Chieftec SFX 500GD-C 500w Power Supply Review

A Closer Look – Interior

There’s quite a lot going on inside this unit, no surprise given that all that hardware has to be compressed into the limited amount of space of an SFX form factor. Surprisingly, everything is quite neat and tidy though, with a good amount of airflow through the central section of the unit, which should help cool all the major components. The unit was manufactured by Sirfa OEM for Chieftec.

There’s a single bulk capacitor, which is rated for 400v, 390uF at 85c.

The AC line in and filtering stage looks pretty robust and while some of the soldering looks a little scruffy, it’s certainly secure.

There’s a mixture of good quality Japanese caps for the rest of the outputs, they’re a little buried under some of the rear panel cables, so it’s quite tricky to show them. Perhaps these cables on the interior could have been shorter, but it shouldn’t cause any major issues. All of the capacitors are a mixture of Taiwanese Teapo and a few Nippon Chemicon thrown in for good measure.

A smaller vertical PCB here is used for controlling the PFC and voltage regulation.

Two large passive heat sinks run through the PSU, which should help greatly with the overall cooling of vital hardware.

The fan is a Globe Fan 120x15mm design, which is capable of up to 1800RPM, although I doubt it’ll ever need to reach those speeds to cool this unit.