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!


This unit's OEM is High Power, and the Hercules-1600 is the twin brother of High Power's RockSolid Pro 1600 W unit. The main PCB is huge since it hosts the many components such high output power requires, and the heatsinks are pretty large too. However, the design isn't modern but rather ordinary since neither an interleaved APFC or LLC resonant converter is used for increased efficiency. The secondary side uses active components for the rectification of the +12V rails, and two DC-DC converters generate the minor rails.


The AC receptacle hosts two Y caps and one X cap. On the latter we found a CM02X IC which blocks current through the X cap's discharge resistor when AC voltage is connected, automatically discharging the same cap through the discharge resistor when AC is disconnected. This ensures no energy is wasted on the bleeding resistor, which increases efficiency. There are three more Y caps, two CM chokes, a pair of Y caps, and an MOV on the main PCB.


The parallel bridge rectifiers, two GBJ 1506, are bolted to a leaning heatsink, which doesn't create the slightest problem in the unit's performance but annoys weird reviewers like me.


Two boost diodes, a C3D20060A and an STTH12R06D, and three Infineon SPW60R070C6 fets in the APFC section boost the fully rectified signal coming from the bridge rectifiers to a loosely regulated ~380V DC bus voltage. The four parallel bulk caps are provided by Rubycon (400 V, 270 μF each or 1080 μF combined, 105°C, MXH series).


Two Infineon SPW32N50C3 fets are utilized as main switchers. To our surprise, we discovered that the combo PFC/PWM controller is the outdated Champion CM6800AG IC which is mostly used in Bronze units, not Silver ones.


Since this unit's huge power output requires a large transformer that wouldn't have fit into the case, two smaller parallel ones had to be used. This technique also provides a small efficiency boost since each transformer handles smaller currents.


The standby PWM controller is an STR-A6062H IC.


The secondary side uses synchronous design, and ten AOT480L fets provided by Alpha and Omega Semiconductor Inc. rectify the +12V rail. The minor rails are generated by two DC-DC converters completely hidden away by wires. All filtering caps in the secondary side are provided by Nippon Chemi-Con and are rated at 105°C.


Really thick wires transfer power to the modular PCB to minimize voltage drops at high loads. At the front of the aforementioned PCB are two polymer caps—the red one is provided by FPCAP and the blue cap is most likely made by NIC. The rear side of the same PCB is protected from shorts by a plastic shield.


This small daughter-board houses the fan control circuit and the protections IC, a SITI PS224 which supports OCP for up to two +12V rails.


The solder side of the main PCB looks really nice, with clean and well-made solder joints. We also spotted four current shunts under the +12V islands, but the unit's protections IC only supports two OCP channels so either a hidden LM393 voltage comparator handles the additional two OCP channels or the first is separated from the other three which are grouped together.


The cooling fan is provided by Globe Fan, and its model number is RL4Z B1352512HH (135 mm, 12 V, 0.45 A). It is equipped with double ball-bearings and is quite strong, something we expected since thermal dissipation in a 1600 W monster is significant, especially at high loads.