Thermaltake Smart BX1 RGB 650w Power Supply Review

Introduction Smart BX1 RGB Thermaltake is a brand that is rather quickly earning itself an excellent reputation throughout the world. In recent months we have seen a variety of their products come to the market. They are, however, making a particular effort to push their power supplies. There is no small coincidence that we've been reviewing so many of them in recent weeks. Being one of the few manufacturers who apply RGB effects in their PSU's while this is clearly a standout feature, we have on more than one occasion been highly impressed with the exceptionally good test results their power supplies have given. In this instance though, we take a look at their brand new Thermaltake Smart BX1 RGB power supply. The particular model we have is bronze efficiency rated to 650w which is the perfect level for most gaming systems. It is provided as a non-modular system with the cables being fixed and pre-installed. In addition to all of this, it is also provided with their unique RGB lighting effects which can be controlled by a button on the power supply giving a potential combination of 256 colours! While we do like RGB lighting here at eTeknix, we're not ones to be dazzled by it. We have always considered the performance to be the key factor in any test we conduct. As such, lets put this power supply under the microscope and see if it could be a viable performer in your next system. Features The Thermaltake Smart BX1 RGB power supply comes with a single +12V rail which outputs 576w through a single rail. As this is a non-modular power supply, all the cables come pre-attached to the power supply and can not be removed. Despite this, you are provided with a good variety that should suit the vast majority of gaming systems. It is, of course, always advisable that you check to ensure that you are going to have the right connections to suit your build. The key features of the power supply include; High amperage single +12V rail design. 80 PLUS Bronze 230V EU Internal Certified All flat black cables and connectors Provides 650w of continuous power at 40c Easy to use RGB LED toggle button The fan supports 10 LEDs for added effects. Main Japanese capacitor Smart RGB The power supply comes complete with Thermaltake's unique Smart RGB design which allows you to have fantastic customisation options for the lighting effects. With 256 colours available, even the most hardcore of RGB fans (or haters) are not going to struggle to find an option that suits them here! https://youtu.be/xxZsldMKJaU Cabling With this being non-modular, it's important to know exactly what cables this power supply is provided with. Although this is detailed on the rear of the packaging we will detail it for you below. 1 x 20+4 main power connector. 1 x ATX 12 V 4 + 4 PIN 4 x SATA 2 x 6 + 2 PCI-E 4 x Molex 1 X Floppy Disk Adaptor In terms of connectors, this should be more than enough to connect any standard gaming PC presuming your GPU doesn't require more than 8 PCI-E inputs. The cables themselves are provided with a nice thick black coated surface which is both tough and also easy to move. A major plus for any non-modular power supply! A Closer Look The front of the packaging carries that bold black and red branding which Thermaltake is getting very well known for. It includes all of the key features that you would want to know from your power supply. In addition, it also has a nice large, bold, image of the power supply itself with the RGB lighting in its full glory. The back of the box is again fantastic in terms of the information it provides. You literally have everything you could want to know here. It's also a great factor that Thermaltake providers both the efficiency rating charts (something that many manufacturers tend to not bother with), the output voltages as well as a full diagram (with pictures) of the cables included. Given that this is a non-modular power supply, the latter choice is a great idea so users can make sure that this power supply is right for them. The side of the packaging details Thermaltakes Patented 256 colour RGB fan system. As above, having RGB effects on a power supply is something unique to Thermaltake and a branding they are looking to push very hard with their products. As with all other parts of the packaging though, the information is nice, clear and easy to read. RGB Lighting Effects We could try and explain the RGB lighting effects, but it's easier just to show you. We have taken a brief video showing some of the RGB effect modes through their cycle. This will clearly look better when in a dark system, but the video should at least give you an idea as to what to expect from the Thermaltake Smart Bx1 RGB Power Supply. For the sake of clarity, we should note that we were manually colour cycling during this video, but there are other options available. https://youtu.be/MVRdR9IPC0s Whats In The Box? The power supply itself is very well presented with both the Thermaltake logo and product branding. As this is a non-modular power supply its hard for the cables to not draw your attention. In that regard though, the sleek black cabling actually takes them very pleasant to look at. In addition, it becomes clear straight away that you are provided with all the cables you could need for the average gaming system. While it will not be found wanting, you will not have masses of redundant cables either! The power supply itself is reasonably lightweight and looks exceptionally durable. On the base of the power supply you will also find the rail voltage information which is nice to have directly on the power supply. The Thermaltake Smart BX1 RGB power supply does not have any hybrid or passive cooling. That hasn't, however, stopped them from trying to promote airflow as best as possible. On the top and rear of the PSU, there are huge vents which should allow for a decent airflow to all of the key components inside. The design of the rear of the power supply is a definite highlight as the large vents allow for the best possible exhaust. There is very little space that isn't used here for either switches or venting and that should help keep the power supply nice and cool. On the rear, you will find the main power switch as well as the button cycle controller for the RGB lighting effects. In terms of presentation and exterior build, there's very little to fault with the Thermaltake Smart Bx1 RGB Power Supply. Let us, therefore, have a look inside to see if it is equally as good! Interior Despite this being a reasonably inexpensive power supply, Thermaltake still takes great care in terms of their internal design. A factor we have gotten to appreciate very well from many of their products. All of the chips and capacitors are well spaced and organised. With the 2 main heat syncs sitting directly beneath the fan, this should also help promote keeping temperatures nice and cool. The only place where things are a little messy is the soldering to the power input. This, however, is still far better than what we have seen from other brands. All interior components have been well spaced out with a clear eye for a tidy design here. Not only does this make the cooler look very professionally built, it should also help promote airflow between all of the hot parts. As we know with anything electrical, the cooler it is, the happier it will run! Due to the design, it was difficult getting a clear photograph of the main capacitor. We can, however, confirm that as this says on the box, this is a Japanese made capacitor. Nichicon is the brand just in case you were wondering. This brand is well known for their excellent products and reliability and is a fantastic choice for any power supply. We should at this point be clear that it is only the main capacitor that is Japanese. Given that this is the hardest working part of the electrics though, this is a good thing to see. Particularly again in an inexpensive power supply. In regards to the system fan, the model installed in this cooler is the TT-1225. This is a reasonably common fan used by Thermaltake (particularly throughout their 'Smart' range) and has always proved to be a solid and reliable performer. Important - Please Read To understand the results on the new few pages, please take the time to read our detailed testing methodology page. The next page of this review will help you understand what the results of our testing mean, and educate you on the various qualities we look for in a good PSU. Test Procedure At eTeknix we take the power supply testing procedure very seriously and have invested a lot of resources into acquiring the appropriate testing equipment. For all power supply reviews, we test the power supplies with dedicated power supply testing equipment. This means we are able to get the most accurate results from our testing as opposed to using software benchmarks (such as OCCT) or multi-meter readouts which are broadly inaccurate. Testing Hardware Sunmoon SM-5500ATE Active Load Tester (1200W rated) Stingray DS1M12 USB Oscilloscope Voltcraft DT-10L laser tachometer What the eTeknix Test Procedure Involves Testing each power supply at 20/40/60/80/100% load (with load balanced across all rails) and measuring PFC (power factor correction), efficiency (actual power divided by power "pulled at the wall") and voltage regulation (deviance from expected voltages of 3.3/5/12 on the main rails). Measuring ripple with an oscilloscope at 20/40/60/80/100% load. Measuring fan speed after a stabilisation period of five minutes at each load scenario using the Voltcraft DT-10L laser tachometer and a reflective strip on the fan. Testing each power supply's OPP (Over Power Protection) mechanism and seeing how many watts each power supply can deliver before shutting down Other Things to Consider We recognise that a single 12-volt cable can provide only 6 Amps before overheating (which corrupts voltage regulation and efficiency) and so we used an adequate number of cables for each power supply to ensure there is not efficiency loss from poor cables selection Our Sunmoon SM-5500ATE power supply tester is not capable of testing more than 300W on each of the 12-volt rails so where a power supply provides more than 300W on a 12-volt rail that power is distributed over multiple 12-volt rails on the load tester. For example a power supply with one 12 volt rail supplying 750 watts would be spread equally over three 12 volt rails on the load tester, a power supply with two 450W 12v rails would be spread over four 12v rails on the load tester, two 225W 12v rails for each of the 12v rails on the unit. We use the same time scale and horizontal millivolt scale on our oscilloscope for all ripple tests, that is a 20ms T/DIV (horizontal) and a 0.02 V/DIV (vertical) meaning the scale is from -80mV to +80mV, ATX spec dictates that the 12v rail must fall within 150mv of ripple and the 3.3/5 within 50mv so that scale allows us to include both 150 and 50mV peaks. (Some older PSU reviews use different scales which were later ditched as the visual representation they give is inadequate, in these reviews written measurements are provided only). Deviance is the terminology used to represent the way voltages diverge from the expected values Voltage Regulation To test voltage regulation we load the power supply to five different load scenarios that give an equal spread of load across every single rail. So that means 20% on all rails, 40% on all rails and so on. We then calculate the average deviance of each rail from its expected voltage. Ideally, anything of +/- 2% regulation is seen as a very good result. Power Efficiency Power efficiency is measured by calculating actual supplied wattage divided by the wattage drawn at the wall/plug, multiplied by 100 to give a percentage. We then compare that to the particular 80 Plus certification the company claims to see if it meets that. You can see the 80 Plus certifications below, we always test power supplies at 230v. Power Factor Correction Power Factor Correction is the ratio of the real power flowing to the load, to the apparent power in the circuit. The aim of PFC is to make the load circuitry that is power factor corrected appear purely resistive (apparent power equal to real power). In this case, the voltage and current are in phase and the reactive power consumption is zero. The closer the number to one the better as this allows the most efficient delivery of electrical power (Source - Wikipedia). Ripple Noise and Ripple can easily be measured by an oscilloscope. These show how much voltage fluctuation there is on a particular rail. We tested the rail stability of the 3.3-volt, 5-volt and 12-volt rails using an identical time and millivolt scale for all graphs. millivolt ripple is measured by the peak to peak size of the voltage curve. The latest ATX 12 volt version 2.3 specifications state that ripple from peak to peak must be no higher than 50 millivolts for the 3.3-volt and 5-volt rails, while the 12-volt rail is allowed up to 120 millivolts peak to peak to stay within specifications. Millivolt figures are stated to the closest increment of 5 given their variability. OPP Power supplies often quote as having various protection mechanisms such and the most important of these is Over Power Protection. In our testing we crank up the power draw until the power supply either shuts down (meaning the OPP mechanism is present and working) or blows up (meaning it is either not present or not working). We then note the maximum power consumption before the power supply shut down, or before it blew up. Fan Speed When testing in a power supply laboratory it is difficult to take fan noise readings as the noise from the Sunmoon test equipment and air conditioning corrupts everything. The next best thing in our circumstances was reading off the fan speed with a tachometer to get an idea for the noise. The ambient temperature during testing held constant at 22 degrees, with 1 degree of variation. Each power supply had a consistent time period of 5 minutes to stabilise between each load scenario. In my experience, the following general relationships apply between noise levels and fan speeds, though it can vary greatly between the type of fan used. Below 800 RPM - Inaudible/Silent 800 to 1000 RPM - Barely audible 1000 - 1200 RPM - Audible but still quiet 1200 - 1400 RPM - Moderately noisy 1400 - 1800 RPM - Noisy 1800 RPM or above - Intolerable Efficiency, PFC and Voltage Regulation Voltage Regulation Given that this is an inexpensive power supply, you may have concerns as to how well it delivers the power. Starting with the voltage regulation, as can be seen below, while there is some deviancy in the 12V and -12V rails, the results are still remarkably consistent. We would particularly draw attention to the V12 rail which overall shows a deviance no greater than 0.06. The -12V rail might be a little larger in scale, but given that this rail isn't used much, the results are not concerning in the slightest. In terms of voltage regulation, this is exactly what you want to see. Power Efficiency As the Thermaltake Smart BX1 RGB power supply is bronze rated, this does have to meet certain efficiency standards. In our testing, it more than met the requirements for the bronze rating. At full load, this power supply nearly achieved 85% efficiency which is a figure more usually associated with silver. Overall though, while this doesn't quite meet silver standards. It is, if nothing else, an exceptionally high bronze standard. Put simply, you're getting something that's quite notably better than its required to be. Power Factor Correction While the PFC ratings do struggle under low-load, as soon as you crank the power-up, the Thermaltake Smart BX1 RGB Power Supply achieves some excellent results. It is, in addition, also a little usual to see these at such a consistent level and one that continually improves as the power levels are increased. Ripple If this power supply does have a fault in terms of the output testing, it lies in the ripple results. Specifically the 12V ripple. As you can see in the table and charts below, for 3.3V and 5V this power supply gives some fantastically solid results. When it gets to the 12V, however, the numbers start getting high. A result of 48.8 is certainly quite high at 100% load. While this is within the acceptable levels by EU standards, it is skirting close to the edge. It, therefore, seems that while the power efficiency might be good, the 12V delivery is a little high on the ripple scale. We should again highlight though that all results are within the acceptable limits and this is not a fail. Load (%) 3.3V Ripple 5V Ripple 12V Ripple 20 9.2 8.6 24.2 40 11.4 9.8 29.6 60 13.8 9.8 35.6 80 16 10.4 43.8 100 19.6 10.6 48.8 Over Power Protection and Max Wattage As this is a 650w power supply, this should be more than competent for use in a gaming PC. Despite that though, at times you might need to push it a little harder than the wattage on the box. In this regard, the Thermaltake Smart BX1 RGB is not found wanting. Despite being rated to 650w, the power supply achieved nearly 900w before the OPP kicked in. When you consider that this is 242w above the rated value, if you ever did have to push this power supply a little beyond its limits, there's no reason why this couldn't handle as high as 750w without too much effort. Fan Speed The fan speed for the Thermaltake Smart BX1 RGB power supply does get a little higher than we would usually anticipate. At full speed, it is notably audible. This can be regulated, but if you are going to push this power supply hard, you might find that the noise, while not intrusive, will become a factor. Why the default speeds are so high is a little unclear. Beyond, of course, the remit that this power supply gets a little warm. We should, however, note that during the testing procedure, we were currently experiencing hotter than average ambient temperatures which may account for the results being a little higher than we would usually expect. Final Thoughts Pricing At the time of writing, it does not appear that the Thermaltake Smart BX1 RGB Power Supply is currently for retail sale. That doesn't necessarily mean that it isn't for sale. It just means that the shipments haven't arrived yet. Despite that, indications would suggest that this power supply is going to retail for a price in the region of £45-£50. When you consider that this is a bronze-rated power supply and all the RGB bells and whistles that come with it, that is exceptionally good value. Remember as well that this has a 650w capacity and also has a Japanese main capacitor. In this price bracket, both of those factors are exceptionally unusual and major pluses for any power supply. Overview In terms of design, Thermaltake has again proven that while they might like to try and push the RGB lighting, they are one of the best in terms of their designs. Even overlooking the aesthetics of the product, this cooler internally is clearly built with a lot of care and clever choices. When you consider these factors as a whole, it's hard to find anything to criticise. Yes, it is non-modular and that isn't the current trend for power supplies at the moment. Then again, it has all the cables you could likely need. As such, unlike many non-modular power supplies, the chances are that you'll have more than enough to hook up everything in your system with very little left redundant. If, indeed, any at all. Efficiency and Beyond Although this is a bronze-rated power supply, it does on occasion tip-toe into the realms of silver. While it doesn't quite meet the silver standards at mid load, it does so at 100%. When you consider this in terms of efficiency, you're getting a lot more from this than the bronze rating alone requires. Admittedly, the 12V ripple results are higher than we would like to see. These are, however, all entirely within the remits of EU standards and should not cause you any problems. The only outright factor that is a concern is the high fan speed. Why it runs so fast as a default setting is really unclear. While the noise at full load isn't bad, it does become notable when you push this power supply hard. Taking all these factors as a whole though, based on what you get for the price, this ticks all the right boxes. Should I Buy One? In terms of power supplies, a 650w bronze rated PSU is exactly where most gaming PCs should be looking. When you consider that this power supply gives you such a solid performance in terms of efficiency for such little money, this should definitely be on your list of consideration. Don't get us wrong, there are factors that don't make this the perfect power supply. They are, however, on the whole, quite minor points and in terms of the price that this power supply is looking to be retailed towards, anyone savvy enough about power supplies should recognise a great product and deal when they see one. Put simply, there are factors within this power supply which clearly could do better, for this price though, you'd struggle to find a competing brand that offered this much.