Thortech Thunderbolt Plus 800 W Power Supply Review

Introduction

GeIL, the well-known memory manufacturer, has decided to enter the power supply market, but differently from other memory manufacturers that followed the same path (OCZ, Corsair, etc), they have created an entire new brand, Thortech (named after Thor, the Norse god). Right now Thortech is offering only 80 Plus Gold units, under their Thunderbolt and Thunderbolt Plus series. The only difference between the two series is that Thunderbold Plus models come with a digital power meter for you to install in any 5.25” bay of your case. Let’s take a look if the Thunderbold Plus 800 W model lives up to the expectation.

By the way, the manufacturer guarantees that this unit is able to deliver is labeled power at 50° C and to deliver a maximum power of at least 960 W.

Figure 1: Thortech Thunderbolt Plus 800 W power supply

Figure 2: Thortech Thunderbolt Plus 800 W power supply

The Thortech Thunderbolt Plus 800 W is 7.5” (190 mm) deep, with a 135 mm dual ball bearing fan (Protechnic MGT13512XB-025, 1,800 rpm, 100 cfm).

The new Thortech Thunderbolt Plus 800 W has a modular cabling system with six connectors. The power supply comes with the following cables:

• Main motherboard cable with a 20/24-pin connector, 24.4” (62 cm) long, permanently attached to the power supply
• One cable with two ATX12V connectors that together form an EPS12V connector, 24.4” (62 cm) long, permanently attached to the power supply
• Two cables with one six/eight-pin connector for video cards each, 25.6” (65 cm) long, permanently attached to the power supply
• Two cables with one six/eight-pin connector for video cards each, 25.6” (65 cm) long, modular cabling system
• Two cables with four SATA power connectors each, 24.8” (63 cm) to the first connector, 5.9” (15 cm) between connectors
• Two cables with three standard peripheral power connectors and one floppy disk drive power connector each, 25.2” (64 cm) to the first connector, 5.9” (15 cm) between connectors
• One cable for the power meter panel, 25.6” (65 cm) long, permanently attached to the power supply

All wires are 18 AWG, which is the minimum recommended gauge.

The cable configuration is satisfactory for a 800 W product, with four cables for video cards and eight SATA power connectors, although we’ve seen units in the same power range with more SATA power connectors.

Figure 3: Cables

Before opening the power supply, let’s talk about the included power meter.