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, providing one X capacitor, two Y capacitors and one ferrite coil more than required. This is really nice to see, especially on an entry-level product.

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Figure 7: Transient filtering stage (part 1).

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Figure 8: Transient filtering stage (part 2).

This stage is identical to the one used on Corsair VX450W, Antec EarthWatts 500 W and Arctic Cooling Fusion 550RF.

In the next page we will have a more detailed discussion of the components used in the Corsair CX400W.