Ban the power brick

[Tea]

I dislike the power bricks.

YES!!!

I hate the damn things.

 

[Tea]

Sorry. Someone delete the other (double) topic please. My toes are all fingers today. Probably becauze of the cold.

 

[ddrueding]

The next PS for my bedroom computer will likely be a brick...silence is happy.

 

[Buck]

Silence is bliss! But some lame dangling (well loose and sitting on the desk) brick isn't the answer; how about integrating the brick so it becomes a part of the equipment?

 

[ddrueding]

Silence is bliss! But some lame dangling (well loose and sitting on the desk) brick isn't the answer; how about integrating the brick so it becomes a part of the equipment?

That involves integrating the heat as well. I'd prefer to keep that heat behind my desk.

 

[Buck]

Silence is bliss! But some lame dangling (well loose and sitting on the desk) brick isn't the answer; how about integrating the brick so it becomes a part of the equipment?

That involves integrating the heat as well. I'd prefer to keep that heat behind my desk.

Although, if you take some of those mini-form-factor systems, like Dell Optiplexes, they have an external brick that produces very little heat. You could easily engineer a slightly larger case to house that brick inside and let the heat dissipate through passive coolers. The heat impact on the system would be negligible.

PS: Have you ever seen one of those plastic bricks blow? Nasty. The burn mark went through the plastic housing and fried part of the cable. Sadly, new bricks weren't available. They had to purchase a new switch.

 

[Handruin]

My new Dell monitor has one and sometimes it buzzes when I turn on the monitor. I think it knows that I secretly despise it.

 

[blakerwry]

An external PSU is cheaper, user replaceable, and lowers engineering costs. The only downside is that it is more clumsy/less eligant.

 

[MaxBurn]

In some cases like say a laptop you wouldn't want to add the power brick size and weight to the device, can definately see the need there.

 

[time]

An external PSU is cheaper, user replaceable, and lowers engineering costs.

I don't think this is true. You may lower design costs for your appliance, but the external power supplies will cost more than an internal. Apart from anything else, regulatory requirements are tougher to meet on external bricks.

Heat dissipation can actually be harder to manage with a brick - you may notice that they frequently run quite hot. Good for your applicance, but not for the brick.

I'd even disagree with the user replaceable aspect. In PCs, for example, power supplies are mostly standardized units available anywhere. In contrast, even appliance models from the same manufacturer may have distinct brick variants. And what happens if a user connects the wrong unit?

Good grief, you can't even get standardized connectors, let alone standard polarity (or AC/DC) and voltages.

 

[ddrueding]

I Think the laptop argument holds the most water. The laptop resting in myleft hand as I type this with my right would be much heavier and harder to manage if it had even half the weight or size of the brick added. I don't mean to digress, but if I could have lost the size/weight of the optical and PCMCIA bays as well, I would also prefer for them to be "outsourced"