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I think the only thing to consider is the switching frequency, although 550KHz seems pretty high. I would expect worse filtering performance if ordering from AliExpress but I mean who knows ;) That's part of the fun of using AE. In my case, I'm trying to decide if I should keep with my external PSU option as I had before, going with the C64 PSU option or trying Option E as you noted above. I built an external linear PSU previously using a 7805 and 7809 and some power resistors to dissipate the heat before going into the 7805. It was a heater as you can imagine, and NOT UL listed :) But did the trick. I think I can improve that though. I like the idea of an external PSU because it keeps the heat out of the case gives me plenty of room for filtering (if using switchers) or a huge heat budget if I wanted to use linear regs. Switchers vs Linear was, at one point, pretty hotly debated on these forums but it sounds like in practice it's just not that big a deal anymore. The SID itself is noisy enough in ideal conditions so yeah I think the switcher at least on the 5V rail makes a lot of sense.