Mini-Box picoPSU-160-XT High Power 24 Pin Mini-ITX Power Supply

Note: I purchased this product as part of a kit (160-XT + 192w AC DC brick) directly from Mini Box.I am amazed at how this product somehow slithered under my radar for as long as it did, and I'm very pleased to have finally discovered it. My plan was to build a fully custom wooden Mini-ITX gaming "console" with relatively low power components in a small volume chassis. I was originally going to use my existing SFX-L PSU, but it was simply too large and added unnecessary noise with its extra fan. That's where this little beast came in.Now, I'm gaming and writing this review using a small cardboard box prototype chassis holding:- an i5 6600 (cooled by a Thermaltake Engine 27)- GTX 750 ti (will upgrade to a 1050 ti without external power connectors soon)- 500GB Samsung 850 Evo- 16GB DDR4 RAM- and a single Corsair ML140 fanAll of this powered by the PicoPSU 160 XT paired with Mini Box's 192w AC DC power brick.I have stressed the entire system with MSI Kombustor using both the CPU burner and Furmark at the same time for twenty minutes with no issues, so I'm very pleased with the PicoPSU's performance and reliability. I'm confident that I will not experience any issues after upgrading to a 1050 ti in the near future. Who says that you can't game on a PicoPSU? They lied!Update: 02/05/17It has been a month since upgrading to a Zotac GTX 1050 ti OC, and I'm happy to report no issues. My system has been completely stable, though I have not overclocked the card (and don't really plan to anytime soon). My confidence in the PicoPSU has been further reinforced.Some people tend to ask for advice on forums about using a dedicated GPU with a PicoPSU, and the usual feedback is "DON'T do it." Too many people seem to underestimate the power of these little DC-DC units. They're perfectly capable of handling the unpredictable loads of respectable mid-high range GPUs, including the GTX 1060! The only source of criticism is the high price/watt ratio, which isn't too much of an issue when considering the excellent quality of these units, and small components typically have some sort of a premium attached to them.

I got this PSU for the smallest HTPC build I've done to date and it works flawlessly! Powering every peripheral (outside of a dedicated graphics card), the PSU adequately supplies everything for this build. It fit perfectly into the Mini-ITX motherboard and did not clutter the case at all. I highly recommend this PSU to anyone looking to silence their power supply and get a quieter PC. Would definitely buy again!Build:Motherboard: GigaByte GA-Z170N - WiFi Mini ITX LGA Socket 1151 DDR4Processor: Unlocked Intel i5 6600k 3.5 GhzRAM: 16GB (8x2) DDR4 Ballistix Sport LT 2400 MhzCPU Cooler: Low Profile Noctua L9Case Fan : Noctua 40mm Acoustic ReductionCase: Streacom FC1WS EVOHD(s): M.2 Samsung 950 Evo NVMe 256GB / Samsung 840 1TB HD / Samsung 850 250 GB

seems to work ok on a haswell board with a low-power i3 chip. wanted a 24pin atx unit and this is one of the few that has the 4 extra pins on the atx psu connector.

To put it simply the picoPSU series almost always introduce more total losses and wasted power to power your motherboard/device. CPU's and RAM run on less than 2 volts. So the most efficient option is to directly convert your wall/mains power to 12 volts which the mother board then converts to the voltages needed by the CPU, memory, etc. The PicoPSU just adds another layer of losses.Even the best of power supplies are around 80% to 95% efficient depending on the load and quality of the supply. A good average best case number Is 85% at light loads. So with these Pico PSUs even if you have a high quality expensive 12 volt power brick with Power Factor correction that's optimistically (especially at light load) 85% efficient. Your Pico PSU is also, at bestat light loads, around 85% efficient. So If your PC/system/device needs say 20 watts that's really 20/.85 = 24 watts from the power brick and then 24/.85 or 28 watts from the wall. So, roughly, using a picoPSU wastes an extra 4 watts in this example.You're generally better off to either use a motherboard/device that can accept 12 volt power directly rather than one with an ATX connector. Or if you're stuck with an ATX connector just use an 80+ Gold or better power supply. You eliminate a layer of conversion loss that way and will generally end up using LESS power than a 12 volt power brick supplying a picoPSU.The picoPSUs also really struggle to support multiple hard drives and especially mechanical hard drives that have high start up current. They also lack the required connectors for many applications.

Wow! This is an amazing little item. It's a power supply that fits entirely into your ATX connector. I've paired it with a 192 Watt ac-dc adapter, also by mini-box. This setup is powering an ASUS ITX motherboard, 16 GB RAM, an i7-4790K overclocked to 4.6 GHz, and an overclocked GTX 750 Ti GPU. The intended purpose of this pc is as a mobile gaming box. A sort of inexpensive gaming laptop if you will. I will admit that I have pushed this PSU as far as I possibly can with my current components, and it keeps coming back for more! You would be surprised how many FPS you can get for 160 watts. I know I could do even better if I replaced the i7 with an i3, and replaced the 750 Ti with a GTX 1060, so that's the next step. This will make my main gamebox happy as she's suffering with a pentium g3258 in the interim. I would highly recommend this item with one caveat: if you buy this you will need to purchase a quality ac-dc adapter. This is because this unit simply passes the 12 volts to your cpu, with no controls. Consequently, a smooth, steady 12 volts is required. Fortunately, mini-box has just such an item. I cannot recommend this tiny (ok, pico sized) psu highly enough!

It needs that to work.

This is working great as a PSU for a low power test bench i had on hand. i had to modify the DC In jack as i didnt have a 12V supply with the right size but after that it works as intended.