Thermaltake ToughPower TF1 1550W Power Supply Review

Efficiency

Coming as an 80-Plus Titanium efficiency-rated power supply, the Thermaltake Toughpower TF1 sets the bar as high as it can get in terms of providing you with value for money in terms of the power out of your wall socket and into your components. With such a high level of performance required, however, you will note that while it easily meets this in many regards, it doesn’t quite hit the 96% at 50% load. – For this, we have to go into something of a bit of an explanation and disclaimer on our own part.

While our PSU tester is entirely suited towards more consumer-grade power supplies, we have never before had one not only of this wattage output but also offering such an extreme level of performance. Put simply, the Thermaltake Toughpower TF1 was pretty much at the limit of what our tester can handle and, as such, we had to make a number of compromises not only to ensure that the power supply worked correctly, but also that we didn’t risk any damage to our testing equipment (PSU load test equipment is not cheap!).

We, therefore, fully expect that the Thermaltake Toughpower TF1 is, without a doubt, 100% worthy of its Titanium efficiency rating. However, the limits of our testing equipment just did not, in our honest opinion, allow this to be correctly born out in our actual results.

PFC (Power Factor Correction)

The PFC rating for the Toughpower TF1 Titanium 1550W was, like every single other Thermaltake PSU we have ever tested, exceptionally good. Hitting 0.978 at 100% load, this is, just in case you were not aware, an exceptionally high result. However, the overall fantastic nature of the PFC results are perhaps best demonstrated (somewhat surprisingly) in the lowest score. Achieving 0.89 at 20% load is, without a doubt, a ridiculously good result. We usually see most other power supplies at this level score something in the region of 0.82-0.85 (and sometimes lower). As such, the results from top to bottom here are just simply stunning!

Voltage Regulation

Given the exceptionally high wattage output of the Thermaltake Toughpower TF1, we have to admit that we were willing to accept that the voltage regulation might have offered a little higher than usual deviancy. In a total testament to the quality of this design, however, the results are amazingly consistent. As you can see across the 12V, 5V, and 3.3V, the scores throughout our 20%-100% load testing were amazingly consistent, resulting in an exceptionally low level of overall deviancy.

Yes, admittedly, the -12V did overvolt slightly. Again though, the results are amazingly consistent and given the overall low importance of this particular rail, and the relatively low numbers we’re talking about here, we will not let this detract from what is quite possible some of the best results we have ever seen here from any power supply design.