Hi, my console died few days ago so I thought I will take your advice and finally decided to build my own PC, but since I am a complete noob I run into some issues.
I found a good deal on eBay for a business desktop and not thinking much bought it. The model is: Fujitsu Esprimo P420 E85+.
It has I3-4170 and 4Gb of ram, so I thought I will add another 4Gb of ram, and already had a Gtx 970 and Seasonic S12II 520W power supply from a friend ready to put together, but to my surprise the motherboard and PSU on it seems to be non standard and only 280W.
From what I found online, this models use 12V only PSU’s with a 16pin connector, and also found a recent discussion on another forum where people try to make it work somehow with ATX PSU’s (although with a different model):
There is also a lot of cases where people just give up and scrap it… that would be a real shame to throw away working system especially because it’s got Win10 Pro license.
Is it possible to come up with some workaround to power it? would it affect PSU?
I am ok to mod the case with a dremell tool to fit it but when it comes to electronics I am clueless.
The only idea I have is getting a multimeter and reading what each pin on the 16 pin plug does and then rewiring it to the appropriate wires on a regular PSU so you would end up with your Seasonic but with the Fujitsu plug on the end. but that is quite a bit of work.
Or if it works out right, you might be able to make a custom extension to plug on to the end of the regular 24 pin and have it go to a 16, other wise same as above, just need to buy a 24 pin socket you can wire the 16 pin plug to. Would be a but messy if it was possible but it would also mean no modding the Seasonic PSU.
Yeah, I figured out I could get an extension so I don’t mess up the PSU cables and rewire it but I am worried original psu supply 11V standby power not 5V.
But I have no idea if that will work… some Russian guy used a 12V brick and stepped it down to 11V and his computer POST correctly so it looks like it is doable.
Would be nice to have a solution to this problem as those PC’s are popping on the web now at a very attractive price and with decent hardware, Surely there will be more people hoping this thing can be done.
Holy shit, that’s a new low; using non-standard voltages to power a PC. Fuck that.
Regarding aquiring 11V for the mainboard, it may be difficult to find a boost converter that can boost 5V ~3A (accounting for losses in the boost converter + peak current), so a buck converter from 12V to 11V will be easier.
If you want to reduce electrical noise in the circuit, you can just use a somewhat high-power resistor (5-10W will be plenty) to drop the voltage down.
P.S: Have fun making yourself your own 20/24pin to 16 pin adapter, and re-wiring everything… I’ve tried that for a Lenovo M93P, and quickly gave up.
Not gonna work if I reduce one of the 12V… Its the standby wire that needs 11V so there must be current in it at all times so you can switch the system on and off.
I hope it won’t be that difficult to make an adapter, funnily enough 24 pin connector fits the one on the motherboard, it’s just much longer, so I guess I will chop the cables in the middle and match them in desired order, not gonna be pretty but should work.
Hmmmm, so you say boost converter is a bad idea? The plot thickens.
I never thought I would have to jump thru hoops like that to build a PC but at least it gets interesting.
This might be a rehash of what the otger commenters have said, I can’t figure it out, but if it is wired like a normal 16-pin and it is only the pc_on pin that needs altering of the voltage, I’d say this is perfectly doable with an adaptor (find it on ebay) and a buck converter. The pc_on pin doesn’t draw a lot of current (presumably) so a 1A continuous 3A max buck converter from china for a dollar or two is going to be able to handle it fine. You can find schematics on google of where the pin is on the atx 24/20 and just follow the wire through to the 16 pin and fit the buck converter in the adaptor wires.
Edit: I guess the normal ground wire in the hot wire guides for shorting the atx plug can be the minus terminal? Right guys?
Yeah I know, but then I bet that new motherboard wouldn’t fit into that case, so I’d have to buy a new case, motherboard and windows10, not really cost effective.
I put gt 1030 in it and cloned a 120GB SSD for system in addition to original 1Tb HDD, and bought 4Gb ram to boost it to 8Gb, it actually runs pretty snappy, tried few games and it is not a terrible system really. Probably won’t loose any money if I’d sell it.
I found another deal on mobo+i5 3570k, so I am building that in a corsair 380T. I’ll snap few pictures later, it looks cool.
You should be able to get the OEM key off of the machine you have for use with your new machine.
I would probably not go with something quite that old if you can help it. That 3xxx means its 3rd gen, which would be hard to find new parts for if something goes bad or if you wanted to upgrade. Unless its a really good deal.
I thought OEM Windows is signed to motherboard, and usually they don’t give you an option to move it to other machine, right?
I really don’t want to throw away a working machine, it’s in pretty good condition and I bet somebody will still be happy with it, so I thought why not throw few parts in it and make it usable again.
I don’t mind 3rd gen intel, there was not much innovation anyway, and it came with Asus P8Z77-I motherboard, can overclock and is ITX. If it brakes I’ll replace the whole thing and sell the rest.
It can be, if its a truly digital license from upgrade or reinstall of a different key and was then assigned to a microsoft account. In my experience though its not hard to get at the key though and in most cases can be used again on another machine without too much hassle. You might have to do over the phone activation but its doable.
Probably, if you can break even on it or even make money more power to you.
Youre right, there wasnt. Your 4170 will perform roughly identical core for core to the 3570k.
The problem I have seen in the past with used hardware, especially K sku setups, is they typically have some faults. You never really know if that thing is on its last leg. I’ve seen chips that cant overclock at all anymore, weird ram issues, etc. Its not always as simple as it does or does not work. Think of them like a performance car in some ways.
The 4170 is nice because its a socket that still has brand new parts out in stores is all I’m trying to get at. Then you have a very nice upgrade path down the road. Its really up to you though. Dont let me tell you how to join PCMR. Either option will probably be a good choice.
connect the windows license to your Microsoft account. swap the mobo for a cheap h81/h97 mobo and add a new 500 watt psu. reinstall windows using your microsoft account and call it a day. maybe 75$ total after shipping. and no messing with rewiring which you would probably have to buy tools for anyways.
but at least it gets interesting.