Introduction

We would like to thank Thermaltake for supplying the review sample.



We saw Thermaltake's first digital PSU last year, with the Toughpower DPS 850 W by Sirtec. It managed to satisfy us with its performance and earned a TPU recommendation; however, Channel Well Technology apparently offered them a better deal or higher performance, so the company switched OEMs and is now working with CWT for their new DPS G line. CWT managed to gather a significant amount of experience in the field through their cooperation with Corsair—probably the company with the most digital PSU experience at the moment—yet CWT still can't touch Flextronics since its platforms aren't fully digital.

With the DPS G line, Thermaltake has had a significant advantage over their major opponent, Corsair—until now. Corsair, offering a wider range of semi-digital units with capacities ranging from 450 W to 1050 W, has managed to cover a much larger area of the market. Note our use of the phrase "semi-digital" since all six members of the line only use their digital circuits for monitoring purposes, not to control voltages. These digital circuits essentially act as a bridge between the PSU's analog control circuits and the software on the user's system. Fully digital platforms are unfortunately still very expensive to design and build, so only Corsair's AXi units feature such control thus far. There was also EVGA's SuperNOVA NEX1500 Classified 1500 W by Etasis, but the platform wasn't up to the Flextronic's implementations and has now been discontinued because of its high price.

The flagship DPS G 1050 W unit with model number TPG-1050D-G will be the main subject of today's review. It features the 80 Plus Gold certification, a fully modular cabling design, only uses high-quality Japanese electrolytic caps and is compatible with DPSApp, giving users the monitoring capability for a wide range of data, including power consumption, voltages, amperage, etc. One of the app's most interesting features is its ability to not only monitor but adjust fan speed in either silent or performance mode. The TPG-1050D-G also has a rather appealing and, at the same time, unique look. Looks are definitely less important in a PSU, at least to us, but a nice external appearance surely doesn't hurt since many users even want their PSUs to look good.