300W to 450W: 20 Power Supplies on the Test Bench
by Christoph Katzer on December 31, 2008 6:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
Thermaltake TR2 QFan 400W
Today we will again show the Thermaltake TR2 QFan series since Thermaltake is one of the first manufacturers to show it will listen to end-users. Unfortunately, this series is still not available on the market and various statements from Thermaltake have ranged from "it's already available" to no comment at all. We don't have any clear idea what's going on with this series, but we will be sure to have a chat with the representatives at CES 2009. The first time we saw this series was at CeBIT in Germany this year, but since it's nothing new to find a manufacturer needs a little extra time for a product to hit the market we still aren't worried. The series comes a grayish brown color that looks quite cool. Thermaltake installed their QFan inside for a little extra airflow. We know that this fan can be noisy, even though Thermaltake praises it for very quiet operation.
We have seen quite a lot CWT build power supplies -- the company must have had a hell of year in sales. As far as the QFan, we see minimal components on the input filtering stage and the internals are very sparse in comparison to higher-end PSUs. Of course, if you only need to output 300W to 450W, you don't need a lot of extra components. We find a standard CWT design with three heatsinks, two for the primary side. Thermaltake uses Hitachi capacitors for the primary and SamXon caps on the secondary side. We don't have any complaints about the Hitachi caps, and even though SamXon is a cheaper offering, we haven't encountered any problems with their capacitors in previously tested PSUs.
Cable sleeving begins just beyond where the cable harnesses leave the front of the power supply. We tend to think it looks nicer if the sleeving begins inside the power supply casing, but it's not a huge issue and personal opinion plays a role. Also somewhat odd is that Thermaltake provides the same number of cables and connectors, with identical cable lengths on all of the TR2 power supplies. That means users get plenty of connectors on the 300W model, but the 450W trimmings seem a bit spartan in comparison. We would have liked to see an 8-pin EPS 12V connector or an additional 6-pin PEG connector. Still, there are sufficient Molex and SATA connectors for all kinds of users.
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Origo - Monday, January 12, 2009 - link
How can Silverstone Element ST40EF 400W get so good score on quietness and efficiency compared to Silverstone Element Plus ST50EF-Plus 500W?This (SPCR) review says Silverstone Element Plus ST50EF-Plus not that quiet or efficient:
[url]http://www.silentpcreview.com/article670-page1.htm...[/url]
7Enigma - Wednesday, January 7, 2009 - link
Could you comment on this PSU? I know you have a 500 and 550w article coming up but an incredible deal ($25 after rebate) came up on this PSU and I'll snatch it up for my build if it's good.Thanks.
Markstar - Wednesday, January 7, 2009 - link
As usual, thank you for your interesting review and the effort you surely put into it!Greetz from P3D!
yehuda - Sunday, January 4, 2009 - link
This is the kind of article I like to keep in my favorites and refer people to.Noya - Saturday, January 3, 2009 - link
I skimmed through, but I didn't see what type of set-ups you'd recommend for this class of PSU.So, I'll post what I'm using with a Corsair vx450:
Q8200 @ 3.3ghz (475x7)
8gb Ballistix DDR2-800 cas4 @ 475mhz (4x2gb)
Evga 9800gtx (stock clocked for now)
Gigabyte P-45 UD3P
3 x 7200rpm sata disks
2 x DVD/RW
3 x 120mm fans
It's been running fine for almost a month now (thanks MS for the 30% eBay cashback lol). I previously used this vx450 in my first build (s939 Opteron/7600gt).
OddJensen - Monday, January 5, 2009 - link
The VX450 is a pretty good PSU and under optimal conditions you can probably draw more than the max. rated wattage (450W @ 50C ambient). Though personally I like to go with a bit more headroom taking future upgrades into consideration.kenyee - Friday, January 2, 2009 - link
That's another way to group the power supplies.That's one reason I still use Enermax Liberty power supplies...they're a nice small size for HTPC's and the modular connectors are important when there isn't much space. Using this affects power efficiency which is probably why the highest efficiency ones don't use them...
proci - Thursday, January 1, 2009 - link
its a very nice test, i like it. i miss some words from the ripple side, they could be useful to those, who don't want to analyze so many graphs.i have an FSP 500 GLN60 (active pfc, smooth oemgrey color:D), i wanted a BS2, but the two seems to be identical to me (ok, it only has one 6pin connector). and i'm out of connectors (6molex, 4sata... with 7 HDDs/opticals, 2 fan controllers and only one video card). so having many connectors is a good thing, although you can buy molex duplicators (only downside is they cost money). and its still more than enough to power my system (q6600@3.0, hd3870, lots of vents, hdds...).
and most of the computers are fine with just 200-300W. its a shame, that there aren't that many good PSUs on the low edge, because having a monster of PSU means you will have bad efficiency in idle with most of the computers. ofc you can build a computer, which eats up 1000W, but besides skulltrail its hard, and mostly needs enthusiast end water cooling/compressor for cooling purposes.
and having a good PSU is like having good safety in your car: you only notice it when it fails, but then it is already too late. and buying a noname PSU means that you playing russian roulette all the time...
Martin84a - Thursday, January 1, 2009 - link
I find it weird people keep recommending Sea Sonic. I'm currently loojing for a new PSU in the 500-600watt range. I remember toms 24 hour PSU stress test, where Enermax, Zalman, Cooler Master and Silverstone where the last remaining, while Seasonic had failed with the rest.http://www.tomshardware.com/de/stresstest-netzteil...">http://www.tomshardware.com/de/stresste...etzteile...
I just read Hardocps Seasonic S12II-500 watt psu review, and the transient load test showed awful results.
http://hardocp.com/article.html?art=MTM2NCw3LCxoZW...">http://hardocp.com/article.html?art=MTM2NCw3LCxoZW...
Think computer showed a lot of undervoltage ripple too, and on the 12v a lot of switching between overvoltage and undervoltage. That doesnt look good.
http://www.thinkcomputers.org/index.php?x=reviews&...">http://www.thinkcomputers.org/index.php?x=reviews&...
And i have read about the DOA Seasonics too, and the ones failing after some time...
Seasonic also only provide 3 years of limited warrenty here like many other places, while a brand like Cooler master give 5 years, just like Corsair.
Just makes you wonder.
I think i'll go with an Enermax modu+ or pro+ this time..still not sure though.
sprockkets - Sunday, January 4, 2009 - link
Hmmm... your first link is to the german side of Tom's, and while we can make out perhaps the SeaSonic PS failed, searching the English side for the same article does not yield a proper counterpart, and the article that comes close to it, is not even finished and broken. What does that say about Tom's Hardware?Your second link does show some iffy parts, but overall, they recommend the power supply and dismiss the transient load results as not important. Btw, you think a computer motherboard is going to fry because the 12v line varies 0.2v? 4.92 volts is bad? Those voltages can vary 10% on the 12v line and 5% on the others and meet Intel's ATX spec. Welcome to the real world of imperfection.
Three years vs 5 years, so what? My FSP power supply in the thrid computer I've built in 2001 still runs fine, and it came with only a 1 year distributor warranty. In fact, only 1 out of 10+ FSP power supplies died, and it probably died because the power strip blew.