Power Supply Calculating Power consumption and PSU needed

Choidebu

"Banned"
Original poster
Aug 16, 2017
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hi all,

So I'm planning a build:
Ryzen R5-1600 (65W)
Asrock ab350-itx (incl. intel wifi+bt module)
Noctua n9li
Rx550 (50W)
Nvme ssd
1x8gb ram stick
Possibly 1 or 2 sata ssd.

I've tried https://outervision.com/power-supply-calculator which said 171W total so it recommends 220+W psu (I think they assume 80% efficiency)

I want to go dc-atx at this, since I'm aiming for next run of nfc s4 mini - I've read a lot here and my options are:

  • Hdplex 300W - which seems to be out and about to be replaced by 400w
  • Pico-box z4-atx-200
  • G-unique module
I'd love to go hdplex but my budget isn't allowing... pico-box seems to tick all the boxes but i'm reading bad things about them... I find g-unique tantalizing but I don't want to use modded bricks, I have several bricks that easily does 200W over 16/19V, I don't need 500W. From what I read @guryhwa doesn't guarantee his board will work with just any brick.

But there's also people saying that a 160W picoPSU can serve more providing the brick can, is this true? Would it last? What happen if I plug in some power hungry USB device?

Thank you in advance for any insight
 
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AleksandarK

/dev/null
May 14, 2017
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Go with 160xt as it is quite good. People ran i7 7700 and gtx 1060 with the 192w brick with no problems. You should be fine as your system wont draw more than 130-150w. BTW, yes pico psu can run a lot more wattage than 160. But only on 12v rail.
 
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Choidebu

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Aug 16, 2017
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Thanks! I think I'll go with hdplex 160W, they seem to have it on stock. Plus my bricks are mostly 19v.

It's sad that ryzen 3 is not more power efficient - if I go that route Core i3 is definitely a more sensible choice with graphics integrated and all
 
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Kmpkt

Innovation through Miniaturization
KMPKT
Feb 1, 2016
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From my personal experience, the Pico Box units are awful and their RMA/Return policies are crap. Mini Box, the original seller of the Pico PSU units, has always been very well thought of on these forums. For a long time I believe they were all Josh would recommend for the S4 mini.
 

Choidebu

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Original poster
Aug 16, 2017
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Pico box =/= mini box

Mini box sells picoPSU which is highly regarded and pioneer of its kind. Back in the days of carputer they're pretty much the go to choice.
Pico box is something I found in this forum, interesting cause they got 200w, sounds perfect for middle ground build between picoPSU and the beefier hdplex. It's a chinese product. Search the forum to find out. Thing dies after a while, ruining motherboards..
 
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Petano

Caliper Novice
Aug 24, 2017
27
21
My comments which might help because I am in the middle of my build.

Ryzen R 1200 consumes ~40 - 45W on stock in prime95. For testing I overclocked it to 3.6GHz and reaching 45-50W. On the other hand stock R5 1600 according reviews can go up to 80W and be over TDP value.

For graphics card MSI RX 560 Aero power consumption is about 55W on stock with full load so you may look for beefier card compare to RX 550 in your selection if power consumption is your concern. I tried to put power profile 20% down on it and got only 5% loss of performance but power consumption dropped to 40-45W.

I maxed out 165W from wall during OC testing with full system (50W idle).

I hope I will finish my build during weekend and post it in Build logs. Still waiting for brick to be delivered (tomorrow). All power consumption measures were done from wall with crappy Eurocase ATX PSU.
 

stree

Airflow Optimizer
Dec 10, 2016
307
177
I have 3 or 4 Pico units, 120, 150 and 160 watts.............Have run them for a few years with no issues. I will use the 160TX on my Ryzen build.
I was going to get another G-Unique but it is taking forever so given up on that.

Changed my mind, I will be patient with Gury..Good product, worth the wait.........But this year would be nice.
Would be pushing it a bit with the 160XT, so rather than risk it, I will wait.

It is a very modest system though:

AMD - Ryzen 3 1200 3.1GHz Quad-Core Processor 8W - 65W
ASRock - AB350 Gaming-ITX/ac Mini ITX AM4 Motherboard 7W - 30W
Crucial - Ballistix Sport LT 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2400 Memory 11W - 11W
Toshiba - 1TB 2.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive 3W - 15W
Samsung - PM961 128GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive 2W - 10W
XFX - Radeon R7 240 2GB Video Card 7W - 30W
Gelid Solutions - Slim 12 UV BLUE 48.3 CFM 120mm Fan 1W - 5W
Total: 39W - 166W

Outervision got same to 141w

and no gaming, rendering, torture testing etc etc..................maybe clock CPU to 3.7 and thats it.

Will beef up CPU, GPU and PSU at later date............Zen 2 kind of time.................
 
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