Greets, after some thoughts regarding power for a SFF mod project.
I've had plans for a watercooled In Win Chopin for a while and originally I was content to use a 300W mining board for power. Hardware is an old i7 3770 and Quadro P400 from my server so nothing insane but I've never been mad keen on this humungous power brick hanging off it, especially when I already have an external radiator box.
Recently though I watched Josh from NFC use a small open frame PSU crammed into one of his S4T cases and it caught my attention as it could work for what I'm doing.
So I've been looking around and I came across the Meanwell LOP series of open frame PSUs, specifically the LOP-300-12 which is a 300W model with 12V output.
https://www.meanwell.co.uk/power-supplies/medical-grade-power-supplies/lop-300-series
In theory this looks mighty fine as it's perfect dimensions to get into the nooks and crannies of my modded Chopin. The idea would be to hook up a 3-pin GX16 aviation connector for AC input (I'd prefer the smaller GX12 but they don't seem to be rated for 240V AC), then hook the PC up to the 12V outputs:
There will be a basement cover of sorts in the mod so the PSU will be concealed.
One things I'm unsure about though is the PSU's datasheet claims less than half a watt power consumption when not under load. That says to me though that the PSU will be continuously presenting power. I presume there'd be no issue with having the motherboard's 4-pin connected to such because it's not doing anything until actually switched on by the triggers on the PicoPSU. Please correct me if I'm wrong. It also means that any LED shenanigans I do with the 3rd pair of output pins is just going to result in them always on, which isn't ideal. Probably shove them into the 4-pin CPU and save on y-splits.
Does this sound doable? Or am I just going to start a fire
Cable management will be an absolute joy if I can go this route.
Cheers!
I've had plans for a watercooled In Win Chopin for a while and originally I was content to use a 300W mining board for power. Hardware is an old i7 3770 and Quadro P400 from my server so nothing insane but I've never been mad keen on this humungous power brick hanging off it, especially when I already have an external radiator box.
Recently though I watched Josh from NFC use a small open frame PSU crammed into one of his S4T cases and it caught my attention as it could work for what I'm doing.
So I've been looking around and I came across the Meanwell LOP series of open frame PSUs, specifically the LOP-300-12 which is a 300W model with 12V output.
https://www.meanwell.co.uk/power-supplies/medical-grade-power-supplies/lop-300-series
In theory this looks mighty fine as it's perfect dimensions to get into the nooks and crannies of my modded Chopin. The idea would be to hook up a 3-pin GX16 aviation connector for AC input (I'd prefer the smaller GX12 but they don't seem to be rated for 240V AC), then hook the PC up to the 12V outputs:
- 2 pins to power a 150W PicoPSU.
- 2 pins wired directly to the 4-pin CPU power (pair of Y-splits).
- 2 pins left over for assorted 12V shenanigans, like the LED strips, or possibly shunting directly into the Quadro.
There will be a basement cover of sorts in the mod so the PSU will be concealed.
One things I'm unsure about though is the PSU's datasheet claims less than half a watt power consumption when not under load. That says to me though that the PSU will be continuously presenting power. I presume there'd be no issue with having the motherboard's 4-pin connected to such because it's not doing anything until actually switched on by the triggers on the PicoPSU. Please correct me if I'm wrong. It also means that any LED shenanigans I do with the 3rd pair of output pins is just going to result in them always on, which isn't ideal. Probably shove them into the 4-pin CPU and save on y-splits.
Does this sound doable? Or am I just going to start a fire
Cable management will be an absolute joy if I can go this route.Cheers!
Last edited: