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- Date:
- Monday , March 16, 2009
- Author:
- Paul Johnson
- Editor:
- Kyle Bennett
- Google +1
Thermaltake Toughpower 1000W
Is that a fully modular kilowatt in your chassis or are you just happy to see me? Thermaltake is back with a 1000 watt computer power supply that has some big shoes to fill after we have seen such great performance out of the previous 1200 watt PSUs from TT.
Overview
The first thing we are going to look at with the Toughpower 1000W is its packaging, accessories, and documentation. While none of these items is a real make or break item for a power supply the packaging quite often contains a lot of information about the product we are purchasing. The inclusion of an owner’s manual that provides actual information about our product is also of great help. Accessories are almost unnecessary with a power supply as the unit is self contained, unless it is modular, but there cases where a manufacturer can include useful accessories to make installation, routing and use more efficient.
Since we have previously seen the 1200W model of the Toughpower line there are only a few new items to see here today with the Toughpower 1000W packaging and this section will be brief. Among those few items are the Crossfire certification, 80Plus sticker, and the WCG sticker. Right off the bat we find that not only is the unit CrossFire certified for 3870 X2 configurations but it is also SLI certified for up to tri GTX 260 SLI. Wait, does anyone else see a disconnect there? Not to worry, if this unit performs like other 1000W CWT PUC units it will run any pair of ATI cards on the market just fine even if ATI has not certified it for anything beyond the 3870 X2 configuration. Next up we see that indeed the unit is 80Plus certified for 80Plus Bronze, or Climate Savers 2, which is very good. The remaining information on this packaging includes the power distribution (detailed below), connectors (detailed below), noise, efficiency, and compliance is as it was with the Toughpower 1200w so there is nothing really new in that regard. Lastly, the unit comes with a 5 year warranty which we find listed on Thermaltake’s website and on the warranty card but not the box so be on the lookout for that card when you dump out the box.
The specifications for the Toughpower 1000W are what we have come to expect from power supplies based on the CWT PUC design, and in particular the 1000W model. Once more we see that the 12v capacity of this PUC based unit is equal to the unit’s total DC output, which we have previously seen this design is capable of doing as its big brother the Thermaltake Toughpower 1200w did this feat some time ago in our testing. However, the actual occurrence of this feat, or a situation dictating it, in most systems is unlikely at any given time and the 5v/3.3v capacity is derived from the VRM’s that draw from the two 12v sources so any load there will take away from the 12v's total capacity. For these possible 83A on the 12v rails though we get to power a whole slew of components fed by the six PCI-Express connectors (three 6-pin and three 8-pin), ten SATA, and eight Molex connectors. All in all, this arrangement ought to keep most users happy and the extra connectors are modular so they can be easily removed when not needed.
Once we open the Toughpower 1000W we find the power supply, modular cables in a pouch, mounting screws, a gasket, power cord, manual, and warranty card. The manual for the Toughpower is identical to the one provided with the 1200W version except with the power table has been rewritten for this unit. As such, the manual is very complete and detailed as we have seen previously from Thermaltake with the one omission being the unit’s warranty. This is of course covered on the warranty card however so it isn't really an issue at all. Let’s move on now to the unit itself to see if it matches the meticulousness found here.