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 and to compare this power supply to others.

This page will be an overview, and then in the following pages we will discuss in detail the quality and ratings of the components used.

What immediately got our eye was the fact that this power supply has two completely independent 500 W power supplies inside. Usually power supplies with two transformers the switching section is shared (i.e., there is only switching section that drives both transformers) or the secondary outputs are connected together. This isn’t the case with this unit. As you can see, there are even two separated active PFC circuits, one for each power supply. The only thing that is shared among them is the transient filtering stage and the rectification bridge.

The +5VSB (standby) power supply is built on a separated printed circuit board (see Figures 5 and 6).

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Figure 4: Overall look.

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Figure 5: The +5VSB power supply.

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Figure 6: The +5VSB power supply.

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Figure 7: Overall look.

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Figure 8: Overall look.