Thermaltake Toughpower iRGB Plus 1200W Platinum PSU Review

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Final Analysis

After the amazing TPG-1250-T, Thermaltake continues impressing us with its high-end PSUs. We are not huge fans of RGB lighting, but many enthusiasts disagree with us. So, if you want a PSU with tons of RGB functionality, go the Thermaltake route, by all means. Its engineers did a great job with the aesthetics, if that's your thing.

Besides those RGB bells and whistles, the TPI-1200F2FDP achieves high performance levels thanks to its true digital platform. We do think the DPS PC App needs an update to match the functionality standards of Corsair's Link software. But the SPM cloud service and mobile DPS app are certainly strengths favoring Thermaltake.

It really looks like Thermaltake wants a piece of the high-end PSU market, and it's going to lengths to earn praise. Teaming up with Channel Well Technology was certainly a good start. The TPI-1200F2FDP offers tight load regulation, high efficiency levels at normal loads, excellent ripple suppression, low inrush current, and a longer than 17ms hold-up time. Its major downsides are an inaccurate power-good signal, which looks like negligence on CWT's part, and efficiency under light loads. Apparently, the number of MCUs this platform employs has a huge impact on efficiency under light loads, where even a few watts make a notable difference.

It'd be nice to see Thermaltake release more high-performance PSUs in the near future. We've mentioned this many times before: it's bad when enthusiasts only have a handful of options at the high-end. More brands vying for the crown leads to stronger competition and better pricing. Thermaltake is a big company with the resources to do things correctly. If its people paid more attention to details, the TPI-1200F2FDP would be much better. For example, the inaccurate power-good signal in this unit is a huge oversight, which TT should fix before the product gets into too many hands. Hopefully, in the next revision of this platform, the problem will be solved. Moreover, Thermaltake should replace the mediocre Chemi-Con KZE cap on its +12V board, which gets quite hot under high loads. That'll notably restrict its already-short lifetime.

If you fancy RGB lighting and want a powerful (yet quiet) power supply, then the TPI-1200F2FDP is a decent choice in this competitive category. Its direct competition (Corsair, EVGA, Seasonic, SilverStone) lacks RGB-endowed options, so Thermaltake is practically playing alone in this efficiency class, at least for now.


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Aris Mpitziopoulos
Contributing Editor

Aris Mpitziopoulos is a contributing editor at Tom's Hardware, covering PSUs.

  • pjmelect
    Your videos don't work I get the error "cannot load m3u8 crossdomain access denied (2048)"
    Reply
  • Co BIY
    Everyone reviews heavily on capacitor quality but how is cap quality determined ? Is it published specs or just reputation / country of origin ?

    The bad cap crisis was over ten years ago are all those makers
    still putting out bad or inconsistent products ?
    Reply
  • Aris_Mp
    The videos work fine for me.

    Caps: Mostly based on experience and the RMA data that I have access to. The quality of the electrolyte is what matters the most.
    Reply
  • Mike Adams
    CapXon & Su'scon caps? more chinese junk for a premium price. I would never buy anything from Thermalsewer
    Reply