Hello guys! Not being an expert on power supplies, and lacking real testing equipment, I decided to do a basic teardown and review of a power supply, using the hardwaresecrets reviews as a template. (I would have more pics but the forum limits to 10) Also note, this is my first real attempt at a power supply "Review", and with a rather basic background in electronics, I might make a mistake or two. But, I think by and large this is accurate. So without further ado, lets get to it.
First of all, this is the HEC (Compucase) Orion HP485D. It is rated for a maximum of 485 watts output, and I purchased it for $24 or so. Lets see what it's got going for it.
It isn't a great looking power supply first off. But it's simple. It's got wire mesh fan grille, instead of stamped, which is nice to see.
First of all the label.
As you can see, Orion says that it has 2 12V rails. We'll find out later if this is the case.
Let's take a look at the cable configuration. All wires are 20AWG which is below the minimum recommendation (18AWG). There is a 20+4 pin main connector, a single 4 pin CPU Power connector. There is one cable run with 2 Molex Connectors, and a Floppy Connector. There is another cable run with 3 molex, and a single SATA power connector. This configuration is horrific, even for a basic, generic power supply, and especiallhy for one rated at 485 watts.
Next,it uses 2 fans, one intake, one exhaust. Both are 80mm Young Lin Tech, Model DFS802012M fans. They were quiet during the minimum testing I did, even under load, but moved alot of air. Good fan choice, if nothing else.
Once I opened it up, this is what you see. I was unable to find out the real manufacturer of this power supply.
The PCB.
The Primary Capacitors are Chinese, from CapXon, rated at 200v-470uF at 85 celsius, giving a maximum total capacitance of 940uf @ 85 celsius. The presense of 2 capacitors here does not mean that the power supply is high quality. As Gabriel Torres has said time and time again, 2 seperate, smaller caps can produce the same capacitance with a smaller footprint.
The rest of the capacitors are a mix of CapXon and Taepo.
This power supply has no PFC circuit at all, and uses a voltage switch, and thus a voltage doubler circuit, and thus it would be impossible for it to be 80PLUS certified. At least they didn't lie on the box and market it as such, as some manufacturers do. (CoughLogisysCough)
The rectifying bridge. It appears to be model LFGB406, which seems to be an RVB 406. It is rated at 4 amps with a heatsink, which it lacks. If it did, this would allow it to theoretically produce 460W of power. If it could acheive 80% efficiency, this would allow you to pull 368W from the power supply. This clearly shows that this cannot be a true 485w power supply.
This is the Transient Filtering Stage. What, you can't find it? You sure? Good. Because THERE ISN'T ONE. Not a single capacitor. No MOV, no Coils, nothing. The recommended components here.
(From Gabriel Torres- are two ferrite coils, two ceramic capacitors (Y capacitors, usually blue), one metalized polyester capacitor (X capacitor), and one MOV (Metal-Oxide Varistor). Very low-end power supplies use fewer components, usually removing the MOV and the first coil. "
This was easily noticeable when I powered up this power supply. The speakers on the TV, computer, produced loud static whenever the power supply was turned on. Even the picture on my old CRT monitor was fuzzy with static. This is simply unacceptable. There also lacks a filtering coil on the output.
The 12V Output is from a Shottky Type MBR3045PT transistor, which supports up to 30A at 125 celsius. This gives the +12V output theoretically at 360W.
The 3.3V output is handled from a Shottky Type MBR2045CT, which gives a maximum theoretical output of 66W.
The 5V is done by a MBR20100CT Shottky Type which gives a theoretical output of 100W.
The combined maximum theoretical output of this power supply is 526w, but this will depend on the other components, especially the coil used.
The label indicates that there are 2 +12V Rails. This is not the case, as all wires originate from the same location, with no Shunts used. This is a single 30A 12V rail.
The Power Supply monitoring chip is a WelTrend WT751002, that supports Over voltage, Under Voltage, and Power good Output. No Over current or under current protection is utilized.
I don't have specilized equipment, but I do have a Kill-a-watt that I used along with speedfan. The system that I briefly tested is below.
AMD Phenom II X4 965BE @ 3.75Ghz (1.44v)
8GB Corsair DDR3-1333 (2x4GB)
ASUS M4A88TD-V EVO/USB3.0 Motherboard
1x XFX Radeon 5770 1GB
1x Intel X25-V SSD
1x WD 640GB 7200RPM.
1x Sound Blaster Audigy SE PCI
6x mixeD Ipods/cell phones/USB only External HDD used to test the 5V output (they each pull 500mA).
First power supply "review" so I forgot to take screenshots.
I tested using both Furmark, and prime95.
I didn't leave it on for long, I was afraid for my system. After a few minutes under load, the Power usage of the system at the outlet was about 310 Watts. The voltages were....
12V- 11.24V
5V- 4.67v
3.3v- 3.25v
-12V: -14.54
The amount of static produced by my speakers was absolutely horrific. The good news is the power supply didn't die. However, when I run the same configuration from my current Antec Neo Eco 400C, the power usage is a mere 274W. This is an 80plus certified unit, so obviously efficiency from the HEC Orion is also terrible. With some basic math that depends on many things, efficiency looks to be about 70%. Divide 274 into 310, and you'll get about 11.6% difference in efficiency. Assuming that the 80plus certified Neo Eco is 82% efficient at this load, the HEC orion looks to be about 70%. This is a really, really bad result.
Voltage Regulation is horrific. At less than full load, the +12V output is well below the 5% variation allowed (11.4-12.6v). The +5v output is similarly below spec (4.75-5.25). 3.3V is good, still within specification.
From the basic review I was able to do, and my basic knowledge of electronics, it is clear to me that this power supply isn't worth even the $24 I spent on it. I wouldn't recommend this power supply to anyone. The total lack of a filtering circuit, the low end components used (only a 4A Rectifying bridge, with no Heatsink? Really HEC?) The cable configuration is awful, the efficiency isn't even worth talking about, and voltage regulation is apocalyptically terrible.
The only redeeming quality about this power supply is that it is quiet. And that it makes a good doorstop. On second thought, no it doesn't. Because it is so light that it barely does anything. Nevermind. Junk it.
First of all, this is the HEC (Compucase) Orion HP485D. It is rated for a maximum of 485 watts output, and I purchased it for $24 or so. Lets see what it's got going for it.
It isn't a great looking power supply first off. But it's simple. It's got wire mesh fan grille, instead of stamped, which is nice to see.
First of all the label.
As you can see, Orion says that it has 2 12V rails. We'll find out later if this is the case.
Let's take a look at the cable configuration. All wires are 20AWG which is below the minimum recommendation (18AWG). There is a 20+4 pin main connector, a single 4 pin CPU Power connector. There is one cable run with 2 Molex Connectors, and a Floppy Connector. There is another cable run with 3 molex, and a single SATA power connector. This configuration is horrific, even for a basic, generic power supply, and especiallhy for one rated at 485 watts.
Next,it uses 2 fans, one intake, one exhaust. Both are 80mm Young Lin Tech, Model DFS802012M fans. They were quiet during the minimum testing I did, even under load, but moved alot of air. Good fan choice, if nothing else.
Once I opened it up, this is what you see. I was unable to find out the real manufacturer of this power supply.
The PCB.
The Primary Capacitors are Chinese, from CapXon, rated at 200v-470uF at 85 celsius, giving a maximum total capacitance of 940uf @ 85 celsius. The presense of 2 capacitors here does not mean that the power supply is high quality. As Gabriel Torres has said time and time again, 2 seperate, smaller caps can produce the same capacitance with a smaller footprint.
The rest of the capacitors are a mix of CapXon and Taepo.
This power supply has no PFC circuit at all, and uses a voltage switch, and thus a voltage doubler circuit, and thus it would be impossible for it to be 80PLUS certified. At least they didn't lie on the box and market it as such, as some manufacturers do. (CoughLogisysCough)
The rectifying bridge. It appears to be model LFGB406, which seems to be an RVB 406. It is rated at 4 amps with a heatsink, which it lacks. If it did, this would allow it to theoretically produce 460W of power. If it could acheive 80% efficiency, this would allow you to pull 368W from the power supply. This clearly shows that this cannot be a true 485w power supply.
This is the Transient Filtering Stage. What, you can't find it? You sure? Good. Because THERE ISN'T ONE. Not a single capacitor. No MOV, no Coils, nothing. The recommended components here.
(From Gabriel Torres- are two ferrite coils, two ceramic capacitors (Y capacitors, usually blue), one metalized polyester capacitor (X capacitor), and one MOV (Metal-Oxide Varistor). Very low-end power supplies use fewer components, usually removing the MOV and the first coil. "
This was easily noticeable when I powered up this power supply. The speakers on the TV, computer, produced loud static whenever the power supply was turned on. Even the picture on my old CRT monitor was fuzzy with static. This is simply unacceptable. There also lacks a filtering coil on the output.
The 12V Output is from a Shottky Type MBR3045PT transistor, which supports up to 30A at 125 celsius. This gives the +12V output theoretically at 360W.
The 3.3V output is handled from a Shottky Type MBR2045CT, which gives a maximum theoretical output of 66W.
The 5V is done by a MBR20100CT Shottky Type which gives a theoretical output of 100W.
The combined maximum theoretical output of this power supply is 526w, but this will depend on the other components, especially the coil used.
The label indicates that there are 2 +12V Rails. This is not the case, as all wires originate from the same location, with no Shunts used. This is a single 30A 12V rail.
The Power Supply monitoring chip is a WelTrend WT751002, that supports Over voltage, Under Voltage, and Power good Output. No Over current or under current protection is utilized.
I don't have specilized equipment, but I do have a Kill-a-watt that I used along with speedfan. The system that I briefly tested is below.
AMD Phenom II X4 965BE @ 3.75Ghz (1.44v)
8GB Corsair DDR3-1333 (2x4GB)
ASUS M4A88TD-V EVO/USB3.0 Motherboard
1x XFX Radeon 5770 1GB
1x Intel X25-V SSD
1x WD 640GB 7200RPM.
1x Sound Blaster Audigy SE PCI
6x mixeD Ipods/cell phones/USB only External HDD used to test the 5V output (they each pull 500mA).
First power supply "review" so I forgot to take screenshots.
I tested using both Furmark, and prime95.
I didn't leave it on for long, I was afraid for my system. After a few minutes under load, the Power usage of the system at the outlet was about 310 Watts. The voltages were....
12V- 11.24V
5V- 4.67v
3.3v- 3.25v
-12V: -14.54
The amount of static produced by my speakers was absolutely horrific. The good news is the power supply didn't die. However, when I run the same configuration from my current Antec Neo Eco 400C, the power usage is a mere 274W. This is an 80plus certified unit, so obviously efficiency from the HEC Orion is also terrible. With some basic math that depends on many things, efficiency looks to be about 70%. Divide 274 into 310, and you'll get about 11.6% difference in efficiency. Assuming that the 80plus certified Neo Eco is 82% efficient at this load, the HEC orion looks to be about 70%. This is a really, really bad result.
Voltage Regulation is horrific. At less than full load, the +12V output is well below the 5% variation allowed (11.4-12.6v). The +5v output is similarly below spec (4.75-5.25). 3.3V is good, still within specification.
From the basic review I was able to do, and my basic knowledge of electronics, it is clear to me that this power supply isn't worth even the $24 I spent on it. I wouldn't recommend this power supply to anyone. The total lack of a filtering circuit, the low end components used (only a 4A Rectifying bridge, with no Heatsink? Really HEC?) The cable configuration is awful, the efficiency isn't even worth talking about, and voltage regulation is apocalyptically terrible.
The only redeeming quality about this power supply is that it is quiet. And that it makes a good doorstop. On second thought, no it doesn't. Because it is so light that it barely does anything. Nevermind. Junk it.
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