Is a 90W PSU enough for a 3570K?

[dave_the_nerd]

Do you have a Kill-A-Watt? At this point, I'm dying to know how close you came to the 90w mark.

 

[MannyRik]

Just got everything set up and it seems to run fine in Windows 7. Undervolted the CPU slightly, just in case. Was perfectly stable during Windows 7's hardware evaluation test.

Forget about neat cable management in this case. There is simply not enough room. The best you can do is keep the wires out of the CPU fan's way, and that's about it. However, the form factor is incredible considering that there is a 3570K and two drives inside.

Thanks for the help everyone.

Can you please use a kill-a-watt to tell us how much it power it's consuming?

Did you ended up using the ISK 110? How does your power consumption compares to this one?

Thanks!!

 

[996GT2]

Hi guys,

Sorry that I haven't replied to this thread for such a long time.

I did stress test after building the system (no Prime95 or anything ridiculous), and it was fine. As a result, I decided to not undervolt the CPU and ended up running it at stock voltages and speeds, with turbo boost enabled.

I never got a chance to test the power draw with a Kill-A-Watt before delivering the system (it was for a family member), but here's the long-overdue update:

The system has been in use almost every day for the past 3 years. It is still working great today!

It is currently being used with two USB 3.0 hard drives attached to it. Here are a few more pictures of the build:

Chemi-Con caps on the DC-DC converter:

 

[DigDog]

i wonder what kind of build quality you get out of a 90w PSU.

 

[lehtv]

Very neat build. Like making your own NUC.

i wonder what kind of build quality you get out of a 90w PSU.

This kind:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/6192/antec-isk-110-vesa-case-review-just-about-as-small-as-it-gets/2

 

[Red Squirrel]

Wow that's a neat little system, and it's cool to see a consumer built system hit such a low power usage. Typically you only get that from embedded stuff. Though some motherboards just seem way more efficient than others. I find that most Supermicro based servers I've built come in at under 100w from the wall even with a powerful cpu like a Xeon.

Those are Nippon Chemicon caps which are one of the higher end brands so it's probably a good indication that it's a decent PSU. Rubycon is another high end brand to look for as well.

 

[usyed1]

Damn. Thats insane lol. 90% of the space is devoted to the CPU lol. I would have never thought that would work on a bare 90w psu.

 

[lehtv]

90% of the space is devoted to the CPU lol.

How's that ? Am I missing something

 

[dealcorn]

Cable management is often an issue with ITX builds. I am fond of 4" and 5" SATA cables for this purpose. It sounds like the 90 watt power supply is spot on for this build and may almost always operates in the sweet spot efficiency zone of 20-80% of capacity. For builds that require a greater or smaller power supply, consider a M350 case which permits you to select your own power supply. I get nervous at the suggestion to substitute a more powerful brick that may exceed the rated capacity of the provided PSU.

 

[TemjinGold]

How's that ? Am I missing something

He's convinced that cpu is actually pulling 77w.

 

[lehtv]

He's convinced that cpu is actually pulling 77w.

But he said "space", not "capacity". I'm inclined to think he's referring to how tiny the build is and how big the Intel stock cooler looks in comparison to the rest of the build, even though it takes nowhere near 90% of the space.

 

[TemjinGold]

But he said "space", not "capacity". I'm inclined to think he's referring to how tiny the build is and how big the Intel stock cooler looks in comparison to the rest of the build, even though it takes nowhere near 90% of the space.

Yes but look at his last sentence. His English is probably just not very good.

 

[lehtv]

Yes but look at his last sentence. His English is probably just not very good.

"I would have never thought that would work on a bare 90w psu" is grammatically correct as far as I can tell. And let's face it, native speakers know jack about grammar.

 

[TemjinGold]

You misunderstood--his grammar is fine (non-native speakers on average have way better grammar than native ones), I meant his word choice might not be very good ("space" vs "capacity"). When I said look at his last sentence, I meant, "What else could that mean if he wasn't thinking of what I was referring to?"