Is this setup pushing the power limit?

KiNETiK

KiNETiK

KiNETiK

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Hey guys,

I am looking at making a very small yet powerful itx machine. I am thinking of getting the following setup but I can't decide if it is going to be too close to call with the power requirements. I think it will probably be ok as long as the PSU is efficient but what do you think?

Antec ISK-110 (new revised version of the isk-100 case with built in 90W supply)
i5-2500T - 45W TDP (low watt variant of the i5)
Zotac Z68ITX-B-E Supreme
4GB RAM
Crucial M4 128GB SSD

The closest I have seen in comparison to this setup is this review - http://forums.vr-zone.com/hardware-depot/1557262-zotac-z68-supreme-mini-review.html where they have the zotac board with a 2100T drawing around 61 watts load. However, I haven't seen very much information kicking about with th i5-2500T power usage.

An alternative to this that looks quite nice is Zotacs new Zbox Giga which looks nice but will probably be very expensive.

Also I am not sure if I would need a low profile cooler for this new Antec case? I know that they have changed the design slightly from the isk-100..

Any input would be good thanks! :)
 
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Probably would be ok if you don't oc or run p95 and furmark 24/7. Have you thought about getting a pico psu and 120-150W 12v power brick? Would increase your costs a bit though.
 
Yea I was alternatively looking at getting an M350 Case with a 150W PicoPSU but that option looked like it would work out at over £100 and I didn't know if it was worth the £40 extra for a slightly smaller case.. It looks quite a nice option though, have you got anything similar?
 
90w is more than enough, by a mile, in fact you could easy run that on a 60w with room to spare.

Don't forget that the review is running off a standard PSU which is relatively inefficient when compared to the 90w in the case your getting.

Even if it was marginal (it won't be trust me) you can always knock a little off the cpu vcore, it won't make any difference to stability but can reduce full load wattage quite a bit.
 
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Bigsy said:
90w is more than enough, by a mile, in fact you could easy run that on a 60w with room to spare.

Don't forget that the review is running off a standard PSU which is relatively inefficient when compared to the 90w in the case your getting.
Click to expand...

True, but the i5-2500t has a higher TDP than the i3-2100t and that is my main unknown, since apparently the TDP does not necessarily equal the real-application maximum power draw of the CPU..
 
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People run 60w TDP llanos off 60w pico psu's no problem. 90w on a 45w TDP apu is plenty and then some.
 
Thanks Bigsy,

Remember that the motherboard I have speced will draw more power than the one used in the xbitlabs review since the Z68ITX-B-E Supreme has an integrated 430GT... I think I can assume that as long as I am not running intensive benchmarks all day it will be ok
 
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