Reddit mentions of Mini-Box picoPSU-160-XT High Power 24 Pin Mini-ITX Power Supply

Correct, efficiency peaks at around 50% load. If you're running AC instead of a DC-DC converter higher input voltages also increase efficiency as well. The difference between 100V input and 220V can be quite noticable. Optimal efficiency will be obtained by supplying it entirely with DC and using switching regulators to get correct voltages.

Honestly, if you want the lowest power possible, you probably should get something with an ARM chip, and avoid x86 land. Something like a Raspberry Pi or one of the Beaglebone variants for example. If you need x86, avoid Atoms and go with the low TDP laptop CPUs. Atoms are short on features and have relatively poor performance for what you pay in the end. Avoid VIA as well, they have low power chips but their support is crap.

The fittings are:
4x Bitspower adjustalble Aquapipe IIs (2x 22-31mm & 2x 41-69mm)
2x Alphacool female G1/4 to female G1/4 90 degree fittings
1x Alphacool G1/4 Female to G1/4 Female Straight
1x Alphacool Male G1/4 Rotary outer thread to Male G1/4
2x EK 12.5mm G1/4 extenders
1x Koolance G1/4" Fitting Single Swiveling Elbow (Low Profile)
2x Compression fittings (for the short tubing run from pump to rad)
1x Blanking plug for the 2nd input on pump
About 2" of primochill LRT for the run between the pump and rad


The GPU waterblock doesn't mount nicely to that specific GPU, however I solved that by using one M3 screw in the bottom left mounting hole, and a zip tie in the top right corner. I originally had an M4 bolt and some nuts to keep the top right corner in place but it kept shorting out the graphics card.


The power supply is this.
It only has one 4 pin EPS connector, whereas the motherboard has an 8 pin EPS connector slot. However just the 4 pin is fine for powering a G3258. I had to crimp the SATA power cables myself as the PSU came with one SATA power and one molex power, whereas I required 2 SATA power cables for the SSDs.


I'll try and get some pictures tomorrow morning, I'll need to lift the CPU block off for that though.

Um, the picoPSU? The HD Plex is also quite good.

The HD Plex is actually able to run a GTX1060 with a 65 W CPU, as long as you use a 230/330 watt ac-dc adaptor.

I actually prefer the Pico when I can get away with it. It simply "feels" more solid. The HD Plex looks better though. Neither have given me any trouble, and I've run some pretty impressive systems with both.

The one caveat I'll offer is this: The Pico PSU is powered by 12 volts and the HD Plex is powered by 19.5 volts. It's much easier to find a 19.5 volt adapter because that's the standard for laptops. Mini-box.com does sell a 192 watt adapter thats pretty decent.

All of mine are Micro ATX, not mini ITX. I built these before the Xeon D setups were a thing. That said, I built a couple for low power purposes. Using a board like the X10SSL-F, 4x8GB Kingston ECC, and a PicoPSU they idle at around 22w (as measured with a Kill-A-Watt, and that includes a 10Gbe NIC and an SSD) but are still highly capable servers.

Are you stuck on mini-ITX or are you just looking for something somewhat small and low on power/heat? If the latter, perhaps expand your search to MicroATX, you get a lot more flexibility and you can still keep the heat/noise low.

First I think it's a waste of an NES, but only if you are destroying the electronics (assuming they are not already dead). I hope you'll keep the electronics or give them away to someone so that the actual system won't be dead. Maybe your next project could be building a custom NES.

Anyways, I think I know some parts that might help you.

First, A slim 7750

For something like this you should also want a pci-e riser cable/ribbon/kajigger.

Here's another thing you'll definitely want/need for a build of this size. The largest pico psu I can find and an appropriate power brick/adapter to go with it.

However, if you are going to use this for old NES games and such, you won't need the graphics card. The onboard graphics will be more than enough.

There is a significant issue though The pico psu is meant only to run at 160 watts, 200 peak. I pretty sure that pcpartpicker.com is going to estimate power usage to be at max, but the issue is that at max, this system draws 163 watts. Now, I don't know if this would be sustained for long periods of time if you ran the system under full load, but I feel like it would be an issue.

When I say this system, I am referring to this. The psu is not on pcpart picker so it isn't on that, but you can imagine it being there.

I could see consoles being affordable with AMD Ryzen 5 2400G or similar

It's Quadcore with Radeon Vega RX 11 graphics at $163 for the CPU / Graphics. With the right part selection like PicoPSU and we might makeout at a sub $500 or sub $400 DIY Steam Machine.

Also interesting is the [Hades Canyon NUC](https://goo.gl/DKAxvq]

This was a labour of love and my first attempt. Thought you guys would appreciate.

The Design was done in TinkerCAD as i am novice in terms of CAD. The MINIRIG is kind of an inside joke with my friends but it sounded cool.

I have tested a few games on this machine, It stays under 60 degrees while running them.

Aprox FPS in games:

CSGO Medium 1440p - 170fps

Overwatch Low 1080p 70% resolution scale - 70 fps

Destiny 2 Low 1080p 75% Resolution Scale - 70 fps

WoW 1080p graphics level 4 - 80 fps

EDIT: Dimensions : WxDxH 186mm X 186.15mm X 66.40mm

Components: https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/GYVXCb

Power supply: Pico 160w PSU - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Mini-Box-picoPSU-160-XT-Power-Mini-ITX-Supply/dp/B005TWE6B8

External Power Brick: Leicke ULL PSU Power Supply 150W - https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00YXXAG7C

Button:

QLOUNI 16MM Push Button Switch - https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07LH2VDR8

(no wires come with these buttons however i used some wires from my raspberry pi Male to Female and it worked a treat. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Heoolstranger-Multicolored-Dupont-Breadboard-Arduino/dp/B07RZK75RN Cheapest on amazon uk)

PLA: SUNLU PLA+ - https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B073PB9XWY/

3D Printer: Ender 3 HICTOP - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Creality-HICTOP-Printer-Assembled-220x220x250mm/dp/B07GN9M85X

Other Images for the Build:

Final Product Unpowered - https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-x62CfTnCfK4/XUlv_s99JLI/AAAAAAAAsRc/vSk8Tu4vmgUf-bo-VGdRQp41aF5oyn2TQCK8BGAs/s0/2019-08-06.jpg

Final Product 2 - Unpowered https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-ACwFLhJNJv0/XUlwAJEv3_I/AAAAAAAAsRo/fQrDXyWgFF4S9G_zjL2cIBBIZwXx0q5_wCK8BGAs/s0/2019-08-06.jpg

Mid Print - https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-dECiDeL1DRE/XUlwAwkdaVI/AAAAAAAAsRw/hm8XUlWLVQQG7BWBVISP9z4fNxBwOHtsQCK8BGAs/s0/2019-08-06.jpg

Fresh off the printer:

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-ACwFLhJNJv0/XUlwAJEv3_I/AAAAAAAAsRo/fQrDXyWgFF4S9G_zjL2cIBBIZwXx0q5_wCK8BGAs/s0/2019-08-06.jpg

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-FTSmSgWPUbw/XUlwBursmOI/AAAAAAAAsR4/6RSP7E-jSIoXPU0B4FlaQ4SMDPb395QCQCK8BGAs/s0/2019-08-06.jpg

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-NM2GYUlZdGc/XUlwAXwT2iI/AAAAAAAAsRs/NIpIDVodOxYhL-OXSokXTHUsJsomFcZYACK8BGAs/s0/2019-08-06.jpg

Anyway Hope you like and i will be putting my Design on Thingiverse at some point if anyone is interested.

They aren't comparable at all. AMD 5350 vs Intel Celeron J1900

Yes it's a nice little board for a low power NAS but I have a hard time recommending it for much else. It might play most things but when you come across a video it struggles with it's going to be very frustrating.

Might as well get something with a little more power that you know is going to play everything.

You can still use a 160W PicoPSU with the AMD 5350 if you want it to be a little more power efficient and quiet.

300w is plenty, but if I were you I'd just go with an Antec earthwatts 380w. They're very efficient, inexpensive, and last a long time. I've had one running a media server for the past 6 years 24/7, still runs cool and quiet. |

Otherwise, I've used one of these http://www.amazon.com/Mini-Box-picoPSU-160-XT-Power-Mini-ITX-Supply/dp/B005TWE6B8 in my atom box for a few years and it seems to be a high quality unit. Paired with a cheap external power supply.

I want to do this exact build, minus the case(I want to use a Morex 557 and a Pico PSU for the smallest off-the-shelf solution) but I've heard suspect things about this motherboard... I really like it though.

You will need this type of psu i.e. picopsu and a power brick to use with picopsu like this

Wow it worked. I figured out why it wasn't work last time I tried. I had my subnet set at /16 so it was handing out the new DHCP server range to the old interface.

I set it to /24 and now I get the right IP range for that interface.


So I setup all 4 in the box so I have WAN. D_LAN, U_LAN, and WLAN.

I got DHCP ranges for all 3, and setup rules so they will talk to each other.

So my PC 172.16.23.100 and my roommates PC 172.16.24.100 can talk to each other.

To make it easy I have our PCs on the same last number. I setup our Xbox to have the same, and our NAS drives.

>I'm just waiting for my PicoPSU to arrive, so I can power on my box.

Doesn't matter what the motherboard suggests. The 1050ti has a TDP of 75 watts. It draws all of it's power from the PCIe.

I'm litteraly in the process of piecing a build together using a 1050ti and this PSU

Noctua fans will give you the best airflow-to-noise ratio, and most of them also have among the best static pressure (pressure that doesn't fluctuate because the fan blades are more closely packed together). Airflow is more important for case fans, and static pressure is more important for radiators.

They aren't cheap - around $25 each - but are excellent quality.

Another route you could go (which is certainly unpopular around this reddit) is to get a motherboard with a low-power, integrated CPU. There are plenty of options which include passive cooling. You said you only need basic office applications, so there's really very little need for much processing power.

Two more recommendations from me if you go this route: picoPSU combined with a DC power brick will reduce power consumption because a PSU has its own fixed overhead.

An SSD will also help you save a bit on energy, but will especially make the computer feel snappier as your programs load almost instantly. I recommend a Samsung 830 or 840 Pro (not 840 non-Pro). You can also do well with a Crucial m4 or an Intel 520.

If you use these parts, you can get your idle power consumption down to a mere 20W, which means you could leave it on all year long and pay only $20!

Thanks for responding!

I had just about given up on my little dream till I saw your message. Can I really dream again?

CASE:

For the case: I am going to get a friend to make one up for me. So, I won't worry about that one for now.

POWER:

Can I beg you for a link to a DC-DC PSU I could buy? I would need one big enough to give juice to motherboard, CPU (hopefully 15W of TDP), WIFI, USB-C (connected to an Oculus Quest), SSD, RAM and GPU. I think that I will need a pretty big one! Also, there won't be any battery management ACPI right? (I have no idea how laptop Motherboards talk to batteries actually... but I will live without no worries)

I am confused about power: The one I found: https://www.amazon.com.au/Short-Circuit-com-picoPSU-160-XT-DC-DC-Power-Supply/dp/B005TWE6B8 can provide 160W. However. the 1050 ALONE seems to draw 300W! https://www.geforce.com/hardware/desktop-gpus/geforce-gtx-1050-ti/specifications

CPUs:

In terms of CPUs, I looked and looked online for a i3 9100T for sale, but I just couldn't find it. Are they not sold separately? Or if they are, what are they? I need something that will sit between Intel i5-4590/AMD Ryzen 5 1500X and Intel i3-6100/AMD Ryzen 3 1200, FX4350. I guess I am after a "T" CPU which doesn't cost too much and is actually available to buy. Any hints?

For example I am confused... according to cpubenchmark this CPU has a TDP of 15: https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=AMD+PRO+A10-9700B&id=3168 However when I go and see one online, I just an't find the one with the important 'B' at the end! Do you know of a cpu that will TDP = 15 and which scores above 4500 in terms of benchmark, and that you can _actually_ buy...?

THANK YOU!!!

Basically supplies power to the mobo and that's it. Useful if you're not using a GPU and want to keep cost/space/heat down and don't need a lot of power.
https://www.amazon.com/Mini-Box-picoPSU-160-XT-Power-Mini-ITX-Supply/dp/B005TWE6B8

Yep, it's compatible DDR4 RAM. Good to know about the Ryzen 3, that will save me a bit.

Onto the whole PSU situation, do you understand how the picoPSU stuff works? My assumption is that this can handle everything and all I have to do is plug an adapter into it. But then there are boards like this. Do I need both of these, or will one or the other work fine, and the choice is mine?

Could i potentially put in a high efficiency power supply (like picopsu: http://www.amazon.com/Mini-Box-picoPSU-160-XT-Power-Mini-ITX-Supply/dp/B005TWE6B8 )?

How would this be as a home server/NAS? Is RAM upgradeable to 8GB?

Mini-Box picoPSU-160-XT - Alimentatore Mini-ITX 24 pin a elevata potenza https://www.amazon.it/dp/B005TWE6B8/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_fU1TBbV5715DT
This?

The only other noise is going to be the fan from the PSU and any HDD noise (although that's extremely quiet).

It will with some cooler changes. You're gonna have to use this CPU cooler instead (although it's not fanless, it's still pretty quiet) and this Pico PSU (this is fanless tho). I'm not sure how many drives you can install in that case, but I'd recommend sticking to your idea of the one SSD just incase that's all you can fit.

I built this a few days ago just playing around with some things.

Would take a beefy GPU and small form factor is nice. I'd actually do something different for the PSU if it were me (See here: https://www.amazon.com/Mini-Box-picoPSU-160-XT-Power-Mini-ITX-Supply/dp/B005TWE6B8/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1472772891&sr=8-1&keywords=picopsu + https://www.amazon.com/Switching-Supply-110-240vAC-PicoPSU-Compatible/dp/B007XVE11S/ref=pd_bxgy_147_img_2?ie=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=FX5TYY03W3QB9QF0F9QP)

But otherwise, this will output 4k (due to motherboard selection) so if you don't need/want that you could definitely step it down a bit.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Type|Item|Price

----|:----|:----
CPU | Intel Core i3-6300T 3.3GHz Dual-Core Processor | $149.99 @ B&H
CPU Cooler | Noctua NH-L9i 33.8 CFM CPU Cooler | $38.88 @ OutletPC
Motherboard | ASRock Z170M-ITX/ac Mini ITX LGA1151 Motherboard | $110.98 @ Newegg
Memory | Crucial Ballistix Sport LT 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2400 Memory | $69.99 @ Newegg
Storage | Crucial MX300 525GB 2.5" Solid State Drive | $128.99 @ SuperBiiz
Case | Fractal Design Node 202 HTPC Case | $78.99 @ SuperBiiz
Power Supply | SeaSonic 300W 80+ Certified SFX Power Supply | $38.99 @ SuperBiiz
| Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts |
| Total (before mail-in rebates) | $631.81
| Mail-in rebates | -$15.00
| Total | $616.81
| Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-09-01 19:36 EDT-0400 |



EDIT: sorry just realized you wanted to stream from this PC. I was thinking you wanted to stream to it, use it as an HTPC. My mistake - not sure this would be too good for a main PC.

The dirty little secret of most off-grid homes is
propane. there are refrigerators, and even air conditioners
that operate on the ammonia absorption principle,
these operate their electronics on a frugal 12vdc circuit.

Many people also choose to use AC chest freezers whose
thermostats are replaced or modified to operate at a higher temperature. This is more efficient mainly due to the fact that
the dense, cold air inside does not spill out whenever they are opened.

12vdc lighting makes sense.
You can choose a DC ATX power supply for a low power PC.
12v cigarette lighter adapters can be installed in wallplates,
many small appliances work (or will work ) on 12VDC by replacing the wall wart transformer with a simple Cigarette lighter adapter cable.

Honestly it will probably not be economically advantageous to you to go the off grid route, especially using lead-acid batteries.
I would look into Nickel-Iron batteries for longevity.