What component is this?

[EnergyEclipse]

Hello! 

 

Today I receive the '750W' Pulse Power supply unit I scored for only £24 off Ebay, and despite it looking absolutely nothing like the images I've found online inside or even on the box, it doesn't look like a like a nasty unit. However, it has an insanely huge component on the far left from the power switch, and on the left from a transformer, and by huge, I mean it takes up over a quarter of the internal space in the unit.

 

The closest images of the component I can find which seems to have a similar one is this, though on this its located in the middle and is a lot smaller:

if someone could tell me what this component is or does, I shall be very much grateful, as I am a little confused considering I've never ever encountered a component like this before in a PSU. Thank you!

[EnergyEclipse]

4 minutes ago, Pangea2017 said:

heatsink for power mosfets

but i can be wrong and please buy something different

Spoiler

? I'm strongly doubting its a heat sink, I mean that yellow component on the back in the images I've shown above.

 

**Sneaky edited

Also, I know the unit I've brought isn't particularity good and I know its definitely not '750W', as the heatsinks are tiny and the two main capacitors are not that big, plus the main transformer thingy in the middle is midget for 750W. This thing is only going in a 1.8ghz Pentium 4 Dell GX260, so it won't be pushed very much

[NumLock21]

I think it's the same thing you see in microwaves but a lot smaller. It's called a magnetron.

[EnergyEclipse]

1 minute ago, NumLock21 said:

I think it's the same thing you see in microwaves but a lot smaller. It's called a magnetron.

 ahaha that sounds like some kind of transformer, shall do my research then! Thank you for your reply

 

*quick wikipedia research and it turns out they require it in radar equipment, and that stuff is a lot more expensive than £24  

[STRMfrmXMN]

230V only

 

rip your house

[EnergyEclipse]

Just now, STRMfrmXMN said:

230V only

 

rip your house

The one I've shown is a different power supply unit to the one I have as I currently don't have a camera  The one I have has active PFC 'Or so it says' and it can do 'nput voltage options: 115Vac, 230Vac or switchable' 

 

 

[mariushm]

It's supposed to be wire around some ferrite or steel/magnetic core , basically an inductor.  It's for Passive Power Factor correction and it makes power stations happy but it's meaningless for you unless you're in France or a bunch of other countries which charge for reactive and apparent power instead of just the regular kind of power.

 

Most likely, that's a FAKE inductor, probably just some steel weight and maybe some sand, and a wire wrapped around to make it look like it's a proper PFC inductor. Copper is expensive, I doubt they really used copper for that.

 

It has nothing to do with voltage selection (irrelevant if your power supply is 230v only, or if it's so ancient design that has voltage selection between 110v and 230v)

 

 

PS. If you're not afraid of opening the power supply to take some pictures of the insides or to write down what's written on the ICs inside, i can sort of tell you what that power supply is actually capable of.

 

But in general, I wouldn't trust power supplies with passive power factor correction to output more than 350w-400w to components. 100% sure it won't do 750w, it's not a 750w psu.

[EnergyEclipse]

27 minutes ago, mariushm said:

It's supposed to be wire around some ferrite or steel/magnetic core , basically an inductor.  It's for Passive Power Factor correction and it makes power stations happy but it's meaningless for you unless you're in France or a bunch of other countries which charge for reactive and apparent power instead of just the regular kind of power.

 

Most likely, that's a FAKE inductor, probably just some steel weight and maybe some sand, and a wire wrapped around to make it look like it's a proper PFC inductor. Copper is expensive, I doubt they really used copper for that.

 

It has nothing to do with voltage selection (irrelevant if your power supply is 230v only, or if it's so ancient design that has voltage selection between 110v and 230v)

**Edited

 

I believe I have found out what it is!

 

I did a bit of research and typed in 'Switch mode power supply yellow inductor', and it came up with this:

This thing is a Choke coil, and it looks almost exactly like the one in my unit. When I found out more, it turns out these

"A choke coil is a part used in electrical circuits to allow DC current to flow through while blocking AC current from passing. These coils are used in a number of electrical devices."

I think its acting as some kind of extra rectifier, because its after the fuse and a transformer and before the main capacitors? Could be very wrong and I forgot to check if the unit is using 4 diodes or a proper full bridge rectifier and were it is, I will look tomorrow.

[mariushm]

30 minutes ago, EnergyEclipse said:

The one I've shown is a different power supply unit to the one I have as I currently don't have a camera  The one I have has active PFC 'Or so it says' and it can do 'nput voltage options: 115Vac, 230Vac or switchable' 

 

 

An active PFC circuit by design boosts the input voltage up to some high voltage, around 400..420v

So it would be extremely weird to have voltage selection AND active pfc correction. I could picture a power supply that based on some ancient design, with some power factor correction circuit slapped in to reuse circuit boards they already made in thousands of pcs or something like that.

[EnergyEclipse]

1 minute ago, mariushm said:

An active PFC circuit by design boosts the input voltage up to some high voltage, around 400..420v

So it would be extremely weird to have voltage selection AND active pfc correction. I could picture a power supply that based on some ancient design, with some power factor correction circuit slapped in to reuse circuit boards they already made in thousands of pcs or something like that.

I probably worded what I said wrong as it doesn't actually have a switch for changing voltage selection, just an on/off switch and a power connector. Only annoying thing which I overlooked was that the on/off switch and power connector are quite far apart, and it just barely doesn't fit the cut out for them both on the Dell GX260's chassis, so I have to manually use the blade from a hacksaw to cut out some metal which is taking ages

[Stefan Payne]

48 minutes ago, EnergyEclipse said:

Today I receive the '750W' Pulse Power supply unit I scored for only £24 off Ebay,

Good job, you wasted 24 Pound on a Paperweight that can possibly kill you and your computer.

 

You better use it for parts like Diodes, Power Trannys and so on. But that is not a usable PSU.

[EnergyEclipse]

19 hours ago, Stefan Payne said:

Good job, you wasted 24 Pound on a Paperweight that can possibly kill you and your computer.

 

You better use it for parts like Diodes, Power Trannys and so on. But that is not a usable PSU.

It isn't going in a system worth anything, as I wouldn't want it to give me the best bang for the buck. Its only going in a Dell GX260 which has a Pentium 4, so its hardly going to do any work  It at least has a fan which has a 2 pin detachable connector if it fails.