Thermaltake Toughpower Modular 750W PSU

Rob Williams · 10-03-2006, 09:36 PM

Power, we all need it, we all crave it and it's a part of life. Today I'm looking at an item that'll have you sounding like He-Man: "I have the power!" And you won't be wrong.

Read Matts review here and discuss it here.

day0 · 10-04-2006, 11:05 AM

Quote:

Continuous wattage of 750W.

I'm not terribly familiar with what that means in the review. Is that like having a 750W light bulb on when my computer is on?

PS. I just signed up. Great site!

madmat · 10-04-2006, 02:49 PM

It means that the PSU is capable of pushing up to 750W non-stop and be within spec. It's only going to use (and put out) as much wattage as your PC needs at any given time. If it needs 200W it'll put out that much and use about 240W given 80% efficiency.

Thanks for joining up BTW. nice to meetcha.

jonnyGURU · 10-07-2006, 04:37 PM

Awesome review Matt!

That's a beautiful PSU!

Greg King · 10-08-2006, 12:48 AM

Assuming you are who your name suggests, thats means a lot! While I am not Matt, thank you for the compliment.

madmat · 10-08-2006, 02:18 AM

Thanks Jonny! It is a wonderful piece of equipment for sure

jonnyGURU · 10-08-2006, 11:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DarkSynergy

Assuming you are who your name suggests...

I imitate those I idolize???

01-20-2007, 11:41 PM

I noticed something strange in your review, why is half of the fan covered with a transparent plastic? That thing there sure is getting in the way of our nice airflow. why did they put it there? I am wondering whether I have to remove it or not.

madmat · 01-21-2007, 12:22 AM

That's there to force the air flow to act more like a fan laid out in a linear fashion from front to back. It deflects the air causing it to flow from the front of the PSU to the back. If you had a cut-away of the PSU looking at it from the side you'd see that the opening in the fan is in the front, the air flows from the fan down to the front of the PSU, down and then back thereby making for better air flow over and through the components in the unit. If taken out the air will dump straight out the rear of the PSU and actually cause it to run hotter.

It's like ducting for directed air flow so you want to leave it in place.

01-21-2007, 04:03 PM

thanks very much for your answer indeed!

03-09-2007, 06:09 AM

Excellent easy to understand review, has helped me to finally make up my mind

madmat · 03-09-2007, 09:21 AM

I'm glad to be of service

04-11-2007, 09:46 AM

Does anyone know exactly how many modular ide power cables this comes with? I suspect it comes with 4 IDE power cables with two molex connectors per cable. Is this correct?

How safe would it be to expand this to 16 connectors by use of a y splitter on each of the default connectors?

madmat · 04-11-2007, 09:59 AM

For 16 drives? Not very since that's a grand total of 3A X 16 upon drive spin up and the IDE's all ride the same rail rated at 18A. If you're wanting to power relatively low draw items such as CCFL's and such it would be OK as long as you don't go overboard.

Also, if you have your drives set to stagger spin up (via the drive controller cards) it would likewise be OK as the drives only consume a minimal amount of power once they're all spinning.

ctrlshift · 04-11-2007, 10:16 AM

Ahh right, I guess that explains why my PSUs keep dying. Is there anything out there that can do what I want? If not what is the maximum?

I doubt my controller cards have stagger spin, but I will definitely look into that

10-03-2006, 09:36 PM	#1
Rob Williams Editor-in-Chief Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Atlantic Canada Posts: 13,231	Thermaltake Toughpower Modular 750W PSU Power, we all need it, we all crave it and it's a part of life. Today I'm looking at an item that'll have you sounding like He-Man: "I have the power!" And you won't be wrong. Read Matts review here and discuss it here. __________________ Intel Core i7-990X EE @ 3.43GHz, GIGABYTE X58A-UD5, Kingston 12GB DDR3-1333, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680 2GB Kingston HyperX 3K 240GB SSD, WD VR 1TB, WD 2TB, Seagate 2TB, LG BD-ROM, ASUS DVD-RW, Corsair 1000HX, Corsair H60 Cooler Corsair 800D, Dell 2408WFP 24", ASUS Xonar Essence STX, Gentoo (KDE 4.10, 3.7 Kernel) "Take care to get what you like, or you will be forced to like what you get!" - H.P. Baxxter <Toad772> I don't always drink alcohol, but when I do, I take it too far.

10-04-2006, 02:49 PM	#3
madmat Soup Nazi Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: No soup for you! Posts: 1,636	It means that the PSU is capable of pushing up to 750W non-stop and be within spec. It's only going to use (and put out) as much wattage as your PC needs at any given time. If it needs 200W it'll put out that much and use about 240W given 80% efficiency. Thanks for joining up BTW. nice to meetcha. __________________ M4N82 Deluxe Phenom II 940 Black Edition quad core @ 3.5Ghz 2x1 gig OCZ PC26400 Platinum, 2x1gig GSkill PC26400 EVGA GTX260 Buncha drives, Some other stuff, Even more stuff, If the automobile had followed the same development cycle as the computer, a Rolls-Royce would today cost $100, get a million miles per gallon, and explode once a year, killing everyone inside. --Robert X. Cringely, InfoWorld magazine Sign Me!

10-08-2006, 12:48 AM	#5
Greg King I just kinda show up... Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: Indiana Posts: 2,081	Assuming you are who your name suggests, thats means a lot! While I am not Matt, thank you for the compliment. __________________ "It is far better to grasp the universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring." - Carl Sagan System: Intel i5 2500K \| Gigabyte GA-Z68XP-UD4 \| 16GB G.Skill DDR3 \| Crucial M4 128GB SSD WD 1TB Black x1 \| WD 2TB Green x 1 \| XFX Radeonn HD 6850 \| Corsair H80 Water Cooler Fractal Design R3 \| Windows 7 Ultimate x64 \| Dell 2410 x 3 @ 1920x1200 ESXi Host: Intel i7 920 @ 3.0 GHz \| Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD4P \| 24GB Patriot DDR3 \| WD 1TB Black x 2

10-08-2006, 02:18 AM	#6
madmat Soup Nazi Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: No soup for you! Posts: 1,636	Thanks Jonny! It is a wonderful piece of equipment for sure __________________ M4N82 Deluxe Phenom II 940 Black Edition quad core @ 3.5Ghz 2x1 gig OCZ PC26400 Platinum, 2x1gig GSkill PC26400 EVGA GTX260 Buncha drives, Some other stuff, Even more stuff, If the automobile had followed the same development cycle as the computer, a Rolls-Royce would today cost $100, get a million miles per gallon, and explode once a year, killing everyone inside. --Robert X. Cringely, InfoWorld magazine Sign Me!

01-21-2007, 12:22 AM	#9
madmat Soup Nazi Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: No soup for you! Posts: 1,636	That's there to force the air flow to act more like a fan laid out in a linear fashion from front to back. It deflects the air causing it to flow from the front of the PSU to the back. If you had a cut-away of the PSU looking at it from the side you'd see that the opening in the fan is in the front, the air flows from the fan down to the front of the PSU, down and then back thereby making for better air flow over and through the components in the unit. If taken out the air will dump straight out the rear of the PSU and actually cause it to run hotter. It's like ducting for directed air flow so you want to leave it in place. __________________ M4N82 Deluxe Phenom II 940 Black Edition quad core @ 3.5Ghz 2x1 gig OCZ PC26400 Platinum, 2x1gig GSkill PC26400 EVGA GTX260 Buncha drives, Some other stuff, Even more stuff, If the automobile had followed the same development cycle as the computer, a Rolls-Royce would today cost $100, get a million miles per gallon, and explode once a year, killing everyone inside. --Robert X. Cringely, InfoWorld magazine Sign Me!

10-07-2006, 04:37 PM	#4
jonnyGURU Obliviot Join Date: Aug 2006 Posts: 8	Awesome review Matt! That's a beautiful PSU!

01-20-2007, 11:41 PM	#8
Unregistered Guest Poster Posts: n/a	I noticed something strange in your review, why is half of the fan covered with a transparent plastic? That thing there sure is getting in the way of our nice airflow. why did they put it there? I am wondering whether I have to remove it or not.

01-21-2007, 04:03 PM	#10
Unregistered Guest Poster Posts: n/a	thanks very much for your answer indeed!

03-09-2007, 06:09 AM	#11
Unregistered Guest Poster Posts: n/a	dublin sean Excellent easy to understand review, has helped me to finally make up my mind

03-09-2007, 09:21 AM	#12
madmat Soup Nazi Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: No soup for you! Posts: 1,636	I'm glad to be of service __________________ M4N82 Deluxe Phenom II 940 Black Edition quad core @ 3.5Ghz 2x1 gig OCZ PC26400 Platinum, 2x1gig GSkill PC26400 EVGA GTX260 Buncha drives, Some other stuff, Even more stuff, If the automobile had followed the same development cycle as the computer, a Rolls-Royce would today cost $100, get a million miles per gallon, and explode once a year, killing everyone inside. --Robert X. Cringely, InfoWorld magazine Sign Me!

04-11-2007, 09:46 AM	#13
Unregistered Guest Poster Posts: n/a	how many ide molex connectors? Does anyone know exactly how many modular ide power cables this comes with? I suspect it comes with 4 IDE power cables with two molex connectors per cable. Is this correct? How safe would it be to expand this to 16 connectors by use of a y splitter on each of the default connectors?

04-11-2007, 09:59 AM	#14
madmat Soup Nazi Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: No soup for you! Posts: 1,636	For 16 drives? Not very since that's a grand total of 3A X 16 upon drive spin up and the IDE's all ride the same rail rated at 18A. If you're wanting to power relatively low draw items such as CCFL's and such it would be OK as long as you don't go overboard. Also, if you have your drives set to stagger spin up (via the drive controller cards) it would likewise be OK as the drives only consume a minimal amount of power once they're all spinning. __________________ M4N82 Deluxe Phenom II 940 Black Edition quad core @ 3.5Ghz 2x1 gig OCZ PC26400 Platinum, 2x1gig GSkill PC26400 EVGA GTX260 Buncha drives, Some other stuff, Even more stuff, If the automobile had followed the same development cycle as the computer, a Rolls-Royce would today cost $100, get a million miles per gallon, and explode once a year, killing everyone inside. --Robert X. Cringely, InfoWorld magazine Sign Me!

04-11-2007, 10:16 AM	#15
ctrlshift Obliviot Join Date: Apr 2007 Posts: 2	Ahh right, I guess that explains why my PSUs keep dying. Is there anything out there that can do what I want? If not what is the maximum? I doubt my controller cards have stagger spin, but I will definitely look into that

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