Max load on a 120w PicoPSU

regal196 · Post by **regal196** » Wed May 09, 2007 5:04 pm

What is the greatest load one has put on a PicoPSU?

I want to know if it is possible to run a x1950pro or higher, AMD 5000 x2, two gb ram (4 sticks), wireless card, sound card, slim CD drive, 2 or 3 fans (120mm) and 2 2.5 laptop drives.

If not, can i use two PicoPSU in one system?

I have an idea... for the greatest LAN game PC

qviri · Post by **qviri** » Wed May 09, 2007 5:13 pm

I am pretty confident that would go bonk if you run it at full load on a 120 W picoPSU.

There is a 200 W pico-style PSU available, which may be able to do it. You'd need to get a good, powerful AC-DC brick, though, and that may come with a fan.

continuum · Post by **continuum** » Thu May 10, 2007 11:12 am

Most of the load there is on the +12v, which will come straight from the AC-DC brick that the PicoPSU uses. Those tend to have fans which get noisy... is your goal silence?

qviri · Post by **qviri** » Thu May 10, 2007 11:53 am

That's actually an interesting question: does the picoPSU have a breaker or a fuse on the 12 V line at all? The manuals for both 120 W picoPSU and 200 W PW-200-M specify the maximum amperage on the 12 V line (7 A and 12 A respectively), but then go on to say that overload protection is activated when 3.3 V or 5 V line is overdrawn, with no mention of 12 V.

If it really just passed the 12 V straight through without concern about how many amps are going by, then there's virtually no limit on what you can run with this baby as long as you have a large enough brick feeding it power. 5 V and 3.3 V are used very sparingly these days, so 6 A on both should be plenty unless someone has a system with five hard drives.

regal196 · Post by **regal196** » Fri May 11, 2007 9:21 pm

I know a PICO can run the mobo. I need a way to power the video card. Would I use another to power the video card?

Any ideas?

Palindroman · Post by **Palindroman** » Sat May 12, 2007 3:22 am

The video card is obviously your biggest problem. As for the rest: Do you have any idea how much power the whole system consumes?

One thing you should do: Undervolt the CPU with a program like RM Clock. For instance I undervolted a Sempron 3400+. The system's power consumption under idle went from 40 (C 'n Q) to 36 watts, but under load it went down from 77 to 50 watts! Same performance, less power, less heat.

That's just the thing you need to do. Maybe you can undervolt the video card as well?