Unless I'm mistaken, the reason those don't get hot is that there's no 12 volt conversion. The only thing that PSU has to do is downconvert for the 3.3 and 5 volt ranges for the CMOS and USB/drive controller connections. That brick on the other hand I would expect to get quite warm. It really is your limiting factor unless you have a lot running off the 5 volt rail.
The reason (I think from observation) that these can be so cool is because the Bridge rectification and regulation probably only occurs in the brick. I assume the Pico PSU is really just a plug adapter with some filter caps and a 5v regulator for SSDs and other peripherals
Great little PSUs. I've been running my weather system PC and my Linux box for years off of the 80 watt picos from a bank of solar batteries. 200 watts of PV and a bank of 4 Trojans runs these little mITX boards 24/7/365. 4GB memory, 120GB SSDs, onboard graphics,,,, going on 8 years now without fail. My picos work from 12-36 volts, running from 24 volts. When you're all solar, a watt saved is a watt earned.
That's amazing! I'm trying to run my gaming PC directly off solar. Looking at the M4 ATX from minibox but also need two 8pin gcard and a bit higher than 400watts. Would you be able to point me in the right direction?
Nice video although technically the power brick is the actual psu and the pico psu distributes the power throughout the pc so it won't get very hot, the power brick will however.
It's not about the price. It's the size. With the Pico, you are basically taking out the PSU from inside the casing to the outside, which is great for really really small casings. Also SFF PSUs are more expensive than their full sized counterparts, some even more than others
Yeah was about to point out, they take 12v input so ofc they don't run hot. The external power brick on the other hand is probably burning hot judging by how hot stuff like laptop power bricks get.
Me too, I'm in the research phase atm. Jay's stuff kept koming up as I was looking for info on SFF cases and small PSU:s, and this was very helpful. Thank you and keep up the good work!
Excellent video, Jay. Thanks for putting it up. I'm putting together a very small mini-itx build to run PFSense and your video helped me decide to use the Pico PSU.
This could be my next PC build. Looking forward to build a mini ITX pc case with a Pico psu. You can actually carry your PC in your backpack, plug in to any HDMI supported TV and your ready to game
How to use this on a regular chassis like Cooler Master Elite 110? Normal ATX PSU has poor placement, and the long and thick cables clutter the inside of the case, making it very hot.
Is it possibile to use a 120w pico psu and a 150w bricket? In my country arent 120w brickets available. So do i destroy anything or should everything be fine with this combination?
Is it ok to use more than one adapter with the pico PSU? I’m connecting my PSU to my hp server breakout board but doing so means I need to use two adapters, is that ok?
Hey Jay, I've just stumbled across this vid so apologies for my lateness. I have a question and you may know the answer .. I've been given an ITX board with no power supply and I believe it falls into the industrial board category (for EPOS machines). However it takes laptop ram and a core i3/i5 so I was going to use it as a plex server / htpc machine ... I'm just lacking the psu which after my research leads me to one of the cool little psu's you featured here. However this board only uses a 12v psu with 4 pin just like the 160xt has (same as the 4 pin cpu one)... so if I was to order a pico 160xt or similiar (depending on the wattage) could I set it up as you've shown but bypass the 24 pin completely and just use the 4 pin (leaving the 24 pin tucked away in the case or dangling around lol). Theres not much info on my board but on some forums and reviews, they all seem to point to something like the 160xt so I just need a confirmation or a negative on me buying one .... I'd really appreciate your time and I'll sub to you for life .... I lied, I already subbed :)
No, you need the 24 pin. That provides power to your motherboard in the form of 12V, 5V, and 3.3V. The pico "PSU" is essentially a buck converter that steps down the voltage from 12V to the designated 5V and 3.3V pins. If I'm understanding you correctly, the 4-pin connector is a CPU connector that solely powers the CPU and not the motherboard. You should also not try to route the 12V to the 5V and 3.3V pins, as that would almost definitely fry your motherboard.
Hey, I have a Mini-ITX board with an AMD A8-5500 (65w TDP), one 8gb ddr3, 5400rpm laptop drive and onboard video. would the 90w pico psu be enough for all this? I already have it laying around.
i use one of these as a cover psu when ordering a psu for a server slide. i use these with athlon 5350. also use a 10amp 12volt brick. There only downfall is the chips make a little bit of heat but you can stick on a little tiny heatsink if you have the room on your mobo. (you can buy really small heatsinks from moddiy.com or just google for a raspberry pi heatsinks there really cheap and you get 3)
Thanks for this. It's not so difficult understanding it most of the power is going straight from the 12 V supply, right to the connector, the pico supply is only supplying 5V and 3.3 V, on a 150 W load, maybe 120 W goes straight through, and 30 W goes through the pico. If it's 85% efficient then it's dissipating 4.5 W of heat. I'm not taking away anything from Pico but it doesn't really do much!
Nice review. Getting ready to start a mini-itx build and wanted to use one of these for a Gigabyte Z390 I AORUS PRO WiFi. Have you ever had a motherboard where this wouldn't work because it wouldn't clear the RAM?
I don't mean this to be negative or mean, but(at least for me) the point of having a SSF PC is to have it take up less space and to be sexy. So unless you could hide the Pico brick behind a wall or something doesn't having a fairly large external PSU like that sorta defeat the purpose a little? I mean that brick looked like about 1/3 the size of that MC600 build a couple vids back
+dre ball External power bricks can easily be hidden or mounted under your desk. The flexibility they offer when it comes to portability is unmatched. that brick is large, but there are much smaller ones. Brick size was never an issue for me as I knew I could just mount it to the underside of my desk with velcro.
its cool to the touch because the cpu and gpu is powered straight from the 12 external supply. The only thing the pico supply does is step the voltage down to 5v and 3.3v for hard drives and whatnot.
I don`t suppose that it`s witchcraft at all because the power brick is the actual PSU and that would have it`s own heatsinks and mini fan if it needed it whilst the `Pico PSU` board that you are holding is just the interface electronics ? sounds about right ?
The Witchcraft: Normal PSU's components are used toward stepping down the 120v/240v lines, changing the voltage from AC to DC and cleaning up the noise coming in from your house. Doing this takes a lot of special components and this is largely keeping the lower voltage components safe from surges, under-voltage and really bad Sine-wave output. The last thing you ever want is your 12, 5, 3.3, 1.5 volt rails from jumping up by 3-20 volts. Especially the 1.5v rail as that's usually used for your CPU. A PicoPSU doesn't need to worry about cleaning up noise as the input is already DC and mostly already stepped down and cleaned up. It does need to create the 12V, 5V 3.3v and 1.5v rails which doesn't take much from a 16-28v Volt input.
Thanks for fast reply. Could you please link which adapter to the wall/brick are you using from psu? And another question: Do these pico psu have both 20 + 8 power to mb connectors? Thanks a lot
I need help, can anyone tell me why the ac dc brick has a lower output than what the 160w pico psu needs. Update, I know now but what do I do if I don’t want to spend $50 on one when I need two, any cheaper options?
the picopsu is cool because bulk of the regulation happens at the ac to 12vdc psu brick. the 12v lines is just a pass through. so whats left is the picopsu only regulates down to 5v line. you need a good quality powerbrick for these. dont cheap out on that!
Subscribed. A lot of cool vids. Thanks. I thought about using the Pico 160, but as my project will have a battery in it, plus a few power hungry components, I picked up the M4-ATX PSU for the Gigabyte F2A88XN-WIFI board (A10-7870 APU), and the DCDC-USB-200 Buck-Boost board to power the two 8.9" displays that I salvaged from two dead Acer ZG5 netbooks. My choice may be a little over the top, but I'll never have to worry about voltage fluctuations damaging anything. Also, as the planned case will be made of polycarbonate (Treated to reduce static buildup), and leather, I'll need power for extra cooling. It's planned to look like a small treasure chest when done, and hopefully weigh less than my 122 year old Kimball piano (Yes, my project is meant to be portable).
Tek Everything I had to replace my Dell B130 three times, only to bring it back out of the closet again later, to replace the dead replacements. It seems that I can only get a year out of a new laptop. As I figured that my home computers, that I built, work flawlessly, and that I've always wanted to build something unique, that now is the time to combine my talents to build a dependable portable machine. All the parts were available, so I bought them. My PSU, and Buck-boost board just came a couple days ago. Now I can test all the hardware in a junk tower, and start on the case.
Sounds like you were going in a similar direction to me right now. I'm trying to run my gaming PC directly off solar. Looking at the M4 ATX as well from minibox but also need two 8pin gcard and a bit higher than 400watts. What would you recommend going with?
nice video man. does it have a 80 plus rating? what is the efficency like if i wanted to us it for a nas that needs to run 24/7 365? low power cpu (like 20 watts) and a couple harddrives. this would be pretty cool for a really small nas box
+MrHearthofSIN They don't offer the standard bronze, silver, gold ratings through their website, but the manual lists a 93% efficiency. These are over engineered and built to last, for a nas box you could go with one of the cheaper models like an 80W or 120W.
+Tek Everything yeah okay but 93% is like.. 80 plus gold or platinum right? anyway i'm asking because if the system needs to be on all day i need the most efficient components possible to cut down cost on the powerbill :) yeah i for sure could go with a 80w or 120w i mean it all depends on the amount of drives but at max it will only be 4 drives so..
Hi! Is the picopsu-160-xt efficient enough? I mean, I'm thinking of building a mini-itx pc and the power required should be 156w, do you think I can use the 160 power supply or should I get something more powerful?
Tek Everything Thank you! Last thing, the motherboard I've picked has got an 8-pin connector whereas the 160xt has only the 4-pin one, can I just use a 4 to 8 pin adapter?
Dammit, I really love the fanless/small form factor of the picoPSU, but HATE the fact that it needs a power brick. I'm building an ITX HTPC soon, and there are WAY too many power bricks for all my various devices in my home theater system. Is there something that isn't as small, but doesn't require a power brick and is still fanless/noiseless?
I can't believe you make a video of this without explaining the voltage compatibility between the PICO and the external power brick. You can't just plug any external power bricks into any PICO based on wattages alone. The voltages must match. Most common voltage is 19V for external powerbricks (laptops usually in this range). If your PICO is 12v, you need to find a 12V powerbricks with sufficient amp to match the Wattage you intend to achieve. It's fine to use a powerbrick with higher amp. If your amp has lower amp, it' might overheat if your pico is drawing more power than the brick can handle. But most important is to check the voltage! Make sure the brick output voltage is same as the PICO input voltage.
Right and many people will just plug things in if the plug matches. Sorry to say but the video author does not even know what a psu is and it would be better if pico stopped calling these psu's.
I'm going to build an ultra small system, with a 3770 and a 1050, I'm not completely sure if i will go over 200w, can anyone tell me if and how many more watts ill need?
+Reisen007SCI I haven't personally seen them go that high. If you change the wires to higher gauge maybe? I definitely wouldn't recommend running a pico at that wattage though
Jay, I have an Dell optiplex780 sff with a core 2 duo , I'm thinking I want to set it up as a personal server will this work for me ? My amazon membership is about to be up soon so it's kind of a time sensitive issue , much Thanks in advance appreciate you and your videos.
Thank you for replying I just was looking at the power supply that you suggested and I agree that is probably the better option. First I wanted to ditch the case and use it for another project, but it makes more sense to keep it now. The standard Dell power supplies for the Optiplex have a reputation for well dying, and I didn't want to grab a brand new one for this older computer. So this should save me a few dollars and it only takes 230w to run the machine but it cant hurt to have 250w because it appears thats the Flex-ATX PSU's models increase wattage in increments of 50w. Again thank you for the advice.
hello, i purchase this pico psu with192watt power adapter, I'm using Streacom F7C Alpha case and this power adapter have a 4 pin mini dim male do you know where I can buy a 4 pin mini dim to. 5.5x2.5mm adapter ?? it's this possible? thanks in advance!!
Hi again. Can you help me. I have this parts... Asus Z270I 2x8GB Corsair Dominator Platinum Nvidia Quadro P1000 WD Black 2.5 7000RPM Samsung M2 960 Evo 250GB SilverStone 12.7mm Bluray Drive NH-L9i 2x92mm Noctua Fans Case F7C Alpha do you know if i can use an i7 7700 with a Pico PSU (160w) or I need a more powerful PICO PSU. I'm trying to do a very small computer for Adobe CC Programs (Photoshop, Illustrator, In Desing, Animate). thanks in advance. PD: Sorry for my english. I speak spanish only.
Love your videos! I'm looking to build an ITX machine under 190 cu" with a 7700 and a 1080 (no overclocking) Ideally with the DC Power source inside. For the rig, would you say the HDPLEX 400w psu and 300W power supply works best, or 2 160s and a Meanwell 400w?
I would definitely go with the HDPlex 400W over two 160W's. If you can fit the Meanwell I would go for that. The HDPlex internal 300W brick is a tank, and you should be fine with that as well, I just worry about power spikes.
where is the actual PSU come from ? it is come from PICO 160XT or come from the power brick ? for example I need 300 watt power supply for my system build so which part should I upgraded ? it's the Power Brick only(with output 300 watt) or PICO PSU with 300watt and Power Brick with output power 300 watt or more?
I have a Picopsu 160 xt and I can't get it to boot my mini itx motherboard. Nothing spins up and no lights will come on. I swap the PSU out for an ATX2.0 regular PSU and the machine comes right up. Any ideas why it would be doing this?
Thanks, for the response. I have used 2 separate bricks for the picopsu and tested the voltage at the solder points on the pico's board and it is getting 12v. The plug just doesn't seem to be wired the same way as the ATX2.0 plug. I feel like from what I have read I should just be able to plug it into the mobo and all should be good but it doesn't seem to do anything. :/
The MB is a Super Micro X7SPA-H with an (atom D510, ICH9R Chipset) the ram is a 4GB Kit Crucial SODIMM DDR2 PC2-5300. There is only 1 HD attached. The whole system probably only uses 30 Watts.
@@Tekeverything I´m looking for power a g4560 and gtx 1050 ti with just a ssd 500gb. Because is kind of hard to find 12v and 15A or should I just take the risk a 120w model?
I know this may sound ignorant, but the truth is I feel like I know you (even though I don't) I have the G-Unique "Archdemon" and, the truth is, I just cant bring myself to trust it. My plan is to use a 300w Meanwell to power it. My electrical skills are non existent. I am fairly sure I can get it wired to the External power, but for some reason it just weirds me out. Have you EVER heard of one of these failing?
+Tek Everything Yep! After seeing your NFC S4 Mini case review, I've considering on my next build using that case and an HDPlex. Do you know when you will be able to review that PSU? Would love to see how it holds up when pairing a 970 and a 6600K inside the S4.
Okay, this makes so much more sense, I was thinking that it was a psu in a tiny thing like that and all I could think was "that is sus and will probably start a fire"
Becareful the 12v line is not regulated and it conects directly to the 12v rail in the pc and if you use something higher than 12v it can kill all the components that needs 12v and so dont us it in your car because the voltage is not stable it go as down as 10v when cranking the car and as hih as 14.5v when the aultarnator is on... Use a buck boost converter and set it to 12v and it will be a very good far a pc in car and power your monitor with another boot converter if it needs 19v or higher ..... A nice buck and boost converter is ltc3780 which you can get for 10 to 20$ on ebay or AliExpress!!
@Kuntal Ghosh: There are PicoPSUs available for varying voltages like 12 to 14V like in an automobile. YOu have to pay attention to the given datasheet when ordering one.
@@zbjz auto motive versions are much bigger as they have to include a dc to dc converter for thr 12v rail which is the most demanding circuit of a modern pc.
Wow, I can't believe something like this exists! I think this will be the perfect solution for my DIY mini-itx laptop project. What I don't understand is this: why is that most mini itx builds use their small form factor (which are still too big compared to this solution) internal psu-s with loud and crappy cooling fans?? Meanwhile this solution is smaller and doesn't even need fans? Or am I missing something here?
Vladimir Saruta I think you could use that HDPLEX 250W unit to build more powerful setups if I understand this correctly, but hopefully "Tek Everything" will come back and answer you too.
hey thanks for the reply on the other video i am interested in the HD plex. I have a 80 watt Xeon CPU and a R9 nano GPU. The HD plex would be the right PSU right? I intend on using it with the NFC Systems S4 Mini. I am currently using a fully functional MINI itx PC, so i would just be changing the case and PSU. please lend me advice. thank you in advance. my current case is a silverstone FT03 mini & my PSU is a 450 silverstone gold efficiency fully modular PSU.
Anyone have experience with the Pico-box brand plugin boards? Like the z1 160w which is half the cost of the PicoPSU, but I'm sure for a reason. Are they less stable?
While I don't personally own any Pico-box products I have heard mixed things about them (mostly positive). I would probably lean towards Pico PSU's or HDPlex products unless your budget is super tight.
Could this power an i5 4690k and a GTX 1050Ti? My current rig is an i5 4690k, 8gb ram, and a GTX 970.I have a 500 watt PSU but I was thinking of getting a Pico PSU as an alternative to a high end SFX PSU which aren't small enough for truly portable builds. Many thanks in advance!
Piko's most powerful offer is 160 watts. GTX 1050 would draw 75W at load, i5 4690k will want 109 watts Also add everything else like motherboard, RAM, hard disk and/or SSD, fans + any USB devices. So unless you want to throw away your money don't do it
Nice. I'm trying to build a nice mini PC with a Gigabyte mini-itx, Core i5-7600, 16gb ddr4 and Nvidia Geforce 1060 6gb mini in the same chassis (Wesena F7C EVO) that you've used, but I guess pico 160xt will not work with this energy consumption, so I've thought about using HDPLEX 300w, but I'm not sure if it will fit on this chassis. What do you think?
For now, I'm waiting for the new nano HD-PLEX 400w they will launch this month because the 300w one is out of stock and they will not manufacture any more. :D
hello jay,i have curently a mini itx build ( with silverstone sugo sg13b, i3 4170, gtx 970, 1 x ssd samsung 850 evo 1 tb, 16 gb ram, SILVERSTONE ST45SF 450W SFX. ) and wont to change the power suply with a pico psu becouse my silverstone sfx make a lot of noise and it is a 450w power supply and my pc takes no mre than 210 watt in gaming with gtx 970 and 170w i gaming with gtx960, and i think with a gtx 950 it will be around 130w.what do you think ...what pico psu can i buy for this system ???thanks a lot !!!
You wouldn't want to run a 1070 with a Pico 160xt, but you might be able to get away with using one with an i3-6300. An HDPlex 250 would be a much better and more flexible option.
yo.. so a small chip sitting on that 24pin.. has this been stress test like running game 8-12 hrs? its like a school project. but seriously this is awesome stuff.
Unless I'm mistaken, the reason those don't get hot is that there's no 12 volt conversion. The only thing that PSU has to do is downconvert for the 3.3 and 5 volt ranges for the CMOS and USB/drive controller connections. That brick on the other hand I would expect to get quite warm. It really is your limiting factor unless you have a lot running off the 5 volt rail.
The reason (I think from observation) that these can be so cool is because the Bridge rectification and regulation probably only occurs in the brick. I assume the Pico PSU is really just a plug adapter with some filter caps and a 5v regulator for SSDs and other peripherals
Like we see sometimes a device is named what it isn't. It is not a power supply just an interface circuit.
Great little PSUs. I've been running my weather system PC and my Linux box for years off of the 80 watt picos from a bank of solar batteries. 200 watts of PV and a bank of 4 Trojans runs these little mITX boards 24/7/365. 4GB memory, 120GB SSDs, onboard graphics,,,, going on 8 years now without fail. My picos work from 12-36 volts, running from 24 volts.
When you're all solar, a watt saved is a watt earned.
That's amazing! I'm trying to run my gaming PC directly off solar. Looking at the M4 ATX from minibox but also need two 8pin gcard and a bit higher than 400watts. Would you be able to point me in the right direction?
Building computers for a decade. Still learning things all the time. Great videos.
Nice video although technically the power brick is the actual psu and the pico psu distributes the power throughout the pc so it won't get very hot, the power brick will however.
i dont see this as viable at all...
if i have to buy a pico psu plus a laptop psu it ill cost the same as a normal pc psu..pointless
It's not about the price. It's the size. With the Pico, you are basically taking out the PSU from inside the casing to the outside, which is great for really really small casings.
Also SFF PSUs are more expensive than their full sized counterparts, some even more than others
@@linkinstreet can a pico psu deliver 400+watts lol
@@starofeden9277 Fanless pc
Yeah was about to point out, they take 12v input so ofc they don't run hot. The external power brick on the other hand is probably burning hot judging by how hot stuff like laptop power bricks get.
I've been wanting to learn about Pico PSU's for a while now. This cleared things up for me! +1 sub
they are great for builds smaller than an xbox
they are pretty cool
Been working on my first small PC. Your videos keep coming up. Could be a strong niche for you. I'm subbing and liking your stuff.
Awesome, thanks. What components are you thinking about going with?
Same here... Keep up the good work !
Me too, I'm in the research phase atm. Jay's stuff kept koming up as I was looking for info on SFF cases and small PSU:s, and this was very helpful. Thank you and keep up the good work!
how does this guy only have 1363 subs? he deserves many more
+Devin Aitken Ha, thanks man
Devin Aitken youtube didnt promote the new youtubers 😞 for luck I found this amazing channel
10k now - about to go exponential!
26k subs now :)
60k!
Not only informative, but smooth theme music too. Dude keep it up!!
Thank you so much for providing information about the Pizo PSU!
Even today, the information remains relevant and continues to be of great assistance!
Excellent video, Jay. Thanks for putting it up. I'm putting together a very small mini-itx build to run PFSense and your video helped me decide to use the Pico PSU.
Nice man, glad I could help. Let me know how the build comes up
this guy deserves more subs,
Great job man
This could be my next PC build. Looking forward to build a mini ITX pc case with a Pico psu. You can actually carry your PC in your backpack, plug in to any HDMI supported TV and your ready to game
How to use this on a regular chassis like Cooler Master Elite 110? Normal ATX PSU has poor placement, and the long and thick cables clutter the inside of the case, making it very hot.
Is it possibile to use a 120w pico psu and a 150w bricket? In my country arent 120w brickets available. So do i destroy anything or should everything be fine with this combination?
LOVING the home theater setup in this video... crazy man!!! lol
Is it ok to use more than one adapter with the pico PSU? I’m connecting my PSU to my hp server breakout board but doing so means I need to use two adapters, is that ok?
YOU ARE A GEEEEENIUS
Many thanks I've been looking for such a thing for a long time
I love what you did with the heatpipes at 2:12. Is there a video for that?
I want to know if I can conect pico psu directly to a 12volt battery. Not using a power Brick?
Excellent explanation. I'm searching on how to use this to power a Lenovo 93p motherboard in my vehicle.
what confuse me is the pico specs for input voltage is only 12v while laptop chargers tends to be 19v right?
Does the external power brick need to be 12V or can I use a old 19V laptop charger?
do I have to buy an adapter to plug the power supply into the pico psu
Hey Jay, I've just stumbled across this vid so apologies for my lateness. I have a question and you may know the answer .. I've been given an ITX board with no power supply and I believe it falls into the industrial board category (for EPOS machines). However it takes laptop ram and a core i3/i5 so I was going to use it as a plex server / htpc machine ... I'm just lacking the psu which after my research leads me to one of the cool little psu's you featured here. However this board only uses a 12v psu with 4 pin just like the 160xt has (same as the 4 pin cpu one)... so if I was to order a pico 160xt or similiar (depending on the wattage) could I set it up as you've shown but bypass the 24 pin completely and just use the 4 pin (leaving the 24 pin tucked away in the case or dangling around lol). Theres not much info on my board but on some forums and reviews, they all seem to point to something like the 160xt so I just need a confirmation or a negative on me buying one .... I'd really appreciate your time and I'll sub to you for life .... I lied, I already subbed :)
No, you need the 24 pin. That provides power to your motherboard in the form of 12V, 5V, and 3.3V. The pico "PSU" is essentially a buck converter that steps down the voltage from 12V to the designated 5V and 3.3V pins. If I'm understanding you correctly, the 4-pin connector is a CPU connector that solely powers the CPU and not the motherboard. You should also not try to route the 12V to the 5V and 3.3V pins, as that would almost definitely fry your motherboard.
Hello, I just got a pico 160 xt. How do you switch it on/off?
Hey, I have a Mini-ITX board with an AMD A8-5500 (65w TDP), one 8gb ddr3, 5400rpm laptop drive and onboard video. would the 90w pico psu be enough for all this? I already have it laying around.
That should be fine. You might want to grab a more powerful one in case you wanted to add other components later though.
i use one of these as a cover psu when ordering a psu for a server slide. i use these with athlon 5350. also use a 10amp 12volt brick. There only downfall is the chips make a little bit of heat but you can stick on a little tiny heatsink if you have the room on your mobo. (you can buy really small heatsinks from moddiy.com or just google for a raspberry pi heatsinks there really cheap and you get 3)
Noodle
how do you buy the power connector as it does not seem to be included with any of these psu devices on amazon?
how were you able to connect a graphics card to it? an you use multiple pico psus together? 1 for gpu and 1 for other components?
Can the Pico be modded to go from a ATX 24 pin to like a 12pin for lets say a 1.1 original xbox ?
Thanks for this. It's not so difficult understanding it most of the power is going straight from the 12 V supply, right to the connector, the pico supply is only supplying 5V and 3.3 V, on a 150 W load, maybe 120 W goes straight through, and 30 W goes through the pico. If it's 85% efficient then it's dissipating 4.5 W of heat. I'm not taking away anything from Pico but it doesn't really do much!
Nice review. Getting ready to start a mini-itx build and wanted to use one of these for a Gigabyte Z390 I AORUS PRO WiFi. Have you ever had a motherboard where this wouldn't work because it wouldn't clear the RAM?
I don't mean this to be negative or mean, but(at least for me) the point of having a SSF PC is to have it take up less space and to be sexy. So unless you could hide the Pico brick behind a wall or something doesn't having a fairly large external PSU like that sorta defeat the purpose a little? I mean that brick looked like about 1/3 the size of that MC600 build a couple vids back
+dre ball External power bricks can easily be hidden or mounted under your desk. The flexibility they offer when it comes to portability is unmatched. that brick is large, but there are much smaller ones. Brick size was never an issue for me as I knew I could just mount it to the underside of my desk with velcro.
its cool to the touch because the cpu and gpu is powered straight from the 12 external supply. The only thing the pico supply does is step the voltage down to 5v and 3.3v for hard drives and whatnot.
I don`t suppose that it`s witchcraft at all because the power brick is the actual PSU and that would have it`s own heatsinks and mini fan if it needed it whilst the `Pico PSU` board that you are holding is just the interface electronics ? sounds about right ?
Correct. You loose power when you are transforming voltages like 220/110V AC to 12-24V DC
what is the process current on the bus 3.3 V?
Does the PicoPSU-90 highlight enough?
The Witchcraft:
Normal PSU's components are used toward stepping down the 120v/240v lines, changing the voltage from AC to DC and cleaning up the noise coming in from your house.
Doing this takes a lot of special components and this is largely keeping the lower voltage components safe from surges, under-voltage and really bad Sine-wave output.
The last thing you ever want is your 12, 5, 3.3, 1.5 volt rails from jumping up by 3-20 volts. Especially the 1.5v rail as that's usually used for your CPU.
A PicoPSU doesn't need to worry about cleaning up noise as the input is already DC and mostly already stepped down and cleaned up.
It does need to create the 12V, 5V 3.3v and 1.5v rails which doesn't take much from a 16-28v Volt input.
ATX doesn’t have a 1.5V line
Do you think it could take ITX MB+I7 4790+Fans? I think they are ment to be for 200W constant load. Are you using some of those in similar builds?
Definitely, I ran way more components than that off of a Pico in my last build video. Check it out here: ua-cam.com/video/DOU7ucVP560/v-deo.html
Thanks for fast reply. Could you please link which adapter to the wall/brick are you using from psu? And another question: Do these pico psu have both 20 + 8 power to mb connectors? Thanks a lot
The links are in the description. Pico's have a 24-pin ATX connector only
I need help, can anyone tell me why the ac dc brick has a lower output than what the 160w pico psu needs. Update, I know now but what do I do if I don’t want to spend $50 on one when I need two, any cheaper options?
What is that home theatre you have setup? Details please.
my pico psu has a circular end with a hole in the middle, whats that for?
What is the cable length of 4 pin power cable? from pico psu to dc jack?
the picopsu is cool because bulk of the regulation happens at the ac to 12vdc psu brick. the 12v lines is just a pass through. so whats left is the picopsu only regulates down to 5v line. you need a good quality powerbrick for these. dont cheap out on that!
Agreed. The bricks that they ship in the bundles are quality. I haven't had an issue yet.
Subscribed. A lot of cool vids. Thanks.
I thought about using the Pico 160, but as my project will have a battery in it, plus a few power hungry components, I picked up the M4-ATX PSU for the Gigabyte F2A88XN-WIFI board (A10-7870 APU), and the DCDC-USB-200 Buck-Boost board to power the two 8.9" displays that I salvaged from two dead Acer ZG5 netbooks.
My choice may be a little over the top, but I'll never have to worry about voltage fluctuations damaging anything.
Also, as the planned case will be made of polycarbonate (Treated to reduce static buildup), and leather, I'll need power for extra cooling. It's planned to look like a small treasure chest when done, and hopefully weigh less than my 122 year old Kimball piano (Yes, my project is meant to be portable).
Wow, that sounds intense man. How did u come up with that idea?
Tek Everything
I had to replace my Dell B130 three times, only to bring it back out of the closet again later, to replace the dead replacements.
It seems that I can only get a year out of a new laptop.
As I figured that my home computers, that I built, work flawlessly, and that I've always wanted to build something unique, that now is the time to combine my talents to build a dependable portable machine. All the parts were available, so I bought them. My PSU, and Buck-boost board just came a couple days ago. Now I can test all the hardware in a junk tower, and start on the case.
I found your page on FB. I'll post a pic of the parts there.
Sounds like you were going in a similar direction to me right now. I'm trying to run my gaming PC directly off solar. Looking at the M4 ATX as well from minibox but also need two 8pin gcard and a bit higher than 400watts. What would you recommend going with?
Thanks a lot.
And, what is the case at 2:08
so where is this HD plex overview. is it coming soon?
It's coming! I have been extremely busy... but it's coming I promise
my question is how did you put a gtx 960 in it? Is it safe?
cool video man!!one question what kind of adapter i need if i want to connect another SSD Drive?
You would just need a 4 pin Molex to dual SATA cable
ahh ok,thank you for letting me know.
Awesome video! I'm new to the channel and just saw your small builds so this was a much needed video!
+jon norris Glad I could help man!
Are you related to Chuck Norris?
Absolutely! He is 100% my uncle :P
jon norris
jon norris 😂😂
In fact it is a laptop power supply for micro atx and mini itx board
nice video man.
does it have a 80 plus rating? what is the efficency like if i wanted to us it for a nas that needs to run 24/7 365? low power cpu (like 20 watts) and a couple harddrives. this would be pretty cool for a really small nas box
+MrHearthofSIN They don't offer the standard bronze, silver, gold ratings through their website, but the manual lists a 93% efficiency. These are over engineered and built to last, for a nas box you could go with one of the cheaper models like an 80W or 120W.
+Tek Everything yeah okay but 93% is like.. 80 plus gold or platinum right? anyway i'm asking because if the system needs to be on all day i need the most efficient components possible to cut down cost on the powerbill :) yeah i for sure could go with a 80w or 120w i mean it all depends on the amount of drives but at max it will only be 4 drives so..
93% would be Platinum, so you should be in good shape
Hi! Is the picopsu-160-xt efficient enough? I mean, I'm thinking of building a mini-itx pc and the power required should be 156w, do you think I can use the 160 power supply or should I get something more powerful?
The 160XT is rated handle loads up to 200W. It should easily handle 156w. I would go with the 192w power brick.
Tek Everything Thank you! Last thing, the motherboard I've picked has got an 8-pin connector whereas the 160xt has only the 4-pin one, can I just use a 4 to 8 pin adapter?
Dammit, I really love the fanless/small form factor of the picoPSU, but HATE the fact that it needs a power brick. I'm building an ITX HTPC soon, and there are WAY too many power bricks for all my various devices in my home theater system.
Is there something that isn't as small, but doesn't require a power brick and is still fanless/noiseless?
Check out the HDPlex website. They have a compact internally mountable brick.
wait, you're telling me the power supply is external!!! BRILLIANT i need one
Oh yes you just anwered me all my questions especially about the 4pin to 8pin adapter coz i wanna build a very small itx apu powerhouse for the TV :D
I can't believe you make a video of this without explaining the voltage compatibility between the PICO and the external power brick. You can't just plug any external power bricks into any PICO based on wattages alone. The voltages must match. Most common voltage is 19V for external powerbricks (laptops usually in this range). If your PICO is 12v, you need to find a 12V powerbricks with sufficient amp to match the Wattage you intend to achieve. It's fine to use a powerbrick with higher amp. If your amp has lower amp, it' might overheat if your pico is drawing more power than the brick can handle. But most important is to check the voltage! Make sure the brick output voltage is same as the PICO input voltage.
Right and many people will just plug things in if the plug matches. Sorry to say but the video author does not even know what a psu is and it would be better if pico stopped calling these psu's.
This pico can support mini itx and radeon HD7500 series?
Another informative video! Keep doing what you do!
Can I power the CPU from a different psu ?
I'm going to build an ultra small system, with a 3770 and a 1050, I'm not completely sure if i will go over 200w, can anyone tell me if and how many more watts ill need?
Can it run a A10-7850k and an aftermarket cooler + 1 fan?
Yes, it handles peak loads up to 200W which gives you plenty of headroom.
i read on newegg the picoPSU-160W-XT can go up to 300W
+Reisen007SCI I haven't personally seen them go that high. If you change the wires to higher gauge maybe? I definitely wouldn't recommend running a pico at that wattage though
go check
+Reisen007SCI ...
Jay, I have an Dell optiplex780 sff with a core 2 duo , I'm thinking I want to set it up as a personal server will this work for me ? My amazon membership is about to be up soon so it's kind of a time sensitive issue , much Thanks in advance appreciate you and your videos.
It should work, but it appears that the case accommodates Flex-ATX PSU's. That would probably a better option.
Thank you for replying I just was looking at the power supply that you suggested and I agree that is probably the better option. First I wanted to ditch the case and use it for another project, but it makes more sense to keep it now. The standard Dell power supplies for the Optiplex have a reputation for well dying, and I didn't want to grab a brand new one for this older computer. So this should save me a few dollars and it only takes 230w to run the machine but it cant hurt to have 250w because it appears thats the Flex-ATX PSU's models increase wattage in increments of 50w. Again thank you for the advice.
if i have 300w pico psu, how much wattage should the power brick have? how the "math" works?
Input voltage multiplied by amperage [E.g 12v × 12.5 = 150watts (Multiple by .96% Effiency) actual max sustainable power load is 144w]
hello, i purchase this pico psu with192watt power adapter, I'm using Streacom F7C Alpha case and this power adapter have a 4 pin mini dim male do you know where I can buy a 4 pin mini dim to. 5.5x2.5mm adapter ?? it's this possible? thanks in advance!!
I have no idea. I would check Amazon or Ebay.
Hi again.
Can you help me.
I have this parts...
Asus Z270I
2x8GB Corsair Dominator Platinum
Nvidia Quadro P1000
WD Black 2.5 7000RPM
Samsung M2 960 Evo 250GB
SilverStone 12.7mm Bluray Drive
NH-L9i
2x92mm Noctua Fans
Case F7C Alpha
do you know if i can use an i7 7700 with a Pico PSU (160w) or I need a more powerful PICO PSU.
I'm trying to do a very small computer for Adobe CC Programs (Photoshop, Illustrator, In Desing, Animate).
thanks in advance.
PD: Sorry for my english. I speak spanish only.
You can run a 7700 off of a Pico 160-xt yes. Just make sure you get the 192W power brick.
Love your videos! I'm looking to build an ITX machine under 190 cu" with a 7700 and a 1080 (no overclocking) Ideally with the DC Power source inside. For the rig, would you say the HDPLEX 400w psu and 300W power supply works best, or 2 160s and a Meanwell 400w?
I would definitely go with the HDPlex 400W over two 160W's. If you can fit the Meanwell I would go for that. The HDPlex internal 300W brick is a tank, and you should be fine with that as well, I just worry about power spikes.
where is the actual PSU come from ? it is come from PICO 160XT or come from the power brick ?
for example I need 300 watt power supply for my system build so which part
should I upgraded ? it's the Power Brick only(with output 300 watt) or
PICO PSU with 300watt and Power Brick with output power 300 watt or
more?
You would need to update both. The power is generated by the brick. You would need something like the HDPlex 300W, which I did a video on as well.
thanks man for your quick reply...keep it up
I have a Picopsu 160 xt and I can't get it to boot my mini itx motherboard. Nothing spins up and no lights will come on. I swap the PSU out for an ATX2.0 regular PSU and the machine comes right up. Any ideas why it would be doing this?
It is usually the brick in most cases. The Pico's are generally tanks.
Thanks, for the response. I have used 2 separate bricks for the picopsu and tested the voltage at the solder points on the pico's board and it is getting 12v. The plug just doesn't seem to be wired the same way as the ATX2.0 plug. I feel like from what I have read I should just be able to plug it into the mobo and all should be good but it doesn't seem to do anything. :/
Yes you should. What are your system specs?
The MB is a Super Micro X7SPA-H with an (atom D510, ICH9R Chipset) the ram is a 4GB Kit Crucial SODIMM DDR2 PC2-5300. There is only 1 HD attached. The whole system probably only uses 30 Watts.
can I connect graphic card with this??
Usually no. Most gaming rigs are 450 watt and up. graphics usually take up the majority of that. What card you got?
there are models with 12v and 19v. What should I Choose?
How much power do you need?
@@Tekeverything I´m looking for power a g4560 and gtx 1050 ti with just a ssd 500gb. Because is kind of hard to find 12v and 15A or should I just take the risk a 120w model?
I know this may sound ignorant, but the truth is I feel like I know you (even though I don't) I have the G-Unique "Archdemon" and, the truth is, I just cant bring myself to trust it. My plan is to use a 300w Meanwell to power it. My electrical skills are non existent. I am fairly sure I can get it wired to the External power, but for some reason it just weirds me out. Have you EVER heard of one of these failing?
Woah, I can't believe I haven't heard about these before! I can't wait to use them in my next Mini ITX build.
+MrZnyper They are amazing. They let you build extremely tiny systems.
+Tek Everything Yep! After seeing your NFC S4 Mini case review, I've considering on my next build using that case and an HDPlex. Do you know when you will be able to review that PSU? Would love to see how it holds up when pairing a 970 and a 6600K inside the S4.
what case did u use to build the first set up you show?
Wesena ITX 5B.... I made two build vids with it, you can find them both on my channel page
thanks for making this video!! Very helpful, nice intro to this PSU type
Okay, this makes so much more sense, I was thinking that it was a psu in a tiny thing like that and all I could think was "that is sus and will probably start a fire"
Can support pico sata to argb ?
@tekEverything definitely im gonna use S4 case. but i guess i need at least 300w psu to power up everything. any recommendations ?
Yes, you would need the HDPlex 300, and Dell 330W power brick.
thanks man, if i'm not wrong that would be just nice for a gtx 1060.
Yea if you got that power set up you would have more than enough headroom for a 1060, could easily go with a 1070 as well.
that form factor is nice man
Thanks. I've been looking at these online, but it makes more sense now that I could see the different angles of it. Btw, nice room.
Thanks, glad I could help!
Becareful the 12v line is not regulated and it conects directly to the 12v rail in the pc and if you use something higher than 12v it can kill all the components that needs 12v and so dont us it in your car because the voltage is not stable it go as down as 10v when cranking the car and as hih as 14.5v when the aultarnator is on... Use a buck boost converter and set it to 12v and it will be a very good far a pc in car and power your monitor with another boot converter if it needs 19v or higher ..... A nice buck and boost converter is ltc3780 which you can get for 10 to 20$ on ebay or AliExpress!!
@Kuntal Ghosh: There are PicoPSUs available for varying voltages like 12 to 14V like in an automobile. YOu have to pay attention to the given datasheet when ordering one.
If you read the spec sheet for these picoPSUs they have automotive versions that claim to survive extreme crank voltages etc.
@@zbjz auto motive versions are much bigger as they have to include a dc to dc converter for thr 12v rail which is the most demanding circuit of a modern pc.
Great job explaining these PSUs!
Wow, I can't believe something like this exists! I think this will be the perfect solution for my DIY mini-itx laptop project. What I don't understand is this: why is that most mini itx builds use their small form factor (which are still too big compared to this solution) internal psu-s with loud and crappy cooling fans?? Meanwhile this solution is smaller and doesn't even need fans? Or am I missing something here?
Most people are simply unaware of Pico PSU's and the like. Standard power supplies are also much cheaper and easier t find.
Hey, can you make a build with 2 pico PSU's for more powerful build with dedicated videocard ;)
I think this is possible ;)
Vladimir Saruta I think you could use that HDPLEX 250W unit to build more powerful setups if I understand this correctly, but hopefully "Tek Everything" will come back and answer you too.
Can you make a review of the hdplex 250?
+Kerim Amet Yes, that review is coming
02:11 What case is that?
hey thanks for the reply on the other video i am interested in the HD plex. I have a 80 watt Xeon CPU and a R9 nano GPU. The HD plex would be the right PSU right? I intend on using it with the NFC Systems S4 Mini. I am currently using a fully functional MINI itx PC, so i would just be changing the case and PSU. please lend me advice. thank you in advance. my current case is a silverstone FT03 mini & my PSU is a 450 silverstone gold efficiency fully modular PSU.
You would need an HDPlex with the Dell 330W power brick.
Anyone have experience with the Pico-box brand plugin boards? Like the z1 160w which is half the cost of the PicoPSU, but I'm sure for a reason. Are they less stable?
While I don't personally own any Pico-box products I have heard mixed things about them (mostly positive). I would probably lean towards Pico PSU's or HDPlex products unless your budget is super tight.
Could you use this to power only a graphics card?
+Marcos Antunez Yes, check out this thread to see how: smallformfactor.net/forum/threads/simple-dual-pico-psu-set-up.552/
The 12v in need How many Ampers? Thanks
Could this power an i5 4690k and a GTX 1050Ti? My current rig is an i5 4690k, 8gb ram, and a GTX 970.I have a 500 watt PSU but I was thinking of getting a Pico PSU as an alternative to a high end SFX PSU which aren't small enough for truly portable builds. Many thanks in advance!
Didn't you watch the video?You'll need 1-2 just for GPU and forget about any overclocking.
Nothing still beats high-quality PSU
This Pico/Brick setup could handle the 4690K and 1050 Ti yes.
Piko's most powerful offer is 160 watts.
GTX 1050 would draw 75W at load,
i5 4690k will want 109 watts
Also add everything else like motherboard, RAM, hard disk and/or SSD, fans + any USB devices. So unless you want to throw away your money don't do it
How do you power that first build with a Nvidia Quadro? How many watts need?
The whole system pulls well under 200W. So the Pico 160xt + 192W power brick is plenty
Nice. I'm trying to build a nice mini PC with a Gigabyte mini-itx, Core i5-7600, 16gb ddr4 and Nvidia Geforce 1060 6gb mini in the same chassis (Wesena F7C EVO) that you've used, but I guess pico 160xt will not work with this energy consumption, so I've thought about using HDPLEX 300w, but I'm not sure if it will fit on this chassis. What do you think?
For now, I'm waiting for the new nano HD-PLEX 400w they will launch this month because the 300w one is out of stock and they will not manufacture any more. :D
The HDPlex 160 would be fine for your system.
Are you sure? Even with the GeForce GTX 1060 6gb?
how is a 160w enough for a system with a graphics card?
+Platipus Gaming The 160XT can handle loads up to 200W
@@Tekeverything Is it enough for a ATI X1950XTX?!?! (it is the card i have and it runs hot)
hello jay,i have curently a mini itx build ( with silverstone sugo sg13b, i3 4170, gtx 970, 1 x ssd samsung 850 evo 1 tb, 16 gb ram, SILVERSTONE ST45SF 450W SFX. ) and wont to change the power suply with a pico psu becouse my silverstone sfx make a lot of noise and it is a 450w power supply and my pc takes no mre than 210 watt in gaming with gtx 970 and 170w i gaming with gtx960, and i think with a gtx 950 it will be around 130w.what do you think ...what pico psu can i buy for this system ???thanks a lot !!!
+LUCIANR81 if your system is under 200W the Pico 160xt linked in the description will work
okay, but i dont see a cable for the gpu ...how to connect the gpu to the pico psu ..???thanks !
Thank you for this vid, it earned you a new subscriber. Keep up the great work!
is this pico psu will work on GTX 1080 mini?
There is no 1080 Mini
1070 mini . sorry bout that.
You wouldn't want to run a 1070 with a Pico 160xt, but you might be able to get away with using one with an i3-6300. An HDPlex 250 would be a much better and more flexible option.
HDplex runs 2 power brick?
could it power a wireless card and a 1gbps Ethernet card
yo.. so a small chip sitting on that 24pin.. has this been stress test like running game 8-12 hrs? its like a school project. but seriously this is awesome stuff.
Yes, they have been tested extensively. These things are tanks.
Information is clear. Thanks man
hey dude, cool video, I'm diggin' that tiny PSU, must try something simillar soon
Subbed. 2nd vid watched :D I like the format and mini PCs. Keep them coming :D
Nice, glad you are liking the vids!