500w Micro ATX Power supply

DavidVioMC

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I'm looking for a 500w Micro ATX Power supply for Dell Optiplex 960 SFF (I don't care if it fits or not), every time I look for 500W Micro ATX Power supply only CIT comes up and I heard bad reviews on them. Does anyone have any recommendations.
 
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That looks almost like some kind of custom SFF power supply.

Some users call SFX power supplies microATX power supplies(your unit is NOT SFX).

Check out TFX power supplies, they may fit.

1u power supplies may be able to be used with some work(better check the space you have.).

It is unlikely you would need much over 300 watts(with a good 12 volt current rating) in an SFF system.
That looks almost like some kind of custom SFF power supply.

Some users call SFX power supplies microATX power supplies(your unit is NOT SFX).

Check out TFX power supplies, they may fit.

1u power supplies may be able to be used with some work(better check the space you have.).

It is unlikely you would need much over 300 watts(with a good 12 volt current rating) in an SFF system.
 
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DavidVioMC

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I always though it was Micro ATX as I was told it was Micro ATX, but after searching up on Google TFX connectors, it may be it, but it hard to tell the size as it's the image, I took a picture of my connector and compared it to a normal 4-pin CPU connector
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e016d58ce171892fb6d8e2bb73c4573c.png

As you can tell, it's a tiny connector and it may be TFX. I did a bit of research and there is an upgrade for Optiplex 960 SFF that actually fits the case but its only 280w so its not much use for me.

 
This could be interesting. Normally TFX/SFX/ATX and some others all share the same connectors.

MicroATX it self is a 4 slot board(or at least space to have 4) of a certain size, while those dell SFF look more like DTX or MDTX(mITX with 2 slots instead of 1). ITX, MITX have the normal plugs

The plug you have seems to be noticeably smaller next to that 4 pin(cpu power?). I think dell has custom connectors on this system so that may make getting a power supply more work.
 

DavidVioMC

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I work in IT shop and I had a customer which wanted to upgrade his PSU but the motherboard had custom connector, so what I ended doing was, getting the original PSU that was for that PC off ebay, I also got it broken to save money, and get the PSU he wanted, I cut off the connector of the original PSU, cut the connector of the PSU he wanted and wired up the connector with a ton of heat shrink, I could do this to my PC but I spend 4 days on that PSU and a crap ton of heat shrink and money doing that. I will try to contact Dell and see if they have a specific name for that connector so I may look into adapaters.

 
As long as you can match the functions(those connectors do not match the order on a normal power supply from what I see.) I see no issue with changing the plugs.

If you do, I have to see this.

Only thing even remotely close to that I have done was with batteries and power adapters or removing unused cables from my SFX power supply since I did not want them taking extra space.
 

DavidVioMC

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I contacted Dell and they told me that the connector has no specific name, only item ID which is not much use, like I mentioned before, there is a Dell 280w PSU that fits the 960 SFF connector and the case (but dosen't screw in, but I don't mind about the fitment) I will do some research and ask people around if I will be able to power the PC of 280w as I was told I could get away with the stock 235w but I may fry the PSU,

If the 280w is not enough and there is no another solution, then I will go thru the route of switching the connectors and I will most likely update this thread with any photos for you and incase anyone else runs into this problem in the future. I will pick one of your answer as best, I'll make sure to post any updates here incase anyone has the same issue in the future. Thanks for your help.

 
What is in the system?

Light systems do not take too much power

For instance my media center pc has an i5 750(first generation iseries) and a gtx 650ti(those are the main power consumers in the system) and the peak I have seen with my power monitor is a bit over 150 watts(I did a more stressful test in the past and my UPS showed about 180watts). Since these are on the wall side of things, this is also including any power wasted due to power supply efficiency as well.
 

DavidVioMC

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The whole system had every part changed except the motherboard and the PSU, at the moment the specs are:
Xeon E5420 X3323 @ 2.50Ghz, Nvidia GeForce GT 610 (slightly overclocked, I'm currently on holiday and I can't remeber what it's overclocked to) 1GB, 8GB DDR3
I purchased this PC as a cheap gaming PC few years back, but now I'm more into gaming, I would like to turn this PC into a medium gaming PC.

The PC has no issues running with the stock 235w PSU, but I would like to put a GTX 750 ti in it, I was told I could risk it with the 235w but there is 75% chance that I will fry it, my another solution was to get a GTX 950 or 960 just because they have a 6-pin connector and I could power it externally and put less stress to the 235w, but then theres the issue of powering up the external PSU ect. But after doing research and bit of maths, I calculated I could run the 750ti with the 280w, what do you think? While I was doing a bit of research, I found a installation video of the 280w PSU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tz9CtUHlssY it's not like I need it, but shows that the 280w fits the motherboard connector.

 
If I trust the TechPowerUp GPU database and Nvidia's own website the 750ti(stock model) is about 2 times more power hungry than the GT 610 you already have.

The real important thing here is the actual amount of of power you can get from your 12 volt rail(s) on your power supply.

Nvidia recommends a power supply based on a fully(fairly high end cpu and other parts) loaded system. It also takes into consideration the number of lower quality units on the market. You can have a 300 watt power supply with 192 watts on its 12 volt rail or a 300 watt with 288 watts(this is a pretty top end 300 watt unit) on its 12 volt rail(s). This makes a big difference since most of the system uses this rail now. Older systems used the 3.3 and 5 volt rails more, but as parts required more power, the moved to 12 volt was required to keep wire sizes in check. You need thicker wire to move 100 watts @ 3.3 volts(~30.3 amps) than you do at 12 volts(~8.3 amps).

With that said, you have what Intel specs as a cpu with an average load consumption around 80 watts. I say average because entire families of cpus get the same rating, but some are lower and some are higher(these numbers are at full load, power savings reduce this when the system is under lighter loads). Your video card is rated by Nvidia as 60(a pci-e slot is good for 75). Because your system was build with lower power in mind, chances are the board uses little power and a single hard drive(3.5 inch) can be from 5-10 watts under load.

If you happen to have access to a power meter that plugs into the wall, it would be a good way to check your systems current power draw. Remember very few system make it to 100% load on all parts(but some workloads can cause this). The 750 ti should not be much over 30 watts more(a bit more at the wall.).
 

DavidVioMC

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Unfortunately I have no way of testing it as I'm on holiday, I have a wall meter and a meter that plugs in, in the back of the PSU and shows how much power is drawn and the average power drawn but they're both at my work place. You're correct, the board only uses one 3.5 inch hardrive, it also has no dics drives ect as I don't need any and I only plug one in when I need to insert windows disc for repair or format. Both fans inside the PC are powered externally by a fan controller which is power from a benchmark PSU. My system is fairly low power as it only powers the motherboard, CPU, hadrive and GPU.

From looking at GT 610 stats and 750 Ti stats, 610 uses 29w and 750 ti 60w, which is only extra 31w and with the 280w PSU I'm adding extra 45w, so not only I'm adding more power for the 750 ti, but infact, I'm adding extra power.

Obviously all these calculations are done on paper and all power consumption stats are written so in the perfect world, this would work, but since all of these are written, it will be different in real life. Dell intended for the Optiplex 960 SFF to be a small server PC to hold databases and I know they were never made to become a gaming rig, maybe thats why there is not much information out there and the whole fuss about custom board connectors that don't even have a name with a stupid exhaust cover design that prevents any card to fit except low profile GT 610 by Gigabyte without removing the cover and exposing board and southbridge to even more heat which is why I already bought a fan controller to indeed removal the cover so I can fit the 750 ti.

The Dell Optiplex 960 SFF was designed as a small server PC on budget that anyone could afford for their office to handle a database for 24/7 for whole year, due to that, it was made to be as low as power consumption and efficient as possible which is where the 235w PSU comes in as manufacturers try to put the smallest PSU they can. After doing that maths, everything points in the positive direction.
 
Do you know how much of that power supply is on the 12 volt rail.

For numbers from some fairly recent tests(was actually wondering).

I7 920 @ 3.5hgz. 130 watts
Gigabyte X58A UD5
AMD 5870(old, but still gets the job done) 188 watts
2 x WDC Black 640 gigabyte drives. Rated around 8-10 maybe each
1 x cheap SSD

That system had an idle of about 130-140 and would play games(that loaded it pretty good) in the 280-320ish area. Clearly the parts are not getting to 100% load(or the parts are slightly over rated on power consumption. Techpowerup had it averaging about 122 watts), but the video card was full out loaded most of the time.

Other system was the mentioned media center.

i5 750(slight under voltage applied)
H55n USB3 mITX board(no extra features)
GTX 650 ti(MSI slightly factory overclocked)
1 x 3TB WDC Red(low power)
1 x 1TB WDC Blue(2.5 inch, low power)
1 x 128gigabyte M4 SSD(low power)

Idle was showing about 50-55 and gaming was averaging 150 watts.

Computer parts draw large short bursts of power as well so saying I only need 180 watts, lets get a 200 watt power supply is a bad idea. I have a 300 watt in that system(264 watts on the 12 volt rails.).

I would expect you should be ok in the end. I think dell's shroud is actually a good way to use the cpu cooler to also cool the chipset and hard drive. I also like the slim sata as a part of the power supply because you normally need an adapter even on SFX power supplies. I give them a thumbs up for that system design(it is very compact and does lot look like it would overheat or anything.). They still get half a thumb down for that power supply connector
 

DavidVioMC

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I have no idea how much power is on that 12v rails, I never looked into it as I never had a need to.

Dell did a good job on the CPU shroud. I also like the design of one fan sucking in the air to the heatsink and the another fan sucking out the air from the heatsink, when it comes to the hardrive cooling, the most popular hack on these is to actually take out the hardrive out the system and place it where the cd drive should go (as it's 3.5 inch and anything that is 3.5 inch fits it perfectly) because modern hardrives are efficent enough and don't need any cooling but from doing few tests, hardrive inside the cover was at 42C at full load, with the hardrive where the CD drive should be, it was at 31C. I have the 2012 Optiplex 960 SFF but the models before that, like the 2006 Optiplex 960 Desktop Type actually had no plastic cover, and the hot air from the CPU sink used to blow at the capacitors and they used to fail, which is why people were afraid to buy the newer models, the 980 and 960 SFF are very small and would make great small gaming PCs but the PSU connector is one thing stopping it, and you can only put a 750 ti in it with Dell's 280w from another Optiplex SFF PC, you can put any GPU in it if you change the PSU connectors, and you physically cant put in a GTX 1080 as it's too long and the CPU shroud prevents it fitting in. You can also only install a Core2Duo or Xeon X3323 like I did due to the socket, so there is also the limit when it comes to the CPU choice.

 
Yeah, that LGA 775 is quite the limit for upgrades.

I am sure with some slight tweaks you will get it working.

The smallest case I have had is my SG05 for my media center. It is pretty small, but not as small as that dell. It may not take as much desk space, but it is taller.

As for hard drives. Yeah, most are fine with passive cooling now(in fact I have used drives passive for years in older cases.).