In recent times we've seen PSUs jump in rating to as high as a frankly absurd 1kW. However, at the other end of the scale, catering for the lower-power setups like mini-ITX, are much smaller ATX compatible units.
In a system where space is at a premium, such as with cases designed for mini-ITX boards, it's not rare to find the primary PSU located outside of the case. Taking the form of a power brick, the PSU brings in AC mains and converts it to DC, usually in the region of 12V, certainly no less. This supply must then be converted to the required voltages to power the ITX mainboard and other components such as hard drives, so that's a number of 12V, 5V and 3.3V sources; they are DC to DC power supplies.
These DC-DC PSUs can usually be engineered to be quite small but none so small as the newly-launched picoPSU, pictured below.
Sat directly on the 20-pin ATX mainboard connector, the picoPSU isn't much bigger than the connector itself. Only five cables come from the supply. Four make up the +12, GND and +5V wires for two four-pin Molex plugs and one floppy drive connector. The fifth is for the 12VDC input from an external power brick.
While remarkably small, the unit is said to be able to provide up to 120 Watts of power. That's enough for your regular mini-ITX board plus a drive or two but we reckon somebody with a bit of cunning will find out just how much can be run from one of these things. A PSU like this opens up the doorway for even smaller ITX cases - and we're sure modders will appreciate its slender size, too.
HEXUS.links
Mini-Box :: PicoPSU product page.
