Thermaltake Toughpower GF1 ARGB 850w PSU Review

A Closer Look

Out of the box, the power supply continues the predominantly black and silver styling associated with the ‘Toughpower’ branding. Despite the lack of any notable bells and whistles (at least, until the light show begins) it looks at a glance like a very solid and well built PSU.

In terms of styling, there are always limits as to what you can achieve with power supplies. In this instance, however, and in keeping with the Toughpower image, the power supply looks professional and incredibly sturdy!

There is, of course, some branding to the front of the fan and to the sides of the power supply. This is all very in-keeping with the overall ethos of the aesthetics. The branding doesn’t add much, but it certainly doesn’t detract either.

The main modular power bank is very well organized. As you can see below, this PSU carries the ‘back to back’ design which makes insertion (and particularly removal) a lot easier. You will, in addition, note the RGB lighting power adaptor to the bottom right corner.

The rear of the power supply has (perhaps surprisingly) quite a bit going on. It includes:

• The main power input
• The mains on/off switch
• The ‘Smart Zero’ fan control switch
• Manual RGB lighting controls for both color and mode.

Cabling

With it’s sleek and slim black design, the cabling for the Thermaltake Toughpower GF1 ARGB looks both tidy and durable. If there is a criticism to be made of it, however, it is the fact that they’re not particularly long (roughly 60cm). As such, if you are the owner of an unusually large case or wish to utilize some high-levels of cable management, this may become an issue. It’s, at least, something you may have to consider.

Internals – A Look Inside!

After opening up the Thermaltake Toughpower GF1 ARGB, the initial impressions are very good. It has a very clean and tidy presentation with no untidy cables to cause clutter or concern.

A closer look at the fan reveals it to be a Thermaltake TT-1425. This is a fan design we are very familiar with and is regularly used in Thermaltake’s more premium RGB products.

Despite all the RGB bells and whistles, Thermaltake has still managed to keep the PCB and components of the power supply very well organized. The main heat sinks have a nice just slightly off-central location which should help assist cooling. In addition, and, wherever possible, they should also keep that fan running at a bare minimum.

As it is one of the main noted features, it’s important for us to confirm that this does have Japanese capacitors. As you can see below, the two main capacitors are manufactured by ‘Nippon Chemi-Com’. A company which, as the name might have given you a hint, is indeed Japanese.

Overall Thoughts!

So far, the Thermaltake Toughpower GF1 ARGB is certainly ticking all the right boxes in regards to what we want and like to see from a power supply. Not that, incidentally, we expected anything different from this manufacturer.

So, I guess it’s time to see how this actually performs in a more practical application. Onto to the tests!