As we have mentioned in other articles and reviews, the first place we look when opening a power supply for a hint about its quality is its filtering stage. The recommended components for this stage are two ferrite coils (the two coils with a red rubber protection on the pictures below), two ceramic capacitors (Y capacitors, usually blue), one metalized polyester capacitor (X capacitor, yellow component on the pictures below) and one MOV (Metal-Oxide Varistor, yellow component with black rubber protection in Figure 12). Very low-end power supplies use fewer components, usually removing the MOV and the first coil.

The transient filtering stage from this power supply is outstanding, with two extra Y capacitors, one extra X capacitor and a ferrite bead attached to the main AC cable.

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Figure 11: Transient filtering stage (part 1).

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Figure 12: Transient filtering stage (part 2).

As explained in the previous page, this section is shared by the two 750 W power supplies inside Toughpower 1500 W.

In the next page we will have a more detailed discussion of the components used in the Toughpower 1500 W.