Building an arcade machine with x86 parts, need PSU...

[SolidSonicTH]

I did a power calculation of what I should expect and the recommended output I got was 310w (because I want to equip it with a GTX 1050 Ti for some non-emulated gaming). That's 10 more than the 300w picoATX unit I was looking at so is there a good solution for a compact power supply? I'm going under the assumption I don't have a ton of space inside the arcade unit (it's going to be a bartop unit so I can't shove all the internals into the undercarriage like you could with a freestanding arcade system).

[SavageNeo]

1 minute ago, SolidSonicTH said:

GTX 1050 Ti

really overpriced not really worth it. rx 570 4b is cheaper and performs much better. It consumes more power thought.

[SolidSonicTH]

I already own it. I'm just reusing it because it's going unused presently.

[mariushm]

Look into industrial power supplies

 

Here's models from 150w and up : https://www.digikey.com/short/zpwdhp

 

Here's 3 350w psus

LRS-350-12 MEAN WELL USA Inc. | Power Supplies - External/Internal (Off-Board) | DigiKey

ERP-350-12 MEAN WELL USA Inc. | Power Supplies - External/Internal (Off-Board) | DigiKey

VGS-350B-12 CUI Inc. | Power Supplies - External/Internal (Off-Board) | DigiKey

 

Also, why not buy a standard 450-550w power supply and make a custom case for it? 

 

The fan is thick and takes up a decent amount of vertical space... you could open the case and change the top fan to one or two 40-60mm fans that blow air sideways and you got yourself a lower height psu.

 

 

 

[SolidSonicTH]

8 minutes ago, mariushm said:

Look into industrial power supplies

 

Here's models from 150w and up : https://www.digikey.com/short/zpwdhp

 

Here's 3 350w psus

LRS-350-12 MEAN WELL USA Inc. | Power Supplies - External/Internal (Off-Board) | DigiKey

ERP-350-12 MEAN WELL USA Inc. | Power Supplies - External/Internal (Off-Board) | DigiKey

VGS-350B-12 CUI Inc. | Power Supplies - External/Internal (Off-Board) | DigiKey

 

Also, why not buy a standard 450-550w power supply and make a custom case for it? 

 

The fan is thick and takes up a decent amount of vertical space... you could open the case and change the top fan to one or two 40-60mm fans that blow air sideways and you got yourself a lower height psu.

 

 

 

You mean open up the PSU and try to refabricate a smaller form factor around it? Or a custom arcade unit case?

 

If the latter, because I'm trying to avoid any tedious woodworking.

[mariushm]

Just now, SolidSonicTH said:

You mean open up the PSU and try to refabricate a smaller form factor around it? Or a custom arcade unit case?

Yeah you can open up the psu and make smaller case by removing the top fan and using smaller fans - this works especially with higher efficiency models as they have smaller height heatsinks

 

I do want to ask ... this arcade machine, does it need a really powerful processor, is it gonna be some emulator for some harder things to emulate, or some snes and similar stuff?

 

I ask because you can buy older motherboards with DC IN (12v or 16.5v..18.5v) so you would save on using a picoATX psu and just power the board directly from a laptop adapter.

If the integrated graphics on such boards is not enough, you could plug a dedicated video card using a riser cable (if you want to have everything flat) and you could use a separate power supply to power the video card. Use a laptop style 12v adapter or a psu like the above and you can start the power supply when the motherboard starts using a mechanical relay or something like that.

Super easy to do it.

 

[SolidSonicTH]

I went with an i5-6500 (this was mostly due to price vs. value; trying to go for an i5-6400 or get the power-saving version of the CPU didn't give me the sort of price difference I wanted to see and i3s in the Skylake generation are all dual-core CPUs). I was planning to use a riser cable, though (more for reasons relating to the fact there is no way to screw it down inside the case so I was going to affix the GPU somewhere inside the case, most likely on the walls).

 

The main intent is to run some emulators but I was also looking forward to running games like Street Fighter V or Tekken 7 on low to mid settings to give this a really robust selection of games to play on stick.