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, two ceramic capacitors (Y capacitors, usually blue), one metalized polyester capacitor (X capacitor), and one MOV (Metal-Oxide Varistor). 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 flawless, coming with one extra X capacitor and one extra coil. The Y capacitors are after the rectification bridge and there is another X capacitor also there. This stage is identical to the one from Corsair VX450W and Antec EarthWatts 500 W.

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Figure 7: Transient filtering stage.

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Figure 8: Transient filtering stage.

Now let’s have a more detailed look inside Arctic Cooling Fusion 550RF.