Simple Dual Pico PSU Set Up

[Soul_Est]

My biggest problem with the X7 is the power connectors which are soldered to the bottom of the board. There is also the X3-ATX-300 which was an alternative to HDPLEX 250w and had a similar sized PCB but they have since soldered the power connectors to the PCB like the X7 and made it larger as a PSU drop in replacement but disappointing for custom situations like fitting it in slim line cases.

I came to the conclusion that so long as there are no problems that crop up using a separate unit for the GPU then I would much rather use two of the smaller Z3's to provide similar power in a much smaller form factor.

I just had a look at the wire harness for the Z3-ATX-200 and realized that there is no 6-pin or even 8-pin connector. They will have to be added in.

 

[confusis]

200w is a little low for needing an 8 pin!

 

[Soul_Est]

200w is a little low for needing an 8 pin!

I realize that now. Thanks for the comment.

 

[confusis]

even 200w would be pushing it - my 125w cpu+ 75 of gpu is 200w! (my gpu is actually 120w so im kinda boned)

 

[michaelmitchell]

I just had a look at the wire harness for the Z3-ATX-200 and realized that there is no 6-pin or even 8-pin connector. They will have to be added in.

You are quite right, but you can add one with some modding and its well worth it, Josh | NFC has a youtube video showing the mod on a PicoPSU 160XT running at around 260-280W.

I will be doing a mod on one to replace all the connectors with a single 8 pin as a dedicated GPU PSU, but I will also be making a 4pin molex to 8pin that will fit the regular one when I am not running a power hungry GPU.

 

[Scottie2h]

Hey guys new to the site
but if you are going to use a picopsu just to power the gpu it may be cheaper to use a xbox 360 psu

you may like to have a look at rat has done here

https://hardforum.com/threads/shuttle-sa76r4-rig-and-xbox-psu-as-aux-gpu-ps-mod.1712969/

Currently in the process of setting up something similar to this myself

 

[michaelmitchell]

Hey guys new to the site
but if you are going to use a picopsu just to power the gpu it may be cheaper to use a xbox 360 psu

you may like to have a look at rat has done here

https://hardforum.com/threads/shuttle-sa76r4-rig-and-xbox-psu-as-aux-gpu-ps-mod.1712969/

Currently in the process of setting up something similar to this myself

Great link! Really interesting to see it connected directly to the GPU like that.

Xbox adaptors are great 12v bricks for the PicoPSU as well since they are common, cheap and have decent power density. Xbox one adaptor has slightly higher power and power density than the 360 I think.

 

[Stevo_]

Another thing is those Z3's get seriously hot unless they've added some heatsinking. Have 2 of them that I was trying out for awhile actually had one in my L1 or L2 case for before switching to HD Plex.

 

[michaelmitchell]

Another thing is those Z3's get seriously hot unless they've added some heatsinking. Have 2 of them that I was trying out for awhile actually had one in my L1 or L2 case for before switching to HD Plex.

I had heard this so I have heat sinks standing by, was heat your main reason to stop using them and use the HDPLEX instead?

 

[Stevo_]

I had heard this so I have heat sinks standing by, was heat your main reason to stop using them and use the HDPLEX instead?

Yeah, pretty much. The ATX connector was between RAM and SSDs both were getting heated up quite a bit think that was in the L1 which had no ventilated side panel.

 

[michaelmitchell]

Yeah, pretty much. The ATX connector was between RAM and SSDs both were getting heated up quite a bit think that was in the L1 which had no ventilated side panel.

Did you try putting heat sinks on and if so did it make much of a difference?

 

[Supercluster]

In case someone is interested here's some reading material regarding the X7-ATX-500. (the older model)

 

[Stevo_]

Did you try putting heat sinks on and if so did it make much of a difference?

No, didn't try heatsinks or anything. It didn't seem to affect performance but the heat has to be an MTBF killer eventually, it was like nearly burn your finger hot.

 

[K888D]

Could this be used for combining 2 Pico PSU's:

http://www.techpowerup.com/221680/phanteks-announces-the-powercombo-power-your-rig-with-2-psus

 

[Supercluster]

Could this be used for combining 2 Pico PSU's:

http://www.techpowerup.com/221680/phanteks-announces-the-powercombo-power-your-rig-with-2-psus

I see no reason why not except it's more than 10X the volume of the Pico PSU's.

 

[Phuncz]

And it only powers CPU and motherboard power, so only 75W GPUs max. Not much use unless you want to waste space with that adapter and cabling that a good SFX PSU wouldn't do better.

 

[BirdofPrey]

I'm confused as to why that even exists? You don't need to have 2 PSUs for one motherboard, but it doesn't power drives or video cards, and if just turning them on and off at the same time is what you want, there have been adapters to do that for a few years now.

 

[iFreilicht]

Well the unit is just used to turn both PSUs on at the same time and combine their CPU power. You'd still plug in the PEG connectors directly into the PSU, not route them through this unit. Still, it's not space efficient at all.

 

[BirdofPrey]

If all it did was turn both PSUs on and off at the same time, then why do the EPS connectors also plug in to it? The only wire really needed for that is the PSON signal, which, as I said, has already been provided by other adapters in a much smaller package.
If it were supposed to be some sort of board for consolidating power for redundancy purposes, then it would need to have sockets for the PEG and SATA connectors.

 

[iFreilicht]

If all it did was turn both PSUs on and off at the same time, then why do the EPS connectors also plug in to it?

The Power Combo features a redundant power supply architecture concept, this prevents the system from shutting down when one power supply fails.

That's why.