Complete recap / restoration of PSU?

[mikay786]

Hi guys, this is a very old and long personal project of mine which I shelved for the last few years until 14nm GPUs came around. A quick overview is I plan to build a gaming / workstation into a Zalman TNN-500AF case which is completely fanless.

The weak point of these cases is the PSU, quality in the day but are around 14years old now. I was planning on replacing it but is passively cooled and only around the 1u standard height wise. So basically no PSU like it. I was going to try to mod a Seasonic 1U PSU into the original chassis but not sure if it will work well.

Anyhow since ive been recapping stuff and repairing stuff over the last year, I was wondering if the original PSU completely overhauled and recap could do the job?

This would be a money is not object project as is for me and am willing to spend.

Any idea guys?















That's the seasonic PSU in the old chasis, as you can see fits fine. Though its not designed to be fully passive only semi passive. There are a few other PSU's I could use and transplant like superflower passive units possibly.

[robert]

Re: Complete recap / restoration of PSU?

Just wondering, whats wrong with the "old" PSU?
Looks unused and appears to be quite well made.

[ReeceyBurger123]

Re: Complete recap / restoration of PSU?

The old one is like a tank lol

[mikay786]

Re: Complete recap / restoration of PSU?

They are known to go pop, not many around that still work. Plus in 14years surely the caps are well past it.

Also probably not very effiencient, thinks it's 80plus only, and old atx spec

[Stefan Payne]

Re: Complete recap / restoration of PSU?

It's more like 11 Years.

Datecodes of the unit you have indicate that it was made in late 2004 so it was sold in early 2005...

Besides that:
You should use the best caps you can get your hand on.
The ones on the secondary side looks like rather old Nippon Chemicon KZE or something like that (yes, they were green once).

So something like Teapo ST or something like that (ESR around 30mOhms, for newer systems it should be low impedance and have a lifetime of at least 6.000h).

Also getting at least 2 fans (40mm) in there to cool the mains/secondary area and the secondary caps isn't a bad idea.

[ChaosLegionnaire]

Re: Complete recap / restoration of PSU?

errr i think teapos in a "money is no object" project and fanless case is not a very good idea. the teapos wont last for more than a couple of years in such an environment. only 10k hour japcaps would do for a fanless, deep pocket workstation environment...

[mikay786]

Re: Complete recap / restoration of PSU?

No fans stefan what so ever in this build.

If fully recapped in top notch caps, would it improve the lifespan or are there other parts that can fail too? Theres not too many parts on there to be fair.

Its a 400w unit, my loads would not exceed 250w from the wall.

The seasonic unit could probably work too if I spread it out a bit and extend the original heatsinks. For example replacing with wide aluminium angle would increase surface area to heatsink plate.

What I'm thinking is even I recap the old zalman unit its still an old zalman unit and probably not very good compared to modern units and probably generate more heat too. The seasonic is a gold rated PSU and is a seasonic so the best PSU quality you can get.

[ReeceyBurger123]

Re: Complete recap / restoration of PSU?

Lol Teapoo wtf no thanks not even my psu either

Go for some proper good ones like Panny Fc or UCC KY etc.