Has anyone tried to use these power supplies with a P4 based system? According to [url=http://www.mini-box.com/PW-200M-DC-DC-power-supply?sc=8&category=13]Mini-Box's website[/url] it can be done with a P4 up to 3.0GHz. They also have a [url=http://resources.mini-box.com/online/powersimulator/powersimulator.html] power simulator[/url] that will give you a rough estimate of power consumption with drives, video cards, etc. I was thinking about this unit along with the [url=http://www.mini-box.com/110w-12v-8-5A-AC-DC-Power-Adapter?category=13]110w (12v/8.5A) AC-DC Power Adapter[/url] for a Celeron D 2.8GHz frontend only box. Any thoughts from the masses?

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Mike
My Hardware Profile

Hi,

I would suspect that as long as you don't exceed the power capacity you should be ok. Just because it is rated 200w I don't think you can pull that continously, maybe about 140 ~ 150 would ok, usually 75 ~ 80% is considered max and leaves a small buffer for momentary demands (overhead room)

I believe that model also requires a 12 supply of +/- .5volt as an input.

Mike

An update in case anyone is interested... I bought this power supply and early indications are that it works very well in my minimalist frontend-only system. (Asus P5S800-VM / Celeron D 2.8GHz / Biostar NVIDIA 6200A AGP / 512MB DDR400 / Generic 1.44 Floppy / Old 6GB Seagate hard drive) I had no problem playing back HDTV content over my wired network. With regard to noise, it makes a HUGE difference. It was a little spendy at $100, but I think if you want silence, you have to pay for it. (unfortunately) Be aware I had to buy a P4 12V extension cable so I could reach my 12V connector on the mobo. It may not be necessary for everyone. It depends on your board's layout. Anyway, thumbs up!

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Mike
My Hardware Profile

Further update... After about a week of testing I've come to realize that this power supply is not going to cut it over the long haul. I could get it to playback HDTV over my wired network for about 15-45 min and then the power supply would crap out. I'm no electrical engineer, but I believe it was due to my system trying to pull more than 13.8v of power upon occasion. In the end, I returned to power supply for a refund (I had 30 days to get a full refund.) It's too bad it did not work out. It was a very quiet box.

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Mike
My Hardware Profile

Mike,
I wonder if a 2.5" HD and slim DVD would make much difference in a system similar to yours? I have one of the PW-200M PSU in my box of things-I-haven't-used-yet-...
Looking at their power simulator page, a system as described above may still be pushing it. My frontend-only KnoppMyth box is a pseudo-dragon (no tuner cards, in a 4U rackmount case). I've thought about trying the PW-200M PSU in it w/ 2.5" HD and slim DVD in place of the 3.5" and 5.25" drives.

-sTv

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R7.3 Backend
CPU: 1.8 GHz
RAM: 2Gb
Drives: 500Gb IDE; IDE DVD-RW
Mobo: eMachines
Tuners (Analog): PVR-250
Tuners (Digital): DCT-6200 Motorola Cable Box, HDHomeRun (OTA + cable)

Steve,
A 2.5" and a slim cd drive may very well work. Because my system would work for a period of time before becoming unstable I would tend to think that my system was on the bleeding edge of the power supply's cababilities. It just did not have enough juice to deal with the momentary surges in power requirements to keep me stable. Going on memory, I believe the 2.5" and slim drives use less power than their bigger counterparts. For all I know, it may have worked if I had the same type of parts in my system, but different brands or models of those parts. I did not have the extra parts to test that theory. If you have the time, give it a shot and report back your findings.

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Mike
My Hardware Profile

I was just thinking that this power supply may work with a diskless frontend as documented on the wiki. Eliminating the hard drive and it's power requirements may keep it stable.

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Mike
My Hardware Profile