Thermaltake Toughpower Grand RGB 1050W Platinum Power Supply Review

The Thermaltake Toughpower Grand RGB 1050W uses an advanced and reliable platform, provided by Channel Well Technology, which delivers high overall performance. The competition might be fierce in the 1000W zone, but this is not the case in the 1050W category, where only a handful of offerings are available, especially in the US market. If you don't mind 50W less and the lack of RGB lighting, the Corsair HX1000 is a good alternative and there is also the similar capacity Seasonic Prime Ultra offering with even higher performance.

If you are after a power supply featuring RGB lighting, you will soon find out that most of the major brands (e.g., Corsair, Seasonic, EVGA, etc.) don't have such offerings in their portfolios. Only Thermaltake seems to be a vivid supporter of RGB lighting in power supplies, having a great number of corresponding offerings in its line of products.

The Toughpower Grand RGB Platinum (and ETA-A in the Cybenetics efficiency scale), consists of three models with 850W, 1050W, and 1200W capacities. In this review, we will take a detailed look at the middle member of the line, which has enough power to support a potent system (with a glass side panel to show-off the PSU's RGB lighting, of course). Although not everyone likes RGB peripherals, many users do want a system that can offer a fancy lights show. What matters the most, though, especially when it comes to power supplies, is the build quality, besides the design and the parts that the manufacturer used. 

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Product Photos

The Toughpower Grand RGB Platinum 1050W is fully modular, as are the other two members of the line. Its dimensions are compact since the chassis measures 16cm in length. Finally, the cooling fan uses a Hydro-Dynamic bearing, which will last for a prolonged period; if it didn't, Thermaltake wouldn't provide a ten-year warranty. Usually, the cooling fans are the first to go and this is why in applications where reliability comes first, the engineers try to push efficiency as high as possible to decrease the thermal loads and get rid of active cooling. This is not easy, though, for high-capacity power supplies.

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Box Photos

Specifications

Power Specifications

Cables & Connectors

As expected from a 1050W power supply, there is a vast amount of cables and connectors provided. Besides a pair of EPS connectors, you will also have at your disposal eight PCIe and twelve SATA connectors along with four 4-pin Molex connectors. All cables are long and don't have in-cable caps which may provide better ripple suppression but also make harder the cable routing and management processes. Finally, the distance between the peripheral connectors is ideal, at 150mm. 

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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

The platform is provided by Channel Well Technology (CWT), and it is one of the most advanced in today's market since it uses a couple of MCUs to control the entire primary side and a part of the secondary side. It is a semi-digital design since the VRMs that generate the minor rails use an analog PWM controller. This is the same platform with the TPI-1200F2FDP, which we evaluated quite some time ago. 

Because of the small PCB, for such a powerful PSU, the upper area close to the modular PCB is cramped with components, with several electrolytic caps close to the +12V FETs, which can get very hot. The build quality is high, though, and CWT used good parts to offer increased reliability. 

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Transient filter and bridge rectifiers

The transient filter is complete, and there is a MOV to protect against voltage spikes and surges. Moreover, the NTC thermistor that suppresses high inrush currents, is supported by a bypass relay. 

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Bridge Rectifiers

There are two bridge rectifiers, bolted on a dedicated heat sink.

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APFC Converter

The PSU uses an interleaved PFC converter, which means that two APFC converters are operating in parallel with a phase difference between them. This minimizes input/output current ripple and lowers conduction losses, increasing efficiency, and doubling the effective switching frequency. 

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Main FETs and primary transformer

The four primary FETs are arranged in a full bridge topology and an LLC resonant converter is also utilized for increased efficiency. 

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12V FETs and VRMs

The +12V FETs are installed on a small daughter-board which is adjustment to the main transformer, in an effort to minimize energy losses. The +12V rail also powers a pair of VRMs, which generate the minor rails. 

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Filtering caps

Most of the electrolytic caps are of high quality, with only three of them belonging to Nichicon's mainstream lines. A large number of polymer caps is also used, with most of them provided by Taiwanese companies (Elite and Suscon) which have manufacturing facilities in China.  

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Modular board front

At the face of the modular PCB many polymer caps are used for ripple filtering.

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Soldering quality

The soldering quality is good, something typical for CWT's implementations. 

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Cooling fan

The cooling fan uses a Hydro-Dynamic bearing, which is similar to a Fluid Dynamic Bearing. It also has RGB lighting.

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