Small ATX power supplies?

[Colt45]

Hi guys, I've got a miniITX board here, and it seems ridiculous using a PSU that is the same size as the board.

Is there any extra small PS's around, that aren't ridiculous price?

What are you guys using?

 

[Zap]

pico PSU kits

They have various kits from under $50 to around $70. Not super cheap, but not too bad either. They are VERY efficient. If you decide to purchase one, pay close attention to the plugs that it has. The reason is that there are 20 pin and 24 pin versions, plus some have and some do not have the 4 pin +12v. You may not need a huge amount of power depending on your setup. For instance if you get an Atom based board with one hard drive, you'll probably be using around 45W max. A low end Wolfdale with one hard drive may idle around 50W and load around 80W.

 

[Colt45]

Yeah, I've seen those before, but I can't bring myself to spend $60 on <$5 of parts. Maybe i'll have to rig one myself... I really hate making SMPSs though.

This is for an atom board

 

[Zap]

Originally posted by: Colt45
I can't bring myself to spend $60 on <$5 of parts.

I think they are worth a bit more than $5, but if you really want a small unit that isn't crap, it is either one of those, or an SFX sized unit. There are some decent SFX made by Seasonic and FSP that are good quality and efficient. Enermax also makes quality SFX units, but they weren't that efficient and seemed to be older designs.

Speaking of efficiency, I don't think you'd get any more efficient than the pico PSU.