[DEAD] LiteOn 300W PSU $19 @ Directron

[ShoNuff]

Hmmmn, didn't know they made PSU's

 

[craftsman]

Definitely one of the best deals out there. Just don't let the low wattage rating fool you - they are very conservative....

 

[mcveigh]

Just bought one

 

[mindless1]

^bump^

 

[RadioactiveMagpies]

anyone tried to put a panaflo 80 mm L on these?

 

[Replay]

Originally posted by: RadioactiveMagpies
anyone tried to put a panaflo 80 mm L on these?

I took apart two of these LiteOns last August. Here is some info from the second message in this posting, copied from the original post.

"Nidec BetaSL D08T-12PU http://gizzo.8m.com/fans/
DO8T-12PU Ball-NBR bearings, 34.0 db, 44.6 cfm, 1.31 ratio, 3400RPM 0.23 Amp exhaust fan (strong and not temperature controlled). PSU shuts down in a second when I've tried to use slower & quieter low current fans. < PSU is too smart!"

AFAIK nobody has put in a quieter fan. A magazine hanging over the back of the my pc cuts the noise level in half, so I'm thinking about adding a curved piece of metal or plastic to the back of the case, which would send the exhaust down toward the carpet. You might be able to fool the PSU with a lower powered fan plus another load (maybe a resistor). A less sophisticated psu would take any fan.

I did cut out the fan opening and put a chrome finger guard on one of mine. The heat sinks are so large, and the stock fan blows so cool while surfing, that it would be nice to make the rig a little bit quieter. Still, it is an amazingly great psu for the money.

 

[elkinm]

Exactly how good is the +5 voltage on it. I need at least a 5.0 rating or my video card does not run (Radeon DDR) right now I am using an Antec LS400 PSU and that one only goes up to 4.92 and is not stable. The numbers are 38A on the +5 which is lower then this one, but that means nothing to me if the voltage is not at 5 or above. I have seen voltages posted and in some of them it is stable but not always above 5.0. Directron offers testing, do they offer a test to confirm voltages under load and maybe offer some guarantie.

Also I will need to buy a the 12V P4 adapter as my MSI Athlon motherboard neads one. Anybody think it will be a problem running the CPU 3-4 hard drives and 2 CD/DVD drives.

Thanks

 

[BentValve]

Mine has been working great for a few months now, its better than my Antec 350watt PSU.
I had better snatch another one up before they are all gone.

 

[schreier77]

I bought 4 of them mid January and they have worked great in all systems. One of the systems was an overclocked XP1700+ running stable at 2000mhz. with PC133 running at 160 fsb x 12.5 clocking.

 

[InuYasha]

Originally posted by: mindless1
Directron sale on LiteOn 300W ATX PSU $18.99

Rough shipping estimate UPS Ground, $5-8

Directron has had a similar deal before, though the price was slightly lower last time. Very high quality, server-grade PSU. Forget trying to compare a 300W server-grade PSU to a 300W PC-grade PSU, it's not a fair comparison. THese are comparible to Delta, PCPower&Cooling, etc, but outperform something like a 300W Antec, Sparkle, Enermax, etc. A higher wattage PC-grade PSU would compare better.

They are the bland OEM-Look: no colored grills or neon, clear fans, cable sheaths or other frills.

These are not P4-ready ATX12V, they lack the ATX12V 4-pin connector.

Specs on Label:

+5V - 40A
+3V - 30A
+12V - 12A
+5VSB - 1A
-5V - .3A
-12V - .5A

Combined 3V/5V Rating 250W !!

Picture of inside (614K d/l)
Note the voltage adjustment POTs.

These have rear air intake, not bottom.
A previous LiteOn I bought from Directron had a relatively quiet (though not completely silent) NMB fan, but fan make might vary? Expect a premium fan. They appear to have fan RPM control (noise-reduction) circuit (automatic, not user-adjustable), though I can't verify this.

You may (or may not) have problems with the motherboard leads length if your motherboard power connector is below the socket or other odd location, the motherboard connector leads are ~12".

1 additional 19" 10-pin 5v/3V/Gnd Connector for server boards, is not needed for std PC motherboard. PSU does have standard ATX connector.

4 sets Drive leads: 2 x 19", 2 x 31"
Each Drive lead has two drive connectors, one is floppy (7+1), though the last LiteOn I ordered from Directron came with an extra (std) Y-Splitter too.

Power cord not included, but a savvy netizen will find a Free Power Cord

:disgust:



A word of caution, the 12v+ line is only 12amp, this could cause Radeon 9700s not working with it, 9500 might be affected as well.
I've never test this PS with Radeon 9700, but with other PSes I've tried, Radeon 9700 will only run if the 12v+ rail is 15amp or more

 

[jamnjk]

The unit I bought seems to be working fine. I have a Asus A7V w/ duron 700@850 with just a basic system- not too much extra.

 

[Vivi]

What's the difference between UPS ground Residental and Commercial? Commercial is about a dollar cheaper in shipping then Residential.

 

[mindless1]

The difference is where you have it delivered, to a home or business.

 

[mindless1]

Got a chance to play with one of these today...

5V & 12V Voltage Adjustment Pot (100K d/l)
There are two other pots with function I wasn't able to identify at the time. I am sure they don't adjust 3V but I didn't check all voltages, just 3/5/12V. If you're hoping to crank the voltage up, you might be out of luck... the pot in the one I had open was almost adjusted to max already, only gained about 0.10V. Of course opening your PSU and tweaking the pot will void warrantly, put you in close proximity to high-voltage, and you might even break something trying to pry the glue-blob off of the pot so it's free to turn. I really don't think anyone would need to adjust the POT but nevertheless it's good to know where it is.

As previously meanioned by Replay, the fan doesn't have a temperature control integrated into it. However, the PSU does have temp control, varies fan RPM in relation to heat by PWM, though the PSU would have to get really hot before the fan significantly increased in RPM. Not that this matters though, the fan is plenty fast enough already, maybe too fast for some people, so I pose a few ideas for getting a quieter fan to work:

EDIT: In the rest of this post I had previously described some possible ways to use different fans. It turns out that my conclusion of why the fans weren't working was incorrect, so this info has been removed.

 

[RadioactiveMagpies]

How do you guys think the lite-on psu will compare to this 420W TURBOLINK (MADE BY CHANNEL WELL,CWT-420ATX-12V) P4 ATX POWER SUPPLY w/ DUAL FAN
The grill on this turbolink is cut on the metal, unlike the normal more expensive channel wells.

 

[redgren]

I got the power supply you linked to (the 420W Turbolink) in a Chieftech case I bought from those guys a while ago. I haven't really been too pleased with it. According to my motherboards voltage monitor (which isn't very accurate, I know), my 3.3 runs at 3.15 and the 5v runs at 4.75. I have had a few power warnings pop up from my software monitor.

That said, I haven't had any stability problems, even overclocking a XP1600+ to 2100+. I did by the Lite-on (based on this thread) to try out and see if it improves my voltages. I am planning on breaking out the DMM this weekend and verifying which one really is better.

 

[mindless1]

The Liteon is a better quality than the Turbolink. Then again, it's better quality than every major brand I've seen with possible exception of some PCPower&Cooling models. However, quality and capacity can be two different things... the Turbolink may have a higher 12V capacity (I know it's rated higher, but is also most likely able to DELIVER a higher wattage on 12V too.)

For a system using 12V to power CPU and/or over 4 HDD i'd definitely choose the Turbolink if those were the only two choices, simply because it appears to have more 12V power even if it's dirtier power. However, I can't remember if I've tore into and/or tested the Turbolink version with the stamped-in fan grill... i'm assuming it's exactly the same as a Channel Well 420W with exception of the fan configuration, but that might not be a safe assumption to make.

Edit: I just glanced over at a Channel Well 420W I have here, and it does look like there have been some other changes but I don't know to what extent.

 

[Orunitia]

I'm looking at the picture of the pots but I'm a little confused. The 12v and 5v are both adjusted under one pot? What are the other two pots for then?

Thanx

 

[BentValve]

Originally posted by: Orunitia
I'm looking at the picture of the pots but I'm a little confused. The 12v and 5v are both adjusted under one pot? What are the other two pots for then?

Thanx

Yeah that photo above is not accurate. I know because I have played around with all 3 pots on mine.
Its been awhile since I was in mine but I verified the changes in the BIOS and with a DMM.

 

[mindless1]

Originally posted by: BentValve

Originally posted by: Orunitia
I'm looking at the picture of the pots but I'm a little confused. The 12v and 5v are both adjusted under one pot? What are the other two pots for then?

Thanx

Yeah that photo above is not accurate. I know because I have played around with all 3 pots on mine.
Its been awhile since I was in mine but I verified the changes in the BIOS and with a DMM.

I am quite sure the photo is accurate for the environment I used to tested it, which was running an old Presario 7400 series integrated Super 7 board w/ K6-2, plus 1 old HDD. There were no bios readings, just DMM readings from the motherboard ATX header. Both 5V & 12V were adjusted by the same pot.

Perhaps I'll do more testing when I get the chance, those parts I used weren't meant to represent a typical load, just old stuff that wouldn't be much of a loss if they were damaged, sacrificial parts.

BentValve, if you could provide more detail from your pot adjustments/observations it could help determine why there is this discrepancy in observed pot function.

 

[UCDznutz]

anyone swap out the fan of these things with a quieter one?

 

[mindless1]

I was wrong about the fans, they aren't needing to be a certain minimum load. After swapping in a quieter fan and adding a 220Ohm resistor across the fan leads the PSU still wouldn't stay on, so I proceeded to add a fan to the underside of the PSU casing. WIth two identical NMB 0.10A fans wired in parallel to the fan header, the LiteOn PSU still wouldn't stay turned on.

I dug through the fans I had tried, tested them again. One of the fans (a Sunon KD1208PTS3, most commonly found in the rear of Cheiftec cases except that this one had the appropriate 2-pin plug for the PSU) DID WORK, kept the PSU running. I then added back the 2nd NMB fan (wired in parallel to the Sunon), and still the PSU worked. Next I stopped the (currently spinning) fan blades on the NMB fan, which had no effect. Then I let the NMB fan blades spin again and stopped the fan blades on the Sunon fan, which turned the PSU off. When I power-cycled the PSU and held the Sunon fan blades to prevent it from spinning up at all on power-on, the PSU quickly turned itself off just as it had done prior to installing the Sunon fan.

From this I see only one possible conclusion. Since the Sunon fan has only the two (positive and ground) wires, no Tach (RPM) wire, plus the fact that the dual NMB fans (leaving the Sunon out of the PSU) wouldn't work, it seems that certain fans' rotation can be sensed through the fan power lines by this PSU. I don't know how to differentiate between fans that would work, and those that won't.

The Sunon fan does reduce the noise, it's a ~0.12A fan according to it's label, probably spins at around 2700 RPM though that's just a guess. Well, it would certainly not spin at that speed in this PSU, the fans are spinning slower than they normally do attached directly to a 12V rail.

 

[Replay]

I was just minutes from opening up one of my LiteOns and trying more fans... Forgot that in testing a stalled fan stopped the psu, and, as I've said before, this psu is too smart!

Mindless1, Now I wonder what will happen using the original fan PLUS diodes (normal and Zener) or resistors, in series or parallel. Might dig out the O-scope and look at some waveforms too. Maybe we need a two wire fan running within an rpm range, regardless of the current drawn. Let us know if you figure out what it takes.

 

[craftsman]

I was able to replace the fan inside the LiteOn PSU with an ADDA fan.

Here's some specs I grabbed from the 'net:

Original Fan Make: NIDEC
Model: D08T-12PU
Bearings: BALL
CFM Rating: 44
Current: 0.22A
Noise: 34 dBA
Speed: 3400 RPM


Replacement Fan Make: ADDA
Model: AD0812MS-A70GL
Bearings: Sleeve
CFM Rating: 31
Current: 0.15A
Noise: 28 dBA
Speed: 2440

It does sound a little quieter and the air is still cool so there should be enough cooling.

 

[mindless1]

Originally posted by: Replay
I was just minutes from opening up one of my LiteOns and trying more fans... Forgot that in testing a stalled fan stopped the psu, and, as I've said before, this psu is too smart!

Mindless1, Now I wonder what will happen using the original fan PLUS diodes (normal and Zener) or resistors, in series or parallel. Might dig out the O-scope and look at some waveforms too. Maybe we need a two wire fan running within an rpm range, regardless of the current drawn. Let us know if you figure out what it takes.

I don't know if a diode would work because I suspect there is an AC ripple present, detected, which is how the PSU senses the fan. I admit that I don't know enough about the differences in various fans to know for sure that this is what's happening, nor how it would affect fan selection.

I did note with the Sunon fan that it needed be stopped or very nearly stopped to turn the PSU off. If i applied pressure to the fan hub slowing it down to a couple hundred RPM it would remain turned on. I'm now suspecting that the best "component addition" to quiet the original fan would be a power resistor in series with a fan lead. However, I would imagine the "average" owner of this PSU doesn't have the desire, ability, or support parts to quickly/easily implement this. I was hoping for the easy fix, an affordable replacement fan so it would be a simple fan swap without any soldering necessary. To that end we have two alternative fans so far, the Sunon I tried and the ADDA craftsman used.

I'm satisfied with the Sunon, will leave that fan in mine in addition to the NMB I added to the underside. It's not completely silent but after cutting out the fan grill it's quiet enough that I can't hear it above any other "background" computer noises.