SKYREACH 4 MINI (S4M)

[Choidebu]

Hello,

I am having an issue with power on my brand new SFF Build and I hope I can get some insight/help.

I am new to SFF builds, but have a need to build one for work/travel purposes. I studied the different approaches and finally landed on the brickless build outlined here: http://nfc-systems.com/boms (although it seems to be recently updated)

Here are the following parts I ordered: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/JsH6D2

As you can see, I opted for the Ryzen 7 1700 and the ASRock AB350 Board.

What confuses me is that BOM states "Dynamo Mini 200". When I go to the website, there is not a Dynamo Mini 200 available, only a 160W and a 360W. I ended up purchasing the 160W and hoped for the best. (Seems the 160W is now no longer availble..but thankfully I got one last month).

While waiting for the power pieces to arrive, I purchased an ATX power supply just to make sure everything works / powers up / etc. All went smoothly. Was able to see it post / install an OS / etc.

Now I am trying to do the "brickless" part of the build. I have connected the HDPlex 160 AC-DC to the C8 connector for power. The HDPlex then connects to the Mini Dynamo 160W, which is attached to the motherboard (CPU is wired too). In this configuration, I can not get the build to post / startup / nothing. Part of me is wondering if I need more power, but I thought I would have enough for this build?

When this build is functional, the majority of the time it will run headless, so I don't see the video card taking up too much power therefore I *thought* I would be safely under 180W. You will also notice that I am not running any extra SATA drives..just the M.2 sitting on the motherboard.

Any thoughts? How to debug this? Any more information that I can provide that can be of help?

Thanks again. I have really enjoyed watching all the S4 Mini builds on youtube and looking forward to all this working.

Thanks,
Joe

Post a pic of your setup. Most likely you switched the 4+4 pin eps and 6+2 pin pcie power.

 

[Nanook]

My S4M build would restart when I run Heaven. It would run Superposition benchmark ok, and runs Prime95 (all three preset stress tests) for 30 minutes OK. I haven’t done many other types of tests / extended tests yet, but I suspect the pc is drawing too much spike power. I purchased the Dell 330w adapter from Amazon, and wonder if that’s the culprit. I should be getting another adapter from Dell directly later this week. I wanted to post here to see if anyone else have insights on how I can troubleshoot this.

Main components:

• For power, I have the HDPlex400 with Dell 330w adapter.
• I recently upgraded from a MSI GTX1050ti to a Zotac Mini GTX1080.
• I7-8700K no OC, no MCE
• Heatsink is LP53 + A9x14 2500rpm
• Asus Strix Z370i motherboard
• 32gb 2133 ram
• M.2 drive

 

[Pestilaence]

I purchased the Dell 330w adapter from Amazon, and wonder if that’s the culprit.

Which model brick did you get?

 

[Thirumal Kumaran]

….I purchased the Dell 330w adapter from Amazon...

That explains everything,,,,
If its not purchased from dell.. It might be a QC failed set... don't expect to reach the rated wattage..

 

[Nanook]

Which model brick did you get?

Here's the exact name:
Dell 330W AC Adapter with 6 Foot Power Cord (DA330PM111, XM3C3, ADP-330AB B, 5X3NX, 332-1432, Charger, PA)
link

 

[Pestilaence]

DA330PM111

Ok, that's the one that I purchased as well... I just ordered my HDPLEX 400 today, but still need to figure out where to get my cables from.

 

[Nanook]

Here’s what I’ve done with the cables that came with the HDPlex 400. The cables are a little long, but manageable. The Sky Bracket Duo helps keep the cables in place.

Spoiler: photographs of my cables

 

[Pestilaence]

Here’s what I’ve done with the cables that came with the HDPlex 400...

Wait, the HDPLEX 400 comes with cables???? Oh hells yes! I thought it was just the PSU, and that's it. I've been trying to find custom cable kits for my build, but if there are cables with it then I'll just use those and shorten them down myself.

 

[Pestilaence]

How about a little teaser, for my build???

 

[Thirumal Kumaran]

Anybody running the Hdplex and meanwell combo?
need help in wiring, as my Meanwell will be delivered today..

 

[Gutzy]

Just ordered the PowerColor RX Vega 56 Nano off Newegg. Considered waiting for reviews but was afraid of miners gobbling them up.
Will keep it shrink-wrapped until reviews & average power consumption numbers while gaming make the rounds.

Currently have an HDPlex 400 and Dell 330W brick with 65W cpu so I hope I will be fine, otherwise will return or sell second hand.

Anyone have experience with Vega 56 cards and wattage numbers while gaming?

 

[Cyclo16]

My S4M build would restart when I run Heaven. It would run Superposition benchmark ok, and runs Prime95 (all three preset stress tests) for 30 minutes OK. I haven’t done many other types of tests / extended tests yet, but I suspect the pc is drawing too much spike power. I purchased the Dell 330w adapter from Amazon, and wonder if that’s the culprit. I should be getting another adapter from Dell directly later this week. I wanted to post here to see if anyone else have insights on how I can troubleshoot this.

Main components:

• For power, I have the HDPlex400 with Dell 330w adapter.
• I recently upgraded from a MSI GTX1050ti to a Zotac Mini GTX1080.
• I7-8700K no OC, no MCE
• Heatsink is LP53 + A9x14 2500rpm
• Asus Strix Z370i motherboard
• 32gb 2133 ram
• M.2 drive

If your CPU is not OC and got default setting it might be it. I personnaly run a delided i7 6700K at 4GHz at max 1.15 V (noctua l9i) with a 1080 Ti mini runing at 1980 MHz (with an Eiswolf AIO watercooling system going out from my S4M, with 2 fans, 12V water pump, 1 HDD, 1 SSD, 1 M.2) ... and I still got a HDPlex 400W with one 330W Dell power brick to power the whole thing .. I never had issue with it. the only time the PC turned OFF was when I tried to OC the CPU and get the CPU Core voltage too high so it draws too much from the dell brick. I'm doing this since Oct 2017 ... everything's fine. I think you should fix your CPU core voltage to your desired frequency, then set adaptive mode to (-) lower voltage. This should reduce your consumption by 30 - 50 Watts. Precisely, lock the frequency to max 3.7 GHz for your 8700K and find the lowest Vcore for it, you shoud be fine.
And the 330W from dell, if not defective should handle 350 - 370W in continuous over hours without any issues. In my case, afternoons of heavy gaming sessions .... PUBG again and again 1440p 144Hz ultra blablabla
If it does help you ... regarding that both of our CPUs have same TDP and I got an overall TDP far higher than yours but no issue ...

 

[Lupercal]

Just ordered the PowerColor RX Vega 56 Nano off Newegg. Considered waiting for reviews but was afraid of miners gobbling them up.
Will keep it shrink-wrapped until reviews & average power consumption numbers while gaming make the rounds.

Currently have an HDPlex 400 and Dell 330W brick with 65W cpu so I hope I will be fine, otherwise will return or sell second hand.

Anyone have experience with Vega 56 cards and wattage numbers while gaming?

I just ordered one this morning too. But I'll only be waiting as long as it takes for my 330w ac-dc adapter takes to arrive too.

I'll be moving from my brickless hdplex 160 + dynamo 160, to a 330w HP Omen X ac adapter + Dynamo 360 + dynamo 160.

So excited to be going from the Ryzen 2400G iGPU, to a Vega 56.

 

[Thirumal Kumaran]

My S4M build would restart when I run Heaven. It would run Superposition benchmark ok, and runs Prime95 (all three preset stress tests) for 30 minutes OK. I haven’t done many other types of tests / extended tests yet, but I suspect the pc is drawing too much spike power. I purchased the Dell 330w adapter from Amazon, and wonder if that’s the culprit. I should be getting another adapter from Dell directly later this week. I wanted to post here to see if anyone else have insights on how I can troubleshoot this.

Main components:

• For power, I have the HDPlex400 with Dell 330w adapter.
• I recently upgraded from a MSI GTX1050ti to a Zotac Mini GTX1080.
• I7-8700K no OC, no MCE
• Heatsink is LP53 + A9x14 2500rpm
• Asus Strix Z370i motherboard
• 32gb 2133 ram
• M.2 drive

Have you tried any other stress test apart from prime 95 and Heaven?
What version of Prime 95 you have? (Later than 2.6.6 uses the IGP As well)
Did you use HWmonitor or AiDA 64 to find the approx. power used?

What I can conclude is... Prime 95 is a CPU Primary test, which will not use the GPU to the max.
Heaven uses both to the max.
Which means 95w+200W+5W+5W are used to the max. (CPU+GPU+FAN/RAM/VRM+M2) which might not be provided by your AC DC Unit... (Which comes to the point of sourcing directly from dell).

Just a refresher. DELL doesn't have factories to make AC DC units.
What will happen to the units which does not meet dell's power specification?
There is a reason these similar power supplies are sold cheaper outside...

Edit: Check the power consumption values from Guru3d. similar to your config and max consumption is 270W.
http://www.guru3d.com/articles-pages/intel-core-i7-8700k-processor-review,5.html

 

[Pestilaence]

So, I received my power brick yesturday. I'll be running to a specialty electronics store tonight after work, to get a dc receptacle that fits the power brick plug since I'm assuming the HDPLEX, which is shipping tomorrow, doesn't come with one.

 

[Nanook]

So, I received my power brick yesturday. I'll be running to a specialty electronics store tonight after work, to get a dc receptacle that fits the power brick plug since I'm assuming the HDPLEX, which is shipping tomorrow, doesn't come with one.

https://www.hdplex.com/hdplex-400w-hi-fi-dc-atx-power-supply-16v-24v-wide-range-voltage-input.html
According to the package contents page, it should come with:
1 x 7.4x5.0mm with Center PIN(Ground) DC Input to 6PIN Molex (45cm) Black Color

 

[Nanook]

Have you tried any other stress test apart from prime 95 and Heaven?
What version of Prime 95 you have? (Later than 2.6.6 uses the IGP As well)
Did you use HWmonitor or AiDA 64 to find the approx. power used?

What I can conclude is... Prime 95 is a CPU Primary test, which will not use the GPU to the max.
Heaven uses both to the max.
Which means 95w+200W+5W+5W are used to the max. (CPU+GPU+FAN/RAM/VRM+M2) which might not be provided by your AC DC Unit... (Which comes to the point of sourcing directly from dell).

Just a refresher. DELL doesn't have factories to make AC DC units.
What will happen to the units which does not meet dell's power specification?
There is a reason these similar power supplies are sold cheaper outside...

Edit: Check the power consumption values from Guru3d. similar to your config and max consumption is 270W.
http://www.guru3d.com/articles-pages/intel-core-i7-8700k-processor-review,5.html

I was mostly using Prime95 to check power consumption. The CPU and MB doesn’t seem to take take much power. Not sure which version of Peime95. Probably the latest version.
As for Heaven, the system would self restart after 15 seconds.
If I dial the power limit down to 50% in MSI Afterburner, I can run Heaven, or high fps 1440p gaming no problem. (Well not that high in FPS, since my 1080 is limited).
I also tried another AC adapter (HP VooDoo 330w, found at Microcenter), and it would let me run Heaven, without self-restarts, at 80% power limit. Restarts at 100% power limit.
With a watt meter, I observed that the whole system draws 260-276 watts when running Heaven at 100% power limit. Same restart after 15 seconds.
I either have really bad luck with AC adapters, or a bad HDPlex 400 DC-ATX unit, or a bad Zotac Mini 1080... still need to test the 1080 in another system.

I have another Dell 330w arriving today, so i’ll try that one tonight. After this adapter, I would have tested four total (2x Dell, 1x HP, and HDPlex 300w AC-DC unit). Larry from HDPlex has been very responsive, so hopefully we’ll figure this one out soon.

 

[Pestilaence]

According to the package contents page, it should come with:
1 x 7.4x5.0mm with Center PIN(Ground) DC Input to 6PIN Molex (45cm) Black Color

............holy crap.... I've NEVER seen that page before! lol Man, if I knew what all it came with, like the entire wire kit as well as the receptacle, I wouldn't have wasted two weeks searching for parts! Hahaha... geez. Because of how I view the webpage at work (my browser only takes up a small part of my computer screen), I can't actually see the "Package Contents" link!

Oh man, if I could give out Rep or stickers for your info, I totally would. Lol Thanks!

Side note though, I'm not sure how recent of a change over there is but the people at HDPLEX said that I will be getting the new version of the unit, which apparently has a one-piece heatsink, versus the old two-piece style!

 

[Nanook]

............holy crap.... I've NEVER seen that page before! lol Man, if I knew what all it came with, like the entire wire kit as well as the receptacle, I wouldn't have wasted two weeks searching for parts! Hahaha... geez. Because of how I view the webpage at work (my browser only takes up a small part of my computer screen), I can't actually see the "Package Contents" link!

Oh man, if I could give out Rep or stickers for your info, I totally would. Lol Thanks!

Side note though, I'm not sure how recent of a change over there is but the people at HDPLEX said that I will be getting the new version of the unit, which apparently has a one-piece heatsink, versus the old two-piece style!

Glad to help! I can’t wait to see your build.
I’ve been meaning to ask how you did the deco on your case?

 

[Pestilaence]

Glad to help! I can’t wait to see your build.
I’ve been meaning to ask how you did the deco on your case?

I have a couple more pics that I can upload later tonight, but as far as the decoration on the panels, it's just a vinyl that I bought online. I got a stickerbomb style theme, slapped it on the panels and then cut out the slots with an Xacto knife. I've done something similar in the past with an older case, except I used individual stickers, and it took forever to do. With the vinyl I bought, it's all one layer, and is much easier to work with.