I'm planning a Core i7 mini-ITX build. The manufacture of some of the parts has not been decided yet, but the specifications will be as follows:
- Gigabyte GA-Z170N-WIFI [?W]
- Core i7-6700T [35W TDP]
- CPU cooler [3W]
- DDR4 2133MHz 32GB RAM [?W]
- M.2 PCIe 3.0 x4 SSD [7W]
I want to be able to connect an external 2.5 HDD, two USB sticks and a smartphone or tablet via USB 3.0. It's important that the system will not suddenly switch off under high load, as a result of the power supply not being able to deliver enough power.
I have been looking at the picoPSU-90 and the picoPSU-150-XT as I want a picoPSU that is born with a P4 cable.
Can the picoPSU-90 deliver enough power to the system or is the picoPSU-150-XT required?
picoPSU for Core i7 system?
Moderators: NeilBlanchard, Ralf Hutter, sthayashi, Lawrence Lee, Devonavar
Re: picoPSU for Core i7 system?
While either would work, I'd go with the picoPSU-150-XT. It's a bit beefier and the price difference seems to be only 10$ or so.
More important is the brick. With a powerful brick you don't need to go with a factory underclocked T part even, unless you want to.
More important is the brick. With a powerful brick you don't need to go with a factory underclocked T part even, unless you want to.
Re: picoPSU for Core i7 system?
Hard to say for sure, as i dont own a i7 6700T, but i can tell you that on my Cammi (link on my signature) build with a i7 4770K stressing it with prime95, it can reach 150W on my picoPSU 150XT, but usual load is around 65W, so my suggestions is to go with 150XT with 150W brick.sahziw wrote:Can the picoPSU-90 deliver enough power to the system or is the picoPSU-150-XT required?
I also agree with Vicotnik, i would also go with the standard version, you can still limit the power on windows or bios, and you will have a better resell value later on, as it will still be a very capable cpu in the years to come.
As a last suggestion, take a look into AsRock motherboards, they are very efficient, almost as good as intel mobos, has a much better bios fan control and its cheaper.
Re: picoPSU for Core i7 system?
I will use picoPSU-150-XT with a 150W brick. If I understand correctly, the system will only draw the power it needs so I will not get a bigger electrical bill with 150W instead of 90W?
Thank you both for commenting on my choice of CPU. I chose i7-6700T to begin with so maybe a picoPSU-90 would be enough, but why that limit? I have now done some research on i7-6700 and found a test made by SPCR. Stressed with CPUBurn/Prime95 the i7-6700 system will only consume 102W and i7-6700K 107W. However, I prefer the CPU TDP to not exceed 65W as this is the limit for the cooling system. In my region i7-6700 is even a little cheaper than i7-6700T, so I will definitely use i7-6700 in my build.
Regarding the motherboard, I had a hard time finding a mini-ITX that would fit my requirements. The GA-Z170N-WIFI while not perfect seems to match the most. M.2 2280 slot, two HDMI ports, good onboard audio, Intel GbE and the ability to remove WiFi card. GA-H170N-WIFI with H170 chipset instead of Z170 would be fine also, but the price is almost identical so I chose the Z170 model. However, it seems like the motherboard has a flaw that makes the CPU trottle as described here, I don't know if this could be a deal breaker for me, maybe the issue has been resolved, I need to research it further.
Thank you both for commenting on my choice of CPU. I chose i7-6700T to begin with so maybe a picoPSU-90 would be enough, but why that limit? I have now done some research on i7-6700 and found a test made by SPCR. Stressed with CPUBurn/Prime95 the i7-6700 system will only consume 102W and i7-6700K 107W. However, I prefer the CPU TDP to not exceed 65W as this is the limit for the cooling system. In my region i7-6700 is even a little cheaper than i7-6700T, so I will definitely use i7-6700 in my build.
Regarding the motherboard, I had a hard time finding a mini-ITX that would fit my requirements. The GA-Z170N-WIFI while not perfect seems to match the most. M.2 2280 slot, two HDMI ports, good onboard audio, Intel GbE and the ability to remove WiFi card. GA-H170N-WIFI with H170 chipset instead of Z170 would be fine also, but the price is almost identical so I chose the Z170 model. However, it seems like the motherboard has a flaw that makes the CPU trottle as described here, I don't know if this could be a deal breaker for me, maybe the issue has been resolved, I need to research it further.
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siensooslunkeylew
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- Joined: Sat Mar 04, 2017 1:26 pm
Re: picoPSU for Core i7 system?
That system should typically run around 50-70W so a 90W pico should be OK. I would feel more comfortable with a 120W.
Re: picoPSU for Core i7 system?
not really apples to apples - but I'm using no-name picoPSU knock-off (because I can get only low power REAL picoPSU where I live).
It's rated @200W (year right
) and accepts 18V brick - that is a more common voltage for the high power bricks.
I'm using it with 140W HP power brick (from a laptop), using i5 3.9Ghz with integrated GPU, 2x SSD and 1xHDD.
For normal work, everything is ok - power consumption is from 40W to 60W tops measured with kill-a-wat.
But for really intensive work - like rendering a 3D scene on 4 cores - the system shuts down after a 10min, and I have to unplug it from the wall to "reset" (maybe resetting a fuse or something) because it won't start again without it.
It's 100% this "picoPSU" fault, because switching to normal PSU resolves the problem. And it can be a number of things - starting from being a low-quality product (a picoPSU knock-off) or just a faulty hardware. But just wanted to let you know. And except that high-cpu-case-scenario everything works stable, even when doing other cpu demanding tasks - like exporting a movie from After Effects or encoding a movie.
It's rated @200W (year right
) and accepts 18V brick - that is a more common voltage for the high power bricks.I'm using it with 140W HP power brick (from a laptop), using i5 3.9Ghz with integrated GPU, 2x SSD and 1xHDD.
For normal work, everything is ok - power consumption is from 40W to 60W tops measured with kill-a-wat.
But for really intensive work - like rendering a 3D scene on 4 cores - the system shuts down after a 10min, and I have to unplug it from the wall to "reset" (maybe resetting a fuse or something) because it won't start again without it.
It's 100% this "picoPSU" fault, because switching to normal PSU resolves the problem. And it can be a number of things - starting from being a low-quality product (a picoPSU knock-off) or just a faulty hardware. But just wanted to let you know. And except that high-cpu-case-scenario everything works stable, even when doing other cpu demanding tasks - like exporting a movie from After Effects or encoding a movie.