HTPC PSU

mattchapman

mattchapman

Gawd
Joined
Dec 30, 2005
Messages
572
Can anyone recommend a good PSU for my HTPC?
I figure I need at least 350W. I really want a quiet one too (not fanless, just quiet).

Had my eye on the Antec Earthwatts 380D but then read some poor reports.

Thanks
 
dang bro -- what kind of HTPC are you running that you need 350w? got a space heater in there? :D

for ref: my mkvwhore box uses about 130w with all HDDs running and all four tuners recording + playback.
 
yeah, mine's around 100 watts with 4 HD's and 4 tuners record + playback also.

i have a pc power & cooling 420 watt power supply though. lol
 
Yeah I could probably get away with less.
Here's my spec:

Silverstone ML03 black $70
AMD Athlon II X2 240e 2.8GHz 45W $65
GIGABYTE GA-880GMA-UD2H $100
G SKILL F3-12800CL9D-4GBNQ DDR3 1600 $48
Samsung F1 500GB $repurpose
LG Blu-ray Disc Combo UH10LS20 $70
Radeon 5450 - optional upgrade $45
Shuriken Low Profile -optional upgrade $45
Hauppage HVR 2250 - optional upgrade later

Can you recommend a good PSU?
 
mattchapman said:
Yeah I could probably get away with less.
Here's my spec:

Silverstone ML03 black $70
AMD Athlon II X2 240e 2.8GHz 45W $65
GIGABYTE GA-880GMA-UD2H $100
G SKILL F3-12800CL9D-4GBNQ DDR3 1600 $48
Samsung F1 500GB $repurpose
LG Blu-ray Disc Combo UH10LS20 $70
Radeon 5450 - optional upgrade $45
Shuriken Low Profile -optional upgrade $45
Hauppage HVR 2250 - optional upgrade later

Can you recommend a good PSU?
Click to expand...

Anything above 100w should be good.

Given its newfound low cost though I Think the Antec Neo Eco 400w is about as good as your going to get for the cost. Still voerkill, but very good quality & your not going to find much of shit that cheap.
 
bastage said:
Given its newfound low cost though I Think the Antec Neo Eco 400w is about as good as your going to get for the cost. Still voerkill, but very good quality & your not going to find much of shit that cheap.
Click to expand...

Get that PSU TODAY! At that price, it's not gonna stay in stock for long.
 
bastage said:
Anything above 100w should be good.

Given its newfound low cost though I Think the Antec Neo Eco 400w is about as good as your going to get for the cost. Still voerkill, but very good quality & your not going to find much of shit that cheap.
Click to expand...

Thanks. However I need a PSU that is no more than 140mm in depth for this case.

I stumbled on the Silverstone ST40F-ES for only $48. It's $10 more than the Antec Earthwatts 380D but I suspect its a better PSU. Can anyone confirm?
 
The 380D isn't a bad PSU. Where did you see the bad reports?
 
mattchapman said:
I stumbled on the Silverstone ST40F-ES for only $48. It's $10 more than the Antec Earthwatts 380D but I suspect its a better PSU. Can anyone confirm?
Click to expand...

Nope, that Silverstone is of significantly lower quality than the Antec EA380D.
 
With those specs, a PicoPSU should do the trick.

http://www.mini-box.com/picoPSU-150-XT-102-power-kit

or if in Australia

http://www.mini-box.com.au/purchase/picoPSU-150-XT 8_5A Adapter Power Kit.html

The 150W and 160W PicoPSU can do 8A on the 12V rail, with a 10A peak (i.e. for very short periods of time). It's highly unlikely that your system would need more than that.

If you have an alway-on server elsewhere in the house, I would strongly suggest dumping the hard drive and installing XBMC Live onto a USB drive. Removing the mechanical noise of a hard drive makes a big difference in an HTPC (esp. once all the fans are running essentially silently).
 
Most of my other media will be on another computer (not a home server per se...just another computer than I will access via ethernet/router). So the hard drive should not be operating much (and I plan to get a small SSD once I save up).

Thanks for the Pico suggestion...I'll look into that but I guess I'd be a bit worried if it will suffice if/when I add a GPU and TV Tuner.
 
My secondary HTPC was running off the 80W PicoPSU, but it just didn't have enough juice on the 12V rail (4A) so I upgraded to the 160W. I'm still using the 80W external brick. The total system uses no more than 60W under load. However, I have done everything I can to minimise the draw on the PSU (without buying extra components).

Depending on what media centre software you're using, and where various points are in your house, it might be possible to put the TV tuner in your other computer.

Hard drive + optical will definitely put more of a strain on the 12V rail - I don't have either.

BTW, XBMC Live seems to use less power (assuming you can do offloading to your graphics card) than Windows 7 + MediaPortal (or I would guess, MCE). When I was using the 80W (4A) PicoPSU it was regularly rebooting while watching shows in Win7 + MediaPortal, but not with XBMC Live. But I decided to upgrade to the 160W because it was obviously pushing really close to the limits, and you just don't want your HTPC rebooting in the middle of a show ...

Intel E2140
nVidia G210
USB drive
1 case fan running at 5V
1 gpu fan running at 5V
1 cpu fan running off motherboard (actually took the stock fan from my i7 860 and fit it to the E2140's heatsink - much quieter).
 
Is the e2140 at stock speeds? Have you considered undervolting?
 
My favorites are the SeaSonic SS-400FL and the Enermax ECO80+ II series (I have the EES400AWT II).
 
450 said:
Is the e2140 at stock speeds? Have you considered undervolting?
Click to expand...

Yes, it's at stock. I would undervolt, but the mobo I have doesn't allow it. Used to be my server board - it's an actual Intel board, not just chipset, and has very limited BIOS options. It had the features I needed though - mATX, optical S/PDIF, etc.
 
a picoPSU would do but the $$ that you spend on a picoPSU is going to take years to make up compared to the cost of a nice 80% cert 350-400w PSU
 
Sure - the point of a PicoPSU is to be silent, to move the AC->DC converter to an external brick (reducing heat inside the case), and to fit in cases where a standard PSU won't. I know the OP doesn't need those, but I figured I'd present the option since sometimes what you want is driven by what you know about ... if you don't know about PicoPSU then you can't consider the pros and cons in making your decision.

BTW, for me it was cheaper to get a PicoPSU than the PSU for the Antec Minuet 350 case I had (PSU died, it's a non-standard size/shape) and I also wanted the silence.
 
I'm currently using a Pico 150 with my Antec Fusion. It helps to cut down on cable clutter and lets me move a Lian Li HDD rack into the PSU's space with a 120mm fan exhausting additional heat out. :)
magao said:
Sure - the point of a PicoPSU is to be silent, to move the AC->DC converter to an external brick (reducing heat inside the case), and to fit in cases where a standard PSU won't. I know the OP doesn't need those, but I figured I'd present the option since sometimes what you want is driven by what you know about ... if you don't know about PicoPSU then you can't consider the pros and cons in making your decision.

BTW, for me it was cheaper to get a PicoPSU than the PSU for the Antec Minuet 350 case I had (PSU died, it's a non-standard size/shape) and I also wanted the silence.
Click to expand...
 
The Antec Earthwatts 380w is a great PSU don't let people tell you otherwise. I've run 2 of those in systems before and they are great. My main HTPC has one (however it's a Q6600, 8GB Ram setup). Actually, come to think of it, both of my HTPC's are Q6600, 8GB setups. No, it's not that I planned it that way, it's just that with those being spare parts, it just sort of happened. And yes, I'd rather go with a lower powered HTPC.

And yes, I know I'm rambling now.
 
I'm actually tempted to buy this case and one of these Zacate boards. I've got spare ram to put into it and a spare 40GB SSD, plus a BluRay optical drive that could go in the bigger one.

Black Habey EMC-600B ($59.99) or ($63.99 at Newegg)
http://directron.com/emc600b.html
1287807806_16.jpg


Or it's big brother with an optical bay. The EMC-800B ($64.99) or ($68.99 at Newegg)
http://directron.com/emc800b.html
11-321-015-02.jpg
 
Thanks all. I went with the Antec Earthwatts 380D for $39.99 shipped. No problems reported so far and it's nice and quiet.
 
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