This is in the planning stage at the moment and I am starting to use sketchup for the design so: For my next mod, space is going to be a premium and I am trying to keep the maximum depth of the case at 70mm (45mm rad and 25mm fan). For this to work I need a power supply that is very compact and while a sfx psu would work, they are noisy and still take up a lot of space that could be used for other stuff (don't want to spoil the mod too much ). Is there a way of taking the power supply out of the case and customising it into another enclosure, or alternatively using laptop power supplies or pico power supplies to power this pc. I know this is pretty unlikely as I ideally need 500w of power ( a silverstone sfx psu would be ideal but still loud and quite noisy). The hardware that it needs to power at the absolute maximum: i5 ivy bridge (or haswell) gtx 670 or 7870 or the new gen equivalents 1-2ssds 1 hdd Fan controller with touch screen Pump for watercooling 3x120mm or 140mm fans Thanks for the help, atc95
The PSU doesn't need to be in the same case as your pc but will obviously need to be connected to it by the cables. You could add extensions to the cables if you need to stretch it further. Would be pretty messy though I'd imagine. Im not sure if you can use pico PSUs in parallel as they all seem to have their own ATX connector and are rated based on the components mounted on there, so you'd need to consider that. Laptop supplies are usually 16v+ and rely heavily on the laptop doing all the DC-DC conversion. You would need to find very good regulated 12v supplies instead and look at converting that to the 5v, 3.3v and negative rails yourself. That will be tricky.
It is possible to remove the internals from a power supply. Have a look at this mod for instance. I know there's been a more recent one, with the innards of a PSU installed in the dive bays of a case as well, but I can't remember its name off the top of my head. Remember that you'll still have to supply it enough airflow to make sure that it doesn't overheat. You also need to make it safe. Remember that there are some pretty beefy capacitors in there if you open it up, which contain enough charge to kill you. You'll also have to ground the pcb I think. This is usually done with a wire connected to the PSU shell. Have you looked at 1U power supplies as an alternative? They might also be noisy though.
I think a 1u power supply would be too noisy, unless there is a way of venting it and lining it up with the exhaust fan on the case? Also not sure I want to be risking my life with capacitors when I am not very experienced with electronics. I guess it is going to have to be the silverstone power supply at the moment.
one can disassemble typical 85mm-thick PSU with 120mm fan and replace fan with scythe 120*10mm fan. and cut down psu walls for 15 mm of course
Yeah, open up a psu and see how much space the fan takes? Maybe you can cut down on space that way. I would be wary for overheating however, so see that it is well-ventilated laterally.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Silverstone/ST45SF-G/4.html may give you an idea how it looks from the inside?
If you take it apart before you power it on, there'll be no charge in the capacitor and no danger. Alternatively if you want to test it first, you can leave it unplugged for a length of time to allow the capacitors to discharge or, force a discharge by connecting two of the pins together (you'll have to look for a guide).
