Power supply build quality pictorial. part 2

[goodpsusearch]

It has chip of the year 2003.

[momaka]

Originally Posted by Dan81

I don't think AM radios are used anymore where I live.

But that's the thing. Even if they aren't, that doesn't give your PSU an excuse to pollute the spectrum.

Originally Posted by Dan81

Also,I haven't ever heard any noise from it,other than the fans.

Hehe, read my last post above again. I said that without the EMI/RF choke on the input, the PSU creates and is susceptible to a lot of electrical noise - sudden changes in the voltage.

Originally Posted by Stefan Payne

Something I obtained today: (anyone know who made this one?)

Solytech indeed, as Dan81 mentioned.

Originally Posted by Stefan Payne

From afar it doesn't look that bad, does it?

Well, it's certainly one of Deer's/Solytech's better units, but I still wouldn't put it in a mission-critical computer or something where you keep a lot of important files or have lots of important hardware hooked to. Other than that, it seems a perfectly capable PSU (good heatsinks, good rectifiers, and large primary BJTs).

Just recap it. And DEFINITELY remove/re-arrange the dummy load resistors on the secondary side. Most likely, the 12V will have a 100 Ohm resistor, the 5V rail will have a 47 Ohm or 27 Ohm resistor, and the 3.3V rail will have a 10 Ohms or less resistor.
Re-arrange these so that the 100 Ohm resistor is on the 5V rail, the 47 Ohm goes on the 3.3V rail, and the 12V rail is left with nothing (and the 10 Ohm resistor is also not used). You must absolutely do this resistor mod, otherwise those load resistors in their original spots will generate a lot of heat and cook your new caps (or shorten their lives considerably).

[Stefan Payne]

Originally Posted by momaka

Well, it's certainly one of Deer's/Solytech's better units, but I still wouldn't put it in a mission-critical computer or something where you keep a lot of important files or have lots of important hardware hooked to.

It was in a mission-critical computer with a shops database on it...

Originally Posted by momaka

Other than that, it seems a perfectly capable PSU (good heatsinks, good rectifiers, and large primary BJTs).

That's what I meant...
Seen PSUs with worse heatsinks...

Originally Posted by momaka

Just recap it.

I won't
Have enough decent PSUs lying around here, so there's no need to recap it

[PeteS in CA]

Except for some caps that have failed that looks like it could be a decent ~250W P/S. The caps are low quality brands, but the P/S looks to be ~12 years old (mid 2002 date code on a small PCB). That's a decent lifespan, unless it was turned off most of the time. My guess is that some one sized it fairly conservatively.

If you finally do re-cap it I'd recommend replacing the MOVs protecting the I/P caps. After 12 years they've probably absorbed quite a few surges.

[Compgeke]

A (damp) Delta DPS-800LB from an HP XW8600.

Let's ignore the dirty area surrounding the fireplace.









As one might have guessed...Delta Fan.


Not too terrible. Dual PCB design is interesting but it looks fairly decently built (to me anyways).

[c_hegge]

That thing is more than 'fairly decently built'. It's built like a tank. It should just about last forever.

[Compgeke]

Well, from a once $2000 base mode tower I would've expected a decent power supply.

Then again, there's the Powermac G5.

[Stefan Payne]

Was hoping the DPS-500QB was something like that but it wasn't. Still it's not a bad PSU and the fan doesn't spin higher when fully loaded...

Do you guys wanna see something hecish? Or rather not?

[Compgeke]

Go for it, never hurts to have more.

Anyways, here's my regular desktop one. We were watching a cat who was waiting to have his balls chopped and he decided to spray my old desktop. Opened this up to check for cat urine inside and thankfully it's safe.

nSpire PSH650V-D. It's a Channel Well design, shared with a Thermaltake PSU. I assume it has PFC based on the marking on the label.


Fairly well built, especially for an nSpire which is basically a no-name.


The caps are a mix of Rubycon USC and Samxon. No bulging or leaking at all and this PSU has been in constant use since 2008.




The fan is a Yate Loon fan. You can see the yellow where the cat urine got stopped - I guess that air deflector shield came in handy for saving this.

[c_hegge]

I've had a nearly identical power supply get bad samxon GF caps on the 5vsb output and cook the motherboard as a result.

[Compgeke]

I'll keep on a lookout for bad caps. I pop it open once a year for dusting anyways since this sits on the floor and we have cats.

[Stefan Payne]

Here the Pics of a HEC 350MR-PTD, Dual fan (80x15mm), 18A on +5V, 33A +5V and 28A 3,3V. Combined 220W. With pPFC...

And there's something about this unit that's rather uncommon nowadays for HEC. You may guess what ;-)

[Compgeke]

Got a couple headphone amps as a present in the mail and was quite surprised at the weight of it, I mean they're two single 12AU7\6DJ8 amps.

This was also in there, a General Signal Sola SLS-24-024 in an ATX PSU case.

It's a 24V, 2.4A linear PSU with a fairly beefy transformer and a fairly large cap (50V, 10,000uf) compared to what the stock wall wart would be with the outputs connected to a barrel plug.

Large cap is marked "105C TAIWAN RICHEY" and the small cap is a United Chemicon KME 35V 1000uf and the smallest cap is a Chemicon KME 50V 47uf.

[Pentium4]

Originally Posted by Stefan Payne

Here the Pics of a HEC 350MR-PTD, Dual fan (80x15mm), 18A on +5V, 33A +5V and 28A 3,3V. Combined 220W. With pPFC...

Not bad, seen better for the rating though. I have a 2001 built HEC unit that's much more beefy than that.

And there's something about this unit that's rather uncommon nowadays for HEC. You may guess what ;-)

Ltec caps?

[Pentium4]

This was a fun PSU to work on...One of those generic "could be PFC" units, it's a solid design but the build quality on this one was terrible. UL number leads to Raidmax, and the fan gives it away as well. They did a "grab bag" when it came to caps: JEE, Ltec, SWC, Su'scon, JunFu. And the date codes ranged from early 2006 to early 2008 They all tested good, to my amazement. Even those high voltage 1200µF JEE caps read 1182µF and 1176µF. It's single forward, but it uses a 17A FET. With that heatsink it should be able to pump out a lot of wattage. The 5V uses two 30A schottkys in parallel (TO-247), 3.3V uses a 30A schottky. 12V actually has two rails, and each one gets 30A. Toroid coils are good sized.

Sooooo, the build quality....Look at that soldering. It's terrible! And look at how suspended some of the caps are, especially that Su'scon on the 5VSB. And get this....one of the caps on the 12V filtering (C37) was installed at the factory with pressure pulling on the negative lead. When I went to desolder it, I desoldered the positive lead first, and the thing fell out! I could tell that only the positive lead was soldered in for quite some time, judging by the dust and color of the negative lead. I've never thought about this: How would this affect the filtering on the 12V rail if the ground wasn't connected on that cap?

I recapped it, oiled the fan, moved the fan thermistor to the secondary heatsink, and cleaned up some of the soldering. How much wattage do you think this thing could pump out? I'm thinking it could at least do 425W continuous no problem, although the primary FET might limit it to less than that. The fan controller is fairly aggressive.

[c_hegge]

Originally Posted by Pentium4

Sooooo, the build quality....Look at that soldering. It's terrible! And look at how suspended some of the caps are, especially that Su'scon on the 5VSB.

At least there was insulation on the legs. I've seen Andyson suspend them before (although not quite like that 5vsb cap, maybe more like 1cm) and not insulate the legs. That soldering is prettu ugly, though. It looks like a lot of the joints were done by hand.

Originally Posted by Pentium4

And get this....one of the caps on the 12V filtering (C37) was installed at the factory with pressure pulling on the negative lead. When I went to desolder it, I desoldered the positive lead first, and the thing fell out! I could tell that only the positive lead was soldered in for quite some time, judging by the dust and color of the negative lead. I've never thought about this: How would this affect the filtering on the 12V rail if the ground wasn't connected on that cap?

Ouch. That cap may as well not have been installed. If one leg is not connected, it will have no effect. At least with 1 cap and 1 coil, it might just have done a good enough job at keeping the ripple under 120mv.

Originally Posted by Pentium4

How much wattage do you think this thing could pump out? I'm thinking it could at least do 425W continuous no problem, although the primary FET might limit it to less than that. The fan controller is fairly aggressive.

I'm kind of thinking 350 or so, simply because that about all that power supplies based on the STF topology are capable of. It might do a bit more, though, as it has a fairly beefy primary heatsink.

[Pentium4]

Originally Posted by c_hegge

At least there was insulation on the legs. I've seen Andyson suspend them before (although not quite like that 5vsb cap, maybe more like 1cm) and not insulate the legs. That soldering is pretty ugly, though. It looks like a lot of the joints were done by hand.

Oh yeah, I've seen that too. Typically on their lower end units. Yeah, it is pretty ugly. Not bad enough to justify redoing all the secondary though, that'd take a lot of heat and time.

Ouch. That cap may as well not have been installed. If one leg is not connected, it will have no effect. At least with 1 cap and 1 coil, it might just have done a good enough job at keeping the ripple under 120mv.

Not just that, but block airflow as well. Interestingly, it read the worst out of all the Jun Fool caps. The capacitance had risen to 3697, where all the others read very close to 3375µF

I'm kind of thinking 350 or so, simply because that about all that power supplies based on the STF topology are capable of. It might do a bit more, though, as it has a fairly beefy primary heatsink.

It is a 17A though, that's bigger than most STF FET's I see, such as 9A in a 300W Enermax that can do its rating no problem, or a 12A FET in a 350W Hipro/Bestec

[Stefan Payne]

Originally Posted by Pentium4

Not bad, seen better for the rating though. I have a 2001 built HEC unit that's much more beefy than that.

Do you mean the good old HEC-300LR-PT? Or do you mean it's predecessor the 300GR?
But that only has one fan and is awfully loud.

Originally Posted by Pentium4

Ltec caps?

Yeah, they don't use them anymore. They rather use Su'scon....
That was also the funny thing about the 700W Cougar unit.
NCC Primary and Su'scon secondarys...

[Pentium4]

Originally Posted by Stefan Payne

Do you mean the good old HEC-300LR-PT? Or do you mean it's predecessor the 300GR?
But that only has one fan and is awfully loud.

Sorry, I thought it was 300W. It was a 350W version. Talking about the HEC-350LD-T. 2 fans, still loud though.

Yeah, they don't use them anymore. They rather use Su'scon....
That was also the funny thing about the 700W Cougar unit.
NCC Primary and Su'scon secondarys...

Yeah :/ They use a lot of Teapo SC as well.

[c_hegge]

Originally Posted by Pentium4

It is a 17A though, that's bigger than most STF FET's I see, such as 9A in a 300W Enermax that can do its rating no problem, or a 12A FET in a 350W Hipro/Bestec

What's the RDS-on? That matters just as much as the rating. There's a reason why I had one Hipro D3057F3H which managed 450W for a few minutes (before the secondary side overheated and the OTP kicked in) with a 7A FET, while another one blew a 9A FET under the same conditions. The 9A FET had a 32% higher RDS-on than the 7A in the other unit. (0.91ohm vs 1.2ohm)