PSU Inside

Opening this PSU is a big pain, and unless you have a reason (you don't) you should not do it. Aside from the hazard for your personal health there is a small sticker which sits over one screw. To release the screw you need to break the sticker and your warranty is gone.


Two screws on the sides are behind the Thermaltake metal plate. The plate is just glued in place but it bends permanently and there is no way to get it to look like new anymore. This is the first PSU that I encountered with extra screws on the side to keep the case shut, good.


The inside somehow looks like two PSUs inside one case. You can clearly see similarities between the components and the PCBs. Other than that all wires were routed cleanly, nothing can get into the fan blades.

Test Equipment

• The PSU is connected to an APC SmartUPS which supplies clean 220V input.
• AC current is measured using a Peaktech 4010 desktop RS232 multimeter with 0.02A accuracy.
• To measure DC output voltages of the PSU we use a Keithley 2700 6.5 digit data acquisition system. All three input voltages are measured at the same time using a solid state switching system.
• Power Factor is measured using a generic Power Efficiency Meter.
• Measurements for Ripple Voltage were obtained using a 100 MHz Tektronix TDS224 Digital Storage Oscilloscope.

Fan noise measurements are performed with an IEC Type 2 Sound level meter and this setup.
It consists of three high-power resistors and a Socket A motherboard. The motherboard creates a small load which makes sure the PSU turns on (some PSUs require a minimum load). Since there is no hardware installed in the motherboard, its power draw is negligible. The three resistors create a static load of 320W (120W @ 12V + 50W @ 5V + 150W @ 12V) - a typical high-performance system. This setup is also used to determine the power conversion efficiency of the PSU.