PC Power & Cooling said that their thermistors aren't involved in thermal shutdown and that you can't even order thermal shutdown as an option. A couple of Enlight PSUs I looked at used the thermistor only for fan control, and I'm pretty sure the same is true with my 300W Antec. I don't know about m...

I use polypropylene because it's easy to cut, takes high heat (made for ovens), and can be "welded" together with a soldering iron. Those translucent storage boxes are made of it, and fairly large ones are sold by 99-cent stores, or sometimes for $4 you can get a big box made for sliding under the b...

But that could just be from the Aopen's fan running slower, as is the case with my Antec SmartPower. OTOH a PSU dissipating 69W will make the top of the computer case really warm.

If the measurements are accurate and the computer drew the same amount of power in each test, then assuming 70% efficiency for the Codegen, the Codegen dissipated 9W while the Aopen/Fortron dissipated 69W (23% efficiency). Did the Aopen/Fortron feel a lot hotter? Because when I loaded 300W PSUs to 3...

Do you mean you have an energy meter that reads out in joules or kilowatt-hours? Does it just measure current and assume that watts is simply amps X average volts, or does it also measure volts continuously to correct for power factor? The passive power factor correction coil in my 300W Fortron/Spar...

Why can't they just boost the efficiency and frequency of regular PSUs? TI sent me a 150W module that works at over 200 KHz, is claimed to be 90% efficient, and is smaller than a 3 Musketeers bar.

I also measured about 8-13A on the +5V with my Athon XP1800+ and ECS K7S5A Pro, which definitely runs the CPU from the +5V because it uses only the 20-pin ATX connector, and the highest voltage applied to the big transistors and diodes for the CPU core voltage regulator is +5V. I get hardly any +5V ...

Why not tweak the temperature controller? It probably has resistors to change how sharply the RPM changes and at what temperature it changes. I'd start by adding a varialble resistor across the thermistor, maybe 2,000-10,000 ohms, and tweak it until the fan ran kind of steadily.

Why not tweak the temperature controller? It probably has resistors to change how sharply the RPM changes and at what temperature it changes. I'd start by adding a varialble resistor across the thermistor, maybe 2,000-10,000 ohms, and tweak it until the fan ran kind of steadily.

The problem with trying to discharge the capacitors is that it can be hard to reach the needed discharge points on top of the circuit board, and removing the board to gain access from the bottom could cause any charged capacitors to shock you. Fortunately, the capacitors will almost always be bled d...

The only thing I've found against braiding wires was about low-inductance audio amplifier speaker wires made of several thin braided wires. The author, a professor of electrical engineering, said that this caused excess capacitance that could lead to instability. But I don't think this can possibly ...

Does anyone know why the ProSilence fanless PSU is not certified by CSA, UL, or TUV, only by CE? I've been told that CE isn't as strict about having actual samples tested. I once asked an engineer friend about those insulators, and he didn't like the idea of relying on them as the only barrier again...

Wire a 50 ohm thermistor in series with the fan's red lead and silicone seal the thermistor on the low voltage heatsink (the one closest to all the wires coming out of the PSU and farthest from the big cylindrical capacitor(s) )?

Do you realize that with a lot of PSUs the heatsink for the high voltage transistors itself has high voltage on it? I've measured about 170VDC on these heatsinks in a 300W Delta, Antec SmartPower, and Powmax models and in a 350W Enerermax. And don't assume that the presense of rubber insulators betw...

All FSP-made PSUs have protection against overvoltage, overcurrent, etc., and many use a Fairchild KA3511 chip on a small vertical circuit board that has overvoltage protection built in and makes it easy to add overcurrent protection. The main difference between the brands is that Hi-Q PSUs have sle...

Power factor correction coil? Coils make noise, but this is the only one I know of in an ATX PSU that runs at a low enough frequency to make a buzzzzz.

What does it look like inside? Here are pictures of the insides of several PSUs:[/url]http://terasan.okiraku-pc.net/dengen/[url] Fortron/Sparkle based PSUs usually have lots of holes in their heatsinks, unless they've been modified with heavier ones. Another sign of Fortron/Sparkle are the 3-4 small...

It should be easy to get a high quality 300-350W Fortron/Sparkle PSU from www.directron.com or www.newegg.com for about $27-36, and they have some of them for as little as $20-25 under the Hi-Q brand (sleeve bearing fan). PC Power & Cooling has two visual comparisons of good and bad: Their 510W vers...

I was shocked at the high ripple measurement for the +5Vstandby of the 400W Powmax because when I measured it with my 300W Powmax @ 1.5A, the high frequency ripple was only about 50mVp-p. The review didn't mention whether the ripple high-freq. or 60 Hz, but if the latter, isn't it easy to pick up lo...

When I tried my 300W Antec SmartPower with the cover removed, the low voltage heatsink eventually heated to 70 Celcius, but when I put a temporary plastic cover on to take the temp., the heatsink was only about 43C. To me this shows just how important the "tunnel" effect is for the PSU. OTOH the cas...

How hot are your transistors and diodes getting? The spec sheets I've seen allow them to reach 125-150C at the hottest part of the chip itself, and I've read that if you stay at least 30C below that, the thing will last forever. There are some Snickers-sized 150W PSU modules at www.ti.com that are r...

Be careful about putting the probe on a heatsink because some PSU heatsinks have high voltage on them!!! I measured 170 volts DC on one of the two heatsinks in Powmax, Antec Smartpower, and Delta PSUs. Those heatsinks were located right next to the big cylindrical capacitors rated for at least 200 v...

One of the heatsinks in my Antec reached 70 Celcius when I ran it without the cover, but when I covered it again they stayed below 50C, even though Antec normally run the fans very slowly.

One of the heatsinks in my Antec reached 70 Celcius when I ran it without the cover, but when I covered it again it stayed below 50C (temporary plastic cover, hole drilled through it for temperature probe), even though Antecs normally run their fans very slowly. OTOH I found a PSU with few openings ...

C'T magazine said that the current draw for an older XP2400+ system was about 9A @ +12V, 2-3A @ +5V, and 9-12A @ +3.3V.

What difference would it make to have MemTest86 wait six hours before reading back them memory rather than read it back right away? How would that be a better test of RF interference causing memory errors when the bits are refreshed every few milliseconds anyway? Is that much charge lost in the bit ...

A 6800 uF capacitor (about ten times the size of those in ATX PSUs)that I charged to 18V several months ago is currently at 13.4V, so I wouldn't rely upon leaving the PSU unplugged for several weeks to drain off the voltage. Some of my PSUs make a noise just before the LED on the mobo goes dim, and ...

I've been told not to trust rubber gloves unless they're very thick and tough and have been tested just prior to use. Apparently one problem is that the hands get so sweaty that if a break does occur, the shock is sometimes worse than if the person had touched the high voltage without gloves. I'm no...

Maybe that particular Enermax 350W can't put out sufficient power for the +3.3V and +5.0V, but I'm guessing that its combined power rating is at least 180W, which should be enough for anything up to about XP2400+. Maybe one of the 100uF or larger, 6.3-25V capacitors on the output is bad

Won't the PSU's +5V standby supply drain the capacitors in about 15 seconds (the wait before I hear a chirp or buzz)?

Those approximately 200K resistors across the capacitors will drain them in about 1,000 seconds (5 x 200K x 1000uF).