Thermaltake Toughpower GF1 850w Power Supply Review

A Closer Look

As we noted at the beginning of this review, the Toughpower brand has a strong no-nonsense approach to power supplies and that is certainly an aspect carried into the aesthetics.

The power supply looks bold, sleek, and exceptionally well put together. Where there is Thermaltake branding, it’s nice and clear while also being understated.

Speaking of branding, about as garish as it gets is with the logo to the centre of the main intake covering. This again, however, isn’t dominating and certainly doesn’t detract from the ethos of the design.

To the underside of the power supply, you will find the technical information which has been lightly embossed into the metal. While this information will likely not mean much to the vast majority of consumers, it is nice to see Thermaltake put this clearly on display.

The main power input bank is very well designed. Firstly, you will note that the ports are all itemised to ensure you put the right cable in the right place. Secondly, the back-to-back design allows for easy insertion and removal.

Based on all the connections available, however, it again highlights that this power supply would be suitable for the vast majority (if not all) high-level gaming systems.

The main exhaust vent has spared no available space in making sure that as much air as possible can pass through here. You will note that this does have a ‘smart zero fan’ switch which can easily be accessed here for whether you wish to utilise it or not.

Overall, while we personally are not seeing anything usual here (in fact it all looks very good), it does again highlight the sleek professional style of the Toughpower brand that Thermaltake is working really hard to push as one of their premium level products.

Cabling

The cabling for the power supply is provided within a canvas bag and its coating gives you every assurance that this will be both strong and flexible. If there is a criticism to be made of it, however, it would be that it’s not particularly long (roughly 40-50cm in length). As such, this might prove to be a bit of a problem if cable manage is a top priority in your system or if you have a particularly large chassis.

Without getting into the details of how it performed (more on that later) at least on a practical level, this is the only drawback of this power supply.

Internals – A Look Inside!

One of the main key features of a well made power supply can usually be determined by what it looks like on the inside. While we do not, of course, recommend anyone poking around in there, it is (as part of our review) an important step to see just how well (or poorly) a power supply has been put together.

At a glance, the Thermaltake Toughpower GF1 looks excellent. All the parts are well spaced out and there are no masses of cables sprouting everywhere.

Starting with the fan, this is a Thermaltake own 1425. As you might be able to tell from the design below, it does appear that this is an RGB capable fan, however, for this particular model, Thermaltake may have disabled that feature. This is, after all, all about being sleek and professional.

Advertising itself with 100% Japanese capacitors, we can confirm that the two main ones (which do the vast majority of the heavy lifting) are, indeed, Japanese. Being a Chemi-Con design (a well used and reputed brand), rated to 105c, these are exactly what you want to see!

Taking a closer look at the PCB, it again highlights the excellent design of this power supply. Thermaltake has clearly put a lot of effort into making this a clean and crisp design. One that we fully expect to be reflected shortly in those all-important tests!