Best brick for PicoPsu (or other efficient and silent DC-DC)

morglum · Post by **morglum** » Sat Mar 13, 2010 6:52 pm

Hey everyone,

Just wondering what is the best deals these days for a silent and low power PSU.

1) Which brick do people get these days?

2) Is the PicoPSU DC-DC converter still the best thing around? There seem to be alternatives (like electrodacus's supply)

Thanks!
S.

ces · Post by **ces** » Sat Mar 13, 2010 9:39 pm

Don't mess with Pico.

Use electrodacus's stuff. It's better.

See:
viewtopic.php?t=55353&start=90
For his power brick.

Pico just passes the 12 volts on. Winmate filters and cleans up all the different voltages. There is just no comparison.

For the life of me I can't figure out on what basis SPRC gave the Pico a better rating. The winhmates electrodacus is selling were originally purchased for use in medical equipment. It's top line stuff.

Grab it while you can.

MtnHermit · Post by **MtnHermit** » Sat Mar 13, 2010 11:05 pm

ces wrote:For the life of me I can't figure out on what basis SPRC gave the Pico a better rating.

Well the PicoPSU with the right brick is more efficient than the Winmate, precisely because of the 12V regulation you mention. It's questionable if modern MB's need that regulation since they have many stage VRM's.

MtnHermit · Post by **MtnHermit** » Sat Mar 13, 2010 11:16 pm

morglum wrote: Just wondering what is the best deals these days for a silent and low power PSU.

1) Which brick do people get these days?

2) Is the PicoPSU DC-DC converter still the best thing around? There seem to be alternatives (like electrodacus's supply)

In terms of efficiency the order is like this:
Dell R112 > PicoPSU > Winmate

Cost:
PicoPSU > Winmate > Dell R112 (~$35)

Noise:
PicoPSU = Winmate < Dell R112 (it has a fan)

Of course the Dell has the considerable barrier of being a major soldering project and the non-standard case.

morglum · Post by **morglum** » Sun Mar 14, 2010 6:16 am

Thanks guys, that feedback helps a lot. i had also missed the SCPR review.

Electrodacus' fanless solution wins, since that's why I want to use a brick in the first place..

Cheers!

Vicotnik · Post by **Vicotnik** » Sun Mar 14, 2010 4:20 pm

The Winmate is what I would recommend for most people since it's very simple. But with a little tweaking a PicoPSU can be better, as MtnHermit points out. Downside is that you need to fix the shortcomings of the weak barrel connector and maybe reroute stuff internally to avoid a low +12v rail.
The PicoPSU is also smaller, can be significant depending on the chassis you're using.

I would love to get a hold of a Dell R112 since that seems the most efficient. But the shipping to EU is way, way to much. It's like 30$ for the PSU and close to 50$ shipping..

MtnHermit · Post by **MtnHermit** » Sun Mar 14, 2010 5:21 pm

Vicotnik wrote:I would love to get a hold of a Dell R112 since that seems the most efficient. But the shipping to EU is way, way to much. It's like 30$ for the PSU and close to 50$ shipping..

Can't you find the Dell on something like eBay in the EU?

As I understand these come out of damaged Optiplex's. Their must be someone in the EU who parts out old/damaged PC's. Wouldn't be economical to ship them to the US. Likely they're made in China anyway. The R112 is certainly made in China.

greenfrank · Post by **greenfrank** » Sun Mar 14, 2010 7:02 pm

The main problem for Picos is the power brick. It's difficult to find one efficient, powerful and cheap.
I will try a pico 120-wi with a 120w 18.5v brick, that seems enough for my new rig (Athlon II).

Vicotnik · Post by **Vicotnik** » Sun Mar 14, 2010 7:36 pm

MtnHermit wrote:Can't you find the Dell on something like eBay in the EU?

As I understand these come out of damaged Optiplex's.

All I can find are a few Optiplex's, not the PSU itself. Oh well, I'm bound to run into a broken Optiplex eventually during my dumpster raids.

greenfrank wrote:The main problem for Picos is the power brick. It's difficult to find one efficient, powerful and cheap.

The Dell DA-2 is about 30$ on eBay. Plenty powerful but I don't really know how good it's efficiency is. Popular brick though.

frostedflakes · Post by **frostedflakes** » Sun Mar 14, 2010 7:46 pm

Dell also has the DA-1, which is rated for 150w. Can get them pretty cheap on eBay as well, but you'll need to mod the connector.

ces · Post by **ces** » Sun Mar 14, 2010 11:25 pm

MtnHermit wrote:
In terms of efficiency the order is like this:

Dell R112 > PicoPSU > Winmate

Cost:
PicoPSU > Winmate > Dell R112 (~$35)

Noise:
PicoPSU = Winmate < Dell R112 (it has a fan)

MtnHermit

Can you elaborate on the above.

What kind of system do you use. What kind of energy usage. I seem to remember that you live off of solar or wind energy.

MtnHermit · Post by **MtnHermit** » Mon Mar 15, 2010 5:08 am

ces wrote:Can you elaborate on the above.

All can be verified, simply read the Dell R112 thread on this forum, what are your questions?

What kind of system do you use. What kind of energy usage. I seem to remember that you live off of solar or wind energy.

Code: Select all

      PSU          FF       No Load      Idle     Comments
Seasonic 180W     SFX        7W           44W     SS-180SFD  
Sparkle 200W      SFX        9W           45W     FSP200-50SNV
Antec EW 380W     ATX        6W           34W     EA-380 80+
TT 420W           ATX       14W           45W     Thermaltake HPC-420-102DF
Bestec 250W       ATX        6W           39W     ATX-250-12Z Compaq OEM

All the PSU's were connected to a i3-530 on a Gigabyte microATX MB w/4GB DDR3 and a notebook HDD.

No load is simply shorting the green to any black, nothing connected. Not a meaningful PC test, but of interest for its own sake.

I have a Dell RM112 (235W, 80+ Silver) all soldered up and ready to test, it should handily beat all the above. That I live solar electric is irrelevant, my house uses 120VAC just like yours.

MtnHermit · Post by **MtnHermit** » Mon Mar 15, 2010 5:18 am

morglum · Post by **morglum** » Mon Mar 15, 2010 9:32 am

New question

Questions 1 )If I go electrodacus's PSU route, what is a good energy efficient brick to get? I havent seen any specs for his 150W gateway brick.

edit: Question 2) How do you guys mount that PSU in a normal ATX case?

Thanks!

ces · Post by **ces** » Mon Mar 15, 2010 10:52 am

Electrodacus is fussy and careful.

If he sells it, it will be of quality.

He is testing a new 220 watt brick right now. Wait a few weeks. Then buy the whole kit from him.

There is no good solution to mounting these bricks though.

morglum · Post by **morglum** » Mon Mar 15, 2010 12:00 pm

Thanks for the replies

Electrodacus seems very careful indeed. He's out of the bricks though, so he linked me to the Li Shin 0226A20160.

Will be getting this for sure, too bad there's no easy way to mount it in my case.

cheers!