It seems anymore that everything is hermetically sealed (yes, those old enough to remember the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson will know that term). After the plastic wrappers are removed and the box opened, we find ourselves with nothing but what is needed to accomplish the task at hand. Thermaltake created this PSU for the power user and didn’t add in a bunch of extra stuff that wouldn’t be used anyway. We get the power supply itself, a power cord, a small manual and mounting screws.
Now that we have everything out of the box, lets hit up a few areas of interest.
Beginning with the basic specs of the PSU, this model is designed to put out 600 watts of constant power. While this isn’t particularly abnormal, one item of interest is the three 12v power rails. Yes, I said THREE 12v rails! With individual capacities of 14A, 23A and 15A respectively, there is a total of 52A available just on the 12v rails. We’re almost getting to the point where we could consider running a peltier based setup without an external power source!
For the other rails, the 3.3v rail has a limit of 28A and the 5v rail has a limit of 30A. There is also a 5VSB rail for those using something along the lines of OCZ’s DDR Booster, but it has a small limit of only 2.5A total output so will have limited usefulness.
If you happen to be interested in power efficiency, this particular model boasts Active PFC and an average rating of 80% overall power efficiency. The efficiency is about average for most power supplies currently on the market, and the Active PFC reportedly helps deliver a cleaner flow of power to the voltage rails.
For those with an eye for aesthetics, check this out...
Pictured above is the reflection of a picture I have hanging in my workroom. The exterior of this power supply is a brilliant mirror finish and will set off a windowed case very nicely. A lot of models are now using powered LED lighting to enhance their looks, but Thermaltake has gone back to the basics with this unit and just made it very neat and clean. Another benefit of this is that it takes no power from the unit to make it look good, leaving more juice for that power rig.
To help in keeping the internals cool, this model makes use of a 120mm fan. This, in conjunction with the waffled back panel, will do a fine job of ensuring the operating temperature of this PSU doesn’t get out of control. It is a very quiet fan and moves plenty of air for the cooling needs of the power supply, but I still do not advocate using this as a part of the enclosure cooling setup. Using a good internal airflow scheme will always give better results than relying on the power supply to be the primary exhaust component within the case.
Taking a look at the back panel shows us another area that has been kept very neat in appearance. The only components visible are the power port and the On/Off toggle switch. The rest of the space is given over to ventilation. Also of note is the lack of a voltage switch. This unit handles this task internally so you don’t have to worry about forgetting to set it to the proper level before powering up the system.
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