Aerocool HorsePower 750 W Power Supply Review

Primary Analysis

On this page we will take an in-depth look at the primary stage of Aerocool HorsePower 750 W. For a better understanding, please read our Anatomy of Switching Power Supplies tutorial.

This power supply uses one GBJ1506 rectifying bridge and attached to the same heatsink where the active PFC transistors are located. This component can handle up to 15 A at 100° C, which in theory allows it to pull up to 1,725 W from a 115 V power grid without burning itself; assuming 80% efficiency, it would allow this unit to deliver up to 1,380 W without burning itself out. Of course we are only talking about this component and the real limit will depend on all other components from the power supply.

Figure 9: Rectifying bridge.

Two SPW20N60C3 power MOSFETs are used on the active PFC circui
t, each one capable of delivering up to 20.7 A at 25° C or 13.1 A at 100° C in continuous mode (note the difference temperature makes) or up to 62.1 A at 25° C in pulse mode. These transistors present a maximum resistance of 190 mΩ when turned on, a characteristic called RDS(on). This number indicates the amount of power that is wasted, so the lower this number the better, as less power will be wasted thus increasing efficiency.

Figure 10: Active PFC transistors.

The electrolytic capacitor used to filter the output from the active PFC circuit is Japanese from Hitachi and labeled at 85° C.

On the switching section HorsePower 750 W uses another two SPW20N60C3 transistors, as you can see in Figure 11. The specs from these components were already published above.

Figure 11: Switching transistors.

The switching transistors are controlled by the famous CM6800 PWM controller.

Figure 12: PWM controller.

Now let’s take a look at the secondary of this power supply.