Date:
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
Author:
Paul Johnson
Editor:
Kyle Bennett
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Thermaltake ToughPower 1200W

Having a PSU that is rated at 1200 watts is a big deal. Having a PSU that will give you 1200 watts under stressful conditions is quite another. We put the Toughpower 1200w into the oven and see if it stands up to its 1200 watt power claims. Don't miss this one.

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Load Testing

For those of you that are curious as to some of the reasoning and equipment behind our PSU testing program here at HardOCP, we have put together a living document that shares a lot of the behind the scenes of the program. The testing we are conducting today is exactly as described in that document and will begin with a range of loads tested at 120v input including our torture test and then move on to the same set of tests at 100v input but without the torture test.

100v Load Testing Results

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Test #1 is equal to approximately 25% of the rated capacity of the Toughpower 1200w at 45c. This makes Test #1 equal to 301w by loading the 12v rails to a combined 20a, the 5v rail to 6a, the 3.3v rail to 4a, the +5vsb to 2a, and the -12v to 0.5a. The results of Test #1 at 100v mirror Test #1 120v as the 20v drop in input voltage hasn’t budged the output voltages at all. The efficiency is again amazing at ~84% during Test #1. At this level this early in the load pattern the Toughpower may hit the 87% or come very close even at 100v input.

Test #2 is equal to approximately 50% of the rated capacity of the Toughpower 1200w at 45c. This makes Test #2 equal to 609w by loading the 12v rails to a combined 42a, the 5v rail to 12a, the 3.3v rail to 8a, the +5vsb to 2a, and the -12v to 0.5a. Test #2 showed only marginal voltage drops relative to Test #1 at 100v and again identical values to Test #2 at 120v. This is again very impressive with a doubling of the load. Exhaust temperature was up 3c over ambient and the efficiency rose to ~86% which is just a touch off of the 87% figure that has been advertised for 120v input. This feat is very impressive, and the small drop at 100v is commendable.

Test #3 is equal to approximately 75% of the rated capacity of the Toughpower 1200w at 45c. This makes Test #3 equal to 913w by loading the 12v rail to 64a, the 5v rail to 18a, the 3.3v rail to 12a, the +5vsb to 2a, and the -12v to 0.5a. Test #3 sees only marginal voltages drop again but the values are still in specification (and mirroring the 120v testing at this stage again) while our efficiency drops back to ~84%. Finally our exhaust temperature is only up to 51c.

Test #4 is equal to approximately 100% of the rated capacity of the Toughpower 1200w at 45c. This makes Test #4 equal to 1199w by loading the 12v rail to 90a, the 5v rail to 15a, the 3.3v rail to 10a, the +5vsb to 2a, and the -12v to 0.5a. In our final regular test we find that the voltages have dropped some again but the values are still within specifications and the 12v in particular now has an extremely heavy load at 90a. The exhaust temperature has topped out at 55c and efficiency is still running in the low 80%’s at ~82%.

The 100v testing saw no catastrophic failures and the Thermaltake Toughpower produced results that would have been great at 120v but at 100v are stellar. Just like in the 120v testing the Toughpower saw less than a 0.3v drop in voltage on the 12v rails across a 90A load. In addition to those performance figures the Toughpower accomplished those feats at 45c and with efficiency numbers between ~82% and ~86%.