Thermaltake ToughPower 700w PSU Review

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Thermaltake ToughPower 700w PSU Review
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Seven hundred watts of tough power, 14cm fan, modularized cable management and 85% efficiency. Are you in love yet. Thermaltakes Toughpower power supply is a serious piece of kit ready for SLI, Crossfire, dual core and just about anything else you'd care to throw at it.

Find out how tough this unit is when we throw it into a 3.8Ghz monsta.

Price: around £79 inc vat Supplier: Thermaltake
Manufacturer: Thermaltake

Thermaltake always impress us with their committment to making innovative and high performance products. A fight breaks out at MaXit HQ whenever a sample arrives over who gets to test it. Usually a few rounds of Project Gotham racing is needed - winner takes all - to settle the arguement. The arrival of the 700w Toughpower psu caused more than it's fair share of oos and ahhs as the MaXit loafers gathered round to check out the specs and examined the unit. The Toughpower has probably the most impressive specification we have ever seen at MaXit. Modularized cable management, 85% efficiency, Dual Core, SLI and Crossfire ready, four 12volt rails to provide a combined loading of 56 amps, 3% voltage regulation, 120,000 MTBF - in fact just about everything you could ever wish for in a power supply. The Toughpower range spans from the entry level 550 watts model to a top of the line 750 watt atomic monsta. Deciding on which model to buy is probably the hardest thing.

The unit doesn't disappoint in the looks department with a sleek mirrored finish, honey combed black grill, embedded socket design and super quiet 14cm fan for increased cooling. Thermaltake even chuck in a noise preventive silicon pad that goes between the psu and case to reduce vibration noise by as much as 80%. It feels solid and oozes pedigree.

The 14cm ball bearing fan is an interesting choice and provides maximum cooling efficiency with minimal noise. In use it is whisper quiet at 16dBa and kicks out a generous amount of hot air.

The honey comb vent to the rear provides plenty of airflow out of the unit and gives the power supply a suitably tough look.

Modularized cable management comes as standard and features an embedded socket design - perfect for keeping your case tidy. All cables are finished in black cable sleeving to maintain optimum airflow throughout the chassis. With seven 4 pin connectors, two floppy connectors, six SATA connectors and two PCI Express connectors, you'll never run out of connection options even with the most fully loaded system.

Thermaltake have wrapped the Toughpower up in decent packaging that shows the whole technology in great detail. You can see what you are buying before you even open the box. In fact, it's probably the nicest packaging we have seen for any power supply to date.

The Specs

Let's have a look at the power under the bonnet.

Warranty	1 Year
Type	ATX 12V 2.2 EPS 12V
Maximum Power	700W
Connectors	1 x 20/24-pin Power Connector 1 x 8-pin +12V Power Connector 1 x 4-pin +12V Power Connector 7 x 4-pin Peripheral Power Connector 2 x 4-pin Floppy Drive Connector 6 x 5-pin S-ATA Connector 2 x 6-pin PCI Express Connector
PFC (Power Factor Correction)	Active
AC Input	100-240VAC
Hold-up Time	16ms
Over Voltage Protection	+5V 7.0 Vmax +3.3V 4.5 Vmax +12V 15.6 Vmax
Over Load Protection	Built-in
M.T.B.F.	>120,000 hours
Colour	Black
Cooling System	1 x 140mm Fan Speed: 1900 RPM (±10%) Dimension: 140mm x 140mm x 25mm Bearing Type: Two ball-bearing Air Flow: 82 CFM Temp. Auto Control
Noise	16dB
Width	150mm
Height	85mm
Depth	160mm
Weight	2.4Kg
Special Features	SLI, Cross-Fire, and Dual Core CPU ready Next generation four +12V rails(12V1, 12V2, 12V3, 12V4) supports high-end graphic card and PC system (combined loading of 56A) Independent Voltage Circuit: offers unflappable current delivery under heavy load and makes voltage output more stable Active Power Factor Correction (PF>0.99) and high efficiency (up to 85%) Extremely good voltage regulation (±3%): provides steady voltage for system Industrial grade components (capacitor, transformer, etc) Mirror effect housing and reliable 14cm ball-bearing fan Protections: Over Current, Over Voltage, and Short-Circuit protection Safety / EMI Approvals: CE, CB, TUV, FCC, UL, CUL, and BSMI certified

The Toughpower is Nvidia SLI certified and works with Crossfire and dual core cpu's without a hitch. The specifications look awesome on paper so a machine to match was required. Enter the MaXit Monsta. 3.8Ghz of Danger Den watercooled power guzzling metal. Built by Coolercases.co.uk, specialists in high performance watercooling and modding, it represents an extreme system by any standards and capable of reducing most power supplies to tears.

Let's find out if this really is a tough psu with a little Orthos Prime torturing.

In The Labs

The 700w Toughpower had no problem running the MaXit Monsta at speeds up to 3.8Ghz. The system included a pair of Western Digital raptors, two 500GB hard disks running in raid 1, Leadtek 7900GTX overclocked to 725/940 on the core and memory, X-Fi soundcard, a dvd writer and high performance Danger Den watercooling kit. A pretty extreme, fully loaded system by any standards. The latest version of Orthos Prime for multi-threaded processors was used to provide some stress while normal activities such as surfing and photoshop were carried out. A multimeter was used to measure the readings on each rail.

How did the Thermaltake Toughpower fair under these conditions. Impeccably. Idle or full load made no difference to the readings. They were absolutely rock solid throughout testing. The power supply remained quiet under full loading no doubt thanks to the 14cm fan. While the 12v rail was not as generous in headroom as some power supplies we have tested, it never budged no matter what we threw at it. This really is about as good as it gets. The toughpower coped with efficiency and rock solid stability. A perfect choice for even the most demanding overclocker or fully loaded system.

The Bottom Line

Only one word is needed to sum up the Thermaltake Toughpower psu. WOW!. The best power supply on the planet? We think so. Superb packaging, awesome specs and finish make this a winner. In fact the only thing we could find to fault on this power supply was the stingy one year manufacturers warranty offered by Thermaltake. Otherwise we'd have given it a perfect ten score.

At under £80, or less if you shop around, it represents fantastic value for money. This power supply would probably last you a lifetime or at least 120,000 hours of use!

You'd be hard pressed to find a better power supply that offers as much as the Toughpower. In fact you'd be bonkas not to buy one. Well done Thermaltake!