Completed STX160.0 - The most powerful ATX unit, in the world!

[jeshikat]

Guess you'll just have to add a couple more millimetres to the production run

There's almost certainly not going to be a production run of STX160.0 as it is. I tested the PICO BOX Z4-200-ATX yesterday and there are still issues powering the video card.

There's a new competitor to the Pico PSU coming out in a month or two that may work but even then a GTX 1060 will be pushing it to the limit so it's not a good long-term solution.

 

[MarcParis]

Well I've negative feedback to do on Z4-ATX-200..I've got 2...and 2 are out of service...either it's damn fragile and it's not reliable at all..
That's a pain whereas it's really promising on paper.

 

[jeshikat]

I think the problem with mine is the same as the HDPLEX 160W DC-DC, it doesn't like a heavy pure 12V load. So mine may work fine when using it as intended.

 

[Kmpkt]

Competitor to the Pico? Care to elaborate?

 

[jeshikat]

I'm not sure if it's public info yet so I can't really say more.

 

[Kmpkt]

Understood. Hopefully a worthy competitor to the other Pico solutions.

 

[alamilla]

There's almost certainly not going to be a production run of STX160.0 as it is.

To be fair, I was half joking.
As you have alluded to, although a great concept, it's incredibly niche when you consider the other ITX options available.
I'm still so impressed by this project however!

 

[MarcParis]

A new supplier of 12v power supply?..

 

[jeshikat]

As you have alluded to, although a great concept, it's incredibly niche when you consider the other ITX options available.

Yes, it's incredibly niche plus it currently actually work (so far) due to power issues

A new supplier of 12v power supply?..

Yeah, I'm hoping the new picoPSU competitor will work better because I'm having no luck so far.

I've looked into industrial options but it's either too expensive, too high of ripple, or won't fit.

 

[jtd871]

Maybe you could be persuaded to do a long post detailing who the competitors are and why they were found wanting? Sometimes it's helpful to know what doesn't work and why so others don't have to experience the same painful learning curve...

 

[jeshikat]

Maybe you could be persuaded to do a long post detailing who the competitors are and why they were found wanting?

Doesn't really need a long post because there's only two units that are currently available:

HDPLEX 160W DC-ATX - Shuts off when the GPU is under any kind of heavy load.

PICO-BOX Z4-200-ATX (I bought mine on eBay though) - Also shuts off under heavy load.

I've tried different AC adapters so that's not the issue.

The problem seems to be that the pure 12V load is causing the issue because with the HDPLEX at least, putting loads on the 3.3V and 5V rails seemed to make it more stable. Putting enough of a load on those two rails to get the full power out of the 12V isn't an option though because I only have 160W to work with from the AC-DC side of things.

As for the Mini-BOX picoPSUs, the picoPSU-160-XT seems like it'd work for powering a GPU based on other people's experience but it only takes 12V input. The picoPSU-120-WI-25 can take 12-25V input but can only do 6A on the 12V output.

 

[CC Ricers]

I can only speak for using the HDPLEX 160W with a 90W GTX 950, but I haven't experienced any shutdowns with that combination. Of course it doesn't support cards that require a 6-pin natively so this is done with a wire mod. I used a 200W HP power brick with it. The GTX 950 has seen several hours of gaming and also benchmark tools with it, and haven't seen it throttle or skip a beat.

The 1060 may be a different story for you guys since it is rated for 30W more. I would agree that card would be pushing it for 160W, and would opt to get a higher-rated DC-DC unit, or wait for the 1050.

 

[jeshikat]

Are you using the HDPLEX to power just the video card or the whole system?

 

[CC Ricers]

Are you using the HDPLEX to power just the video card or the whole system?

I used it for my whole system. I'm also using a 35W Intel CPU with it. Here's a post with my experience using it. Two power bricks are visible in the pictures, but I was only using the larger one for all the tests.

The experience with the HDPLEX shutting down only when 3.3W and 5W rails aren't used is something good to know. Thanks for that input.

 

[jeshikat]

Ok, so you're basically pulling the full 120W on the 12V like I'm trying to do but your motherboard uses the 3.3V and 5V which my setup does not.

 

[MarcParis]

Have you tried mini box 160w pico psu tweak for her to accept 250w load? Josh from nfc done this tweak on hies youtube channel? I'll post link later on my computer

 

[jeshikat]

The 160W picoPSU only takes 12V input but the HDPLEX AC-DC I'm using only has 19V output.

Mini-Box makes a picoPSU that can take 19V input but it's only 120W.

 

[MarcParis]

I know about 12-19v input...but at least with pico psu @12v you could reach 250W output somehow. here is the link.

 

[jeshikat]

Right, but I'd need a AC-DC unit with 12V output but the ASRock motherboard needs 19V in so that makes things difficult

I've considered using a 12V brick in combination with a boost converter to get the 19V for the motherboard since it doesn't need much wattage but HDPLEX has a picoPSU-style unit in development that may fix my problems so I'll wait for it

 

[MarcParis]

just for trial have you tried hd plex 250V in 19v? (even outside the case)