Finally a reasonably cheap 80 Plus power supply
Summary: One of the key criteria to getting a new EPA Energy Star rating on a new computer is having an "80 Plus" power supply. A computer power supply that is more than 80% efficient at 20%, 50% and 100% load can earn an 80 Plus logo.
One of the key criteria to getting a new EPA Energy Star rating on a new computer is having an "80 Plus" power supply. A computer power supply that is more than 80% efficient at 20%, 50% and 100% load can earn an 80 Plus logo. Finding an 80 Plus power supply for a do-it-yourself PC at a reasonable price has been challenging and too many 80 Plus power supplies are oversized and overpriced.
A large price tag prices out a large portion of the market and oversized power supplies don't actually deliver the kinds of efficiencies their marketing implies. A 500 watt power supply that is rated 80 Plus will perform at well below 80% efficiency when paired with a modern PC that typically uses 50 to 100 watts of power because that's less than 20% loading. The solution is to find a small and inexpensive power supply in the 200 watt range and Sparkle Power Inc. may have produced the right solution with their SPI220LE power supply.
The SPI220LE is small (fits in 1U chassis and some MicroATX or FlexATX chassis), reasonably priced at $55 MSRP (available online), and it's completely silent since the fan doesn't even move until you get to 50% loading which is almost never. In my quest to build a 50 watt PC, I hit a point of diminishing returns because my SeaSonic S12 330 watt PSU couldn't operate that efficiently at 15% loading. I could not get the computer to use less than 50 watts no matter how hard I tried and 51 watts was as low as I got.
With the SPI220LE, power consumption on a G33 motherboard and Intel E6750 dropped down to 47 watts when it was 52 watts [UPDATE 1:00PM - using an already efficient Seasonic S12 330W power supply. The 330W PSU while efficient at 20% to 100% loses efficiently at loads of 15%]. A D201GLY dropped down to 31 watts in idle power consumption with the SPI220LE while the same computer measured 46 watts when I used a cheap PSU that came with a $16 MicroATX chassis which meant it was consuming an extra 48% in power. That's a huge difference in efficiency level and it's no wonder the EPA is prioritizing on power supply efficiency when it comes to computers. Now I just wish more vendors carried the SPI220LE power supply so that I wouldn't have to pay full retail price.
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Perfect for me and my computer in a computer
If I get this done, would you care to have a look?
If you got pictures, send it
We will see what happens
I am still swaying back and forth on what I want to buy. I don't want the brick, but I don't want the heat either.
I will have to build myself a custom mount for the PSU as well as the ITX board, but the results would be a FTP server that is internal to my gaming rig. Though it will only have a 100 MB NIC, I won't worry about it too much.
This could get ugly, but I could hook up two LANs interally to the rig and then use them as Remotes, while using low profile GB NICs on each board and pushing transfers through the roof.
The Ideas are pouring for what I want to do, now only if I can execute.
Guess you have never seen one of these...
http://www.mini-box.com/s.nl/it.A/id.417/.f
They come in 60,80 & 120 and have been out for several years.
Still it good to see more choices, better equipment & lower prices.
As well as lower consumption & better efficiency
And awareness & interest in the same.....
Those are DC units and they're expensive
This would be the Kit
A whopping $5.00 more.
I think I can swing it.
Is that unit 80 Plus rated?
The Options Weighed...
1 The internal does have advantages of not dealing with the brick
2 More power for other devices. This would be nice for that extra video card or other hard disks that might not have enough plugs from the other power supply
3 Overall the Internal is more efficient from what I can tell. I have to see the brick to know for sure.
Downsides
1 The Brick does take away heat that I would have to deal with inside the case.
2 The Brick is less wattage over all
3 The issues of not having a wide enough case are null and void.
I am debating both sides, but until I get my tablet sold, I am too short on cash to do either.
Penny wise
A power supply rated at 80 percent efficiency is only 80% efficient under a very narrow loading band. Most power supplies need to be loaded to a minimum of 85 or 90 percent in order to meet their efficiency ratings. Anything below this and the power supply efficiency drops drastically.
For instance if you are using a 400 watt power supply and only loading it at 20 percent then the efficiency drops dramatically.
Most people have a tendency of using to large a power supply. I recently tested an Intel D201GLY board using Pico PSU-120 power supply. The main board a 3.5 inch HD and a DVD burner under load drew about 40 watts. Still not enough loading to justify a 120 watt supply. An 80 watt supply would be a closer match.
Basically, If you are trying to build an efficient system then under loading a power supply that is to large for your system is one if the biggest mistakes you can make. As my mom would say "Penny wise and Pound foolish"
12v x 5A = ?
Doh
Although I need to check my math, I may want a more powerful brick.
Each 3.5" HDD uses 7-10 watts idle and 30W during spin-up
45W will not be enough then.
After measuring my case and checking for open Hard Drive bays, I want to put two Micro ITX boards in my Gaming Rig and fill up the remaining 4 Hard Drive bays. That will push my storage to about 3.3 TB in one rig. That would be 5 500GB drive with 4 400 GB Drives. Heat dissipation might begin to be a problem.
Not even close
You are way off on Hard Drive power consumption ...
Here are some Hard Drive power consumption measurements. The highest power consumption under seek is about 14.8 watts the lowest is about 9.2. That's a far cry from the 40 watts you are claiming
http://techreport.com/articles.x/10868/13
RE: Finally a reasonably cheap 80 Plus power supply
C'mon, vendors! It's time you start your production of 80%+ low-watt power supplies! :) This includes PC Power and Cooling! :)
I'm dying to have one of those!
A couple problems
2 External power supply still likes to burn off a lot of heat.
Still better than an internal power supply though.
NewEgg has a 60 Watt model that I am considering from "IGo Logic"
Well they used to. They did last week.
Where to find cases?
Here you go...
Thanks, but ...