Component Analysis

Before reading this page, we strongly suggest a look at this article to better understand what is going on inside a PSU.



Soldering quality is good, but I don't like the single-sided PCB and Chemi-Con KMG and Teapo SC caps High Power uses on the secondary side because of their short lifetime. The same goes for the sleeve bearing fan, which is out of place in a PSU that costs close to €100. Chieftec should have at least gone with a rifle bearing fan.


The transient filter consists of all the necessary components, including an MOV, but given the EMI results I got, its performance is pretty bad.


An NTC thermistor and bypass relay combo protect against large inrush currents.


The two bridge rectifiers can handle up to 20 A of current, which is more than enough for this platform.


The APFC converter uses two Infineon FETs and a single boost diode from USCi, a company I have never heard of before. The bulk cap is by Nichicon and has enough capacity for a hold up time of over 17 ms.


The main FETs are arranged in a half-bridge topology, and an LLC resonant converter is used for increased efficiency.


The heat sinks on the secondary side are used to cool down the FETs on the other side of the PCB. Six FETs in total handle the +12 V rail.


The -12 V rail has its own regulator IC, a KIA7912PI, which is great because it provides OTP and SCP protection and means the PSU won't break if something goes wrong with even the -12 V rail most PC components do not use.


Half of the electrolytic caps on the secondary side are of low quality. Thankfully, High Power used some decent Rubycon caps which will handle most of the ripple filtering load. There are also several polymer caps by Teapo, which are much more tolerant to heat than the electrolytic caps.


Two voltage regulation modules generate the minor rails.


The 5VSB circuit uses a FET on its primary side and an SBR on the secondary side. The standby PWM controller is an NCP1230 by On Semiconductor.


The supervisor IC is a SITI PS224—it supports all necessary protection features but OTP. The latter is implemented through another circuit which reports to the PS224.


Several polymer caps are installed at the face of the modular panel. As you can see in the photos above, there is room for several more.


Soldering quality is good.


The sleeve bearing fan is by Poweryear. Chieftec should switch to a better fan given their pricing for this PSU. Nowadays, you see even super-budget PSUs, like the Corsair CX450, use rifle bearing fans.