Low watt PSU with modular design? Rec'd ones are modular

need4quiet · Post by **need4quiet** » Wed Sep 09, 2009 4:07 pm

I'm looking for a low power power supply. I'm building an HTPC with on board nVidia graphics and an AMD 4850e processor. The recommended power supplies on the site are almost all non-modular. It seems that the only ones that are modular are huge, expensive, high watt and pure overkill for my needs.

Can anyone suggest a small 300W or less power supply that is MODULAR. HTPC cases are small and having a ton of wires blocking everything up really isn't helpful.

It doesn't seem like the Pico/similar route is good for anything but Atom systems.

barefootzero · Post by **barefootzero** » Wed Sep 09, 2009 4:55 pm

Well I somehow don't think you are going to find many options. Modular connectors cost money and low wattage PSUs are already made on thin profit margins.

There is one option you do have though. Depending on your level of comfort with a soldering iron it would be a simple matter to open the case and remove the cables you don't need. You could even shorten the ones that are two long though that would require more effort.

If you don't want to open the PSU case and are ok with something a little less elegant you could just clip the ones you don't need and cap them off. If you do this you need to cap them off or you could get an electrical fire in your computer case. I speak from experience.

trident · Post by **trident** » Wed Sep 09, 2009 6:14 pm

Greetings

There is a caveat to soldering in modern PSUs in that many if not all use lead free solder and it is best not to mix legacy tin/lead solder with the current tin/copper alloys. 96SC (SAC387) which also contains silver is a good lead free rework solder, however it is quite expensive. In my last build I just shortened the unused cables to reduce wiring clutter.
_______
trident

barefootzero · Post by **barefootzero** » Wed Sep 09, 2009 7:04 pm

Well you could still remove the cables without adding any solder at all.

Just heat the solder up and pull the wire.

SebRad · Post by **SebRad** » Thu Sep 10, 2009 1:18 am

Hi, the Antec NeoHE range started at 380w. Still plenty power but they were decent, quiet PSUs and barely longer than ATX Standard. Were compatibility issues with early units and possible still with later ones. They are now discontinued but I think still sold as â€œNeopowerâ€

reddyuday · Post by **reddyuday** » Thu Sep 10, 2009 5:57 am

barefootzero wrote: If you don't want to open the PSU case and are ok with something a little less elegant you could just clip the ones you don't need and cap them off.

How do you cap them off? Just insulating tape or something more fancy?

(Sorry for a basic question!)

Uday

lucas82 · Post by **lucas82** » Thu Sep 10, 2009 7:22 am

Enermax Liberty 400W - it's old but still good
MODU82+ 425W - better but more expensive

that's the closer you can get to 300W

kater · Post by **kater** » Thu Sep 10, 2009 11:53 am

Topower SilentEZ 350W - but I can't say in what other places than Poland and Germany it's available

click

Site is in Polish but has lotsa pics and data.

A v good and quiet unit, inferior to Enermax and Antec but still decent and good enough for most of us. [/url]

barefootzero · Post by **barefootzero** » Thu Sep 10, 2009 12:08 pm

reddyuday wrote:
barefootzero wrote: If you don't want to open the PSU case and are ok with something a little less elegant you could just clip the ones you don't need and cap them off.
How do you cap them off? Just insulating tape or something more fancy?

(Sorry for a basic question!)

Uday

Insulating tape is one option though I have not had good luck with electric tape for long term use.

A better option would be wire nuts or heat shrink tubing. If you use heat shrink tubing just cut about 2" of heat shrink tubing. Fold the wire back on itself and place the heat shrink over the folded over end so that the exposed wire is tucked neatly away. Do this individually for each wire so you wont have a short. It is very important.

As I implied in my first post a younger and less experienced me did ignite a computer case with an electrical short. That incident was actually caused by a plugging the power connector into a floppy backwards but it could have just as easily happened by letting exposed wire dangle inside a case.

The advantage of this method is that you can select the best PSU and not simply the one that is modular. There is the obvious disadvantage if you plan to upgrade later. My solution to this is simply run the extra lines that I want to keep to wherever they will probably have to go in the future.

lucas82 · Post by **lucas82** » Fri Sep 11, 2009 10:53 am

OCZ ModXStream Pro 400W
http://www.anandtech.com/casecoolingpsu ... =3487&p=22

barefootzero · Post by **barefootzero** » Fri Sep 11, 2009 11:04 am

lucas82 wrote:OCZ ModXStream Pro 400W
http://www.anandtech.com/casecoolingpsu ... =3487&p=22

Well its cheap but the wattage still seams kind of high.

20% of 400W is 80W. I am guessing from his AMD 4850e and on board graphics that he is trying to build a system that idles below 50W. So far it seams the efficiency of PSUs drops off quickly below 20%. I am guessing that the system at idle the PSU is in the mid to low 65% efficiency range so if the system is drawing 50W then the PSU would have to draw 77W at the wall.

Depending on how many and what types of drives he has he might be much better of with a sub 250W PSU. A very efficient 300W PSU might be almost as good. If he doesn't post his full system specs it is hard to say how much wattage he needs.

It sort of bothers me that he has not replied to this thread yet. I am interested to know what way he plans to go.

@need4silence
I just noticed you said you thought the PicoPSU was only good for atom based systems. I think you will find there are many sub 90W systems on this forum based on both Core2 and Athlon. It does matter how much power you need for hard and disc drives but it is definitely practical. It is slightly more expensive (~$80) compare to a low power PSU (~50) but does have some advantages. If you can scavenge a suitable AC-DC brick you can nock about $30 off the price.

Vicotnik · Post by **Vicotnik** » Fri Sep 11, 2009 2:10 pm

need4quiet wrote:It doesn't seem like the Pico/similar route is good for anything but Atom systems.

I beg to differ. A HTPC with onboard graphics and an AMD 4850e? The Pico is perfect for that kind of setup.

electrodacus · Post by **electrodacus** » Fri Sep 11, 2009 3:25 pm

Vicotnik wrote:
need4quiet wrote:It doesn't seem like the Pico/similar route is good for anything but Atom systems.
I beg to differ. A HTPC with onboard graphics and an AMD 4850e? The Pico is perfect for that kind of setup.

I agree with you.
The only problem is that he wants to use 2xHDD and 2x optical drive + some USB drive and all need the 5V line so the PicoPSU or similar will not work in this case.

need4quiet · Post by **need4quiet** » Mon Sep 14, 2009 9:45 am

It sort of bothers me that he has not replied to this thread yet. I am interested to know what way he plans to go.

Been busy with social things on the weekend. At this point, I'm adequately perturbed that I'm thinking of just doing a mac mini. Apple seems to be the only company with a clue in this arena. Yes, I would want to have two optical drives. That would let me rip two DVD's at once. I'd like to go the SSD route, but XP doesn't really support it that well unless it's an expensive drive.

A Modu82+ is the closest thing, but it's still aimed at SLI gamers. I'm not going to reward a company with my money if they don't have a clue and can't put out a product aimed at someone who doesn't play video games. The PICO pisses me off because they don't have the wherewithall to either sell or recommend an appropriate power supply to go with it.

There's just not a good PSU option for HTPC's. Just about everything on the recommended list is overkill. The few that are lower powered are not modular, which, when making a PC in a small case is just stupid.

I'll probably sell the components I have bought already and get a mac mini. I'll be limited in what the mini has, but at least apple has thought things through.

I'm sort of amazed that more people aren't thinking the same here. Plenty of people who want silent PC's aren't the gaming types, yet people seem happy with the poor product mix that is in the marketplace. I'm not sure why.

electrodacus · Post by **electrodacus** » Mon Sep 14, 2009 10:14 am

need4quiet wrote: I'm sort of amazed that more people aren't thinking the same here. Plenty of people who want silent PC's aren't the gaming types, yet people seem happy with the poor product mix that is in the marketplace. I'm not sure why.

And what they can do if they do not have a choice I will also love a motherboard for LGA775 that uses mobile chipset The only one I know to have something like this is an AOpen with MCP7A-U but they used a small heatsink on the northbridge with fan it also cost 200$ and I do not know if can udervolt the CPU.
I just need the best power vs computational efficiency. So a powerful CPU as the Q8400S I have that only uses 24W at load and is better efficiency than an mobile Atom since is 10x faster and will only need a lower power northbridge with integrated video (just for display video is not important for me) the G31 I use now is more than enough the only problem is that it takes to much power.

kater · Post by **kater** » Tue Sep 15, 2009 2:01 am

DC/DC 150W + a 19V notebook brick will do the trick.
I believe the man electrodacus here has a few of them to sell. Might a be a v good option. The one I linked (I use it in my htpc) has fewer connectors than the ones electrodacus has but otherwise they're pretty similar. Even if there are too few connectors you can always use some molex extenders etc.

barefootzero · Post by **barefootzero** » Wed Sep 16, 2009 6:31 am

If all you want to do is run MAC OSX then a mac mini is the way to go but I think there are some logical discrepancies with some of what you said.

Primarily the problem is that you first said " Apple seems to be the only company with a clue in this arena." I assume you are talking about non gaming fanless PSUs. The thing is the mac mini uses a laptop hard drive an slimline optical drive.

If that was enough to satisfy you then you could easly go with a PicoPSU with no problems.

Now to be fair if your heart is not strong enough to even the smallest amount of PSU modding to get rid of the extra wires then I doubt you want to mess with installing OSX on a PC.

I still feel some what enraged that you sit there and make all these claims about what you want in your system. Multiple HD, multiple optical drive, HTPC (it depends on what you look for in a HTPC but I like mine to play Blu-Ray) and then say because you can't find some particular thing that you could easily do by a little light modding that the PC industry is incompetent. Then to follow up you pick a PC that can do none of those things.

If I didn't know better I would think your some shill from Apple. As far as I am concerned you should go buy your mini and get lost.

lucas82 · Post by **lucas82** » Wed Sep 16, 2009 8:07 am

Yeah, I think he was decided to go for the Macmini since the beginning... which is a good choice, but doens't give you much room to work with.

barefootzero · Post by **barefootzero** » Wed Sep 16, 2009 9:38 am

I forgot to point out that although Mac Minis are quiet compared to a gaming PC or something many of the people on these forums would not be satisfied.

I use a Mac Mini at work and I can definitely hear it doing its thing. In my home theater the noise level of the mac mini would not be acceptable.

Low watt PSU with modular design? Rec'd ones are modular

Low watt PSU with modular design? Rec'd ones are modular

Re: Low watt PSU with modular design? Rec'd ones are modular

Re: Low watt PSU with modular design? Rec'd ones are modular