Teardown and "Review" of the Turbolink ATX-XG500W [Crappy PSU]

[iamdarkyoshi]

Sorry, I did not bother to blow it up. I should have. This is an example of the shitty PSUs commonly put into prebuilts, such as the one in the PC owned by @Kairuteleos

 

 

So what is wrong with it? Where do I start...

 

Essentially no input filtering and a tiny bridge rectifier. At least they put a fuse in it, although using it as a jumper over the missing filtering is hilarious...

 

I snipped the wires off, but here are the uninsulated soldering points on the switches and IEC mains input. Not very good...

 

The capacitors on this board (which there are few) are all crap, and the PCB is actually warped!

 

Soldering job is piss poor, I could have done better with my feet.

 

I have seen bigger heatsinks in 100W PSUs.

 

There is absolutely no insulating sheet between the chassis and PCB. This is the crummiest metal I have ever seen.

 

Now for my favorite part... It needs a load resistor to keep its voltage regulated at low loads, and the resistor runs so hot that the wires next to it were burned. The lead of one of the resistors nearly made its way through the insulation on the wire. Brilliant.

 

Speaking of wires, those are the thinnest wires I have ever seen. Here are the wires stripped next to a penny.

 

Also I noticed that the fan does not have much dust in it. It is not temperature regulated either. It just runs off of the 12V rail with a resistor, and the bearing sounds like it has absolutely no oil.

 

 

So in conclusion, do not buy this PSU.

 

[Godlygamer23]

That is a lot of flux.

[AviatorSam]

this is work of a genius [/sarcasm]

[iamdarkyoshi]

That is a lot of flux.

Probably needed it so their lead free solder AKA solder free solder would even flow onto the joints...

[iamdarkyoshi]

this is work of a genius [/sarcasm]

Typical chinese low cost design to be honest.

[Godlygamer23]

Probably needed it so their lead free solder AKA solder free solder would even flow onto the joints...

Least they could do is clean it off.

 

At work, we use lead free solder.(class 3 stuff)

[hypnodog]

Sorry, I did not bother to blow it up. I should have. 

 

 

Soldering job is piss poor, I could have done better with my feet.

 

 

Speaking of wires, those are the thinnest wires I have ever seen. Here are the wires stripped next to a penny.

 

 

 

1. plz do that

2. I'd like to see that ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

3. I've actually seen thinner, no idea how it could have worked...

and P.S. lol, I can do better soldering than that and I'm a novice.

[iamdarkyoshi]

Least they could do is clean it off.

I make my soldering spotless by cleaning it off. It is not too much work, but it is an extra step that takes time. And more time means more money. 

[dragoon20005]

good tear down of the PSU

 

 

if it continue to run

 

i think the insulation might catch fire due to a short circuit

[Godlygamer23]

I make my soldering spotless by cleaning it off. It is not too much work, but it is an extra step that takes time. And more time means more money. 

I edited my post with more info.

[iamdarkyoshi]

I edited my post with more info.

I always use lead based solder because I like it better. I don't feel like starting an argument over which one is better though

[0ld_Chicken]

but... it says turbo

 

its sad that they sell these things to the public

[iamdarkyoshi]

but... it says turbo

 

its sad that they sell these things to the public

Especially in prebuilts.

[GoldSrc]

As soon as you notice how the 5V rail "delivers" more current than the 12V rail, you know you're dealing with a crappy PSU lol.

Those heatsinks are a joke, I mean, are they like 1mm thick?, lol.

As for the wires, you should use something more standard for comparison, like a micro sd card (or a banana for scale), not all of us know how big a penny is .

[0ld_Chicken]

Especially in prebuilts.

"its just safer to buy a prebuilt" -99% of people  :rolleyes:

[iamdarkyoshi]

As soon as you notice how the 5V rail "delivers" more current than the 12V rail, you know you're dealing with a crappy PSU lol.

Those heatsinks are a joke, I mean, are they like 1mm thick?, lol.

As for the wires, you should use something more standard for comparison, like a micro sd card (or a banana for scale), not all of us know how big a penny is .

Ya, pretty much

My calipers are downstairs...

Lets just say that the writing on the outside thinks that they are 20AWG

[Redicat]

This thing is under 20AMPS in the 12V and stuff DUH is for basic systems with Core 2 duo machines or Dell optiplex stuff and prebuild basic machines without overclocking and like Pentium Intel cores 1-2 and under 3Ghz... like really underpowered systems that only use like 120W or less...

 

Yeah its pritty crappy LOL! why would anyone buy and trust this company must be pritty ass dumb... Turbo Link? pfff wtf is that company even? CHINA? or heck even thailand...

 

HECK last i checked there was a- A-open PSU in my class, pritty supriced i saw that because we only learn with poor 775 stuff in class and i bring my own presscot 3.2Ghz Pentium 4 along with an old AMD GPU that has 1GB GDDR5 it games neat with my Asus motherboard xe925 775 X9 and an A-open PSU it has good rail like over 28Amps on a 350W old PSU! well  perhaps i think it even had 34amps supriced my School got that laying arround without knowledge we just get old PC parts in and sometimes good things happen like REALLY nice 7200RPM HDD's but mostly SLOW CPU's like AMD 64(underclocked) and Pentium 4 with pritty bad chipsets...

 

xe925 CHIPSET by suprice it supports OC! yay with a PENTIUM 4 HAHAHA... but ok i tried my best i reached 3.6 on 89°c load it has bluescreened and turned off i'm using a zalman thing like one of those cheap SORRY i mean zalman doesnt make PSU i mean HEATSINK LOL... i'll try and get BIOS update to work and slam Pentium D or Core 2 duo in there perhaps i hope that will work...

[iamdarkyoshi]

This thing is under 20AMPS in the 12V and stuff DUH is for basic systems with Core 2 duo machines or Dell optiplex stuff and prebuild basic machines without overclocking and like Pentium Intel cores 1-2 and under 3Ghz... like really underpowered systems that only use like 120W or less...

 

Yeah its pritty crappy LOL! why would anyone buy and trust this company must be pritty ass dumb... Turbo Link? pfff wtf is that company even? CHINA? or heck even thailand...

It was in a machine with an fx4300

[DigitalHermit]

This belongs to the JonnyGuru gutless wonder list....

good tear down of the PSU

 

 

if it continue to run

 

i think the insulation might catch fire due to a short circuit

That fuse will save the unit in the event of short circuit...

[QueenDemetria]

This is an example of the shitty PSUs commonly put into prebuilts

I wouldn't exactly say that this garbage is "common" with prebuilts.

[iamdarkyoshi]

I wouldn't exactly say that this garbage is "common" with prebuilts.

It is with the two prebuilts that I have replaced PSUs in, and with the ones I see at worst buy

[QueenDemetria]

It is with the two prebuilts that I have replaced PSUs in, and with the ones I see at worst buy

What brand of PC?

[iamdarkyoshi]

What brand of PC?

ask the user mentioned in OP, I forget. The other prebuilt I worked on was @AviatorSam's and his used a still horrible but far better supply then this one. It was an ibuypotato.

[quan289]

ask the user mentioned in OP, I forget. The other prebuilt I worked on was @AviatorSam's and his used a still horrible but far better supply then this one. It was an ibuypotato.

 

Yeah, IBP / CBPC / BuyXG / etc. tend to put a lot of bad units as a standard for many of their PCs (unless, of course, you customized it in).

 

Prebuilds from big companies like Dell, on the other hand, are usually of acceptable quality. Here's two reviews of Dell PSUs that were made by Chicony.

http://www.hardwareinsights.com/wp/dell-h305p-01-power-supply-review/

http://www.hardwareinsights.com/wp/dell-h750p-00-review/

[Redicat]

It was in a machine with an fx4300

 

Nope full year 2000, it was an old gaming rig video cards had been taken out 'n stuff... THAT time that PSU was 500 dollars

 

I'm talking about retro stuff here like the old ATI cards and LIVE 3D games as Doom, quake all dat stuff... i didnt even had knowledge what chipset and board it was like super early JUNK.