500W Be Quiet! ATX power supply teardown, detailed overview and repair

[@KuntalGhosh]

20:04 no those transistors won't need much cooling , the input side is pretty efficient and makes very little heat. That heatsink is more than adequate , the most hot running component of the psu r the output diodes.

[@KuntalGhosh]

The 5v standby circuit is only 2amps so 10watt smps which is lower than some of the usb chargers we buy for our phones , and single 8pin dip switching controller with built-in mosfet is more than adequate for 10w power source and it does not need pfc correction as the load is so low that it won't effect any thing as the main capacitor is large enough to have very little ripple.

[@csabasanta5696]

This is just the information I was looking for! Thank you! Köszönöm!

[@asrarhassan]

I was in search for tutorials like these, great work, keep it up (Y)

[@DonkeyLearningIT]

Thanks for the comment, and I am glad that you liked the video. I am actually wondering whether there is an interest for the basic theory behind switch mode PSUs and ATX PSUs. If there is, I might make some follow-up videos where I actually explain what the components are doing.

[@asrarhassan]

Yes, Please more PSU videos, explain components in detail, also repair tutorials.

[@dukiiii]

My vote as well for detail component explanation and schematic how current flows from begining till end with example what block of components is resposible for what. Thank you!

[@thogreen]

thanks for the teardown. I have to repair one of theese. Thanks to your explanaitions, i do understand what the described sections are intended to do.

[@thedavesofourlives1]

Thanks for this great and funny teardown, you should continue to make more videos, thank you!

[@DonkeyLearningIT]

Thanks for the positive comment. Many people disliked it, since they expected something different, and frankly, I also expected some German engineering inside the box. Hopefully I will have more time in the future to produce videos.

[@Todestelzer]

Thanks for sharing. Never bought one of these because I was expecting cheap quality. I will stay with Enermax.

[@theoneohmresistor]

It is a good input capacitor, I mean Teapo is second tier (I made a video on that topic) it is not the best, nor worst either. But 85°C on a power supply is really cheap! Thank you for your explanation.

[@nooruddinpanjwani8573]

Can you upload video on how to trouble shoot SMPS also in english. Your explanation is too good.

[@DonkeyLearningIT]

I'm glad that you have found the video useful! If there is interest for it, I could make videos on SMPS repairs. However, it is a good idea to have some minimal background on how SMPS units work, especially with active power factor correction. So far I have not made videos on the working principles, so instead of going into detail, I could just do a "quick guide".

[@patrickcampbell151]

Is there any video on how to build the audio output of a transistor amp

[@patrickcampbell151]

Your video open my eyes I learn a lot thanks

[@patrickcampbell151]

@@DonkeyLearningIT your video is so clear I am asking a lot but if u could one on transistor audio output stage how it is connected and how it work

[@DonkeyLearningIT]

@@patrickcampbell151 So far I have not produced any video on audio electronics, though I have repaired many audio amps. The situation is similar to SMPS, that one needs several episodes just to cover the basics like A, B, AB class output etc.

[@BeetleJuice1980]

this is one of the best atx psu videos , seems you know anything about them. please make one video with troubleshooting and repair a faulty psu !

[@DonkeyLearningIT]

Naah, there are for sure better and funnier videos out there. In fact, some people have even said that I seem like somebody who tries to emulate Dave from the EEVblog, which was not my intention. So in the future I need to present such ATX PSU repair/teardown videos differently.

[@BeetleJuice1980]

@@DonkeyLearningIT I totally disagree you don't sound like Dave. Don't listen to people they always say something bad. In KZbin there is not a good atx psu troubleshoot and repair video trust me. It seems you can do it. Keep up my friend!

[@ThePedromosca]

thx men. Very good explained. Very nice work!

[@DonkeyLearningIT]

I am glad you liked it. Btw, this poor repaired unit is now running my PC instead of my server. In spite of the design flaws, it still have a better build quality compared to the 50Euro PSUs.

[@rezakhodarahmi1100]

The Portuguese Motörhea der

[@rezakhodarahmi1100]

The Portuguese Motörheader

[@blackterminal]

Great video. Appreciated your explanations .

[@derweganer]

Hallo hast Du dieses NT noch? Ich habe 2 davon einmal das 750 W Modell etwas größer dimensioniert von den Transformatoren etc. Und eines mit exakt 500 Watt. Ich habe das 500 Watt Netzteil einmal mit einer Short Curcuit protection bulb lassen, aber habe die ganze Zeit leider eine leuchtende Birne gehabt. Scheint ja für einen Kurzschluss zu sprechen. Ich bin jetzt kein super Fachmann sondern eher Hobby Bastler. Viele der Elkos habe ich getauscht, aber leider habe ich immer noch diesem Fehler. Man sieht auch keinen abgeplatztes Bauteil oder irgendetwas das auffällig erscheint. Hier läuft nicht einmal kurz der Fan an. Hast Du eine Idee was ich als ersten darüber hinaus checken soll ? Den großen elco habe ich auch nicht getauscht, der ist immer noch der Originale. Bei der 750 Watt Version muss ich sagen, dass ich genau unter einem kleinen Elko die Leiterbahn auf der Rückseite abgelöst worden ist, wahrscheinlich in Folge einer thermischen Belastung, obwohl dieses Netzteil noch anlief, aber nur kein ordentliches powergood Signal mehr geliefert hat. Wäre schön von Dir zu hören. Vg

[@ThomasWinders]

Nice work. @16:00, 85°C is quite high actually. If your PSU is running at that temperature, that means that the rest of your pc (or whatever you're left with, depending on how much lucky you were!) is burning up in flames. However... yeah, that's cheapo things... don't expect miracles out of them!

[@DonkeyLearningIT]

I think you misunderstood the temperature ratings for the capacitors. Namely, the temperature rating is an indicator at how long (i.e. years vs months) they will keep their capacity under the same heat conditions. The 85C is the highest temperature the capacitor might be exposed to without immediate failure, and more expensive ones are rated at 125C. However, when both a 85C rated and a 125C rated capacitor is being exposed to the same standard 30-40C heat coming out of the PSU, the 85C rated part will degrade and fail a LOT faster. In contrast, the 125C rated part will work for years because it has a higher quality liquid electrolyte material.

[@ThomasWinders]

Donkey Learning IT thanks for the info. Still on the cheap side so.

[@DonkeyLearningIT]

Yes, they tried to save pennies on some parts where they should have not. However, other PSUs in the same price range sadly are often looking even *worse*, and they are even lacking a high quality low-noise fan. The fan in the Be Quiet! PSUs are probably still the best I ever seen.

[@doublesnake18]

That's why they named it Be quite x)

[@DonkeyLearningIT]

The high quality fan is definitely something which makes these PSUs stand out from the crowd...

[@JimmyBComputerGuy]

Hehe Monty Python reference here. Nice video - thanks for helping to further my electronics education. Now, I'm off to the cheese shop.

[@DonkeyLearningIT]

In the cheese shop you can point to a large round cheese and say: I'm not gonna buy this record, it is scratched!

[@JimmyBComputerGuy]

@@DonkeyLearningIT Haha You are a cut up! :-) :-)

[@blahioti33]

Very good.. explain in electronics.. thanks you

[@slap_my_hand]

Aren't mains capacitors supposed to have a resistor connected to them in parallel so that they are discharged after a couple of seconds?

[@DonkeyLearningIT]

There are two small 0.25W SMD resistors connected to them on the bottom of the board. As far as I remember, they were 100KOhm, so it will take almost a minute for those caps to discharge. However, if the SMPS IC is doing its thing right, the caps should be discharged by the switching element into the transformer.

[@Roby0593]

What gloves to use to protect your hands and yourself from elettric shock ?

[@IsaacOLEG]

I really appreciate the tear down and analysis. I am trying tyo find my way in a Samsung TV motherboard (monocard) without sketch and with a sandwiched layer ! SO no choice but try to understand who do what (hence the usefulness of your very clear videos) BTW On that motherboard only one "transformer" (4 pins and 5 pins) is it then the one that provide all main tensions, and standby (11.8V) plus the base tension for the LED (how much can it be before the inverter ?.) . BTW I "never" watch TV so this is mainly for the pleasure of learning something new, (and ain't easy at my age !) I am hoping that Samsung engineers respect some sort of rule for the numbering/referencing of the composants on the card, and try to cross check what I suppose with a sketch from a separated alim - not really similar arhitecture unfortunately . I also will have a 500w ATX alim to play with an ATX Cooler Master RS-500-ACAB-M3 500Watts that do not really start after being send to an user. I did invest in some measuring and soldering equipment allowing me to train . The TV cart have 3 layers and I did lost one via contact while changing electrolityc condensators. It burned 2 mosfets (12v +- and I am unsure what they are for, between an alimentation line (but they are in primary section providing alim to the inverter , or retroactive boucle ? - still a few videos to look at, so thank you a lot for your efforts )Best regards Isaac

[@charudattabonde2895]

question:- i only want 5V and 3.3V and i have 12V DC from batteries so is there any way to completely disconnect 240AC to 12V DC unit and transformers and just use converter?

[@snowstar3560]

What is the blue thing right after the bridge rectifier, the rectangular blue one

[@sgakanon]

I look all your videos on repair, the eleven that talk about repair a switch power supply , they are great, do you think you can do a troubleshoting on how to Fix or how to found the bad ítems in a switch power supply? Edit For get it i am watching the video and thats what are you doing,

[@tolgahankeskin]

hi, i have a highpower 700w psu which used to reset the pc when start a game until i replace the capacitors but after a time it came up with the same problem but also now all the 3,5 and 12 volt lines has wave voltage. for example 12v line is like 11.85...11.82...11.87...11.85...11.82...11.87...... and the fan moves like 1 mm everytime volgate goes up and down. there is a video about it my videos. can u help about it? i am new at electronic. what should i look at first?

[@klaasklapsigaar1081]

28 employees of Be Quiet's marketing department disliked this video.

[@gurneytower]

What is the white glue thing they apply/drip to some of the capacitors/ components? What is it for or why do they use it?

[@DonkeyLearningIT]

Good manufacturers will use a Silastic product, which is a special type of heat resistant glue, which will stay partially elastic/rubbery even after it is fully set. Cheap manufacturers will use hot-snot, or a fully hardening glue... The functionality of this material is to keep heavy components from mechanically moving around in the board. This is why it is being applied mostly on capacitors and inductors, because those tend to be heavy, and they can bend/break easily due to mechanical vibration.

[@masterblaster5296]

hi, i have same problem as you on my PSU. I need to replace capacitors. I wanted to ask if i can replace with regular capacitors, or i need to buy low ESR capacitors

[@DonkeyLearningIT]

For the small values (1uf-->100uF) most of the time buying standard caps is fine. However, values like 330uF, 470uF, 1000uF and above should be low ESR, otherwise the output power will not be smooth enough.

[@kerr1221]

20:40 "This is ready to pop when something happens" I was working on a power supply that wasn't functioning with one of those chips with the FET integrated... I was reading the data sheet and suddenly something exploded over at my bench... it was that chip. RIP

[@DonkeyLearningIT]

If they do a decent design for cooling such chips, they can work, it should not be a problem. I would say in your case you just got "unlucky". However, as you see, in the case of this PSU, they are just having a silicone pad on top of the IC, and a tiny area of the "heatsink" is touching it, which I would not call cooling. The issue what I have with ICs which have the FET integrated is, that they need to have a real screw-hole, to which one can attach a heatsink to dissipate heat. Even so, replacing the IC is so much more expensive than replacing a cheap FET and a cheap IC.

[@kerr1221]

In my case the IC costs~ $1.50 from mouser, which is about he same as a decent FET. my problem now is whether to try ad find out what else failed that caused the chip to blow or just scrap the power board. IC is CoolSet F3. Not sure exactly which one because I couldn't find the piece with the last 4 numbers of the part ID! EDIT: BTW the chip wasn't cooled. The FET wasn't getting very hot as opposed to the diodes in the design, the diodes heated enough to discolor the PCB in spite of a heatsink.

[@DonkeyLearningIT]

If you got too much free time, I would probably track the leads and try to figure out the pinout. Based on the pinout sometimes it is possible to figure out which IC it was if there are multiple options within a series. Also, based on the amount of power it was switching and on the working voltage you can make a good educated guess. For these all-in-one 8-pin packages I often found, that when they fail, they often kill the Zener diode which is used as an external reference (most probably the Zener is zapped by the mains voltage when the arc is formed during "explosion").

[@ministryinmusic7851]

Is it possible to drive only the secondary side of a PC power supply with DC current in order to run a desktop computer directly from a solar system? If so, where should the connection be made on the PSU circuit board?

[@DonkeyLearningIT]

Switch mode power supplies work in fact internally with DC voltage. After the diode bridge DC power is being pulsed to a transformer, and rectified again. However, your solar system needs an MPPT Maximum Power Point Tracker and mostly they are providing AC sine wave as output, or they charge low voltage batteries as output (between 12 to 96V DC). Because of this, it it almost always easier to just use the power supply without any modifications and attach it to the AC output of the MPPT.

[@ministryinmusic7851]

Thank you. I appreciate you feedback... AJM

[@poprawa]

This filtering inductor on input is like it is, just because it is enough to pass required tests. As the same board is used to manufacture many power output versions, they leaved place for better elements for models with higher current consumption. @edit: Same thing goes with this larger footprint transformer @edit2: In active PFC PSUs primary side is driven to much larger voltage, than peak of rectified line voltage - it is important while replacing components @edit3: OCP is typically realized as UVP, they just cheat with safety

[@poprawa]

But solution for power switch... It is so horrible, and dangerous that it beats almost every Chinese cheep-ass PSU designs :/

[@DonkeyLearningIT]

That is a *very long way* to say, that they saved 0.1 Euros on a PSU which was supposed to be high quality. They should have saved that money *on the packaging*. Seriously, the fancy packaging was probably worth 5Euros!

[@maxfactor4209]

you probably have teared many PSUs apart. which manufacturer is the best in terms of design and quality?

[@peterkohnke336]

Hi and thank you for the video, very informative. I have a faulty Enermax 850+, my PC hung on boot-up, pressed & held on/off button to shutdown. Have done this many times before. Now the PSU is dead, won't start, fan runs for a 1 minute or so than stops. Removed the PSU from PC, shortened green/black etc, no go. I noticed that when measuring continuity with multimeter +12v & +5v are connected. That should not happen? Capacitors all look okay, no bulging etc. Any suggestions where to look next? Have contacted Enermax in USA, old story.... Out of warranty, no support etc etc All care & no responsibility Thanks Peter

[@DonkeyLearningIT]

Are you really sure that the +5V and the +12V are shorted at the output? Namely, when you measure it with a digital multimeter (DMM), the output capacitors will often fool the multimeter, and until the caps are not charged, the DMM will show a short. There is a rare failure mode when the +12V output can really come in contact with the +5V output, and this happens if the copper winding on the output choke (practically a ferrite ring with lots of thick copper windings on it) burns up. I have seen only about 2 or 3 ATX PSUs, which dies this way. In any case, if the +5V was really shorted to the +12V rail, that would mean the death of the motherboard. Therefore, you should remeasure, and make sure, that the +5V is shorted to the +12V. If this is not the case, you may try to repair it, but you need to be super careful, since these voltages are highly dangerous inside an ATX PSU. If you are *really willing* to repair it, I can eventually help you out based on some pictures or a short video what you upload, so that we can see how the circuit looks like.

[@mrmoon7484]

very good video. thanks a lot. please do similar video on corsair vs 450,

[@achmadiadianggara2201]

Do you have schematic diagram for this psu or similiar 🙏

[@makinjica]

Hi. I have CM 1000M psu , one day after turning off a pc , when i wanted to turn it on , nothing happend . I heard on click of relay inside but it wont turn on . Nothing was burnt inside , no smell , no visible caps damage, no dark spots(like heat) , so on . I think the fault is small but non of repair shops close to me wont even look @ it . What do you think about it , shold i push on repair or forget it ? (I kind a liked that thing :) ) Now i have Seasonic 620w , much smaller but nice psu also.

[@DonkeyLearningIT]

By not turning on do you mean that even the paperclip-trick is not working. For your information, the paperclip-trick is when you push a paperclip or a piece of copper wire between the power-on pin (green wire pin) and a GND pin (any of the pins from the black wires). This should turn on the power supply, so that you can measure the voltages. Of course, for the paperclip-trick to work, the +5V Stand-by voltage has to be present. Do you have a multimeter and tools for repair???

[@doublesnake18]

I have the same problem with you "makinjica" . I have a Cooler Master V650, after i turn on my PC or when i use the paper-clip too it's start for 1sec and than stop ( with click sound too) , and same here too, nothing was burnt inside ( nothing looking bad ) . so what do you expect ?

[@makinjica]

Some PSU got load sensing so it wont turn on if there is nothing conected to the rails and well , maybe its fuse , but if its fuse something is more wrong that got the fuse to pop . i l try to get time to take a look , atleast do or check what i can . if not il store it for parts. .

[@doublesnake18]

makinjica well thanks , I hope Mr. Donkey Learning IT can help up in testing components, maybe we can find a solution.

[@DonkeyLearningIT]

For some reason your new comment is not displayed below the video. YT is totally broken, sorry! If the paperclip trick turns on the PSU only for a second, this is most of the time an indication that some of the protection circuits is turning the PSU off. Most of the time one of the caps will be totally bulged, and shortcircuited inside (80% of the time). In the other 15% of the time the small capacitors which supply the window comparators are busted, and the remaining 5% of the time one of the Shottky diodes on the secondary side is shortcircuited. First replace all caps in the secondary side, next check the Shottky diodes with a multimeter.

[@0426dav]

Hello, First of all, Thank you for taking the time in posting your video. Secondly I have a PS problem. I have a 10 amp 13.6 volt 136 watt power supply with short circuit protection. The PS does turn on, but the voltage output dropped to 4 volts. Could it be a IC problem or capacitor problem? There is a VR voltage adjustment inside but it doesn't change the voltage output.

[@DonkeyLearningIT]

Is it a switch mode or a linear power supply? I would not be playing around with potentiometers inside the PSU, but instead one need to fix the real problem. You will need to post either lots of pictures or a short video on the innards of the PSU, so that people (like me for example) can give you hints of how to try to repair it.

[@0426dav]

Thank you for your reply, This is not a computer type PS. It's a linear type with a large and heavy transformer which I was using to power a radio transceiver and an external amplifier, give me a few days and I will post pictures. Thanks again.

[@jiyajaisal]

hello my friend thanks for your video , my smps power inlet FUSE was blowen and power resisters (16.8 Ohms) also seen shortcircuited can u help me for this..?

[@d46512]

Is Monty Python popular in Germany? You have a sense of humour.

[@arzz11]

I think you are watching too much of dave jones's video 😁😁😁😁... Anyways awesome video man... 👍👍👍👍👍👍

[@DonkeyLearningIT]

If you think that I come through like Dave, then I really need to work on my own presentation, since I would prefer to do something different. Only Dave can do what Dave does, since HAL9000 will this time let him do it ;)

[@DonkeyLearningIT]

@TheWertyu2007I'm sorry, but I have not fully understood what you mean.

[@contemporiser]

@@DonkeyLearningIT Yea, weird answer, kinda creepy dude. Don't think twice about it. Dave Jones is ok, but he does more of a electronic clown and magic stuff (very popular with kids thou). I find Your videos much more down to earth. Dave is entertaining, sometimes informative, abstract, but when it comes to pass some usable knowledge, I believe he just doesn't want( or is unable) to do as much as you, for example.

[@DonkeyLearningIT]

@@contemporiser Thanks for the positive comment! The fact is, that if one tries to make money on KZbin, they must make the videos more entertaining and less informative, otherwise the videos will get less views, which equates less money from commercials. I am almost sure, that if Dave would sit down and produce more down to earth videos, they would be super informative. However, he would get less than 50.000 views on a video, which is not enough income to feed a family.

[@contemporiser]

@@DonkeyLearningIT If you do anything on electronics on youtube people will compare you to Dave. He is a great guy, but he works on a slightly different field, it is not his fault that fanboys idolize him and compare anyone else to him. It is just like a cartoonist is accused of coping "the Simpsons", because he draw big round eyeballs. They don't see differences, they focus on similarities. You would have not to watch EEVblog not to be influenced by him. And of course they are frickn trolls who do all that on purpose.

[@L3NN0XX]

I have the be quiet system power 9 and the fan always runs at full speed at its very loud

[@vaseknovak1272]

Great video, I woud recommend Seasonic Power Supply

[@pickleadaykeepsthedoctoraway]

I'd recommend doing research into what PSUs to buy rather than brand allegiance. Seasonic makes a ton of bad/terrible PSUs (some are bad because of faults, some are bad because of price compared to other PSUs of the same price). I mean thermaltake has some top tier PSUs in their lineup, but would I ever tell someone to just buy thermaltake? Fuck no. Same deal with seasonic, though I'd trust seasonic more than I'd trust a random off the shelf thermaltake PSU. Avoid EVGA, they don't put out good products anymore.

[@kostassarakinos3062]

The transformer indeed is small but that power supply won’t output 500w on the 12 volt rails...probably about 300 as you said..maybe an other 100 watts on the 5 volt rail and the rest on the 3,3volt I am not been specific but you get the point..

[@kostassarakinos3062]

Nice video btw and indeed a detailed overview good job 👍🏻

[@DonkeyLearningIT]

Both the +12 and the +5V rail power must go through that transformer, so yes, I do not believe that in the current configuration this PSU would be able to provide 500W without severe overheating. As I mentioned, they put too much money on packaging, and the main issue is, that I expected something made in Germany, not in China.

[@kostassarakinos3062]

Yes you’re right my bad..!! At least the tell Chinese to use better components...lol I have seen power supply’s that are designed in China and use better and larger components...to bad,for a “good” company to make such a bad design...almost the same as the bad Chinese psu you get for like 20...that’s why you should always read the ratings on the side that’s how you can tell is a bad supply if they have 30A on the 5v rail and 30A in the 12v rail..good supply’s over a 1000watts have 30A on the 5v rail...and hundreds on the 12volt...all the power that’s drawn are from the cpu and gpu that use the 12volt rail..they also use the other rails but not to draw current just to supply power to the “logic side” of the board..

[@DonkeyLearningIT]

@@kostassarakinos3062 Well, a 1000W PSU will also cost a lot of money. I do not know what is going on, but PC components keep increasing in price instead of getting cheaper. GPUs are like 200Euros more expensive every new generation, which makes them viable for reflow/reball due to price. 5 years ago reballing a gamer GPU was a losing business, not it is worth it again. I expect that a flagship Nvidia Ampere series GPU card will be easily 1400Euros or even more than new.

[@anwarshiekh7142]

I am not sure there is a problem of 85C on the primary caps, as they are not driven hard. Hopefully the replacement capacitors were low ESR

[@DonkeyLearningIT]

Well, when I still had time to game on my PC, there was hot air blasting out of this PSU, so an 85C rated cap will not be happy for a long time under such conditions. The main point of the video is, that they should have saved money on the fancy packaging and such, but on the internal components. Simply I expected better electronics from the manufacturer, that is all.

[@anwarshiekh7142]

Good point, but I think most primary capacitors are 85C, and they rarely fail at all (I've never seen one).

[@DonkeyLearningIT]

The situation is, that these PSUs are considered to be Quite! good (pun intended) in the German market. Based on the hype, most probably I put my expectations way too high though... If they ever send me a newer PSU model, I will be more than happy to tear it down, and give my opinion on it. I would not mind point out if the innards have improved compared to this older model, since I actually like Be Quiet! as manufacturer.

[@anwarshiekh7142]

I tend not to but new, but rather recap the original; that way I can be sure about the capacitors.

[@szolly]

Tetszenek a videóid !!! Főleg a magyaros akcentus :)

[@cinkoxid]

A "transzformátor" és hasonló szavak többszöri kiejtésénél kezdtem el gyorsan nézegetni a kommenteket, hogy nem-e magyar a feltöltő... 😁

[@awaisaltaf8876]

Seasonic is the best brand out there. You get the best power supply in 650W range with a 10 year warranty for under 100 euros.

[@pa3deeghztv302]

Nice video's great Job I like it.....

[@antoha607]

do you know what marking of a pwm controller on 21:54 ?

[@DonkeyLearningIT]

It is a CNY buck converter, but I do not remember which one. Of course, it should be rated for at least 300V DC input. If you brows through the comments, as far as I remember, somebody might have mentioned exactly which part it was.

[@chudzoskruo]

May I please know (I am quite new) about the gloves what is their purpose? I doubt human safety, electronic safety or both. And is here any special name of these?

[@andruvalero2952]

they're used to prevent damage any component with electrostatic charges your body may generate. It's an isolation barrier

[@chudzoskruo]

Thank, and is there also some gloves for human safety or would these also help human safety little against electricity?

[@kunee51]

Hi, I need help on my PSU repair. I have Cooler Master GX Bronze PSU that are no longer working on my PC no1... But its working on my old PC no2. I did check the power flow with multimeter (pin test) and all the voltage is in right value.. its just when I installed it on my PC no1 its not even power up (ON). my PC no1 is running smoothly with other power supply and its not my PC problem. my Cooler Master was the power supply for PC no1 before it's shut off by itself. so I'm reckon there's something wrong with it and I cant figure it out. I really need expert help to locate the problem part of this PSU, any help will be much appreciated. Thanks.

[@DonkeyLearningIT]

The difference in behavior between your two PCs with the same PSU is due to the different amount of power used by them. Namely, when the capacitors start to go bad in a PSU, they are still able to power a PC which lower power usage, or an other PC, where the power is used from rails which are not loading the shaky circuit. Lets say that your +3.3V is shaky, and it is about to die. If your PC uses most of the power from the other rails and it is no longer using the +3.3V rail, it will work. Now you plug the same PSU into a different PC, which loads heavily the +3.3V rail, and your second PC will not boot. Also, the PSU sends a so called Power-Good signal to the PC which takes the CPU watchdog circuit out of constant self reset. I would say in your case this is where the issue is, or the over-current/under-voltage protection is falsely kicking in due to old bad capacitors.

[@kunee51]

Thanks for your reply.. I did check the power good (pin test) and it was read about 5.3v. I will try to check it again when its connected to pc as soon as im available. will also try to take out and reads all the caps.. Thanks again.

[@kunee51]

So I have checked the power good again and record it on video, also have read about Power good values are often considered abnormal if detected lower than 100ms .. I dont have any timer to count the values but Im reckon this is lower than 100ms. www.dropbox.com/s/wx8zpl0nqwlr7ah/Power%20Good%20Pin%20Test.mp4?dl=0 Now.. I really got no idea where to start if that lower values is the problem.

[@DonkeyLearningIT]

The issue is most likely with the capacitors as I mentioned. Plus, you cannot measure voltage rise with an old analog multimeter. Even digital multimeters are no good for this, since you will need an oscilloscope. This is because the window-comparators also measure ripple voltage, and if the ripple voltage is above a given value, the motherboard will not boot. Regarding the power-good signal, actually the rise time has to be at least 0.1 seconds *after* the voltage levels were stabilized, to ensure that the capacitors are fully charged.

[@kunee51]

Then I will still take out all the capacitors and check them. I will do that soon as im able to do so. thanks again, your help are really appreciated.

[@kostadinpantev]

I use my soldering iron to discharge the large capacitors, just connect it with alligator clamps.

[@dedskin1]

Dark Power Pro ! 500W from 100W mosfet , i just opened up some cheap Ultron no name power supply 300W , that i found on my bench , Ultron 300PFC , trust me its better then that Corsair , the best one ive seen and ive seen a lot . Cant explain to beginners what it is , looks cheap as hell from the outside but inside where it matters , all quality parts , and no joke like nichikon CAPs and that , but proper metal , ferite , big ass mosfets , 200W package, get it you will see what i mean . Folks in US cant get it by that name but you probably can , Ultron 300PFC 300W , youl get it for 10 euros , mosfet in it is worth that much .

[@DonkeyLearningIT]

That was exactly my point in the video as well, that manufacturers should not spend all that money on the useless shiny packaging, but instead put it in the hardware. However, I would assume that marketing have decided otherwise, since nice looking things sell better. That is my guess.

[@dedskin1]

@@DonkeyLearningIT Off course, my point as well , cant really explain that good , take a look your self , what looks like another Cheap SMPS that i wanted to salvage for parts , ends up like a proper Unit , tell me waht you think , Does Corsair , or Cooler Master have this , not the ones i had , it really is something drive.google.com/open?id=1g_MJUD0n_6MTthdljTa1Twz7ntTZ9UtB

[@jkd7799Yann]

So called 'german quality" is just a marketing trap and is far from concerning every german products... As a matter of fact, the true OEM behind almost all Be quiet psu is FSP ( a reknown taiwanese manufacturer). As far as quality is concerned, if you really want quality and reliability, you have no other choice than buying a high end psu, for instance : seasonic focus plus gold or fsp hydro ptm which have 10 years warranty. I must say i'm not fond of Be quiet psus because they usually request very basic internal design from fsp and tends to cheap out on capacitors in their low and mid range psu. Worst of all, their mid range psu are often much more expensive than seasonic and fsp high end. To me, their fan does not justify this difference and major OEM like Seasonic and FSP put really good enough fans in their units. I have the FSP hydro ptm 650w which have a very high quality FDB protechnic fan, and all electrolytics caps are japanese at 105°C, the ploymers are from teapo), it is dead silent, very stable, platinium efficiency and have 10 year warranty. I also have seasonic prime ultra 650w titanium, very reliable with 12 years warranty. My advice is to buy from OEM directly, so from taiwanese companies, this is not "chinese made" misconception. Taiwanese quality is the best in IT, far better than German. TSMC, Asus, Seasonic, FSP, Superflower, MSI, Acer to name a few are all reknown taiwanese companies...

[@cyborg6294]

Can you please tell me from the pictures is that good or bad PSU imgur.com/a/Wfg0NXT ? Thanks in advance

[@jayselmilar9537]

I have zalman psu 500watts, 12v ok , 5v ok, but when pc turning On, Loading on windows on load, The PSU shuts down or lose its power , even i jumper the PSU with a clip to force on, i just wait after more or less 5 minutes, and the the PSU power come back, Still SHUT OFF when Load .. PSU turns on for just 30seconds and then turn off, VICE VERSA, pls help what should i replace thank you PS - ive try other PSU to my unit and its working fine. Its Zalman something faulty

[@jayselmilar9537]

Up

[@erick28alfaro]

Well done!

[@peckelhaze6934]

Very, very interesting.

[@renebea9]

22:21 watts or volts?

[@LogicException]

BQT E6-500W is not a dark power. This is a straight power!

[@ShimithDomencio]

who is the OEM on this model?

[@felixcat4346]

So lets see, the ac is rectified through a double diode bridge, then it goes into the power correction circuit and then through a choke to smooth out the ac, according to you. WTF!!

[@OggyGTA]

Smoothing the AC after rectification?

[@DeeegerD]

I purchased a Be Quiet fan - noisier than all the other fans in my PC combined.

[@DonkeyLearningIT]

You most probably got a faulty fan from your distributor. In the Be Quiet! power supplies the best thing is their quiet fan. At least in mine they still used good a quality fan and also a nice fan grill. Even after long years of use one can barely hear the fan when it spins.

[@DeeegerD]

Yeah I was surprised at how loud it was.

[@DonkeyLearningIT]

I would just walk back to the store where I have bought it, and ask the guys to exchange it. On the PCB layout of the unit I am tearing down in the video the Chinese engineers have not made their best effort, but the fan is a high quality fan nevertheless. If the PCB would have been designed in Germany, it would most probably make a better impression on me as well.

[@martinkuliza]

@Donkey Learning IT hi mate i have a question I WOULD APPRECIATE AN ANSWER SINCE I'VE BEEN TRYING TO GET THIS ANSWER FOR A LONG TIME, if you don't mind. also, feel free to give a detailed and technical response if needed Please note 24:46 in the video Note the top right corner of the board and the JAGGED TEETH Traces Note 25:04 where you are explaining about the inductors, YOU CAN SEE THOSE TEETH AGAIN on the Primary side of the PCB now what i would like to know is this i understand that they are solder traces i understand they are used for high power applications i understand they are usually located where we find inductors and transformers i understand that current and voltage (in a manner of speaking) JUMPS ACROSS from the tips of the teeth to the tips on the other side what i don't understand is WHY WHY WOULD SOMEONE NOT JUST MAKE A STRAIGHT SOLDER PATH ? WHY PUT THE TEETH IN AND WHY SPECIFICALLY ON COMPONENTS LIKE INDUCTORS AND TRANSFORMERS if you can answer that, i would greatly appreciate it thank you mate

[@DonkeyLearningIT]

The explanation is really simple: what engineers want to achieve is, that if there would be a lightning hitting the wires leading to the home, they want that energy to discharge already in front of the power supply, right where the power comes in. This way they can protect a little the life of the people who are in contact with those power supplies. The *reason why the trace is jagged* is related to a natural phenomena called Saint Elmo's fire. Namely, as the trace is getting thinner and thinner towards the tip, the electric field will gradually increase. This way electrons can jump more easily from sharp thin objects compared to rounded objects, discharging the energy in form of a spark. As a comparison, on really high voltage applications the spark gaps are rounded, since you want the spark to jump only under very well controlled conditions.

[@martinkuliza]

@@DonkeyLearningIT Hello Donkey 1. thank you for the prompt response, i really appreciate it 2. thank you for the explanation, also appreciate that 3. i don't know where you're from, but i know it's europe. my background is serbian in serbia we have a word for "Donkey" the word is MAGARAC hehe i think it's funny that you would call Doktor Magarac hehe but it's a cool name, make me laugh i've been into electronics since the 80s , i'm 45 years old. this is just 1 question that for some reason no- one was able to give me a clear answer on thanks again i notice these teeth mainly around transformers , from primary side to secondary and i wonder, why do they appear on some and not on others and then i wonder, why don't they appear all the way along the trace also. do these types of traces have a formal name thanks again mate be cool keep making videos, it's much appreciated.

[@DonkeyLearningIT]

@@martinkulizaI did not want to pretend to be a "know it all supreme professional", so I just call myself the Donkey. Also, I am patient like a donkey, which often helps. When it comes to those teeth, as I mentioned they are used for protection, and not all PSUs are designed with good standards in mind. Also, some might use glass discharge tubes filled with gas (Russian electronics often used those), and they have the same functionality. The teeth are just called spark gaps, and preferentially they *should not* be located between the primary and secondary. They should stay on the primary side, since that is where one expect high voltage to appear. Even if some engineers put them between primary and the secondary side, the low voltage secondary side should be connected directly to ground with a thick trace. Thus, if there is a spark formed, current flows right into the ground via the ground wire (green-yellow wire in standard EU plugs).

[@atdzsny]

@@martinkuliza Or call him dr. Magyaros. ;)

[@martinkuliza]

@@atdzsny or as we say it in Serbain Doktor Magarac LOL

[@lambertax]

As usual, like in 90% of the switching power supplies repair, you change all the secondary electrolytic capacitors, and bingo, it works at least for a few months ;)

[@DonkeyLearningIT]

One should exchange the primary side caps as well, since they are part of the feedback loop etc., and they are more critical for the PSU starting up. However, the general recipe is indeed changing the caps if the power electronics is fine.

[@KuntalGhosh]

80+ white only requires 80% efficiency from 20% to 100% load , and to get 80% efficiency u do not need pfc or syncronus rectifier. Normal double diodes r perfectly fine! , Even 10$ psus have short-circuit and over current protection , the main chip will trip when it detects over current at the input and it will reset when u restart the chip. , 80+ platinum and titanium requires such syncronus rectifier.

[@snetmotnosrorb3946]

Excellent walkthrough! Would you like to make a teardown of a Seasonic made PSU someday? :) Sbuscribed in any case.

[@DonkeyLearningIT]

Thanks for the sub. Regarding the teardown/walkthrough of other ATX PSUs, I would be more than happy to tear them down if I could get a hold of them. So if manufacturers would ever send me their PSUs, I would be more than willing to do the same thing like with this PSU.

[@snetmotnosrorb3946]

Hehe, I don't think PSU manufacturers want their dirty little secrets to be exposed ;) I would gladly send you one, I think I have one too many lying around, but it is out of my budget now.

[@DonkeyLearningIT]

I thought *exactly* the same. There is a reason those "reviewers" are being paid better who always give a 9 out of 10 rating for every PSU they receive for testing. A more critical person will actually tear those PSUs apart, and tell the situation as is. Even on Tom's Hardware nowadays they actually started truly tearing PSUs down to pieces after they went through the measurement cycle to see the magic ingredients in them.

[@snetmotnosrorb3946]

I have at least one, probably two, failed PSUs I could send to you :)

[@pollydor07]

THANKS . GOOD CLASS

[@DonkeyLearningIT]

Thanks for watching the videos. I hope that you have learned something from the content.

[@galesd1971]

could you open corsair power supply and analise it ?

[@DonkeyLearningIT]

If I would have a Corsair PSU laying around, I would totally open it up and tear it down. As far as I heard, Corsairs are well built. Currently I am running short on money, so I cannot just go out and buy teardown/repair items. It would be good though...

[@galesd1971]

j was 99 % on buying be quiet and when j saw that taepo condenser j changed my mind @@DonkeyLearningIT

[@DonkeyLearningIT]

@@galesd1971Well, in the more expensive models they might user better caps. However, so far I had no opportunity to look at a newer model or into a more expensive model.

[@azariayehezkel9064]

Rv1 is the varistor?

[@DonkeyLearningIT]

I cannot see now the video on my mobile, and I do not remember the components either. Still, I would assume that Rv1 should be a varistor.

[@Aerobix]

Be Quiet is fabless and they produce in Taiwan with the FSP Group (someone might know). Don't expect tooooooooooooo much from this name.

[@MoonDoes]

Designed to fail... Thank you for that kind of videos.

[@DonkeyLearningIT]

It is not "soo bad", but it could have been definitely made better. On Toms Hardware they are now doing some teardonw of PSUs, and they found last week a similar conclusion like I did for this thing two years ago...

[@bingosunnoon9341]

I agree...no way this is 500 watts. Audio equipment uses peak voltage and not RMS. Totally misleading.

[@DonkeyLearningIT]

It might be 500W peak-power, but definitely not nominally 500W. For that it would need to be operating at around 98% efficiency considering those "heat-sinks" which barely have some surface area.

[@KarolMurawski]

Main power capacitor doesn't need to be 105C, it just needs to be long life. I would prefer 85C 5000h capacitor to 105C 1000h capacitor in this use case. 85C 5000h would be probably cheaper too. P.S. This TEAPO is 2000h, so nothing special indeed - definitely not good for 24/7 usage.

[@DonkeyLearningIT]

The issue with the 85C long-life capacitors is, that their life need to be derated when the temperature increases above room temperature. This is why they might have a nice long 5000h life at room temperature, but inside a hot power supply they will live considerably less. As far as I understood, the 105C rated caps should have less derating, so those caps should stay longer in service if they are good quality.

[@KarolMurawski]

@@DonkeyLearningIT It is 5000h at 85C and nominal voltage. The rule of thumb is that it would be 10000h at 75C, 20000h at 65C and so on.

[@Haliyev.07]

Power supply doesnt have a heatsink? Dont tell me it cools down threw direct fan air

[@DonkeyLearningIT]

What I said is that the heatsinks are relatively small, they could have put a more aluminum in there...

[@berksiyahi2318]

@@DonkeyLearningIT sir hi I'm planning to buy a new psu to replace my 10 year old xigmatek. Should I consider be quiet? Thank you

[@DonkeyLearningIT]

@@berksiyahi2318 Sure, Be Quiet! is a good manufacturer in general. As I also mention in the video, the cooling fan is really quiet, the PSU barely makes a noise. Also, you can buy higher end models from them compared to this one, which was a mid-range one about 8 years ago.

[@berksiyahi2318]

@@DonkeyLearningIT Okay thank You sir

[@oltean27]

I have seasonic gold . It broke at 3years function. I use ONLY CORSAIR RM 1000I. Do a rewiew on corsair they never broke has 12 years.

[@pickleadaykeepsthedoctoraway]

Seasonic makes a lot of Corsair's PSUs. Corsair doesn't make PSUs.

[@blagovesttodorov1531]

Does it have 6 pin connector

[@DonkeyLearningIT]

There is a full comparison of this unit with the Corsair V550 here: kzbin.info?o=U&video_id=PcuI4WPsbA4 Btw, if you mean the 6 pin connector for the +12V CPU power, yes, it does have it.

[@blagovesttodorov1531]

Donkey Learning IT thanks man.I just brought gtx1050ti and im waiting for it to arrive :)

[@azariayehezkel9064]

What is amove?

[@DonkeyLearningIT]

Metal Oxide Varistor ---> MOV MOV is a device, which normally has a really high resistance, but once the voltage goes above a given level, it suddenly decreases its resistance.

[@azariayehezkel9064]

Thanks

[@BarendJanvanEijk]

Thkxs for your clear and informative explanation ! You could try to review one of the best tested from hardware.info f.i. the Bitfenix Formula 450W

[@DonkeyLearningIT]

Good idea. To be honest with you, if PSU manufacturers would be willing to send me their units, I would be more than willing to test and tear them down. However, I am sure that they are afraid of negative criticism, and this is why so far none of them contacted me so far. They like only those reviewers, who give 8 or 9 points out of 10 without mentioning anything negative about a unit.

[@romanb.6905]

"...if you dont know what I´´m talking about." ;-)))

[@DonkeyLearningIT]

I did not meant it to sound offensive. I am just aware that some people still have their old AT power supply in their mind, which had a clunking On/Off switch. However, the ATX power supplies are switched on through a logic signal, where one of the pins is being pulled to ground. The +5V standby will constantly power the glue-logic portion of the MoBo, and even the keyboard, mouse and the network card. This is why having this +5V stand-by is a major difference compared to the good old AT supplies in my view.

[@romanb.6905]

Oh no no, it wasn´t offensive etc. I founded it funny but appropriate. By these words I called out: "Yes!, it´s me :-)" I wish, I had only ... 20% of your knowledge and experience! I could repair many things and save much money. In these days I am trying to repair my power supply, to find out the reason and replace the part. So I started to get more knowledge about the PC power supply and watched your video. I am not professional engineer, as you are. Fortunately I have recognized one bursted capacitor, ordered a new one and I will replace it. Many thanks for your videos and thumbs up!

[@DonkeyLearningIT]

I am glad that you will get your PSU sorted out. Btw, if one cap is busted, often it is a good idea to replace them all, *ESPECIALLY* the small values in the range of 1-47uF. This is because these small caps are providing the reference voltages and they define the shape of the driver signal/feedback loop. Anyway, the designers still managed to fool me! Namely, I would have naively expected that the power switch is an actual *power switch*, cutting out the hot wire from AC side. However, as I mentioned, they made a complex solution instead with the power button, and the way the cables were routed is not optimal, and it could be potentially dangerous.

[@DonkeyLearningIT]

I forgot: after you replace the cap, do *NOT* test the PSU directly with a computer, because you can fry the whole motherboard/CPU/GPU combo. Just power it on on your workbench with the "paper-clip" trick, and measure the voltages first on the individual rails before you plug it into a PC. I should have really made a video of how to test a PSU, now it would have been handy...

[@romanb.6905]

I planed, to test it before with the paper clip methode, even if I didn´t know about the danger. Probably you mean, when for instance istead of 3,3V there would be 5V in the cable(?) I will now especially take care of this issue. Thank you very much! Aha, the cap I will replace is one of the two big 470µF. Maybe I should have ordered two of them. I have first do some paper work today and tomorow; than on Friday wok at the PSU. Many thanks, you are great!

[@james10739]

Ya but for sells there is more bang for there bucks on packageing

[@DonkeyLearningIT]

That is the sad part. The packaging looked disgustingly attractive with that black panther on it inside that shiny paper box. I must admit that the packaging was gorgeous...

[@johnsmith-tr3dh]

It appears to me that the Be Quiet! ps is full of "Chineseium"

[@skeltek7487]

The CM version is a horror to disassemble

[@KarolMurawski]

You must live in a country with very cheap electricity. For me, using 92% efficiency power supply for 24/7 instead of 82% one is cheaper just after a year.

[@DonkeyLearningIT]

Currently I pay 0.28Euros per KWh, and the good PSUs with high efficiency tend to be expensive. Plus, I do not use my server and main computer under 100% load, they run idle most of the time, so it takes over a year to pay off the difference.

[@KarolMurawski]

@@DonkeyLearningIT In your case, 10 Watts less every hour translates to €25 savings per year.

[@DonkeyLearningIT]

@@KarolMurawskiHah, I never spent the time to calculate that. It is surprising to see that even 10Watt can make 25Euro difference. Though, my machines are on less than 8 hours per day in average, and under very light load, so most likely one would need at least 3 years to pay for a more efficient supply.

[@grzegorz16100]

Are you Hungarian?

[@Pennys1]

Teapo is a cheap chinese company that makes capacitors and MOSFETs on motherboards. they had capacitors literally blow out on motherboards back in the early 2000s known as the "capacitor plague".

[@DonkeyLearningIT]

I see. So when I called Teapy the Cheapo, it was not far off. However, what surprises me is that other power supplies in the similar price range use the same low grade components like this one reviewed in the video. I guess that they have to keep the price low...

[@Radek__]

please add model number to video title. "dark power pro 6" or at least "500w be quiet! 6 series atx..." becasue it is very old contruction now. Today in 2021 we have Dark power pro 12. So it is a way beyond that poor quality old contruction. Your current title sugesting that be quiet has a cheap build psu. Maybe 10years ago it was true, but not today. So it is unfair.

[@blackterminal]

Why do you wear gloves?

[@superpooper_2030]

Design very similar to tagan brand.

[@DonkeyLearningIT]

My suspicion is, that Be Quiet have outsourced the PCB design to a third-party Chinese company, which may design other PSUs. That would explain why the components and the component placement is not as good as a carefully designed German product. Otherwise I have nothing against Chinese workmanship, but when they skimp on important things, that is no good...

[@lambertax]

The video begin at 7:08. Before, it’s bla bla bla.

[@johnconrad5487]

i dont believe it... 500 Watts? why not? 20 MHz? did you calculate it? the 5V supply is driven by a single chip controller which has its own 700V transistor. obviously you know very little about power supplies. "I am just shocked!!!"" what? why? this is a normal PFC with Converter chip..... as for sync rectifiers... it depends on the circuitry that ure working with. the p/s has 3 high current outputs, which means 3 sync rectifier drivers whic are a lot more expensive than two Schottky rectifiers in parallel. why dont you do a little more research before making stupid comments? you are not a power supply engineer capable of criticizing someone elses design.. does not matter what your function is but when u make stupid comments like "shocked" etc then it shows your level of knowledge... LM324 is a quad op-amp and not a quad comparator.... anyway, I subscribed to your link.... However... Thank you for sharing... you made a good video...

[@DonkeyLearningIT]

*obviously you know very little about power supplies* sorry man, but at that point I stopped reading. Thanks for your comment anyway, appreciate you taking your time.

[@johnconrad5487]

@@DonkeyLearningIT my response was a little harsh... i should not have spoken like that. my reaction is the same as some of the other commentors. this video is a year old so I should not have commented... after all you have had a year to improve your knowledge. so that comment from me is wrong...

[@DonkeyLearningIT]

@@johnconrad5487No, it is OK. I am not a snowflake, and really appreciate constructive criticism. However, no matter how we put it, they should have spent *more money on the electronics* and less on the fancy packaging. When it comes to the power supply, the CNY chip which is feeding the +5V standby circuit will have trouble, since the +5V standby is used by the USB even when you are charging a phone and the PC is turned off. When I plug in as an example my table into one of the USB ports, the PSU no longer turns on ;) When it comes to LM324, let us now be honest: in a power supply do you really expect that it will be used as a quad opamp, or be used as a quad comparator? I am just calling the thing as it is used: quad comparator. To add more to it, it is not using synchronous rectification, but instead dual Schottky diodes. Long story short: cheap design...

[@johnconrad5487]

@@DonkeyLearningIT True. Cheap design is correct, however when making thousands of p/s they need to keep the price down... as for the LM324... yeah that is not an important point and I should not have mentioned it.... I guess I was being somewhat emotional when i was watching ur video... LOL... however to keep to the point.... they made it as low cost as possible but still made it reliable. Even the 85C caps are ok as long as the fan keeps working which is what they are relying upon.. this is not a military or industrial product that requires 20 years life time operation... pc's become obsolete after about 5 years when new products come out that are half the price and twice the capability. did you calculate the transformer? it is easily capable of 500 Watts. I made a ps for EV's which had a transformer just a little bigger (the core was 42/42/15 size) than that one and was over 2200 Watts with over 90% efficiency switching frequency was only 80KHz. i think this is what got me upset about your criticism of the ps when u said 20MHz.

[@DonkeyLearningIT]

@@johnconrad5487The point of the whole video was: I expected a product designed in Germany. Instead got a Chinese stuff (medium grade at best) with a silent cooling fan. You must agree with me: the designers could have done a better job just by taking 30 more minutes on the thing, especially when it comes to routing 230V AC cables through heat sinks, and also putting in a "mains power switch", which is in fact NOT a mains power switch. Sadly I no longer have the packaging of that PSU, but they spent on it at least 3$ or even more instead of making a better product, and going with a less fancy box. When it comes to pushing through 2KW on a small core like that, I am willing to take a bet that you were not doing it with two cheap FETs, but instead a full H bridge, and the FETs were not hard but soft switched in combination with some LC resonant circuit. Also, you most likely had synchronous rectification instead of Shottkys at that power range. Such a PSU would have been an entirely a different ballgame, and not a mediocre product like this here...

[@hughcurtis5178]

Wonderful work and I even enjoy listening to your accent and you knowledge is great on the subject but, please just change your pronunciation of the word circuit...it's not pronounced "Ser queet" but more like "Ser kit". See en.wiktionary.org/wiki/circuit#Pronunciation

[@DonkeyLearningIT]

Yeeah, I will definitely change my pronunciation on the circuit, because people really do not like it. This is why I like it if people leave feedback. I do not take it negatively, because it helps me to make better content in the future. This video is a bit "over the top", since the PCB layout and cheap components got me really worked up.

[@hughcurtis5178]

No you are always very enlightening no matter what you do. You should teach professionally, you probably do. I am living in Sweden and lSwedish the hard way. People had a difficult time correcting my accent and I had a bad accent for a long time until I got together with a tough woman who could correct me most of the time. Thanks for your videos.

[@danielsatko-]

many bad mistakes in this explanation video. better delete it and make new

[@DonkeyLearningIT]

Please point out the major mistakes, so I can edit them out.

[@yohaneskandani8452]

@@DonkeyLearningIT Thank you, this video quality is superb and the review is surely your own opinion. People may disagree with you or have a different view that's fine. Please make another tear down and repair, we can always learn something from you, just don't delete this one.

[@DonkeyLearningIT]

@@yohaneskandani8452Thanks for the positive comment. I will not delete the video, because in my view it points out some of the design issues with this PSU, and also it might be informative to some people who think about repairing ATX PSUs. In the future I will make more videos if all goes right and my time/health allows it.

[@stevelueb7787]

Please Stop the Super Critical Analysis of this power supply! Your enthusiasm to bad mouth someone else's work shows your true character.

[@DonkeyLearningIT]

Thanks for your suggestion. Still, keep in mind, that this is *NOT* a cheap noname PSU, but it is from one of the best German manufacturers. For my money I have expected better engineering work. Some of the solutions are not even mechanically/electronically 100% safe on the long run, especially if one would consider mechanical vibration in a LAN-party computer rig.

[@joshdau]

I have to agree with Steve. The over critical analysis of this power supply really turned me off half way through. Firstly, you need to remember that a lot of the time manufacturers produce PCBs that are used in a number of different products. The same PCB is most likely used for all of the different power ratings in that series of power supply. Just because "there is a component missing here" when there is a spot for it on the silk screen does not necessarily mean that they are cheaping out by removing necessary parts. The missing inductor in the AC filter stage may have been unnecessary for the lower power PSUs, but may have been critical in some of their higher power supplies. Doubling up on the bridge rectifiers is actually fairly common as well. Given the current draw from the AC grid under normal conditions is usually only 3 or 4 amps, a much more important specification for these bridge rectifiers is their peak current capacity. The rectifiers need to be able to handle the peak inrush current that the filter cap draws during startup, and even with the NTC, this is still going to be considerably higher than the continuous current rating of the bridge rectifier. To overcome this, paralleling multiple bridge rectifiers allows you to handle much higher peak currents. Given a heatsink only helps with the dissipation under normal use, and is of no use during these inrush peaks, using two parallel bridge rectifiers here was the correct decision. The filter capacitors 85 degree rating is in line with what I've seen in a lot of other power supplies. The aluminium block between the rest of the power supply and the capacitor is to shield it from excess heat, and even then, with the active cooling in this power supply, I'd be surprised if that capacitor ever got over 20 degrees above ambient. Assuming its a 3000h capacitor, that puts it at just under 8 years 24/7 operation at its fully rated capacity. From my experience that transformers size is perfectly fine, and again, the extra sizes printed on the PCB are most likely for higher power units that do require a larger transformer. Also, without further testing or analysis, it is extremely amateur to say, just by looking at it, that the heat sinks are underrated for their purpose. A lot of design and engineering would have gone into this product, and the appropriate heat sinks would have been chosen for each section of the power supply. Given the MOSFETs on that unfinned heat sink are operated in a push-pull configuration, only one is every conducting at once, effectively halving the power dissipation across both the FETs. Without measuring the temperatures of both of the FETs, it is impossible to state that the heat sink used is underrated and irresponsible to state that it is poorly designed. The engineers and designers for this product would have done hundreds of hours of testing. Before you call their work dodgy, at least do some testing of your own.

[@DonkeyLearningIT]

I understand now why "review" sites do not actually bother to review things, but just give it a badge of "awesome/very-good". They do so because this is what people want to hear. I think I will not tear down any more PSU, at least not for KZbin. I know, it it is not a loss for humanity...

[@joshdau]

Donkey Learning IT I'm not debating your ability to review and teardown products. I'm debating your ability to review them fairly. I'd have no problem with you calling out a product for cutting corners if they actually were. No where have you actually tested and proven ANY of the comments or assumptions you made in this video. I'm happy to watch a "critical" review of a product, so long as the reviewer can back it up with sound logic and evidence. What you've done here is find things that on the surface look bad to the untrained eye and stated that they are cutting corners because of it, with no evidence or sound logic. Your comment didn't even address any of the things I pointed out. If you think I'm wrong, at least come up with reasons as to why I'm wrong with my assessment. I don't actually own one of these, nor do I have any bias towards. But as a fellow electrical engineer and product designer, it annoys me when I see people slandering other people's work when there is actually nothing really wrong with it. I agree, some review sites are biased towards certain brands, but looking at this purely from the electrical stand point, I have yet to see anything in your video that stands out to me as cutting corners or poor design. I'd be happy to watch stacks more tear downs on power supplies from you, so long as the comments you make are educated and well reinforced by evidence. There are certainly many terrible power supplies out there, so I'm sure it's not hard to find one that actually has problems!

[@DonkeyLearningIT]

"Untrained eye"... That comment was really mean, more mean than my allegedly nasty review. That untrained eye can tell you, that this PSU is *blasting* heat whenever a single mid-range GPU was using power from it, and it has two GPU power cords, so in theory one could attach two GPUs, leading to complete meltdown. The poor mains capacitor rated at 85C was *marinated* in the blasting heat. Aluminum is a very good conductor of heat, not an insulator, so your point with the heat shielding is nonsense. Please repair a couple of these PSUs before you make such comments, or if you consider me to be untrained, ask an actual professional. The inductor from the differential mode choke should be there, but they spared it out, and put in only one, assuming it will be on the phase, which is a 50-50 call, because in Europe wall sockets are not wired to that standard like in the US. The +5V Stand-by circuit is just thrown in there. Overall, the capacitors are the *cheapest* thing one can buy from Schenzen, and the soldering is on the borderline. Honestly, I am sorry that I have disappointed you, but this video is still a decent overview of this particular PSU. Be Quite! as a brand makes good PSUs, but this one is just not their greatest.

[@coldfinger459sub0]

That power Supply is clean compared to my sons his was so dirty I had to use soap and water and run it under the faucet to get it clean and then let it dry out for a week