Thermaltake Toughpower GF1 1000W TT Premium Edition PSU Review

A common question in the PC world is, what is the most important component in a computer? Gamers tend to say GPU, and workstation users might throw down on CPU or maybe even memory or storage. While those are all certainly important to user experience, nothing ruins it quite like a failed power supply. It’s even worse if it takes some or all of your components down the hole with it. Thermaltake won't let that happen with its Toughpower GF1 series power supplies. We’ll be taking a look at the massive 1000W Toughpower GF1 but it also comes in 1200W and smaller 650W, 750W, and 850W flavors to cover about any build. Thermaltake forgoes RGB bling and focuses on performance on longevity with ultra-low ripple and 100% Japanese capacitors, and build quality worthy of a 10-year warranty. PC Test Bench would like to thank Thermaltake for sending over the Toughpower GF1 1000W TT Premium Edition for us to check out! Thermaltake’s view on the Toughpower GF1 – TT Premium Edition: The fully modular Toughpower GF1 series now comes in 1000W and is built to deliver 80 PLUS Gold efficiency. The series features a 140mm hydraulic bearing fan, Japanese capacitors, and other premium components to help deliver a continuous and stable power with an ambient temperature up to 50°C, while near-silent operation and reliable performance are guaranteed. With an ample 10-year warranty, the Toughpower GF1 1000W Gold is able to satisfy the market where PC enthusiasts are looking for a premium power supply with all the latest features. FEATURES: Zero Cable Platform Farewell to messy cables! We have connected the back panel and the PCB with a copper plate for better heat dissipation and impressive output power quality. Ultra Quiet 140mm Hydraulic Bearing Fan Featuring a 140mm hydraulic bearing fan with intelligent RPM controls to help guarantee superior cooling performance and near-silent operation. Smart Zero Fan Designed with our Smart Zero Fan, the fan will not spin until the load exceeds 30% of the power supply, minimizing the fan noise. ＜30mV Low Ripple Noise All ripples are lower than 30mV on +12V, +5V, or +3.3V from 0% to 100% load to ensure a stable operation and keep your performance-critical components to function reliably for longer. Extremely Strict Voltage Regulation ＜±2% The voltage regulation, more strict than Intel’s standard ±5% for major rails and ±10% for -12V, is set to no more than ±2% for major rails to meet the highest performance. Fully Modular Low-Profile Flat Cable Offers cable selection for users while powering the system at an advantageous voltage. Low-profile flat black cable makes cable management easier, reduces clutter, and increases airflow inside the chassis. Premium Japanese 105°C/221°F Capacitors Providing great durability as well as offering the highest stability, while remaining reliable. High Amperage Single +12V Rail Powerful single +12V rail ensures a stable and reliable supply to other PC components. 80 PLUS Gold Certified and Intel C6/C7 States Ready Toughpower GF1 series saves energy through its high energy efficiency of up to 90% and is certified to 80 PLUS® Gold. The series has been optimized to work with all generations of Intel’s processors to achieve maximum energy saving. SPECS: OUTPUT CAPACITY - 1000W PEAK OUTPUT CAPACITY - 1200W DIMENSION ( W / H / D ) - 150mm(W) x 86mm(H) x 160mm(D) WEIGHT - 1.8kg PFC (POWER FACTOR CORRECTION) - Active PFC POWER GOOD SIGNAL - 100-500 msec HOLD UP TIME - >16msec at 100% of full load INPUT CURRENT - 15A max INPUT FREQUENCY RANGE - 50Hz /60Hz INPUT VOLTAGE - 100V – 240V~ OPERATING TEMPERATURE - 0°C to + 50°C COOLING SYSTEM - 14cm hydraulic bearing fan EFFICIENCY - Meet 80 PLUS®Gold at 115Vac input. MTBF - 100,000 hrs minimum PCI-E 6+2PIN – 6x A Closer Look Thermaltake’s packaging is pretty consistent and covers everything you need to know. Features and specifications are listed as expected, but Thermaltake goes the extra mile and shows the number of each connector, as well as efficiency and fan curve information. Inside, the PSU is well protected in a block of foam with everything else in a bag next to it. Inside, you get the usual paperwork and a nice bag that contains all of your cables. It’s handy as it gives you a nice place to keep all of your unused modular cables for the next built. With a 10 year warranty, it’s a safe bet you’ll be using the GF1 through a few builds. Thermaltake keeps with the same slotted grill pattern it has used on most of its Toughpower PSU’s the last handful of years. A Large TT badge sits centered over the fan hub. The underside has a large label that lists all of the electrical specs. The sides of the Toughpower GF1 have the same label with the top quarter or so of the side vented for maximum cooling. The rear keeps the same slotted design that covers the entire rear panel. You have the usual C14 power inlet, a mains power switch, and a smaller switch that enables or disables the Smart Zero Fan mode. With this switch off, the cooling fan always runs, with Smart Zero Fan on, the fan will stop entirely at low loads where there is little need for cooling. Personally, I really like when this is a user-configurable option as I prefer a small amount of cooling since the fan is pretty much inaudible anyway. If you live in an anechoic chamber, maybe you prefer the dead silence. The business end of the ToughPower GF1 is entirely modular with five sockets for CPU or PCIe power, and four connections for peripheral cables. Cables include the main 24 pin, two eight-pin EPS (one of which is configured 4+4), three PCIe power cables, each with two 6+2 pins in a daisy chain, three SATA only chains, and a single legacy Molex 4-pin chain. You also get a berg adapter, some zip ties, and mounting screws. The ToughPower GF1 also comes with a regionally appropriate mains power cable as well. Testing System Config: Intel Core i9-10900K Asus ROG Strix Z490-I Gaming Nvidia RTX 2080Ti Founders Edition 64GB (2x32GB) Viper Steel 3600Mhz Samsung 960 Pro 2TB We’ll start out saying we aren’t equipped to do extremely detailed electrical analysis required to pick apart a modern power supply. It takes laboratory-grade dedicated equipment so we’ll have to make do with some less precise testing. While we normally use a good Fluke Digital Multi-meter, we’ve found the onboard monitoring solutions in modern motherboards to be quite accurate and able to be easily logged with utilities like HWiNFO. This is especially true of higher-end enthusiast-class boards that are oriented towards overclocking. We start monitoring and run a series of benchmarks and stress tests to ramp the system up and down from idle to full load of every component. Thermaltake’s Toughpower GF1 provides very good regulation on all three main rails with each staying well within the 2% They promise. The all-important 12V rail stays within 0.8% in both directions. Final Thoughts and Conclusion I’ll start and say that Thermaltake doesn’t seem to get the recognition they deserve for their power supplies. The ToughPower GF1 1000W TT Premium edition is yet another example of a premium quality power supply from Thermaltake for a fair price. Quality component selection by Thermaltake means things like Japanese capacitors, widely regarded as THE only real choice for longevity which is reflected in the 10-year warranty. Its 80+ Gold efficiency certification is great, but it takes it a step further with support for Intel’s latest ultra-low power standby modes. The modular cables are nice and flexible with just enough memory to train them to stay where you need them. If I had to nitpick anything, I would like to see a pair of single connector PCIe cables included with the rest. The overwhelming majority of users have a single graphics card and it makes for a much cleaner build not having the piggy-back connectors flopping around unused. Great job Thermaltake!

Testing

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