How Power Supplies Are Made (2020) | PSU Factory Tour, ft. Cooler Master
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- čas přidán 5. 04. 2020
- This video shows how a computer power supply is made from start-to-finish, including manufacturing and assembly, testing, and validation of thermals.
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Watch our factory tour playlist here: • Designing & Building a...
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In this factory tour, we'll be walking through the manual assembly and validation process of power supplies in Tainan, Taiwan, at the southern tip of the island. Power supplies go through PCB manufacturing, SMT lines, automatic optical inspection, validation, assembly, and then through testing. 100% of all power supplies made in this factory are thermally burned-in and tested on Chroma machine power supply testers. We also cover some of the packing, warranty, and box building in this tour. We've made a separate video of this factory showing the R&D process, coming up in a future video. PSU manufacturing uses SMT lines, manual assembly lines, Chroma testers, burn-in testing, and more.
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Host, Reporting: Steve Burke
Editorial: Patrick Lathan
Video: Andrew Coleman, Keegan Gallick - Hry
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Hello
Have enjoyed all of the series so far, and hope others do as well. I think youtube has been a little unkind to general content promotion as the algorithm shifts due to the malware situation. Hopefully that will improve. The tours were great and should catch more eyeballs.
Love this series
At this rate, when will gamers Nexus have their own branded PC with all gamers nexus components? Instabuy
coolermaster advertisement showing a "warranty void if removed" illegal sticker on their psu.
good one coolermaster :D but hey, if they wanna make advertisement against them, i'm all for it. i know what psu i won't buy.
I honestly have such high respect for you guys making your own versions of 'how it's made' to do with all things computer industry, it's such a lovely collection of cool information. Some of the videos won't matter to many and we're a small niche community so in the grand scheme of things very few will ever see these, but even if you knew you were going to only get 15,000 views on one of these videos for years I know you'd still go out of your way to produce them, most of us that watch this channel as often as possible appreciate it. All the love.
Splashymcsplashface Beautifully said
I couldn't agree more. Well said!
Well said Sir, well said. o7
I am enjoying these "how it's made" videos more than a lot of other channels content at the moment, the current situation shows how so many Tech Channels have no ideas for content when they can't make advertising disguised as a review
Very cool. Don't suppose there's any chance we'll ever get to see the binning process for DRAM? That'd be an awesome pipeline to watch in action!
We're trying!
@@GamersNexus A sneak peak at SK Hynix factory, possibly featuring also the upcoming DDR5 memory would be amazing.
I mean they could explain it in a few words . Photolitography and chip design is superduper complicated , there wouldn't be any risk to show something to the (inexistent) competition , also not to mention the crazy expensive machinery .
Other tech channels: “grassroots tech reviews”
GN: Computer Engineering Majors reviewing tech
Actualy lots of CS people come from Electrical Engineering background.
Does Steve come from an Engineering background? Didn't know that, how great!
@@Zackstrife29 most likely yes. Check GN website under his editor tag along with history
Even with all the human labor involved, it's still amazing that you can get a good quality 500W 80+ PSU for $50 or less.
@COFASA even with Coolermaster MWE 450 white 80 V2? its dirt cheap in Indonesia around 35 US dollar
@COFASA In the Philippines (via Lazada.com) I can get a MWE 550W or a CV550 for $50 or so. You may have it bad due to insane import taxes.
@COFASA Even in Canada $100+ is typically the going rate for a decent PSU. In general we pay way more for computer components, yet they all come from same factory.
This comment aged poorly
@@jamesscott3290 indeed it did
"If you ever think your PSU is dead, try trouble shooting everything else first because it's probably not" I wish this was engraved at the top of every pc forum as almost every issue I've encountered with my system has had one or more people telling me it's probably my PSU dying and it NEVER has been. I hope they all watch this video.
@@tomvarior5328 orange or grey tho? there is a diff i heard?
@@jeremyniels both of them, people dont know how much testing they go trough until they are sold
I was just thinking about how much power this wastes and that they should use it to charge batteries to recycle the power and then I hear that's exactly what they do lmao
@Dave P. "Eco facists"
Winter is only 3-4 months every year, but okay.
@@mjc0961 you forget spring and autumn are also about 3 months of cold also. only about 2 months actually are hot in a year. (meaning you have the heat on most of the year.)
@Dave P. why are you talking about fascists lmao
@@jeeBisOkay he isnt. Hes talking about eco fascists
@Dave P. must be nice to have winter..
These videoes are like the ultimate nerd version of the show How its made. Literally can't get enough of them, oddly satisfying to watch.
When copper and some electrons love each other a lot...
Also bless you. Perfecly placed sponsor.
To me, power supply is the most fascinating part of a pc. If it's any good, quality wise, It should give stable and proper power as the need is constantly fluctuating , it should protect it from many threats (power surge, other components failure etc). All these matters are critical for the ecosystem. It's very underrated compared to other parts.
The gatling gun is nice!
I was very surprise of the automation
And its RGB! @ 5:30
airlink2142 did not event notice, can we get one fro Amazon? Lol
Pretty sure Gigabyte won't be extending an invite back to their factory any time soon, lol.
While a CPU and GPU may last you for 5 years, I have a seasonic 800 psu still working after 10 years.
The one I'm using is roughly the same age, only thing that has ever failed on it was a SATA power connector. It has 6 such connectors and I use at most 3, so wire snips and but splices to eliminate the faulty one, still working great.
maybe it's just you? I have working 15+ year old cards here.
@@flandrble The point is that those cards, by today's standards, are not that good. The power supply still supplies power.
tbf, GPUs maybe, but Haswell seems to be immortal. I've got a 5820K in my rig that still wrecks games even at stock six years later.
Seasonic. The heart of your system
I am so grateful you're making these tours. Fascinating content!
Quite impressed by the amount of testing they perform, wasn't expecting that.
Looking forwards to part 2! :)
I always wonder how they get these kind of tours..
Subscriber count and viewership numbers, corporations look at things like that and view little bits like a factory tour like this as extremely dirt cheap cost effective advertisement for their products compared to the ridiculous costs of regular things like commercials that literally cost millions upon millions of $$$ to make and air.
How could you say no to GN? 😁
@@CatalystDestiny 12 years in the industry and clout is what gets it. We got this kind of access back when we had 20,000 subscribers because we've been a publication for a long time.
@@SirNickyT How could you say no to Jesus...((-:
@@GamersNexus Fair enough! Keep up the good work!
I'm waiting for the Gigabyte power supply factory tour. I want to see if it goes up in flame whenever they pull a power supply for testing
Awesome. Having spent time in R&D, I love to see that there is no "hidden magic" with work like this. More QC, less headaches. Thanks for the series.
this was very interesting.
explains why we don't hear much about psu death outside of REALLY old units
"PSUs have low failure ratings" - Its amazing how different realities coexist in the world. Im from Brazil, and most PSUs here are absolute crap, I had at least 5 PSUs exploding before I got into tech. Most manufacturers lie about the potency, efficiency,etc.
We even have a group (Teclab) that tests a lot of PSUs and the vast majority is bellow spec, even from reputable brands (in the low end)
That is why you buy from USA. I live in South America too and my entire computer even the case was brought by friends from USA. I have a seasonic 800 modular still working after 10 years
counterfeit parts?
so that is where the units that failed QC finally end up
Not counterfeit, just cheap stuff. From small companies mostly, like c3tech, xigmatek, etc. Also the low end stuff from EVGA for example: they are not THAT bad, but they are not good. My evga 430w went bad after 3-4 years, the 12V rail was varying between 10.9 and 11.4V, so the gpu stopped working properly (but it didnt kill any component)
Any cheap PSU whether from something random like you suggested, c3tech, or from Seasonic, is generally quite bad. If from a major seller they're generally not bad enough to explode (except Thermaltake and it's Litepower / 80+ bronze Smart series), however they still certainly will do dumb things potentially damaging the PC.
30 qc steps is a lot more then i anticipated. good to know that my usual testing process is either ignoring the PSU or checking that last. except, of course, when the symptoms explicitly point towards it, like breakers ripping, the unit sparking and smoking or the system being reproducably unstable when loading multiple power hungry components simultaneously...
There is something different about this factory, it feels like it has a better atmosphere for the workers, and they also seem to care a lot about quality which is great to see.
Tainan is also awesome place featuring best food in Taiwan. The PC related industries in Tainan began to heat up just few years ago though as I know.
I have a Cooler Master 1000w Silent Pro Bronze, so far so good after 10 year.
Thanks Steve and team.
To me, this is the best factory video so far. PSUs are my favorite hardware component. My OCD loves how contained and uncluttered they are. I can't own anything less than a fully modular unit. The extra cables would irritate the sh*t outta me. I'm such a cable management freak. The rear exhaust fan on my X99 can only reach a mid-board header and even though I've got it perfectly trained and routed it has a couple inches of slack that doesn't seem to want to tuck in anywhere and it's just short of being able to wind it in with a quarter turn of the fan, aaaaaarg!
4:06 That is a wave soldering machine and not a reflow oven. Thanks for the interesting tour!
And that poor thing needs to be dedrossed desperately!
Indeed. A reflow oven is like a long conveyor pizza oven. You can't see inside as windows wouldn't be sufficiently insulated for accurate temperature zone control.
so great video, I love how are many QC test on single psu....
and this video change my mind about cooler master psu quality.... Good job done GN
"Thanks to human malware", what an awesome and funny quote about COVID. Man that got me for a good minute laughing.
"Supply chain disruptions caused by human malware" hahahahaha! Funny ass shit!
Nice to see how much actual QC and manual labor is going into these products.
I thoroughly enjoy these factory tours and appreciate the time, effort and travel money spent to produce them. The technical narration is also spot on, not too complicated for a layman but still dumping a lot of information. Please keep posting these videos even if you think they are "boring" for CZcams, I am hoping your video view counts reflect the keen user interest.
Loved the detailed explanation regarding the process flow. The info about SMT, AOI, Reflow machines in this video is really good!
I'm repeatedly surprised at how manual these processes are - I've always envisioned vast factories with very low numbers of actual people. You'd think (or at least I thought) the order volume for cooler master would warrant more automated manufacture. Love the show Steve.
19:02 - Cute moment there. It must be sweet connecting on the shared interest of tech with folks from another country.
I've had two PSUs fail on my, one was an old no name brand in a hand-me-down computer my dad built. It blew up good and took the system with it (Electrolytic cap - one of the big ones - popped)
The other was a lot less exciting. Silverstone 600w SFX PSU just gave up the ghost. Nothing else was damaged, but none of the rails would output power, not even +12v or +5vsb. Local shop confirmed the same. The replacement it still kicking, 4 years later
I love these videos about how things are made. Out of all the videos from this past tour, this was my favorite.
This is by far some of the coolest and most interesting commentary and content being produced fro many of these tech review / news channels keep it up.
Just watched your old video on PSU voltage ripple. Awesome content!!
I most appreciate this channels trying to be as scientifically and technologically accurate as possible, with straight forward presentation, clarification and if necessary, correction. A+ work. Thanks!
This video makes realize more than ever that the old "Made in China" stigma/label has no relationship to the quality these companies put into these parts.
When you think about it, pretty much everything nowadays is made there after all. There's also price points in everything, and many times the part dimension/choice is the failing point instead of being badly made, so the costs have been cut even before it went to the factory.
Wait aren't they in Taiwan...
@@julianangell4535 sorry, I'm an idiot. HOWEVER, some of the components were made in China, so I'm only partially an idiot.
@@51rwyatt No judgement
@@julianangell4535 well the iphones are made in china too .. a friend of mine who works/worked with chinese factory´s said ... its all about the money, they can produce you a product for 10 cents or 10$ ...you decide what you want ..
I actually had a psu broke on me. It was a 10 (or more) year old Corsair PSU and it popped and then there was a terrible burning smell. Tripped the breakers in my house lol.
Glad they have security to make sure the system itself doesn't fry!
i've been waiting for the power supply factory tour for so long, thanks for making awesome content!
Oh I just love this type of content and I think your efforts to create these videos are well worth it. Thanks GN! Such a versatile channel (Y)
cool video. Love the work you guys done. Made me feel good about the good quality PSU I purchased.
Love the tours, thanks for the awesome content!
Its like watching that show How It's Made. Love the video journalism, keep up the good work fellas!
Wow! Just wow! The process is astonishing. Great vid.
Very thorough manufacturing processes and testing, makes me appreciate what went into PSUs. Currently using an Evga, Corsair, CoolerMaster, and Montech Gamma II, all 750 watts each
I love how in every factory tour, they are always sponsored by another company and never the company of the factory
Thank you, it's very interesting to see parts being made.
I had no idea it was this in depth.
This was great, man! thanks for the in depth coverage
I have a cooler master psu right next to me, and is super cool to know about where it came from and how it was made.
Wow my cooler master PSU has been with me for 6 years and yep its still working till this moment....and i really appreciate the cooler master company.. because they really make stuff that last...👍👍
Thank you for the efforts to make these sort of videos. Excellent work
I've seen very few cradle deaths of PSUs, but there's a clear separation between how a quality PSU and a cheapo PSU handle bad AC power. Takes good design to prevent "garbage in, garbage out" from blowing up your motherboard. Looking forward to the R&D lab tour!
Thank you all again for a new episode of How it's made with Tech Jesus. I absolutely love these , thanks for continuing to do them
Wow very interesting. Nice to see so much care is taken with QC
The factory efficiency is impressive.
GN is featuring a CM MasterWatt 650W Bronze unit. If I had to make an educated guess (based on reviews and the LTT PSU tier list) I would say that this is HEC's factory. They're based in Tainan TW. HEC's no Delta, SeaSonic or FSP, but they're a decent OEM.
These videos are so cool, it reminds me of the "How It's Made" series.
Jesus is making discovery and national geographic channel obsolete.. 😀😄
I really love factory tour play list. As I remember I had similar comment on last factory tour video.
I didn't know I needed this video, but I did.
This video definitely makes me feel more confident about my power supply failing
I love these videos, so interesting and different from what I usually see
I'd LOVE to see a component factory, capacitors specifically.
I hope you continue to get support from manufacturers for these tours. I feel more satisfied paying for a good power supply now that I understand the QC process. For a long time I've been thinking how over-priced power supplies are. I understand better now, and will be happier to pay the higher price for good quality.
Really enjoy the factory tours videos
I'm sure they wanted to get low-level with you when they brought you to the screw factory ;)
Nice Video. I got a bad Cooler Master power supply once, the fan was hitting something, made a hell of a noise. So I went back to where I purchased it and was told they told me (unlawfully, 2 weeks later) that they would sent it out to be repaired but not replace it. So I went and bought a Corsair power supply else where and never bought from that retailer again. I still have the Cooler Master power supply around somewhere.
15:40 i found it kinda funny one person packed stuff and handed all to the next one , which then unpacked stuff and checked it again :)
Great video, as usual these are some of my favorite. I'm curious if perhaps you'd get the chance to interview one of the workers one day. Maybe learn a little about them, how much they work, are they in school, etc etc.
Great video! very in depth tour.
This is extra fascinating as I believe my PSU IS a Masterwatt 650.
Wow now that waa interesting. Thank you for raising my confidence level my power supply. 👍
I love these episodes. It's like extended versions of How It's Made or Modern Marvels!
Thank you so much for this video. It is really educational.
i never knew these were tested to hell and back. truly worth the money spent
Very detailed tour!
When you see a security camera view of an object at one end of an empty room on a table, you know some serious s**t is going down.
Those are my favorite videos! :D
You guys have great content. I like your channel. It seems to be geared more towards nerds than geeks.
Man, I love these videos. Thanks.
This (and part 2) is something I've wanted to see.
As someone who worked QC in two different manufacturing companies producing two different types of products I can say that's the most impressive and extensive testing program I have ever seen.
PSUs are my forte! Love to see some coverage of the thing that makes our systems tick!
Savage Steve Video sponsor by Be quiet PSU but featuring Cool Master PSU. I like that!
I have an enlight sniper 450 watt psu still rockin' after 10 years.
It's a shame other companies didn't want it revealed that they use the same factory. After watching how awesome the QC is I am more likely to buy a PSU knowing it came from this factory.
I love all of the factory tours that you guys do, thank you! I look forward to the next one.
I like the burn in testing.
Really making sure the gustomer gets a good working unit 👍
Good ol' Windows XP
jank
You'd be surprised how many industrial machines use older OS as the machines that they run, are expensive and once the company is done producing the machines they never make updates for software.
@@FerrumBellator Hospitals too. My hospital has tons of NT4 stuff. Medical software tends to be super proprietary and made by fly by night companies. Once the company no longer exists there is no support or upgrade path but yet the hospital relies heavily on it. They refuse to use open source stuff "because we need support" but yet they don't have support, nor any ability to upgrade it because it's closed source.
@@redsquirrelftw You own a hospital?! damn you must be very rich!
It really shouldn’t have been mentioned. That’s a big security problem to have that published. (Even though the factory has not been named, we have been told detailed information about them which if invested in it, shouldn’t be too difficult to trace)
I have been using Coolermaster PSU's for years and without fault, only needing an upgrade because of new components needing newer, more or fancier connectors. Currently my system is running a Cooler Master Silent Pro M2 720W unit (which stopped production at the end of 2013), and very interesting to see how they are made and tested.
Really interesting detail that burn in is done at the target market utility voltage. All these PSU's will likely support a wide range of voltages, but if you take your computer abroad you may be testing it at a new voltage for the first time.
Great video. I really like content like this. Looking forward to the R&D episode.
The soldering machine you show at 4:15 is performing a process called "wave" soldering. A large amount of solder is melted in a tray where the boards are dipped into it. This is for through hole components. You describe it well.
Reflow soldering happens in a totally enclosed oven. This is the process that occurs directly after pick and place. The heat is ramped up to an initial plateau to activate the flux and then ramped again to about 250 C to melt the solder. This is for SMDs.
Both are essential for a board using both through hole and SMT. The boards first have the SMDs placed and reflow soldered, and then the through hole components are placed and wave soldered. Once caveat is if you have a dual technology board, to utilize wave soldering there must be surface mount components only on the top side. Otherwise the wave soldering process would melt the solder attaching the bottom layer SMT components and they would be removed from the PCB. Notice at 4:40 the bottom of the board has no SMDs.
Your description of the RMAs at about 16:15 is literally the same story as the history of how the term software "bug" was coined.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_bug#History
Great insight thank you
CoolerMaster PSU video sponsored by bequiet. Nice.
as always, great video! i am up to 1.3 million folding points for gamer's nexus !!!! lets go !!!! also could you include the sounds of some of the machines in the videos for the next one maybe?
For me,the pick and place machine is one of the best automation. Pick different components without smashing and place in a millimetric spot at that speed is amazing
It's incredible the amount of QC that they do. I had a corsair AX1200i PSU that failed after 6 years and 10 months due to a voltage spike that was my utility's fault but corsair still honored the 7 year warranty on it. Amazing.
This is what I became a Patreon! Love me some factory tours!!
This was amazing!
I work for a company that customizes a software solution for factories in my Country, it is pretty cool, it can control everything, audit every step, with sensors, all automated and linked with their ERP etc. Very cool i love to visit the factories and work with their production line :)