Cooler Master eXtreme Power Plus 460 W (RS-460-PMSR-A3) Power Supply Review

Secondary Analysis

This power supply has six Schottky rectifiers on its secondary, two for each positive voltage output (+12 V, +5 V and +3.3 V).

The +12 V output is produced by two STPS2045CT Schottky rectifiers connected in parallel, each one supporting up to 20 A at 155° C (10 A per internal diode). The maximum theoretical current the +12 V line can deliver is given by the formula I / (1 – D), where D is the duty cycle used and I is the maximum current supported by the rectifying diode (which in this case is made by two 10 A diodes in parallel). Just as an exercise, we can assume a typical duty cycle of 30%. This would give us a maximum theoretical current of 29 A or 343 W for the +12 V output. The maximum current this line can really deliver will depend on other components, in particular the coil used.

The +5 V output is produced by another two STPS2045CT Schottky rectifiers in parallel, supporting up to 20 A at 155° C (10 A per internal diode) each. The maximum theoretical current the +5 V line can deliver is given by the formula I / (1 – D), where D is the duty cycle used and I is the maximum current supported by the rectifying diode (which in this case is made by two 10 A diodes in parallel). Just as an exercise, we can assume a typical duty cycle of 30%. This would give us a maximum theoretical current of 29 A or 143 W for the +5 V output. The maximum current this line can really deliver will depend on other components, in particular the coil used.

The +3.3 V output is produced by two STPS20S100CT Schottky rectifiers in parallel, supporting up to 20 A at 150° C (10 A per internal diode) each. So the maximum theoretical current the +3.3 V output can deliver is of 29 A or 94 W, using the same math described above. As mentioned the real power this line can deliver depends on other factors.

On this power supply the -12 V is regulated using a 7912 integrated circuit, which is great and explains why the -12 V output was so stable during our tests. Usually power supplies don’t use a voltage regulator circuit for this output and this is why it is usually far away from its nominal -12 V value.

Figure 10: +3.3 V, +5 V and +12 V rectifiers.

Figure 11: -12 V voltage regulator and +12 V, +5 V and +3.3 V rectifiers.

The thermal sensor is located on the secondary heatsink, as you can see in Figure 11. This sensor is used to control the fan speed according to the power supply internal temperature.

This power supply uses a WT7527 monitoring integrated circuit, which is in charge of the power supply protections, like OCP (over current protection). OCP was really activated, as we will talk about later.

Figure 12: Weltrend WT7527 monitoring integrated circuit.

On this power supply all electrolytic capacitors are rated at 85° C, using Thai capacitors from Elite on the voltage doubler circuit and Taiwanese capacitors from Ltec on the secondary.