Typo patrol:

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"problem" should be where the asterisks are.

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Missing words/letters in brackets.

Good interview, it's nice that SPCR now has an EU correspondent, you have a substantial following here so it makes sense to expand beyond the traditional NA base.

Put me down for one of the power bricks. Finally, a brick that can run a HTPC without integrated graphics.

jaganath, thanks a lot for the corrections...

autoboy: yeah, you can power quite a potent (HTPC, gaming, massive storage, whatever) rig with those 210 watts!

Cheers,
Christoph

I like the look of the brick. It looks like it could have been sourced from the film industry. The 4-pin XLR cable it's using to deliver power is standard for a lot of camera gear.

Good interview Christoph, great to see you've joined the SPCR team!

That power brick looks a useful product, as does this Semi-passive kit for ATX power supplies. I've emailed M-Cubed to get more details.

I hope they do a mini-itx case. But I also hope that they offer products for mini-itx DIY -- I really don't need more than one or two sensors in my mini-itx cases. The T-Balancer products, good though they are, are a bit overkill for me, and render the on-board sensors redundant. Along with the on-board sensors and Speedfan, all I'm really after is a sensor module that can work off the SMBus, something like THIS. Maybe M-Cubed will make one to work with their own sensors and Speedfan.

PS. will reply to your email soon, sorry for delay...!

I wonder why they're not looking at 24v or 48v for external brick supplies. 48 volt AC-DC PSUs tend to be more efficient than their 12v counterparts and the higher voltage makes for thinner cabling.

Maybe that gain in efficiency is lost when the 48V has to be stepped down to the low voltages required by PC components? Just a guess, and a speculative one at that.

DC-DC conversion is pretty advanced by now. Voltage delta between input and output in stepdown conversion shouldn't make much difference in efficiency.

And really, it's about time internal PC components went to higher voltages anyway. The number of 12v wires necessary for the kind of power modern GPUs and CPUs draw is getting crazy. It's high time for a formfactor change allowing 48v to be used for CPU and GPU power. 4-, 6- and 8 pin 12v connectors are nothing more than a messy kludge.

I'd guess the reason its 12v is because all the 200watt DC/DC converters take a 12v input.

That powerbrick looks a bit excessive for only bing 210watts. Delta produces a 220w passive external brick that isnt nearly as ventalated or use as thick of wires as that unit does. I look at the one from Mcubed and i expect it to do at least 300watts.

Personally, I'd prefer if Mcubed would just get bulk Delta 220w bricks and sell them on the retail channel.

I don't think that Mcubed brick is a "real" brick. It looks like an industrial 12V powersupply in a nice package.

no-one asked why their t-balancer software is such a pig....