Thermaltake Smart DPS G 650 Power Supply Review

Many of you likely have a fairly standard power supply, not to say that it’s a bad unit, but that it’s a simple case of turning on your PC, it does its job, and you never really think about it. Thermaltake might not be the first to create smart PSU technology, but the benefits these units can provide over a standard unit are huge, as we’re hoping to find with their new DPS G 650W Gold unit today.

“The Thermaltake SMART DPS G Gold Series are smart power supply units that incorporate various high-tech components, leading technology and Eco-friendly commendations, featuring 80 PLUS Gold certification with a semi-modular that always accommodate any mainstream build under any circumstance. The combination of Smart DPS G Gold and three intelligent platforms – DPS G PC APP 2.0, DPS G Smart Power Management (SPM) Cloud 1.0, and DPS G Mobile APP 1.0 helps users not just monitor smart power supply units, but also save the energy, reduce CO2 emission, and eventually protect the Earth.”

The DPS G offers a range of features, such as desktop software and mobile apps that allow you to monitor and adjust the performance of your systems from anywhere in the world. For systems that need to be running full-time, especially for something like a rendering rig or workstation, power delivery and efficiency are extremely important, especially so for those running many systems simultaneously.

Packaging and Accessories

The box is nicely designed, with bright colours, a good image of the PSU, and information about the warranty, app and modular cables.

Around the back, a list of all included cables, power ratings, and more details about the smart features.

In the box, you’ll find the mains power cable, some cable ties, four mounting screws, and the usual documentation.

There’s also a handy protective bag for storing all of the modular cables.

For a 650W gold rated unit, the DPS G is a nice and compact unit, and while the design isn’t anything too fancy, it looks presentable with it’s black paintwork and red highlights.

Around the back, plenty of ventilation to help keep the unit cool, a master power switch, as well as the power jack. There’s also an important warning that reminds you the fan will not spin when the PSU is under 30% load.

Another large decal sticker on the other side.

The PSU is semi-modular, which means the motherboard 24-pin and the CPU 4+4 pin are hard-wired, which is fine as all systems require them. What I do like is that even though they’re hard-wired, they’re all black and all flat cables, so cable management should be much easier. There as six connectors on the back of the PSU, 4 x 6-pin for peripherals and 2 x 8-pin for PCI-E.

The fan opening is huge, with a durable metal cover that should allow for plenty of airflow.

The base of the unit has the specifications sticker, where we can see that the +12V rail can deliver an impressive 53A @ 636W, more than enough for a high-end gaming or workstation system.

Cables

The cables are colour coded to match the ports on the back of the PSU, which is nice, but I’d have preferred all black. on the hardware end. All the cables are a flat design, with the two PCI-E cables offering 6+2 headers and a good mixture of SATA and Molex for the peripheral cables.

There’s also a special cable to connect the PSU to a USB port so that it can be monitored by the desktop

A Closer Look – Interior

There’s a lot going on inside this power supply, more than we would normally expect to see in a 650W unit, but like a result of the various power management features.

The power filtering stage looks robust and nicely shielded

A few daughter boards are dotted around the PCB, which will help with overall cooling and airflow; these boards help regulate voltages.

For a modular PSU, there’s quite a lot of cable on the interior of the PSU, but it’s all kept over to the side where possible with sleeving applied at the solder points to keep everything well protected.

There are a few additional cables running from the modular cable PCB too, which are connected to various other sections as well as the fan. These are here to provide data from the various sensors in the PSU to the USB port at the back, allowing it to use the DPS G’s various smart features.

All the caps we can see in the unit are high-quality nippon chemi units.

The main bulk capacitor is a 400v 390uf, and should have more than enough grunt to provide the 650W from this unit, at least when combined with the secondary caps.

The fan is a Thermaltake TT-1425, a 140mm seven blade model, which seems to be a 1000RPM silent fan with a three cable setup (two for power, one for speed monitoring).