Thermaltake Toughpower 1500W Gold PSU Unboxing & Overview

Thermaltake has been making power supplies for quite some time. They have models for all segments of the market, from entry level to PSUs that meet even the most extreme enthusiast’s demands. In fact, we’d venture to say, if you’ve been building systems for a while, odds are you’ve used a Thermaltake PSU at one point or another. Today we have a close up look at Thermaltake’s latest behemoth of a PSU, something that is definitely built for the enthusiast in mind, the Toughpower 1500W Gold.

1500 watts of power … seems like a lot right? Overkill, a waste of money, etc? Well under most circumstances, you’d be right. However, when dealing with ultra-high-end systems and high overclocks, a 1500 watt PSU is a lot less crazy than you’d think.

Currently the top performing GPUs consume somewhere in the neighborhood of about 250-300 watts each. Multiply that by 3 or 4, then add in a high-end CPU like the eight-core Intel i7-5960X, some water cooling and then to top it off, overclock everything to the max. You can now start to see why there is a market for such power. Even in overclocking competitions, it isn’t uncommon that competitors will use multiple high-power PSUs in this category to power a single system.

FEATURES

For this model, Thermaltake is utilizing Japanese capacitors for better stability and reliability. It is Haswell ready, ErP ready, semi-modular, and features 80 Plus Gold certification, ensuring high energy efficiency. (87-92% efficiency @ 20-100% load). It also features full support for both Nvidia’s SLI and AMD’s CrossFireX multi-GPU configurations. The quality of this unit also shows with their MTBF of 120,000 hrs minimum rating. It also features dual 12v rails for a total amperage output of 140A (70A each). The cables for the PSU are all flat for easier cable routing and better airflow through the chassis. And to top it all off it comes with a 5-year warranty.

As Thermaltake’s highest power rated power supply, it also carries a hefty price tag at $339.99!

PACKAGING AND ACCESSORIES

Starting off with the packaging we can see they have gone with a dark black theme. On the front is a picture of the PSU. In print are some of the features and 1500W power rating to make this PSU stand out from the rest.  On the back is more detailed information on the unit as well as a graph depicting the power efficiency over the load range based on both 115V and 230V inputs. As shown, if used with a 230V input, the PSU can function at over 90% efficiency. On the bottom of the box it just reiterates most of the main features from the front and back.

Moving onto the inside of the box, we can see a quick guide and warranty papers, and a pouch to hold any leftover modular cables you may not need. The PSU is held within a 1″ thick layer of foam to ensure the product remains intact during transport.

Below we can see it also comes with 4 zip-ties, 4 case screws, and a 6ft. power cable. Also we get a first glimpse at the modular cables.

We can see that eight out of the 10, (yes you read that right) PCI-E connectors (6+2 pin) cables are modular and they come in pairs of two. These cables are 22″ in length.

Also included are 16 SATA power connectors (5 pin), 4 per modular cable (34.5″).  And there are 4 peripheral connectors (4 pin), 4 per modular cable (34.5″).

They also include a 6″ PATA to FDD adapter for those who need it, pictured above to the right.