Rosewill Tokamak 1500 PSU Review

Rosewill Tokamak 1500 Power Supply Review

Rosewill chose a weird name for its new high-end line. According to Wikipedia, a Tokamak is a device that uses a powerful magnetic field to confine plasma in the shape of a torus. The purpose of this device is to assist in producing controlled thermonuclear fusion power, which is seemingly safer than nuclear fission. If a fusion reactor suffers any damage or loses even a small control percentage, fusion reactions and heat generation rapidly cease. Quite the contrary for nuclear fission reactors. We don't know how Rosewill came up with this name, but it's at least interesting since it describes a device that isn't widely known to the public.

The Tokamak line consists of only two members: one model with 1.2kW and another with 1.5kW capacity. Both feature 80 PLUS Titanium efficiency and are based on a sophisticated platform provided by Enhance Electronics. It's difficult to combine top-end efficiency with high capacity because energy losses increase under significant loads, especially as operating temperatures go up. Nonetheless, even using analog controllers, modern platforms increasingly satisfy the strict 80 PLUS Titanium requirements.

According to Rosewill, the Tokamak family is designed for gamers, even though today's GPUs are the power-hungry beasts they were a generation or two ago. In our opinion, PSUs with over 1kW capacity are mostly for aggressively overclocked systems that can push energy consumption sky-high. With 1.5kW max power, the flagship Tokamak will probably never hit its upper ceiling, especially since it easily delivers 110% of its rated capacity for prolonged periods. During our protection features testing, we stopped increasing the load at 1908W, with the power meter showing over 2kW of consumption. Thankfully we have a 3kVA AC source that doesn't have a problem delivering such high amperage. And the PSU comes with a heavy-duty cord sporting a C19 coupler, which can handle up to 16A.

Specifications

Again, the Tokamak 1500 is 80 PLUS Titanium-certified, and its maximum temperature for continuous full power delivery is limited to 40°C. Normally it should be 50°C, but because this is a very high-capacity PSU we'll cut it some slack. We'll still perform our full-load tests at 45°C and see how they go, though. Since the Tokamak is covered by all necessary protection features, including over-temperature protection, nothing should go wrong.

The 135mm diameter fan promises quiet operation. However, as we found out, once you push the PSU hard, you'll almost need earplugs. This is one of the loudest PSUs we've ever reviewed and the lack of a semi-passive mode makes the acoustic situation even worse.

Size-wise, the Tokamak is fairly normal given its massive capacity. And this is a heavy PSU because Enhance uses large heat sinks for cooling inside.

A five-year warranty is long enough to convey some confidence, though the competition in this wattage category does offer up to 10-year coverage.

Power Specifications

The single +12V rail is powerful; it can deliver 125A according to Rosewill's specs and even more if you push the Tokamak 1500 beyond its official limits. The minor rails have enough capacity to handle every modern system, while the 5VSB rail looks weak. In a 1.5kW PSU we expect to see at least 4A max current output at 5VSB.

Cables And Connectors

Naturally, Rosewill includes a huge number of cables and connectors, including 12 PCIe and two EPS ones, all available at the same time. In addition, there are 16 SATA and six four-pin peripheral connectors. Cable length is satisfactory, although it's strange that the EPS cables are shorter than the main ATX one. Normally it is the other way around.

The distance between connectors is great enough to avoid problems with parts that aren't close to each other. We aren't fans of the fixed floppy drive connector on a modular cable, though. Rosewill should have provided that as an adapter instead. Thankfully, there are so many cables with peripheral connectors on them that you can avoid this one altogether.

All of the cables use 18-gauge wires (high-capacity power supplies normally use 16-gauge wire). But because our testing shows minimal voltage drop, we don't have a problem with Rosewill's cable choice, particularly since thicker wires add rigidity, complicating cable routing in your chassis. 

Power Distribution

Since this PSU features a single +12V rail, we do not have anything to say about its power distribution.

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