S4MAX: Brickless S4M w/ 3090 FE and R9 5950x - 800W, 5l, water cooled

petricor

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update April 3rd, 2021:

This project is constant work in progress - it started with a 2080ti/ R93950x configuration that eventually worked; I have then sold-off both GPU and CPU to upgrade it to next gen hardware.

Browsing through this log, you will eventually see
  • a Supermicro PWS-606-p-1R mod
  • a Supermicro PWS-804-p-1R mod (read both PSU mods to the end before trying it yourself as there is a bit of a learning curve involved, including stuff blowing up half way...)
  • a 160W Pico PSU modded to pass through standby power from aforementioned server PSUs to the motherboard, and PS-ON the other way
  • modding a 2080ti and R9 3950x to fit inside a brickless S4M, with benchmarks
Around page 16, you'll get to the end of the 2080ti story - I have just renamed this thread to be up-to-date with my latest plan to fit a high-spec 30 series GPU plus a 5950x.

Enjoy!

original post:
***here's the actual post!***

With a brand new Skyreach 4 Mini case in the mailbox today (yay!), it's time to tackle my next project:
An *attempt* to squeeze the ultimate (single GPU) VR machine into a 5l case - along with 600w 800w of brickless power. This is the actual objective; water cooling appears to be a necessary evil required to make this work – if it does at all...

It might quite well all go up in flames and/ or steam.
And as usual, there is only one way to find out!

Preliminary list of ingredients:
  • Skyreach S4 Mini
  • Gigabyte X570 I AORUS PRO WIFI – ASRock Phantom Gaming x570 mITX/TB3
  • AMD R9 3900x 3950x 5950x
  • Modded-to-fit EK Annihilator Pro
  • Modded ASUS Turbo RTX 2080ti 3090 FE
  • Modded EK-Vector RTX RE Corsair Hydro XG7 3080 FE with a custom port module
  • 2x16GB Kingston 2666 MHz CL19 Ultra Low Profile Ram
  • Sabrent Rocket 1TB PCIe 4.0 M.2 SSD
  • Modded Supermicro PWS-606-p 600W PWS-804p-1R 800W AC-DC 12V PSU
  • Modded 160W Pico Plugin DC-DC PSU
  • Radiator: AlphaCool Nexxxos 140.v2
  • Pump: AlphaCool DC-LT 3600 2600 for a reservoir-less with an Alphacool Eisstation 40-DC reservoir and a 6/8mm soft tubing circuit (let it rain…)
  • Blood
  • Sweat

Key challenges:
  • Space
  • Space
  • Space
  • Running GPU and CPU on a single 140 mm radiator – it might turn into under- rather than overclocking to prevent things from evaporating (…and yes, I know that this is in blatant ignorance of any commonly accepted rule-of-thumb!)
  • Noise – the Server (ouch) PSU will require some tinkering to become bearable.

It is a rather open-ended project with some elements still undetermined; one challenge is that x570 boards appear to consume significantly more space when compared to z390 layouts (and the rather SFF-friendly ASRock Z390 Phantom Gaming-ITX/ac in particular) - primarily owed to active chipset cooling being the new normal, and an apparent trend towards increasingly voluminous I/O enclosures.
The Gigabyte X570 I appears to be the most compact option in the AMD space, and unfortunately, the ASRock X570 Phantom Gaming-ITX, with a most desirable TB3 interface as a stand-out-feature, is spatially absolutely prohibitive.
All that said, I’ll give Team Red a try - simply because it *may* just about fit. I might ultimately have to revert back to an intel platform if things turn out to be too tight.

As there are a whole bunch of other unknowns, I’ll take this one step-by-step, starting with the biggest tickets. Ordering the more predictable parts in sequence will help to contain the damage in case something doesn’t stack up:

First task will be squeezing the wattage required into the case – not really optional. The build will require north of 550 W to allow for overclocking – should that ever be an option without things boiling off!

So, here’s the plan – and aim is indeed to get everything into the enclosure with no external parts, so from the outside it looks exactly like my last build here:



…but underneath the cover is where similarities end: The key layout decision is to place the stripped GPU PCB aligned to the long side of the case and at the top of the stack, sandwiching cooling in-between, and (hopefully) making enough space underneath for a 140mm radiator to breathe sufficiently.



The notch in the case is required to make space for a flexible PCIe riser cable. The GPU of choice is a ASUS turbo 2080ti, as it is one of the few squeezing all ports into a straight line. This allows stripping it to a single slot form factor like the 1080ti FE I show in my 3D model for reference – unfortunately I couldn’t get hold of a precise PCB model of the 2080ti. Dimensions should be pretty much the same.
The necessary connections will be routed to the case’s slot panels.

Underneath the GPU sits a modified EK Vector RTX RE- modified as the port module coming with it is too large to fit between RAM and cooler, it will be replaced with a machined part using 1/8” fittings instead of the original ¼” ones (the loop is 6/8mm anyway)…


…and removing the nickel plate reveals the acrylic cover cut back to the o-ring to allow for more space underneath and adequate clearance of the fan.


Taking case and cooler away reveals the cooling loop as planned – a modified EK Annihilator Pro to fit on an AM4 (note that the board shown is a Z390 – still trying to get hold of more data on the Gigabyte x570 I for reliable verification of the fit in 3d)




The colours above show the planned heat flow.
The big box in the foreground is the PSU - after some research I have homed-in on a Supermicro PWS-606-p, appearing reasonably tweakable. It will have to lose at least 30mm of its 220 mm in length (that’s the transparent bit) to allow for the basic arrangement that enables the build.


Behind it is a 12 plug-in PSU, serving the board, with the GPU and the CPU connector being driven directly from the 12v output of the main PSU.

Everything is extremely tight, and I expect some further layout changes to be required when getting hold of the actual components. A few things clash already:
Clearly, the Corsair ram shown here will not fit and needs to be replaced with low profile sticks…


…and the inlet connector to the radiator currently wants to share space with the GPU cooler… this clearly requires some more work…


…as well as a ton of other things – I expect this layout to remain in flux for quite some time!




Next task: PSU mod!
 
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Curiosity

Too busy figuring out if I can to think if I shoul
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Not sure how you plan to for all that in there plus water.

Case extensions? External rad?

Regardless I look forward to seeing how it turns out.

edit: renders make it clear, i dig!
 
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Choidebu

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Aug 16, 2017
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Madness. Utter madness. ?

Love it. ? Will watch closely till the end.

Btw, what plug-in board you're using? You don't mention any load switch, are you using @guryhwa 's unit that can handle upwards of 500W?
 
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petricor

Airflow Optimizer
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May 12, 2018
336
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Madness. Utter madness. ?

Love it. ? Will watch closely till the end.

Btw, what plug-in board you're using? You don't mention any load switch, are you using @guryhwa 's unit that can handle upwards of 500W?
Plug in board not researched as of yet- ideally something slimmer than the hdplex shown in the images- the one @guryhwa uses for his Mr.Haru looks pretty fit for purpose
Re load switch: Ambition is to hack the Supermicro PSU to a degree that it actually works as a switching PSU only delivering standby power when off- so hopefully no load switch at all!
 

petricor

Airflow Optimizer
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May 12, 2018
336
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Plug in board not researched as of yet- ideally something slimmer than the hdplex shown in the images- the one @guryhwa uses for his Mr.Haru looks pretty fit for purpose
Re load switch: Ambition is to hack the Supermicro PSU to a degree that it actually works as a switching PSU only delivering standby power when off- so hopefully no load switch at all!
Have settled on a 160W pico as being ridiculously small. The GPU will run directly off the PSU - and possibly the CPU power feed, too (depends on whether I want to go for a 3950) - should work as the server PSU should provide ATX spec outputs
 
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petricor

Airflow Optimizer
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May 12, 2018
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To work:

First hypothesis to verify is whether I can get the brickless 600w required to power this build (assuming some overhead for overclocking - if that's thermically ever an option) squeezed into the case.
As mentioned earlier, I will take this project step by step to contain the damage if things don't pan out - I have quite a bunch of rather binary pass/ no pass gateways lined up with little or no precedence, so failure is a realistic scenario.

The first installment has now arrived:



A fresh S4 Mini case, and a Supermicro PWS-606-1R Server PSU, producing 600W @12V, having the right cross section of 40x54 mm to fit into the pocket infront of the motherboard. Its about 35mm too long to not collide with the 140mm radiator required to have a realistic chance to stop this thing from melting - so firtst gateway to pass is successfully cutting it down to measure:


Placing the PSU inside the case confirms the cross section to be spot-on - fits like a glove! -, and the lenght to be excessive as expected:


The 140mm fan serves as a placeholder for the radiator- the PSU will have to lose about 35mm for things to slide into place as per the packing hypothesis in my first post.


After some quite extensive research, I have figured the Supermicro to be the only PSU in this form factor with the PCB stopping before the fan unit, implying the option to remove the DC connector and Filter and replace the fan with a slimmer (and less noisy) one saving precious space. Unfortunately, the PSU rather expensive and hardly any documentation can be found on the web, so I have been rather relieved when opening it and seeing that indeed the entire inlet section is detachable:


The actual PSU is approx. 165 mm long, with some space at the input side required for a fan, and a PCB connector protruding about 5mm out of the PSU on the output side.


The fan is not as noisy as some other server PSUs would suggest (thanks to adaptive speed), however, it is 28 mm deep and a 40x20 mm Noctua will not only be less audible, but also save precious 8mm in depth.


Key challenge will be to establish the pin-out without frying the board in the process - unfortunately there is NOTHING on the web, Supermicro regards PSUs as non-serviceable by third parties and makes no relevant information about this apparently fully proprietary interface available.
SHOULD ANYONE HAVE ANYTHING RELEVANT ON RECORD - PLEASE BE IN TOUCH!


Plugging it in and assuming that the bigger pins carry major loads, I could quicky detect the +5V standby rails and ground - that's unfortunately as far as I got for the time being.


Still having some components stuck in the post required for a non-destructive deductive approach to establishing the pin-out (see here), I have soldered on on a bunch of wires for an improvised breakout-interface and park the matter for the time being, hoping that I didnt short anything yet when I slightly impatiently tried to ground a few pins in an attempt to fire things up. On to the mechanical modifications:


The fan is mounted on litte brackets in the case - these can be re-used for a slimmer Noctua fan, however, plan is to reduce the 4mm gap between fan and PSU down to 1mm to make things more compact.


In order to achieve this, I'll have to mill little pockets into the fan's corners, allowing it to be recessed inwards, resulting in a 17mm protrusion from the brackets outwards. That's where I'll trim the enclosure.



The hatched part will need to go...


This should bring the enclosure plus connector down to 192 mm in lenght which should do the trick for this build...


...providing 144mm clearance between case side panel and PSU for the radiator.


A little flexing and grinding later, the enclosure looks like this:



After trimming back the insulating sheething to the shorter case lenght, the PSU fits in nicely with a pocket deep enough for the Noctua AF-40x20 at the input side - it's in the post and should arrive shortly.
I leave the DC power connector and filter dangling off the PSU for the moment until I have the right connector at hand to make it detachable.


In the meanwhile, the old fan goes where the slimmer Noctua should sit flush with the trimmed case:




And placing it in the case, I have the first box ticked: A 600W /12V PSU taking up the same footprint as the Meanwell UHP-200-24 at TRIPLE the power density - IF IT EVER FIRES UP....
 
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Choidebu

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Aug 16, 2017
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Edit: disregard below. I counted wrong number of pins.

I'm 90% sure it follows an OCS Power Supply Spec V2.

Spec page here on OpenCompute wiki

Download page here..
OCS Open CloudServer Power Supply V20.

For easy reference..


Oh you've got updates from another forum, that's great. Yep when I skimmed the pdf spec, that ps_kill jumps right to me. For some reason I thought it won't be as straightforward.

Well the spec is there, will come back to it this evening when I got the time.
 
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