**Building a Tiny Gaming PC with the HD Plex 400**

If you're looking to build a compact gaming PC that's both powerful and quiet, the HD Plex 400 watt DC-ATX power supply solution is definitely worth considering. This approach eliminates the need for fan swaps or fan noise, as both the power brick and the HD Plex 400 are passively cooled.

To achieve this setup, you'll need to carry an external power brick with your PC, which itself is a significant volume about a third the size of the Volca 3 case. However, this isn't necessarily a deal-breaker if you plan on using this build for portability, as it's designed to be compact and lightweight.

The main drawback of this approach is that you'll need to manage your cables more carefully, as the power supply setup runs along the motherboard tray. This can still be done sensibly and will require less management than having a traditional power supply unit inside the case. The results were fine at full load with no issues or noise, even with an i5 9400 and an RT X 2070 GPU.

To achieve a significant drop in thermals and fan noise, you can under-volt your GPU using MSI Afterburner. In this setup, I spent about five minutes under-voting my GPU to 817 millivolts, which dropped the thermals from the mid-70s to the low 60s. This is a good thing, as it means that your PC will run cooler and quieter, even with a more power-hungry configuration like a 20A or Vegas 64.

For those interested in checking out how to under-volt their GPU, I recently did a full video on the topic, which covers the process in simple terms. The benefits of this approach aren't limited to small cases like this either - even with larger cases and more power-hungry GPUs, you can still achieve massive drops in thermals and fan noise.

**Alternative Approach: Swapping the Fan on the Flex ATX Unit**

Before getting into the HD Plex 400 solution, I also experimented with swapping the fan on the Flex ATX unit. This approach is relatively easy to do, but it requires some technical knowledge and caution when working with electrical components.

The main noise coming from the RT X 2017 was significantly quieter after swapping out the fan for a Noctua model. However, this approach also came with its own set of challenges, such as installing new mounting brackets and ensuring that all connections were secure.

**Comparison: HD Plex 400 vs Flex ATX Unit**

In comparison to the original setup using the Flex ATX unit, the HD Plex solution is more straightforward and requires less technical knowledge. The power supply itself is smaller than the Flex ATX unit, which gives you more flexibility with cable management.

The finished build here looks sleeker as well, seeing as more than half of the build process was spent managing cables inside the case. However, the benefits of this setup are still significant - no noise, no issues at full load, and a decent bit quieter than the original setup.

Overall, it's clear that building a compact gaming PC with the HD Plex 400 solution is definitely possible. While it may require some technical knowledge and caution when working with external power bricks, the results are well worth it - a powerful and quiet system that's perfect for a desk or backpack build.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enall right so some of you might remember this PC build right here this is the four liter volca 3 gaming PC which has an RT X 2070 and a 6 core CPU and four liters just to put that into some perspective typical mid-tower gaming PCs are around 50 to 60 liters ITX pcs usually are around the 20 liter mark and this is four liters so you can fit in pretty much any backpack out there and if your pockets are big enough it might even fit there too so with our initial build that we did about a few months ago we did have one big problem though that was with the power supply fair noise so I concluded in that video that that build was not really useable to hell that the power supply fan was and now I would only really recommend this build and case if you were prepared to swap that fan to something a bit quieter like a knock tour so that is exactly what we have done in this video I'm going to show you how to do it and have a look at the results spoiler alert the results here are actually pretty nice and definitely worth doing there is also another alternative to power this system and we'll look at that towards the end but basically cable management is a lot better and power supply noise is eliminated because it's a passively called power supply solution so that's what we're looking at today now for those of you who missed the initial video on this build and case let me give you a quick rundown of exactly what you're looking at the volca 3 is a completely aluminium small form-factor PC case and the thing that makes it so special which most of you could probably tell by at this point it's just how small this thing actually is in fact it's the smallest case in the world to accommodate a discrete graphics card and don't be quick to call this a low-power ITX machine for casual gaming to build it you're looking at right now has an RT X 2060 a6 core i5 9400 16 gigabytes of 32 hundred megahertz memory and one terabyte of m dot 2 nvme storage all of that in just a 4 liter volume that's pretty mental the power supply noise though was pretty deafening and ruined and otherwise perfect to build the CPU and GPU were running relatively cool and quiet there were no issues there at all so let's go ahead and try swapping that insanely loud fan on our Flex ATX power supply unit and the power supply that I've got here is the 400 watt 80 + a gold model from FSP the stock fan that's in there at the moment is a 40 ml fairness 15 mils thick and so I wanted to try both the 10 mil and 20 mil thick options from Noctua at the same diameter both of these are 12 volt PWM options with your standard 4 pin PWM header so you can plug it directly into your motherboard and have a full control over it there depending on your system load your other option is of course to rewire it to the 2 pin at 12 volt DC header that the power supply currently uses that's totally up to you now disassembling the Flex ATX unit is pretty easy a couple of screws on either side and then one at the top and then you can remove one of the covers and reveal the internals now I will take this moment to somewhat stress the obvious precautions when it comes to working with open power supplies although all of the capacitors that you see here are insulated and pretty much impossible to short from the top just don't be dumb don't poke your screwdriver around and don't reach deep into the PCB we're just going to be worrying about the fan header on the left removing the fan is pretty simple it's just a two pin plug which you can just carefully remove with your fingertips now although the stock fan was just 15 mils thick I really wanted to try and cram in the 20 ml thick knock to a model as opposed to the 10 mil model to make sure that we're not compromising on airflow and thermal performance of the PSU I tried super hard to get this fan to fit but no matter what you do it's still going to be blocked by the PCB right behind it so here we have to settle for the slimmer model instead alright so I've got the power supply connected directly to the motherboard and I've got it set to ramp up a based on the CPU temperature specifically when the CPU surpasses at 50 degrees C the power supply fan will ramp up to 100% below that threshold it'll idle between 30 to 50% fan speed now 100% speed for this little fan means a 5,000 rpm which actually isn't that bad at all he's an idea of what that sounds like for some improved cable management I also went ahead and removed one of the sada and molex connector scripts two of these strips for this power supply was just kind of unnecessary and I can just reattach it if I really need to so booting up a game the results are fine about what you would expect much much less noise while the system is at full load the test here was whether the system would shut down due to the power supply overheating but luckily that just didn't happen if you feel the back of the power supply where the air is being exhausted you can definitely feel a bit of warm air which is a good thing but other than that this mod seems totally safe to do of course proceed at your own risk you might have a different experience if your climate is a lot warmer or if you somehow have a more power hungry configuration in this case which is definitely not easy to do the main noise was now coming from the RT X 2017 so I spent about five minutes under vaulting it to 817 millivolts in MSI Afterburner and that dropped the thermals from the mid 70s to the low 60s I recently did a full video on how to under vote your GPU it's quite simple and most people are just not doing it and the benefits aren't just limited to small cases like this even if you have a larger case with a more power hungry GPU like a 20 atti or Vegas 64 or something like that for example you can still get massive drops in terms of thermals and fan noise so if you are interested in checking that out video will be linked down below it is highly recommended all right but if you don't want to go through the hassle of swapping the fan on the Flex ATX unit there is actually a really solid alternative and that's this right here the tiny HD Plex 400 watt DC - ATX power supply technically it's only half of the power supply chain DC - ATX the AC to DC portion of the power is taken care of by a Dell power brick and the one that I've got here is ready for up to 330 watts the main drawback of this approach is whereas the previous build was fully standalone and contained within the case this build means that you'll also need to carry around an external power brick this itself is a significant volume it's about a third of the size of the volca 3 and so if you're planning on using this build for portability definitely keep this in mind the positive though that you won't need to bother with any fan swaps or any fan noise at all for that matter as both the power brick and the HD Plex 400 are passively cooled I did have some issues with installation in the volca 3 though supposedly the mounting holes at the bottom of the case aren't meant aligned right up but it looks like it's blocked by the power supply button on the inside same situation with the included bracket for the plug it just doesn't seem to line up properly with the HD plex model that I've got right here so I just went ahead and used some really strong double-sided tape for mounting here instead which worked surprisingly well here's how the finished installation looks at the bottom the HD Plex 400 is a fair bit smaller than the Flex ATX unit we were using before so you do have a bit more flexibility with cable management as well the finished build here is a lot more straightforward seeing as more than half the build process is actually managing the cables inside this case with the HD Plex though you can just route the cables somewhat sensibly and you can get the front panel on no problem and the results here too were fine just find nothing really to say no issues at full load no noise the power supply setup runs perfectly fine without i5 9400 and our TX 2070 and again under vaulting the GPU will help bring the power consumption down also to just give you a bit of extra peace of mind but it was fine at stock too now although the Noctua modded flex ATX unit was significantly quieter than before we modelled the silent power supply set up here is a decent bit quieter yet again in my opinion this would be the preferred setup for a bill that will mostly stay on your desk seeing as you can easily hide the power brick out of sight all in all it looks like you can actually build this more without compromising too much on the noise performance and performance in general of your gaming system I'll say it again it really is surreal to get this much gaming performance from such a tiny brick of a PC if you're bringing this thing to a competitive land you've got a pretty decent competitive edge when it comes to frame rate but even if you're not interested in Portability and a land gaming PC or something that you can put in your backpack I understand not many people have that sort of use case personally I don't either this sort of system would work quite well for just a minimal desktop PC for gaming and video editing the HD Plex power supply solution with the external power brick would be my preferred setup there - seeing as you can just easily hide the power brick out of sight so if you are interested in any of the PC hardware discussed today including the volca 3 pc case you can find that linked down below in the description as always guys a huge thanks for watching and I'll see you all in the next one\n"