Thermaltake Toughpower 1200 Watt real world test

[JargonGR]

After reading the reviews of the Thermaltake Toughpower 1200w herehttp://www.hardocp.com/article.html?art=MTMzMCwsLGhlbnRodXNpYXN0 and here http://www.jonnyguru.com/review_details.php?id=107 I decided to buy my self one and solve my needs in lots of power.

I will not provide pictures or measurements since the two revies above more than cover and exceed professionally anything I could provide however i can provide you with real world information of its daily use. I have a really packed system and I was using two Hiper PSUs before this being the 580 Watt Typer and the 730 Watt Type R. The system I am powering with the Toughpower right now has the following configuration:


Abit IN9-32MAX 680i M/B
E6850 @ 4GHZ 1.65Vcore
4GB of RAM @ 1066 Mhz
HD 1) RAID 0 74GB RAPTORS
HD 2) WD Caviar 320GB 7200rpm
2x 8800GTX SLI @ 675/1566/2060
Audigy 2 ZS with External Box
Aerocool Panel with USB Ports and LCD display + Fan Controller
ZALMAN FAN CONTROLLER
Logitech G15 Keyboard

11x 120mm FANS (of which 5x with LEDS and 76CFM)
4x 80mm FANS
1x 60mm LED FAN
1x TT Extreme Spirit Cooler (SB) with 40?mm FAN
1x OCZ Memory Cooler with 2x 60mm Led Fans
3X DDC Ultra (18w) pumps for 3 water loops
A lot of LEDS (around 30)
5x 30cm UV CCFLs
4x 80mm Round CCFLS
3x 30cm Blue CCFLs

Well I think I covered it all. Apart from the perfect and quiet operation so far, the PSU puts out a lot less heat compared to the two previous units I was using and seems to not stress at all. All in all a very nice upgrade for me.

[Brother Esau]

Add another 7 HDD'S and a Raid Controller Card and let me know what you're Verdict is at that point:D

[JargonGR]

With the HDs I doubt it would break a sweat even the Galaxy 1000 Watt can run if I am not wrong around 28 of them. A single 3rd GTX would be more than enough to bring this trhing on its knees since it has 3 6pin and 3 8pin PCI express connectors for 3 VGAs.

I might try with some more HDs or maybe anothr power hog if I could find any.

[lowdog]

Well I just purchased one of these psu's and it was faulty, wouldn't power up my system, fans spun up for a microsecond and that was it.

Will have it exchanged and give Thermaltake Toughpower 1200W one more chance, if I get another dud I'll never touch another Tt product again.

Been a few reports around the web of people getting doa and faulty units so that in itself is a worry.

[Boyu]

I have this psu as well, buy used ones,but the price is very good only 220 US$ in here,while the new one cost around 280 US$, i think themaltake product in my country cost less than in US.

[JargonGR]

Well I just purchased one of these psu's and it was faulty, wouldn't power up my system, fans spun up for a microsecond and that was it.

Will have it exchanged and give Thermaltake Toughpower 1200W one more chance, if I get another dud I'll never touch another Tt product again.

Been a few reports around the web of people getting doa and faulty units so that in itself is a worry.

Oh my I guess I am lucky I did not get a faulty one since I bought it from the US )online) and I live in Europe. Nevertheless, it is being running fine and I am very happy with it.

[lowdog]

Hey JargonGR, can you do a simple test for me please.

Power off your computer then turn the switch on the PSU off and unplug the power cable from the PSU. Leave it for ten minutes the plug the cable back into the PSU and turn the units switch back on......then start up your system.

Just interested to see if this works okay with your TT 1200W.

I got mine going by holding down the power button on the comp and it forced the PSU to boot up the comp, it now seems to be running fine. This Asus P5K-Premium board has the cold boot double post senario that seems common with all P35 boards so I think that was somehow affecting the TT 1200W with initial boot ups.

[Brother Esau]

The HDD's biggest draw on the system/PSU is at start up. With a dedicated Raid Controller Card you can set the hard drives for staggered spin up which allows them to spin up in Que and not all at once. The Enermax Gallaxy is a beautiful P.S.U that I would like to buy but the rail voltage placement is geared towards SLI/CF and without using either one of those set ups too much power is lost that will never be used. Too bad they don't make a single 12v rail version of that P.S.U because I would buy one!

[[Spectre]]

Well I just purchased one of these psu's and it was faulty, wouldn't power up my system, fans spun up for a microsecond and that was it.

Will have it exchanged and give Thermaltake Toughpower 1200W one more chance, if I get another dud I'll never touch another Tt product again.

Been a few reports around the web of people getting doa and faulty units so that in itself is a worry.

Was it the whole system? IE did it meet the minimum load requirments of the power supply?

[Lestat]

thats too bad you guys are getting dead ones.
i know Natalia has said hers has been great. so atleast someone here has had a good experience with it.

[chiefhog]

I hate it when you take the time to research a product, it receives high reviews, and you are still left holding a dud. Sort of like the Samsung widescreen LCD monitors shipped to the public that differed greatly from the pristine product shipped to Web reviewers.

[[Spectre]]

I hate it when you take the time to research a product, it receives high reviews, and you are still left holding a dud. Sort of like the Samsung widescreen LCD monitors shipped to the public that differed greatly from the pristine product shipped to Web reviewers.

I have seen very few substantiated DOA units on these. They are a low volume item and are screened pretty well.

Now I have been contacted by a few people who couldn't get them to work properly but it was because of minimum loading issues, grounding, and the like which aren't the units fault.

And I believe jon also got his from the retail run as was my unit.

[lowdog]

Here are are few people with the exact same issue I'm experiencing. This is from the official Tt forums;

http://forum.thermaltake.com/viewtopic.php?t=2642

Inorder to start my sysrem I have to hold down the case power button for 5 seconds the imediately press it again and it starts up then runs fine.

Asus P5K-Premium
Q6600 @ 3.6GHz with 1.4V - D-Tek Fuzion
8GB Corsair XMS2 - 4 x 2GB sticks
8800 Ultra - watercooled
Swiftech MCP655
4 x 150GB WD Raptors in raid0
dvdburner
Soundblaster X-Fi Extreme Gamer
4 x 120mm fans on rad
2 x 120mm case fans
Lan Li full tower case

[[Spectre]]

Seems most of those people are having problems with Asus or 680i boards. Boy that sounds vaguely familar *cough*Seasonic built Antec's*cough*.

Have you tried it on another motherboard?

If it works on another board its a compatibility issue not a defective unit.

[lowdog]

Yeah the unit seems to work fine in another comp with an Asus board - P5B-Deluxe.

The unit is fine when running, only concern with the system I'm running it on is having to hold down the case power button for 5 seconds the immediately having to push it again to have it bootup the system....hope this won'thave any long term adverse effects on components :confused: what are your thoughts on this?

[standard235]

Yeah the unit seems to work fine in another comp with an Asus board - P5B-Deluxe.

The unit is fine when running, only concern with the system I'm running it on is having to hold down the case power button for 5 seconds the immediately having to push it again to have it bootup the system....hope this won'thave any long term adverse effects on components :confused: what are your thoughts on this?

Switch??

Manually jump the pins and see...

[ShoNuff]

I have the Toughpower 1200 and it works like a champ. It replaced a PCP&C 1KW-SR unit and I have to say I really like it. Silence is truly golden! It has not had a single issue from day one running everything in my sig. :up:

[lowdog]

Switch??

Manually jump the pins and see...


Kind off doubt it's the switch. A Silverstone 850W worked fine with this rig, it's just the Tt 1200 that doesn't seem to want to play nice. :confused:

[[Spectre]]

Yeah the unit seems to work fine in another comp with an Asus board - P5B-Deluxe.

The unit is fine when running, only concern with the system I'm running it on is having to hold down the case power button for 5 seconds the immediately having to push it again to have it bootup the system....hope this won'thave any long term adverse effects on components :confused: what are your thoughts on this?

Not turning on like that is a bit odd since it points to the motherboard being the problem. So long term damage I doubt unless you are getting large voltage spikes at start up. However, that would be annoying enough to me to either swap in a compatible motherboard or swap in another power supply.

[lowdog]

PSU is fine afaik. Tried it on a Asus P5B-D and an Asus P5W64 system and it booted straight up as normal.

Seems this Asus P5K-P has some sort of compatability issue with this specific PSU. I'll keep the PSU as it's working great, the mobo will be changed out way before the end of the PSU's life cycle.

Yay Asus :rolleyes:

[qdemn7]

Here are are few people with the exact same issue I'm experiencing. This is from the official Tt forums;

http://forum.thermaltake.com/viewtopic.php?t=2642 Well looks like Tt is owning the problem and doing their best to satisfy customers. that says a lot to me.

[JargonGR]

Hey JargonGR, can you do a simple test for me please.

Power off your computer then turn the switch on the PSU off and unplug the power cable from the PSU. Leave it for ten minutes the plug the cable back into the PSU and turn the units switch back on......then start up your system.

Just interested to see if this works okay with your TT 1200W.

I got mine going by holding down the power button on the comp and it forced the PSU to boot up the comp, it now seems to be running fine. This Asus P5K-Premium board has the cold boot double post senario that seems common with all P35 boards so I think that was somehow affecting the TT 1200W with initial boot ups.


Sorry for not replying earlier I just saw this. I tried it and the PSU works fine. As you said later it could be the M/B

[Rilla927]

I just got notice today that I won this very PSU.

[Bigchrome]

I think the fault mentioned could be something similiar to the fault that was described on a leaflet that came with my new Enermax galaxy 1000W... It came with a a special 24pin-24pin adaptor too, with a molex coming off it that has only the 12v pin...It says it is to fix "timing issues" on gigabyte and some other manufacturer p35 boards.