Thermaltake Toughpower GF1 ARGB 750w PSU Review

A Closer Look

The Thermaltake Toughpower GF1 ARGB has a nice solid appearance out of the box. Despite the RGB bells and whistles, this has a really professional look. One that immediately lets you know that this has been well designed and put together.

One of the first thing that grabs your attention is the main exhaust fan which has the Thermaltake logo to the centre. While it is prominent, it’s not overly garish and nicely adds to the overall aesthetic.

The power cable input bank is really well organised. Perhaps surprisingly you are not given masses of ports to connect to, but this does make sense. It is, perhaps, a little strange that you have more cables than connection ports. As far as we’re concerned, however, this is an absolutely perfect number.

In addition, the back-to-back design also allows for easy insertion and removal. A factor which is always nice!

The rear panel to the model supply contains the main power input (as you might expect) as well as the main controls for the power supply. With a zero-fan switch and two manual colour controls, Thermaltake has everything you could want here while still allowing plenty of room for ventilation.

The underside of the power supply has all of the technical specifications of the power supply listed. Although this will not mean much to the vast majority of consumers, it’s still nice to see it here and being listed so clearly.

Overall, we really like the design here which in fairness is one that Thermaltake (largely) uses for all of its Toughpower products. It’s solid, professional and speaks of a power supply that has been really well designed.

Cabling

As noted earlier, 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 big problem if cable manage is a top priority or if you have a particularly large chassis.

Internals – A Look Inside!

Internally, the Thermaltake Toughpower GF1 ARGB has a really nice clean presentation. This is particularly (and pleasantly) surprisingly given how to accommodate the RGB effects to the fan, there are 4 cables (from the fan) leading to the main power supply.

A closer look at the fan gives you an insight into some of the inner workings of the Thermaltake Riing Duo fan which is, without a doubt, one of the best RGB fans currently on the market.

Designed to provide some impressive RGB lighting, low noise output is also a key feature which Thermaltake has achieved via their patented design.

A closer look at the main power supply PCB shows a very tidy presentation. In addition, the heat sinks located to the centre should provide some excellent coverage for the fan to cool them as efficiently as possible.

One of the main key features of this power supply is that it has 100% Japanese capacitors. While this is true, there is an unusual quirk here. For reasons unclear, while the two main capacitors are indeed Japanese, they are different brands. Specifically a Chemi-Con and a Nichicon.

While this isn’t necessarily concerning, it is definitely strange to see two different branded main capacitors used. Particularly since (as far as we could ascertain) they both have the same specification.

RGB Lighting

The RGB lighting effects to the Thermaltake Toughpower GF1 ARGB are, quite simply, fantastic. The colours offered via the Riing Duo fan are both bright and vivid and remarkably can add (particularly with the motherboard sync settings) a new level of customisation to a system build.

A closer look at the fans shows just how excellent they are. With 12-led lights pushing out some amazing colours, this would surely be enough to turn the head of even the most ardent RGB haters out there.

While it does perhaps sound a little crazy that power supplies can some with RGB lights today, they do add a whole new level to a system build that people who take it seriously will love. Yes, it’s not the most prominent part of your system build, but Thermaltake is, at least, offering something here that very few (if any) other brands do!