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Power Supply Why use an external PSU?
- Thread starter JosephEK
- Start date
Golly a whole article to compliment my curiosities. Thanks!Rant here
I think you nailed one idea really well:
" What you should be considering when designing a chassis, or a building your next PC, is not how big it is in purely metric terms, but what solution works best for you."
I think this is very true and that sheer compactness isn't necessarily as important as solving a scenario based problem. For example I think there is such a thing as too small for devices like smartphones to the point where they're simply annoying to use or are not ergonomic.
That isn't to say that finding new ways to make a PC smaller and yet higher performing isn't fun, because it sure is, and unlike phones there's less to worry about in the ergonomics department.
That picture in your article is one of those HD PLEX 160W Nano-ATX PSU isn't it? That's another cool idea I haven't seen before, but right away I see that it doesn't have a fan. I'm curious how hot such a PSU gets for something that's potentially inside a compact case with no provided self-ventilation.
I almost always prefer power bricks, because the brick will be hidden just like the cables are. That being said, the HDPlex internal AC-DC brick is a brilliant idea and I hope it keeps being developed. I wouldn't choose an internal PSU (other than the aforementioned HDPlex) unless I was on a budget and it ended up being cheaper in the end. This is only because I only go for low-power systems, obviously, and it wouldn't apply if I ever built a very power hungry machine. Although the G-Unique units would make me reconsider this...
Also, this isn't entirely related and I'm sorry if I'm a bit off-topic here, but I figured I might as well ask here instead of starting a new thread just for this: do you guys think a 150W power brick with a 160XT pico would be enough to power a G4560 + GTX 1050 Ti or would that be like playing with fire?
Also, this isn't entirely related and I'm sorry if I'm a bit off-topic here, but I figured I might as well ask here instead of starting a new thread just for this: do you guys think a 150W power brick with a 160XT pico would be enough to power a G4560 + GTX 1050 Ti or would that be like playing with fire?
You should be fine. I have a very similar i3 6100 + 1050ti build and spike around 120w (power draw from wall).
I've got a small Travla-based case coming that was used previously for some satellite company's equipment, I'm going to smash my build inside of it. I also have a silverstone SFX power supply coming; I know I have about 4" to spare between the motherboard and the front of the case to put the SFX power supply in there the wrong way, meaning I'll probably have to modify the housing of the power supply and move the AC input port to the other side. We'll see what happens. Power supplies are relatively cheap, I'm not scared to bust out the tin shears.
Curiosity
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- Apr 30, 2016
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I used to be super against external bricks, but at some point (roughly when I ordered an S4 ) I changed how I look at them and decided relocatable volume isn't such a bad thing after all.
Plus there's the whole buying multiple bricks so you can just leave them around thing too. (which you can do with power cords, but still.)
) I changed how I look at them and decided relocatable volume isn't such a bad thing after all.Plus there's the whole buying multiple bricks so you can just leave them around thing too. (which you can do with power cords, but still.)
For a device like this that uses a 160W PSU...
http://www.hd-plex.com/HDPLEX-NanoATX-Power-Supply-Combo-Solution.html
... would I be able to power a 65W TDP CPU + a low profile RX 460 that gets all its power from the motherboard? Other than that I would be looking at 8-16GB of RAM and an M.2 SSD. Can one of these things power all that?
http://www.hd-plex.com/HDPLEX-NanoATX-Power-Supply-Combo-Solution.html
... would I be able to power a 65W TDP CPU + a low profile RX 460 that gets all its power from the motherboard? Other than that I would be looking at 8-16GB of RAM and an M.2 SSD. Can one of these things power all that?
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00AVMUJ1M/?tag=theminutiae-20
This is the model of external PSU that I own. I know very little about external PSU though so I'm curious if this brick will only work with the little board that came with it or if I could get one of those HD Plex boards.
The little board says on it:
"Model MS-4264"
This is the model of external PSU that I own. I know very little about external PSU though so I'm curious if this brick will only work with the little board that came with it or if I could get one of those HD Plex boards.
The little board says on it:
"Model MS-4264"
@JosephEK you might have better luck getting answers with that if you started a thread for it yourself; not meaning to be rude, just felt it needed said.
On-topic: For me personally the draw of bricks is as others have said, it can be hidden. So for "bragging rights" about how small the case is, you can exclude it
What I would like even more is a way to make the brick itself even smaller. Even with internal psu's I often wonder how fun it might be to disassemble the case (I do NOT recommend this unless you are very comfortable/knowledgeable about working with potentially lethal voltages) to cut down on its size, building the cooling for it into the case itself.
On-topic: For me personally the draw of bricks is as others have said, it can be hidden. So for "bragging rights" about how small the case is, you can exclude it
What I would like even more is a way to make the brick itself even smaller. Even with internal psu's I often wonder how fun it might be to disassemble the case (I do NOT recommend this unless you are very comfortable/knowledgeable about working with potentially lethal voltages) to cut down on its size, building the cooling for it into the case itself.
Thats what i just thought. Why not taking out all the electronics and spread the parts all over the remaining places in the s4?@JosephEK you might have better luck getting answers with that if you started a thread for it yourself; not meaning to be rude, just felt it needed said.
On-topic: For me personally the draw of bricks is as others have said, it can be hidden. So for "bragging rights" about how small the case is, you can exclude it
What I would like even more is a way to make the brick itself even smaller. Even with internal psu's I often wonder how fun it might be to disassemble the case (I do NOT recommend this unless you are very comfortable/knowledgeable about working with potentially lethal voltages) to cut down on its size, building the cooling for it into the case itself.
ofcourse only if you know what you doing without getting electrofried P.s. It the age of digital amplifiers/converters, arent there allready much smaller external bricks besides the bigass 330w hp "BRICK" ?
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