Thermaltake Upgrades Toughpower Gold, Smart M Bronze, Smart Bronze PSUs With New Enclosure

Thermaltake upgraded the Toughpower Gold, Smart M Bronze, and Smart Bronze lines with new enclosures that, besides sporting improved looks, also offer enhanced airflow that lowers the operating temperatures, leading to lower noise output and a longer lifetime. Airflow plays a key role in a PSU’s performance, especially under tough conditions.

The photo below shows the previous SP-750M. We provide it in order to show you the differences with the new model (shown above), which, besides the new chassis, also features flat cables with dark (stealth) wires. The semi-modular cable design remains in the Toughpower Gold and Smart M Bronze lines. It would be a notable improvement if all cables were modular, but this would significantly affect the final prices of the PSUs.

The Toughpower Gold series mostly serves demanding users who don’t mind investing in a reliable and efficient PSU, whereas the Smart M Bronze and Smart Bronze lines are for users on tight budget. The specifications of all lines are provided in the following tables.

The max operating temperature at which the PSUs can deliver full power continuously is rather low (40°C), because the ATX spec recommends at least 50°C. In addition, we would like to see two EPS connectors in the TPD-0750M model. Moreover, the hold-up time, according to Tt's statement, isn't in line with the ATX spec's requirements (17ms minimum). Finally, the lack of Over Temperature Protection is a major downside in this category.

The hold-up time of these units, according to Tt at least, is higher than 16ms with 80% load. Normally it should be higher than 17ms with full load, though. In addition, even the largest member of this line, the SP-850M, has only a single EPS connector, which is too bad in our opinion. On the contrary, the number of provided PCIe connectors is sufficient for all PSUs of this line, given their budget orientation. 

The Smart Bronze, non-modular, units are for mainstream systems, and this is clearly indicated via the amount of the PCIe and EPS cables of the 650W and 550W models. If you need more PCIe connectors, then you should get either the SP-750P or a Smart Bronze M unit.