Smallest PSU power for this HTPC?

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daveozzz

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May 3, 2013
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Anyone any good at spec'ing as low a power PSU as possible for builds?

PC Partpicker says the wattage of the below is 133W plus whatever the TV card adds (since the TV card isn't on the site).

Most PSUs start around 400W which seems excessive for this.. am I right?

Could I safely go down to 300W like this one?
http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B001KNA2LS

Or could I go even lower?

Thanks for any help!

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i3-3220 3.3GHz Dual-Core Processor (£88.39 @ Aria PC)
Motherboard: ASRock B75M R2.0 Micro ATX LGA1155 Motherboard (£51.48 @ Ebuyer)
Memory: Crucial 4GB (1 x 4GB) DDR3-1333 Memory (£16.48 @ Amazon UK)
Case: Silverstone ML03B-USB3.0 (Black) HTPC Case (£64 @ WAE+)
TV Card: TBS 6280 PCIe TV card (£87 @ CCL)
Storage: WD Caviar Green Sata 1TB (£free @ my cupboard)
 
Solution
Branden


a 400W PSU will only draw as much power out of the wall socket as is needed, it does not draw maximum wattage and throw away whatever goes unused. although some is lost, which is why how efficient the PSU is should be taken into consideration.
ie. my 24/7 bit-bucket draws about 45W on idle, the PSU is about 85% efficient so it ends up drawing about 53W from the outlet. it's a 400W PSU.

i find antec's earthwatts series to be fine PSU lineup -...
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Branden

Branden

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Jan 22, 2009
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just because your components would max out at 133W power draw doesn't mean you also need a low power PSU to match it.
it'd suggest being more concerned with a PSU's efficiency than it's max wattage.

with that said, if you really want a low power PSU you could look into picoPSU, they've got PSUs in the 60-200W range.
 
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daveozzz

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May 3, 2013
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OK so to get this straight, this system with a 400W PSU isn't necessarily going to draw more power than the same system with a 300W PSU?

The Antec EarthWatts was my first choice until I started down the (possibly misguided) route of looking for lower power.

(PS. I have a 1TB HDD listed)
 
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ksham

ksham

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Mar 29, 2013
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Oh oops, I was only counting the links lol. My sincere apologies.

The power supply will not draw more power than what your system needs. It will always draw a little more power because a little of it gets lost in the conversion from AC to DC.
 
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Branden

Branden

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Jan 22, 2009
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a 400W PSU will only draw as much power out of the wall socket as is needed, it does not draw maximum wattage and throw away whatever goes unused. although some is lost, which is why how efficient the PSU is should be taken into consideration.
ie. my 24/7 bit-bucket draws about 45W on idle, the PSU is about 85% efficient so it ends up drawing about 53W from the outlet. it's a 400W PSU.

i find antec's earthwatts series to be fine PSU lineup - quiet, reliable, pretty good efficiency for the price.

 
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