Question Power supply for mini-ITX

[ivanog]

Hi guys, sure you are all doing great and thanks in advance for any reply.

I'm kind of a newbie and i'm trying to build a small size PC (mini ITX), powerful and silent, to record some live music in my room running softwares like garage band or similar.
Already have an external Audio interface (Steinberg), so to my knowledge, i need a good motherboard, a fast CPU, enough RAM and an SSD . So far i'm kind of going towards:

CPU: Ryzen 7 2700X
Motherboard: MSI B450I
SSD: Samsung - 860 Evo 500 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive
All with 32 Giga of RAM (Maybe going for 16 as it seems way too much).

Ideally i would like to put all this into a portable case. Since i want to make it less noisy as possible, was thinking of going for an external PSU unit. Is there any trick that can be done to use an AC-DC power supply similar to the ones for the laptop or this set up requires an "ATX like" PSU?

Thanks a lot!
Ivano

 

[Barty1884]

What case are you thinking about? Some of the Pico units might be viable, but a 2700X is a 105W TDP chip and lacks an iGP - so you'd need to add a GPU, driving the power draw up to ~150W peak, maybe a little higher.

Did you have a case in mind? For example, something like a Silverstone Raven mITX lineup are still very portable, and support SFX PSUs and a GPU....
https://pcpartpicker.com/products/compare/GCfp99,zmgPxr,RgVBD3/

 

[ivanog]

HI Barty, thanks for the reply. Case wise i'm not actually disregarding the idea of build it myself, just to have some fun really. My main concern is trying to reduce fan noise to the minimum inside the pc, so even the GPU perspective is not too attractive. Thanks for the info about the CPU not having iGP, had a quick look and Ryzen 5 2400G might equally do the trick for me.

My main concern right now is the power supply and how to "hack" the MB. Just to be 100% clear. i See that this ASUS https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813132071 has the "pin" to plug a normal laptop power supply. Is it something hackable for the MSI B450I or any other mini ITX MB that don't have the pin?

 

[Barty1884]

The "pin" option is very, very limited. Certain setups are designed as such, but i'm not aware of a single Ryzen/AM4 offering supporting such.

I'm not sure if they ever came to market, but it sounds like Zotac were looking to release the perfect product for you:
https://www.anandtech.com/show/12319/zotac-displays-zbox-ma551-an-amd-raven-ridgebased-sff-pc

 

[hang-the-9]

You don't need anything major to run music recording software, the higher end you go, the more cooling you need, therefore small case and trying to reduce fan noise is harder.

I think the lower end Ryzen with integrated video would be good here. If you want a pre-built, these models are nice, we use them at work now for quite a lot of store setups for office computers where we don't use thin clients https://www.amazon.com/ThinkCentre-...ZSKP6ZQ83Z8&psc=1&refRID=NNZGPSAS7ZSKP6ZQ83Z8

 

[ivanog]

Hi guys, thanks for your replies and sorry for the delay. Played a bit around with PC parts and this looks ok to me, any opinion? Was thinking of buying a case with small power supply, 250W should be good enough? https://pcpartpicker.com/list/dFv9MZ I would assume this set up wouldn't require much case fan?

 

[hang-the-9]

Hi guys, thanks for your replies and sorry for the delay. Played a bit around with PC parts and this looks ok to me, any opinion? Was thinking of buying a case with small power supply, 250W should be good enough? https://pcpartpicker.com/list/dFv9MZ I would assume this set up wouldn't require much case fan?

Looks fine, cooler even has good thermal paste with it. A good small PSU is pretty pricey though, looks like for anything modular is in the $80 range. Non-modular in the 60s. https://www.amazon.com/SilverStone-...ocphy=9001834&hvtargid=pla-441163085401&psc=1 or https://www.amazon.com/SilverStone-...locphy=9001834&hvtargid=pla-441163085401&th=1

Don't cheap out on the power supply.

 

[ivanog]

Thanks a lot hang. Just for my joy/curiosity. Would something like this work (beside the cheap price)? If not, would you mind sharing some knowledge on why?
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Wosonku-24...ds=pico+psu&qid=1555523726&s=computers&sr=1-8

THanks man!

 

[hang-the-9]

Thanks a lot hang. Just for my joy/curiosity. Would something like this work (beside the cheap price)? If not, would you mind sharing some knowledge on why?
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Wosonku-24...ds=pico+psu&qid=1555523726&s=computers&sr=1-8

THanks man!

If you are building a very light power use system that may be OK, say a small industrial setup that uses laptop parts. Not for the parts you are using.
The power supply should be the sturdiest part of the build if you want to ensure parts don't die.

 

[ivanog]

Thanks again Hang, much appreciated. I'd like to use a bit more of your patience for conversational sake and improve my knowledge (just ordered a psu
Seas Modular Prime Focus Modular 550 Watt 80 + Gold, looks ok to me).

On this link, https://silentpc.com/fanless-pcs/coffee-lake-mini-itx-fc8 this pc looks to me a bit less than my set up but still somehow there about when it comes to wattage. I read the power supply is a pico PSU 150w fanless. I can't understand the trick here!

 

[hang-the-9]

Great power supply, don't know about that other build. 150 watts is pushing it for a 65 watt CPU. I would not build anything with a normal Intel i CPU under 250 watts, just to have the extra headroom. But like I said, for specialized applications, using a light system with a lower power draw setup is fine. Heck even the basic business systems ship with 220-240 watt power supplies.