Thortech Thunderbolt Plus 1000W Power Supply Review

Introduction Thortech, GeIL's (Golden Emperor International Limited) power supply manufacturing division, have quite an extensive range of high-end power supplies. They mainly cater for the high end market focusing on those high end wattages like 800W, 850W 1000W and 1200W. Their Thunderbolt series includes the 1200W and 1000W models both of which we reviewed before here and here respectively. Thortech generally designate two models for each wattage: a Thunderbolt version and a Thunderbolt Plus Version. Today we have with us the Thunderbolt Plus 1000W. The difference between the Thunderbolt and Thunderbolt Plus versions are minimal, only the iPower Meter is a notable difference. Anyone who knows about GeIL will know that their brand has been involved in the making of industrial power supplies for over 15 years. This experience shines through with the Thortech Thunderbolt Plus 1000W PSU which boasts an impressive 83.33 amps on a single 12 volt rail, a semi-modular design, 80 Plus Gold efficiency and extensive use of Japanese capacitors throughout the design. Packaging and Contents Thortech's packaging is actually quite neat coming in a box with cloth carry handles at the top. The front points out the 5 year warranty and 80 Plus Gold certification. The back of the box has all the usual specifications as well as a helpful image of all the included cables and cable lengths. Included aside from the power supply, its modular cables and the iPower meter (which we will check out next) is a user's guide, some Thortech branded cable ties, case screws which include normal screws and thumbscrews and a power plug which will vary by region. While presentation isn't everything I thought I'd show you the bag the modular cables come in, the attention to detail is really nice here. A Closer Look - Exterior The unit is very compact measuring in at 150mm wide, 86mm high and 160mm deep. At 160mm deep this should fit inside most cases. You can see the top of the unit is dominated by a 135mm double ball bearing that has a Thortech logo attached. The bottom features the specifications table that denotes rail distributions and the part number. The cable end features a mixture of pre-fixed cables and modular connectors. The rear of the PSU has a kettle lead input, hexagonal mesh and a power switch. Both sides have the Thunderbolt Plus 1000W branding with the 80 Plus logo flipped in reverse orientations depending on how you choose to mount the PSU in your case. The pre-fitted cables are sleeved in a rather garish white and black thin sleeving.Beneath the cables you can easily see the multi-coloured electrical cabling so it isn't the most discrete or attractive unit on the market. The pre-fitted cables are a 24 pin, two EPS 8 pin and four 6+2 pin PCIe cables. These are 530mm, 580mm and 580mm long respectively. There is also a SATA strand with four connectors measuring in at 580mm + 150mm + 150mm + 150mm for each of the connectors. The thin black cable is a 6 pin power cable for the iPower Meter unit, it also carries data signals from the power supply to provide voltage, amp and efficiency read-outs on the display. The rest of the modular cables include four more 6+2 pin cables at 580mm long, six molex 4 pin connectors on two cables at 530mm + 180mm + 180mm long, one FDD connector at 180mm long piggybacking on a molex strand and eight SATA connectors on two cables at 480mm + 150mm + 150mm + 150mm long. As we mentioned already this PSU gets the "Plus" branding from the fact it comes with the iPower Meter. This allows you to view details about the watts/efficiency, voltage/amps, fan mode and internal temperatures in Celsius or Fahrenheit. On the back we can see this iPower Meter has a speaker and the input for the proprietary cable that comes pre-fitted to the power supply unit. A Closer Look - Interior The OEM for Thortech's Thunderbolt Plus 1000W PSU is High Power/ Sirfa. The PSU is based on a slightly old design that doesn't feature any advanced new power delivery topologies - like LLC resonant converters for example. The provided fan is 135mm in size and made by the OEM Globe Fan. The fan part number is RL4Z B1352512H-3M. The two main hold up caps are both made by Rubycon and are rated for 390 uF and 400V each up to a maximum operating temperature of 105 degrees celsius. Transient filtering starts at the AC receptacle with one X cap and two Y caps. The transient filtering continues onto the main PCB with one X cap, two more Y caps, two CM chokes and an MOV. Large black heatsinks provide cooling for the two parallel bridge rectifiers hidden beneath. There are no additional filtering capacitors provide on the modular PCB but there are Japanese Chemi-Con capacitors scattered all across the main PCB, rated for 105 degrees Celsius operation. Test Procedure At eTeknix we take the power supply testing procedure very seriously. For all power supply reviews we used a variety of Chroma machines and other digital power machinery provided by Enermax in their European test labs. We would like to say a huge thank you to Enermax for making this power supply testing possible. The test machinery included the following: A Chroma 6314A power supply load tester with two add on 6314 modules to support up to six 12 volt rails. A Chroma Digital Power Meter Model 66202 A Custom-made Enermax PCB circuit board to connect all the appropriate power supply cables A Tektronix TDS 3014C Digital Phosphor Oscilloscope A Voltcraft DT-10L Laser Tachometer The eTeknix test procedure involves: Testing each power supply at 20/40/60/80/100% load (with balanced load across all rails) and measuring PFC (power factor correction), efficiency (actual power divided by power "pulled at the wall") and voltage regulation (deviance from expected voltages of 3.3/5/12). Measuring ripple and noise with an oscilloscope at 20/40/60/80/100% load. Measuring voltage regulation and ripple/noise at Maximum 12v loads and maximum 3.3/5v loads while keeping the -12v and 5vsb consistently at 0.1A and 1A on the rail(s) not being tested. For example under 12v crossload we would load the 12v rail to its maximum and place 0.1A on the -12v and 5vsb as well as 1A on the 3.3v and 5v rails. Measuring fan speed after a stabilisation period of five minutes at each load scenario using the Voltcraft DT-10L laser tachometer and a reflective strip on the fan. Other things to consider are that We recognise that a single yellow 12 volt cable can provide only 6 Amps before overheating (which corrupts voltage regulation and efficiency) and so we used an adequate number of cables for each power supply. Our power supply tester was capable of only 50 Amps on the 12 volt 1 rail, 50 Amps on the 12 volt 2 rail and 25 Amps on rails 3-6. This meant that for single 12 volt power supplies with rail Amps above 50A we had to split them virtually over two rails to maximise their load on the PSU tester. There are no power supplies that we tested that have more than 50 Amps over two rails so this was only an issue for single 12 volt rail power supplies. We use the same time scale and horizontal millivolt scale on our oscilloscope for all noise and ripple tests. Deviance is the terminology used to represent the way voltages diverge from their expected values. Voltage Regulation To test voltage regulation we load the power supply to five different load scenarios that give an equal spread of load across every single rail. So that means 20% on all rails, 40% on all rails and so on. We then calculate the average deviance of each rail from its expected voltage. Power Efficiency Power efficiency is measured by calculating actual supplied wattage divided by the wattage drawn at the wall/plug, multiplied by 100 to give a percentage. We then compare that to the particular 80 Plus certification the company claims to see if it meets that. You can see the 80 Plus certifications below, we always test 230v power supplies. Power Factor Correction Power Factor Correction is the ratio of the real power flowing to the load, to the apparent power in the circuit. The aim of PFC is to make the load circuitry that is power factor corrected appear purely resistive (apparent power equal to real power). In this case, the voltage and current are in phase and the reactive power consumption is zero. The closer the number to one the better as this allows the most efficient delivery of electrical power (Source - Wikipedia). Noise and Ripple Noise and Ripple can easily be measured by an oscilloscope. These show how much voltage fluctuation there is on a particular rail. We tested the rail stability of the 3.3 volt, 5 volt and 12 volt rails using an identical time and millivolt scale for all graphs. The latest ATX 12 volt version 2.3 specifications state that ripple from peak to peak must be no higher than 50 millivolts for the 3.3 volt and 5 volt rails, while the 12 volt rail is allowed up to 120 millivolts peak to peak to stay within specifications. Load (%) 3.3V Ripple 5V Ripple 12V Ripple 20 40 60 80 100 Cross Loading Our cross loading procedure is designed to rigorously test the stability of the main two rail combinations. We push the maximum rated current and wattage through the 12 volt rail(s), and then through the 3.3 and 5 volt rails combined, and see if the power supply is capable of delivering its specification for those. However, meeting the specification is not enough, the power supply must also maintain strong voltage regulation and noise/ripple to have "passed the cross load test. The cross load test is a "worst case scenario" for the two main power delivery rail mechanisms (12v and 3.3+5v) and so the power supply will always deliver slightly lower than realistic/expected results. However, this is not necessarily a realistic test and it is just a case of pushing a power supply's rails right to their rated limits to see how well they can hold up. 12 Volt Cross Loading 5 and 3.3 Volt Cross Loading Fan Speed When testing in a power supply laboratory it is difficult to take fan noise readings as the noise from the Chroma corrupts everything. The next best thing in our circumstances was reading off the fan speed with a tachometer to get an idea for the noise. In the Enermax Europe PSU lab we had to do exactly that and we recorded the fan speed at each load scenario. The ambient temperature during testing held constant at 26 degrees, with 1 degree of variation. Each power supply had a consistent time period of 5 minutes to stabilise between each load scenario. In my experience the following general relationships apply between noise levels and fan speeds, though it can vary greatly between the type of fan used. Below 800 RPM - Inaudible/Silent 800 to 1000 RPM - Barely audible 1000 - 1200 RPM - Audible but still quiet 1200 - 1400 RPM - Moderately noisy 1400 - 1800 RPM - Noisy 1800 RPM or higher - Intolerable Final Thoughts Pricing Thortech's Thunderbolt Plus 1000W power supply has an MSRP of $239.99 but typically sells for around $224.99. In the UK the MSRP would be about £190-200 but it does sell for around £170-180. Of course these prices are based on the presumption that you can actually find stock of this power supply, stock is limited. Conclusion Thortech's Thunderbolt Plus 1000W power supply is another interesting product from Thortech. While the Thunderbolt Plus 1000W may not have all the performance of rival giants PSU vendors like Seasonic and FSP, Thortech do offer up an interesting variation from the usual OEMs. The power supply uses relatively tried and trusted technology and delivers solid results in all areas. We see strong voltage regulation, efficiency that meets its rated certification, reasonably high PFC performance and above average ripple & noise suppression. The Thortech Thunderbolt Plus 1000W PSU will deliver 1000W in a solid and clean fashion. The power supply itself is also a nice unit in terms of how compact it is for its relatively high wattage - 1000W in just a 160mm length PSU is very impressive. The included iPower Meter accessory is also a nice inclusion which is sure to appeal to a lot of enthusiasts though the unit itself isn't actually that accurate and while we do not have any exact figures it was as much as +-3%~ off in its voltage and amp readings. Of course that's still a decent level of accuracy and significantly more accurate than any software monitoring could provide, though the unit does tend to overestimate efficiency so we can't help but feel there is something a bit fishy about that. At its price point and as a whole we can't help but feel this power supply is average - certainly nothing special or out of the ordinary. As we mentioned the performance is pretty solid, I'd put it in the above average to good region. We can see that for such a pricey unit the PFC and noise & ripple suppression needs a lot of work. The voltage regulation and efficiency is pretty much spot on. The total noise output of the unit is also reasonably impressive though we feel a larger PSU enclosure would give the components more room to breathe and require a lower overall fan speed - that said 1400 RPM was the maximum we saw, which is moderate, and that was at 100%. As I mentioned with my previous Thortech 1200W Thunderbolt PSU review the cabling needs work. While Thortech have the cable lengths and number of connectors pretty much spot on, I think they need to pay more attention to detail on the presentation of the cables - I'm talking better quality sleeving and more neutral colours (like black) wherever possible. Or if they are going to go for the yellow and black colour scheme at least jazz it up a bit more and make it more consistent - yellow connectors and black cables or vice versa. Overall the Thortech Thunderbolt Plus 1000W PSU is definitely an above average unit if we just take it as a PSU alone. However, when combining its deficiencies with the rather high pricing this unit is relatively average in relation to the competition. There are plenty of other 80 Plus Gold 1000W power supplies out there on the market with better performance and lower price tags. The Thortech unit does benefit from a 5 year warranty which does set it apart from some of the competition though I'm not sure how many people will trust that given the way Thortech burst onto the PSU scene in 2010/2011 with a bang and have since fizzled out to almost nothing. In fact I sometimes wonder if Thortech even still make power supplies given their products are out of stock at most retailers across the world. Yet I always seem to see Thortech active at trade shows, they were participating in Computex 2013 and have sponsored several gaming events in 2013. They certainly are a strange brand but if you can pick up a Thortech Thunderbolt (Plus) power supply for a good price then there is no reason at all to doubt its quality. Pros Solid voltage regulation 5 year warranty Abundant connectors and good cable lengths Compact design High quality components iPower Meter device - nice extra Cons Ripple suppression wasn't that impressive Priced uncompetitively iPower Meter device isn't that accurate Cable sleeving needs some work PFC could be stronger "The Thortech Thunderbolt Plus 1000W power supply performed well in our tests and is a solid power supply capable of delivering 1000W of stable power. With a 5 year warranty, abundant connectors and the nifty iPower Meter the Thunderbolt Plus 1000W PSU is a good basis of any high end system. Yet the price and performance relative to the competition does leave something to be desired. This PSU is definitely worth considering if you can grab a good deal." Thank you to Thortech for providing this review sample.