Thermaltake Toughpower Modular 750W PSU

Date: October 4, 2006 - Author: Matthew Harris - Editor: Rob Williams

Power, we all need it, we all crave it and it's a part of life. Today I'm looking at an item that'll have you sounding like He-Man: "I have the power!" And you won't be wrong.

Introduction

Thermaltake. That word is enough to make power supply purists cringe. The reason being that Thermaltake had more than a few questionable PSU's come out of it's doors over the past few years. Happily it appears that they've seen the folly of turning out questionable power supplies and have decided to turn their PSU image 180 degrees.

Enter the Toughpower line. While their old lines were made by a whole host of OEM's the Toughpower line is made by Channelwell also known as CWT. If that name means nothing to you they're the folks that did the OEM work for the likes of Antec. Antec has taken a bit of a black eye lately but it's not the fault of CWT, no instead it falls on the caps that were chosen for the PSU's used to build those units.

The caps (capacitors) in question were made by Fuhjyyu. For the topless pics we'll see if the Toughpower uses those or if that particular curse is broken.

Performance

Voltage	+3.3V	+5V	+12V1	+12V2	+12V3	+12V4	-12V	+5VSB
Max. Load	30A	28A	18A	18A	18A	18A	0.8A	3A
Min Load	0.5A	2.0A	1.0A	1.0A	1.0A	1.0A	0A	0A
Peak Load	--	--	--	--	--	--	--	3.5A
Load Reg.	+3,-3%	+3,-3%	+3,-3%	+3,-3%	+3,-3%	+3,-3%	+9,-5%	+5,-3%
Ripple V(p-p)	50 mV	50 mV	120 mV	120 mV	120 mV	120 mV	120 mV	50 mV

Specifications

Model	W0116
Maximum Power	750 Watts
Color	Black
Switches	ATX Logic on-off additional power rocker switch
PFC (Power Factor Correction)	Active PFC
Cooling System	14 cm Fan SPEED: 1900 RPM (±10%) DIMENSION: 140 X 140 X 25 mm AIR FLOW: 82 CFM TEMP. AUTO CONTROL
Noise	16dB at 1300RPM
P. G. Signal	100-500 ms
Over Voltage Protection Recycle AC to Reset	+5V 7.0 Vmax +3.3V 4.5 Vmax +12V 15.6 Vmax
Dimensions	16cm(L)x15cm(W)x8.5cm(H)
Net Weight	2.2 kg
Input Voltage	100 VAC~240 VAC
Input Frequency Range	47 ~ 63 Hz
Input Current	115VAC / 10A max. 230VAC / 5A max.
Hold-up Time	16ms
Efficiency	up to 85%

So far the specs look pretty impressive. The rail regulation is very tight at 3%, the advertised efficiency is quite impressive if it lives up to it. Another thing worth noting is active PFC. APFC makes your wall see the PSU as a resistive device with as close to a 1 ohm load as possible. This means that the VA (volts X amperes) is as close to the wattage consumed as possible. A side benefit is that UPS's like APFC over non PFC power supplies. The power factor correction circuitry deals better with square waves.

The packaging is colorful and shows the same features and specs that are listed on Thermaltake's site along with views of the PSU.

One thing I've found that's starting to show up more and more is the handle in the top of the box. What's up with that? It's under the shrink wrap so it's not much use in the store and after the PSU is installed you're likely going to toss the box so why bother? My observation aside, inside the box resides the bundled silicone PSU isolator and the manual along with the rest of the goodies.

Don't let the labeling on the boxes fool you, there's more than one screw included with the PSU. ;)

Closer Look

Once the PSU is out of it's bubble-wrap we get a closer look at the finish. It's painted black, a very shiny gloss black with a large beauty panel on the left side proclaiming it to be the 750W Cable Management Toughpower from Thermaltake proudly for all your lan party friends to gawk at. The bottom of the casing has a punched grill sporting a huge 140mm fan and the outer end is punched in a low restriction honeycomb grid array allowing for good airflow out of the power supply.

The modular interface is color coded for easy identification of what goes where. The SATA plugs, molex plugs and 8 pin EPS (which splits apart into the 4 pin ATX 12V plug) all plug in here. They have the leftmost 6 pin plugs labeled as SATA and the ones next to them labeled for molex duties but after a bit of checking I discovered that the plugs for the molexes are plumbed with the same voltages (+3.3V, +5V, +12V and grounds) as the SATA plugs so if you find that you have to plug the SATA plugs in where the molexes go or vice versa so there's no worries there.

On top of the PSU is the label listing the rail amperages but for the total wattages and how they're distributed you'll have to look in the manual.

I'll save you the legwork since I've got the manual laying here open and list them off for you. Continuous wattage of 750W. The combined wattage of the +3.3V and +5V rails is 180W max. Total combined +12V output load not to exceed 60A (720W). The hold up time and other specs are listed above in the features list.

The cables are pretty nicely sleeved and feature the following drive connectors: 4 pin molex IDE connectors X 8, 4 pin floppy connectors X 2, 5 pin SATA connectors X 6. There are 2 PCI-e cables and the 8 pin EPS / 4 pin +12V ATX cable. The PSU body has the 20+4 ATX cable hardwired on along with a third PCI-e cable. I'll get into how these are distributed on the rails in a bit.

Opening the PSU reveals a very well laid out unit. The wiring is cleanly routed and imposes very little disruption to the airflow through the unit. The heatsinks are large and are made from swaged aluminum. These allow for less resistance to airflow than traditional extruded heatsinks by allowing the air to flow down through the fingers created by the swaging process. A normal extruded heatsink forces the air to flow across it rather than through it and isn't as efficient for a top down fan configuration.

On the primary side of the power supply we see that CWT uses a Hitachi 390uf cap, no Fuhjyyu's here. From what I'm given to understand the Hitachi's deal pretty well with heat and as the markings on the cap show, it's rated for up to 85*C. If your PSU is hitting nearly the boiling point inside you've got some serious problems.

Also pictured is the back side of the modular interface. The layout is clean and the soldering is very neat. Nothing is more bothersome to me than seeing great globs of solder on a PCB, this likely comes from being a solder nazi but sloppy solder is just un-acceptable IMHO. Soldering is a very easy skill to master.

Looking at where the rails join the PCB we see the color codes used, following the colored wires I've deciphered the following: 12V1 to the 4 pin 12V ATX (which is split from the 8 pin EPS), 12V1 & 12V2 to 8 pin EPS, 12V2 to modular PCI-e connectors, 12V3 to mobo ATX & fixed PCI-e connections, 12V4 to drives. This means that if you've got a 4pin mobo the PCI-e cards have a dedicated rail and if you've got an EPS connector on your mobo you've got the option of running one card on the 12V3 rail along with the motherboard or you can run one card off the fixed PCI-e cable and the other off the modular interface which is what Thermaltake outlines in their manual.

With the current generation of PCI-e video cards 18A between two cards is plenty unless you're running a 7950 GX2 so a dedicated rail for the video cards isn't out of the realm of possibility.

Testing, Conclusion

The 140mm fan is branded by Thermaltake and has a part number of TT-1425B but looking further on the label reveals that it's manufactured by Yate Loon. If you're into quiet computing at all you've heard of Yate Loon and if not, they're a very popular manufacturer of quiet fans with good flow.

I'd also like to point out that the secondary side of the PSU uses Samxon caps rated for 105*C. Again, if your PSU is reaching those temps, you've got bigger problems with the rest of your system since you've got case temps upwards of 65*C going on to push the PSU that far.

One thing I found odd was the 20+4 connector. It's not your normal breakaway style, instead it's hinged. This makes for some interesting fun plugging the 20 pin section in if you've got and clutter around the ATX socket on the motherboard.

Finally, here's the PSU mounted in my test bed. Back when I reviewed the Armor I voiced my concerns about the orientation of the PSU in this particular case. As you can see here, the fan is facing the drive gondola and is less that 1/4" away from it. This isn't great for airflow and is my one major beef with this case setup. Another issue is that the way this case is configured doesn't allow for the silicone isolator to be mounted on the PSU. The PSU support and the metal shroud above the PSU are so close to the power supply that the isolator grabs them and gets deformed to the point that it just won't work.

This thing is a monster. I've done my best and thrown everything I can at it to no avail. The rails have virtually no sag under load. I've run F@H with games while doing defragging of both my drives and it just giggled.

There weren't any issues seen by the PSU having no load on the 12V2 rail, I was a bit worried that it might act strangely but no, it was as stable as my shrink's shrink. Yes, this PSU is overkill for a system like mine but it has so much growth potential that it's unreal. Say for instance that you buy a few SCSI drives at a garage sale and toss them in your rig, no worries. Later you move up to a dual core on an EPS board, no problem.

Adding a second CPU to that board? Again, no problem.Toss in a high powered SLI setup to compliment that new quad core upgrade? Heh, still good. The upgrade path with this power supply is simply fantastic. If you'd just bought a marginal power supply to begin with then you'd be buying another before going much further in the hypothetical upgrade path. Since this PSU costs about double what you'd spend on two smaller quality PSU's, the cost is easily justified.

The Thermaltake Toughpower 750W Cable Management is a very well designed and executed power supply. It has very good growth potential while being capable of running an older system while you work on your upgrade path. The 20+4 connector is a bit strange to work with and a fully detachable version would be a welcome change. I'm not a huge fan of punched grills but I'm wondering if they went that route since 140mm fans are the exception rather than the rule and a punched grill is easier than looking for a solid vendor of oddly sized grills.

If you're planning on doing an upgrade and are anything like me when it comes to the more is better point of view you might look to this for power. That said I'm awarding the Thermaltake Toughpower 750 a 9/10 and our editor's choice award. This is one PSU that you can't go wrong with regardless of the price or manufacturer.

Rail	3.3V	5.0V	12V1	12V2	12V3	12V4	PF
Idle	3.31V	5.00V	12.01V	12.00V	12.03V	12.01V	.96
Load	3.30V	5.00V	12.00V	12.00V	12.02V	12.01V	.99

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