Thermaltake Toughpower SFX 600W PSU Review

[Guest]

The highest-end member of Thermaltake's Toughpower SFX Gold line is on our test bench today. It offers Gold efficiency, modular cabling, and a semi-passive fan mode. Thanks to its 600 W capacity, you can easily build a powerful system with it.

Thermaltake Toughpower SFX 600W PSU Review : Read more

 

[Dark Lord of Tech]

Hard to compete with the SF Corsairs.

 

[Pixdawg]

Based on this review, I wouldn't buy the thing for half its listed price. How the devil did it get a Gold rating, anyway?

 

[Clamyboy74]

You would only need 2 pcie cables since these psu are designed for sff builds, with only 1 gpu since you also use a m-itx board.

 

[turkey3_scratch]

This power supply is a disaster. It does not have working protection circuitry and should be a 450W unit, not a 600W unit.

This thing sucks.

This unit is a 450W power supply IMO. Basically, Thermaltake probably took their 450W power supply, slapped 600W on it, kept the same amount of PCIe cables, and called it a 600W power supply. This power supply is stupid, I don't know who would buy it. That's just my opinion of course, but safety should be the most important thing of a power supply, and even thought it didn't blow up, if it had 510mv of ripple at 110% load, imagine what it had at 140% load before it shut off? Probably 2000mv of ripple. There goes the GPU. There goes the CPU. There goes everything!

But Thermaltake knows that not a single person who purchases this thing will have done their PSU research, and therefore not a single person buying this thing will probably have a system that demands more than 250-300W. Thermaltake preys on the vulnerabilities of the uneducated, it's a disgrace, it's disgusting.

You would only need 2 pcie cables since these psu are designed for sff builds, with only 1 gpu since you also use a m-itx board.

You wouldn't need a 600W power supply with an SFF build period. It razzes my berries that the mere fruit of the existence of this thing is an example of an unethically engineered product that nobody needs but is designed for those who don't know what they don't need.

 

[jonnyguru]

You would only need 2 pcie cables since these psu are designed for sff builds, with only 1 gpu since you also use a m-itx board.

Not until the Corsair SF Series was released while I was sitting behind a desk at Corsair did I realize just how many people use SFX power supplies in full size cases. Absolutely AMAZES me. So.. yeah...

 

[turkey3_scratch]

Dont know if a 300mm 24-pin cable could reach the board in a full sized case.

 

[cats_Paw]

As much as I give Tomshardware a lot of pain for many of their articles This one is a very solid test.
The PSU is one of the most important parts of the PC (Id say its THE most important), so a good review of a PSU is always welcome.

Well done toms.

 

[Dark Lord of Tech]

I commend Thermaltake for releasing into the SFX market , more competition is good for the industry. With very little to choose from , it's still a huge plus to have more SFX units out there on the retail market.

 

[turkey3_scratch]

I commend Thermaltake for releasing into the SFX market , more competition is good for the industry. With very little to choose from , it's still a huge plus to have more SFX units out there on the retail market.

Yeah but this is not what I'd call competition... Nobody needs to compete against Thermaltake's product since it stinks.

 

[nem3s1s]

GOOD QUALITY as usual on Enhance but seems they need smart enginiers to up level to the designs. wireless etc

 

[turkey3_scratch]

GOOD QUALITY as usual on Enhance but seems they need smart enginiers to up level to the designs. wireless etc

Wireless? What are you talking about? This unit stinks in terms of quality.

 

[nukemaster]

Based on this review, I wouldn't buy the thing for half its listed price. How the devil did it get a Gold rating, anyway?

The Gold rating is efficiency only. It could be a screaming jet with extreme ripple and as long as it meets the efficiency at the key points, it can get Gold certified.

Luck enough many SSF users would never run into the units flaws because many SFF systems are pretty power friendly(Even if the end user wants to have 600 watts and uses 350).

Corsair is still winning the race hands down.

 

[turkey3_scratch]

Based on this review, I wouldn't buy the thing for half its listed price. How the devil did it get a Gold rating, anyway?

The Gold rating is efficiency only. It could be a screaming jet with extreme ripple and as long as it meets the efficiency at the key points, it can get Gold certified.

Luck enough many SSF users would never run into the units flaws because many SFF systems are pretty power friendly(Even if the end user wants to have 600 watts and uses 350).

Corsair is still winning the race hands down.

The biggest flaw lies in its non-working protections, and a short could cause current to increase, and since OCP is set way too high, ripple could amount to 1.5V and literally kill hardware IMO.

 

[Mike Adams]

looks like a solid build with good capacitors but I don't trust Thermaltake products. their stuff has bad reviews all over the Internet. since they source all the components from China they might be counterfeit. For $120 I'd rather buy a reputable brand like Antec or Corsair

 

[turkey3_scratch]

Who cares about capacitors when everything else sucks.