A Look Inside & Component Analysis

Before reading this page, we strongly suggest a look at this article, which will help you understand a PSU's internal components better. Our main tool for the disassembly of the PSU is a Thermaltronics TMT-9000S soldering and rework station. It is of extreme quality and is equipped with a matching de-soldering gun. With such equipment in hand, breaking apart every PSU is like a walk in the park!


All Maverick S units are by Andyson, an OEM we don't come across often. The platform used isn't terribly up-to-date to keep costs as low as possible. The primary side makes use of a pretty small bulk cap and MagnaChip fets, and the secondary side uses a group-regulation scheme with a passive design where SBRs rectify all the rails. Modern and more expensive PSUs use mosfets and DC-DC converters in the secondary side. Given its group-regulation scheme, we don't expect the unit to master our Haswell compliance tests as only a PSU with an independent regulatory system or DC-DC converters for the minor rails can do so successfully. The choice of caps is also poor, and we believe that a small price increase for Teapo ones would have been sound. Xigmatek obviously had to cut corners everywhere, which unfortunately also led to the for the unit's reliability crippling choice of Junfu caps.


The first part of the EMI filter only consists of an X cap, while the second part on the mainboard consists of another X cap, two CM chokes, two Y caps, and an MOV. A complete transient filter would normally include another two Y caps.


The X cap, the first part of the EMI filter, uses a CM02X IC to block current through the cap discharge resistor while AC voltage is connected, which increases efficiency.


The single bridge rectifier is bolted to a dedicated heatsink. We couldn't find any information on the rectifier with its markings.


The APFC converter uses two MagnaChip MDF13N50B fets and an NXP BYC8 600 boost diode. The single smoothing cap is by Teapo (420V, 270 uF, 85°C, LH), and it is very small for the unit's capacity, so we expect our hold-up test to yield horrible results. We would also definitely prefer a cap with a higher temperature rating for this stage.


Two MagnaChip MDP18N50 fets act as main switchers.


The APFC and PWM controller are on the solder side of the mainboard. The first is a Champion CM6805 while the second is by Infineon.


Four PFR30L60CT SBRs in the secondary side rectify the +12V rail, and a pair of STPS30L45CT SBRs handle the minor rails.


A thermistor is attached to the secondary heatsink. It most likely provides temperature data to the fan control circuit.


All filtering caps in the secondary side are by Junfu, a third-tier manufacturer with less reliable products than Taiwanese and, especially, Japanese caps. Xigmatek should definitely use at least Teapo or higher quality caps here, but obviously didn't do so to keep cost as low as possible.


The supervisor IC is a SITRONIX ST95313A-DAG for which we didn't find any useful information on the Web, but given its low pin count, we strongly believe it not to support all the protection features Xigmatek lists under the unit's specifications.


The standby PWM controller is an STR-A6069H.


The modular PCB's soldering quality is bad, and we didn't like the fact that the power cables were so close to each other.


The face of the modular board sports no caps for some additional ripple filtering.


Soldering quality on the mainboard is mediocre. It would have been a real surprise to find soldering to be of exemplary quality in a budget PSU, but we would have liked soldering to at least be of decent quality.


The cooling fan is by Poweryear, and its model number is PY-1225L12S (12 V, 0.18 A, sleeve bearing). While Xigmatek claims differently, we believe it to be a plain sleeve bearing fan with a much lower lifetime expectancy than a ball-bearings or FDB (Fluid Dynamic Bearing) fan.