The 2012 El-cheapo PSU Roundup

[c_hegge]

I don't know either, but somehow, it did. Normally, such a PSU would go boom on test 2 or 3. Maybe because of having the fan wired direct to 12V.

[Pentium]

Pretty strange. That would help a lot, some of those things can kick out quite a bit of air. If it had room for inductors it might be worth improving

[LongRunner]

Just noticed this on the Ever-power fan:

MODEL: M802512BH

Is that a lie???

[c_hegge]

It would have to be. That noise it was making was a classic sleeve bearing failure sound. BB fans can get noisy, but it's different noise to a bad sleeve bearing.

[LongRunner]

The Sun Pro in this round-up has proper X capacitors, but "2kV" ceramic types instead of Y capacitors. The proper ones (both X and Y classes) have the safety class marked on them along with the various safety approval logos. If those are absent, it's not an X or Y capacitor regardless of what it looks like.

In the summary table for the Thermal Master, the OEM is listed as unknown, when it is clearly stated earlier on the page that the unit is made by Solytech.

In the Rexpower, like the Excel, both the "X" and "Y" caps are non-safety-rated.

I would, at the very least, remove "Japanese primary capacitors" as a pro for the Besta.

On the page for the Aywun:

Can’t deliver anything with the ripple in spec, No input filtering, Inefficient, Poor ripple suppression...

[LongRunner]

The primary side is identical to last year’s unit. The input filtering consists of two coils, two X-capacitors, two Y-capacitors and two MOVs.

What do you mean two MOVs??? I certainly only see one.

[c_hegge]

^
They are hidden behind the primary caps

[LongRunner]

Okay, I suppose so, but wouldn't it add up to three in total??? (One on the AC side and the two in parallel with the primary caps)

I have an ATX-400WB (seemingly identical to the ATX-550W from the previous round-up) which has that configuration. Mine has a bulging JEE cap on +3.3V. Another thing I've noticed is that you can wobble the secondary heatsink from side-to-side. Funnily enough, the fan in my unit, when I tried it outside the PSU, is barely audible - even though it looks exactly like that in your unit - I would estimate it as running at ≈2000RPM (for comparison, near 2700RPM is "typical" of a "medium speed" 80mm).

[c_hegge]

Huh? There are none on the AC side. There are only the two behind the caps. If you mean that yellow one attached to the PCB on the AC, then I'm pretty sure it's actually a cap. Note the 10D471 marking (10mm Diameter, 470pF)

[LongRunner]

Yes, it is a MOV.

By the way, there's also a solder splatter stuck to the bottom of my unit. And the minimum load on +5VSB is a 51Ω 0.5W carbon film resistor. You can figure out what that means...