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!


As we already mentioned, Seasonic's fresh KM3 platform is hiding inside the V1000. This is an astonishing platform that delivers excellent performance under all conditions. The primary side uses a full-bridge topology along with an LLC resonant converter for loss-less switching, and the secondary side uses synchronous rectification along with DC-DC converters that generate the minor rails. The latter are installed directly onto the modular PCB for decreased power losses.


We come across a sealed PCB for EMI reduction behind the AC receptacle. It holds a few of the transient filtering stage components—namely, four Y caps, a CM choke, and a single X cap. We find the other transient filtering components on the main PCB: two pairs of X and Y caps, two CM chokes, and an MOV. There is also a thermistor that provides protection against large inrush currents and the corresponding electromagnetic relay that isolates it from the circuit once the APFC caps are fully charged.


Two powerful GBJ 1506 are used as bridge rectifiers. Each one can handle up to 15 A of current for a combined total of 30 A.


The APFC converter uses two Infineon IPP60R125CP fets and a single SCS108AG boost diode. The two parallel hold-up caps are provided by Nippon Chemi-Con (420 V; 390 μF each or 780 μF combined; 105°C; KMR series).


This small daughter-board houses the PFC controller: an NPC1654 IC.


The full bridge topology uses four Infineon IPP50R250CP fets. An LLC resonant converter is also used to boost efficiency.


A Champion CM6901 LLC resonant controller can be found on this vertical PCB. The same PCB also houses the fets that regulate the +12V rail. Seasonic decided to relocate these fets from the solder side of the main board to this small PCB in order to provide them with better cooling. Two heatsinks cool down the aforementioned fets and we found a thermistor that provides temperature data to the fan-control circuit attached to one of them. We unfortunately discovered that Seasonic failed to apply any thermal paste to provide better heat conductivity between the two heatsinks after removing the top heatsink. Finally, we noticed several high-quality Chemi-Con polymer caps for filtering the +12V rail under the bottom heatsink. Several electrolytic ones, provided by the same company, filter the same rail along with them.


We also spotted a lonely Rubycon cap among the Chemi-Con caps.


The VRMs that generate the minor rails are installed on the modular PCB, and their common PWM controller is an APW7159 IC. Each one uses three K0332 fets. At the front of the same PCB are several polymer caps by Chemi-Con. They filter the DC outputs.


Installed on this board, located at the edge of the secondary side, are a Weltrend WT7257V supervisor IC and an AS393 dual-voltage comparator. This supervisor IC supports OCP for up to two +12V virtual rails, but only one exists in the V1000.


The standby PWM controller is an ICE2QR4765 IC. Next to it stands the second Rubycon cap that this unit features.


Soldering quality is impeccable and the red PCB looks awesome!


The fan is of high quality since it uses a Fluid Dynamic Bearing (FDB). These bearings offer a much longer lifetime even compared to ball-bearing ones and do, on top of that, produce less noise. The fan is made by Protechnic, one of the best fan manufacturers, and its model number is MGA13512XF-025. CM made, in our humble opinion, an excellent choice with this fan, showing the competition that they don't play around with this PSU, but want to jet directly to the top of the corresponding category. It is really sad to see high-performance, ultra-expensive PSUs with, from time to time, cheap fans instead of FDB ones.