Power supply - 90w Enough?

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pheenix

Limp Gawd
Joined
Mar 4, 2006
Messages
375
I'm refitting an ammo can into an atom based HTPC. Mobo includes a 90w brick, and I need to know if it's sufficient:

Mobo: ZOTAC IONITX-A-U
RAM: 2 Sticks DDR2
Storage: 2.5" SSD for OS and SAMSUNG Spinpoint F4 HD204UI 2TB for media
Optical: USB slim sata dvd (USB powered)
USB mouse/keyboard
120mm LED fan
32gb USB thumb drive

Am I pushing the limits of what this tiny PSU is capable of or am I safe with this setup? Almost forgot, I won't be using the onboard wifi in the mini pci-e slot so I can remove that to conserve power.

/edit: I'm guestimating total power requirements to be in the vicinity of 70-75W.
 
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That's what I'm thinking. For the sake of the math, I'll say every review on the board pointing to power consumption says 50 watt under load (actually a bit less), a 3.5 drive should be around 10 to 12 watt, 2 watt for SDD, USB powered optical drive probably doesn't use as much power as the 3.5 drive (We'll assume it does for the math). Throw in the LED fan, remove the wifi card...yeah...still hitting in the neighborhood of my 70-75 estimate (I tend to over estimate to add a little comfort zone)
 
Well you figure your typical laptop power brick ranges from 45-75watts with the upper end powering Core 2 Duo's i3's and i5's which use more power than the Atom CPU you're running. Plus the fact they also need to supply power to the screen and even charge the battery all at the same time.
 
RamonGTP said:
Well you figure your typical laptop power brick ranges from 45-75watts with the upper end powering Core 2 Duo's i3's and i5's which use more power than the Atom CPU you're running. Plus the fact they also need to supply power to the screen and even charge the battery all at the same time.
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I don't know why, but I never looked at that angle.
 
Yeah, even the higher end laptops with mid-range graphics cards use a 90W brick. You're good to go. I would even keep that WiFi module in there.
 
T4rd said:
Yeah, even the higher end laptops with mid-range graphics cards use a 90W brick. You're good to go. I would even keep that WiFi module in there.
Click to expand...

I literally have no use for the wifi since it's going to be sitting right near the switch
 
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