Which power supply to use?

[yetanothername]

In the next month or so, I'm going to be building a system in an APEX MI-100 case. I already have the case and a 2.5" hard drive.

I'm planning on using a ZOTAC H55ITX-A-E motherboard with a Intel Core i5 661 CPU with an ATI Radeon 5670 and (most likely) a 120mm fan.

Sooner or later I plan on adding a Blu-Ray drive and an SSD.

My question is, which power supply should I get:

• PicoPSU 150-XT
• Mini-Box PW-200-M
• Winmate 130W.
• Winmate 130W (x2).

Thanks.

[themaster1]

No idea but i suggest you find a psu with a a fan you can change, not all of them are changeable.

[NeilBlanchard]

Welcome to SPCR!

Those power supplies do not have any fans, IIRC.

Have you read the SPCR reviews of these power supplies?

[yetanothername]

Thanks, I have read both of the SPCR reviews for the Pico-PSU and the Winmate.

According to my calculations, at the worst case, the i5 660 uses 73W, the Radeon 5670 uses ~60W and the hard drive uses about 5W. Already, that is 138W, and that doesn't even count the motherboard or RAM, let alone the optical drive and SSD that I'll be adding. So I'm thinking that I'll need either the PW-200-M or the dual Winmates.

[themaster1]

My setup consume about 300 watts at large (assuming i use all my hard drives, dvb cards etc at the same time) yours should be roughly the same i believe but think a minute if you get a psu of 300w for a 300w setup that means your psu will have to work at 100% of its capacity hence a lot of noise from the fan and a lifespan reduced. So, the idea would be to get a psu with the double capacity 300w > 600w.
I myself have bought a 600 w psu and i can assert it's quiet, pricey, but hey..

[NeilBlanchard]

I doubt that your machine is using 300watts!

To the OP: the maximum CPU power is unlikely to be what you actually get -- I think you might be fine with a 150watt PSU; but it would be good to hear from someone with a similar system on the actual power use.

[Jay_S]

I'm going to be building a system in an APEX MI-100 case. I already have the case and a 2.5" hard drive.

I'm planning on using a ZOTAC H55ITX-A-E motherboard with a Intel Core i5 661 CPU with an ATI Radeon 5670 and (most likely) a 120mm fan.

In SPCR's review of the APEX MI-008 case (internally identical to your MI-100), they note that the included PSU was actually pretty quiet! Is it possible to use it in your system? Or does it interfere with the CPU HSF (I assume it does).

Also, if this is a HTPC, do you need the Radeon 5670?

[yetanothername]

I'm going to be building a system in an APEX MI-100 case. I already have the case and a 2.5" hard drive.

I'm planning on using a ZOTAC H55ITX-A-E motherboard with a Intel Core i5 661 CPU with an ATI Radeon 5670 and (most likely) a 120mm fan.

In SPCR's review of the APEX MI-008 case (internally identical to your MI-100), they note that the included PSU was actually pretty quiet! Is it possible to use it in your system? Or does it interfere with the CPU HSF (I assume it does).

Also, if this is a HTPC, do you need the Radeon 5670?

I actually have a Intel Atom D510MO and a hard drive in the case right now, acting as streaming media server, and the CPU is hitting 60F with just the power supply's fan (which is really quiet. I need to take the cover off of the case in order to hear it.). I'm just concerned about cooling a more power-hungry processor when most of the airflow path is blocked with the power supply.

This won't be a HTPC, this will be my general-purpose machine (I game a bit on the side, hence the 5670.)