Power Supply Dream SFF PSU??

[jeshikat]

I think a FlexATX with a blower fan like the older Dell custom slim PSUs would be interesting:

 

[|||]

You can always adapt small things to larger form factors; you can't go the other way.

Take the Pico Box X3 for example, with an ATX adapter plate:

Also, if there was a way to simply link multiple PSU's, that would be a very modular solution. It also opens up the door for some interesting possibilities.

 

[iFreilicht]

dream PSU? A 500w picopsu with an external brick the size of a phone charger.

I wonder if @iFreilicht would have some input here..

You bet I do.

I guess you already saw iFreilicht poll ?

He actually sent me a message before making this thread and sent me the prototype of the FSP500 I've got now, so yes, he does know about that poll

So, if we're being super-dreamy now, this is what I would envision:

• Formfactor: FlexATX, 150mm short, maybe even shorter. We should have some sort of established form factor to start from. Flex also has other advantages, but the 40.5mm thickness are a given. Maybe making it narrower (60mm instead of 81.5?) would be nice, too.
• Modularity: Full modularity, implemented similarly to the SSP300, so all connectors stay within the bounding box of FlexATX. But not just with one, but multiple connectors looking upwards, two rows should be enough.
• Power: As much as possible, but not less than 400W.
• Fans: A single 40mm one next to the AC Inlet. If the efficiency really is as high as they claim, that thing will be whisper quiet.
• ATX DC/DC daughterboard: Just 12V supply and control signals from the PSU to something like the PicoPSU. Once ATX gets revised for motherboard DC/DC generation, this PSU will still be usable with it. We need to take a first step there, this is our chance. Still, I'd want 5V to also be present on the PSU itself for SATA connectors.
• Parallel use: Maybe it could be an idea to have a connector for a control signal bridge so PSUs could be used in conjunction for bigger builds, just like dual-PSU configurations are now. A single ATX mount could easily take three of these PSUs, so you could have configurations for three systems, one big system and a small one, or even one redundant one and a regular one. That kind of flexibility could be worth a lot when trying to reach a high amount of sold units.

This would be ideal. FlexATX lends itself well to small and creative builds and even cases with SFX or ATX mounts will profit from it. Reducing the width a bit more would be a plus (the Hutzy XS could take more drives, the Brevis S would be less tall, AIOs would have more space for GPUs), and it could still be usable with cases designed for Flex with a small adapter plate.

 

[NRG]

Dream?

I'm more inclined to ask for a PSU that resembles a SFX PSU. Except, Half the height of the current SFX standard, Almost a slim SFX. I would be content with 350W, Platinum and Fanless. That would drive a 1060 and 6600k

Crude pic for reference.

 

[Kmpkt]

Isn't half SFX basically 1U (40.5 x 100 x Length)? This is more or less what I was suggesting and 100mm wide could be better if it kept the length down I suppose.

 

[NRG]

Isn't half SFX basically 1U (40.5 x 100 x Length)? This is more or less what I was suggesting and 100mm wide could be better if it kept the length down I suppose.

I was thinking like credit card profile, Except not as long as 1U. So pretty much a HDPlex 250w, Except not as long, and in a "modular format" with on board power brick and rear mounting holes so that it can be mounted in a similar fashion to a SFX PSU.

 

[cmyk78]

My dream psu is an sfx form factor 850 watt modular 80+ platinum unit.

 

[Kmpkt]

This is already basically on the way with the 800W Titanium Silverstone SFX.

 

[cmyk78]

This is already basically on the way with the 800W Titanium Silverstone SFX.

I was under the impression that it was going to be sfx-l?

 

[jeshikat]

It is. SilverStone has a 650W Gold-rated SFX coming out but I have not heard of anything higher wattage than that for SFX.

 

[cmyk78]

It is. SilverStone has a 650W Gold-rated SFX coming out but I have not heard of anything higher wattage than that for SFX.

Thanks for clarifying.

 

[|||]

So, looking at the Pico-Box X300, if you took their configuration for the arrangement of modular connectors and turned them at right angle, that'd be awesome...it looks like the width of the PCI-e, EPS, and Molex/SATA power connectors would be at least 3mm shorter than the 51.5mm width of the 24-pin ATX connector.

Thus, you could with the PCI-e, EPS, and Molex/SATA connectors offset all the way to one side, fit two of these side-by-side (one would be flipped 180 degrees) within the 100mm x 40.5mm profile of a 1U PSU. I'm pretty sure redundant high-power PSUs in a 1U form factor would be very welcome in the enterprise server market. You could also fit at least 7 in the space of an ATX PSU, so if they were in an N + 1 setup with 400W each you'd be still able to handle more power than a 20A circuit in the US can provide.