Page 3 - Physical Look - Inside
As always, we opened up our SilverStone Nightjar NJ520 520W power supply to take a detailed look at what is going on inside. Please note that doing this at home will void your 3-year warranty, thanks to the warranty seal SilverStone 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 SilverStone Nightjar NJ520 520W is quite a bit more complicated than many PSUs I have reviewed in the past. While most power supplies uses a three sided shell cover that provides an almost immediate tour to majority of the internal components, the manufacturer's implementation is a combination of several pieces assembled together like a jigsaw puzzle -- removing one thing will require the disconnection of another. But before we get to that, let us get a few things out of the way first. Built by Seasonic, this is the same power supply as the Platinum 520W the company sells under their own branding. Our photo above shows an overhead view of the its internal components. At first glance, the build quality appears to be excellent. Honestly, with Seasonic as your OEM, anything less would be a surprise. Its components are well organized for good cooling and reduced heat congestion as well. There are four small heatsinks inside the power supply; they are all of medium profile.
After getting things out of the way, we moved on 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 Seasonic based NJ520 is no exception. The SilverStone Nightjar NJ520 520W has three ferrite coils, one metal oxide varistor, three metalized polyester X-capacitors, and six ceramic Y-capacitors. This is three times the amount of X capacitors and Y capacitors than recommended. Considering how many modern day PSUs have missing MOVs, I am happy to see it here, as this component is used to stabilize spikes from the AC line along with a TVS diode. To further improve efficiency, an electromagnetic relay cuts off power on the AC side when it is off.
On the primary side, we can see one Japanese brand Hitachi capacitor. Japanese brand capacitors are usually what we expect from something in this price range, so this is nothing surprising. Our 520W version of SilverStone's Nightjar series incorporates one 330µF x 420V capacitor. This unit is rated at 105c; whereas more value oriented power supplies usually use 85c rated capacitors. It uses a full bridge topology with a LLC resonant converter for improved efficiency.
The active PFC circuit featured on the SilverStone Nightjar NJ520 520W uses an ON Semiconductor NPC1654 PFC controller, and two Diodes Incorporated GBJ2506 glass passivated bridge rectifiers. At 115V, the maximum rectified forward current capacity with heatsink is 25A each, so you can theoretically pull up to 5750W (25A * 2 diode * 115V) from the bridge rectifiers 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. This is a serious overkill for a 520W power supply, haha. Two Infineon IPP60R165CP power MOFSET transistors are used on the active PFC circuit on the SilverStone Nightjar power supply, with an STMicroelectronics STPSC606 power diode. Four Infineon IPP50R250CP power transistors can be found on the adjacent heatsink for switching. Each Infineon IPP60R165CP MOFSET can deliver up to 13A at 100 degrees Celsius continuously. These transistors present a maximum resistance of 0.15 ohm when turned on; with a typical resistance of 0.165 ohm according to the manufacturer's data sheet. The Infineon IPP50R250CP MOSFETs can deliver up to 9A at 100 degrees Celsius continuously; with a maximum resistance of 0.25 ohm, and a typical resistance of 0.22 ohm. 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 capacitors rated at 105c. As with modern high efficiency power supplies, all components 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. The LLC resonant controller is a Champion CM6901. At the back, we have a large daughterboard covering the entire rear panel for the modular cable sockets. All modular sockets at the bottom are soldered directly to the main PCB after the secondary stage, with one thick cable and two thinner ones providing the +12V output at the upper sockets to reduce power transmission loss. This is completed in conjunction with the minor rail generation done by two voltage regulator modules on the modular PCB to further improve efficiency. The output connector configuration can be seen on the previous page.
The DC-to-DC converter has one ANPEC APW7159A dual channel synchronous buck PWM controller. Six Renesas RJK0332DPB MOSFETs are responsible for the minor rail generation; three for each VRM. The RJK0332DPB's rated continuous drain current is 35A at 100c, and a peak drain current of 140A. Drain source voltage is rated at 30V, and a RDS(on) value of only 0.0036 ohm. Meanwhile, a Weltrend WT7527V monitoring IC provides the SilverStone Nightjar NJ520 520W's OVP, UVP, and OCP protection. The datasheets for all components mentioned in this review can be found on their respective manufacturer's websites.
Overall, the internal build quality of SilverStone's Nightjar NJ520 520W power supply is excellent -- something we would expect from what we have seen from the company in the past. Components are arranged pretty well for optimal cooling with minimal wires running around inside, and solder points on its green PCB is very clean in general. I would say the SilverStone branded, Seasonic built Nightjar NJ520 is excellent with regards to the selection of components used under the hood.
Page Index
1. Introduction, Packaging, Specifications
2. Physical Look - Outside
3. Physical Look - Inside
4. Minor Tests and Conclusion
