• Some users have recently had their accounts hijacked. It seems that the now defunct EVGA forums might have compromised your password there and seems many are using the same PW here. We would suggest you UPDATE YOUR PASSWORD and TURN ON 2FA for your account here to further secure it. None of the compromised accounts had 2FA turned on.
    Once you have enabled 2FA, your account will be updated soon to show a badge, letting other members know that you use 2FA to protect your account. This should be beneficial for everyone that uses FSFT.

Good low power PSUs

T

Tudz

Supreme [H]ardness
Joined
Jun 15, 2008
Messages
7,434
G'day all,

I'm looking at building a HTPC for my Dad, something like this...

http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=138_1019&products_id=16716

Just using the onboard graphics (he won't be playing any games on it) and throwing in a TV tuner card so he can use it as a PVR as well.

My question, what sort of PSU would you get for that? I couldn't imagine it using much over 50 or 60W at full load and maybe 20W idle, so the typical 400+W PSUs I normally look at would be complete and utter overkill and probably be running terribly inefficiently. What sort of power supplies do people normally get for these sorts of systems?

Obviously I want something good quality to get highest efficiency and low noise. Googling "HTPC power supply" just threw up links of people putting excessively powerful PSUs into them, and the stores I normally buy components from mostly just carry regular mainstream PSUs.
 
Unless you have space restrictions, then I'd recommend a standard SFX/ATX PSU. Efficiency isn't really a concern, as a decent PSU will still be operating within decent efficiency levels even at low loads. Otherwise, mini-box.com.au has some mini-power supplies.
 
Cool, that helps point me in the right direction. I suppose it wouldn't hurt too much just to get something like a standard 400W PSU, but all the reviews you see, the efficiency drops off when you get below about 50W, and most reviewers dont test all the way down to 20W and below which I think the system would be idling at most the time. Because it'll be on a lot, but not actually doing much, I don't want to needlessly waste energy, especially since it has no need to have high performance/power consuming components.
 
I have been running a download station on Premium picoPSU-150-XT/12.5A 150W AC-DC 24/7 for almost a year now, and no issues at all, my system idles at 14W and loads at 50W, but there are other options that might work fine, depending on the components you planning, like for example, Premium picoPSU-90/6.6A 80W AC-DC.

Im also running a HTPC on a Seasonic X-400, and been great also, my idle is around 38W (but i have GTS450 inside).
 
Decreasing efficiency at loads under 100W is generally negligible, since the absolute difference in wasted power will only amount to a few watts. Don't worry about it too much. Grab a Corsair CX430 or a 300-350W Seasonic PSU and you'll be good to go.
 
Yeah, well I don't know much about PSUs (I usually just buy whatever people tell me is good and quiet :)) but it seems at very low power there's a minimum power usage that the PSU constantly uses. So just for the previledge of being switched on it might take 5-10 watts. I figured smaller PSUs would reduce that overhead. My Dad is always very power conscious, and rightly so given the huge increases in the cost of power out here lately, so I wanted to keep things as efficient as possible. He's the sort of person who turns off items that are needlessly on standby even though they're only using less than 1W of power.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top