" A good thing about the external power supply is that it is potentially upgradeable, but a negative thing about it is that the whole setup gets bulkier and look less elegant with external power supplies (keep in mind that many TB3 docks and monitors also use external PSUs)."
I tend to disagree, especially about the bulkier remark. As long as the internal PSU is a standard desktop design it massively adds to the bulk of the enclosure. If it's behind the GPU it makes the whole thing 2-3" wider with the ~2/3rds to 3/4ths of the volume forward of the PSU being dead space. Below and upright adds about 5" to the height again mostly deadspace. Below and horizontal adds 2-3 to height and 1-2 to width.
Putting it in front of the card would eliminate the large amount of excess volume added; but means either only supporting shorter cards or a really long enclosure that could become troublesome to arrange on a desk.
A custom designed PSU for the enclosure, long, short, skinny and cooled by several low profile 80 mm fans that only added an inch and a half or two to the height while going a good portion off the front/back length would make the best of cramming a PSU in without bulking the box up excessively; but AFAIK no one has done so yet.
I'd rather have one thing that is slightly larger (SFX PSU integrated into the case) than 2 things that are large and add another cable to the setup. A quick search shows a 330W Dell adapter as being 19.5 x 9.5 x 4 (~740) cm³ big. A 450W Corsair SFX PSU is 12.5 x 6.4 x 10 (~800) cm³. Flex-ATX can go even smaller (300W Seasonic is 8.2 x 4.1 x 15 (~480) cm³). So integrated is almost always less bulky than external. And sure, a specially designed custom PSU would reduce bulk even further. But I'd rather have something I can replace easily with off the shelf components than lose another couple cm and have a louder system.
We’ve updated our terms. By continuing to use the site and/or by logging into your account, you agree to the Site’s updated Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
3 Comments
Back to Article
DanNeely - Sunday, January 7, 2018 - link
" A good thing about the external power supply is that it is potentially upgradeable, but a negative thing about it is that the whole setup gets bulkier and look less elegant with external power supplies (keep in mind that many TB3 docks and monitors also use external PSUs)."I tend to disagree, especially about the bulkier remark. As long as the internal PSU is a standard desktop design it massively adds to the bulk of the enclosure. If it's behind the GPU it makes the whole thing 2-3" wider with the ~2/3rds to 3/4ths of the volume forward of the PSU being dead space. Below and upright adds about 5" to the height again mostly deadspace. Below and horizontal adds 2-3 to height and 1-2 to width.
Putting it in front of the card would eliminate the large amount of excess volume added; but means either only supporting shorter cards or a really long enclosure that could become troublesome to arrange on a desk.
A custom designed PSU for the enclosure, long, short, skinny and cooled by several low profile 80 mm fans that only added an inch and a half or two to the height while going a good portion off the front/back length would make the best of cramming a PSU in without bulking the box up excessively; but AFAIK no one has done so yet.
nerd1 - Monday, January 8, 2018 - link
One can easily cram a full gaming PC inside that big case... which renders the whole idea of eGPU moot.Death666Angel - Monday, January 8, 2018 - link
I'd rather have one thing that is slightly larger (SFX PSU integrated into the case) than 2 things that are large and add another cable to the setup. A quick search shows a 330W Dell adapter as being 19.5 x 9.5 x 4 (~740) cm³ big. A 450W Corsair SFX PSU is 12.5 x 6.4 x 10 (~800) cm³. Flex-ATX can go even smaller (300W Seasonic is 8.2 x 4.1 x 15 (~480) cm³). So integrated is almost always less bulky than external. And sure, a specially designed custom PSU would reduce bulk even further. But I'd rather have something I can replace easily with off the shelf components than lose another couple cm and have a louder system.