Time for a picoPSU-style sticky thread?

Filias Cupio · Post by **Filias Cupio** » Wed Sep 05, 2007 6:45 pm

First came the picoPSU. Now there are bunch of similar PSUs - external power brick plus a small DC-DC board which goes inside the case. Perhaps it is time to have a sticky thread to keep track of them? (Even better would be a SPCR article.)

Here are some:
mini-box (http://www.mini-box.com/s.nl/sc.8/category.13/.f) produce:
picoPSU: about 5 variants, 60-120W. The board is very small and attaches directly to the 20 pin ATX power plug.
M1-ATX and M2-ATX (3 models, 90-140W): intended for small PCs in cars. These are a moderate-sized circuit board.
PW series (4 models, 60-200W, moderate sized circuit board directly attached to 20 pin ATX plug.)

mcubed (http://www.mcubed-store.com/catalog/index.php?cPath=3) sells*:
EF16: 165W,
EF28: 280W
The manufacturer appears to be 'hifiatx', but I can't access their website because it demands a too-recent version of Flash. As a result, I'm unclear on what the non-brick part of this looks like.

Nexus (http://www.nexustek.nl/psb-1000_dc_to_dc_board.htm) produce:
PSB-1000. 150W? (No output specified, but they sell a 150W brick to go with it.) Smallish board with cable to 20 pin ATX connector, 4 pin extender (for 24pin motherboards) and hard-drives.

redtyler1 · Post by **redtyler1** » Sat Sep 29, 2007 12:47 pm

I could really use some help here with this.

ddrueding1 · Post by **ddrueding1** » Sat Sep 29, 2007 2:14 pm

It looks like the m-cubed PSU's DC-DC boards are attached to a backplate that fits where a normal PSU would go (4 screws to the backplate). I'm quite interested in that as 280W is enough for a really solid workstation.

redtyler1 · Post by **redtyler1** » Sat Sep 29, 2007 5:22 pm

i hadn't seen that m-cubed solution; that thing looks like a real answer even though it is a bit expensive. SPCR reviewed it with the case (which is really nice as well for htpc) and I can't find a U.S. distributor.

Filias Cupio · Post by **Filias Cupio** » Sun Sep 30, 2007 6:49 pm

It looks like the m-cubed PSU's DC-DC boards are attached to a backplate that fits where a normal PSU would go

That would be really good in a SFF case which puts an ATX PSU directly over the CPU. Changing the PSU for one of these would give you space for a tower CPU heatsink.

potsy · Post by **potsy** » Wed Oct 10, 2007 6:09 am

EF28: 280W... I'm unclear on what the non-brick part of this looks like.

Here it is:

Filias Cupio · Post by **Filias Cupio** » Thu Oct 11, 2007 12:22 pm

Here's more, from A-Tech Fabrication.

There are a couple of variants of the 120W PicoPSU, and a couple of 200W PSU (are these just reselling another company's product?)

They also have a couple of plates you can use to block the ATX PSU mounting hole. One has a fan, the other doesn't.

http://atechfabrication.com/products/power_supplies.htm
http://atechfabrication.com/products/Ex ... %20Kit.htm