Thermaltake Toughpower 800 W (W0296RU) Power Supply Review
Load Tests
Contents
We conducted several tests with this power supply, as described in the article Hardware Secrets Power Supply Test Methodology.
First we tested this power supply with five different load patterns, trying to pull around 20%, 40%, 60%, 80%, and 100% of its labeled maximum capacity (actual percentage used listed under “% Max Load”), watching how the reviewed unit behaved under each load. In the table below we list the load patterns we used and the results for each load.
If you add all the power listed for each test, you may find a different value than what is posted under “Total” below. Since each output can vary slightly (e.g., the +5 V output working at +5.10 V), the actual total amount of power being delivered is slightly different than the calculated value. On the “Total” row we are using the real amount of power being delivered, as measured by our load tester.
The +12V1 and +12V2 inputs listed below are the two +12 V independent inputs from our load tester and during all tests the +12V1 input was connected to the power supply +12V1 and +12V2 rails while the +12V2 input was connected to the power supply +12V1 rail.
| Input | Test 1 | Test 2 | Test 3 | Test 4 | Test 5 |
| +12V1 | 5.5 A (66 W) | 12 A (144 W) | 18.5 A (222 W) | 23 A (276 W) | 27 A (324 W) |
| +12V2 | 5.5 A (66 W) | 11 A (132 W) | 16 A (192 W) | 23 A (276 W) | 27 A (324 W) |
| +5V | 2 A (10 W) | 4 A (20 W) | 6 A (30 W) | 8 A (40 W) | 16 A (80 W) |
| +3.3 V | 2 A (6.6 W) | 4 A (13.2 W) | 6 A (30 W) | 8 A (26.4 W) | 16 A (52.8 W) |
| +5VSB | 1 A (5 W) | 1.5 A (7.5 W) | 2 A (10 W) | 2.5 A (12.5 W) | 3 A (15 W) |
| -12 V | 0.5 A (6 W) | 0.5 A (6 W) | 0.5 A (6 W) | 0.5 A (6 W) | 0.5 A (6 W) |
| Total | 159.9 W | 322.9 W | 479.1 W | 635.0 W | 796.0 W |
| % Max Load | 20.0% | 40.4% | 59.9% | 79.4% | 99.5% |
| Room Temp. | 45.9° C | 45.2° C | 46.7° C | 49.3° C | 47.4° C |
| PSU Temp. | 47.9° C | 48.7° C | 50.2° C | 54.5° C | 60.0° C |
| Voltage Stability | Pass | Pass | Pass | Pass | Pass |
| Ripple and Noise | Pass | Pass | Pass | Pass | Pass |
| AC Power | 188.6 W | 367.8 W | 549.6 W | 741.0 W | 964.0 W |
| Efficiency | 84.8% | 87.8% | 87.2% | 85.7% | 82.6% |
| AC Voltage | 111.0 V | 108.9 V | 107.7 V | 105.2 V | 103.1 V |
| Power Factor | 0.980 | 0.99 | 0.992 | 0.993 | 0.994 |
| Final Result | Pass | Pass | Pass | Pass | Pass |
If you pay close attention you will see that for the 800 W test (test five) we pulled a little bit more from +5 V and +3.3 V than we’d like to (we’d prefer to test this unit pulling 10 A from each of these outputs). This happened because if we tried to pull more than 27 A from +12V1 and +12V2 at the same time the unit would not turn on.
The new Toughpower 800 W really presents high efficiency. If you pull between 40% and 60% of this unit labeled capacity (between 320 W and 480 W) you will see efficiency about 87%. Delivering 80% of its labeled capacity (640 W) we saw efficiency above 85%. At full load efficiency dropped to 82.6%, still above the 80% mark.
This unit is Silver certified by 80 Plus, which in theory means that it presents efficiency of at least 88% at 50% load (400 W) and of at least 85% at 20% load (160 W) and 100% load (800 W). The problem is that 80 Plus collect data at a room temperature of only 23° C. As you can see during test five we were pulling 796 W from this power supply at 47° C, and this makes a huge difference. Not only efficiency drops with temperature, but it is impossible to achieve 23° C inside a high-end PC. The methodology used by 80 Plus is, in our opinion, flawed and our results provide numbers closer to reality.
Voltage regulation was one of the highlights from Toughpower 800 W, with all voltages within 3% from their nominal values, i.e., closer to their nominal values than required, as the ATX specification allows voltages to be up to 5% from their nominal values. This includes -12 V, an output that usually doesn’t like to stay so close to its nominal value. The only exception was +3.3 V during test five, which was still inside the 5%
limit.
Noise and ripple levels stayed inside the allowed range (up to 120 mV for +12 V and up to 50 mV for +5 V and +3.3 V, peak-to-peak), however higher than we’d like to see. Thermaltake warned us that this would happen.
Figure 16: +12V1 input from load tester at 796.0 W (103.2 mV).
Figure 17: +12V1 input from load tester at 796.0 W (90.4 mV).
Figure 18: +5V rail with power supply delivering 796.0 W (40.4 mV).
Figure 19: +3.3 V rail with power supply delivering 796.0 W (40.4 mV).