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 Enhance, which is easy to discern as the unit has heatsinks with long fins and white and black cables that transfer power from the AC receptacle to the mainboard. While almost all other manufacturers use blue and brown or black and red, Enhance prefers their own color code.

The unit utilizes a single power switch Active Clamp Reset Forward (ACRF) topology in the primary side to achieve Gold efficiency, and we find the usual setup of a synchronous design with DC-DC converters for the generation of the minor rails in the secondary side. This platform looks like an upgraded version of the one in Silverstone's Gold Strider And Evolution units, with the main difference in its secondary side, where the casing and two small heatsinks are used to dissipate the heat generated by the +12V fets installed on the solder side of the mainboard.


The first part of the transient filtering or EMI stage starts right at the AC receptacle, with two pairs of X and Y caps. We also find two pairs of X and Y caps, two CM chokes, and an MOV on the main PCB. This is, all in all, a complete EMI filter.


This relay isolates an NTC thermistor once it finishes its task. The thermistor protects against large inrush currents during startup.


The single bridge rectifier is bolted to the huge primary heatsink, and its model number is GBU1006.


Two IPI60R199CP fets and a BYC15-600 boost diode are used in the APFC. The hold up caps are two parallel Chemi-Cons (420V, 270 µF each or 540 µF combined, 105°C, KMR series).


As already mentioned, this platform uses an Active Clamp Reset Forward topology to achieve Gold efficiency. This topology normally uses a chopper and reset switch in lower capacity units and two main choppers in higher capacity PSUs. The primary chopper here is an STW21N90K5 fet, and the reset switch is an FQPF9N90C.


The vertical PCB right behind the modular PCB holds several interesting components. The larger IC on the right side is an CM6802S combo PFC/PWM controller, and the IC on the left is a UC2715D complementary switch FET driver used by the ACRF topology. This IC provides the zero-voltage-switching ability to the main chopper, which greatly increases efficiency. In the middle of the PCB are two optocouplers which isolate the two circuits from each other since the first belongs to the primary and the other to the secondary side. The protections IC on the left side, a PS232S, is soldered to the PCB. This IC provides OCP for up to four +12V rails and has no integrated OTP, but comes with an additional protection input pin, which has the OTP signal pass through it to the control IC. We also find two thermistors on the two small vertical heatsinks located in the secondary side. One is for fan speed control while the other is for OTP.


Well hidden under the primary heatsink, the standby PWM controller is an STR-A6062H. It is actually hidden so well that we couldn't take a clear photograph of it. The SBL10SL60 SBR (Schottky Barrier Diode) rectifying the 5VSB rail is out in the open, so we easily took a shot of it.


The secondary side looks empty since all its major components are installed on the solder side of the main PCB. Three chokes and the Teapo polymer caps filter and rectify the minor rails. The large vertical choke is used by the +12V rail and the smaller chokes are used by the minor rails.


All electrolytic caps on the secondary side are provided by Teapo, so they are of acceptable quality. All cables connected to the mainboard are also protected by heat shrinks, but we spotted a small glitch in one of the +12V cables, though the glitch can't cause any problems since the +12V cables are isolated from the ground cables. We fixed the glitch before re-assembling the PSU.


The main side of the modular PCB has several additional filtering caps by Suncon (SUN Electronic Industries Corporation), a Japanese company. The back features good, but not topnotch soldering quality.


Soldering quality here is very good, as is always the case with Enhance products.


The +12V rectifying fets are located on the back of the main PCB - six IRFH7004 fets. There is, as you can see, room for another two fets on the PCB for the higher-wattage model.


The most significant parts of the VRMs generating the minor rails are installed on this side of the main PCB. An APW7073 PWM controller and single TI860350D mosfet are used on each VRM.


We counted three current shunts under the +12V islands; however, this PSU only features a single +12V rail.


The cooling fan is provided by a very good manufacturer, Adda, though it uses a plain sleeved-bearing. We expected no less than a ball-bearings fan because the unit costs significantly more than 100 bucks. The 120 mm fan with model number AD1212HS-A71GL (12 V, 0.44 A, 2200 RPM, 85.2 CFM) can rotate at high speeds, where its noise output will probably annoy most of you.