A Look Inside & Component Analysis

Before reading this page, we strongly suggest a look at this article, which will help you understand the internal components of a PSU much better. Our main tool for the disassembly of the PSU is a Thermaltronics TMT-9000S soldering and rework station. It is of extreme quality and is equipped with a matching de-soldering gun. With such equipment in hand, breaking apart every PSU is like a walk in the park!


Super Flower's new platform looks really nice. The small vertical heatsinks that cool the +12V fets on the secondary side remind us of Seasonic's KM3 design. A resonant converter in the primary side is exploited for loss-less switching, and the secondary side uses a synchronous design along with two small DC-DC converters to generate the minor rails. You will notice that the EVGA SuperNOVA G2 1000 W's platform is identical to this one if you have read that review.


The transient filter starts right at the AC receptacle. This time, only a single X cap comprises its first stage. The second part of the transient filter is on the main PCB and consists of two CM chokes, two X xaps, two pairs of Y caps, and an MOV. We also found a Transient Voltage Suppression (TVS) diode, so the protection against spikes is adequate.


Two parallel bridge (Shindengen US30K80R) rectifiers are used to increase efficiency, since less current will pass through them.


In the APFC section, three Infineon IPP50R140CP fets are used with two C3D06060A boost diodes—the second is bolted to the opposite side of the heatsink. The two parallel hold-up caps are located right in front of the transient filter and are provided by Nippon Chemi-Con (400 V, 470 μF and 560 μF, 105°C, KMQ series). Their combined capacity, 1030 μF, will easily cover the needs of this unit, and the hold-up test will clearly show this. The NTC thermistor responsible for protection against large inrush currents is near the APFC caps. The small white box in front of it is an electromagnetic relay that isolates it from the circuit once the start-up phase finishes.


This small, sealed PCB houses the APFC controller, an NCP1653A IC.


The standby PWM controller is an ICE3B0565 IC that is partially hidden by the APFC transformer—our camera revealed it.


The main switchers, four IPP50R199CP fets, are bolted to two small diagonal heatsinks. They apparently don't need much cooling because of the loss-less switching.


The proprietary LLC resonant controller is installed on this vertical daughter-board. Its marking, AA9013, doesn't reveal much, but it is similar to the SF29601 IC Super Flower used in their previous generation of Platinum models.


The secondary side houses three small heatsinks. The middle heatsink is empty but the other two host eight fets in total (4x IPP041N04N and 4x IPP023N04N). Amongst these heatsinks are six polymer Chemi-Con caps, and several electrolytic ones by the same company can be found a little further on. All are used for ripple filtering.


The DC-DC converters that generate the minor rails.


The 5VSB rail is rectified by a PFR40V60CT SBR (Schottky Barrier Rectifier). The fan-control board is installed right next to it, and on it is an LM324ADC. We secured this vertical PCB with some glue because it can easily snap off its base if you try to detach the fan and the fan mode's switch connectors.


We found many polymer caps and several electrolytic ones on the front of the PCB. All are provided by Chemi-Con. The EVGA SuperNOVA G2 1000 W uses inferior CapXon caps here.


Soldering quality on the main PCB is quite good. SF's implementations are getting better and better. The only thing we would like to see next is the use of spade terminals and crimps for the connection of the AC receptacle to the main PCB.


The cooling fan only carries SF's logo, but we are pretty sure that it is the same as in EVGA's unit, so its model number is HA1425M12B-Z, made by Hong Hua. It is equipped with double ball-bearings and is rated for 0.36A at 12 V. This fan can achieve 1600 RPM, but the fan-control circuit keeps it at much lower speeds most of the time. Also, it will rarely operate under normal conditions if you pick the semi-passive option.