Thermaltake Toughpower PF1 650W Power Supply Review

The Thermaltake Toughpower PF1 650W achieves top overall performance, despite its mediocre transient response at +12V, which is the most important rail of all. With better transient response at the aforementioned rail, it could be the king in the 650W category. Still, the PF1 650W manages to earn a place in our best PSU picks article. Its major opponent is the Seasonic Focus Plus Platinum, which manages to take the lead with a small difference in overall performance. 

We have already evaluated two of the three Toughpower PF1 models, with 750W and 850W capacity, so we thought also to take a look at the smallest member of the line with 650W max power output. The Toughpower PF1 650W can support systems equipped with Nvidia RTX 3070/3060Ti or the AMD RX 6800, as long as you don't have installed other power-hungry components or a highly overclocked CPU. For the RTX 3080 and depending on the model, we would suggest an 850W power supply.

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Product Photos

The Toughpower PF1 650W is a fully modular power supply, and like the other two of this line, it uses a platform provided by HKC. So far, this OEM didn't have much to show in the high-end category, so it is nice to see a new contender in this category where a handful of OEMs dominate the market. The PSU has compact dimensions, measuring only 140mm in length, and it is 80 PLUS Platinum, and ETA-A rated in the Cybenetics efficiency scale. It also has a LAMBDA-A noise certification, which translates to low noise output. Typically, the higher the efficiency rating, the lower the noise output since thermal loads are at low levels, so there is no need for aggressive fan speed profiles unless the manufacturer uses tiny heat sinks or/and low-quality components which need to be kept at as low as possible operating temperatures. 

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Product Photos

Specifications

Power Specifications

Cables & Connectors

There are enough cables and connectors, including two EPS and four PCIe. Cable length is satisfactory, and the distance between the peripheral connectors is adequate at 150mm. Finally, there are no in-line caps on the cables, which can be a major pain during cable routing and management.

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Cable Photos

Component Analysis

We strongly encourage you to have a look at our PSUs 101 article, which provides valuable information about PSUs and their operation, allowing you to better understand the components we're about to discuss.

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Overall Photos

This is a high-end HKC platform using a half-bridge topology and an LLC resonant converter on the primary side. On the secondary side, we find synchronous rectification and DC-DC converters to generate the minor rails. 

Soldering quality is satisfactory, and the design leaves lots of space on the secondary side, which looks almost empty. There no heat sinks on this side, with the 12V FETs being directly exposed to the fan's airflow since they are installed on the top side of the PCB. 

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Transient filter

The transient filter does a good job, according to our test results. The only issue is that it lacks an MOV, so there is no surge protection. On the other hand, the PSU is equipped with an NTC thermistor and a relay, with the former having low resistance. With a higher resistance NTC thermistor, the inrush currents with 230V would be even lower. 

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Bridge rectifiers

Two bridge rectifiers are bolted onto a small heatsink.

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APFC converter

The APFC converter uses two FETs and a single boost diode. The bulk caps are provided by Rubycon and have enough capacity to allow for a higher than 17ms hold-up time. 

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Main FETs and primary transformer

The main FETs are provided by NCE Power, a Chinese manufacturer, and are installed into a half-bridge topology. An LLC converter is also used to boost efficiency.

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12V FETs and VRMs

Six FETs handle the regulation of the 12V rail, and for the minor rails, a pair of DC-DC converters are used. The latter also uses two PWM controllers, provided by Anpec. 

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Filtering caps

There aren't many electrolytic caps, but the ones that HKC used are of good quality. A large number of polymer caps do the heavy lifting in ripple filtering. 

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5VSB Circuit

The standby PWM controller is a PN8141 IC, and the 5VSB rectifier is a SB1045L SBR.

Eleven polymer caps are installed on the modular board's face to provide an extra ripple filtering layer. 

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Soldering quality

Not much to see on the solder side. This is a major difference in design compared to the other popular platforms by Seasonic, CWT, and Super Flower. 

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Cooling fan

The cooling fan has Thermaltake's logo, and it uses a Hydraulic bearing. It's OEM is Shenzhen Xin Wang Electronics, another Chinese fan manufacturer with better prices, most likely, compared to popular brands like Hong Hua and Globe Fan. 

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