CoolerMaster Ultrathin power brick

I just stumbled upon this article in Fudzilla:

CoolerMaster USNA 95 Ultra Slim Notebook Adapter tested - Reviews - Reviews - Fudzilla

I was wondering if this would work with my laptop as I really hate the big power brick that I have now.

 

Looks good, I wonder how hot it would be?

 

How I read that: 150W peak is that it is 75W sustained output. Don't really know where they get 95W from - maybe the marketing team or just trying to sell a few more and hope that most of them work instead of failing like they most likely would?

Blacky, multiply your 'bricks' output voltage by the output amperage and that will get you the wattage you need in a new power brick. But reading your Clevo setup in your signature, I think you may need at least two or even three of these ultrathin bricks to safely power your notebook.

For netbooks and 2 or 3 year old notebooks, this looks like a good alternative. For anything current and powerful this looks like a waste of money to me - I'd buy the OEM brick without thinking about this option.

How puny is a 95W (nominal) brick? Well, let's just say my U30Jc has a real 90W brick and this is to power a little i3 350, 13.3" screen notebook.

I would not buy/use the CoolerMaster power brick on my U30Jc - that's how underpowered it seems to me.

 

My power brick is supposedly 120W. In comparison with the above slim power brick I don't know how to read its 95W output power and 150W peak power. Based on what tilleroftheearth said, I guess I would need two of these power bricks to keep my system going through those long gaming nights.

 

Blacky,

I have a client that has a Dell M6400 with a huge 210W power supply for his workstation. I'm surprised that your Clevo requires just 120W to power the notebook and charge the battery?

 

I am pretty sure that the power brick actually supplies more power than it writes on it. Most Clevo gaming notebooks released before Spring 2010 use 120W power bricks and only recently have a few users complained that the power brick is not enough. Moreover, this only happened in synthetic benchmarks were both the CPU and the GPU were put to work hard and only with the new i7 55W CPUs.

 

Blacky, rule #1: manufacturers NEVER give us more than what they claim.

Most Clevo notebooks I've googled state a 220W 'brick'.

I'm not doubting you - just think that the level of components in your notebook warrant much more than a 120W power supply to run safely (let alone run at all, much less run and charge the battery too...).

BTW, you know I was j/k that you'd need two or three of these Ultrathin's right? The proper way is to get a single unit to properly power your machine - the cabling headaches (and ground-wire looping/feedback) of connecting two or three of these to a single power plug are not worth the time or trouble.

 

I know you were joking, don't worry. Besides putting two of those things together would actually leave me with a bigger and heavier power brick.

The 220W brick is only for the very big Clevo notebooks that are the D900C and D900F, which both use desktop CPUs.

All other models, which are actually a lot more popular : M570RU, M570TU, M860TU, W870CU, W860CU etc. use an AC adapter of 120W.

Us, the people that lurk in the Clevo section of this forum, had already debated whether 120W AC is enough for these notebooks. We tend to believe that the AC actually supplies more than 120W as otherwise it could not power the entire machine. For example my video card and CPU together weight up to 120W in TDP not to mention the rest of the components and the OC on both the CPU and video card.

 

Not really. Thinking that TDP = power consumption is where you went wrong. Power consumption is always below TDP, in most cases, a lot lower.

Also this coolermaster power adapter is not going to be enough. You should never downgrade your power adapter, especially one as compromising as this coolermaster. It isn't some amazing feat of engineering, it is just higher end versions of the same old components crammed into a smaller space.

 

From what I've seen, the latest mobile i7s report their power consumption. For instance an i7 720QM has a TDP of 45W while the maximum reported power consumption is 55W. So I may be wrong, but not in the way you would expect.

Here's an example: http://forum.notebookreview.com/sag...ges/465201-clevo-w870cu-review-ati-5870m.html .

 

With Your OCed QX9300 and OCed GTX280 You're gonna brick this brick in a week's time .

 

19*4.74 = 90
5*1 = 5

90+5 = 95

Of course, actual quality, efficiency, and ability to meet the claimed (sustained) output remain to be determined.

 

If you're running flat out generating, say, 35w of heat (TDP), wouldn't you have to use more than 35w of power to do so, by simple physics?

 

That's what I was thinking

 

I've been running it like this for 8 months. Thank you.

 

Interesting. In doing further investigating, it looks like recently, on the high end, TDP is a more realistic measure of maximum power consumption under normal conditions.

No. Following entropy, all the energy used by the laptop leaves as heat except for the light from the screen and the sound from the fan, and the signals going into and leaving the processor cancel each other out.

 

this brick is a bad idea.. i'd get something rated higher.. this brick is too weak.. it would barely be good enough to power my Dv5t..

 

Assuming that this PSU is well-built and actually is capable of supplying 90W at the specified voltage and current, explain to me why it would be any worse than the (HP) OEM 90W PSU for powering your notebook?

 

i don't know.. but my 90W PSU get very warm under load so i don't expect this to be much less.. with a clevo , which sucks way more power with a GTX280M and QX9300 with both OCed, it will burn

 

Hopefully they make one with a higher output, even if it was twice as large it'd still be much better than my unwieldy 160W brick.

 

I'd be very surprised if that power brick is going to work with your Clevo.

 

It will work when idle or web-browsing but anything beyond that will probably fry it.

Given the price, I will not buy this adapter. Thanx for all your opinions.

 

Sometimes when gaming my laptop draws 95W+ (as displayed on my Kill-A-Watt meter).

Does this mean this adapter would cause electrical problems for my laptop?

 

No, because the laptop itself is still using less than 95w. Added into the kill-a-watt reading is the loss in converting from 110v AC to 19v DC, while the 95w output figure for this power supply is after that loss.

 

Is there a good way to estimate the loss in converting from 110v AC to 19v DC?

 

i doubt so unless ur going to use all those energy equations.. u would need some university level equations for that.. certainly not using P= IV lol..

 

No. It needs to be tested or at least specs given by the manufacturer for its efficiency. Also, I have several of the same exact power brick, and under the same usage some feel hotter than others. However, it is usually atleast 10% lost as a minimum, which varies depending on load and temperature. I know the most efficient desktop power supply can achieve something like as low as 7% though.

See how under the specifications of this power supply it lists efficiency as up to 90%? Also the easiest way is to just test it. Put a known load on the power supply and measure its power consumption using a kill-a-watt.