Thermaltake Toughpower 1200W Review

Thermaltake has been coming up strong in the power supply industry as of late. Their Toughpower brand has been turning heads left and right, and the modular 1200W flagship is on our bench today.

Category: Power Supply
Manufacturer: Thermaltake
Product: Toughpower 1200W (W0133)
Gallery: Click Here
Price: $332.86

You could ask around, but I can tell you fairly definitively that nobody who writes reviews about computer hardware enjoys working with cookie-cutter products. Sure, sometimes the unique products that we get in review are a little too… errm… unique, but more often than not, creating reviews of such products is a far more captivating and ultimately more fun experience. Unfortunately, however, there are increasingly less products in certain categories that have anything to offer that differentiates them from the competition. These categories tend to be internal components that are built to strict standards such that innovation is difficult to achieve. In recent months and even years, two such categories that really stick out in my mind are hard drives and power supplies. There have been some technological advancements made in each of these areas recently, but more often than not those advancements are universally adopted by all manufacturers, so the innovation involved goes unnoticed and consequently is integrated into cookie-cutter products.

There are a few exceptions to this rule, and the success of those products tends to reflect their uniqueness. The 150GB Raptor Hard Drive from Western Digital is a product that offers a combination of features not found on any other production device. It is also unanimously considered the absolute fastest consumer-level hard drive available. As is apparent by going to various system integrators and configuring the absolute highest-end computer, Raptor 150’s are used across the board when performance is not to be compromised by price. In the power supply world, however, there are very, very few products that exhibit any kind of feature that can really be considered unique or superior to other features in other products.

While energy conservation discussion has no real place in this article, that is only because we have expressed our distaste for the way the hardware industry is moving in respect to such issues. We urge anyone reading this article to check out page 1 of our Cooler Master Real Power Pro 1000 review that was published back in late March.

With their Toughpower series, Thermaltake looks to change that. By bringing together the industry-leading features found in other products from other manufacturers, the Toughpower 1200W power supply looks to be a veritable “super power supply”. Let’s take a look at the features, specifications, and performance of this 1.2kW PSU.
{mospagebreak title=Features and Specifications}

Features and Specifications

Certain unique features of the Toughpower series become evident immediately upon taking the unit out of its packaging. Most prominent, probably the result of the orientation of the power supply in its packaging, is the fan grill, which is a part of the chassis itself. Typically power supplies utilize a separate metal grill to cover the fan or fans. On the Toughpower unit however, one of the steel sides of the power supply has the ventilation holes stamped out. While we have never had a problem with power supply grills becoming loose, any probability of noise resulting from the grill rattling is eliminated. In the rear of the power supply you can see that there is a large switch to turn the power on and off. The lack of such a switch on Cooler Master’s Real Power Pro was one of our biggest gripes with that series. Large switches enable the user to be absolutely certain that power is completely cut to the system. The switch also lights up in case the on and off markings are not distinguishable. A strange thing we took note of with this power supply was that the label is placed on the bottom of the supply (or top, whatever) instead of the sides. We typically prefer to have the label with all of the amperage distribution information on the side of the unit so it can be seen easily should it need to be referenced in an emergency tech support dilemma or some other such event. After inspecting the rest of the unit’s exterior and thinking long and hard about Thermaltake’s reasoning for putting the label on the top of the power supply, we have come up with several possible explanations. First, many high-end Thermaltake cases feature a power supply mounting position that is in effect sideways to the normal position – that is, it is rotated a full 90 degrees. In such a position, the label on the power supply would be readily visible after opening the case. The other possible reason for the positioning is that on the side of the power supply that would normally facilitate the label, Thermaltake has instead placed a very robust sticker. This sticker, which more prominently displays the branding of the product, is some sort of sticky aluminum hybrid material thing.

{mospagebreak title=Features (cont)}

It was not until we tried to open up the power supply that the true purpose of this metal sticker thing was revealed. The Toughpower series of power supplies is, by far, the toughest to open up. Whereas on most power supplies, all that is required is to remove 4 screws that secure the two sides of the power supply casing together, the Toughpower requires the removal of 9 screws. That would not be too problematic, however, if two of the screws were not cleverly hidden behind this metal sticker thing. It was not until after we realized that these screws were present that we had to bend back this sticker, which caused it to become permanently deformed. This was by far the most exhaustive experience we have ever had trying to open a power supply.

Before we delve into the internal features of the Toughpower 1200W, let’s take a look at what is one of the cooler and more useful features. The TP1200 is a modular power supply, but unlike others, the ports on the back are labeled to aid in cable configuration. If you are running an ultra high-end system, you want to be able to distribute the load across the +12V rails (of which the TP1200 has 4) evenly so as not to overload any one specific rail. Thermaltake has a color-coded key for each modular port on the back of the power supply that allows the user to do just this. We found this tremendously useful not just for installation, but testing each rail individually as well.

side the TP1200 is a pretty cool looking layout that is highlighted by the modular riser and the interestingly configured heatsink layout. Whereas most power supplies tend to employ the use of cookie-cutter-esque parallel heatsink designs, the TP1200 uses a more spread out design that utilizes most of the space available within the unit. In fact, if you picture the unit with the fan side connected to it, you can see there is very little empty space. You will also notice that the characteristic bright red shrink-wrapped chokes (inductors) that add a certain amount of flair to the external appearance of the powersupply (when looking through the rear grill). As with most of the other power supplies we have reviewed, there are two large transformers used in the TP1200. These are very high quality transformers (this is based solely on the reputation of the supplier of these transformers) but unfortunately we were not provided with details as to how each one is tapped to supply the rails. The coolest feature on the inside of the TP1200 is the active PFC correction. Very few power supplies have this feature anymore, and fewer still high-end power supplies do. Inside the TP1200 however, you can clearly see the secondary switching circuit that conditions the input power to the device. This means that the power supply will be using almost all of the power it is supposed to be using or that it draws from the wall. Bear in mind this has a small effect on efficiency, though the two terms are not one in the same. We will discuss efficiency in slightly greater detail shortly.
{mospagebreak title=Package}

Package
By now we have reviewed quite a few power supplies from quite a few manufacturers. As a result, we can say that we are pretty sure how a power supply should be packaged in the box in order to keep it safe from bumps and bruises that may occur during transport. Our favorite power supply packaging thus far has been with Cooler Master’s Real Power Pro series, which features generous amounts of low-density foam and a convenient carrying handle. If anything, the Toughpower’s packaging is superior to the RPP packaging in every conceivable way except for the carrying handle. There is plenty of low-density foam padding and the unit itself is wrapped in bubble-wrap. The 10 modular cables and 3 6-pin PCI-E to 8-pin PCI-E adapters are packaged in a clear plastic wrapper. A very interesting accessory that is included with the TP1200 is a silicon vibration damper that is installed between the power supply and the case and is designed to eliminate vibration caused from the power supply. This is something we have not seen before and is a welcome addition for any user who enjoys a silent computer.

Testbed and Methods
Test Setup

Case: Thermaltake Armor
Power Supply: Tagan Turbojet TG1100-U96 1100W | Thermaltake Toughpower W0133 1200W
Motherboard: ASUS L1N64-SLI WS
Processor: (2x) AMD Athlon 64 FX-74 (Quad FX)
Hard Drive: (2x) Western Digital WD1500ADFD 10,000RPM, RAID-0
Hard Drive: (1x) Western Digital WD5000KS 7,200RPM
Video: (2x) NVIDIA GeForce 8800GTX Version
Memory: 4096MB (2x(2×1024MB)) Corsair XMS2 PC2 6400
Optical Drive: Lite-ON SHW160P6S05
Cooling: (2x) Vigor Monsoon II

Software Configuration

Motherboard BIOS: L1N64-SLI WS Release BIOS 0124
Operating System: Windows XP Professional with Service Pack 2
Video Driver: NVIDIA ForceWare Version 158.22 (May 17 release)

In testing the TP1200, we thought it would be appropriate to configure the beefiest computer we could possibly muster. Since we do not yet have the funds to acquire input regulators and DC loading units that larger publications use to test power supplies, running an uber power-intensive computer is the best we can do. We will be using virtually the same system we used with the Real Power Pro 1000W from Cooler Master, with some additional tweaks. This Quad FX, SLI system uses components that have been shown to consume pretty much the most power possible. We also threw in some Vigor Monsoon II TEC coolers for an extra 120W consumption.

In the past we have overclocked the test system to squeeze even more juice from the power supply being tested. However, the Quad FX platform used in this particular test system does not overclock with any kind of ease or significance. For that reason, we will not be testing the TP1200 on an overclocked system.

Measurements were recorded with a digital multimeter and voltage levels were recorded over a 2 minute period for each value when possible. Power consumption readings were taken using a Kill-A-Watt Electric Usage Monitor from P3 International that was plugged into the power mains.

In our testing, “Normal Load” is considered a 50% CPU load (simulated by running 2 instances of Prime 95), and “Full Load” is considered 100% CPU usage in addition to a heavy graphics and memory load under 3DMark06. 100% CPU usage is obtained using 4 instances of Prime 95 with a single instance of 3DMark06 running on top.
{mospagebreak title=Testing}

Testing
Instead of just getting some performance numbers and throwing them down on the table without a reference on which to base their value, we have decided, yet again, to include numbers from another power supply in this test. The testbed we configured expressly for this test was originally equipped with a TG1100-U96 power supply from Tagan. This 1100W power supply is used heavily around the boutique system integrator circles for its uniquely sleeved cables and overall attractive look. The performance and reliability of the unit, unfortunately, are not necessarily factors in the usage of this PSU. By using it in this particular system, we should be able to test its merit in addition to getting some numbers for reference against the TP1200.

The first thing you might notice is the 1040W figure for power consumption under full load. This is a it more than the numbers we were seeing when we tested the Enermax Galaxy 1000W against the Cooler Master Real Power Pro 1000. This is certainly due to the extra hard drive and USB devices we attached to the system this time around. Something else you should notice is that all the voltages on the Tagan unit remained very stable under testing, although several of them might be considered “high”. We use the term high very loosely in this instance, because all of the recorded voltages were well within the accepted ranges and are only high because they are above the target values.

Thermaltake Toughpower 1200

Unfortunately the installation of the TP1200 was not without its hang ups. However, all of these grievances were the result of the case and the previous cable management configuration that was employed. In the Thermaltake Armor case, it is quite difficult to remove larger power supply units from the sideways-mounted area that houses them. In addition, the ASUS L1N64SLI-WS motherboard used is not exactly the most cable management-friendly motherboard in existence, so we had to get pretty creative wiring it. Removing zip-ties and trying not to disturb the heatsink was entirely too difficult when replacing the incumbent power supply. On the other hand, attaching all of the modular cables to the TP1200 provides the user with more connectors than we’ve ever seen on a power supply, and it was a good thing too because we had plenty of places to plug them in. The labeled rails also proved very beneficial when testing the TP1200, as it is very easy to test each +12V rail individually based on this naming scheme.

You can see here that there is almost one tenth of a volt of fluctuation on the second +12V rail. In this case, the rail in question happened to be the one that supplied the EPS12V and 24-pin motherboard connectors. Being the single most power-hungry component in our system (motherboard + processors considered as a single entity that is) it is reasonable to believe that these rails suffered somewhat under extremely heavy load. However, fluctuations are minimal across the board on the other rails, and voltage readings were closer to target values here than with the Tagan unit. One thing that really stuck out here, however, is that the system only seemed to consume 999W with the TP1200 as opposed to the 1040 with the TG1100-U96. The only thing you can attribute this decrease in power consumption, given that the system remained configured identically in both tests, is the efficiency. The ~40W decrease here suggests that the TP1200 is a more efficient power supply than the TG1100-U96. Unfortunately we do not have the necessary equipment to test for actual efficiency numbers, so a relative comparison is all we can provide you with at this time.
{mospagebreak title=Final Thoughts and Conclusions}

Final Thoughts and Conclusions
My own personal distaste for the direction the hardware industry is moving in terms of power consumption should be no secret to anyone by now. However, I have little to no say over the decisions that engineers make when they create the components that end up using the power in the first place. That said, we will continue to review ultra high-end components, including power supplies, until the current trends begin to reverse. This 1.2kW power supply from Thermaltake looked like a champion from the moment we took it out of the box. Its combination of various industry-leading features intrigued us from the get-go and taking a peek inside the device only enforced the point. However, initial impressions don’t mean anything in the hardware world, as certain peripheral reviews posted on our site in the past have shown.

The only way to truly get a feel for how well this unit performed was to put some real world loads on it generated by one of the most power-hungry gaming computers we have seen. The TP1200 performed admirably in all of our tests, and proved to be more efficient than the TG1100-U96, which also seems to be an excellent unit and will be given a full review by us hopefully in the near future. All things considered equal, the performance of these two power supplies is pretty similar. Therefore the main thing you need to look at when buying a power supply in this range is price. The best price we could find online for this particular version of the 1200W Toughpower unit is $332.86, which is about $20 more than the $313.99 Tagan Turbojet TG1100-U96 that was also seen in this review. In comparison to other 1200W power supplies like the NZXT PRECISE 1200W at $389.99 and the ePOWER EP-1200P10-T2 at $368.99, the TP1200 is a bit less expensive. With this information, it seems to us that the TP1200 is clearly the best possible choice you can make in the 1200W range. However, there are very few gaming systems that are capable of consuming up to 1200W or anywhere near it for that matter, so your money may be better spent on a less expensive power supply in the 700-900W range. Such a power supply should give you ample power for your current configuration as well as a decent amount of headroom for future upgrades. We fear the day that a 1200W power supply will not be able to handle the most powerful of gaming systems – but imagine the how nice games will look on such a system…. *drool*.

Pros
+ Integrated fan grill
+ Single fan design, quiet
+ Active PFC, high efficiency
+ Modular
+ Well-priced
Cons
- Slightly longer than similar products.
Rating
9.0 out of 10