Page 3 - Physical Look - Inside
As always, we opened up our SilverStone HELA 1300R Platinum 1300W power supply to take a detailed look at what is going on inside. Please note that doing this at home will likely void your 5-year warranty, as one screw has a seal over it that says "electrocution risk if opened" as mentioned on the previous page. It technically does not say opening it will void its 5-year warranty, but the warranty terms on the website strongly implies that. For the benefit of you, we cracked ours open, so you do not need to. There are no user serviceable parts inside. It is important to note the 5-year warranty is shorter than the industry standard of 10 years for performance PSUs nowadays.
Disassembling the SilverStone HELA 1300R Platinum 1300W is quite straightforward with the removal of four to eleven screws, depending on how far you want to get. Our photo above shows an overhead view of its internal components. Its OEM is Sirfa/High Power, which is a decent manufacturer. It features an LLC half bridge topology with DC-to-DC converters. At first glance, the build quality appears to be excellent. There are five main heatsinks inside. Three larger ones painted black are located on the primary side, while two smaller sized unpainted heatsinks reside on the secondary side.
Pulling the enclosure apart 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. SilverStone has always done a great job in the past to make sure their power supplies met or exceeded the recommended requirements, and the HELA 1300R Platinum 1300W is no exception. The SilverStone HELA 1300R Platinum 1300W has one metal oxide varistor, two metalized polyester X-capacitors, four ceramic Y-capacitors, and two common mode chokes. This is two times the amount of X and Y capacitors than recommended. Considering some PSUs have missing MOVs, I am happy to see it here as this component is used to stabilize spikes from the AC line.
The active PFC circuit featured on the SilverStone HELA 1300R Platinum 1300W uses two Yueqing Kanghong Electronic PBJ2506L bridge rectifiers on both sides of the black heatsink closest to the transient filter stage. At 115V, the maximum rectified forward current capacity with heatsink is 25A each, so you can theoretically pull up to 5750W (25A * 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 two Infineon IPA60R060P7 power MOSFETs as the primary switchers; both on the same side of the heatsink between the bulk capacitors and the transformer. Each is rated for up to 30A at 100c. These transistors present a maximum resistance of 60 mΩ and typical resistance of 49 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 primary side, we can see two Japanese brand Rubycon capacitors. 100% Japanese brand capacitors are specified on the marketing material, so this is to be expected. Our 1300W version of SilverStone's HELA Platinum series power supply incorporates two 680µF x 420V capacitors in parallel for an equivalent capacitance of 1360µF x 420V. It is rated at 105c, whereas more value-oriented power supplies usually use 85c rated capacitors.
On the largest black painted heatsink shown in the above photo, there is one Toshiba TRS12E65F silicon carbide Schottky diode as the APFC boost diode attached to it. Meanwhile, on the same heatsink, there are two Infineon IPA60R060P7 power MOSFETs power transistors placed. Each is certified for up to 30A at 100c. These transistors present a maximum resistance of 60 mΩ and typical resistance of 49 mΩ when turned on according to the manufacturer's data sheet.
Champion's CU6901VAC is the switching controller, located on a vertical add-in board close to one of the silver heatsinks. An Infineon ICE3PCS01G is part of the APFC controller circuit, located on another vertical PCB close to the bulk capacitors.
On the secondary side, we can see more Japanese brand electrolytic capacitors from Nippon Chemi-Con and Rubycon rated at 105c. As with modern high efficiency power supplies, all rectifiers produce 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. Eight Infineon BSC0906NS MOSFETs on an add-in board parallel to the rear modular cable daughterboard generate the +5V and +3.3V output from the +12V rail. The BSC0906NS's rated continuous drain current is 40A at 100c. It has an RDS(on) value of 4.5 mΩ maximum and 3.8 mΩ typical. On the same PCB, we can find an ANPEC APW7159C, which is the PWM switching controller.
Eight Infineon BSC010N04LS MOSFETs are responsible for generating the +12V output, located at the back of the PCB, as shown. The BSC010N04LS's rated continuous drain current is 178A at 100c. It has an RDS(on) value of 1.0 mΩ maximum and 1.0 mΩ typical. Also found on the back is a Weltrend WT7527RA monitoring IC that provides over current and over/under voltage protection. The datasheets for all components mentioned in this review can be found on their respective manufacturers' websites.
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 SilverStone's HELA 1300R Platinum 1300W power supply is excellent -- something we would expect from a Sirfa/High Power-built unit. Components are arranged very well for optimal cooling with minimal wires running around inside, and solder points on its black PCB is quite clean in general. I would say the SilverStone HELA 1300R Platinum 1300W is generally very good with regards to the selection of components used under the hood.
Lastly, we see a 120mm fan that provides cooling to the SilverStone HELA 1300R Platinum 1300W's internal components. It is connected to an add-in board with a STCmicro STC15W401AS microcontroller using a 2-pin connector. A 120mm fan is rather small nowadays for a power supply with a bottom mounted fan, but if not a lot of heat is being generated, noise will be kept to a minimum.
The fan model is Globe Fan S1202512MN, as shown in our photo above. The S1202512MN is a fluid dynamic bearing fan specified at 0.55A for a maximum speed of 2400 RPM, 109.44 CFM air flow, 4.59 mmH2O air pressure, and 41.2 dB of noise. The fan is not supposed to activate until the PSU is loaded to approximately 260W with semi-fanless mode active. As such, it should remain off for the most part, and even when it is on, the fan speed will vary with load. Fans with fluid dynamic bearings generally have much longer lifespans compared to sleeve bearing fans and is quite suitable for this application.
Page Index
1. Introduction, Packaging, Specifications
2. Physical Look - Outside
3. Physical Look - Inside
4. Minor Tests and Conclusion
