S4 MINI Classic (S4M-C)

[yoyo55]

So I ran Heaven Benchmark for approximately 30 minutes with CPU and GPU at 100% with CPU maxing out at 37C on the hottest core and GPU maxing out at 79C. Office is fairly warm around 25C but normally its closer to 20C. No reboots, restarts, glitching or freezing whatsoever running on the PicoPSU 150w with 150w Adapter. I'll do more testing tomorrow morning as I can barely keep my eyes open right now.

 

[NRG]

i want that S3! I love my S4, but the S3 is pretty much exactly what I wanted (Given that I removed my 5mm aluminium wrap around)

 

[Saltvann]

So I ran Heaven Benchmark for approximately 30 minutes with CPU and GPU at 100% with CPU maxing out at 37C on the hottest core and GPU maxing out at 79C. Office is fairly warm around 25C but normally its closer to 20C. No reboots, restarts, glitching or freezing whatsoever running on the PicoPSU 150w with 150w Adapter. I'll do more testing tomorrow morning as I can barely keep my eyes open right now.

Interesting! What was the fan speed of the 1060 SC, I have the exact same card.

 

[hardcore_gamer]

Thank you.

I do not have a set budget per say. However I have a few things that are important to me when putting together this build.

- Portability (I will be moving the system around and thinking about getting 2 power adapters)
- Noise (low noise is a priority, it does not need to be silent, but I would like it to be reasonably quiet.)

I will be gaming at 1080p with this computer.

Right now the best sub 75W options are RX 460 and GTX 950. Both are ~30% faster than GTX 750 Ti and have similar power draw. For there cards, a pico PSU 150W would suffice.

Waiting for the GTX 1050 might be a bad idea as Nvidia opted to go with "GTX 1060 3GB" : a cut-down version of GP 106 SKU with 3GB memory and fewer cores. It seems like Nvidia currently has no plans for a smaller " GP 108" SKU.

GTX 1060 3GB is an awesome card at $199, and this is what I consider as a minimum requirement for 1080p gaming. EVGA and ZOTAC has mini ITX versions of this card. However, since the TDP is 120W, GTX 1060 will need a 6 pin power connector. I'd recommend using HDPLEX 250W for GTX 1060.

 

[CC Ricers]

I've had success using the HDPLEX 160W with the Asus 950 Mini, 90W version. I split off half of the 4+4 EPS pin connector to turn one half into a 6-pin PEG connector. It work pretty well and didn't have any issues with it, using a 35W CPU.

GTX 1060 3GB is an awesome card at $199, and this is what I consider as a minimum requirement for 1080p gaming. EVGA and ZOTAC has mini ITX versions of this card. However, since the TDP is 120W, GTX 1060 will need a 6 pin power connector. I'd recommend using HDPLEX 250W for GTX 1060.

There is probably still a deal on Jet.com for the EVGA 3GB 1060, for $169 US. I pretty much agree that the naming should be more like 1050Ti or 1060LE but right now the 3GB is still fine for 1080p gaming, and it's just a 5% performance difference in that resolution.

 

[yoyo55]

Interesting! What was the fan speed of the 1060 SC, I have the exact same card.

Fan speed was at 55% when the temp reached 80C. It kept fluctuating between 79C-80C. I haven't fooled with the fan profile yet, but I may have it ramp up a little faster and turn on at a lower idle temp as well. It's very silent, of course that's subjective, for me at 55%. The S3 gets rid of all the hot air pretty quickly due to the components being so close the the vents.

 

[Saltvann]

Right now the best sub 75W options are RX 460 and GTX 950. Both are ~30% faster than GTX 750 Ti and have similar power draw. For there cards, a pico PSU 150W would suffice.

Waiting for the GTX 1050 might be a bad idea as Nvidia opted to go with "GTX 1060 3GB" : a cut-down version of GP 106 SKU with 3GB memory and fewer cores. It seems like Nvidia currently has no plans for a smaller " GP 108" SKU.

GTX 1060 3GB is an awesome card at $199, and this is what I consider as a minimum requirement for 1080p gaming. EVGA and ZOTAC has mini ITX versions of this card. However, since the TDP is 120W, GTX 1060 will need a 6 pin power connector. I'd recommend using HDPLEX 250W for GTX 1060.

Yes. But seems to me that sub 75W bracket is pretty open. And I really doubt that Nvidia would forgo a gtx 1050. Surely there will be a GP107 as well.

Are you saying a Pico PSU 150W power adapter would be enough or would it be smarter going for the 192W adapter planning to stay under the 75W mark for the graphics card? Has anyone here had any experience with the 150W Adapter from mini-box?

 

[hardcore_gamer]

Yes. But seems to me that sub 75W bracket is pretty open. And I really doubt that Nvidia would forgo a gtx 1050. Surely there will be a GP107 as well.

Yes, the sub 75W or more importantly sub $150 market is pretty big. However, nvidia is already competitive in this market. AMD wasn't, therefore they had to release RX 460. GTX 950 already has similar performance, power consumption and price of RX 460. There is little incentive for nvidia to spend money on another "GP 108" silicon at the moment. They've already released 4 SKUs in the Pascal line up : GP100 (for workstation cards), GP102 (Titan X pascal, and may be 1080 Ti in the future), GP104 ( GTX 1080 and GTX 1070), GP106 (GTX 1060 6B and 3GB).

On the mobile side, GTX 960m is already competitive with the down clocked mobile version of RX 460. I don't think we'll see a Pascal based sub 75W card from nvidia any time soon. It may happen when the 16nm technology matures and they want to stop production of 28mm GPUs.

Also, I'd recommend at least a GTX 1060 3GB if you want to game at 1080p, moderate to high settings for new titles.

Are you saying a Pico PSU 150W power adapter would be enough or would it be smarter going for the 192W adapter planning to stay under the 75W mark for the graphics card? Has anyone here had any experience with the 150W Adapter from mini-box?

I was referring to PICOPSU-150-XT DC-DC, not the 150W AC-DC external adapter.
It's a good idea to have an external adapter with a slightly higher spec than internal DC-DC.

 

[Josh | NFC]

Testing completed.

I dunno if I will put it on my website, but I think I give it thumbs up for most enthusiasts:

TEST SYSTEM
65w i7, 16GB RAM, 2.5" SSD, 120mm Scythe 1900, Zalman CNP2sX, and a EVGA 1060 Mini SC running on a 160XT-KIT (Adaptec 192w 16A adapter.)

Th system actually held stable in Furmark. The peak when I shut it off (I got bored) was 217w. It started at 210--it was interesting to see it slowly climb to 217 from increased heat resistance.

Passing Furmark is one thing, but real world tests are far better because they do unpredictable things (and also tend to use the CPU). I switched over to Crysis 3 and as expected wattage pull was higher, capping at 220. 220 is higher than I like to see on the Adaptec brick (which is rated for 192w) but not absurdly over capacity--just at it's top end. I really love that brick...

All other titles I actually enjoy playing were under 200w. No issues, but to avoid wear and tear and any future crashes I decided to lower the power draw.

TWO SOLUTIONS

1. Undervolt the CPU
2. Power Limit the GPU

If you have a K series chip, pick option one because you can get to where you need to be with zero drawbacks. If you don't have a K series chip then you need alot of patience and an older BIOS...aint noone got time for that. I used MSI afterburner, fully expecting to have to enable voltage controls, but to my surprise I didn't!

I started by pulling back clock by 100 and mem by 80, and dropped power cap -20% (set the slider to 80). This was totally stable in Furmark, Crysis 3 and Overwatch (which I actually like to play for long periods of time). Stability meant I could bump the GPU and Mem clock back up.

I ended with the power cap at -15% and zero changes to mem or core clock. This brought my power consumption down well under 200w (165W in Overwatch) and the day was saved. I could have pushed this even further, but I wanted to end with something that the most basic user could do.

I'm pretty happy with this combo. Now Larry just needs to get his take on a Pico shipped and I will be


*edited grammar for clarity. Don't drink and type, kids!*

 

[Curiosity]

I'm officially schemeing.
There's a 30W difference between the 1060 and 1070's TDPs, and if there ends up being a 1070 that fits in the S4, your testing makes me think you might be able to just squeeze by if you used a 35W CPU.
like say, a 6600T.

 

[Josh | NFC]

I'm officially schemeing.
There's a 30W difference between the 1060 and 1070's TDPs, and if there ends up being a 1070 that fits in the S4, your testing makes me think you might be able to just squeeze by if you used a 35W CPU.
like say, a 6600T.

Yeah that's probably true. I'm super happy with the 1060, personally. Just a few months ago people were moving to the 970 and thinking that was creme de la creme, and the 1060 whoops on it.

I'm just happy the hardware finally exists to satisfy my vision.

 

[Curiosity]

I've got a 3570K and a 980 right now, so the 6600T + 1060 would be a GPU sidestep, and a slight upgrade on the CPU (I think, maybe closer to a sidestep).
I'm getting really excited about the possibilities now, haha.

I hadn't been certain about the 1060 setup even with the 6600T because I'd not put in much research and PCPartpicker was guestimating the setup I was thinking of trying at 233W, but it sounds like it's probably being conservative for the sake of normal people.

 

[NRG]

I've been toying with the 6600T + 1060 combo. I currently have a i3 6100 in my rig at the moment, Will I notice any difference between the CPU's?

The max TDP of my i3 is 51w, Which only leaves 100w for a 1060, Which has a TDP of 120w. Dropping to a 6600T would alleviate the restraint on my power and should allow me to run the 6600T + 1060 relatively well?

Does anyone have any form of benchmark of the 6600T? As a means to justify the purchase and as a tool of comparison? I can't really find to much information online regarding the CPU. I do have a 750 ti in my machine at the moment that needs to be replaced, It makes so much noise due to coil whine under load

 

[Curiosity]

It's a true quadcore instead of dual+HT, and it's got twice as much cache.
I feel like the biggest difference might be how light your wallet feels though. ; )
I know passmark isn't a great bench, but it's better than nothing and (I think?) is an acceptable way to compare CPUs, even if it isn't a good idea of over all performance.
But here's passmark's numbers
And a compare from userbenchmarks which I think people also don't like? /g/ may have tainted my view of this, I dunno.

 

[yoyo55]

Testing completed.

I dunno if I will put it on my website, but I think I give it thumbs up for most enthusiasts:

65w i7, 16GB RAM, 2.5" SSD, 120mm Scythe 1900, Zalman CNP2sX, and a EVGA 1060 Mini SC running on a 160XT + the Adaptec 192w 16A adapter.

System actually held stable in Furmark due to heat increased resistance at 217w. I was surprised it held out as long as it did.

I switched over to Crysis 3 to get some CPU time in and as expected wattage pull was higher, capping at 220. 220 is higher than I like to see on the Adaptec brick (which is rated for 192w) but not absurdly over capacity--just at it.

All other titles I actually enjoy playing were under 200w. No issues, but to avoid wear and tear and any future crashes I decided to lower the power draw.

TWO SOLUTIONS

1. Undervolt the CPU
2. Power Limit the GPU

Option one is the way to go, if I had a K series chip. Since this rig doesn't I didn't want to put in the hours to get it there, so I decided to use MSI afterburner. I was actually surprised...I pulled back clock by 100 and mem by 80, and dropped power cap -20%. Totally stable in Furmark, Crysis 3 and Overwatch (which I actually like to play for long periods of time). Was able to end with power cap -15% and zero changes to mem or core clock. This brought my power consumption down well under 200w (165W in Overwatch) and the day was saved.

I'm pretty happy with this combo.

The PicoPSU 150w with 150w adapter did not fair well in Furmark. Crashed about 2 seconds into running it. And that is using a 35w CPU. So the bare minimum i'm guessing would be the 160XT + 192w 16A Adapter.

 

[Josh | NFC]

I've been toying with the 6600T + 1060 combo. I currently have a i3 6100 in my rig at the moment, Will I notice any difference between the CPU's?

The max TDP of my i3 is 51w, Which only leaves 100w for a 1060, Which has a TDP of 120w. Dropping to a 6600T would alleviate the restraint on my power and should allow me to run the 6600T + 1060 relatively well?

Does anyone have any form of benchmark of the 6600T? As a means to justify the purchase and as a tool of comparison? I can't really find to much information online regarding the CPU. I do have a 750 ti in my machine at the moment that needs to be replaced, It makes so much noise due to coil whine under load

I don't think you need to worry about it. Buy a 6700k and undervolt it, or just slightly power limit your 1060 with no performance loss, or...just run it until the brick dies!

 

[jeshikat]

I've found that the 6600T is almost impossible to find for a reasonable price, the 6400T is readily available for ~$160 though.

I'll be testing my 6400T + EVGA GTX 1060 running off a HDPLEX 160W AC-DC tomorrow so if it doesn't blow up then you all should be good in the S4.

 

[Curiosity]

I was thinking I'd just buy an optiplex 7040 and some cheap pentium, swapping the CPUs and selling it to a friend for cheap or something along those lines.
I'm not personally willing to do the 6400T because I'll lose performance like I did when I tried using a 3570S to lower my heat output in preparation to use the C7 in Dan's A4.

 

[NRG]

I've seen a couple of 6600T's on ebay that went for about $220 AUD, And have been extremlly tempted to get one. Should mention I don't have a 170Z chipset mobo, so I think the 6600T is my best bet.

 

[Josh | NFC]

The PicoPSU 150w with 150w adapter did not fair well in Furmark. Crashed about 2 seconds into running it. And that is using a 35w CPU. So the bare minimum i'm guessing would be the 160XT + 192w 16A Adapter.

Yeah...I can't see that working no matter what you do considering my findings.

I was thinking I'd just buy an optiplex 7040 and some cheap pentium, swapping the CPUs and selling it to a friend for cheap or something along those lines.
I'm not personally willing to do the 6400T because I'll lose performance like I did when I tried using a 3570S to lower my heat output in preparation to use the C7 in Dan's A4.

When you say lost performance, do you mean outside of gaming? If inside gaming I want to add your games/tests to my lineup so I can give my customers the best information possible. This would need me to revise my testing as I've done lots of tests comparing overclocked X99 chips with 35w i7 chips from the past three generations and I have found that in gaming (even in MWO) that there is not a big difference. I don't want to have bad info!!!! I really appreciate all your contributions to this thread. <3

Thanks!!!!!