Maxit Mag

The Nova 600W starts what could become a trend for PCs in need of lots of power. You won't be able to feed your quad core, 8800 Ultra SLI configuration just yet, but give it time. Until now, the only external PSU (that I can remember) was mini-box's picoPSU, wich was very limited by the power brick it relied on for AC/DC conversion. It wasn't even a real PSU, just one half. This is the whole thing. What we need now (as Tim Allen would say) is: more power!

True, you can use just 600W for your SFF or HTPC but, why stop there? As good as manufacturers try to make their 1000+ units, they will inevitably add to the case cooling problems. Leaving the PSU outside of the case is a logical solution. If the market continues in the direction of consuming more and more watts, you will have to finally choose to either go external or noisy. The first choice may not look very stylish to you, but that can be improved. On the other hand, avoiding noise on a device that has to dissipate, let's say, 150W of heat in such a jammed space, without fresh intake air is impossible. Water cooling could do that, or a separate chamber for the PSU (like Antec does). Both solutions relay on the same principle behind the external unit, using outside air for cooling.