HTPC cases have tiny psu's !?

[Judge Zetsumei]

There are some very nice HTPC cases out there such as the Silverstone MILO ML02B-R and the Hiper HMC-2K53A-A3. These cases in my opinion are what HTPC's should look like, they're low like a dvd player, look sleek and have a VFD or LCD as standard, but they come with the most pitiful power supplies ever! The Hiper one you could JUST about get away with being 200w but the silverstone one is 120w. You've got no chance making a HTPC that can play HD in that which is a real shame. In fact the silverstone one you're pretty much limited to a mobile on desktop set-up, which are underpowered and overly expensive.

Is there any way to mod small low cases like these to fit a micro atx psu in for example. Or are there any cases similar to these that accommodate better power supplies so you could make a system capable of playing 1080p HD.

[this_is_gav]

You've got no chance making a HTPC that can play HD in that which is a real shame.

It'd easily power an HD-playing system. I've got a MotD setup and stuck an HD3450 in it.

[Webby]

Umm you could easily power a HD media centre on 120W your shopping list just needs to look like this,

AMD 4850e 45W 2.5GHz Processor
AMD 780G or nVidia 8200 Motherboard
2GB of DDR2-800 C5 RAM (lowest volts you can find)
Hard drive
Blu-ray/DVD Drive

Will probably have a max load of 90W

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/200...00-mini-itx/11

The 8200 board in the review is mini-itx but the 780G board in the graph is uATX.

[Judge Zetsumei]

are you sure? Because I used that power supply calculator and used those same components as above with a tv tuner and card reader and the wattage came to 151.

edit: i just checked that link at it appears you are right. I wonder why that calculator is wrong then :\

[Webby]

Yeah and I have shown you a review from a reliable source which clearly states that those items or (ones with identical specifications) only draw 90W under load from the wall, factor in the efficiency of the PSU (~80% at that load for that PSU) and your looking at a load figure closer to 70W, and for the mini-itx board during blu-ray playback a load value of ~70W (55W actual).

Yes you will need to add a bit for a TV tuner and a card reader and the VFD display but they are not going to be drawing 20W let alone the 50W required to push a 120W PSU to its limit.

[this_is_gav]

If you're really paranoid, go for an Atom-based board and CPU package and stick an HD3450 or HD4450 in there. The Atom desktop chipsets draw quite a bit more watts than their mobile variants (due to licensing issues), but still plenty less than any desktop setup.

[Webby]

I would question an atoms ability to decode HD even with a discrete graphics card, add to that that you can only get atom boards with a single PCI slot and it becomes even more problematic as you will be limited to a 2400Pro and then you wont be able to use a PCI tv tuner!

[Judge Zetsumei]

cheers for the help

[this_is_gav]

I would question an atoms ability to decode HD even with a discrete graphics card

I know an Eee PC with XP can decode at least 720p with the CoreAVC codec. No idea about anything more.

It's not something I'd do myself mind, but it is impressive nevertheless. I still favour the AMD option.

[Webby]

Yeah I was thinking more playing from Blu-ray, which I would think it would struggle with.

[s_kinton]

I will definitely not do 1080p if thats what you mean?

To solve the power issues. Just buy a 1u PSU, I use a tiny Silverstone 250w to power my HTPC and it works fine. I've seen 1u PSUs with much higher wattage output too. The dimensions are 150x81.5x40.5 mm

See here.
http://linitx.com/viewcategory.php?catid=150

That little thing powers:
AMD 4200x2
Dual DVB-T tuner card
2Gb RAM
Abit AN-M2HD, onboard 7 series nvidia
2 HDDs
1 DVDRW

[Jay]

I use this...

http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?W...se++(w%2fo+PSU)

its the same width as the SKY HD Box so it looks really good. It also takes full ATX motherboards, full hight cards and standard PSUs.

[aidanjt]

are you sure? Because I used that power supply calculator and used those same components as above with a tv tuner and card reader and the wattage came to 151.

edit: i just checked that link at it appears you are right. I wonder why that calculator is wrong then :\

PSU calculators are useless. Pay no attention to their grossly excessive guesstimates. 120W is plenty to power most machines.