Thermaltake Smart BX1 RGB 550w Power Supply Review

A Closer Look

So, it looks pretty decent on the outside. What about the power supply itself? Well, in terms of aesthetics, power supplies are, traditionally, rather boring things. They are, after all, designed to do a very important job in (usually) the dankest corner of your PC. Thermaltake is, however, a brand that has looked to do something that no one else has before. Namely, making their power supplies not only attractive but a strong aesthetic feature!

While the Thermaltake Smart BX1 RGB doesn’t go insane with branding, what is there is nice, clear and surprisingly attractive. The most notable aspect of this is the product name to the side which, as this is a power supply with RGB lighting, is multi-coloured to reflect that!

This isn’t, of course, the only aesthetic touches Thermaltake has made. For example, the top of the power supply has a nice Thermaltake brand to the centre. Don’t forget as well that this is where the RGB light show takes place!

In terms of the rear of the power supply, there are some nice large vents which, pretty much, cover the whole of the panel. This should hopefully translate into some nice air flow. Additionally, this is also where you access the button control for the RGB lighting. Admittedly, this control is rather basic with a single push rotating through the various colours. Sometimes, however, less is more! Yes, it’s simple, but simple works!

Finally, the base of the power supply contains all of the product specification. Specifically how and where the power is distributed throughout the various rails.

Cabling

As this is a non-modular power supply, knowing your cabling is very important. Fortunately, this has pretty much every cable a standard gaming PC would require.

The cables have reasonably nice flexibility about them which makes that getting them where you want them will prove no difficulty. The lengths, however, are not perhaps as long as many would like. Most of the cables are about 12″ long which, although not bad, will be a factor if you have a rather large chassis design.

Internals

Getting inside the power supply is pretty straight forward. You should, however, note that by doing this you do void the warranty. So only proceed at your own risk and peril! Once inside though, the initial design layout is really surprising. Don’t worry though, it’s surprising in a good way!

One of the main factors that impressed us with the neat and tidy way in which the components have been laid out. For a non-modular power supply, there are no cables dangling everywhere as is usually expected. In addition, all of the components are well spaced including some nice clearance to both of the main heat sink banks.

As you can see in the image below, where the cabling does some from the power supply, it’s surprisingly tidy and well organised. It speaks of a very good design process and gets a huge thumbs up from us!

As one of the main features of the power supply is having a main Japanese capacitor, it is important that we check this out. The good news is that it does indeed have a main Japanese capacitor, and rather a good one at that!

Manufactured by Rubycon, this is a well known and reputable brand. Unfortunately due to the positioning of it, we were unable to get a good look at the specific details, but on the whole, this singular component should give consumers a lot of confidence!

Finally, a quick look at the fan! This is the TT-1225 which we have seen in a number of Thermaltake power supplies. It gets used rather a lot by them and with good reason as the design itself is practically bullet-proof.

When the RGB lighting is turned on too, the fan provides a nice, bright and vivid colour display. Offering a range covering over 256 colours, this clearly has a lot of eye candy for you!