A Look Inside Liberty DXX 500W

We decided to disassemble this power supply to see how it looks like inside, what is the design used and what components are used. Please read our Anatomy of Switching Power Supplies tutorial to understand how a power supply works inside and to compare this power supply to others.

In this page we will have an overall look, while on the next pages we will discuss in details the quality and rating of the components used.

click to enlarge
Figure 4: Overall look.

click to enlarge
Figure 5: Overall look.

click to enlarge
Figure 6: Overall look.

As we mentioned on other articles and reviews, the first place we like to take a look when opening a power supply to have a hint about its quality is its filtering stage. The recommend 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 than that, usually removing the MOV and the first coil.

This power supply is impeccable, bringing one extra ferrite coil and two extra Y capacitors, on this stage, plus one additional X capacitor after the rectifying bridge and two ferrite beads, one on the main AC cable and another on the cable connecting the transient filtering to the main printed circuit board (on this power supply the transient filtering stage is located on a separated printed circuit board, see Figure 7). On this unit the MOV is installed after the rectifying bridge, a configuration that is typical with units using older projects.

click to enlarge
Figure 7: Transient filtering stage (part 1).

click to enlarge
Figure 8: Transient filtering stage (part 2).

Now let’s have a more detailed discussion on the components used on Liberty DXX 500 W.

Total or partial reproduction of the contents of this site, as well as that of the texts available for downloading, be this in the electronic media, in print, or any other form of distribution, is expressly forbidden. Those who do not comply with these copyright laws will be indicted and punished according to the International Copyrights Law.

We do not take responsibility for material damage of any kind caused by the use of information contained in Hardware Secrets.