picoPSU-160-XT sufficient for i5-750 MiniITX system?

oZONe · Post by **oZONe** » Sun Jul 04, 2010 8:53 pm

Hey guys.

I'm in the market for a silent, small and high-performant mini-itx system.

Will a picoPSU-160-XT sufficiently power the following system?

CPU: i5-750
Board: Gigabyte GA-H55N-USB3, H55 (with USB3)
Graphics: Sapphire Radeon HD 4350 Passive (20Watts max)
HDD: IBM x25-m postville
RAM: 8GB

Thank you for your answers.

sweeper240 · Post by **sweeper240** » Tue Jul 06, 2010 4:24 pm

Very interested in this topic as well

Are you aware that there is a bad batch of 160XT that are out.... supposedly a notification will be posted by mini-box when the fixed version is available.

oZONe · Post by **oZONe** » Tue Jul 06, 2010 4:38 pm

sweeper240 wrote:Very interested in this topic as well

Are you aware that there is a bad batch of 160XT that are out.... supposedly a notification will be posted by mini-box when the fixed version is available.

Hey,

unfortunately i'm NOT aware of that... I live in germany and would order somewhere else than mini-box.
Is there any way to distinguish the "good" 160XTs from the "bad" ones?

oZONe · Post by **oZONe** » Tue Jul 06, 2010 6:28 pm

i found reports of german users who had to deal with wrongly attached cable sockets.
is that what you mean?

mikellpp · Post by **mikellpp** » Wed Jul 07, 2010 12:29 pm

I am running:

i5-750
Ga-H55N itx
EVGA Nvidia 9500GT
4 gb RAM
2- OCZ 30gb SSD
1 CPU fan

I don't have a pico but i tried with 3 80 Plus PSU:
Corsair 400/Antec 380/HEC 350

I Used a Kill-a-watt power meter & got the same results with all 3 PSU:
idle 55-60 watts
full load 110-120

At these low loads the PSU efficiency is about 75-80%, assuming a pico is about 95% efficient then extrapolating to pico power:

idle 45-50 watts
load 95-100

stefan534 · Post by **stefan534** » Sat Jul 10, 2010 4:11 am

mikellpp wrote:I am running:

i5-750
Ga-H55N itx
EVGA Nvidia 9500GT
4 gb RAM
2- OCZ 30gb SSD
1 CPU fan

I don't have a pico but i tried with 3 80 Plus PSU:
Corsair 400/Antec 380/HEC 350

I Used a Kill-a-watt power meter & got the same results with all 3 PSU:
idle 55-60 watts
full load 110-120

At these low loads the PSU efficiency is about 75-80%, assuming a pico is about 95% efficient then extrapolating to pico power:

idle 45-50 watts
load 95-100

Apparently the pico has a 92% efficiency.

Edit - that is the efficiency of the power brick that the pico attaches to. Keen to find a power brick that will supply the full 160W/200 peak needed.

RNO · Post by **RNO** » Mon Jul 12, 2010 3:53 am

You can use a ATI HD 5450 passive, you will save 5W.
You can also choose the ECS motherboard and you will save another 8W. (but you won't have USB3)

Strid · Post by **Strid** » Tue Jul 27, 2010 9:27 am

RNO wrote:You can use a ATI HD 5450 passive, you will save 5W.
You can also choose the ECS motherboard and you will save another 8W. (but you won't have USB3)

Interesting! Do you have a link to a review or equal, thanks!

I'm very interested if this is true.

bozar · Post by **bozar** » Tue Aug 03, 2010 9:23 am

Strid wrote:
RNO wrote:You can use a ATI HD 5450 passive, you will save 5W.
You can also choose the ECS motherboard and you will save another 8W. (but you won't have USB3)
Interesting! Do you have a link to a review or equal, thanks! I'm very interested if this is true.

It is, HD5450 is the most power efficient dedicated graphic-card up to date.

Strid · Post by **Strid** » Tue Aug 03, 2010 9:28 am

Sorry, I meant concerning the ECS mother board! But thank you for the reply - I should have been more specific in my quote!

ntavlas · Post by **ntavlas** » Tue Aug 03, 2010 5:27 pm

You can also choose the ECS motherboard and you will save another 8W. (but you won't have USB3)

I think he`s referring to the anandtech review.
http://www.anandtech.com/show/3769/revi ... byte-way/4

The Gigabyte seems to draw a bit more power at load and the reviewer mentions it could be due to the more beefy power components. Mind you this was with a dual core cpu. The results could be different with the load of an i5 750, which, could move the VRMs on the Gigabyte closer to their optimal efficiency range.

Anyway, the pico psu itself should be fine for a load of 100-120 watts. What will be harder is finding a power brick that can provide this amount of power with a decent amount headroom. A lot of people resort to a hacked 200watt Dell power brick. t

Moocher · Post by **Moocher** » Sun Sep 26, 2010 10:42 pm

I can verify that the following system works and it is SWEET!!

Case: Lian Li PC-Q07
Power Supply: Dell DA-2 & PicoPsu-160-XT
Processor: i5-760 (OC'd EasyTune6 3.36 Ghz)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-H55N-USB3
Video Card: Gigabyte ATI Radeon 5570
SSD: Crucial 128 Gb
Memory: G. Skill 8gb (2x4gb) DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666)
OS: Windows 7 Pro
Heat Sink: Noctua NH-U12P (1 fan)
DVD Rom: Full Size

To connect the dell DA-2 to the picopsu-160-XT I took out the 5.5mm/2.5mm jack connection and replaced it with a 8pin to 4 pin connector that I ordered from performancepcs. I want to warn you this is not a perfect connection but it works. Dell has a nonstandard molex connector so the patterns don't match. You have to flip the clips so they are on opposite sides of the connectors and force it together. This will orient the ground wires correctly and short the safety circuit to ground wires so the LED on the brick will turn green. Don't worry, the safety in the power brick will turn it off if you get the polarity wrong. You reset the brick by unplugging it. I wish i could find the right connector, but I just can't find anything to mate to the DA-2. But this does work. Sliding them together actually gets easier after a few repititions.

I sure hope this helps a lot of people because it took me a long time to figure it out.

datapappan · Post by **datapappan** » Mon Sep 27, 2010 4:56 am

Excellent! Pictures plz.

/d

picoPSU-160-XT sufficient for i5-750 MiniITX system?

picoPSU-160-XT sufficient for i5-750 MiniITX system?

Very interested in this topic as well

Re: Very interested in this topic as well

I can verify this