Thermaltake Smart M550W Review

Introduction

When it comes to the budget & low wattage PSU market every major vendor has something to offer to cater for the growing demand, and declining TDPs as well as increasing power efficiency on most system components (CPUs, Graphics cards, Storage [SSDs over HDDs], etc) mean having a conservative wattage power supply has never been more appropriate. That said Thermaltake have sent us one of their budget power supply offerings for entry level and mid-range systems. Weighing in with 550W of continuous power with up to 605W of peak power the Thermaltake Smart M550W is an ideal companion for any budget system builder. It offers a quiet 140mm fan, active PFC, a semi-modular design, 3 year warranty and a competitive price point. However, what we really want to know is just how good does it perform? With stiff competition from the likes of Corsair’s CX/TX series, Cooler Master’s GX series, Cougar’s Power-X series, Be Quiet’s Pure Power series, Enermax’s Triathlor series….zzzzzz, you get the idea! There’s a lot of competition for this PSU to fight it out with. Below you can see the key specifications.

Now let’s proceed with the rest of the review.