PICO PSU Questions

livEwirE

Hi all,

I'm getting the parts ready for my first ever build - a HTPC.
So far I'm going with...

MB: ASRock FM2A85X-ITX, FM2, ITX
CPU: AMD A6 5400K Black Edition with AMD Radeon HD 7540D
Case: Streamcom FC8 EVO Fanless Case
RAM: 4GB
HDD: TBD


I'm looking for a 150w PICO PSU and power brick, I'm not sure if that is overkill. The machine will have one 2.5" HDD + one 60gb SSD, possibly an ODD too. I've been browsing on ebay but am totally lost - there are so many options. How much should I be paying for one? I don't want to buy a fake one that will damage my system Can anyone recommend any reliable ebay sellers please?

Although it's 120w would this do the job? I would prefer 3 SATA connectors if that is possible or do they only one come with one as standard?

Could I simply replace the cable highlighted in the pic with one with 3 sata connections on it? If so, what would this cable be called and where would I get one online please?


Cheers:D

marco_polo

One of these should do the job just fine or alternatively this either (attaches to the header pins on the PCB).

Incidentally the case is about £10 cheaper on scan, even after accounting for the (i think) £12.50 shipping (Using parcelmotel might save a few quid more on top). You could put the difference towards this newly released Gigabyte mobo if you wanted (with bluetooth and WIFI).

livEwirE

Excellent info about the picopsu cables marco_polo! Thanks for the tip on the case and the alternative mobo, will definitely consider it.

marco_polo

livEwirE wrote: »

Excellent info about the picopsu cables marco_polo! Thanks for the tip on the case and the alternative mobo, will definitely consider it.

Not sure the 120W has the extra header actually, I can't see one. (The image you posted looks like the 150W)

The 150W definately does is €50 quid on amazon(and looks like super saver is available) so would just need to pickup a 12V power brick somewhere.

livEwirE

That image was just random from google, it was not related to the 120w I posted. That pico psu on amazon looks good alright. Any ideas where to get the power brick? Sorry I don't know much about these things Should i be looking for something like this AC DC Adapter Switching Power Supply 12V 12.5A 150W PSU. or this?

marco_polo

livEwirE wrote: »

That image was just random from google, it was not related to the 120w I posted. That pico psu on amazon looks good alright. Any ideas where to get the power brick? Sorry I don't know much about these things Should i be looking for something like this AC DC Adapter Switching Power Supply 12V 12.5A 150W PSU. or this?

They are probably the same but I can't really tell clearly from the eBay listing, the amazon one is definately ok anyway.

livEwirE

marco_polo wrote: »

They are probably the same but I can't really tell clearly from the eBay listing, the amazon one is definately ok anyway.

Can you double check that you think the amazon one is okay please mate?
I thought the amazon one was lacking on detail and the ebay one had more. I will go with the amazon one if you reckon its definitely ok. Thanks for all your help and advice!

Monotype

I would be wary of the power bricks... there was an article linked (on this forum, I think) a while back on how some are very poorly made, in particular the knock-offs from the Asian markets of the big brands. Judging by the English in that ebay listing, I would say that it's gone through a translator.

Mr McBoatface

Picopsu IMO are overpriced - I'm using these psu boards and they work fine. I believe they are made by Shenzhen Realan who from what I can tell make just about every aluminium itx case and accompanying psu out there, they are then re-branded and sold under different names.

If you are going to get a 12v power brick get one that is "LEVEL V" power efficient like this Channel well power brick (use parcel motel if ordering this postage is cheaper)

If you are going to fork out money for a PICOPSU get the "XT" 12v model or the "WI" wide power input range, they are more efficient than the standard 12v volt input models. Check out www.mini-box.com for the different models. The wide input model have the advantage of being able to use 19w laptop power bricks which there are lots of good quality models cheap as chips, easy to find.

The Streacom FC8 EVO is also cheaper here , not as cheap as Scan.co.uk. Not sure what shipping cost are.

livEwirE

@ Monotype, sound advice thanks mate

@ jobyrne, brilliant advice, thanks for this, you are right about the overpriced Picopsu, might go with your option and the power brick you suggested, cheers mate Apologies for my ignorance but will the brick you mentioned above work with the psu board you mention. It's just that the psu board says it is 150w but the brick says 120w?

The best price I found for the Streacom FC8 EVO case is £109 here - fingers crossed I can use Parcel Motel.

marco_polo

livEwirE wrote: »

@ Monotype, sound advice thanks mate

@ jobyrne, brilliant advice, thanks for this, you are right about the overpriced Picopsu, might go with your option and the power brick you suggested, cheers mate Apologies for my ignorance but will the brick you mentioned above work with the psu board you mention. It's just that the psu board says it is 150w but the brick says 120w?

The best price I found for the Streacom FC8 EVO case is £109 here - fingers crossed I can use Parcel Motel.

The CWT brick will be fine its just that you would only be able to pull its rated 120w whereas the actual psu itself could go higher if the brick could safely supply it.

FSP make a very good and efficent full 150w unit but I can only find it for about £45+ in a handful of places :eek:. TBH 120w should be loads for such a system anyway.

livEwirE

marco_polo wrote: »

The CWT brick will be fine its just that you would only be able to pull its rated 120w whereas the actual psu itself could go higher if the brick could safely supply it.

FSP make a very good and efficent full 150w unit but I can only find it for about £45+ in a handful of places :eek:. TBH 120w should be loads for such a system anyway.

Thanks for clarifying that Marco_polo.

What OS are you using? If it's Linux (eg OpenElec) then you'd be better off with an Intel solution.

livEwirE

[Deleted User] wrote: »

What OS are you using? If it's Linux (eg OpenElec) then you'd be better off with an Intel solution.

I will be using windows 7 or possibly 8 so am very happy to be going with AMD.

livEwirE

OP here with an update

@ jobyrne30, thanks again for the recommendations mate.

I have now received the Channel well power brick

I am still waiting on the psu board

Apologies for the dumbass question but how exactly does this board connect to the m-itx motherboard. I assume an atx power cable connects from the motherboard into the atx connector on this board and then I connect the power cables from this board to my devices such as hard disks, ODD etc. Am I right here or am I way off:o Are there any pics online to show how these kinds of boards work in htpcs please?


One last thing is this an alternative to the board I have ordered from ebay above? I've been waiting weeks on delivery. The sellers has advised me today to wait another 5-7 days as its held up with hong kong post for x-raying. Is the board you've recommended much better than the uk one? Am getting a little pi$$ed waiting on it so might just order the other one from the uk

livEwirE

livEwirE wrote: »

Are there any pics online to show how these kinds of boards work in htpcs please?

The power board is on the left in this pic


A single cable comes from the 20-pin connector on the power board and gives you a mobo connector, SATA power and molex. If you want anything else you'll need splitters or adapter cables.

Mr McBoatface

There are cables that connect psu board to the motherboard, harddrive etc. That board in the UK is very simular and should work to, It took 3-4 weeks for my psu boards to arrive from Hong Kong, I wouldn't wait much longer before opening a paypal dispute.

livEwirE

@ I Kill You Scum! Thanks for the pics. It gives me a good idea of what's involved

@ jobyrne30 - My ebay order - Dispatched 24th September - Estimated delivery between Wed. 16 Oct. and Thu. 7 Nov. Contacted the seller today and he sent me the message below. Seems legit, not sure if I should wait another 5-7 days or just get a refund. What would you guys do? Should alarm bells be ringing - the guy has nothing for sale now in his store To be fair I got the exact same reason from another China based seller for a delay in another item ordered on ebay in the last few weeks.


thank you for your recent purchase.

I want to update you about some recent delays on items shipping from Hong Kong

Recently the Post announced that all items shipping by air are now subject to x-ray screening for regulated materials. This additional screening has cause delay in shipment.

Please be assured that your order has shipped, but may arrive late because of this issue.

I apologize for the delay, and want to make sure you are satisfied with your purchase.

To ensure that you have a great eBay experience, I'd like to offer you two options:

1. If you are comfortable with waiting, pls wait 5-7days
2. If you prefer a refund, please feel free to contact me.
Please let me know how you wish to proceed.
Once again, thank you for your purchase. Your patience is greatly appreciated.
Warm regards,

Mr McBoatface

Don't let it go past the 45 Days (I think it's 45) to start the dispute process, you will be left high and high. If it was me I'd open one as a precaution and close the case if/when the board arrived.

livEwirE

@ jobyrne30, followed your advice and stated a dispute as a precaution. Fingers crossed my board will arrive soon

livEwirE

The psu never arrived and I got a full refund from the seller. This is the PSU I ordered.

Would this alternative PSU do the same job and work with my power brick? I'd rather pay more and get it from a UK supplier instead of having to wait several weeks for another ebay seller from China :rolleyes:

Genghiz Cohen

You could also order off Amazon.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Mini-Box-picoPSU-150-XT-mini-ITX-supply-package/dp/B005TWE578/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1384366489&sr=8-1&keywords=pico+psu
I make no claims that the linked PSU is what you need though

Mr McBoatface

livEwirE wrote: »

The psu never arrived and I got a full refund from the seller. This is the PSU I ordered.

Would this alternative PSU do the same job and work with my power brick? I'd rather pay more and get it from a UK supplier instead of having to wait several weeks for another ebay seller from China :rolleyes:

It should work fine, according to the ebay description that board will take a power brick with a 5.5 x 2.5mm barrel which is what the power brick come with. On a side note that ebay seller has some really nice kit, i really like the Iwill HT80 itx case

livEwirE

Genghiz Cohen wrote: »

You could also order off Amazon.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Mini-Box-picoPSU-150-XT-mini-ITX-supply-package/dp/B005TWE578/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1384366489&sr=8-1&keywords=pico+psu
I make no claims that the linked PSU is what you need though

Cheers for that mate, will keep it in mind:D

livEwirE

@ jobyrne30, thanks for confirming that the psu will work fine with my power brick

You're right about that case, it's a great looking piece of kit!

livEwirE

Update: I FINALLY got the PSU today from the ebay seller, only took 2 months to arrive. The crazy thing is he refunded me yesterday

Mr McBoatface

Nice one Something similar happened to me recently. Did you place the order for the other psu board ?

livEwirE

No I didn't place the order for the other psu board as I was going to wait for a few days just in case. The strange thing is, the guy issued my refund on Wednesday of this week, the board arrived on Thursday. He sent me a message on Wednesday...

"ok, i am sure it will arrive in the next days, if you get pls pay back"

When it did arrive, I thought I had a moral dilema, should I pay the guy as it did eventually get it? But then I thought, hell no! After all the hassle I've had I'm not paying a cent, sure he wouldn't know it arrived anyway and it was relatively low value at €23 It arrived in a small jiffy bag and was VERY poorly wrapped with a small piece of bubble wrap around it, haven't had a chance to test it yet but hopefully it actually works!

livEwirE

livEwirE wrote: »

When it did arrive, I thought I had a moral dilema, should I pay the guy as it did eventually get it? But then I thought, hell no! After all the hassle I've had I'm not paying a cent, sure he wouldn't know it arrived anyway and it was relatively low value at €23

It would be pretty lousy not to pay. It's not the sellers fault it took 2 months, that's the nature of buying from China. It clearly said economy shipping.

€23 might be low value to you but it's not to most Chinese sellers. He seems to have been friendly in his communication.

If you're not happy with the packing say so in the feedback and don't use him again.

Genghiz Cohen

Don't be lame dude, pay your way.

livEwirE

Okay fair,enough, have paid now

livEwirE

Apologies for resurrecting this thread but I'm having some problems with the HTPC. Sometimes it powers on fine and sometimes it does not. If I unplug the power brick from the mains then unplug the kettle lead on the power brick and plug it back in a couple of minutes later and try it again it works okay. The machines has been left on for a couple of hours and doesn't power off which is a good sign Can I assume something is wrong with the power brick?

Can you guys confirm that this 120w power brick is fine to use with a 150w psu or should I using a 150w power brick?

PSU: 150W DC-ATX Output, 12V Input DC-DC PC Power Supply Board

Power Brick: Genuine Channel Well Technology (CWT) 12V 10A, 120W AC adapter, High Quality

Mr McBoatface

Are you powering on from a cold start or standby/hibernation ? I'd a similar issue with an AMD E350 board when powering on from hibernation .... a bios update fix it.

That brick should be fine, I've a 90 watt brick on a 150 watt board (AMD e350 system) and a 120 watt brick on a 150 watt board (FM1 system) working with no issues

Unplug and reset all connections on the power broad and motherboard, see if that fixes the problem

tsue921i8wljb3

livEwirE wrote: »

Apologies for resurrecting this thread but I'm having some problems with the HTPC. Sometimes it powers on fine and sometimes it does not. If I unplug the power brick from the mains then unplug the kettle lead on the power brick and plug it back in a couple of minutes later and try it again it works okay. The machines has been left on for a couple of hours and doesn't power off which is a good sign Can I assume something is wrong with the power brick?

Can you guys confirm that this 120w power brick is fine to use with a 150w psu or should I using a 150w power brick?

PSU: 150W DC-ATX Output, 12V Input DC-DC PC Power Supply Board

Power Brick: Genuine Channel Well Technology (CWT) 12V 10A, 120W AC adapter, High Quality

I can't confirm if that power brick is of sufficient quality. I have this one:

http://linitx.com/viewproduct.php?prodid=12342

I got it with a 150W PicoPSU from LinITX. It's in a HP Microserver and I have had no issues with it. Delivery was £12 however so maybe it would be too expensive for you.

I just looked at the eBay listing for the PSU you are using. It seems very cheap. Are you sure it is up to the task? There is no point in buying an expensive power brick if the PSU is the problem.

livEwirE

@ jobyrne30 - I am powering on from cold. Will try your suggestion thanks.

@ navi - See post #9 on this thread. I'm confident the PSU should be up to the task.

tsue921i8wljb3

livEwirE wrote: »

@ jobyrne30 - I am powering on from cold. Will try your suggestion thanks.

@ navi - See post #9 on this thread. I'm confident the PSU should be up to the task.

I see now that jobyrne30 is using them without issue. I'm not familiar with the board so will leave you in his hands. Hope you get it sorted.

Technically your components are fine but I have no idea about the quality level of either. That's why most people use a known brand like PicoPSU, you know what you're getting.

Do you have a regular ATX power supply that you can use temporarily to confirm its not a problem with the mobo or power button on your case?

Mr McBoatface

The power brick is made by Channel Well Technology who are a high end, top quality PSU manufacture. Lots of high end PSU's like the Corsair HX-750 are made by them. The Power board is a good quality one too, variants of it are in lots of ITX cases, but like any thing components can fail or not be 100% compatible. Asrock itx boards can be hit and miss, the FM2A75-ITX revision 1 had a nasty habit of going up on fire :eek:

A problem with most DC-DC psu's with 12v inputs (including the pico psu) is they generally just pass through the 12v input from the power brick to the mother board, they just convert/regulate the 5 volt and 3.3 volt power inputs. So if there is an issue with the 12v power coming through the power brick, a slight variation outside of the working range of the motherboard the motherboard may fail to start. Bios updates can increase the tolerance of motherboard to 12v variations. Slight variation in hardware can be the difference between a worker and non-working system.

Hopefully re-sitting everything can sort the problem, I'd go as far as to remove the mother board to ensure it's not shorting on something like stand offs in the wrong place or even a screw. Testing with a regular psu is an excellent suggestion as it could rule out/in problems, but i'd re-sit everything first.

The joy's of building your own PC

Mr McBoatface

@livewire :- I just remembered a few months back I built a system with an ASROCK FM2A85X Extreme4-M, a micro-atx variant of your board. Anyway I had some issues just like you describe sometime it would boot fine other times it failed to boot. In my case the fans came on but there was no display....didn't have much time to spare so replaced the board with another I had, the Asus F2A85-M LE and everything worked fine.

A few week later I had some more time to spare and tested the board again, same results until I changed the ram...it worked fine. There was a bios update on the asrock website for improve ram compatibility ...updated the motherboard and rechecked with the original ram all was perfect.

I know you've a passive system so if the was similar issue you would find it hard to tell if the board had powered up at all.....no fans spinning, no noise. If you've a cpu fan could you hook it up to your board and see if it spins during one of the failed boots ?

If the fan does spin it would indicate that the PSU is working and the issue is elsewhere, a change of ram or a bios update might help. I know your sell lots of and might have a different brand available to test ? There is a bios update (bios version 1.2) for your board to improve compatibility with Samsung 4GB ram ..... it could improve compatibility for other ram modules with similar settings too.

livEwirE

@ I Kill You Scum! - I'll try to locate a spare atx power supply and try that.

@ jobyrne, I will not be able to test until tomorrow, Monday. I will check the BIOS update. I thought I checked already and I had the latest version but will double check Reseating everything, including the board is top priority! I actually thought the problem might be the power brick. The system is passively cooled but I have a cpu fan connected just for testing and it does spin on fine and stays on when the pc starts up. I'm currently using 2x4gb Samsung ddr3-1600 pc3-12800 but I can try some other ram.

Mr McBoatface

Hi Livewire,

If the fan is coming on during the failed boot attempts IMO that points to the ram. This board seem to have issues with Samsung DDR3 1600 4GB ram modules which are exactly what you are using. There has already been a bios update to "Improve Samsung 1600 4G memory module compatibility" but there still could be issues especially with dual channel support.

For trouble shooting just use one ram module. Let us know have you get on...

livEwirE

@ jobyrne30. I don't actually have that ASROCK systemboard. Apologies I never updated my original post, here are the components I got in the end:

MB: Gigabyte F2A85XN-WIFI Motherboard (Socket FM2, AMD A85X, DDR3, S-ATA 600, Mini ITX, PCI Express 2.0, Wi-Fi, USB 3.0, HDMI)
CPU: AMD APU A6 6400K Black Edition (Socket FM2, Dual Core, 3.9GHz, 1MB, 65W, AD640KOKHLBOX, Richland)
Case: Streamcom FC8 EVO Fanless Case
RAM: 8GB - 2x4gb Samsung DDR3 PC3-12800
HDD: Samsung 840 EVO 120GB 2.5 inch Basic SATA Solid State Drive
PSU: [URL="http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1pc-New-150W-DC-ATX-Output-12V-Input-DC-DC-PC-Power-Supply-Board-/111099435519?

pt=PCA_UPS&hash=item19de0ad9ff"]150W DC-ATX Output, 12V Input DC-DC PC Power Supply Board[/URL]
Power Brick: [URL="http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Genuine-Channel-Well-Technology-CWT-12V-10A-120W-AC-adapter-High-Quality-/321135344989?

ssPageName=STORE:HTMLBUILDER:SIMPLEITEM&refid=store"]Genuine Channel Well Technology (CWT) 12V 10A, 120W AC adapter[/URL]

Just to confirm, you are saying the fan comes on during the failed boots?

livEwirE

Yes, but only for a second or so. I press the power button, fan starts + the light on the PSU board flashes for a second and stops and then the fan stops. Right now the pc is powered on and this is exactly how I get around the problem. The machine was powered off for the weekend. I have it in the office as I have more time to look at it there. I came in this morning and pressed the power button and it wouldn't power on, fan started for a couple of seconds then went off. I removed the kettle lead from the power brick, put it back in and treid the power button again and it powered on fine. Is this just a case of the power brick being faulty?

Mr McBoatface

It could be a faulty brick or power board alright ...however it could something else too. Need to narrow it down a bit

Go along the lines of re-sitting everything, look for possible areas where there could be a short. Use one ram module for trouble shooting, if you've a DDR3 1333 module i'd use that. Then try swapping the power supply with another standard psu and see if the problem continues.

If you've a known good system you could try the powerboard and brick on that to see if you get problems there.

Genghiz Cohen

Had the same problem on my fullsize PC. Replacing the PSU fixed the issue.

livEwirE

This is getting frustrating but then I suppose that's all part of the challenge of a self build

This is what I've tried today...

Updated all drivers
Updated the BIOS to the latest Beta version
Reseated all hardware components including the motherboard.
I've also tried DDR3 1333 modules, same problem.

The machine powers on most of the time(90%). As I said before, to fix the problem I simply disconnect the kettle lead from the power brick, reconnect it and press the power button again and it works fine. I've tried multiple kettle leads on the brick. I thought maybe a loose connection in the brick was the cause. If that's all it is then I'd just send the brick back to the supplier.

livEwirE

Genghiz Cohen wrote: »

Had the same problem on my fullsize PC. Replacing the PSU fixed the issue.

Cheers for that mate, I think trying a standard ATX psu is my next option. I really don't want to have to replace this PSU as it was very difficult to find and took 2 months to arrive:rolleyes:


Here is the PC...

The DC power board should be raised on stand-offs, that's what the holes on either side are for. I don't know if that would cause your problem but you may cause a short with it just sitting on your chassis.

Mr McBoatface

Building can be frustrating alright - Just an observation, the power board appears to be sitting directly on the case. Is there the possibility the back of the board could be shorting against the case ? There are solder points at the back of the board, shorting them could cause the problem. Some heavy electric insulation tape should isolate them.

livEwirE

@ I Kill You Scum! - This is my first build so I'm still finding my way. I feel like a real dumbass right now, I didn't know the holes were for that. The board is actually raised slightly, I have blue tack lifting it up off the case, didn't know what else to do:o I'd imagine some plastic standoffs would do a better job alright. They may have come with the case, will need to check that tomorrow:o
If they weren't included any chance of a link to buy some please

@ jobyrne30 - Cheers for the pic! Will take your advice and insulate them thanks:eek: