Question Pico PSU power supply

[Agraf273]

I am looking for a power supply pico PSU ATX with DC adapter. I found many from Aliexpress from 150watts to 300watts. But I had never used that and I don't really know if a CPU like this will suffer with bottleneck or it will be just fine. The i5 8400 turn boosts up to 4.00 Ghz. I checked the watts with OuterVision Power Supply Calculator. Need your help..

PC parts are:
i5-8400 with integrated graphics via HDMI to FHD monitor or TV
GA Z390 miniITX or maybe another miniITX board
1 stick or 8gb DDR4-2666 ram
1 NVMe ssd disk for boot drive and storage
1 PCIE wireless card with adapter (I'm not going to use the integrated Intel wifi)
1 low profile cpu air cooler eg. 92mm fan size
2 small case fans 50x10mm
1 keyboard, 1 mouse
2 usb2, 2 usb3

NO OC, NO WINDOWS, NA GAMES /NO 3D APPS. Everyday use for M u s i c and F i l m s only. I n t e r n e t, O f f i c e etc. And I really like a mini style pc. Maybe Pentium/Celeron and AMD would be better solution but I need to use i5 8400 coffee lake only. Thank you

I found something like these. I don't see them anywhere else in the windows pc parts area. This one has 4pin cpu cable only. Any idea?
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/33062455967.html?spm=a2g0s.8937460.0.0.771f2e0e3yrtVS

 

[tennis2]

Here's the site I'd use Their 150W or 160W models should be enough. Sounds like the CPU uses around 50-65W on non-AVX workloads. Say another 10-15W from the mobo & RAM, 10W from the SSD, and 5-10W from fans/etc, and you're at around ~100W total system power draw.

Z390 seems....excessive. What about H370 or B360? The GA B360N WiFi has 4-pin CPU power, built-in Wifi, and an M.2 slot.

Why not use the integrated WiFi?

I'd try without the 50x10mm case fans. It should stay cool enough without them.

 

[Agraf273]

Board and Cpu are a limited choice exclusively for Mac OS X (hackintosh) compatible build. I don't use Windows. And this build is going to cost. It is not cheap or budget. I like Asrock. The H370 boards would be better for me, I don't need the Z I know.

integrated WF, just answered. I have already made my Apple Broadcom wifi/bt card and it is m.2 ready to play natively.

I can also plug the WD black SN750 NVMe disk into PCIe x16 with converter. I just need one good m.2 slot. And I feel uncertain about GIGABYTE motherboards.

Why the 150W or 160W models should be fine? How do you know that? Can you explain me please? Because I asked at a local store and they said not to buy this case because of its DC power adapter. I guess I can find a better dc adapter 12v. Why would you try without the slim fans? because they can be noisy?

All I need to know is about THE PROCESSOR, the cpu wattage coverage.

Nice site, but I am overseas, outside the US.. and taxes : (

 

[tennis2]

Updated my previous post.

 

[Agraf273]

Z390 seems....excessive. What about H370 or B360? The GA B360N WiFi has 4-pin CPU power, built-in Wifi, and an M.2 slot.

If it works for Mojave I go for this no second though Is it confirmed that works? USB2.0/3.0, Sleep/Wake, ShutDown/Restart, HDMI with the iGPU i3 8100 and i5 8400 natively..

updated my previous post too, check it out please, thanks

 

[jonnyguru]

I found many from Aliexpress

Careful.

http://www.mini-box.com/site/mini-box-counterfeit-products-alert.html

 

[Agraf273]

I see better now : ) The only con I see is that they are a bit pricey for 160W picoPSU with DC adapter. But yet if it does the job it is a nice idea : )

 

[tennis2]

I linked that Gigabyte board because:

1. Your OP stated "GA Z390 miniITX " which would imply Gigabyte
2. It has all the requisites as listed previously - M.2 slot (on back), Integrated Wifi, 4-pin CPU power, cheaper, native support for i5-8400, etc etc.

50mm fans aren't going to move much air and if the case is decently ventilated anyway, they're probably unnecessary. They'd certainly fall under the category of "try it without first". If you could share the case you're considering that would be helpful.

I'm not up to snuff on Hackintosh stuff. Intel Wifi cards aren't compatible with MacOS?? (seems unlikely)

 

[Agraf273]

The case has vents on left - right sides and optional top cover with vents. Passive cooling. Check it and let's help decide the final components according to Mojave compatibility don't forget this (hackintosh). Thats this one Realan H60 https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32715233384.html?spm=a2g0o.cart.0.0.21cf3c009aq7tp&mp=1 really elegant. For air cooler I found a decent one 30mm height from the board's surface. I will not use any SSD/2,5 HDD if GIGABYTE is compatibly with my NVMe. My last board was GA too, the Z97M-D3H working everything with MacOS. NVMe disks are obviously faster than SSDs in booting and everything including speed rates. I also clone my OS with external USB3 SSD.

 

[Agraf273]

About the power supplies really thank you both for making it clear. I can get them. http://www.mini-box.com/site/resellers.html

 

[Agraf273]

So I repeat, hackintosh Mojave/Catalina attemp build:

• cpu i3-8100 or i5-8400 I prefer the i3. I need confirmation here if its UHD graphics 630 are natively supported or need some framebuffer or if it not compatible at all because I heard they are slitty different. Device ID0x3E91/x92
• MoBo GA B360N WIFI (rev. 1.0) it seems that everything is working on this board including sleep/wake but maybe not natively. Needs work but is is suggested I think. It has one backside m.2 for my M key 2280 adapter from DeLock PCIE and USB including the A+E Key adapter for the Broadcom chip BCM94360CS2. It is tested and it natively works
• 8GB Crucial DDR4-2666 RAM
• NVMe PCIe SSD WD Black sn750 Gen 3x4 only the 1TB is included in the QLV. I believe it is also supported by all new GAs. It is tested with aorus Z390 miniITX and it works flawlessly only in the front m.2 port. In addition I am waiting for a PCIE x4(x8x16) adapter for my NVMe just in case.
• PCI Express x16 slot with no dGPU. I am going to use it with NVMe disk as bootable OS and storage disk. If there is not enough space for my WifI/BT to the back then I just swap them
• iGPU Intel UHD Graphics 630 with hardware accelaration
• picoPSU 160W 12V Plug-in DC ATX PSU (192W AC Adapter Compatible)
• Realan H60 mini PC case I am not looking anymore for cases. This is the case I like the best.

note: please just note that I am not going to use Windows 10 with this build. MacOSX only. It is important to avoid ourselves from compatibility mistakes. Thanks

 

[Agraf273]

I'm not up to snuff on Hackintosh stuff. Intel Wifi cards aren't compatible with MacOS?? (seems unlikely)

Nope, If I could find a mini ITX board with no onboard wifi and bluetooth that would be identical to me. Some Intel onboard cards are working in High Sierra but no Bt. It is easily swapped by other wifi cards from Dell or Apple. In my mainboard I had to buy two adapters to make it work in the front m.2 slot. Generally, people need only one adapter and just replace the onboard with the other on the onboard mini PCIE (m.2) slot.

 

[Agraf273]

Their 150W or 160W models should be enough. Sounds like the CPU uses around 50-65W on non-AVX workloads. Say another 10-15W from the mobo & RAM, 10W from the SSD, and 5-10W from fans/etc, and you're at around ~100W total system power draw.

Z390 seems....excessive. What about H370 or B360? The GA B360N WiFi has 4-pin CPU power, built-in Wifi, and an M.2 slot.

I get Load Wattage: 179 W Recommended PSU Wattage: 229 W https://outervision.com/power-supply-calculator

 

[tennis2]

Outervision puts on a 2x factor of safety so the PSU is running at 50% duty cycle (the point of highest efficiency). 100W (actual) x 2 = 200W recommendation.

Your case - Looks like the bottom is well vented. Not sure why they didn't just turn the mobo upside down then, but whatever.... I'm still voting that you'd be fine without extra case fans.

 

[Agraf273]

The vents are on the bottom and this is normal because the MoBo is on horizontal orientation. Vents are also right and left to breathe, for letting air out. There are also top cover with vents, it is up to you. I don't care that much about fans. It is the correct hardware choice to me. I'm happy with the wattages. It's a shame there are not many mini cases around in reasonable price but there is no problem we can still find some decent ones.

Asus-ROG-STRIX-H370-I-GAMING does the job but it is more pricey
can I use only 4pin cpu power cable to 8pin motherboard? I think I do. And I can add an extension adapter cable with molex to power the board up enough to 8pin?

edit: you are right, vents could be on the top cover. This is how the cpu heatsink fan intakes air from and finally the case breathes.

 

[tennis2]

Just saying it'd be better if the mobo were upside down with the CPU fan intake pressed up against it. Then the exhaust would be pushed out the sides. This wouldn't require aesthetics to be sacrificed. Not sure how that'd affect the position of the IO cutout (it looks fairly centered on the height), but it could still be done in that case with some longer screws and nuts to hold the mobo up (basically elongating the standoffs and putting the head of the screw on the underside of the mobo). The screws and nuts would allow fine tuning adjustment of the height so the rear IO matches up with the coutout properly.

As it stands, the vents in the bottom do very little since they're under (being blocked by) the mobo. It's pretty much side to side airflow in that case.

I honestly don't see how you're going to get even a half-height expansion card into the x16 slot using that case. It doesn't even have a cutout for one.

 

[Agraf273]

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https://www.ebay.com/ulk/itm/283632297225
Bracket is removable, expansion card can be placed in this case easily with NVMe or other card plugged in it.

The only thing to me is that the power jack is on the side. I would like it on the back. There are more versions from Realan and RGeek. Bigger at 80mm height and top covers with vents. And I think that they were the first manufacturers started making mini cases. If you want buy a black one and attach a fan on it for intake hehe it will look really ugly just like most PCs.

The original pico PSUs are extremely expensive... case selection isn’t bad.

Hope to say something for the hackintosh components as well. I need to keep on. Thank you

iGPU hardware acceleration of i3-8100, Sleep/Wake, Restart/Shutdown, USB3/2, Audio, Ethernet, HDMI etc

 

[tennis2]

A drill bit will put the power jack wherever you want it