douglar wrote on 2025-07-22, 00:37:

ODwilly wrote on 2023-04-08, 04:51:

Athena Power still makes some AT psu's. Not the greatest quality, but far better than your rusted one at least.

I had the opportunity to get one at a discounted price. Light weight compared to a 1990's power supply. Thinner case. Less copper.

WOW.
I've seen garbage AT units, but this is pretty high up there on the list (of the crappiest AT/ATX PSU's I've seen.)

But first off, let's talk about the GOOD things here (note: this will be a very short list 🤣 ):
- Not many components inside, so it should be easy to take apart and work on such a PSU (but why one would want to do that, I don't know.)
- Common-mode EMI/RFI inductor on the input - hey, it's not much, but better than just jumper wires. Gotta give credit where credit is due. 😀
- ??? ................................................... It's new and looks pretty clean 🤣

Now the mediocre/BAD stuff:
- Looks like there's only a single cap per output rail <-- and this really is the worst thing about this PSU. Basically, you're -guaranteed- NOT to have clean output voltages in spec above 1 Amp on ANY output rail. Insta-GARBAGE!!!
- FAKE "35" -size main transformer - there's just no way it's 35 mm across the top... and even if it is, it's way, waaayyy to short. This means small core, and small cores simply cannot handle as much power. It doesn't look alwfuly packed with windings either, so that will limit power even further. Probably barely (if at all) equivalent to a real "28" -sized transformer (now those can do about 150-180 Watts max on a half-bridge configuration like this.) So all in all, I'm estimating the real (safe) power limit, by transformer, to be about 150 Watts for this thing... which would honestly still be adequate, had there been proper output filtering implemented (which is not the case, given the "1 cap per rail" mentioned in my previous point.)
- Tiny output toroid. Good luck pulling more than 15 Amps from that without overheating it. I think even 10 Amps would be sweating it. Well, it's all inline with the rest of the PSU's build quality, because I bet even anything over 2-3 Amps of power draw on the 5V rail would be out of spec on the noise.
- Cheng caps. I can never remember which name variation of these was the "real" and not-as-crappy one. There's Cheng, Chang, ChengX... and probably a few other variations I forget now. I suppose it's a moot point to try to remember. All should be expected to be unreliable. Not only that, but you don't get that many of them either.
- Foil-thin heatsinks... because aluminum is a commodity metal. Must save it! /sarcasm (On an equal thought, maybe it IS good that the manufacturer didn't waste more materials on this already POS PSU.)
- No X2 caps on the input for EMI/RFI. One can only dream here. 🤣
- The lone "Y2" cap I see is probably a 1 or 2 kV ceramic - basically, that's a no-pass for electrical safety.
- Ground wire held with screw on top of PCB rather than to its own screw hole in the metal case... again, not a recommended thing to do for electrical (grounding) safety. But hey, anything for saving ONE SCREW! 🤣

Other noteworthy things: this is not a true AT PSU. It's an ATX design converted to an AT one. Not only are there markings on the board for a 3.3V rail (with no parts installed, obviously), but there are also 3 transformers in the middle, one of which is for standby power (on ATX PSUs, this is where your 5VSB comes from.) Nothing wrong with that, but clearly this is just a cheaply modified ATX PSU from the factory... and there's nothing (I repeat, NOTHING) to make this PSU more preferable than going with a standard ATX PSU and using an ATX->AT adapter/converter.

Also, I can't tell how big that 7905 regulator is on the tiny PCB glued to the secondary heatsink... but basically, that's the PSU's -5V rail generator. If it's done with just a tiny TO-90 7905 regulator, forget to pull more than 50 to 100 mA (o.05 to 0.1 A) from the -5V rail, if even that much. It was clearly the cheapest "solution" by the manufacturer for the sake of AT "compliance".

Anyways, that's all from me here from what I can see from these pictures.

Whoever has one of these, I hope you didn't pay too much for it.
IMO, such unit should be "valued" at no more than $10 (just because you can re-use the metal case and the fan for some other project.)

Also, I think the older Athena AT PSUs were different (and possibly better) inside. Cheng/Chang/ChengX caps gained traction a little past the 2010's, and these Athena AT PSUs were a thing even before then. So I think older Athena AT units ought to be better... but unless someone has one to post here, we'll never truly know.

Good luck... and don't buy this crap, people!