PicoPSU Review

[Fred]

I know George was looking at PicoPSUs, and I'm guessing others would find this info helpful. I just ordered one to try out (http://www.mini-box.com/picoPSU-120-102W-power-kit).

I'm starting to build mini-ITX systems just for prime hunting. My goal in trying the PicoPSU was 2 fold. 1) smaller footprint then a traditional PSU (building a case-less rack), and 2) I hoped perhaps it may save a bit on power consumption over a traditional PSU.

Result: The power brick is pretty big. It has a longer but narrower footprint than a traditional PSU. Not sure it really is any smaller of a footprint. No fan on it obviously, but I think most traditional quality PSU's now a days have pretty quiet, almost silent fans. I measured my current setup (i5-6500, 2x4gb DDR4-1600, mini-ITX mobo) with a Kill A Watt using both a traditional PSU (Corsair CX430M 80+Bronze), as well as on the PicoPSU. Had Prime95 running full tilt for both tests.

Corsair CX430M 80+Bronze: 71.5 Watts (average)
PicoPSU: 70.1 Watts (average)

Corsair was $24.99 after mail in rebate. PicoPSU was $53.25 (including a needed adapter cable).

All in all, PicoPSU seems well constructed (although lots of exposed components), but for my money, I think I'm going to stick with traditional PSUs.

[Mark Rose]

Well that's good to know. I wasn't able to find anything about their efficiency: looks like it's okay, not great.

So getting an 80+ Platinum still looks to be the way to go for number crunching machines.

[Prime95]

Thanks for the review. I am a couple of days away from ordering one (powered by a traditional PSU). Glad to know that it works.

[Fred]

Originally Posted by Mark Rose

Well that's good to know. I wasn't able to find anything about their efficiency: looks like it's okay, not great.

So getting an 80+ Platinum still looks to be the way to go for number crunching machines.

Ya, I'm curious to know in real world applications how much better an 80+ platinum would be over 80+ or 80+Bronze. Any thoughts on that? For example, a system that draws about 71 watts on an 80+Bronze. Any idea how many watts would be saved with a Platinum?

[kladner]

Originally Posted by Fred

Ya, I'm curious to know in real world applications how much better an 80+ platinum would be over 80+ or 80+Bronze. Any thoughts on that? For example, a system that draws about 71 watts on an 80+Bronze. Any idea how many watts would be saved with a Platinum?

I would guess between 5-10%. I don't have solid numbers, now, but when I changed from a Bronze supply, to a Gold, the drop at the mains was substantial. Changing from Gold to Platinum was noticeable, but not as great.

I should note that the PSUs mentioned above were 750 W Bronze, 1000 W Gold, 1200 W Platinum. The 750 was overloaded with two GPUs (a GTX 460 and a GTX 570.) Going to the 1000 W put the power draw more in the 80% of the PSU capacity. This certainly added to the efficiency increase.

When the KW supply went crazy, (now with 2x GTX 580s,) stepping up to 1.2 KW put the total draw (800+ W), in a sweet spot for efficiency: ~66% of supply capacity.

I realize that this is in a very different part of the PSU field, but I strongly endorse higher 80+ ratings, as well as scaling your power supply to have some headroom. Running them flat out is less efficient.

[Mark Rose]

Originally Posted by Fred

Ya, I'm curious to know in real world applications how much better an 80+ platinum would be over 80+ or 80+Bronze. Any thoughts on that? For example, a system that draws about 71 watts on an 80+Bronze. Any idea how many watts would be saved with a Platinum?

A Bronze is fine for a machine that idles. The additional cost to buy a Platinum is paid for in savings in months to a year, when running a machine hard. The Titaniums are still crazy expensive.

Bronze should get you above 82 to 85% efficiency depending on load. A platinum should get you 90 to 92%. So that's about an 8% savings in watts, or 5 watts in your system. A watt is roughly $1/year in most places. So I would stick with your bronze unit.

Where it really matters is when running GPUs. I have a 750 watt bronze supply powering two GTX 580's and a Haswell, all running full tilt. It pulls 760 watts at the wall. I would save about 54 watts upgrading to a platinum unit. That machine gets free electricity at the moment, but if I had to pay for electricity, I would certainly have a platinum supply in it.

[Fred]

Originally Posted by kladner

I would guess between 5-10%. I don't have solid numbers, now, but when I changed from a Bronze supply, to a Gold, the drop at the mains was substantial. Changing from Gold to Platinum was noticeable, but not as great.

Hmmmm... ya, the difference I'm guessing may less drastic at lower watts, but I can see how the Platinums would definitely make sense on something running heavy duty GPUs.

The systems I'm looking to run flat out 24/7 will draw about 70 watts at the wall (with an 80+Bronze). Basically just a mini-ITX mobo with an i5-6500. Even if I noticed a full 10% savings by going to Platinum, that would be about 7 watts saved, which for me is about $11 per year. The Platinum would cost me about $55 more up front, so I would be looking at 5 years just to break even.

[Xyzzy]

There are ways to run more than one motherboard off of one power supply.

We have never done it, but we are aware the possibility exists.