Traveling Retro Gamer - Brickless S4M w/ 7600K, 1070

[Choidebu]

Speaking of putting together - looks like there won't be that much dremeling needed to fit the C6 backend into the C8 square hole after all. I should find out shortly.

Have you seen this ?

 

[SilverJS]

I had indeed - I remembered that post as likely the most informative I'd seen yet. I decided to go a slightly different route...

...and it's alive!! All built up. I'm typing this from the computer as it sits inside the Mini now. I'll link the Imgur album below - I've commented on the pictures so that should be enough to tell the story.

 

[SilverJS]

Update : Typing this on my actual Mini, in my hotel room. =) What a great little computer. All works well. Played D3 on the hotel TV, which is something I'd never done before. =) Glued the C6 connector before I left - no picture of the glued connector yet, I'll take one in a bit. Fairly simple work, with the Gel Control super glue and a bigger clamp. Left the clamp on overnight, and the thing is now fixed very solidly.

Had to bring a screwdriver with me on this trip as a way to turn on the computer as my power button didn't make it in time before I left...lol. But, I've now closed the lid and am running it like that. All seems good.

 

[SilverJS]

Computer crashed last night after an extended D3 session. The poor Mini was in kind of an enclosed space, however, and temps were QUITE high as a result (even the ambient air). I've since re-arranged my AV rack so that the Mini is on top, and has all the ventilation it needs.

That said - I think I'll just run the 7350K at stock clocks, and undervolt it too, to boot. Not sure the extra GHz are doing that much for performance right now - I notice them more because of the heat and power they require...! That, or - I've just stumbled upon an absolutely wicked deal on an i5-7500...might jump on that too.

 

[SilverJS]

So - had been thinking I might want to future proof this a bit. I had found a local-ish 7600T; I thought I could reallocate the 25W gained (60 to 35 tdp) to the video card, and get one of those Zotac 1070 Minis (if undervolted somewhat, as required). Well, I found a 1070 mini at a good price, received both parts today (CPU and GPU) and proceeded with install once kids were in bed. But, as soon as I took the top cover off of my mini, I was greeted with this :


Right. I had forgotten how tight that was - or rather, how much that power cable protrudes. The Zotac card actually fits, but there's no way I can get its power cable hooked up.

So - before I sell this 1070 right back, am I forgetting something? Is there a way to make that power connector really, really flat? I know @Thirumal Kumaran had talked about fitting a 1060 Amp card (exact same cooler as mine) with a MeanWell on the side like mine, so not sure how he ended up doing it.

PS - for those of you curious, 7600T is in the system and running. Memory controller had no issues taking my ram to its rated 3466, so that's good. I'm quite happy with it - I expected it to not quite be as snappy, but far from it. The opposite in many tasks, actually - whoddathunk two extra cores would do that? . The only thing is that I haven't seen a power consumption drop...! Greeted, this is according to the wattage measurement on HWMonitor, but I figure that as erroneous as it might be, it might still be effective at measuring differences between two cpus. Wattage numbers are around 45W on P95 for both. Both undervolted (as I expected, I didn't get far on the T - any more negative offset than 0.04 and I'd get instability). So yeah - not sure how much stock to put in that, but there you go. Interestingly, the regular 7500 I have in my office PC (hdplex fanless case, actually) also pulls 45ish watts during P95 runs, and no undervolt! (Still through HWMonitor).

So anyway, there you have it. Really hoping I can flatten that power connector somehow!

 

[rfarmer]

Someone posted a link for this from Taobao if you could get a hold of one would probably let you use the 1070.

 

[Ionrent]

 

 

[royalba94]

-snip-

Right. I had forgotten how tight that was - or rather, how much that power cable protrudes. The Zotac card actually fits, but there's no way I can get its power cable hooked up.

-snip-

How much space would there be between the 1070's power connector and the meanwell?

I could probably make you an adapter depending on little amount of space it's required to take up - if you have only 5mm or so then you're best option is probably going to be a PCB adapter like the TaoBao one or the third link @ceski posted (course I could make one like that too).

Good luck!

 

[SilverJS]

Hmmm....that PCB sure is nice! But - does it fit the the S4M? It kinda looks like it might be too "tall", no?

Great suggestions, @ceski - you've given me hope again!! .But yeah, I think it'd have to be that last one.

@royalba94 : I can check again tonight. Now that I know I have options, I might just run the rig outside the S4M to begin power tuning and all, so I'll just check the distance again more rigorously. I don't have a caliper, unfortunately - but, I seem to recall that 5-6mm sounds about right. I'll do my best to take a mounted picture with a measuring tape.

I'll contact you separately via PM to discuss - your cables sure look better than that eBay piece! )

 

[SilverJS]

So - anybody else worked with T processors before? I've run dozens of other processors (first T though) and this is the first time I've seen this : under load (P95 Blend), in HWMonitor, the package temp is 55-60, and the individual cores are 80-85. Roughly a 20-25 degree difference. If I didn't know better, I'd posit the TIM is particularly deficient in my sample - and I have no compunctions about delidding - but thought I'd run it by you guys first. Thoughts?

(I'll use HWInfo later tonight too, to confirm.)

 

[royalba94]

So - anybody else worked with T processors before? I've run dozens of other processors (first T though) and this is the first time I've seen this : under load (P95 Blend), in HWMonitor, the package temp is 55-60, and the individual cores are 80-85. Roughly a 20-25 degree difference. If I didn't know better, I'd posit the TIM is particularly deficient in my sample - and I have no compunctions about delidding - but thought I'd run it by you guys first. Thoughts?

(I'll use HWInfo later tonight too, to confirm.)

Huh, IDK myself but @Biowarejak might have an idea? Pretty sure he's run "T" processors before (plus he's just a cool guy )

 

[SilverJS]

Alright, looking forward to engage with him then! This forum is awesome, BTW.

EDIT : Just looked at temps under HWInfo. Totally normal, all the cores are very close to what the Package temp was in HWMonitor (55-60ish under load, low 30's idle). Guess I won't be delidding after all. =) (Not totally unhappy, TBH - I can focus my time more on the build this way.)

 

[SilverJS]

Just a hair over 1/8" clearance (picture was kinda hard to take, and it sort of overstates the clearance a bit) - I think @royalba94 has his work cut out for him. . That said, the power connectors are on the very front of the card, and I could probably enlarge slightly the holes where the card is screwed in to give me a bit of wiggle room (the PCIe riser could easily flex to accommodate). So I think that this could work. We'll just have to make sure the cables are well shielded, because they'll almost certainly make contact with the MeanWell metal case.

 

[SilverJS]

So I initially thought this wasn't going to work - Heaven on its own was fine (even at 100% GPU power, as I recall) but as soon as I introduced P95 in addition, I got power cycles, even at 80% GPU power - and in most cases, within seconds. Tried one quick d3 run for more real-world loads and also cycled (but after 5 minutes or so). Wasn't too happy.

But since ran Heaven plus P95 26.6 (non-AVX - since the T processor is locked, I can't specify an avx offset), with GPU at 70% power, for 30 or so minutes and things were all fine. Played 20 mins of D3, no issues. I'm dumbfounded - the card boosts up to the same 1900-1923MHz even with a 30% power handicap!! Not sure if this is normal, but there you go.

So, I guess this might work after all. I might try to further undervolt and slightly downclock (~100MHz?) the card, to give myself a bit of headroom. @royalba94 and I are in discussions as to how we can make the cabling work - I'm optimistic. =)

 

[Biowarejak]

Huh, IDK myself but @Biowarejak might have an idea? Pretty sure he's run "T" processors before (plus he's just a cool guy )

Thanks buddy! yep, I've run a 6400t and am currently running a delidded 6700t. They're pretty low power parts compared to their bigger siblings. Those numbers seem to be fine, though the discrepancy is pretty curious. I'd posit it's the result of either multiple monitoring programs, of which I'm not sure you're using but can cause issues, or it may simply be the nature of the beast. Cores run hot but if the package is cool you'll be fine, especially if that was under prime95.

 

[SilverJS]

Ok. Yeah, I know multiple monitoring utilities can wreak havoc...I use them in isolation.

Curious : what led you to delid your T? And what did you observe once you did?

 

[Biowarejak]

Ok. Yeah, I know multiple monitoring utilities can wreak havoc...I use them in isolation.

Curious : what led you to delid your T? And what did you observe once you did?

Actually bought it from another forum member that way but more stable temperatures mostly. Especially now that it's under water in #77.

 

[Ionrent]

 

 

[SilverJS]

Interesting!! @royalba94 : the bar has been set! =) 2mm, good Sir! =)) I was going to heat shrink the ends anyways, to make sure no bare metal is exposed.

(I simply could NOT find anything about...Carry-On Cable? Carrion?...anywhere.)

 

[Ionrent]