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The Toughpower QFan 650W features four 12V rail design, each with quite large 18 Amp rails to compensate for the fact that multiple rails means you can never really use the full potential of the system, however you'd need to use nearly three quarters of the rails at full load to max it out, meaning that your cable use is imperative to unlocking the full potential of this power supply.
Thermaltake has designed it to work this way though – the major cables that require significant 12V supplies are the 8/4-pin CPU, ATX and the PCI-Express cables which use 12 #1-3. 12V #4 is saved for the peripheral Molex and SATA connections, and shouldn’t load the 12V rail anywhere near the level of a CPU, motherboard or graphics card.
While multiple rails are said to be better suited to providing a more reliable PSU, generally cheaper units use them because the components needed for each rail only need to be so good – in a single rail product, all those amps need to come from some powerful hardware, which is usually more expensive.
During testing we found that the Thermaltake was silent at 50 percent load and very cool to touch – the fan was spinning quite slowly and very little air could be felt out the back. Up to 75 percent load the PSU remained exceptionally quiet with very little fan and air flow noise. At this point the base began to get warm and the airflow out the back remained quite low and also a little warm.
At 100 percent load the fan remained quite quiet but spun a lot faster than before – more air could be felt out the sides than out the back where it should have been directed, though. The PSU got a little warmer again, but not hot, although we would prefer to have felt more airflow directed out the back of the unit.
One thing we also found is that the fan runs for a short while after the PSU shuts down—just like Enermax’s branded CoolGuard—to make sure the PSU components are fully cooled to extend their life.
The results are very positive – with a very high 85+ percent efficiency and high PFC across the board. The only slight drop was when we loaded the 3.3V and 5V fully – the efficiency dropped to a fraction above 80 percent, but that still keeps it in the 80Plus range. In respect though, no one will ever need it in the real world but it's good to see Thermaltake successfully achieving what the PSU claims it can do. It's not surprising since the same OEM makes the Corsair TX750W PSU that we liked
a lot. All the voltages are green and the result is very positive for Thermaltake – no longer should our readers worry that the company sells inferior PSUs, well, at least in this range.
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