Thermaltake ToughPower TF1 1550W Power Supply Review

A Closer Look

Out of the box, the Thermaltake Toughpower TF1 1550W presents itself as a sleek and stylish power supply. There has been no utilisation of any unnecessary decorations or overly garish branding and this helps build an immediate impression that this is a professional-grade power supply!

The top section of the power supply is well presented with a well-sized Thermaltake branding location to the center. It’s a smart placement as, coming in line with the fan below, this shouldn’t provide any obstruction of airflow. – The vents to the grill are well-sized meaning that this should allow for a very decent about of airflow to be drawn in.

The cable input bank is exceptionally well designed which each power section being clearly denoted for its particular usage. Yes, this is admittedly an area where it’s hard (from a consumer standpoint) to go wrong, but features such as this do add a ‘foolproof’ aspect to the overall design.

Each insert is very well spaced and you’ll note that, where possible, a ‘back to back’ system has been deployed. This helps to ensure not only easy cable insertion but also removal.

The exhaust section of the Thermaltake Toughpower TF1 1550W has a decently sized ventilation area meaning that there should be a good level of airflow maintained throughout this section. You’ll also note a few smaller vent sections surrounding the power switch and mains input, which is certainly a nice addition. Most manufacturers probably wouldn’t have bothered to do this based upon the likely relatively minor performance boost it would bring. Remember though, this is a Thermaltake Premium product!

You’ll also note the inclusion of a ‘Turbo Mode’ switch. Now, just to clarify, this is not a hybrid function control. In fact, quite the opposite. When depressed, this switch effectively turns the fan into a permanently 100% speed state. Now, given that the fans run at 2,400RPM, this is clearly something you may not want to use. For extreme overclockers, however, who will undoubtedly be pushing their PSUs hard, this should help ensure the maximum level of cooling performance possible.

While there is branding and product information provided on Thermaltake Toughpower TF1, it’s well-sized and generally fits in well with the ethos of a professional-grade product. While its exceptionally potent specifications clearly don’t make this an ideal choice for general PC gaming consumers, it’s still hard to deny that this shouldn’t look out of place in whatever job it ends up doing!

Cabling

Thermaltake provides you with more than enough cables to successfully hook up even the most elaborate of PC setups. The cables themselves come in a sleek black flat design and, in terms of length, are more than generous enough to ensure that not only do you have good levels of flexibility, but that cable management in even some of the largest or most unforgiving PC chassis designs shouldn’t be a problem.

Internals – A Look Inside!

For such an amazingly potent power supply design, the PCB for the Thermaltake Toughpower TF1 1550W is exceptionally well presented with components not only appearing to be very of very high quality but also in the fact that despite the limited space inside, there are plenty of gaps to allow for excellent levels of airflow between them.

The Toughpower TF1 Titanium 1550W utilises a huge 140mm cooling fan solution. A closer look reveals this to be a Thermaltake own TT-13525 model. A design that we have not personally encountered before in any of their more consumer-grade level PSU designs. Given that this is clearly a performance-based power supply, however, with its absolutely huge top speed of 2,400RPM (in terms of 140mm fans), this should provide a huge amount of air that’ll help keep everything inside nice and cool even when working at full tilt!

As one of the key features of the Thermaltake Toughpower TF1 1550W, we can confirm that the three main capacitors used in this design are indeed 100% Japanese and come from an exceptionally reputable manufacturer. Rated to 105C, this is exactly what you expect to see in a ‘premium-level’ power supply design, and, all going well, these will help the power delivery translate into some exceptionally positive results in our testing.

Overall Thoughts!

The Thermaltake Toughpower TF1 1550W definitely presents itself, both inside and out, as a no-nonsense professional-level power supply, and based on everything we’ve seen so far, this definitely has all the potential of being the perfect PSU solution for consumers who like pushing their overclocking to the limits! – How it looks, however, is only one piece in this puzzle. So, with that in mind, how well does it perform? Well, let’s get this monster hooked up to our tester and see what happens!