I am looking for a small PSU to power a HTPC system, and I came over a 300W 1U PSU (Fortron/Source). There was also a 460W version of it. My system will use about 220W at full power, according to my calculations. Should I go for the 460W PSU to reduce heat, or will the 300W do ok? And does a 1U PSU even work together with a mATX mobo (maybe a more important question)
'zactly. As long as the PSU has ATX wiring and not that of some weird form factor, you should be fine with it.
The thing with even a 1u psu, although they aren't that high (probably half the height of a standard atx psu) they are quite long, much longer than a standard psu.
Yeah, I noticed in my sketchup model that the 1U PSU is very long compared to a regular ATX. But still, it's not bulky, and it will allow my case to have a height of 10cm, which I couldn't do with a regular PSU. hitman mentions what I also mentioned in the 1st post, does 1U PSUs normally have ATX wiring, or will this be a problem?
well i thought he's talking about 300W and 460W versions of the same psu. out of that id take the beefer one but if you are talking about 300W quality psu and generic 460W i say take 300W too
What's the price difference? Can you realistically afford the 460? Or is it ALOT more expensive? The fact is the 460 will give you much more headroom should you decide to upgrade a few years down the line (who knows what newer systems will be pulling then?). But it's also a gamble, who's to say there isn't another form factor by then? 300W should run an HTPC just fine, though it would help to know exactly what you're running.
I haven't actually built the HTPC yet (or bought the parts), so I'm not sure how much it will draw exactly, but I used a PSU calculator online and found out around 220W with 100% processor use. The PSUs I'm talking about, the 300 and the 460W are of the same brand. I think the price difference is around $35 between the two. I will probably never upgrade this system, as it is built for use in the living room, mostly for watching/capturing TV, so I don't really need to upgrade it down the line.
I'm yet to find a rack mounted sever that I would descibe as quite let alone silent. I certanly wouldn't be looking at server PSU's for a HTPC (or infact for use anywhere other than a server room I didn't need to be in most of the time)
1u PSUs are insanely loud. I'd suggest you look into getting a Shuttle PSU, they're good and quiet, and about the same size.
That's a good point. I see the fans are tiny, and most probably noisy... I'll look into the shuttle PSUs then.
