Thortech Power are a new company by GeIL. Does their new Thunderbolt Plus Power Supply Series deliver striking performance?

Product on Review: Thunderbolt PLUS 1200W
Manufacturer & Sponsor: Thortech Power
Street Price: £170 / $270

We first encountered Thortech Power back at CeBIT 2010. Thortech comes under the umbrella of Golden Emperor International Limited aka GeIL. Being a new company, Thortech isn’t a brand many have heard of but steadily awareness is building and it won’t be long before even your favoured retailer will be stocking their product-lines.

Today we will be taking a look at Thortech’s Thunderbolt Plus Series. The Plus series has a subtle difference under the hood – having a single +12v as opposed to a quad +12v rail on the non-plus versions. The Plus series also comes accompanied with the iPower Meter, an LCD screen that connects directly to the PSU to provide critical statistics and information. The Thunderbolt Plus is available in 800W, 850W, 1000W and 1200W variants, we will be taking a look at the latter – the 1200W.

About Thortech

If Thor is the God of Power, then Thortech should be considered the God of Power Supplies. Thortech is determined to bring to the market only the best blend of performance, efficiency, technology and value of Power Supply brand and products. Thortech Power’s R & D team has experience in designing innovative industrial level power supplies for over 15 years, such experience will be transferred to make first grade consumer level power supplies with high yield rate of 80Plus Gold level or higher efficiency performance. All of Thortech Power Supply products will carry a five year warranty and service policy to ensure the highest level of customer satisfaction. Computex 2010 brings the first chapter of Thortech Power in the power supply industrial history and it is just the beginning. Everyone at Thortech is ready to continue writing chapter after chapter of successful stories with you. “Thortech, throws nothing but power”.

Features & Specifications

Efficiency performance of up to > 90% with 80Plus Gold certification
Thortech Thunderbolt Plus Series provides High Efficiency performance with up to 90% at 115Vac and 92% at 230Vac

Single +12V rail design providing up to 100A(1200w)
Single +12V rail design can provide most compatibility to all high wattage requirement system.

iPower Meter: Industry’s 1st interactive PSU control panel chassis panel mounting 5.25”
The world’s first interactive PSU control panel with fan speed control which also provides critical PSU data such as efficiency, wattage, Voltage, current, fan RPM and PSU internal temperature

Modulized Cable Management
Providing a neat and efficient cable environment inside you chassis

Comply with all the latest Intel and AMD CPU
Ready for most high end Intel and AMD CPU generation

Designed to sustain at 50℃ ambient with full wattage output
All of Thortech PSUs have been burned-in in 50℃ chamber to ensure the best product reliability.

Active PFC circuit helps to provide perfect PF value >0.99
Providing an extremely high PF value, resulting an extremely high PSU efficiency.

Supports Intel ATX 12V V2.3 and EPS 12V V2.91 standards
All of Thortech PSUs comply with the latest Intel power supply design guide.

135mm Dual Ball Bearing Fan with smart fan control circuit to provide better system airflow

Support NVIDIA SLI & ATI Crossfire multiple graphic cards platform

Low ESR 105℃ solid state capacitors

Solid state capacitors can provide longer PSU life and better output quality.

– Dimension: 160 x 150 x 86mm
– Multi-Protection as OCP/ OVP/ OPP/ UVP/ SCP/ OTP
– MTBF: 120,000 hours
– Safety Approvals: cUL, TUV, CB, CE, FCC, C’tick, Gost-R, PSE CCC, BSMI
– 5 Year Warranty

Packaging & Bundle

Thunderbolt Plus is presented in a large, eye-catching box. Graphics and design has had serious consideration. This is no ordinary box. It opens out in a quite a complicated way and inside features many items.

Thunderbolt Plus packaging

Opening the box we can explore what items are included with Thunderbolt Plus. Thortech have included a multitude of included extras with Thunderbolt Plus, these consist of the following:

• Thunderbolt Plus 1200W PSU with cover
• Assortment of modular cables with carry case
• Power cable
• Instructions Manual
• Cable management straps
• PSU installation screws
• iPower Meter LCD Monitor

Many included extras within the bundle

Thortech include the iPower Meter with all Thunderbolt Plus PSUs. This LCD monitor when connected to the PSU can provide wattage, voltage, current, fan speed and thermal statistics on the fly. A handy inclusion that is absent from every other PSU on the market, thumbs up to Thortech for including this.

iPower Meter – providing a range of on-screen statistics

Due to the Thunderbolt Plus 1200W being modular there are a group of detachable cables included. These cables include the following:

• 4x PCI-E 2.0 (6+2-Pin) cables
• 3x Molex cables (6 connectors)
• 4x SATA cables (8 connectors)
• 1x Floppy (4-pin)
• Power cable

Included modular cables

A close inspection of the cable braiding/netting

Closer Look

Removing the PSU out of its sleeve we can finally check out the aesthetics. Thunderbolt Plus 1200W has a black exterior – the Thunderbolt graphics have been placed on either side of the unit so that whichever way you have the PSU installed in your case the writing will be facing the correct way.

An overview of Thunderbolt Plus

Thortech have equipped the Thunderbolt Plus with a 135mm fan. We will take a closer look at this in the next section. There is a circular honey-comb grille cover the outer region of the fan with the Thortech badge clearly visible.

135mm dual ball bearing fan

As with other PSUs the Thunderbolt Plus has a specifications label detailing maximum outputs and ampage for each of the rails within the unit. Due to this particular version being 1200W there is up to 100A available for the +12v rail meaning there is sufficient juice for multiple graphics card configurations.

Specifications label for Thunderbolt Plus 1200W

Being a modular PSU, Thunderbolt Plus has a modular panel that has 4 slots for dedicated +12v PCI-E cables (yellow) and another 4 for peripheral devices (black) such as HDDs, optical drives and other items.

Modular panel on Thunderbolt Plus

Whilst the Thunderbolt Plus does have its modular capabilities, it also has a collection of cables that are hard-wired into the unit itself. These include the following:

• Motherboard – 24-pin
• CPU – 8-pin
• CPU – 4+4-pn
• SATA – 4x connectors
• PCI-E 2.0 – 4x 6+2-pin

Group of hard-wired cables into Thunderbolt Plus

Internals

To get inside Thunderbolt Plus you will need a starbolt screwdriver. Opening up a PSU is something you should do at your own risk; the potential to damage components is extremely high.

Removing the cover, we have an overview of Thunderbolt Plus’ internal layout. Significant things to notice are that this unit features 3 heatsinks – the capacitors inside are Nippon Chemi-Con and are rated at 105°C.

The cover off – showing the internal structure and components

Thortech have chosen to use a 135mm dual ball bearing fan inside the Thunderbolt Plus unit. This fan is a Protechnic MGT13512XB-025 capable of up to 1800RPM with 100CFM.

135mm dual ball bearing fan

Testing Methodologies & Results

Our testing methodology for testing Power Supply Units is limited to the multi-meter to show each rails performance due to us not having access to an ATE load tester. We are making plans to invest in equipment as we were directed by Cooler Master when Simon visited their test labs in June 2010.

Although this does constrain us slightly we can still monitor fluctuations on the rails and give the unit a good assessment when we feature it in one of our builds. The way the testing will run is simple, voltages will be observed at idle wattage and then a single GPU will be installed within the system and a combination of OCCT and MSI Kombustor will be executed to provide simulation with just 1 GPU. This will be run for 10 minutes. After this another graphics card will be added to the system giving the setup a dual GPU configuration and again the stress tests will be applied and after 10 minutes voltages monitored. In both instances the CPU will also be overclocked to maximise power consumption and strain. This should give us a good indication of how the Thortech Thunderbolt Plus 1200W will perform under gaming stresses and beyond. Usually this test is performed on a unit with a rated wattage of less than 900W so this won’t be as severe a test on a 1200W model due to the sustained load from 2 GPUs.

System Components
CPU Intel Core i7 920 @ 4GHz
Motherboard ASUS Rampage III Formula X58
Graphics 2 x NVIDIA GTX 480 (SLI)
Memory 12GB Kingston HyperX 1800MHz CL9
HDD 2 x Samsung Spinpoint 500GB SATA-II
PSU Thortech Thunderbolt Plus 1200W

I deliberately configured SLI within this test system to give the PSU as much of a draw as it could take. We all know how Fermi is notorious for its big power draw! As I mentioned there is no ATE load tester available so generating as much power as possible is key to observing the fluctuations on the rails.

For voltage tolerance levels, ATX specify that a 5% variable fluctuation is acceptable. (Form Factors – ATX Specification PDF – Page 10). So what this means is:

3.3V Rail – 3.135V – 3.465V acceptable
5V Rail – 4.75V – 5.25V acceptable
12V Rail – 11.4V – 12.6V acceptable

Idle test – The system settles in windows without any applications or stressing. 1 GPU (216W)
Single GPU – OCCT/MSI Kombustor run for 10 minutes (420W)
Dual GPU – SLI is setup for 2 x GTX 480. OCCT/MSI Kombustor run for 10 minutes (753W)

As you will appreciate, the total output from a dual graphics card configuration with CPU overclock doesn’t generate anything near 1200W but even so – the results speak volumes for Thunderbolt Plus performance. 3.3V, 5V and 12V all remain within the realms of acceptable range within the ATX standards.

There were no sporadic voltage fluctuations or instability.

At 62% load the fan is noticeable. During full load with the test that was performed the fan did become quite noisy.

Conclusion

Choosing the right PSU is an important decision for the enthusiast because it is the backbone of any system. Buying an inferior, no-frills unit brings with it many consequences – some of which can be catastrophic. I’ve personally read of many stories of various individuals who have been strapped for cash and gone down this route, these cheaper units can often blow and when they do, they will take everything with it. So you may think spending all of your money on the core components like CPU, GPU, motherboard and then very little on the PSU is a good thing – this may change when it goes up in smoke!

Whilst Thortech may be fairly new to the PSU market, the parent company GeIL have a wealth of experience with component manufacture and are very thorough with their DBT testing. Our brief look at the Thunderbolt Plus today has revealed a good product in the 1200W PSU. From the packaging right through to performance we can report good findings. In particular the iPower Meter is a great inclusion – allowing you to know all sorts of statistics about the PSU, including thermals, voltages, currents and more!

Though we aren’t able to test every aspect of a PSU we did examine the Thunderbolt Plus voltage variance during real-world testing and the results were pleasing. All rails remains within the ATX specifications and fluctuations were only minor. The only real issue we found was the nosie levels emitted from the cooling fan during 65% load, it was noticeable and if you are on the pursuit for silence then this is obviously something to take into consideration.

Though there isn’t currently a retailer stocking the 1200W Thunderbolt Plus, consumers can expect this unit to be price at approximately £170 ($270) which isn’t actually that bad for a gold certified 1200W unit.

So the Thunderbolt Plus is a worthy option for those seeking to purchase some more needed juice for a multi-GPU system, its affordable, performs well and comes with some brilliant extras such as iPower Meter.

Pros
+ Good packaging
+ Plenty of bundled extras including iPower Meter
+ Good performance
+ 5 Year Warranty
+ Reasonable Price

Cons
– Noisy fan
– Unavailable to buy in most countries

Click here for an explanation of our awards at Vortez.net.

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