yeah, that is an old psu that was working on a pIV/GF4200 setup... it was too much for it IMHO but surprisingly enough the system was working fine until last year that I "inherited" it... 🤣
I've had too much recapping practise this year, no more! 🤣
I take it from the context that it's a good psu to mess with? or just bin it and be done with it?
Thanks for the info again, I'll bug you again soon-ish with one last psu that I have in my p4 build, I wonder if it's any good... IIRC it's a thermaltake (or thermalright?) 450W or something ...

Seems to have a 15A rectifier on +12V, that's 12V x 15A = 180W, plenty enough for non-brutally-OCed P4s. The ole Deer that now propels my 440BX Tually expended about eight years powering a (non-OCed) Preshott HT 3.0E, and its original +12V rectifier was just a weak 10A ultrafast 😀 .

Looks like a solid base for a decent retrocomp PSU, but only provided you replace all those crapacitors. Either recap it, or ditch it.

Tracing the code on the label I've found this datasheet: PSIV-450-2

I think I found a good AT psu , a rebranded (for a big-player company of the 90s here) Seasonic PSU that uses Rubycon caps (at least half of them) , hidden treasure or mediocrity? 🤣

TELVM, is the above comment targeted for the 350W psu I posted before?
I also checked the p4 psu, it's a Thermaltake TR2-420PP one, gonna look it up 😉

^ Wow, a true ancient relic, that Seasonic SSA-200G AT must be ~20 years old.

· Harl! Notice the difference between lytic caps from a top-notch jap brand like Panasonic or Rubycon and pure crap like the Fuckyous: After two decades the Pannys and Rubys still look good 😈 , while the Fuckyous went belly up in no time 😁 . There also some CHTR () caps that look good also.

· It's well built, decent input filtering for its time (2 X-caps, 2 Y-caps, 1 common choke) and what could be a MOV. Monobloc rectifier bridge (as opposed to the four diode treatment typical of gutless wonders). Decently sized (for the low total power) 470uF Panny big caps.

· Overkill '35' size main trasformer. Double sided heatsink for the primary switchers. KA7500B controller. What looks like a AN7900 regulator on standalone heatsink.

· On the output filtering I see PI coils and decently sized Rubys.

· Notice also the connector for the mains wires, instead of them just soldered to the PCB. This makes tinkering much easier 😀 .

Hidden treasure no doubt, if you're not interested I'll provide her a new home 😁 .

keropi wrote:

TELVM, is the above comment targeted for the 350W psu I posted before?

Yep in my previous post I was talking about the Levicom.

Received a second NOS Seasonic SS-300FS (Active PFC). Don't know if the seller will ship overseas but it might be worth a try. These seem to have a little coil whine but nothing too bad. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/291016049559

^ this has a -5v line, interesting... why don't you open it up so we can have an expert opinion? 😁

TELVM's got some interior pics of the SS-300FS in post #2.

^ ah, missed that... so it's a decent psu at a great price...

bjt wrote:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/291016049559

... These power supplies are brand new & are tested with a power supply tester before dispatch. This is the only time they encounter being switched on ...
... £8.95 ...

Hmm ... sounds a bit weird. Did you ask the seller about the history of these PSUs jbt?

You should put your superb photographic skills into action once again and take pics of any of your SS-300FS APFC internals. Try to capture the manufacturing date code on the big cap. On Pannys for instance the first number of the code is the year of production:

2109F ==> year 2002

If the big cap is not a Panny look for a similar four or five character alphanumeric code on it, or on any secondary cap.

TELVM wrote:

[...]
Hidden treasure no doubt, if you're not interested I'll provide her a new home 😁 [...]

just saw that, it's already installed on the babyAT tower I was gifted , I'll trust it with some roland stuff 😊

^ I'd recap the CEHTRs at least.

BTW:

TELVM wrote:

Just in case you'd think about it: Beware of caps selling on ebay, many are fakes (you think you are buying a Rubycon and it's really a Jun Fu in disguise 😵 ).

Speaking of the devil 🙄 .

Here's some pics of the insides. This one's more packed so it's harder to get closeups.

Thanks for your dedication to the cause bjt . That's what I call an ideal vintage PSU for low-power retrocomps, very good built 😎 .

· Looks really unused 😳 , it must have spent the past decade stashed somewhere.

· Fine input filtering: 2 common chokes, 3 X-caps, 2 Y-caps (with possibly some more on the small input daughterboard) and one MOV. Monobloc rectifier bridge.

· The bulk cap is a Hitachi HP3 manufactured in 2002. Hitachi is a jap top-notch caps maker.

. Well sized heatsinks and main transformer.

· Well sized PI coils on the output. The only brand I can recognise amongst the output caps is 'PCE-TUR' ... which ain't much renowned, but at least the sizes are generous (2200~3300uF).

· Connector on PCB for both mains and fan wires, which makes tinkering a piece of cake.

A steal for just nine sterlings, congrats!

Cool 😀 I was going to use the second one to power an Athlon 1200/Voodoo 5 rig, do you think it's up to it?

ooohh, I'll try and get a psu like that

bjt wrote:

... I was going to use the second one to power an Athlon 1200/Voodoo 5 rig, do you think it's up to it?

No problem, the SS-300FS has a 30A +5V rectifier of TO-247 size, beefier than typical TO-220s. It can handle any Athlon Classic you throw at it 😎 .

CORRECTION: As a matter of fact the +5V rectifier is doubled (there is one TO-247 on each side of the secondary heatsink), even better:

As is by now a tradition, C_Hegge has posted the annual El-Cheapo Power Supply Roundup for 2013 at his Hardware Insights site. Anyone interested in PSUs shouldn't miss it, you'll learn a lot and have good laughs.

Some highlights:

The '550W' label pasted on a 350W PSU 🤣

The catastrophic levels of ripple when PSU output filtering lacks PI coils and has just one cheap small cap per rail 😵

The New Year's fireworks 😁

heh, the explosions video was the best! 😁

Some didactic videos I found on my travels:

A look at some old power supplies - Amazing build quality

^ The second one is a fine PSU made by Delta, as the guy says 'built like a tank' 😎 .

Antec SmartPower murdered by Fuhjyyu caps

^ A potentially quite decent PSU back at its time, sporting indepent regulation for each main rail (three toroid coils on output). But the Fuckyyus made no prisoners, these PSUs dropped like flies and earned the nickname StupidPower 😵 .

Oh the irony 😁 ! Paradoxically years later we can hear an Antec spokesperson showing contempt for 'cheap China brand' caps:

Quality PSU vs a generic one

The same guy explains us the guts of an HGC-620 (a fairly good contemporary PSU, nothing to do with the SmartPowers of a decade ago):

Inside a psu