One other recommendation for airflow is to replace the stamped grill with a wire grill.

I used a dremel to cut the stamped grill off, and then filed the edges down a bit.

With casing mod work complete, the board and fan can be screwed into the case. This shot is just before final wipe down and case closure.

One thing that i neglected to take note of until it was time to put the PSU back in case was that the case cutout for the PSU didn't allow enough space for the newly mounted wire grill. I had to do a good deal of slicing and dicing to make enough room for it to fit. You can still see a bit of what was a circle cutout near the rough square that I was forced to cut in order to remount the PSU. Ideally, I would have had better tools and made a neater cut - but "not too ugly" had to be good enough. Despite the odd circle leftover areas, the edges were filed or rounded as necessary.

I have been swapping video cards, running benchmarks, and tweaking settings with this recapped guy in place. Glad to finally have it done so I can focus on the system a bit more!

looking good! 😀
thorough job and even a little mod to look it more modern 😲 , this psu is ready for another 20-30 years of work!

Excellent job. I usually follow a similar approach when replacing capacitors, the little sheet of paper with the "map" and all that. Good tip about the fan grill!

I have a question though: when you are browsing for replacement caps, how do you determine when to use Low ESR vs General Purpose? For newer power supplies there are usually datasheets, but some of these older units use old dodgy brands that may not even exist anymore!

Cool work! If you are in search of a good AT PSU, Newegg is still selling them. I bought one from Athena Power and it seems to be working stable.

Ampera wrote:

I bought one from Athena Power

😒

Thanks guys. Interested in hearing about any of the recaps/changes/mods that you guys have done as well!

TheMobRules wrote:

I have a question though: when you are browsing for replacement caps, how do you determine when to use Low ESR vs General Purpose? For newer power supplies there are usually datasheets, but some of these older units use old dodgy brands that may not even exist anymore!

So for non-AT stuff (like I recapped a monitor power board before this AT power supply) I just go with a favorite like Panasonic FR. For this guy, however, one of the guys at badcaps suggested pulling back a bit on the low ESR value and suggested Nichicon UPJ among others.

I was going to summarize some reasoning behind it, but I think I will just post PeteS in CA's explanation verbatim.

Regarding low ESR and some caps being "too good" (bolded text is my emphasis) -

The frequency response of the feedback loop is adjusted to compensate for the effects of various circuit elements. The purpose is to have fast loop response without oscillation. One of the elements the circuit compensates for is the ESR of the output capacitor. One need not precisely match the ESR of replacement caps to the ESR of the originals, but low impedance capacitor technology has improved a lot in the past 20+ years. As good as HE or FR or KY series parts are , they may be so much better than what was originally installed that stability could be come marginal or bad. Nichicon PJ, PS (and PM) and UCC LXV are older series and closer to the impedance of the parts originally installed in the PSU. Nichicon PW, Panasonic FC, and UCC LXZ are very similar and good enough that I'd be nervous about stability.

Badcaps is a great resource for those interested in recapping power supplies. I didn't sweat it and elected to just go with the Nichicon UPJ (a.k.a. "PJ") that he recommended.

Nice work! What a coincidence - I've just done the same fan mod to the same PSU (although mine has been rebadged as "Perfect PS220-SM" - inside it has the Bestec BPS-2004-4U PCB).
Maybe the summer weather has made us think about cooling our PCs better. 😀

I agree - the original fan was SUPER loud (although my original one was a Sunon fan with similar specs) and very distracting. I replaced it with a Noctua and it's so much better than it was 😁

Here's my post from yesterday in my 486 build thread about the same PSU:
Another high-end 486 back in action (ASUS GX4 conversion success! Tons of pictures)

I've also been reading the same Badcaps thread, some good comments about the PSU.

I haven't replaced my caps yet, but your list has saved me some work - thankyou for sharing it. 😀

Wow! What a crazy coincidence! Glad the cap map helped. Are the old caps Nicon as well?

And that is totally my thread on badcaps. Ha! I didn't post any scope photos here because I didn't pick up any resistors for testing without a load (I just used a less important mobo).

Plenty more AT PSUs to recap. I will probably document them on badcaps or something as well. Not a lot out there on AT recapping. Most of the badcaps guys are of the more modern era when it comes to their PSUs.

Nice case for your build, btw.

Ampera wrote:

Cool work! If you are in search of a good AT PSU, Newegg is still selling them. I bought one from Athena Power and it seems to be working stable.

stick with FSP Fortron industrial ones, they might be a bit more expensive but likely worth it in the long run.

CkRtech wrote:

Wow! What a crazy coincidence! Glad the cap map helped. Are the old caps Nicon as well?

Yeah, a mixture of Nicon and Rubycon, IIRC,

CkRtech wrote:

And that is totally my thread on badcaps. Ha!

Oh wow, of course it is! 😵 😵 I didn't even realise how recent it was or that it was you, haha 😀 Thanks for starting it, anyway - it convinced me to keep my PSU when you got the reply that said it looked like a decent design.

CkRtech wrote:

Nice case for your build, btw.

Thankyou! 😀 I was extremely lucky to find it.

d0pefish wrote:

it convinced me to keep my PSU when you got the reply that said it looked like a decent design.

I was happy to see the X Y caps on the input side, and an appropriate rating - 200W Max - for the output power vs the components that deliver the output (Some ATX PSUs claim 400W. You open them and declare "Yeah right!"). Still - I like running stuff by the badcaps guys because they have their heads in those things all the time. They're going to immediately see something that causes them concern and point it out if there is any need to shy away.

From what I have read over the years, the general consensus is "they don't make 'em like they used to" is a phrase that can appropriately describe the transition from AT to ATX PSUs. A good, vintage AT power supply is likely to have a superior build vs a run-of-the-mill ATX if you are simply rolling dice on an unknown. Is that a general philosopy, though? Well, I have only had my head in so many of them. I can't say that it is an appropriate generalization.

What I can say is that it is a good idea to pop the hood on any PSUs that have been acquired secondhand. In addition, I am curious about the build of some of these new AT PSUs that people buy. I just get this feeling that they are more of a "Yeah sure. Here is an AT power supply. Have fun." PSU rather than something that is built well.