We decided to disassemble this power supply to see what it looks like inside, how it is designed, and what components are used. Please read our Anatomy of Switching Power Supplies tutorial to understand how a power supply works inside and to compare this power supply to others.
In this page, we will have an overall look, while in 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 power rating of all components; the design; etcetera.
One thing caught our eye immediately as soon as we opened this power supply: the secondary heatsink is L-shaped using the power supply housing as a secondary heatsink. This is really interesting. Pay attention in Figure 5 to see this.
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Figure 5: Inside GameXstream 700 W.
On Figures 6 and 7 you can have an overall look from inside this power supply.
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Figure 6: Inside GameXstream 700 W.
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Figure 7: Inside GameXstream 700 W.
Another feature that you can clearly see on the above pictures is a voltage regulator integrated circuit inside a rubber protection near the output wires. This device is used to create a minimum load for the +5 V output, allowing the power supply to turn on.
