ITX Case and PSU modding

Discussion in 'Overclocking, Cooling & Modding' started by Chai, Mar 21, 2021.

  1. Chai

    Chai Administrator Staff Member

    It is getting ridiculous to pay for ATX PSU price for a tiny Corsair SFF PSU which is excellent, but extremely overkilled for my setup, especially when I only need less than 150W at peak load.

    So I have opted alternative solution, Pico-PSU. This is actually a very old solution, but it is extremely compact and works very well in ITX or other SFF setup. My setup is just an old i3-3220 with H77 motherboard. But with 16GB RAM and a 512GB NVMe SSD on a hacked BIOS, it is a potent combo for typical home use.

    This is what I use in the old setup. It is a tiny case with barely any room.
    DSC_8804.JPG DSC_8805.JPG

    The case with the old PSU taken off.

    DSC_8807.JPG

    These are the parts I'm replacing the old PSU with. It's a PicoPSU-120-WI-25, 12-25V and an old 19V 7.11A (135W) power brick.

    DSC_2986.JPG DSC_2989.JPG

    The Pico-PSU is just a tiny ATX connector sized "PSU", and look how empty the case even with everything plugged in!

    DSC_8808.JPG DSC_8810.JPG

    Pico-PSU is technically not the main PSU, it requires an additional external power brick. So there's already a pre-drilled hole just right for the included power connector. And I cut a acrylic plate as a blanking plate for the ITX case. Not perfect, but I think it looks good enough.

    DSC_8811.JPG DSC_8812.JPG DSC_8813.JPG

    And the power consumption at idle is way better using this setup compared with the old PSU that I was using, from 50W+ down to just 36W. And there is no more noise from the PSU, just the stock CPU fan which can be a bit annoying.
     
  2. I followed this and the annoying problem is solved :thumb:
     

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