Are you a fan of this fan? It seems pretty good to me, though I can't really find that much info on it.
Yup, she's a CWT build all right. Nice to see the VRM - that's it on the bottom of the shot there - joined to the modular board with only a couple 12 gauge wires rather than a pile of smaller gauge wires. This will reduce clutter, which means better airflow within the unit.
Line filtering begins with a pair of Y capacitors.
The soldering and board work, as is typical of CWT, is not the best I've ever seen but far from the worst.
There's some more line filtering on the mainboard. We have two coils, two X caps, and two more Y caps. If there is a surge suppression device, I don't see it. Used to be I would score against that, but I've stopped doing that for APFC units as the PFC circuitry itself takes up some of those duties.
Primary capacitance from Panasonic. On this heatsink, we have two 20N60S1s and a diode for PFC, and two F22N60Es for switchers. All are controlled by a CM6802 on the daughterboard you can just see overtop of the heatsink.
12V output is done using four 028N06NS parts. This is also where the thermistor mounts for fan control.
The back of the modular board. See what I mean about the soldering? Messy, especially around those larger wires.
The VRM. Capacitors used on the secondary are a real grab bag. We have one Nippon Chemi-Con on the 5VSB output. Good... you need the good parts there, because they get used all the time, usually with no fannage. Most of the 12V output filtering uses Teapo and Capxon. Not my favorite brands but not the worst. I will have to score on that. Polymers include examples from both Aishi (gesundheit!) and Teapo. I have no quarrel with those. Even the worst polymers seem to hold up better than the run of the mill aluminum electrolytic.
Why aren't they used exclusively? Money. Also, they don't make polys big enough to run on the primary side yet. There are some technical limitations there to get around first.
The business side of the VRM. Not sure how I feel about the lack of heatsinking here or the fact that this board will get no airflow, but we did get forty one degrees out of the hot box with no issues. Parts used include one uP3861P controller and six M300S0 MOSFETs.
Finally, here's the front of the modular board. And I don't see what's going on with the 5V... oooooh, wait, that explains it. See the problem? Click for the large image, and I'll stick a big green arrow on it so you can see what's up.
That's right folks, the factory forgot to install a wee jumper right between the ATX cable connectors. This jumper carries the 5V output to the larger of the two ATX cable connectors. Let me just de-solder this here ground wire on the back of the board, and I'll toss a piece of resistor lead in there as a jumper.
And there we go - all done. I'll just put that ground wire back, throw the unit back together, and see if we have all wires working.
And yes. The Extech says it's all good, now. So, if you're good at soldering and don't mind voiding your warranty, you too can now get those last two 5V wires working. But I'd really just leave them alone. They aren't needed, and voiding your warranty to fix this one little non-issue is probably not worth the bother.
But... I do have to score on it. CWT messed up, and I have to take them to task for it.
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