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Thermaltake's gamble on choosing HKC to fight with respected OEMs like CWT and Seasonic seems to pay off. The Toughpower PF1 with 750W max power meets the competition eye-to-eye, achieving high overall performance in almost every aspect. It would be nice to see better transient response at +12V with a 20% starting load, but at higher loads, voltage drops on the same rail are not that high.
The APFC converter needs tuning as well, to become more efficient. On the other hand, the platform's efficiency is high, especially with light loads, load regulation is tight on all primary rails, and ripple suppression might not be top-notch, on the minor rails mostly, but it is fully satisfactory.
In the next revision of this model, I expect to see a MOV in the transient filtering stage and lower OCP triggering points, especially on the minor rails and 5VSB. There is no point in allowing for such high amperage at 3.3V. On the other hand, the 5V rail can take a high load if the system has lots of RGB LED strips installed. It would be much better if all LED lighting peripherals utilized the 12V rail.
With a fair pricing scheme, the Toughpower PF1 750 will meet the tough competition in this category from Seasonic (Focus Plus Platinum), Corsair (HX750), and other brands. It achieves high performance, it is quiet, and an extended warranty backs it up, while its build quality is pretty good.
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Disclaimer: Aris Mpitziopoulos is Tom's Hardware's PSU reviewer. He is also the Chief Testing Engineer of Cybenetics and developed the Cybenetics certification methodologies apart from his role on Tom's Hardware. Neither Tom's Hardware nor its parent company, Future PLC, are financially involved with Cybenetics. Aris does not perform the actual certifications for Cybenetics.
Aris Mpitziopoulos is a contributing editor at Tom's Hardware, covering PSUs.
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bdcrlsn I know they're not actually made by Thermaltake, but I've had a Toughpower 650-watt for 7 years and had no issues whatsoever. They're good choices these days in a saturated market.Reply -
Braindead154 I bought two of these power supplies to use in my new rig. BOTH of them had a high pitched whine when my computer was off or sleeping (MSI MEG x570 Unify). As much as I appreciated the long warranty and build quality, I prefer not to have a dog whistle in my PC case. They were returned.Reply