Thermaltake Announces A Mainstream Smart RGB PSU Series

RGB lighting was previously limited to mid- or high-end products. That's starting to change, however, and Thermaltake embraced this trickle-down lighting philosophy with its new highly affordable PSU line. All of the units are equipped with a 256-color RGB fan hub featuring 15 lighting modes--Pulse Red / Green / Blue / Yellow / Purple / Light Blue / White, 256 Color RGB Cycle, Solid Red / Green / Blue / Yellow / Purple / Light Blue / White, and an LED Off mode.

Our opinion is that RGB lighting is an unnecessary expense, especially in mainstream products. We strongly believe the extra money that goes towards RGB fans and controllers should be spent on upgrading the electrical circuit and components like filtering caps and FETs, but it seems the marketing departments of many companies (not only Thermaltake's) have a different opinion.

The RGB fan of the new TT Smart RGB line, which includes three members with capacities ranging from 500W to 700W, has 10 LEDs and promises a quiet operation, although it is quite small with a 120mm diameter. The warranty period Thermaltake provides to these units is quite long for a mainstream product, reaching five years. Finally, in an effort to suppress production costs, the lineup only offers native cables.

Besides the universal voltage input members of the Smart RGB line, TT also offers three models with the same capacities, which operate with 230V only. Those are more affordable, of course, and will help people who live in areas with 230V mains save a few bucks (or euros).

The prices-- which we only discovered because of our sources, since Thermaltake didn't mention any pricing info in its announcement--look to be low enough given the products' features. So far there is no availability information for the U.S. market. In the EU market, the 230V versions of those units will be available shortly. 

The +12V rail can't deliver the PSU's full power alone in any of the models, which is usually the case in group-regulated platforms that don't perform well in unbalanced (among the rails) loads. Thermaltake said these PSUs are compatible with Intels C6/C7 sleep states, something that we will have to confirm if or when we evaluate them.

This looks like a HEC or a Sirfa mainstream platform, but we can't be dead sure without closely examining the PSU. The transient filter is complete, and on the secondary side we spot Teapo filtering caps, which are a decent choice in such low-price units. The only two coils on the secondary side clearly show a group-regulated scheme, where the +12V and 5V are tied together while the 3.3V is regulated independently. The heatsinks are also quite small, for a low efficiency PSU, so we expect the fan to use an aggressive profile, especially given the long warranty.