Thermaltake Toughpower 1500W PSU

Insides

All the Toughpower PSUs from 1kW and up (along with a few below like the 650W Q-Fan) are made by Channel Well Technology, or CWT. The company is very well known for making quality PSUs and while the Thermaltake is a repacking of an in-house CWT design, that's not to be sniffed at.

I’m sure as a side business CWT pack sardines into cans or organise clowns in cars because this PSU is ram-packed to the gills with heatsinks and the occasional electrical component that noses its head above the ripples.

The design is so space sensitive that the heatsinks are purposely shaped to fit specifically in the tight space. Thankfully the components are also very well adhered with very little play as one component shouldn’t touch another with a 10N force.

The airflow isn’t all that wonderful though – while the heatsink fins and the vertical PCBs line up to direct the air out towards the vents, there are large components dotted about that will limit the flow. The only vents are the large honeycombed one at the back and a few grills underneath the modular sockets.


The PSU is essentially two units in one, except one handles 5V and one handles 3.3V and they both club together to give four 12V rails. You can see it split right down the middle where either side there are two transformers, two large PFC capacitors and two sets of PFC circuitry.


Thermaltake advertises this unit as using industrial grade components, and while we could see a few solid aluminium capped capacitors nestled in the middle, it also uses high grade 105˚C Japanese KZG capacitors in parts. In truth, without desoldering them, everything is too tightly packed to see. The larger capacitors are a usual 85˚C, and while directly cooled by the fan above, are also entirely surrounded by heatsinks.

To couple the high power ethos, a separate PCB supplying the three amps of 5V standby voltage is also included – Hiper includes a similar sort of thing but also a USB hub built directly into the PSU itself. This means “up to 12” USB devices can be charged and powered while the PC is off – good for fast charging iPods and phones, even if it does stress the battery.