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Review by: Daniel
Date: July 20, 2009
Provided by:
ThermalTake |
Thermaltake Toughpower XT 750
Watt Modular Power Supply
Thermaltake has been offering power
supplies for a couple of years now, with each revision improving
upon the last. When we reviewed their first offering in the
Toughpower series, they needed to make some improvements, such as
making the unit modular, improving the efficiency and having a
quieter fan. Now, with the introduction of the Toughpower XT
series, they have made a lot of progress. Today, we will be
reviewing the Toughpower XT 750 Watt power supply. This power
supply is modular and features an 80 Plus Bronze certification.
The box
it comes in is very nice. It feels almost as if Thermaltake
wants to rival Antec's Signature Series of power supplies.
Upon opening the box, you will find
the users manual, a warranty card, power cable, screws, silicone
vibration reduction pad, four velcro straps, a Thermaltake case
badge, and a bag for holding unused modular cables. Also,
there is a 4-pin CPU power connection extension cable, and two 8-pin
to 6-pin PCI-Express power cable converters.
Here are some of the main features
and specifications from
Thermaltake's Website:
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- FanDelayCool:
Evolved from high-end projector’s cooling system,
FanDelayCool enables users to control how long the 14cm fan
should continue to operate (up to 30 seconds) after system
shutdown.
- S.P.T. Indicator:
Indicates the standby, PG signal, and temperature status of
the power supply.
- 12Vin1:
Single +12V rail provides the best compatibility for the
latest components.
- High Quality Japanese Capacitors provide superb
performance and reliability.
- S.F.C. Quiet:
Toughpower XT’s 14cm dual-ball bearing cooling fan is
equipped with S.F.C. Quiet technology so that the fan always
operates at optimal speed for quiet operation.
- Gold-plated
connectors for superior conductivity.
- Meet 80PLUS Bronze Efficiency Requirement: Eco-Friendly
design for the highest efficiency, least heat,
and also lower energy bills.
- 5-Year
Warranty: Thermaltake quality 5-year warranty for parts and
labor.
- 14cm ball
bearing cooling fan with Japanese made 8mm bearing system.
- Compliance with
Intel ATX 12V 2.3 & SSI EPS 12V 2.92 standards.
- Support dual
8-pin PCI-E & dual 6-pin PCI-E connectors for next
generation graphic cards.
- Guaranteed to
deliver stable continuous output at 50℃ environment.
- Universal AC
input 100V~240V and Active PFC (PF value up to 99%).
- DIMENSION:
5.9”(W) x 3.4”(H) x 6.3” (L);150mm(W) x 86mm(H) x 160mm(L)
- Protections:
Over Power, Over Voltage, and Short-Circuit protection.
- Safety / EMI
Approvals: CE, TUV, FCC, UL, CUL, GOST and BSMI certified. |
The Power Supply:
The power supply features a metallic
bronze colored housing and fan grill. Thermaltake has been using
this color for a while, but it still looks great.
Looking at the side of the power
supply, there is a Thermaltake label with their logo on it, the
model number and a condensed specification list. Note that
there is only one +12v rail, supplying up to 60 Amps, which is great
for a single rail solution. The 3.3v supplies up to 30 Amps and the +5v supplies up to
28 Amps. The efficiency is 80 percent or greater at 20%, 50% and 100% loads.
According to the
80Plus
website, this power supply has an average efficiency of
87% at typical loads (50%) and an overall average efficiency of
almost 86%. This is great! It is better than
Xigmatek's NRP-MC751, which uses the same platform.
There is an large grill on the back
which allows the 140 mm fan to exhaust hot air, an on/off switch and
AC Power Input. This power supply does feature Active PFC,
so there is no need for a switch to select the input voltage. The rear looks identical to other units utilizing CWT's
PSH platform. Note that there is a 'FAN DELAY COOL" switch,
which allows the user to select from Auto, 15 second, or 30 second
delay. This allows the fan to cool the power supply
components, even when the computer is off, which can help prolong
the lifespan of the components.
The side of this power supply
features three status indicating LED's. They indicate Standby
status, Power Good signal, and Temperature. During testing I did not
have any issues with any of these indicators, which is good.
A simulated scenario where the Power Good signal is
not received by the power supply.
This power supply features the following cables:
The 24-pin ATX cable is quite long.
This
power supply features modular connections. The red colored
sockets are for the PCI-Express connectors, the 6 pin black sockets
are for the molex, floppy, and SATA connectors, and the 8-pin socket
is for the 4/8-pin CPU power connectors.
-A 24-pin ATX power connector
-A 4-pin +12v CPU Power Connector
-An 8-pin +12v CPU/EPS Power Connector
-2x 6+2-Pin PCI-Express Power Connector and 2x
6-Pin PCI-Express Power Connector. Note that Thermaltake
includes two 8-pin to 6-pin adapters. So, it is possible to
have 4x 6-pin PCI-e power connectors.
-8x Molex Power Connectors, with a grip for easy removal.
-6x Serial ATA Power Connectors
-2x Floppy Power Connectors
Cooling:
There is a 140mm fan on the bottom of
this power supply. During testing, at idle loads, this fan is
somewhat quiet, making a slight whirr when the computer first boots
up. With loads, the fan sped up a bit, making al whirring sound, but the noise was
still acceptable.
Inside the Power
Supply:
* Taking this power supply apart
will void the warranty.
Inside the power supply, there
are three densely finned black colored heat sinks, to cool down the voltage rectifiers. The main transformer is
near the upper middle of image, while the smaller transformer is
below it. The primary capacitor is Matsushita (Panasonic) branded and rated
at 85c, while the secondary capacitors are Nippon Chemicon branded.
The PCB layout and board quality is great.
The fan inside is a Thermaltake(Yate
Loon) branded fan. It has the model number D14BH-12 (L-SSS) with a
maximum draw of 0.70 Amps.
Testing:
For this power
supply, the test system
consists of the following:
-Antec Nine Hundred
Two Case
-Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Quad Core Processor @ 3.4 GHz
(1.40v)
-ZeroTherm Nirvana
120 Heatsink
-eVGA nForce 780i SLi
FTW Motherboard
-4GB (2GB x 2) of
OCZ Platinum DDRII-1066 Memory
-640GB x 4 Western
Digital 7200RPM 32MB Cache Hard Drives
-1x nVIDIA GeForce
GTX 260 Core 216 (55nm) Video Card @ 667MHz Core / 1053 MHz Memory
-Sound Blaster Live!
5.1 Digital Sound Card
-Lite-On 6x BD-ROM /
18x Asus DVD-RAM Drives
-4x 120MM fans, 1x
200mm fan
-2x CCFL Lights
(Multimeter
Results)
*For additional /
larger pictures of the Thermaltake Toughpower XT 750,
Click Here
*Voltages are at a 'Max
Load' for a typical gaming computer, running Orthos, Sisoft Sandra Hard Drive benchmark and 3DMark06 CPU Test 1 and 2 / Deep Freeze HDR test, and
read with a Multi-Meter.
Capacitor
Brands (subjective rating):
Primary:
Excellent
Secondary:
Excellent
Primary:
Panasonic
Secondary:
Nippon-Chemicon
Voltage Results:
+The
results were excellent for this power supply, the results being well
within range. All rails remained quite strong, except for the
5v rail, which had a slight voltage drop, down to about 4.98v.
This result is similar to the Xigmatek NRP-MC751, which uses the
same platform.
Stability Results:
+Everything ran fine during testing, the system was
stable and performed the tests as expected.
Fan Speed Impressions:
+During the tests, the fan was quiet with idle loads and only
produced a slight whirr with loads.
Installation:
+Installation of this power supply went well. There were no
issues fitting it inside the test system's case. Since this
power supply is modular, the interior of the case was much neater
because unneeded cabling can be put away. The included silicone
vibration absorbing pad produced no noticeable change in sound.
Conclusion:
This power supply would be
ideal for anyone looking to build multi CPU core gaming /
workstation system with
two moderately powered video cards. This power supply is ATI
Crossfire certified, but not nVIDIA SLi Ready. I'm sure it can
handle most of nVIDIA's GPU's in SLi. There are an
adequate amount of power connectors, as well, for its wattage rating. It is also
80Plus Bronze certified. At around $125, this
power supply is priced perfectly for its wattage rating. Overall, this is an
excellent value for a 750 watt power
supply and should be purchased by anyone looking for efficiency, great output performance, and great
build quality. Great work, Thermaltake!
Pros +
-Excellent power output
-Five Year Warranty
-Quiet fan
-80Plus Bronze certified
-Modular
Cons -
-Status indicators are not really useful in computer cases where the
power supply has to face upside down.
Techaddicts.net
would like to give this power supply an Excellent rating!
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