SPCR

Hi.

I have previously received help from many members here and they managed to steer me in the right direction. However I bought the bitfenix prodigy and I am not totally satisfied with this case. The feet are wobbly and does make a very good impression when moved around, its huge for a mini-itx case and after and i kind don't like the look after all.

My psu is the g-360 and even though i like it and I really couldn't hear it before. But as of now, with a passive hd7750, glidestream case fans (400rpm) and Schyte samurai zz cooler (600rpm) it is the noisiest component left (when the hdd is not on)

Someone recommended me the node 304. It seems quite nice and it might handle a passive psu? I have looked at the seasonic platinum 400w fanless. However seeing as it is modular and the hd7750 I am using is about 19,5 cm I am not sure it will fit.

Then I realized I might be able to use a 160xt pico psu. I am not sure if it is possible with the following components:

2 x 4gb vengeance lp
i5 3450
HiS hd7750
3tb wd red hdd
128gb samsung 830 ssd
asus ph877-i

If this is possible (and recommended) what case would be a good fit. I now it cannot be that small while still fitting a graphics card and a 3.5" suspended hdd.


I would like to keep the mobo/ram/cpu/gpu if possible. The price of the seasonic platinum and a pico usb with powerbrick seems to be about the same price in my country.


Hope someone have some input.

Here's a look from two directions:

1)
CPU TDP 77W
GPU TDP 55W
Mobo + other stuff <50W
Total 182W

2)
Hardware.info benchmarked the P8H77-I with an i7-3770K and found it drew 92W while running Cinebench. I'm assuming this is power draw from the wall (they don't list their PSU, other components or procedure...bleh). If they had an awesome 90% efficient supply, this leads to 83W draw from the PSU. The HD 7750 has a TDP of 55W. So, that's 138W under heavy CPU/GPU load.

My guess is it would be fine under normal loads and maybe be iffy if you run Prime95 + Furmark.

Yeah, you could use a picoPSU to power that system. But I usually redo the cabling a bit when I use such a powerful graphics card in a picoPSU powered system. But in the Node 304 I would build with the G-360 first. Seems like a solid build. Maybe do something with the fan in the PSU if it bothers you. Since you don't get a size advantage with the picoPSU using that case and the power efficiency is still very good with the G-360 it's a lot of money for going passive on the PSU. With that mechanical HDD in there also, you don't need perfect silence. (edit: Ah, the HDD spins down. Still, the G-360 is not bad and you already own it.)

Thank you for your input!


It seems that I will just change to the Node 304 and try with my current setup. I am thinking there is just not enough room with the pico psu if I ever want to add something more to the build. I might actually have to go back to the gtx 660 that I own as switching to the hd 7550 was an even bigger performance hit than I thought. This would of course be impossible with a picopsu.