A Look Inside

Before reading this page we strongly suggest to take a look at this article, which will help you understand the internal components of a PSU much better.


All three new Silencer MKIII units are based on Seasonic's S12II platform. It doesn't incorporate new technologies like DC-DC converters or synchronous design in the secondary side, on the contrary it uses group regulation for the DC outputs. Nevertheless regardless the old (but economic) solutions utilized in this platform, performance is decent to say the least as we have already seen in other similar implementations and the use of Japanese caps everywhere in the new Silencers, surely gives performance a helping hand.


Right behind the AC receptacle resides a small PCB which houses some transient filtering components, namely one X, two Y caps and a coil. On the main PCB we find the remaining parts of the transient filter, one X and two Y caps more, two CM chokes and an MOV (Metal Oxide Varistor) which protects from spikes coming from the power grid.


The bridge rectifier is a GBU806. After it the APFC takes control in order to shape the current waveform to match the voltage. In the APFC two FDP18N50 are used along with a boost diode. The hold up cap is provided by Nippon Chemi-Con (390μF, 400V, 105°C, KMQ series). We would like to see a higher voltage rating cap here since 400V are very close to the 380VDC bus of the APFC.


The primary choppers are two FDP18N50 and the combo PFC/PWM controller, which is soldered on a vertical PCB, is an ICEICS02. The standby PWM controller is a Fairchild FSQ0165R.


In the secondary side passive design is used so all rails are generated via SBRs (Schottky Barrier Diodes). The +12V rail is handled by three 30A50CT (exactly the same number and type of SBRs used for the stronger MK3S600) while the 5V and 3.3V are regulated by two STPS30L30CT. Finally, as we already said, group regulation is used for the DC outputs and this is clearly shown by the two toroidal chokes in the secondary side. The bigger one is for 12V/5V and the smaller for 3.3V.


All filtering capacitors in the secondary are provided by Nippon Chemi-Con and are rated at 105°C. Also the protections IC, an HY-510N, is soldered on a small vertical PCB. It supports only the basic protections (Overvoltage and Undervoltage).


Soldering quality on the main PCB and the modular one is fairly good although it can't be compared with Seasonic's high-end models. Thankfully we didn't spot long component leads which can cause trouble (shorts). On the solder side of the main PCB resides an SBR10U45 which is used for the 5VSB regulation. Finally on the front of the modular PCB some electrolytic Nippon caps are used to further reduce ripple on the DC outputs.


The cooling fan is provided by Adda and its model number is AD1212HB-A71GL (120mm, 85.2CFM, 2200RPM, 39.1dBA). It isn't the quietest fan in the market, that's for sure, but it's reliable and effective. Hopefully in this PSU the fan's max rated RPMs will be kept low, along with the noise, since 400W of capacity don't need extreme cooling.