You Must Choose... But Choose Wisely

Ah, the heartbeat of the machine.  The driving force that sends every pulse of electricity and every turn of the fan.  The most important part of the computer and the most dangerous part are one.  I’m talking about the power supply.  Without it, every other part of your computer is just a bunch of silicon, wire, and metal sitting in a box.  It must be reliable, it must be powerful, and it must look good.  Well, that’s the consensus these days, isn’t it?

Thermaltake has tossed us another bone with the TR2 RX 750-Watt power supply.  It looks great, its 750 watts strong, and today I’ll find out how reliable it is.  Thermaltake doesn’t disappoint very often, and I have high hopes for this particular piece of hardware.  I’m going to be testing it on my usual testing rig, a 2.9Ghz Athlon 64 X2 dual core with 2GB of 800Mhz RAM.  I also have six 120mm case fans all running at once, two DVD-RW drives, two SATA HDDs, and an ATI 4870 video card.  Normally, this setup would warrant at least a 500W power supply, so the TR2 should have no trouble keeping up.

Before we go into the box, here’s a little info on the PSU:

FEATURES

• ATX 12V V2.3 &  EPS 12V 2.91 enables most reliable and robust power delivery.
• Guarantee to deliver 750W of continuous power output at 40?
• Robust and dedicated single +12V output provides superior performance under all types of system loading.
• 80 PLUS® Standard Certified: 80% or more efficiency at 20%, 50%, and 100% load.
• Double forward ultra-efficient circuitry design for added power savings.
• Ultra-quiet 140mm cooling fan delivers excellent airflow at an exceptionally low noise level by varying the RPM in response to temperature.
• Universal AC input 115V~240V automatically scans and detects the correct voltage for different countries.
• 99% Active Power Factor Correction provides clean and reliable power to your system.
• Cable Management improves internal airflow by reducing cable clutter within PC to promote accelerated heat removal.
• Intel® & AMD CPU compliant.
• Nvidia® & ATI/AMD graphic card compatible.
• Dimension: 150mm(W)x86mm(H)x160mm(L).
• High reliability: MTBF>100,000 hours.
• Built in industrial-grade protections: Over Current, Over Voltage and Short-Circuit protections.
• Safety / EMI : UL/ CUL, TUV, FCC, CE and BSMI certified.

SPECIFICATIONS:

	Wattage 750 watts Fan 140mm 2200 RPM ± 10% Hold-Up Time 16ms Switches ATX Logic on-off additional power rocker switch Power Good Signal 100-500ms Form Factor ATX 12V 2.3 & EPS 12V 2.91 Dimension 6.3 x 5.9 x 3.3 inches (L)x(W)x(H) 160 x 150 x 85 mm Warranty 5 Years AC Input Input Voltage 115 VAC~240 VAC Input Current 115 VAC / 10 amps max 230 VAC / 5 amps max Input Frequency Range 50 ~ 50 Hz MTBF > 100,000 hours Protection Over-Voltage Protection Over-Current Protection Over Load Protection Over Temperature Protection Under Voltage Protection Short Circuit Protection

On the next page we look at the included goodies...

<< Back to the Reviews

Page 1 of 4 1 : You Must Choose... But Choose Wisely 2 : A Closer Look 3 : Testing 4 : Conclusion

A Closer Look >>