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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Martin84a - Monday, January 5, 2009 - link
I think it says the german and the english site, run things pretty seperately.250watt, 16a on the 12v rail that results in a ~300mV ripple. That's a lot. We are not even talking 80% or 100% of its max rated capacity.
I know that are "allowed" to vary 10% on the 12V rail, but i still think it is a testament to the quality of the PSU. Look at the competetion next to it, nearly straight line.
I recently had an Antec Truepower 480 watt dying on me. I had it for a little more than 3-4 years. Prior to buying it i did a tons of research. Anandtech also gave it a very good score. Today it is clear that a lot of these has failed, because of some very shitty caps being used. You don't see this in most of the reviews, because they only test if for a day or a week or so. Warranty is a big deal for a lot of people, including myself. I won't buy western digital or maxtor anymore, because i have had too many dying on me, granted they have been running for 3-4 years. Seagate give a 5 year warranty as the only HDD manufactor, so of course i pick them.
The same with PSU's, I still consider the Seasonic S12II a good PSU, but i would rather pick a PSU with a better warranty.
kenyee - Friday, January 2, 2009 - link
They just don't make them as well as they used to. I bought one of the expensive ones a year ago because it was the quietest around at the time...croaked after a month. Didn't bother sending it back under warranty because I didn't think it was worth it. It also doesn't support older 2.0 systems which I did send it back to them for but they could have told me via email :-PFinraziel - Thursday, January 1, 2009 - link
Although I understand what you're saying about the 10% load and how no PSU comes close to 80% efficiency there, would it be possible to still post the actual results of the different psus rather than only the rather blunt comparison in the graph? Many systems may not go far below 20% load with these psus, but if you're intent on setting up a very efficient pc it's not that hard to approach or even duck onder 30 watt idle. So in those cases, even though it's not close to 80, it'd still make a big difference wether the efficiency is 50, 60 or 70%...Christoph Katzer - Thursday, January 1, 2009 - link
Did a small update to the efficiency page. Thanks for the suggestion.sonci - Thursday, January 1, 2009 - link
So, best PSU regarding efficiency should be ENERMAX Liberty ECO, cause for 24/7 use, you hardly need 50% load..?Christoph Katzer - Thursday, January 1, 2009 - link
Depends on your system power requirements. There is a difference if you just need 50 watts or 150. Check the power consumption first, then check in which state you are running most of the time and then check which PSU would fit best. From some of the tested units we have separated reviews already where you can check the exact efficiency at a specific load.JonnyDough - Wednesday, December 31, 2008 - link
You really DO listen to your readers! KUDOS. You're one of the few companies that does.sonci - Wednesday, December 31, 2008 - link
AnandTechThankyou for your honest work..
Happy new year!!
JeBarr - Wednesday, December 31, 2008 - link
I can vouch for the S12II 330W and it's ability to run an hd 4850. Originally I had installed the FSP group ZEN 400W fanless, but due to orientation of PSU inside of htpc case did not allow the heatsink to function as designed, so I gave the seasonic a try and have no regrets. It also helps that the rest of my components are low-power, of course.marc1000 - Wednesday, December 31, 2008 - link
why does akasa products never show on Anandtech?? well, I have one Akasa AK-P300PG (or something like that), it's a 300W unit. I used to power a Pentium-D 945 with a radeon 3850 (now i have a C2D e7200) and it works just fine. silent and stable power. It's a great product that could be included in future reviews.by the way: HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! :D