Thread: Best PSU for Intel D945GCLF2 Dual-core Atom

You don't need M4-ATX. you should be fine with M1-ATX (90watt) or m2-atx (160watts).
D94GCLF2 is a nice, low power consumption board, it even works with picoPSU-90, see this URL: http://www.mini-box.com/Intel-D945GC...TX-Motherboard (see recommended PSU), however this is for 12V only.

Bottom line: M4-ATX will work OK for you for M1-ATX should so the same job as this board consumes about 25watts only.

-Andrei

Originally Posted by kevint11

I am thinking of building my first CarPC and I am looking at the Intel D945GCLF2 board. What PSU would be the best for this motherboard plus a bunch of devices?

I am thinking of having:

USB Wifi
USB Bluetooth
USB TouchScreen
USB GPS
USB TV Tuner
USB BrainFusion

Slim DVD Burner - Might be SATA or USB
One or Two 3.5" Hard Drives

I don't want to have to buy a new PSU down the road when I finally get all the devices hooked up.

I am thinking the M4-ATX 250 watt because it seems it has more features than the M2-ATX 160 watt. Is this true?

Thanks!

for your information, here are the power consumption measuremets for D945GCLF2:

3.3V rail < 1A
5V rail < 3A (this is the D945GC draining most of the power)
12V rail < 0.5A (most of the time at 200mA, this is the ATOM CPU)
-5V rail: not used
-12V rail 25mA

Enjoy,
-A

Originally Posted by andrewb

You don't need M4-ATX. you should be fine with M1-ATX (90watt) or m2-atx (160watts).
D94GCLF2 is a nice, low power consumption board, it even works with picoPSU-90, see this URL: http://www.mini-box.com/Intel-D945GC...TX-Motherboard (see recommended PSU), however this is for 12V only.

Bottom line: M4-ATX will work OK for you for M1-ATX should so the same job as this board consumes about 25watts only.

-Andrei

Thanks! I ended up ordering the M4-ATX ... I know it was way overkill but I liked the 'autolatch' feature it has. Also if I ever want to upgrade to something more powerful I can down the road.

Does anyone uses OPUS 150 with this board.

I having problems with mine

I disagee that the PicoPSU90 is a good match despite the link above. The challenge with this motherboard is all about 5volts due to the power hungry chipset, unlike its imediate predeccessor the D201GLY2 which had a frugal chipset but hungry CPU. I think folks are making the mistake of saying because the D201GLY2 could run on PICO90 and D945GCLF2 uses less power, that therefore PICO90 is OK.

D201GLY2 used quite a bit of 12V for the celeron 220, and that made many mini itx psus unusable with the baord.

D945GCLF2 uses hardly any 12V, but a good deal of 5V. So you need a PSU that can do at better than 7 - 8 amps sustained on 5V.

PICOPSU-90
"
Specifications, picoPSU-90, 90Watts DC-DC ATX Power Supply

Power Ratings
Volts (V) Max Load (A) Peak Load (A) Regulation %
5V 6A 7A +/- 1.5%
5VSB 1.5A 2A +/- 1.5%
3.3V 5A 7A +/- 1.5%
-12V 0.05A 0.1A +/- 5%
12V 5A 7A Switched input
At max load, forced air ventilation is required. For fanless operation de-rate the output of the 3.3
and 5V rails by ~25%. Peak load should not exceed 120 seconds. Combined power output
should not exceed more than 90watts. "

Translated, means 6A if fan cooled, 4 amps otherwise. Given the the powewr connnector of D201GLY2 was right next to the NB and CPU there was a good chance of it getting some air from the cooling solution in place there. With D945GCLF2 the power connnector is tucked right away from any likeyl airflow, and hence, 4A is the pico90s limit.

Ive just blown a PSU that had a 5A limit on 5volts with this board.

Now as for M1-ATX this was no good for D201GLY2 owing to its 12V needs. but taking another look at it for the atom baord its perfect!

"Maximum Power Charact
Output Rail Current (Max) Current Peak
(<60 seconds)
5V 10A 15A
3.3V 10A 15A
5VSB 1.5A 2A
-12V 0.15A 0.2A
12V 2A 2.5A"

So M1-ATX is fine.

How would an M3 atx be (thats the psu I have and Im switching to this mb)?

Originally Posted by Jistari

How would an M3 atx be (thats the psu I have and Im switching to this mb)?

So far the M3 is working fine for me with this board. That said, this is on a bench setup for a couple days using only touch screen, wifi, and GPS on the USB and a single hard drive with no optical drive.

Originally Posted by txspazz

So far the M3 is working fine for me with this board. That said, this is on a bench setup for a couple days using only touch screen, wifi, and GPS on the USB and a single hard drive with no optical drive.

I got the board but dont know if I should get the "DSATX" or "M3-ATX".

I can't recommend the M3-ATX at this point.