electrodacus
Btw, about 24V supply for the converter. Can it be a traditional transformer+rectifier+smooth capacitor scheme, instead of a notebook brick?

If diodes are Schottky then not so much is dissipated on the rectifier. And as for transformer, it has 90-95% efficiency, AFAIK, for the good one, depending on the size, construction and materials.

Yes you can use any transformer that can output 18V to 28V but it will be quite heavy and expensive the efficiency will be quite good if is a quality transformer.
The output voltage will be less stable than with an AC - DC converter so I will not relay suggest a transformer since at low or no load the voltage can be quite high and at high loads the voltage will drop so I guess a 19 to 20V transformer will be good and probably a 28V zener diode on output will be good.
Considering the cost (I sell 150W for 35$) and good efficiency (89%-91%) of power bricks I will not recommend transformer over AC-DC converter unless you have a good transformer and you know what are you doing.

Yeah, it will be very sensitive to the AC input, no 110-230V range anymore. Though this solution looks very attractive by its simplicity... Like good old time

An interesting article on the subject. A guy compares energy losses between an E-cored transformer(1) and a toroidal one(2).

Review posted:

http://www.silentpcreview.com/Winmate_DD-24AX

Thanks Mike for taking the time to review the PSU.
Sorry I did not sent you a good AC adapter it was the only one I had a that time.

Thanks! I've been looking for something like a PicoPSU but with a bit more power!

Thanks.
I will send you the PSU's tomorrow morning.

How could I have missed this?

I'm reading the review now...

Just until the end of the year you can get 10% off from the regular price that is anyway 3x less than MSRP. see Link

Would this work for video cards? I just bought a gtx260 with 2 pin power connectors.

are you serious ?!! gtx260 has a TDP of 182W you will need two of my power supply only for the video card and probably at least another one for the rest of the system. It will work with 3 PSU but it will be to complex probably.

hi, I got one two weeks ago and now I am ready to deploy my minipc!
my setup is voompc2, zotac 9300 ITX, intel e5200.
Allthough I am an experienced user I am not quite sure how to properly connect the psu.
The motherboard has a 24pin and a 4pin additional power connector. But the psu provides a 20pin socket and an additional 4pin one. So, where I am supposed to connect the extra 4pin connector from psu? To the main socket(complement to the 20pin) or to the 4pin MB socket? (as I guess it is right)
A 20-to-24pin adapter is not an option I am afraid, since there is not enough space.
Thanks!

The 4pin goes into the 4pin motherboard socket. You don't need a 20-to-24pin adapter, just plug in the 20pin from the PSU into the 24pin motherboard socket (only fits in one way).

Yeah, these four ends are useless in low power setup because they just duplicate already existing power rails -- in case you have a powerful GPU in PCI-E it will need some additional current from the old ATX20. So it is designed to be ATX24 nowadays.

Just fold it back and everything is fine.

thank you guys! so I put the 20pin in the 24pin and the rest with fresh air! Thanks! When I am ready I will post power usage

Is it OK to use the PSU kit (w/ 150w AC adapter) on intel c2d e8400, G41 MB, one SSD and 2x2GB RAM system? Thank you.

Yes more than enough.

How many 3.5" HD's can you add to this setup before you run into PSU problems? Thinking of getting one for a WHS setup.

Thanks.

By the way, anyone with pics of how they mounted this in their case?

Sorry I don't have pictures, but I can provide a description of what I did. First, I put in four of the old style plastic, push-through motherboard standoffs in the corner holes to prevent anything on the bottom from shorting out. Then I put it in a 5 1/2" bay (in an Antec Solo). It fit just snugly enough that with the stiffness of the wires, it stays put with no direct attachment to the case. I used a spare 20-pin extension to get it oriented how I wanted, but it might not have been necessary.

Anyone attempt to modify a notebook power supply for use with this DC-DC, such as the Dell 90W adapters which can go for <$20? The newer Dell AC-DC bricks appear to be very efficient, but there is also an extra "data" pin which I am not sure if it can be ignored.

There isnt exactly that much data available to determine which AC-DC bricks are efficient and cheap.

You can not ignore the data pin you need a microcontroller to send some ID in order for the power supply to work not worth the trouble.

I was under the impression that the extra pin is only used to identify the power supply to the laptop. It connects to a Maxim 1-wire id chip.

Yes you are right but do you know the ID even so it dose not worth the trouble. I have one 90W DELL bricks 20V 4.5A and it outputs 20V but no current and you need to send the ID probably via the third pin (I was thinking that I can use a microcontroller to send that if I was knowing what to send) Is possible that they use a Maxim ID chip I have no idea. Still make no sense to buy this bricks. A better solution will be to open the brick and deactivate the need of ID but the one I have need to be cut to open and that is not elegant . Maybe if I find some time I will cut open mine to see if I can deactivate the ID chip.

What about shipping to Russia?

I need only the 130W PSU and ATX cable.

Has anyone tested whether the improvements of going DC-DC are actually that significant as opposed to maybe just getting an 80plus psu like an Antec EA380? Even if you were to pair it up with a 90% efficient AC-DC adapter, the combined efficiency of the DC-DC and the AC adapter will be only around 80% efficient. The Antec Earthwatts may only be 75-80% efficient at low loads, but you get the benefit of it being more expandable in the future with its higher capacity.

Shipping to Russia will be 21.95$ For PSU + cables

The best efficiency you get if you chose a PSU with max output power not higher than the max PC power consumption so for a PC with 30W idle and 85W max load a 90W PSU will be more efficient than a 400W PSU.


Future will be (I hope) with lower power demand so I guess a lower output power supply with higher efficiency is better.
But I sell low power PSU so maybe I just do advertising .

Received my PSU and mounted it alongside my motherboard.

The ATX power cable is should be longer to be useful in more configurations. It was too short for my needs, and I had to purchase an extension.

Yes I know the cable is not to long but is the only one that I was able to find is about 6" (15cm) an extension is usually not very expensive and easy to find. Also some people with small case will complain that the cable is to long it if will be longer .
Except for the cable are you happy with the power supply?