Power Supply [SOLVED] HDPlex 400w DC-ATX + Oculus Rift Trouble

[spaztwitch]

I'm wondering if anyone here has had the same or similar issues with a VR rig.

The build:
Lazer3D LZ7
Ryzen 2600
Gigabyte GTX 1080 Mini
8 GB Ram
500 GB M.2 SSD
HDPlex 400w DC-ATX
Dell (Genuine) 330 watt brick
Asus ROG Strix X470-i

Prior to getting the VR rig hooked up, I dialed in the power settings with a Kill A Watt. Set the multiplier to 32.00 for the CPU, and limited the TDP of the 1080 to 85%. With these settings, it easily handled an hour of Prime95 and Furmark running simultaneously, drawing a max of 310 watts from the wall.

However, putting the Oculus Rift into the mix caused hard resets within minutes of using it, generally when Oculus Home loaded. Both the card and headset had been used in another (non-SFF) rig, so I know they're good.

Dropping the 1080's TDP limit to 50% (the absolute lowest Gigabyte's software will allow), resulted in enough stability to play Rec Room for about 30 minutes before it popped again. The Kill A Watt shows a maximum of around 240 watts at this setting, and the Dell brick does not get hot at all - unlike the torture test performed previously.

To help isolate the problem, I picked up a 550 watt SFX Enermax supply, and set the 1080's TDP limit to 100%. So far, it has worked flawlessly.

I know the math for power draw from a USB port; one sensor and the headset should add, at most, under 10 watts to the mix.

And then I ran across this article on Ars Technica.

First, the RTX 2080 Ti is recommended for systems with 650W power supplies, which I had thankfully opted for when upgrading the system earlier this year. As it turns out, a 650W limit is still a roll of the dice with Nvidia's highest-end consumer-grade card. Certain use cases, particularly VR, consistently result in my testing rig shutting down, even when I use the EVGA X1 software interface to underclock the 2080Ti. Testing other 650W power supplies with that card and my system hasn't helped matters.​

I'm at a point in the build where I need to make a decision about either switching back to the SFX power supply and picking up new end plates for the LZ7 case, or plowing ahead with a second 160/200 watt supply paired with the 400 watt and double-bricking it.

Does anyone have any insight into just how much overhead is needed with VR systems? Or is there some flaw in the HDPlex unit that it doesn't provide enough wattage along the correct rail?

Apologies in advance if some of the terms are incorrect, I'm learning as I go, and up until the headset got thrown into the mix it has all worked very well.

Thanks again!

 

[Choidebu]

Which revision of the hdplex you're using?

 

[spaztwitch]

It's this one (two heat sinks)

 

[spaztwitch]

Ran across another bit about VR power needs, this time on reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/oculus/comments/4ksmea/if_you_ordered_a_rift_get_a_decent_power_supply/

I'm going to do some checking tonight with the SFX power supply and see just how much wattage is being pulled, along with the keeping an eye on the individual rails.

 

[Choidebu]

It's this one (two heat sinks)

Can you check the back, what revision is it? There's a revision 1.4 which would reset on certain games but won't on even the most demanding benches.

 

[spaztwitch]

Can you check the back, what revision is it? There's a revision 1.4 which would reset on certain games but won't on even the most demanding benches.

Well look at that.

 

[Choidebu]

Yeah... try contacting larry then..

Please don't think of this as dc-dc solution nor hdplex's drawback - it is a rare use case (micro peak im guessing), rather, actually a testament to quality, as like your cited article, even some atx psu marketed as 650W can have this problem. We at sff run our gear at 80 to 90% our psu capacity, and the fact than it run at its rating and sometimes more is only because of this dedication to quality hardware.

 

[spaztwitch]

Quick update before I sign off for the night. The 1.6 version of the HDPlex 400w DC-ATX arrived and I managed to squeeze in 30 minutes of testing in VR. So far it's looking good. I'll have more time tomorrow to re-run the synthetic benchmarks, and run more VR apps.

 

[spaztwitch]

I should add that Larry (at HDPlex) responded immediately when I reached out, and we had the power supplies swapped shortly thereafter. Super happy with the service.

 

[Choidebu]

Exactly my point ^^. Dedicatiob to quality my friend.

 

[spaztwitch]

Here's an update after a couple of days. So far, so good. I'm at about the four hour mark, and have run a variety of games and apps in VR, and there have been no crashes. Made sure to cover both Unity and Unreal powered apps.

Currently, the 2600 is locked to a max of 3.2 Ghz (32x multiplier in the BIOS), and the 1080 is allowed a max of 90% of TDP (set through the Aorus app).

Tight on time for today but I'd still like to run through the stress tests again with the Kill A Watt to see if there's enough room to stock clock, or even overclock, the current setup.