We decided to disassemble this power supply to see if it internally is really different from generic power supplies. Please read our Anatomy of Switching Power Supplies tutorial to understand how a power supply works inside and to compare this power supply to a generic one.
In this page we will have an overal look, while on the next page we will discuss in details the quality and rating of the components used.
We can point out several differences between this power supply and a low-end (a.k.a. “generic”) one: the construction quality of the printed circuit board (PCB); the use of more components on the transient filtering stage; the active PFC circuitry; the use of a thermal sensor on the power diodes heatsink for controlling the fan speed and for shutting down the power supply in case of overheating; the power rating of all components; the design; etcetera.
On Figure 7 you can have an overall look this power supply from inside.
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Figure 7: Inside Antec NeoPower 550.
The first place we like to take a look when opening a power supply to have a hint about its quality is its filtering stage. On generic power supplies this stage has only one coil, two ceramic capacitors, one or two metalized polyester capacitors and, if we are lucky, one MOV (Metal-Oxide Varistor). This power supply from Antec uses one MOV (behind the ferrite coil on the right on Figure 9, so it couldn’t be shown), two ceramic capacitors, two metalized polyester capacitor, three ferrite coils, plus a ferrite bead on the main power cord.
Also, the components from the first stage of the transient filter are usually soldered on the main power connector, but on this power supply they are located on a small printed circuit board attached to the main power connector, which is far better than having components directly soldered to the main power connector.
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Figure 8: Transient filtering stage (part 1).
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Figure 9: Transient filtering stage (part 2).
On Figure 9 you also see a ferrite coil, a ceramic capacitor and a polyester capacitor that are used on the active PFC circuit.
This power supply uses a CM6800 integrated circuit, which is an active PFC and PWM controller combo. It is located on a small printed circuit board shown on Figure 10.
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Figure 10: Active PFC and PWM controller integrated circuit.
Now let’s have a more detailed discussion on the components used on NeoPower 550.
