Pico PSUs

gropingmantis

gropingmantis

gropingmantis

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5 Dec 2010
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I've seen a few pico PSUs going into peoples builds and I was wondering what people thought of them? I'm interested in putting one in our home media server so will be running 24/7 only 2 HDDs and one SSD so won't be drawing much power, probably around 100W absolute max but most of the time much less than that.

Are they ok to be run 24/7? There should be enough airflow to keep it cool.
 
Should be absolutely fine if you go for one of the 150 watt models, can't see any issues running it 24/7.
 
I don't like that their specification tells you to derate the voltages by 35% (iirc) if it's in continuous use, or if the surface temperature reaches 60 degrees. It suggests that for continuous use at 60 degrees, the 150W unit isn't going to output even close to 150W.

Aside from that they look good. There's a review of them by johnny guru which is well worth a read. The conclusion is to get one of the wide voltage ones, as the 12V input pass whatever crap comes in on the 12V line straight through to the motherboard. I believe his best result was with a 19V adapter.
 
JonJ678 said:
I don't like that their specification tells you to derate the voltages by 35% (iirc) if it's in continuous use, or if the surface temperature reaches 60 degrees. It suggests that for continuous use at 60 degrees, the 150W unit isn't going to output even close to 150W.

Aside from that they look good. There's a review of them by johnny guru which is well worth a read. The conclusion is to get one of the wide voltage ones, as the 12V input pass whatever crap comes in on the 12V line straight through to the motherboard. I believe his best result was with a 19V adapter.
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What do you mean mate ... I'm trying to get my head around derating voltages :s

Let's say I have a 150W pico paired with a 12V 5A external brick ie maximum output = VI = 60W. Wouldn't I be ok if my system drew a peak of 40W ? (idle being 20W)

ps Totally agree with regards to the wide input - I was going to get one but they aint half pricey :o
 
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Would a 150w Pico PSU be ok to run an i3 CPU with mobo that uses the 'Onboard' GPU, 4 gig DDR3, Laptop HD, slimline dvdrw, all in a Lian Li PC-Q07B Mini-ITX Case ?
 
Have a look at the wide voltage 130w board on eBay. It is sold from a member on spcr and that board gets highly rated.
 
been using one for about a year or more now. it's been brilliant! I have it in my file server/download box, small, silent and only ever consumes about 30watts max depending on what i'm doing.

well worth the money :)
 
in a 24/7 server I would look into something more reliable. I've seen them used in many prototype builds because it's easier not to design the PSU on the first few protos and they went wrong quite a lot of teh time. These were the 60W models but the protos would pull 45W max, and the bricks where 60W.

I wouldn't trust these things, but i guess if you don't have the space there isn't much option.
 
Subliminal Aura said:
40 quid ? :eek:

They all come from hong kong anyway - Mine cost £16, arrived in 5 days too
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No not £40, £25.83 delivered. Was yours a 12v board, if so then that does not control the power output at all from the power brick. I have found you can get 19v power bricks much cheaper for the higher powers, I was looking at about £40 with brick for a ~120W setup.

There is the review of it

http://www.silentpcreview.com/Winmate_DD-24AX
 
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saitrix said:
No not £40, £25.83 delivered. Was yours a 12v board, if so then that does not control the power output at all from the power brick. I have found you can get 19v power bricks much cheaper for the higher powers, I was looking at about £40 with brick for a ~120W setup.

There is the review of it

http://www.silentpcreview.com/Winmate_DD-24AX
Click to expand...

Interesting @ £25 I couldn't find one at that price otherwise I would have definitely bought one as they are better, will look again.

So I went for the 12v board with 60w brick as I only need a peak of 40W(idle@ 20W). Slap a surge protector in front of the brick and bob's your uncle.

EDIT: Ahh ic your link, but that's not a pico :o
 
I cant see how my basic 150W Pico XT with 12v brick can be putting out such low power and still power my spec if the above is true of max output 60w?? Surely thats wrong or am I missing something?
 
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