Are those Pico PSUs worth it?

Submitted ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨agressivelyPassive@feddit.de⁩ to ⁨selfhosted@lemmy.world⁩

I have an HP g3 mini and a Dell Optiplex flying around, both similarly specced. The HP has an i5 6500t and 16gb DDR4 RAM, the Dell has 8gb DDR3l, so nothing too different.

However, the Dell draws around 15W while idle, the HP one 5W.

The only difference I could think of (and that is in my power to change) is the PSU. The Dell has one of those SFF PSU for up to 180W while the HP has an external 65W power brick with a barrel jack.

So my question is: Does anyone have experience with one of those Pico PSUs? I guess they should be more efficient? I’m not planning to put anything power hungry into the optiplex.

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cstine@lemmy.uncomfortable.business ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
The answer for your question is ‘no’.

You’re never going to reduce power usage substantially by swapping PSUs, because there’s just not enough efficiency gains to be had even if a Pico PSU was more efficient which they really aren’t.

You say the hardware is ‘nothing too different’ but you mention ddr4 vs 3, which makes me think the Dell is a generation or few older which could easily impact power draw by 10w.

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housepanther@lemmy.goblackcat.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
That is a 3 fold difference though!

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Nilz@sopuli.xyz ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
A PSU will be most efficient if the load is close to what it’s designed for. A PicoPSU doesn’t have as many components as say a full ATX PSU and they are all sized for tiny loads.

I have used Pico PSUs on several occasions, more so due to their size than their effecienct. So I don’t think I’d swap a normal PSU out for one. With the difference of just 10 watts you’d probably have to run it 24/7 for years to break even in the cost of purchase.

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ojio_san@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
Hello, I have a pico psu (not the offical one), but I don’t think they’re more efficient. More compact and optimized for space (hello sff pc) ? Yes ! Because your power brick is outside your system. What do you really need ?

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