Thermaltake Toughpower PF1 650W Power Supply Review

A Closer Look

Out of the box, the initial impressions for the Thermaltake Toughpower PF1 are certainly good with it having a nice sleek professional aesthetic. Exactly what you want to see from a high-quality PSU design.

The top of the power supply has a nice large vented section with the cooling fan located directly beneath. With its nice central location, this provides a nice aesthetic and especially so with the well-sized Thermaltake logo to the center.

While there is branding evident on the Thermaltake Toughpower PF1 to the top and sides, overall, it’s well-spaced and sized in a manner that adds to the overall visual presentation rather than detracts. As noted above, the overall impression, as per the ‘Toughpower’ branding, is on professionalism rather than any kind of over the top showmanship.

Although a very subtle feature, you may notice small vented sections to the side panels of the Thermaltake Toughpower PF1. This is certainly unusual as most power supplies usually only have two vented areas (to the top fan area and at the rear exhaust). More ventilation, however, is certainly not a bad thing and particularly so given that this PSU does have a hybrid ‘zero fan’ mode functionality to reduce its overall acoustic output.

Surprisingly, when compared to prior Toughpower power supplies, the cable input bank is a little cramped meaning that if you were to start filling this up (presuming you have a fairly elaborate PC system), it could get a little tricky for those with less than nimble fingers. With each section being clearly noted for its use, however, everything looks good here! – I’m not going to lie though, I wish those ports were a little more spaced out.

The exhaust section of the Thermaltake Toughpower PF1 is excellent with pretty much all the available space for ventilation being utilised. You will note, as per the picture below, the inclusion of the manual control for the ‘Smart Zero Fan’ functionality which, for those of you unaware of this design feature, sets the fan to only operate when absolutely necessary. An ideal addition for those of you who truly value near-silent system operation!

Finally, the bottom of the power supply has a sticking denoting all of the technical power delivery specifications. While this will undoubtedly have zero interest or application to the vast majority of you, it’s still helpful to see it there and, of course, get confirmation of the single +12V rail design.

Cabling

The cabling for the Thermaltake Toughpower PF1 is of a nice quality with a flat black plastic protective sheathing. Admittedly, this doesn’t offer a huge amount of protection and certainly not when compared to braided solutions. For me though, I prefer to compromise a little on going over the top with an unnecessarily thick protective coating for the far more practical and beneficial feature of simply having better flexibility to weave them through your case to give you, all going well, some nice cable management.

Internals – A Look Inside!

The initial internal presentation of the Thermaltake Toughpower PF1 is definitely good with a clean and tidy design with very little untidy cabling noted. Better still, there are no alarmingly eye-catching colours on display that is usually indicative of good quality components.

A closer look at the fan reveals this to be a Thermaltake own TT-1125 design. We have seen this utilised within many of their power supply products in the past and have never failed to be impressed with its performance. In fact, the only mild note of interest is that it appears Thermaltake has changed the labelling to something a bit more… flashy than what we’ve become accustomed to.

The PSU PCB is excellent well presented with all of the major components being well spaced which should, by proxy, allow for a good level of heat control and particularly when when this is operating in its ‘Smart Zero RPM’ fan functionality mode.

As per Thermaltake’s features, we can confirm that the two main capacitors are Japanese coming from ‘Rubycon’, a well-known and respected manufacturer. Rated to 105C, this is exactly what you want to see inside a quality power supply model!

Overall Thoughts!

Admittedly, for us the Thermaltake Toughpower PF1 is a little boring as we’ve effectively seen this power supply (under its various alternative branding systems) many times over the last 2-3 years. This isn’t, however, any kind of criticism as by and large Thermaltake has been one of the most consistently impressive manufacturers when it comes to our testing process.

With this in mind, therefore, while we already know that the Thermaltake Toughpower PF1 is going to provide us with some excellent results, it would be rude of us not to try it out!