Page 3 - Physical Look - Inside
As always, we opened up our be quiet! Pure Power 12 M 1000W power supply to take a detailed look at what is going on inside. Please note that doing this at home may void your 10-year warranty thanks to a seal that extends over one edge of the power supply. But for the benefit of you, we cracked ours open so you do not need to, haha. There are no user serviceable parts inside.
Disassembling the be quiet! Pure Power 12 M 1000W is quite straightforward with the removal of four screws next to the fan mount. Our photo above shows an overhead view of its internal components. Its OEM is HEC, a manufacturer of mostly budget products since 1979. Unsurprisingly, this unit also looks very similar to the Pure Power 11 FM 1000W. As such, the build quality appears to be excellent on first glance. There is a total of five main heatsinks inside. Two large black ones are located on the primary side, while three smaller black heatsinks reside on the secondary side.
Starting with the transient filter stage, there is a total of three X-capacitors and four Y-capacitors near or around the AC receptacle. This is at least two times the amount of X and Y capacitors than recommended. In addition, we have a ferrite coil and metal oxide varistor. The MOV helps with suppressing voltage spikes. Considering some modern-day PSUs have missing MOVs, I am happy to see it here.
On the primary side, we can see two Taiwanese-made capacitors from Taiwan Chinsan Electronic Group under the Elite brand. Our 1000W version of the be quiet! Pure Power 12 M 1000W series power supply incorporates two 470µF x 400V capacitors for an equivalent capacitance of 940µF x 400V. They are rated at 105c, whereas more value-oriented power supplies usually use 85c rated capacitors.
The active PFC circuit featured on the be quiet! Pure Power 12 M 1000W uses two Micro Commercial Components GBU15L06 bridge rectifiers on one side of the large primary heatsink. At 115V, the maximum rectified forward current capacity with heatsink is 15A each, so you can theoretically pull up to 3450W (15A * 2 diodes * 115V) from the bridge rectifier at 100% efficiency. Of course, this is limited by the fact that it is not 100% efficient and also neglects the fact that not every component in the system is able to keep up.
Further down the line, we can see three active PFC MOSFETs from NCEPower NCE65TF130F power transistors; all on the other side of the bridge rectifiers. Each is certified for up to 28A at 100c. These transistors present a typical resistance of 110 mΩ when turned on according to the manufacturer's data sheet. This on characteristic is called Static Drain-Source On-Resistance, or commonly abbreviated as RDS(on). The more efficient the component is, the lower the RDS(on) value, since it wastes less power with lower resistance. On the same heatsink, there is one Cree C6D10065 Schottky diode. Finally, we have two more switcher MOSFETs located on another heatsink near the primary capacitors, and these are the NCEPower NCE65TF099F. Each of these are certified for up to 38A at 100c. These transistors present a typical resistance of 89mΩ when turned on according to the manufacturer's data sheet. Champion's CM6901X is the switching controller. The Champion CM6500UNX and CM03AX are part of the APFC controller circuit.
On the secondary side, we have more Taiwanese Elite and Teapo capacitors, both electrolytic and polymer, rated at 105c. All rectifiers produce the +12V out, while the +5V and +3.3V outputs are generated from the +12V output using a DC-to-DC convertor. Six PWC012N04ES power MOSFETs are responsible for generating the +12V output, located at the bottom of the main PCB and covered with a thermal pad. Unfortunately, I was unable to find any specifications on these transistors. More MOSFETs on an add-in board generate the +5V and +3.3V output from the +12V rail, but they were sandwiched between a PCB and a flat aluminum heatsink with another thermal pad on top, making them quite hard to see. A Weltrend WT7527RT monitoring IC on the opposite side provides overcurrent, overvoltage, and undervoltage protection. The datasheets for all of the components mentioned in the inspection should be found on their respective manufacturer's website.
At the back, we have a large daughterboard covering the majority of the rear panel for the modular cable sockets. All modular sockets at the bottom are soldered directly to the main PCB after the secondary stage. Pin headers join the mainboard and daughterboard to reduce power transmission loss. The output connector configuration can be seen on the previous page. Overall, the internal build quality of the be quiet! Pure Power 12 M 1000W power supply is quite good. Components are arranged very well for optimal cooling with almost no wires running around inside, and solder points on its black PCB is quite clean in general. On the other hand, some of the component choices here are not necessarily top-tier, reflecting a more mainstream build.
Finally, the fan in the be quiet! Pure Power 12 M 1000W is marked as the QF2-12025-HS and connects to an add-in board with a 2-pin connector. This is a 120mm fan, which is a bit small for a power supply of this size and wattage, although if there is not much heat generated, this is not necessarily something to be concerned about. Otherwise, this is a rifle bearing fan that operates at 2000RPM and 0.3A. Fans with rifle bearings are relatively quiet and have much longer lifespans compared to sleeve bearing fans, making it quite suitable for this application.
Page Index
1. Introduction, Packaging, Specifications
2. Physical Look - Outside
3. Physical Look - Inside
4. Minor Tests and Conclusion
