the gutless, bloated, and fried power supply hall of shame

[c_hegge]

I usually run them on the tester for 10 minutes, or until the power draw levels off (indicating that the temperature has leveled off), whichever comes last. The Bliss I had was in spec the whole time on all rails (although it was getting close to limit on the 12V output at full load). I agree though, that it should run at a given load level all day in order to for it to be a conclusive test, but I often don't have all day to test a PSU.

[TELVM]

Originally Posted by c_hegge

... It actually looks similar to a Bliss "350W" which will be in the 2013 el cheapo roundup ...

The new year's fireworks are eagerly awaited by the masses .

[momaka]

Originally Posted by TELVM

The new year's fireworks are eagerly awaited by the masses .

I guess it's my turn to post something...
What I have for you: a Raidmax RX-380K (i.e. a Sun Pro KY-480ATX).

outside: http://www.badcaps.net/forum/attachm...1&d=1388363334

label: http://www.badcaps.net/forum/attachm...1&d=1388363334

top side (taken a few years back): http://www.badcaps.net/forum/attachm...1&d=1388363334

another top side (a little more recent - you can see another cap has failed in there just from the PSU sitting in storage): http://www.badcaps.net/forum/attachm...1&d=1388363334

primary side showing diodes in bridge rectifier and the bent leads on the parts attached to the heat sink: http://www.badcaps.net/forum/attachm...1&d=1388363334

secondary side shot: http://www.badcaps.net/forum/attachm...1&d=1388363334

botton side (solder side): http://www.badcaps.net/forum/attachm...1&d=1388363334

This is probably the crappiest power supply I have around. The case is made out of paper-thin steel. The heat sinks are equally anorexic. Soldering on the bottom side is plain awful. Lots of loose solder balls came out when I first opened it. It's a miracle it didn't short out at the factory. The primary transistors have their leads so bent that they are nearly touching each other! As you can also see from the bottom-side picture, the separation between traces on the primary is very small. I'm pretty sure this thing never passed UL, CE, or any other safety marks. Then again, it's clear from the label the safety marks were forged. The wires are all 20 AWG (with 22 AWG for floppy connector) and completely unlabeled! (not a single safety agency or UL number in sight)

380 watts output??? Yeah right . It may not be very clear from the pictures, but the PCB has some serious "burn-in", and this was not caused by a stuck fan since the fan is spinning fine (although, I should note that the fan was quite dry... looks like it never saw lubrication from the factory). Speaking of which, the fan is a Te Bao Metallic Plastic model M802512M rated for 12V and 0.14A. IIRC, this PSU was powering a mediocre Athlon XP 1600+ system with a GeForce 5200FX video card and 1 HDD, so nothing too heavy.

Primary/input side:
Not much to talk about input filter. We have us two blue (but fake!) Y caps, and a sugar-cane-colored input choke . No X cap. Better than nothing, still.
Moving on... two bigger and two smaller diodes for the bridge. Too lazy to read part numbers, but I'm guessing 3A and 1.5A or 2A diodes. The two bigger diodes are always used, so this PSU should be capable of pulling 300W from the wall with these diodes (of course it won't, as you'll see from the rest of the parts list).
Also on the primary: 2x 200V 330 uF Metacon GK primary caps that read 200 uF and 196 uF on an ESR Micro V4. Primary transistors are a pair of 13007 BJTs in half-bridge configuration. Main transformer is size 33. 5VSB transformer is the standard cute small stuff you always find in all cheap PSUs. Speaking of 5VSB - it's that good old friend, the 2-transistor design . It doesn't have a critical capacitor, though.

Secondary/output side:
12V rail has a 12A 200V fast recovery rectifier. 5V and 3.3V rails share a single 20A 40V schottky . The 3.3V rail is derived from 5V rail in a linear fashion with a CEP51A3 (48A, 30V, N-channel MOSFET).
Output caps:
12V rail: 1x brown CS "LOW ESR" 16V 1000 uF cap placed after a PI coil.
5V rail: 2x JEE "LOW ESR" 10V 1000 uF caps (1x before and 1x after PI coil)
3.3V rail: 1x JEE "LOW ESR" 10V 1000 uF cap after PI coil.
5VSB: not exactly sure. I think 2x CS 16V 470 uF caps originally (1x before and 1x after PI coil), but one of them failed, causing the 5VSB to crazy with anything higher than 50 mA of load. I think I saw the auxiliary rail for the PWM controller (an AZ7500BP) go as high as 30V when this was going on. I recapped the failing CS cap with a questionable STONE 16V 470 uF cap out of a Philips TV that had other STONE caps of the same ratings failed. But it's a crap PSU, so why waste good caps on it? I just wanted to get it working again, which the STONE cap did. 5VSB is good for up to 1.5A of load now, though it does get warm with that load. Before you jump and scream at me... don't worry - I'm not going to put this PSU back in a PC ever again .

Actually, the case from this power supply is now housing the guts of a beefy HiPro HP-P2507F3P 250W PSU that a friend gave me.
Sorry for that wall of text above. Hope you liked this one

[goodpsusearch]

Great post! Thank you! Though I wouldn't bother warming my soldering iron for that thing...

[Behemot]

I am curious why they call themselfs Sun Pro. Something in common with shining like a tiny sun when it starts burning and melting? It may start nuclear reaction one day if they try to squeeze too much power into that

[c_hegge]

Originally Posted by TELVM

The new year's fireworks are eagerly awaited by the masses .

Here ya go. Enjoy.

http://hardwareinsights.com/wp/the-2...upply-roundup/

[momaka]

Thanks for sharing. Those reviews scratched an itch I had about crappy PSUs .

I'm still really surprised with the results of the Bliss power supply, though. It doesn't have PI coils and has really crappy heat sinks. Yet it managed to do over 300W with the ripple still in spec with over 75% efficiency. That's not too bad for a cheap PSU.
I was honestly expecting results more along the lines of the NSCom.

[mariushm]

I just re-opened this thread after seeing the nscom psu to say ... o.m.g

That one's a killer...

[c_hegge]

The bliss does have PI coils. They are small, but they are there. I would circle them in the picture of the secondary side if I had access to a computer right now. It's much harder to do on a tablet. I think what really made the nscom PSU such a killer was the fact that it only had one smallish (Possibly GP) cap per rail. I find that you can sometimes get away with no PI coil if you use better caps (not that I recommend it, though. The ripple will still be high).

[Behemot]

Just curious, what power meter do you use? Are you sure it is able to measure all the harmonics? Mine had problems with Zalman ZM400-LE without PFC, clearly it was measuring BS on higher load. Here it is not that clear but I seriously doubt the efficiency, I think some input power still went through without being detected, showing lower-than actual power draw.

[TELVM]

Originally Posted by c_hegge

Here ya go. Enjoy.

http://hardwareinsights.com/wp/the-2...upply-roundup/

Thanks for the fireworks and happy new year!

Originally Posted by momaka

... I'm still really surprised with the results of the Bliss power supply, though. It doesn't have PI coils ... ... Yet it managed to do over 300W with the ripple still in spec ...

Ts ts ts, we already drunk Momaka ?

[Pentium4]

Regarding that Bliss PSU, it really isn't that bad and has some potential. I'm amazed that those 13007's almost did 330W! That's impressive, the fan must have been keeping them nice and cool. If you upgraded the transistors, and recapped it, it'd be a decent 300W PSU. And even being half bridge the efficiency was very respectable.

[ben7]

Originally Posted by Pentium4

Regarding that Bliss PSU, it really isn't that bad and has some potential. I'm amazed that those 13007's almost did 330W!

Certainly isn't that bad in my opinion too.
The reason why the 13007's did so well is, I suspect, because of the efficiency of the PSU, they weren't being stressed as much. (Maybe they were switching on and off faster than other PSUs)

[goontron]

is it the main switchers that went on all of them? i cant tell from the video

[ben7]

Originally Posted by goontron

is it the main switchers that went on all of them? i cant tell from the video

No, a few had the 12V rectifiers blow.
(Read it in the PSU roundup)

I also think the PSI did fairly well too.
Even being inefficient, it would shut down on overload... something other supplies don't do, which can be lethal to the rest of the computer!

[c_hegge]

Yah. The only one I decided fix up and keep was the Cooler Power, mainly because it is the only 2TF unit, and it was just a matter of replacing the 12V rectifers and recapping it. It was also the only one with a really decent fan and cable configuration.

[TELVM]

Hey, I've noticed that the last PSU in the 2013 Cheapo Roundup, the Zumax '400W', looks quite like my Tooq '480W' wonder was once:

May be Topower perpetrated both crimes. I'm 'delighted' the Zumax managed 300 and 'only' exploded on the way to 350W . Guess if it can (barely) keep ripple at bay without PI coils and just two small craps per rail, my concoction should fare better with real larger jap caps and ghetto-modded PI coils.


And believe it or not ladies and gents, the one reviewed by C_Hegge is the fancy premium iteration in the Zumax '400W' family .

Behold the disowned black sheep: WARNING - NOT FOR THE FAINT HEARTED!

.

[momaka]

Originally Posted by TELVM

Ts ts ts, we already drunk Momaka ?

http://www.badcaps.net/forum/attachm...7&d=1388507282

My mind must have blocked them out or something. I just don't know how I missed them.
...
And I swear my mouth has been as dry as a desert these holidays .

Originally Posted by TELVM

Behold the disowned black sheep: WARNING - NOT FOR THE FAINT HEARTED!

Leadman/Powmax are great! They have never failed to dissapoint me to this day with their intriguing design.
On the other hand, whoever took the pictures in that review above was... not a very competent photographer (to put it mildly).

Originally Posted by TELVM

that's a funny smiley. I think it may find some good use on BCN.
By the way, if you find any you think are worthwhile, we have a thread for that here:
http://www.badcaps.net/forum/showthr...hlight=smileys
I'll definitely suggest the one above .

[goodpsusearch]

I think this belongs here

[Behemot]

SunPro?