Question internal vs external power supply

[GunsMadeAmericaFree]

Back when I started using home PC's, power supplies were nearly all external bricks. (Atari 800, TI 99/4a, Commodore 64, etc.)

Later, power supplies moved inside. On some thin client PC's, I've noticed they use external power supply bricks again.

As a lot of computers seem to be migrating back to living room PC's, I'm wondering if power supplies might mostly become external again, like they were in the early days.

What do you think? Would you miss having an internal power supply if most of them become external again?

 

[Muadib]

My Apple II had an internal power supply, and I got it in 1977. It was out before everything you listed .

 

[GunsMadeAmericaFree]

Ok, I guess I never had an apple product. From the late 70's to mid 80's, all of the PC's I had were designed to hook up to a regular TV in the living room. Funny how all of those android boxes are out these days - we are sort of back to the same thing again.

 

[Muadib]

Ok, I guess I never had an apple product. From the late 70's to mid 80's, all of the PC's I had were designed to hook up to a regular TV in the living room. Funny how all of those android boxes are out these days - we are sort of back to the same thing again.

I had a black & white 13" tv that was my monitor back then. I use fire tv & Rokus for my sets now, so I think you are right.

 

[mindless1]

There will always be special purpose appliances but when talking about general computing PCs, whether the PSU is external on something not meant to be portable (and with a battery itself) depends on how much power it uses.

There's a practical limit on how much power to get out of a commodity brick AC/DC adapter before it becomes far more expensive than leveraging existing internal PSU designs. They're also far more often than not, single voltage output so the mainboard needs to step that down to the various needed voltages.

Essentially you'd just be shifting and splitting where the volume of the system is, and I don't think that's necessarily a good idea to do just for the sake of doing it. Passive brick AC/DC adapters also run pretty hot and with people trending towards replacing their *desktop* PC less and less often with each passing year, longevity seems like it's as important as ever.

Would I miss an internal PSU? I hold no sentimental attachment but there's no good reason that I'd want an external instead for what I'm running right now, though I do appreciate having that for my laptop to save on space and weight when moving around.