Thermaltake Releases Software-controlled PSUs

[N.Broekhuijsen]

Thermaltake has announced a new PSU lineup with an interesting software package to accompany it.

Thermaltake Releases Software-controlled PSUs : Read more

 

[Someone Somewhere]

Firstly, why?

And secondly, the calibration in those is usually hopeless, so efficiency and power measurements are massively wrong.

 

[gaborbarla]

This would be quite cool, now everyone can see how they over budgeted for their PSUs.

 

[edogawa]

Corsair Link for the AXi series already does this, and fairly accurate too.

 

[Someone Somewhere]

One of my friends has an AX860i, and apparently it thinks it's 99% efficient. I wouldn't call that 'accurate'.

They're only as good as the calibration, and in most cases I would expect they don't bother.

 

[Vorador2]

[quotemsg=11505303,0,930500]Firstly, why?

And secondly, the calibration in those is usually hopeless, so efficiency and power measurements are massively wrong.[/quotemsg]

Well, just being able to monitor and report PSU temp and fan speed directly from the PSU can be really useful in homebrew server builds.
Other than that, not so much.

 

[Someone Somewhere]

[quotemsg=11505401,0,128698][quotemsg=11505303,0,930500]Firstly, why?

And secondly, the calibration in those is usually hopeless, so efficiency and power measurements are massively wrong.[/quotemsg]

Well, just being able to monitor and report PSU temp and fan speed directly from the PSU can be really useful in homebrew server builds.
Other than that, not so much.[/quotemsg]

Server that needs a 750W PSU? Not many of those around (excluding GPU Compute, which I doubt many homebrew ones do).

You probably don't need to see/monitor that though. In general, if it works now it will continue working. Most have decent fan control and will trip if it fails, either directly or from overtemp.

 

[Deleted member 217926]

Hmm no OEM listed in the RealHardTechX database yet. That is strange. I wonder if they will use Flextronics like the Corsair AXi series. Flextronics makes about the only units comparable to the Seasonic X and Platinum series. First Coolermaster releases their new units based on the Seasonic X and now Thermaltake might have something just as good. Craziness.

 

[TheMentalist]

Nice features there

 

[Murissokah]

[quotemsg=11505303,0,930500]Firstly, why?

And secondly, the calibration in those is usually hopeless, so efficiency and power measurements are massively wrong.[/quotemsg]

Well, I'd like to have that kind of information. It certainly isn't a necessity, but it is good to know how much power your system is actually drawing. For instance it would help me determine how much power headroom I have on my UPS before it becomes unreliable. It could also lead to smarter cooling systems that counter heat increase based on heat generation instead of temperature.

As for being wrong, they don't have to be wrong. On a PSU, that would essentially mean a PT and a CT connected to a microcontroller with analog inputs. Calibration can be done electronically in production line. Power and other electrical readings are actually much easier to calibrate and achieve decent precision than thermal readings.

 

[digiex]

I would be best also if the software can let us tinker a little bit with the PWM of the PSU to be able to increase or decrease the voltage in mV increment.

 

[qlum]

I think a good why is more because it doesn't cost much to implement and its a fun tool to get a rough estimate of power consumption. Something quite a few people are interested in.

 

[milktea]

I hope they have way to disable this feature (powering OFF the USB). If the USB device on the PSU is always ON, it'll eat into the overall system efficiency, especially in the low power/idle states.

 

[Someone Somewhere]

[quotemsg=11508447,0,317237]I hope they have way to disable this feature (powering OFF the USB). If the USB device on the PSU is always ON, it'll eat into the overall system efficiency, especially in the low power/idle states.[/quotemsg]

Agreed. By memory JG found that when reviewing the AX1200i.

I wouldn't trust anything that hopeless measurement wise though. And many UPSs now have a front panel read out of power consumption.

 

[Alexandru Tudor Sarbu]

Finally!

 

[mynith]

First thoughts: one more thing to go wrong when malicious software finds its way in there. And they expect me to pay for that? No thanks.