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 and one MOV (Metal-Oxide Varistor). Very low-end power supplies use fewer components, usually removing the MOV and the first coil.

This power supply is flawless on this stage, having one more ferrite coil, two more Y capacitors (two of them are soldered directly to the main AC connector) and two more X capacitors than necessary.

click to enlarge
Figure 10: Transient filtering stage.

In the next page we will have a more detailed discussion of the components used in the Signature 650.