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Final Analysis
Thermaltake pleasantly surprised us with its Toughpower Platinum units featuring 1.2kW capacity and a semi-digital platform, built by Channel Well Technology. Essentially, the TPG-1200F1FAP and TPI-1200F2FDP (which exposes a digital interface for connecting to your motherboard via USB) employ the same basic foundation. However, today's subject lacks the MCU responsible for digital communication. This is the major difference between both models. A second difference is the TPG-1200F1FAP's weaker fan.
In our opinion, those two changes don't justify a $50 difference. Thermaltake really needs to think about dropping the TPI-1200F2FDP's price by $20 or $30.
Besides its sharp looks and RGB lighting, the TPG-1200F1FAP also features tight load regulation, excellent ripple suppression, very good response to transient loads, and silent operation under light and moderate loads thanks to a semi-passive fan mode that can be deactivated on demand.
Modular cabling is a a huge advantage as well, especially if we take into account the large number of cables you get with this PSU. Moreover, Thermaltake doesn't use any in-cable capacitors, so the bundled cables are flat and flexible enough to allow for easy cable management.
The major flaws of this PSU are its inaccurate power signal, which is a shame given a hold-up time notably longer than 17ms. This should be an easy fix. Unfortunately, it cannot be applied to existing units. The other problem we spotted is the 5VSB rail's increased OCP level, which allows its ripple suppression to go crazy. Lastly, we think the fan profile should allow for a smoother transition between passive and active modes to help keep overall noise output down.
Thermaltake's TPG-1200F1FAP is a good PSU at a fair price. A big discount compared to the company's TPI-1200F2FDP makes the model we reviewed today a no-brainer unless you really need to monitor PSU health locally or remotely. If that's the case, expect to spend a lot more on the TPI-1200F2FDP, which is almost the same otherwise.
If our TPG-1200F1FAP sample's power-good signal was accurate, we would have been completely satisfied and we wouldn't have been bothered by the non-Japanese polymer caps on its secondary side. Should Thermaltake fix the power-good issues identified on its TPG-1200F1FAP and TPI-1200F2FDP models, we'll retest them. And of course, we'll keep you updated.
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