Fantastic thread, lots of useful information. I'll make sure to check my retro PSU archive soon for keepers 😉

In the meantime, I've got something a little bit unusual. It's a ~30 year old PSU from my 8088, which has started to fail. Takes a while to get going and power the system up properly. I assume it's caps gone bad (can't blame 'em after 30 years) but I wonder if this thing is worth saving.
The casing is removed (for cleaning etc.) and there's absolutely no information to be found on there, so I haven't got the faintest idea on the specs of this thing.

Pictures are probably not the best, if needed I can make better ones (when I find the time).

bjt wrote:

I have a few of these Seasonic PSUs now and used one in an Athlon 64 3000 / Radeon 9800 Pro build... do you think it's up to it or will the 12v load be too much? Thanks and sorry for necropost 😀

SS-300FS can handle 15A (18A peak) on +12V, that's 180~216W from +12V.

Depending on model Athlon 64 3000 are 51~89W TDP. The Radeon 9800 Pro draws ~50W tops, and not all from +12V rail. Unless you add a dozen HDDs the SS-300FS will deal OK with that.

If it helps I've run a P4 Preshott 3.4 (103W TDP) with a 9800 Pro from a PSU of worse quality than a Seasonic SS-300FS, with a 16A rectifier on +12V, without explosions 😀 .

Mystery wrote:

... I've got something a little bit unusual. It's a ~30 year old PSU from my 8088, which has started to fail. Takes a while to get going and power the system up properly. I assume it's caps gone bad ...

Most probably those shitty Fuhjyuu craps gone south.

Looks otherwise decent, some input filtering, TL494 PWM controller, a '33' transformer and decent output filtering (Fuhjyuus aside). I like the ole style fuse holder and headers for plugging mains and fan connectors. Worth a recap, with fresh lytics it should handle anything that requires an AT PSU.

I'm trying to keep the 30+ year old computer mostly in its original state, so I'll give it a shot if it's really just the caps. Getting a replacement for this thing wouldn't be easy as it doesn't have the standard AT PSU form factor and neither does the case of the system support standard AT PSUs.

I mean, it still works, just needs a couple of resets to finally power up the system, but that happened only recently. So, 30 years sounds pretty good to me for supposedly shitty caps 😉

Thanks for taking a look at it!

Mystery wrote:

... 30 years sounds pretty good to me for supposedly shitty caps 😉 ...

Nah, you've just been exceptionally lucky.

Since you're goot at reviewing power supply here are my two PSU 😁

There's an AT and an ATX psu, the AT one I think it was not working :s, because it was reseting the computer, making some weird beeps when there was the sound card and gpu + some flickers on screen sometimes...
I got it I think 5 months ago, it came with the case, and the seller told it wasn't opened/tested for 18 years 😳 (and it looks true, since it looks new 😳)

Then I replaced that AT psu by an ATX psu (and lost the AT switch =/), it's a damn good power supply, it was used on a mobo with a PIII 1GHz, 1,5GB ram + nvidia FX5500 + many other pci boards, I think there were a problem on that system, or it was the chipset, or the memory, I don't think it was the psu...

the crazy thing is that the ATX psu on the p1 system can let it on by one second without external energy 😳...

Well here are the pics...

Also I want to replace that psu, since it's 220V and here's only 110 '-', plus I wanted to use the switch back, but or I would require an ATX to AT converter (that I didn't find one to sell here) or I would need to buy that unknown AT psu D:

NOTE: the ATX psu never was cleaned since 14 years of use 🤣 so there're some screenshots before and after the clean xD

AT PSU ATX PSU

I re capped an entire Antec tru power a year or 2 ago, it' going strong in my old 939 rig.

This topic should not be forgotten! Here's another PSU for vivisection:

Jabert WE-DN200

The thing once belonged to a girl techie and powered her main computer with 5x86-133 later overclocked to 150MHz from 1995 to something around 2003 and has shown no signs of failure. Here it is after I decided to get rid of the dust inside it with water under pressure. Dust inside PSU is baked on heating elements and it literally makes computers smell when turned on.

This PSU looks solid to me, what do you think? The fan seems to be of industrial type with real bearing.

Anyone her a fan of johnnyguru?

Especially the "Gutless wonder" torture tests!

Most recent dying GW... http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDR … =Story&reid=379

Can I ask you about ideal PSU for my actual Win9x/Win2k build?
ASUS CUV4X-D, 2x PIII 800EB, 2x 512MB PC133 ECC, Matrox G400, 2x Voodoo II 12MB, SoundBlaster Live!, SCSI 2940, CD + CDRW SCSI, HD 40GB + HD 30GB IDE - which PSU and which wattage
would you recommend me? If you have in mind a precise model I would be glad to investigate about its specs, thanks.

@Liqu1d82
Make sure that you have least 30A on the +5V line as the bare minimum, just to be safe. Ideally would be a mint/new Enermax Noisetaker/Whisper series (for example EG-365/395/465/475 VE) if you could find one. Newer PSUs tend to have less in the +5V line. You can check this thread for a starter.

archsan wrote:

@Liqu1d82
Make sure that you have least 30A on the +5V line as the bare minimum, just to be safe. Ideally would be a mint/new Enermax Noisetaker/Whisper series (for example EG-365/395/465/475 VE) if you could find one. Newer PSUs tend to have less in the +5V line. You can check this thread for a starter.

Thanks, I'll check 😀

Let me say, however, that not always known brand equals excellent and reliable internal components... in these days I have made several inquiries to find a robust and maybe not too expensive PSU for my retro-rig, and looking at the specifications of some PSU 'noble' branded, as well as the various reviews, I have often seen that even well-known brands use poor quality components - an example of this are the use of capacitors really not very durable!

In the end I think I'll take one of these: remarkable value for money, robust, certified, with quality parts ... and also cost relatively little, on Amazon: XFX ProSeries 450W Core Edition V2 Full Wired or Corsair CX430

Liqu1d82 wrote:

Let me say, however, that not always known brand equals excellent and reliable internal components... in these days I have made several inquiries to find a robust and maybe not too expensive PSU for my retro-rig, and looking at the specifications of some PSU 'noble' branded, as well as the various reviews, I have often seen that even well-known brands use poor quality components - an example of this are the use of capacitors really not very durable!

Well, that depends on what's being called "known brand", but yes, generally if you want the best build, using only top quality Japanese capacitors and solid caps etc, you'll have to go to the few acknowledged brands/OEMs and even then you'll still have to go up the ladder in the lineup. These are usually the models with a warranty of 5 years or more.

Anyway I suppose you could get away with 20A on +5V since the PIII 800EB has max TDP of only 20.8W, going by Intel's own specs page. So even two of these aren't really that demanding.

Today I've finally mounted the new PSU I've chosen for Win9x/Win2k dual-cpu PC: Corsair CX 430 - http://www.corsair.com/en/cx430-80-plus-bronz … ed-power-supply

I bought this Antec EarthWatts 380 w from a flea market,but it doesn't work,i opened it up,the seal was intact,it doesn't seem to be anything wrong with it no bulging caps,no burn marks or smell,nothing.
It's weird i had cheaper powersupply with bulging and even liquid flown out of the caps and the ps still worked,this 1 seems ok and it doesn't run.
Only two things i spotted different from usual it's the colour of the fuse,usually they transparent,this 1 is white and there is also a cable missing from the 20 pin atx conector.
Here are some pics.

Fuse is ceramic instead of glass so you can't determine if it's blown just by visual inspection, you'll have to test continuity across it with a multimeter.
If you find it has blown, check the rectifier diodes (or bridge) on the primary for shorts.

Ok i,ll have to talk to someone who knows more about electronics,since i don't know much about the subject.

keropi wrote:

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 […]
Show full quote

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 😉

resurrecting this thread to ask about this specific psu that apparently is a good one: should replace all it's caps with Chemi-Con ones?

I have almost all needed at hand and only need to order the 0.68uf and the big 470uf ones.
The ones I have are a mix of 105 degress general-purpose/psu caps from series like:
KZH(2200 and 470uf) /KYA (1000uf) / KMG (1 and 4.7uf) / KMQ (2.2uf) / KMA (47uf) ...

So does it worth to replace the single CHTR and rubycon/panasonic ones with the chemi-con caps? Gonna use it with a p1 mmx build btw... maybe since the original ones are quality caps it's not needed? It does work fine on my test bench and there are no signs of leaks or bulges on the caps.

Any input will be appreciated 😊

keropi wrote:

... So does it worth to replace the single CHTR and rubycon/panasonic ones with the chemi-con caps? Gonna use it with a p1 mmx build btw... maybe since the original ones are quality caps it's not needed? It does work fine on my test bench and there are no signs of leaks or bulges on the caps ...

If it works OK and the Rubys and Pannys look good I'd just recap the CEHTRs. That PSU looks like it has seen little use, and I wouldn't be surprised if the jap caps are still well within spec.

Don't forget to check the fan and oil or replace it if it sounds/looks tired. Can't see the fan grille in the pics, if it looks too restrictive, show no mercy. 😈