replacement (due to coil whine) should be coming next week.

 

[mtl171]

Cleverly, who knew the Gigabyte Z170MX Gaming 5 isn't the same as the Gigabyte Z170N Gaming 5.

my S4 mini arrived today! Perfectly packed and protected and I really love the workmanship. It's an awesome case! Thanks Josh.

So I got all my boxes of stuff that have been arriving from Amazon recently, and started opening them up on the kitchen table.

Imagine my chagrin when I realize my MB is WAY too big for the S4. I then realized I bought the Z170MX instead of the Z170N.

Before I return the MB, I'm curious what's the consensus on MB's for the S4. I could go with the Z170N, but I was curious if there's another MB you guys would recommend?

I'm running an i5 6600, the Pico powersupply, and would like an MB with m.2 if possible, but I guess I can return that too if necessary...

Thanks in advance.
Francis

The Asus Z170i Pro Gaming might be up your alley. I've seen it in a bunch of build logs and it does support M2.

 

[CubanLegend]

@mtl171 HOLY CRAP! What a Genius idea with the power plug! That makes me so hype for potentially being able to use the stock location with my ZOTAC 1080 mini in the future! Did you remove the 1070 mini's fan and shroud? it looks like you placed a slim fan on top of it with the S4 mini's fan bracket, is the fan connected to the GPU itself? Can you post a top and bottom pic of the build with the sides off? did you have to remove the bezel for the 1070 mini to fit? DD So many questions!

Also, @fjbruening regarding a mini-ITX mobo you might want... look a few pages/posts back, someone posted about a mobo and linked to one that has M.2... personally I'm waiting for the ASUS z270i STRIX to be released, as its the first of it's kind and currently the only z270 mobo to have dual M.2 in a Mini-ITX form factor (both M.2 slots are PCIE/NVME but one also supports sata m.2). ASUS UK has said it should be out late Jan/ Early Feb, so if I were you I'd hang tight and wait a bit, there's quite a few of us here waiting for it... lol

 

[mtl171]

@mtl171 HOLY CRAP! What a Genius idea with the power plug! That makes me so hype for potentially being able to use the stock location with my ZOTAC 1080 mini in the future! Did you remove the 1070 mini's fan and shroud? it looks like you placed a slim fan on top of it with the S4 mini's fan bracket, is the fan connected to the GPU itself? Can you post a top and bottom pic of the build with the sides off? did you have to remove the bezel for the 1070 mini to fit? DD So many questions!

Also, regarding a mini-ITX mobo you might want... look a few pages/posts back, someone posted about a mobo and linked to one that has M.2... personally I'm waiting for the ASUS z270i STRIX to be released, as its the first of it's kind and currently the only X270 mobo to have dual M.2 in a Mini-ITX form factor.

Thanks! If the 1080 mini is the same or less tall than the 1070 mini, it should still work.

Yes. Yes via an adapter cable. See my build log. See my build log.

 

[CubanLegend]

Thanks! If the 1080 mini is the same or less tall than the 1070 mini, it should still work.

Yes. Yes via an adapter cable. See my build log. See my build log.

duuuude OMG I'm so exccited to check your thread. I've already got my GELID gpu-fan-header to normal Fan-header adapter from Amazon and a few mini GPU fan header extension cables just in case... =D

Also, I got my two 2.5inch HDDs in today! the 2.5inch 7mm (super thin!) 2TB Seagate SSHD is fast! I copied watch_dogs 2 to run a test and fast travelling in the game used to almost take 60 seconds to load.... now it takes less than 9 seconds, WOW! I love the SSHD's cache system, its going to do wonders for game load times over a standard mechanical drive!

And I got my 2.5inch 15mm Seagate Barracuda (just as thick as my old 1.5TB 2.5inch drive from 2010 lol) And I'm currently cloning all my media over to it from my HUGE 3.5inch 5TB toshiba with my dual-HDD dock I use for cloning and sata drive hotswaping.

All I'm waiting for now is:
-S4 Mini and riser/power switch invoice
-ASUS z270i STRIX
-ZOTAC 1080 mini
-Samsung 960 EVO 250GB M.2 (my boot drive, lol) it's been on backorder for three weeks now (sold out everywhere online), so my system might be on hold until I get it...

Once I get everything in, then I'll start taking pics, video and I'll start my build thread too.

Can't wait to get the S4 and 1080 mini and see if they play nice with eachother! Then I put it all together and run some CPU benchmarks before delidding the 7700k, after that is complete, then I'll probably see anywhere from 20-30c reductions in temp at load, and I'll have enough benchmarks to truly compare the temperature improvement. According to overclock.net forums, the batch # of my 7700K might be a good one, so I might see 5 GHz, and maybe even 5.1GHz stable once I'm delidded. The guys over there are crazy with how they validate stability, some already have 5.2, 5.3 and one guy has a 5.4 GHz stable OC after delidding! Although i believe it was a 5.2GHz binned CPU he bought from Silicon Lottery. :/

 

[mtl171]

duuuude OMG I'm so exccited to check your thread. I've already got my GELID gpu-fan-header to normal Fan-header adapter from Amazon and a few mini GPU fan header extension cables just in case... =D

Also, I got my two 2.5inch HDDs in today! the 2.5inch 7mm (super thin!) 2TB Seagate SSHD is fast! I copied watch_dogs 2 to run a test and fast travelling in the game used to almost take 60 seconds to load.... now it takes less than 9 seconds, WOW! I love the SSHD's cache system, its going to do wonders for game load times over a standard mechanical drive!

And I got my 2.5inch 15mm Seagate Barracuda (just as thick as my old 1.5TB 2.5inch drive from 2010 lol) And I'm currently cloning all my media over to it from my HUGE 3.5inch 5TB toshiba with my dual-HDD dock I use for cloning and sata drive hotswaping.

All I'm waiting for now is:
-S4 Mini and riser/power switch invoice
-ASUS z270i STRIX
-ZOTAC 1080 mini
-Samsung 960 EVO 250GB M.2 (my boot drive, lol) it's been on backorder for three weeks now (sold out everywhere online), so my system might be on hold until I get it...

Once I get everything in, then I'll start taking pics, video and I'll start my build thread too.

Can't wait to get the S4 and 1080 mini and see if they play nice with eachother! Then I put it all together and run some CPU benchmarks before delidding the 7700k, after that is complete, then I'll probably see anywhere from 20-30c reductions in temp at load, and I'll have enough benchmarks to truly compare the temperature improvement. According to overclock.net forums, the batch # of my 7700K might be a good one, so I might see 5 GHz, and maybe even 5.1GHz stable once I'm delidded. The guys over there are crazy with how they validate stability, some already have 5.2, 5.3 and one guy has a 5.4 GHz stable OC after delidding! Although i believe it was a 5.2GHz binned CPU he bought from Silicon Lottery. :/

Sounds exciting! I look forward to seeing your build. I did also run into backorder problems with my 960 evo. Ended up getting it from a 3rd party reseller at a premium price (though saved a bit because of no tax). delidded 7700k and 1080 mini is definitely going to net you some amazing performance.

 

[SumGhai]

This might be an odd question to ask. Given that an S4 mini is jam packed with so much goodness, there's high chance that I'd be bringing it to my room at uni. While I've never had a problem with theft (as I have my own room with a lock and key), supposing I wanted to how would I go about securing or anchoring the S4 to something in my room so it doesn't get stolen while I'm bored to tears in a Complex Analysis lecture?

Actually how would I go about anchoring any desktop PC for that matter? It's never occurred to me how to go about this, not once in the past 3 years I've been here.

 

[mtl171]

There is a kensington lock slot at the top of the case. Not sure how secure that'll be but I never locked my Macbook Pro in college and it was never stolen.

 

[Ceros_X]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kensington_Security_Slot for more info and pics

 

[Josh | NFC]

This might be an odd question to ask. Given that an S4 mini is jam packed with so much goodness, there's high chance that I'd be bringing it to my room at uni. While I've never had a problem with theft (as I have my own room with a lock and key), supposing I wanted to how would I go about securing or anchoring the S4 to something in my room so it doesn't get stolen while I'm bored to tears in a Complex Analysis lecture?

Actually how would I go about anchoring any desktop PC for that matter? It's never occurred to me how to go about this, not once in the past 3 years I've been here.

There are three ways I know of.


1. Gorilla Glue.

2. TIG welding.

3. The not Kensignton(tm) LockSlot(tm) Brand(tm) unlicensed, totally innocent, rectangle cutout that somehow matches with the Kensignton(tm) LockSlot(tm) Brand(tm) cables on the side of the MINI.