Experienced PicoPSUers: Which PicoPSU/Power Brick?

Firetech · Post by **Firetech** » Wed May 06, 2009 12:37 am

I'm looking to purchase a PicoPSU and power brick while in the UK on holiday but require advice on which ones to get to suit the following system:

Gigabyte GA-MA74GM-S2H
AMD LE-1250 (std HSF so far)
2x2Gb DDR2
2 x 5400rpm drives (WD10EACS & WD10EADS)
2 x 7200rpm Samsung drives (until replaced with more WD10EADS)
1 x 120mm case fan

Can anyone please advise on a suitable picoPSU type and power brick rating?

LodeHacker · Post by **LodeHacker** » Wed May 06, 2009 11:48 am

There's a bit of interesting discussion here in case you want to read a bit more on power bricks and picoPSU: viewtopic.php?t=28550

(Am not really much of help, I know

)

Vicotnik · Post by **Vicotnik** » Wed May 06, 2009 1:28 pm

Dell DA-2 seems popular. I'm very happy with mine. Not hard to get hold of one via eBay. It doesn't fit the PicoPSU barrel connector without modification. It's possible to build a converter or simply connect the two in some other way but it takes a bit of skill. But then a PicoPSU powered system takes a bit of skill to build also, so..

Mariner · Post by **Mariner** » Wed May 06, 2009 2:33 pm

I've just ordered a new PicoPSU-150-XT together with an FSP AC adapter which is reportedly capable of supplying 150W. Hopefully I'll receive them before the weekend then be able to install them into my system without any problems.

My system draws less than 80W at the very most (during boot) so there shouldn't, in theory at least, be any problems with this device in my system.

I'll report back anything of interest.

Firetech · Post by **Firetech** » Wed May 06, 2009 10:48 pm

Thanks for all of your responses guys!

Mariner wrote:I've just ordered a new PicoPSU-150-XT together with an FSP AC adapter which is reportedly capable of supplying 150W. Hopefully I'll receive them before the weekend then be able to install them into my system without any problems.

My system draws less than 80W at the very most (during boot) so there shouldn't, in theory at least, be any problems with this device in my system.

I'll report back anything of interest.

What is in your system?

Mariner · Post by **Mariner** » Thu May 07, 2009 3:29 am

My system is rather low powered:

Athlon 64 X2 3600+ (1.9GHz Brisbane)
Asus M3N78-VM
2GB RAM
500GB WD Greenpower
Slot-loading laptop DVD writer

The system draws a little over 70W during boot but I undervolt using CrystalCPUID (1.0V @ 1.9GHz stepping down to 0.8V @ 1.0GHz when idle).

Idle power draw is ~40W, full load is ~58W.

The reason I've gone for a 150W PicoPSU is that I may look to upgrade to a low power Phenom in future (though no plans for some time yet) and a bit of headroom could be useful.

Mariner · Post by **Mariner** » Sat May 16, 2009 11:27 am

I've now installed the PicoPSU 150 in my system and all seems to be working fine thus far.

At first, nothing happened when the power button was pressed other than a faint buzzing from somewhere around the motherboard. Using the old tried and tested technique of unplugging then replugging the power cable seemed to fix it as the system then booted up without any problems at all.

Interestingly enough, in comparison to the old 19V DC-DC converter which came with my Silverstone LC19 (and which has been causing problems), the PicoPSU appears to be more efficient, with the system now drawing between 5 and 7 watts less.

Previous idle power draw was 40W and this is now down to 35W. Full load was 58W and is now 51W.

The only mildly irksome thing is that when powered off or on S2 suspend, the PC now draws 5/6W when previously it drew 4/5W.

One final thing - with my current motherboard (installed several months ago) there was barely audible coil whine at full load with the original LC19 PSU. I've not tested too much yet but this appears to have disappeared when using the PicoPSU.

All in all, two thumbs up so far!

Firetech · Post by **Firetech** » Sat May 16, 2009 2:29 pm

Mariner wrote:I've now installed the PicoPSU 150 in my system and all seems to be working fine thus far.

Previous idle power draw was 40W and this is now down to 35W. Full load was 58W and is now 51W.

All in all, two thumbs up so far!

Thanks for the update Mariner. Looks like the 150-XT and FSP brick are the way to go if my extrapolation of your setup is correct.
The only issue may be the start-up load of the 4HDDs but the 200w psu option seems like overkill for the likely running load.....

I'll have a better search for where to buy that combination in the UK and then get it sent to the address where I'll be staying.

DanceMan · Post by **DanceMan** » Sat May 16, 2009 6:14 pm

The only issue may be the start-up load of the 4HDDs

I'd be careful about this with a pico-psu. All the wattage figures we're bandying about for idle or load do not consider motor starting load. Add in the fan and that's five.

Firetech · Post by **Firetech** » Sat May 16, 2009 8:16 pm

DanceMan wrote:
The only issue may be the start-up load of the 4HDDs
I'd be careful about this with a pico-psu. All the wattage figures we're bandying about for idle or load do not consider motor starting load. Add in the fan and that's five.

Thanks, I will do.
I was hoping someone would have a similar set-up to mine already and make my choice easier.

Mariner · Post by **Mariner** » Sun May 17, 2009 4:07 am

Firetech wrote: I'll have a better search for where to buy that combination in the UK and then get it sent to the address where I'll be staying.

I bought mine from linitx.com. Very good service actually - I ordered on the Wednesday and received the kit on the Friday. It was my own fault that it took me 8 days to find the time to install it!

Firetech · Post by **Firetech** » Mon May 18, 2009 12:00 am

Mariner wrote:I bought mine from linitx.com. Very good service actually - I ordered on the Wednesday and received the kit on the Friday. It was my own fault that it took me 8 days to find the time to install it!

Thanks for that Mariner, they seem to be reasonably priced (so worth the gamble) and have a fair few of them in stock too.

I presume I'll need to order a PCI power connector bracket separately?

Mariner · Post by **Mariner** » Mon May 18, 2009 3:45 am

As I was replacing the original DC-DC converter which came with my case I actually already had the necessary 'hole' for the power socket. However, I did have to buy an adapter for the floppy power cable which my slim format DVD-writer uses.

If you are going to use the PicoPSU in a standard case, you will need to buy the connector bracket you mention as it certainly isn't included as part of the package!

Everything seems to be an added extra these days...

Eunos · Post by **Eunos** » Mon May 25, 2009 3:53 pm

I've built a few systems using Pico and have never gotten around to getting a bracket. It's not a bad idea as just having the cables going out of the standard PSU hole can otherwise cause a spark against the metal case.

With 150w to work with you should be able to start all those drives simultaneously (especially if they are 2.5"). As far as I know, during the time of drive start-up, the CPU/graphics card/etc is basically idle.

I'm pretty sure my 80w EDAC/Pico system would crash if all components were simultaneously drawing full load, but it has never happened in a few years of heavy use and might not even be possible without special software to simulate worst-case usage. I bought mine soon after the original Pico review which was 3 years ago and it has not been fan cooled - I was happy to take my chances and it's been indestructable.

In the unlikely event that the drives were causing start-up issues, I would consider consolidating the storage into fewer drives. (eg, if there were 2 x 250gb drives, sell both and replace with a single 500gb...)

Cheers.

Firetech · Post by **Firetech** » Mon May 25, 2009 10:18 pm

Eunos wrote:I've built a few systems using Pico and have never gotten around to getting a bracket. It's not a bad idea as just having the cables going out of the standard PSU hole can otherwise cause a spark against the metal case.

Thanks for the feedback Eunos.
Yes, for the sake of an extra couple of quid I'll buy the bracket.

- I was happy to take my chances and it's been indestructable.
In the unlikely event that the drives were causing start-up issues, I would consider consolidating the storage into fewer drives. (eg, if there were 2 x 250gb drives, sell both and replace with a single 500gb...)
Cheers.

Sounds like the 150w should be OK for me then.
Given all four drives are already 1Tb each, further consolidation will be expensive what with WD20EADS drives coming in at around AU$400 each

Firetech · Post by **Firetech** » Mon Jun 01, 2009 11:35 pm

I just bought a power meter and it seems to indicate the start-up load as (surprisingly) under 80w and sub-60w when running.
Is there likely to be any problem with still buying a 150w PicoPSU, other than a slight cost difference, over a smaller wattage unit?

Post by **MikeC** » Tue Jun 02, 2009 12:17 am

Each 3.5" drive can draw ~25W for a few seconds during spinup. This is a common spec from most HDD makers. Once up to speed, few draw more than ~8W. A low power CPU with integrated graphics should not pull more than ~50W max at startup, probably less. In any case, the main power issue will be the drives at startup. Power meters generally do not have the resolution to display the brief peaks at startup. You need something much faster than a Kill-a-watt or similar -- an oscilloscope will do it.

The PicoPSU is responsible only for the lower voltages (5V, 3.3V, 5Vsb); the 12V feed goes straight through it from the DC power adapter. Most drives pull more power from the 12V line than from the 5V.

All this is to say that a 150W power adapter will be fine. But in the long term, you'd be well advised to reduce the # of drives if at all possible for reduction of both startup and idle power demand.

Firetech · Post by **Firetech** » Tue Jun 02, 2009 12:34 am

Thanks Mike.
I'll stick with the 150w plan given your feedback.

Experienced PicoPSUers: Which PicoPSU/Power Brick?

Experienced PicoPSUers: Which PicoPSU/Power Brick?

UPDATE (with question)