PSU recommendation for HTPC

PSUs: The source of DC power for all components in the PC & often a big noise source.

Moderators: NeilBlanchard, Ralf Hutter, sthayashi, Lawrence Lee, Devonavar

Post Reply
netmask254
Posts: 141
Joined: Tue Aug 12, 2008 8:51 pm
Location: Beijing, China

PSU recommendation for HTPC

Post by netmask254 » Thu Dec 24, 2009 9:09 pm

I need to set up a HTPC for the TV, it needs to be very quiet meanwhile don't need to be very powerful. I dislike Atom platform for its poor performance, instead a decent CPU such like Intel E7400 (or wait for 32nm product of next year) which is capable of soft decoding 1080 (plus a passive VGA card perhaps) is needed. I guess the total power consumption will not exceed 100W in load (this is also a design target).

BUT it's very difficult to select a proper PSU for such needs, since most quiet PSUs have a much higher capacity whose efficiency is generally not very good in low power consumption and the price is also very high. Meanwhile, they have a lower bound of fan speed which is not necessarily high for me.

Currently I'm considering Enermax Mod82+ 425 as an alternative, but I'm willing to find small capacity PSU without fan (do I need a mod?), such like the power adaptor used by a laptop (Lenovo W500 has a 95W PSU adaptor). Have you ever met similar situations and do you have some advices?

danimal
Posts: 734
Joined: Mon Jun 08, 2009 2:41 pm
Location: the ether

Post by danimal » Thu Dec 24, 2009 11:29 pm

i would wait a couple of weeks for those new intel cpus that decode video inside the cpu... two simultaneous streams of 1080p, i3/i5? i can't remember the details, but the if intel can get the drivers right, it's the way to go for low power with a decent cpu.

Post Reply