Thermaltake Toughpower SFX 600W PSU Review

Efficiency, Temperature And Noise

Efficiency

Our efficiency testing procedure is detailed here.

Using results from the previous page, we plotted a chart showing the STP-0600F-G's efficiency at low loads, and loads from 10 to 110 percent of its maximum-rated capacity.

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The STP-0600F-G doesn't score so well against other SFX and SFX-L power supplies. Despite the use of a very low-capacity bulk cap, this platform still isn't as efficient as Great Wall's SFX design used in Corsair's SF450 and SF600. Enhance should make all necessary changes to improve efficiency and find a way to fix the low hold-up time issue.

Efficiency At Low Loads

In the following tests, we measure the STP-0600F-G's efficiency at loads significantly lower than 10 percent of its maximum capacity (the lowest load the 80 PLUS standard measures). The loads we dialed were 20, 40, 60 and 80 W. This is important for representing when a PC is idle, with power-saving features turned on.

Efficiency under light loads isn't great. We would like to see numbers above 70 percent with 20 W load and over 80 percent with 40 W. In addition, the passive mode wouldn't activate during the low-load tests due to an ambient temperature over 36 °C.

5VSB Efficiency

The ATX specification states that 5VSB standby supply efficiency should be as high as possible, recommending 50 percent or higher efficiency with 100 mA of load, 60 percent or higher with 250 mA of load, and 70 percent or higher with 1 A or more of load.

We take four measurements: one each at 100, 250 and 1000 mA, and one with the full load the 5VSB rail can handle. 

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Efficiency at 5VSB is disappointingly low.

Power Consumption In Idle And Standby

In the table below, you'll find the power consumption and voltage values of all rails (except -12V) when the PSU is idle (powered on, but without any load on its rails), and the power consumption when the PSU is in standby mode (without any load, at 5VSB).

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As usual, the ErP Lot 6 2013 directive's requirement are easily met with both 115V and 230V input.

Fan RPM, Delta Temperature And Output Noise

Our mixed noise testing is described in detail here.

The first chart below illustrates the cooling fan's speed (in RPM), and the delta between input and output temperature. The results were obtained at 36 °C (96.8 °F) to 46 °C (114.8 °F) ambient temperature.   

The next chart shows the cooling fan's speed (again, in RPM) and output noise. We measured acoustics from one meter away, inside a small, custom-made anechoic chamber with internals completely covered in sound-proofing material (be quiet! Noise Absorber kit). Background noise inside the chamber was below 18 dB(A) during testing, and the results were obtained with the PSU operating at 36 °C (96.8 °F) to 46 °C (114.8 °F) ambient temperature. 

The following graph illustrates the fan's output noise over the PSU's operating range. The same conditions of the above graph apply to our measurements, though the ambient temperature was between at 28 °C (82.4 °F) to 30 °C (86 °F).  

Thermaltake's passive mode lasts briefly, even under normal operating temperatures. In this PSU, the semi-passive functionality is more a marketing trick than a useful feature. Fortunately, the fan profile is fairly loose at close to 30 °C ambient, so the STP-0600F-G is fairly quiet up to 300 W load. The small fan starts to get loud with over 430 W load, and you will definitely hear it with higher than 500 W loads. For a high-capacity SFX PSU, the STP-0600F-G is overall pretty quiet under normal temperature conditions.