is picopsu enough to drive this system?

bbzidane · Post by **bbzidane** » Thu Jan 14, 2010 1:31 pm

I'm upgrading my system and want to make sure that my current picopsu has enough juice for it

what im swapping out:
GA-MA78GM-S2H
AMD BE-2400 (2.3ghz, underclocked to 2.1ghz, and undervolted to 0.975V)
2 x (2x2gb) ddr2 memory

swapping in:
GA-H55-USB3
intel i3 530
2 x (2x2gb) ddr3 memory

what do people think, i need more juice or not?

bonestonne · Post by **bonestonne** » Thu Jan 14, 2010 1:44 pm

Which PICO are you picking?

150W sure, 120W probably, 90W most likely no.

boost · Post by **boost** » Thu Jan 14, 2010 3:08 pm

In the SPCR review power draw topped out at 78 watts with a 9400GT:
http://www.silentpcreview.com/article1013-page5.html

ilovejedd · Post by **ilovejedd** » Thu Jan 14, 2010 3:12 pm

bonestonne wrote:Which PICO are you picking?

150W sure, 120W probably, 90W most likely no.

Why not? SPCR's max load with select components (laptop hard drive, etc) was just 70W using IGP, I believe. That's for the Core i5-661 w/900MHz graphics core. Iirc, the Clarkdales with 733MHz GPU's consumed 10W lower than the i5-661 based on reviews.

Now if he wants it powering 2x3.5" drives and an SSD, I'd rethink the power supply choice as it might not be able to deliver the load required during boot/spin-up.

bonestonne · Post by **bonestonne** » Thu Jan 14, 2010 3:19 pm

based solely on the basic hardware he listed, I'm being wise and giving headroom. But 20W for everything else, any size hard drive, optical drive in active use, etc, is not enough.

I wouldn't want to starve a HTPC by giving it 20W for everything else.

Also, there's no mention of any extras, TV tuner, USB devices, etc.

bbzidane · Post by **bbzidane** » Thu Jan 14, 2010 3:44 pm

thanks for the replies
let me list the full setup i have

GA-MA78GM-S2H
AMD BE-2400 (2.3ghz, underclocked to 2.1ghz, and undervolted to 0.975V)
4x2gb ddr2 memory
1x 1.0TB wd green
1x 1.5TB wd green
1x 80gb intel ssd

usb:
1x iphone
1x android
1x ups (which i dont think uses any power?)
1x wireless mouse (mouse charges from the base, which is plugged into the wall)
1x keyboard

mouse/keyword via a kvm, kvm not plugged into the wall

this currently boots up fine

i do have the picopsu 150, but i dont have an ac/dc adapter at 150

the reason i listed only the cpu/mb/ram as the main changes as i dont think changing from a 1tb to a 1.5tb to make a difference.

ilovejedd · Post by **ilovejedd** » Thu Jan 14, 2010 4:11 pm

bonestonne wrote:based solely on the basic hardware he listed, I'm being wise and giving headroom. But 20W for everything else, any size hard drive, optical drive in active use, etc, is not enough.

I wouldn't want to starve a HTPC by giving it 20W for everything else.

Also, there's no mention of any extras, TV tuner, USB devices, etc.

Hmm, true. I'm pretty minimal with my set-ups so I never give peripherals much thought. My HTPC consists of just motherboard, cpu, ram, 2.5" 5400rpm hdd, usb bluetooth adapter and usb ir receiver. I use a SiliconDust HDHomeRun for my tuner so that doesn't draw any power from the HTPC either.

bonestonne · Post by **bonestonne** » Thu Jan 14, 2010 4:54 pm

Running the whole setup like that (which is pretty hefty), you should look towards a 120 or 150W setup.

using a 90W brick will be too close, 120W or 150W is much safer. You're looking at damaging your power brick from a high power draw. Who knows, maybe it'll run, but the brick would get hot from it.

ilovejedd · Post by **ilovejedd** » Thu Jan 14, 2010 5:37 pm

bonestonne wrote:using a 90W brick will be too close, 120W or 150W is much safer. You're looking at damaging your power brick from a high power draw. Who knows, maybe it'll run, but the brick would get hot from it.

+1. I'm going with a PicoPSU-120-WI-25 (wide input 12~25V) paired with a 19V 6.3A AC-DC adapter for my minimal build (Zotac H55-ITX, Core i3-530, 4GB DDR3 1333/1600, Seagate Momentus 5400.6 500GB). I figured with full load at 80W, the power brick shouldn't heat up too much since I'd still have some buffer even after factoring PicoPSU inefficiencies.

bonestonne · Post by **bonestonne** » Thu Jan 14, 2010 6:05 pm

it's not the PICO that's inefficient, it's the brick itself.

I've got a VIA C7-D that uses a PICO 90W (standard 12v input) and I paired it with a 40W brick. In theory, I'm on the absolute edge of the PICO's efficiency (supposedly over 90%). The VIA PC1 platform uses 36W at full load, meaning under a complete load, the brick would be at it's tolerance limit.

Not having a kill-a-watt, i can't test this at all, but the 40W brick i use can power the system, but it gets hot. I've been looking for a ~56W brick to curb this, however the only two I have are used on 17" LCDs, which are my main, meaning no swapping them out.

And that's with a cheap no-name AC/DC power adapter.

I do have a 107W power brick, but it's much larger (and harder to hide).

PICO's weren't exactly meant to run at their limit, but just be a low profile solution to a system with no need for a full PSU. They're not exactly a replacement, through the amount of connectors they offer, their size, etc.

bbzidane · Post by **bbzidane** » Sun Jan 17, 2010 3:53 pm

just want to say thanks again to the comments on this thread

you guys convinced me that i should play it safe and go with the picopsu 150 and a 150w ac/dc adapter, it is definitely not worth damaging a good system that is worth more than the price of a 150w adapter.

now to wait for the delivery guy

greenfrank · Post by **greenfrank** » Wed Mar 03, 2010 3:03 pm

I'm pretty used to picos: actually I have a picopsu90 for my atom330 rig with a 60w power brick, and it works just fine (not really hot). I run this pc all days since more than one year, without any problem.

I'm tempted to build an i3 low power system with a picopsu120 with a 120w power brick. I think this solution would be safe and very power efficient (more efficient than a "standard" 80plus power supply, that is also more expensive).