A Look Inside

Before reading this page we strongly suggest to take a look at this article, which will help you understand the internal components of a PSU much better.


We have met this platform many times in the past and we are happy to see it once more, since we know that it works well. This is a modern design that uses an LLC resonant converter in the primary, to achieve higher efficiency and a synchronous regulation scheme is utilized in the secondary side along with two DC-DC converters for the generation of the minor rails. The golden heatsinks are pretty large, considering the low energy dissipation that this unit achieves, due to the semi-fanless operation mode.


As always we start our journey from the transient filtering stage. The AC receptacle does not host any components and all of them are installed on the main PCB. Here we find three X and two pairs of Y caps (the second pair is located after the bridge rectifier) and two CM chokes. Again no MOV is present and this is a shame. Till someone proves via real life experiments that MOVs are not necessary we will keep complaining about them.


The bridge rectifier is cooled by the APFC/primary heatsink and a smaller one. We removed the latter to identify the bridge and we noticed that Super Flower didn't use any thermal paste to improve heat transfer. Maybe they wanted to keep the bridge's temperature higher since bridge rectifiers at higher operating temperatures show decreased voltage drops thus efficiency increases. But why choose a second heatsink then? The bridge rectifier's model number is U30K80R, which is a powerful model as it can handle up to 30A of current.


In the APFC two 50R199CP fets chop the fully rectified signal coming out of the bridge rectifier and the essential role of the boost diode plays a C3D08060. The hold up cap is provided by Nippon Chemi-Con (400V, 560μF, 105°C, KMQ series).


The above thermistor is responsible for protection against large inrush currents. A relay is used to cut it off the circuit once the start up phase finishes.


The APFC controller is housed in this PCB and it is an NCP1653A IC. As you can see it is totally covered by vinyl tape and a copper shield, which provides effective protection against EMI.


The standby PWM controller is an ICE3B0565 IC. It effectively minimizes vampire power and makes the PSU compliant with the ErP Lot 6 2010 directive.


In the secondary heatsink we find four IPP041N04N fets. Exactly the same model and quantity fets are used in the Rosewill Capstone 750W Modular unit, which we reviewed recently. In the secondary side only Japanese caps are used for filtering purposes, Nippon Chemi-Con caps (KZE series) are rated at 105°C.


The two VRMs (Voltage Regulation Modules) are housed on the same PCB. They are fed from +12V and generate the minor rails (5V & 3.3V) offering great efficiency compared to conventional magnetic amplifiers.


Housekeeping duties are handled by a proprietary SF29601 IC, which also plays the role of the LLC resonant controller. There is no info available on the net about this IC so we can't verify the protections it supports. On the rear side of the PCB we find an LM324A Quad Operation Amplifier which offers additional channels to assist with the protections.


On the front of the modular PCB some Chemi-Con caps offer additional ripple filtering on the DC outputs. On the rear side soldering quality isn't that great.


On the main PCB soldering quality is not the best we have seen from Super Flower. We spotted many hand made solder joints, which were clearly done last minute. The good thing is that all component leads are pretty short so they won't cause any problems.


The cooling fan's model number is HA1425M12B-Z (12V, 0.36A). It is made by Hong Hua and is equipped with ball bearings, so it will last long. It is fairly quiet and easily handles the low heat levels that this unit produces even at higher loads.