As far as the power goes, I ran into issues during load on a E2180 w/ 2GB RAM, a WD DVR Drive and temporary CD-ROM drive I used to load. I couldn’t get the system to boot when the CD spun up. The 200W was the right size at the right price. While I don’t see the need for a 450W in a unit like this, I don’t like to be just a hair over the power needs either.

I love the case, though. It’s perfect for out of the way solutions, even if airflow can be a little challenged.

BTW, stock 100W PSU is enough for most configurations. Some people use K45 with Core 2 Duo e4400 and higher. I used it with e2160 but I also had PCI Radeon HD2400 Pro video card which can draw (I believe) up to 25 Watt. This together with WD Caviar AAKS 500GB, 92 mm case fan amd some USB devices worked well for a long time.

I broke stock PSU when I did two things together while still using PCI video card.
- Replaced CPU to Pentium e5200 (KPC can use it with latest BIOS)
- Replaced fan in PSU to Scythe Mini Kaze. That is not right fan, it’s 40×10 mm, I should have used Mini Kaze Ultra 40×20 mm. Did that to make it quieter.
It worked for a while but would shut down after ~ 1 hour. Tried it 3-4 times and then it died.

So I need PSU replacemet but I’m also looking for a more or less quiet solution. I am glad to know that most 81.5W x 40.6H mm Flex ATX will fit. Sparkle SPI220LE would also do the job but it is reported as loud when power consumption reaches some limit (not sure which, could be anywhere between 50-100 watts) and it is expensive.

At one point I had a PC case with six, count ‘em 6, Vantec Tornadoes. Anything is quiet after that.

At any rate, this Case is tucked under the desk and I really can’t hear much at all despite it operating 24 hours a day. The 120mm case fan puts out the most noise of all and that’s still not much for me.