Min. PSU for 2600K and MIini ITX with dedicated GPU

[branskyj]

Hi all,

I already asked the question in another forum, I just needed another opinion on the following:

 

It's time for me to upgrade my render nodes and decided to go with the Mini ITX motherboard and i7 2600k CPU combination. The CPUs will run on 100% for long periods of time as they will be used for rendering. I want to keep everything AS COMPACT AS POSSIBLE and for that reason I am going to need a low- profile PSU.

 

So, basically each render node will consist of:

Mini ITX motherboard (with integrated GPU)

i7 2600K CPU

4 GB DDR3

1 HDD 7200RPM

 

I will not use dedicated graphics card and will not overclock the CPUs.

 

Can you please tell me what is the minimum power supply that I will need. Then I will just add 50W to be on the safe side.

 

Thanks a lot, guys.

 

P.S. I used an on-line PSU calculator and the result was approximately 190W PSU. Is that result trustworthy?

[AJLynn]

190W? Well... that's really small by today's standards. But I just tried it out of curiosity and came up with 192. But Mini ITX cases usually come with power supplies - they're too small to stick an ATX unit in there - and they max out around 250W from what I've seen.

 

I think that you probably don't actually want to stick a 2600K CPU in a Mini ITX case. The case is too small and the cooling requirements too much for it. I'd go with something like a Micro ATX instead.

[branskyj]

Hi AJLynn,

I should have elaborated- I won't use conventional PC cases for the render nodes. Instead they will be placed in a filing cabinet customised for the need.

I am already using a large filing cabinet (I customised it myself) to fit my current micro ATX motherboards but the whole thing is just too big and I needed something much more elegant and compact. Each render node will be placed in a separate drawer.

 

So, back to the PSU question- do you think 250W PSU will suffice for each node? Or maybe even 200W PSU?

 

Thanks for the response.

[AJLynn]

I'd do the 250.

[branskyj]

Thank you.