What's the route to find powerful micro-ATX size power supplies? With 250 watts plus

[Kiwi]

What's the route to find powerful micro-ATX size power supplies? Decent ones with more than 250 watts?

(Already added to the primary PSU thread, in which micro-ATX's aren't mentioned, or if they are, I scanned past the references. I've also noted that although I never tried a larger (350 watts or more) Allied branded psu, I've had no trouble at all, absolutely none, with their smaller and mid-size units over the past 15 years or so.)

Most of the micro-size ones seem to be in the 140 to 200 watt range, and there doesn't seem to be a standard for mounting them. The Enlight 7180A I intend to build a DVR/HTPC into has only 150 watts, which I consider inadequate for my purpose. And the only replacement I can be sure can be made to actually fit is Enermax's 250 watt unit.

There is another Enermax micro-ATX psu in the range that I would like to use, but it mounts sideways to the one in the new Enlight case (the small end is 2 1/2 by 4, and Enermax's 270 watt unit mounts on its 2 1/2 by 5 inch side). I don't know about the mounting screw pattern on the 250 Enermax -- it seems that there are both three screw and four screw mountings.

Anyone else done a little more data gathering on this off-shoot of the power supply question?

Originally Posted by Hi Ho You would get more replies if you started a new thread but I will say that though I'm not sure how they do it, I have seen many Micro ATX systems with high end video cards and CPU's run on 200w PSU's.

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Done.

[Yuanji]

i think they are very high quality and can output much more power then they are rated for.

[Kiwi]

Originally Posted by Yuanji i think they are very high quality and can output much more power then they are rated for.

If it's a stopgap, it's expensive by comparison with similar full size ATX units! But it seems to be the only one I found in quite a lot of internet looking, that has the matching end as the mounting end!

Thanks for the encouragement.

[mb26]

i have done a lot of research into MATX psus, and the 270w enermax is the best out there with no exception.

there is no difference in orientation/mounting. the 270w enermax just has an 80mm fan on the inside pushing out, and the other presumably has a 60mm (=noiser) fan on the outside pulling air through the PSU.

270w is enough for 90% of all systems around today.. people just always think they need more power 'i add a lot of components so i will need more than what u recommend me' or 'i am getting an athlon 64 so i'll need more power than for an athlon XP'.. both wrong.. this 'high quality' arguement is BS too, fortron/enermax ATX PSUs are as high-quality as mATX. i know of a DUAL 2400+ Athlon XP system run on a 300w fortron. going fine for ages.
short of OCing, when was the last time u heard of a 300w+ PSU from a good name cause problems?

what are u planning to put in this system? avoid the presscott ideally, other than that (and dual opterons or 6800 ultras) i can't see what would be too powerful for this PSU.. i presume u dont plan OCing? i'd recommend an A-XP 2400+ 35w, or nothwood P4 or athlon 64-m. the 'ultimate' would be a pentium M, but expensive.

[Kiwi]

Directron had dimensions in their PSU listings, which is where I got the conflict on orientation for the 270. The Enermax 270 is listed as 2 1/2 tall, 5 "wide", and that won't cut it. This particular Enlight box is set up for the 2 1/2 by 4" wide side to mount in the backplane.

I have an MSI K7N2 micro MB, 512 MB's of PC 3200 RAM, and an XP 2800 cpu as the main components. The video is an FX 5700 Ultra, the TV Tuner is an Asus, and it will have twin optical drives, plus a 160 Gb WD IDE 7200 rpm Hdd and perhaps an older, small backup Hdd to the OS partition.

[Kiwi]

Originally Posted by Kiwi Directron had dimensions in their PSU listings, which is where I got the conflict on orientation for the 270. The Enermax 270 is listed as 2 1/2 tall, 5 "wide", and that won't cut it. This particular Enlight box is set up for the 2 1/2 by 4" wide side to mount in the backplane (63 by 100 mm, not counting the external fan on the bottom). I have an MSI K7N2 micro MB, 512 MB's of PC 3200 RAM, and an XP 2800 cpu as the main components. The video is (was going to be) an FX 5700 Ultra, the TV Tuner is an Asus, and it will have twin optical drives, plus a 160 Gb WD (it's ended up as a Seagate 120) IDE 7200 rpm Hdd, and perhaps an older, small backup Hdd to the OS partition.

Other projects got more attention since then, and when I ordered the 250 Watt Enermax that according to Directron was oriented the right direction, it is the same "long side mount" variety as the 270, after all. Instead of the 5700 Ultra, it's getting a Radeon 9700 Pro, and it's seriously looking like I'll take a sale-price TTGI 250 that faces the wrong way, and a really cheap something that faces the right way, and gut out both shells, so I can see about rearranging the parts from the 250 inside the 100's shell. I didn't want to do it that way.