Thortech Thunderbolt Plus 850W Review

Final Thoughts

Pricing

The Thortech Thunderbolt Plus 850W has an MSRP of $170-200 USD., that’s a UK street price of about £130-150. As always the product is like trying to find a needle in a haystack and is out of stock at every major retailer I checked with.

Conclusion

The Thortech Thunderbolt Plus 850W power supply is similar to other Thortech units we’ve tested in terms of performance. As a high performance power supply unit it has everything you could need – solid voltage regulation, excellent efficiency, reasonably quiet operation, very good ripple suppression and a (semi)modular design for easy cable management. Our results do not need to be explained more than that because this power supply is just a good solid performer. The only part of its performance that was feeble was the PFC but that isn’t a deal breaker for most people, though it still represents an area of potential improvement for Thortech.

Moving away from performance let’s address a few other things. Firstly – the price. The price is simply uncompetitive. You can pick up 80 Plus Gold 850W units for as low as £100, much lower than the £130-150 Thortech’s Thunderbolt 850W Plus costs. There are a lot of other more premium units from reputable brands selling in the £110-150 area – such as units from Enermax, Corsair, NZXT, Seasonic and so on. Sure the Thortech Thunderbolt Plus 850W offers up the nifty iPower Meter device but does that warrant the extra over other brands? I think not. Thortech offer a Thunderbolt 850W which ditches the iPower Meter to be slightly cheaper but again availability on that unit is non-existent and pricing is almost on parity with the MSRP of the Plus model when stock can actually be found. We think if Thortech ever want to make an impact on the market they need to get their pricing down to competitive levels and ensure stock is maintained. So again I’m lead to a similar conclusion as other Thortech products – the product is good but the price isn’t. And it isn’t just the price but the whole brand experience – no one knows if Thortech are even still an operational, the brand has a pitiful presence and market reputation, I’ve  also heard my fair share of horror stories about people not being able to access any warranty support for the supposed 5 year warranty Thortech offer on these PSUs. As far as I can tell Thortech still operate, their website is still online and they still post on their Facebook page. I would be cautious about buying one of these units unless you can pick it up for a bargain or know how to repair it yourself if something goes wrong.

Pros

• High efficiency
• Reasonably quiet operation
• Good ripple suppression
• 5 year warranty (if honoured…)
• Good selection of cables and connectors with long lengths

Cons

• Poor PFC
• Not the best sleeving in terms of quality or aesthetics
• Uncompetitive pricing
• Pitiful brand presence of Thortech

“The Thortech Thunderbolt Plus 850W power supply delivers a glimpse of what Thortech can offer. The spark of promise shown by the quality and performance of the product is quickly extinguished by the lacklustre pricing, MIA nature of the Thortech brand and total absence of stock at any major retailers. “

Thank you to Thortech for providing this review sample.