Page 3 - Physical Look - Inside
As always, we opened up our PC Power & Cooling Silencer Mk III 1200W power supply to take a detailed look at what is going on inside. Please note that doing this at home will void your seven year warranty, thanks to the warranty seal Thermaltake applied over one of the attachment screws. But for the benefit of you, we cracked ours open so you don't need to, haha. There are no user serviceable parts inside.
Disassembling the PC Power & Cooling Silencer Mk III 1200W is quite straightforward, with the removal of four screws. Built by Super Flower Computer, our photo above shows an overhead view of its internal components. At first glance, the build quality appears to be pretty good, as one would expect from the OEM in some of their latest designs. Its components are well organized for good cooling and reduced heat congestion as well. There are two main heatsinks inside the power supply; they are all quite low profile and flat at the top.
A quick tug on the shell, and we got straight to the internal inspection. The transient filter stage is the first input stage of a computer power supply, so we will take a look at that first. PC Power & Cooling has done a great job in the past to make sure their power supplies met or exceeded the recommended requirements, except this PSU lacks a metal oxide varistor. This component is used to stabilize spikes from the AC line for protection against power surges, and I am quite disappointed at its absence. The Silencer Mk III 600W had it, but that one is built by Seasonic. The PC Power & Cooling Silencer Mk III 1200W has two ferrite coils, three metalized polyester X-capacitors, and four ceramic Y-capacitors. That is three times the amount of X capacitors and twice the amount of Y capacitors than recommended.
On the primary side, we can see two Japanese brand Nippon Chemi-Con capacitors connected in parallel. Japanese brand capacitors are usually what we expect from something in this price range, so this is nothing surprising. Our 1200W version of PC Power & Cooling's Silencer Mk III 1200W incorporates one 680µF x 400V and one 560 x 400V capacitor for a total capacitance equivalence of a single 1240µF x 450V capacitor (Remember that values add up when capacitors are hooked up in parallel, unlike resistors). These units are rated at 105c; whereas more value oriented power supplies usually use 85c rated capacitors.
The active PFC circuit featured on the PC Power & Cooling Silencer Mk III 1200W uses two Shindengen US30KB80R silicon bridge diodes, and is controlled by an ON Semiconductor NCP1653A fixed frequency continous conduction mode PFC controller. At 115V, the maximum rectified forward current capacity with heatsink is 30A for each diode, so you can theoretically pull up to 6900W (30A * 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 are able to keep up. Either way. this is a serious overkill, haha. Two Infineon CoolMOS IPW60R075CP power transistors with boost diodes are used on the active PFC circuit on the PC Power & Cooling Silencer Mk III 1200W power supply. Two more of these IPW6R075CP power transistors with are attached to a dedicated heatsink for switching. Each Infineon IPW6R075CP can deliver up to 25A at 100 degrees Celsius continuously. These transistors present a maximum resistance of 0.075 ohm when turned on; with a typical resistance of 0.068 ohm 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 secondary side, we can see more Nippon Chemi-Con 105c capacitors. I am pleasantly surprised by this, as most companies usually resort to cheaper Taiwanese 85c units for secondary capacitors. As with modern high efficiency power supplies, all rectifiers produces the +12V out -- while the +5V and +3.3V outputs are generated from the +12V output using a DC to DC converter within the power supply unit. The +12V rail is generated by a total of ten Infineon IPP041N04Ns MOSFETs. Each of them is capable of delivering 80A at 100 degrees Celsius continuously, with a maximum resistance of 0.0041 ohm, and a typical resistance of 0.0033 ohm.
The DC-to-DC converter has a series of VRMs to provide for its DC +3.3V/+5V output process. We can also find one Infineon CoolSET-F3 ICE3B0565 PWM controller. Meanwhile, a SF29601 IC provides protection on the PC Power & Cooling Silencer Mk III 1200W. However, this is a proprietary chip, so I am not exactly sure what it does. I am willing to bet it provides over/under current and over/under voltage protection though.
At the back, we have a large daughterboard covering the entire rear panel for the modular cable sockets with thick traces. After the secondary stage, all the wires lead into the secondary board, as shown in our photo above. A bunch of capacitors are built into the board for further filtering. The output connector configuration can be seen on the previous page. Overall, the internal build quality of PC Power & Cooling's Silencer Mk III 1200W power supply is pretty good -- some parts are way overbuilt for what it is for. Components are arranged nicely for good cooling with minimal wires running around inside, and solder points are fairly clean. I would say the PC Power & Cooling branded, Super Flower built Silencer Mk III 1200W is very commendable with regards to the selection of components used under the hood.
Lastly, we can see a large 140mm fan that provides cooling to the PC Power & Cooling Silencer Mk III 1200W's internal components. It is connected to the PSU via a 2-pin connector. This is the largest fan you can fit in a standard ATX power supply. With an overhead design, it can provide lots of airflow at lower speeds for quiet operation in most cases. Hong Hua is the fan OEM, with model number designated as HA1425M12B-Z. Further research indicates the HA1425M12B-Z is a ball bearing fan specified at 0.36A with a maximum of speed of 2000 rpm. I don't know anything else about the fan, since I got this information from people who has seen this fan in the past in other power supplies, haha. Even good old Google does not turn out any datasheets -- not even the manufacturer's website.
Page Index
1. Introduction, Packaging, Specifications
2. Physical Look - Outside
3. Physical Look - Inside
4. Minor Tests and Conclusion
