HP-D3057F3H recap

[Wester547]

Re: HP-D3057F3H recap

I know. I put mine (HiPro HP-P2507F3P) in both 5V and 12V heavy systems, and the voltages are almost always the same. It just won't cross-load! Even Delta/Newton, LiteOn, and Astec can't beat it. Bestec - no chance.

I'm surprised Newton Power PSUs have worse voltage regulation given how well designed they are otherwise. But I do concede that the Newton Powers I've seen have better fans (usually better than ADDA) and choice of capacitors (the worst I've seen in my Newtons is Ltec - the worst I've seen in a Hipro is well, Arkon) Hipros do of that era, so them's the breaks I suppose. However, assuming these tests are correct, this Hipro does not seem to have such great voltage regulation (unless it has something to do with only having 9A on the +12V rail and being rated at 300W).

Even my HiPro has general purpose AsiaX caps - and that thing barely puts out any ripple (at least based on some reviews I read a while back... I think one was a JonnyGuru).

I had a HP-P2507F3P as well in a Dell Dimension 8200, though revision H01, whereas if I'm not mistaken (as shown in the PSU build thread) yours is H01A. But as I've stated, the fan in mine is starting to lose its lubricant so it's starting to die, and because my PSU does not have screws for the fan, I'm not sure how to remove it. I do know it's a 80x80x20 sleeve bearing fan from ADDA, and my guess it's high speed because of that (3010RPM/27.3CFM/.128" air pressure from the datasheet if I'm not mistaken). Probably was not doing the job it could have done though because Dell, in their infinite wisdom, decided to put an extra grate on the back of their case, right in front of where the PSU exhaust intake is. That may be better for dust as Dell stresses they do not like dust in their documentation, but I don't know how that impacts the cooling of the PSU. But given that the PSU has a Passive PFC it's already running a bit warmer anyway. Anyway, my version had a mix of Teapo (on the primary, 680uF/200V at 85C, and secondary), G-luxon, and Asiacon capacitors, rather than Panasonic (560uF/200V at 85C)/Asiacon. I don't know if that's any better or worse than all Asiacon on the secondary but I do know it never gave me instability problems. I don't know how stable the voltage regulation was because I only ever used that PSU in a Dell Dimension 8200 and Dell do not give you temperature sensors, much less voltage readings (though the ones of the motherboard sensors aren't accurate anyway). And I never measured it myself. But I'm guessing it was darn stable if yours was.

I don't mind Bestec PSUs, but so far my experience isn't stellar with them. I have both a ATX-1956D and a ATX-250 12Z and they both cross-load very easily. The ATX-1956D is only rated for 12 A on the 12V rail and it was obviously built for a 5V system. Currently, I have it in a Dell GX270 motherboard powering a 2.66 GHz P4 Northwood, and the 12V rail dips down to 11.85V. Puts out quite a bit of heat too. As a test, I tried putting a decent 5V load from a Radeon 9700 video card and the 12V rail got up to or over 11.90 V. I then tried it in my 5V-based 750 MHz AMD Duron test system (I call it the "PSU tester" ) and the 5V and 12V rail were doing much better.

The ATX-250 12Z is the other way around - put in in my "PSU tester" with a single hard drive and the 12V rail jumps to 12.5 V while the 5V rail is only a little high at 5.15 V! Then I put that PSU in a dead motherboard with a 1.7 GHz P4 Willamate (which draws more juice than the 2.66 GHz Northwood) and the 12V rail behaves itself.

Bestec PSUs are good save by the brown glue Bestec likes to add and their choice of capacitors, and save for lack of OPP (OTP would be nice too but you don't see that in too many PSUs.... preferably, a PSU should INSTANTLY shut down when it detects the fan is no longer running, if it does, but I don't know of any PSU with that ability). Maybe recapped, they have better voltage regulation, unless you already recapped the ones you reference.

It's actually a very good PSU. Just an older half-bridge design, that's all. I used mine as a test PSU for a year for testing various systems. It does fine in both 5V and 12V heavy systems and voltage regulation is very good - almost as good as my HiPro. Last month, I was even testing my friend's quad-core i7 2600k with it (a 95W TDP CPU). The 12V rail sat at 11.99 to 12.01V the whole time. He didn't believe me such old PSU would run his computer. Of course we removed his video card for the tests (it was a high-end nVidia so I don't think my MPT-301 would have liked that). The 5V rail was doing fine too - it went no higher than 5.15V. Given that the i7 above had build-in Intel graphics, you could easily build a decent system with it (granted it's not used for gaming).
I also had that PSU powering a 107 W AMD Athlon FX-57 CPU. 12V rail was almost exactly the same: 12.00 V to 12.05V under load/idle.

Looks are deceiving, then - I suppose even if it looks desolate (though it may not be missing any components) that the quality of the components matter even more than the amount of them. I wonder if half bridge topology is that bad of a thing, considering I always see PSU reviewers scorn PSUs for having that instead of full bridge, single transistor forward, or whatever else.

[c_hegge]

Re: HP-D3057F3H recap

^
There's nothing really wrong with half-bridge. It's just that it's not as efficient as other topologies.

[goodpsusearch]

Re: HP-D3057F3H recap

Macron Power MPT-350P

https://www.badcaps.net/forum/showthread.php?t=12348

They look decent to me.

[momaka]

Re: HP-D3057F3H recap

But as I've stated, the fan in mine is starting to lose its lubricant so it's starting to die, and because my PSU does not have screws for the fan, I'm not sure how to remove it.

I couldn't remove mine either. But since it was working fine I left it alone. If yours is dying, though, just rip those rubber mounts off and fix the fan since that's more important. You can use screws afterwards to hold the fan, just like other PSU do.

Bestec PSUs are good save by the brown glue Bestec likes to add and their choice of capacitors, and save for lack of OPP

OPP doesn't worry me, but the brown glue does even more than the capacitors itself since it can go conductive and make things go *bang*. That ATX-1956D of mine was a nightmare to clean since it's one of those compact ATX PSUs that's a little shorted. I couldn't clean all of the brown glue and there still lots left on the logic board. The PSU runs warm too, so that glue will likely cook faster (and thus become conductive quicker).

Bestec is not the only offender to use that glue, though. I found some LiteOns of the same era to have it as well. I wonder when manufacturers will learn NOT to use it.

Maybe recapped, they have better voltage regulation, unless you already recapped the ones you reference.

The ATX-1956D still has the original PCE-TUR caps. Regulation is more or less okay, but it cross-loads very easily.
The ATX-250 12Z is half-recapped (that is, each major output rail has 1 new cap and 1 old cap, except the 12V rail which has all new caps). Just like the ATX-1956D, regulation isn't bad but it cross-loads very very easily.

There's nothing really wrong with half-bridge. It's just that it's not as efficient as other topologies.

Exactly. Not efficient but it can work very well if well designed.

[c_hegge]

Re: HP-D3057F3H recap

Bestec is not the only offender to use that glue, though. I found some LiteOns of the same era to have it as well. I wonder when manufacturers will learn NOT to use it.

Add delta and enermax to that list.

[Wester547]

Re: HP-D3057F3H recap

I also noticed Lite-on use yellow glue which I don't think is much better.

Add delta and enermax to that list.

I wonder how long Delta have been using it? I'm hoping no Newton Power has that brown glue. At least Hipro don't use that.