Page 3 - Physical Look - Inside
As always, we opened up our Thermaltake Toughpower GF1 1000W power supply to take a detailed look at what is going on inside. Please note that doing this at home will void your 10-year warranty, thanks to the warranty seal Thermaltake applied over one of the attachment screws. It is great it comes with a 10-year warranty, which is the industry standard for performance PSUs. For the benefit of you, we cracked ours open, so you do not need to. There are no user serviceable parts inside.
Opening the Thermaltake Toughpower GF1 1000W is quite straightforward with the removal of six screws. Taking out the internal components from the enclosure requires the removal of more. Our photo above shows an overhead view of its internal components. Its OEM is Channel Well Technology or CWT, a reputable OEM since 1993. It features an LLC half bridge topology with DC-to-DC converters. At first glance, the build quality appears to be excellent. There are two main heatsinks inside and almost no wires. One big and one small heatsink are located on the primary side, both of which are painted black.
Pulling the enclosure apart and we got straight to the internal inspection. The transient filter stage is the first input stage of a computer power supply, so we will take a look at that first. Thermaltake has always done a great job in the past to make sure their higher end power supplies met or exceeded the recommended requirements, and the Toughpower GF1 1000W is no exception. The Thermaltake Toughpower GF1 1000W has one metal oxide varistor, two metalized polyester X-capacitors, four ceramic Y-capacitors, and two common mode chokes. This is two times the amount of X and Y capacitors than recommended. Considering some modern-day PSUs have missing MOVs, I am happy to see it here as this component is used to stabilize spikes from the AC line.
The active PFC circuit featured on the Thermaltake Toughpower GF1 1000W uses two Diodes Incorporated GBJ1510 glass passivated bridge rectifiers on both sides of the smaller heatsink. At 115V, the maximum rectified forward current capacity with heatsink is 15A each, so you can theoretically pull up to 3450W (15A * 2 diodes * 115V) from the bridge rectifier at 100% efficiency. Of course, this is limited by the fact that it is not 100% efficient and also neglects the fact that not every component in the system is able to keep up.
Further down the line, we can see two Infineon IPW60R125P6 power transistors; one on each side of the larger heatsink. Each is certified for up to 19A at 100c. These transistors present a maximum resistance of 125 mΩ and typical resistance of 119 mΩ when turned on according to the manufacturer's data sheet. This on characteristic is called Static Drain-Source On-Resistance, or commonly abbreviated as RDS(on). The more efficient the component is, the lower the RDS(on) value, since it wastes less power with lower resistance.
On the same heatsink, there are three Infineon IPP50R140CP power transistors attached to it. Each is certified for up to 15A at 100c. These transistors present a maximum resistance of 140 mΩ and typical resistance of 130 mΩ when turned on according to the manufacturer's data sheet. An Infineon IDH10G65C6 Schottky diode is placed next to one of the IPP50R140CP power transistors. Champion's CM6901X is the switching controller. The Champion CM6502UHHX and CM03X are part of the APFC controller circuit.
On the primary side, we can see two Japanese brand capacitors; one from Nippon Chemi-Con and one from Nichicon. 100% Japanese brand capacitors are specified on the marketing material, so this is to be expected. Our 1000W version of Thermaltake's latest Toughpower GF1 series power supply incorporates one 680µF x 400V capacitor and one 470µF x 400V capacitor for an equivalent capacitance of 1150µF x 400V. They are rated at 105c; whereas more value-oriented power supplies usually use 85c rated capacitors.
On the secondary side, we can see more Japanese brand capacitors from Nippon Chemi-Con and Nichicon rated at 105c. As with modern high efficiency power supplies, all rectifiers produce the +12V out, while the +5V and +3.3V outputs are generated from the +12V output using a DC-to-DC converter within the power supply unit. Eight International Rectifier IRFH7004PbF MOSFETs are responsible for generating the +12V output, located on an add-in board immediately after the transformer. The IRFH7004PbF's rated continuous drain current is 100A at 25c. It has an RDS(on) value of 1.4 mΩ maximum and 1.1 mΩ typical at 10V. The +5V and +3.3V outputs are generated by two UBIQ Semiconductor QN3107M6N and four UBIQ Semiconductor QM3054M6 MOSFETs on another add-in board, shown in the above photo. Each QN3107M6N is certified for up to 22A at 25c. These transistors present a maximum resistance of 2.6 mΩ and typical resistance of 2.1 mΩ at 10V when turned on according to the manufacturer's data sheet. Each QM3054M6 is certified for up to 16.6A at 25c with a maximum resistance of 4.8 mΩ and typical resistance of 3.8 mΩ at 10V when turned on. On-Bright Electronic's OB5269 is the PWM controller. Meanwhile, a Sitronix ST9S429-PG14 monitoring IC provides over/under current and over/under voltage protection. The datasheets for all components mentioned in this review can be found on their respective manufacturers' websites.
At the back, we have a large daughterboard covering the majority of the rear panel for the modular cable sockets. All modular sockets at the bottom are soldered directly to the main PCB after the secondary stage. Pin headers join the mainboard and daughterboard to reduce power transmission loss. The output connector configuration can be seen on the previous page. Overall, the internal build quality of Thermaltake's Toughpower GF1 1000W power supply is very good -- something we would expect from a CWT-built unit. Components are arranged very well for optimal cooling with almost no wires running around inside, and solder points on its black/green PCB is quite clean in general. I would say the Thermaltake Toughpower GF1 1000W is generally very good with regards to the selection of components used under the hood.
Lastly, we see a 140mm fan that provides cooling to the Thermaltake Toughpower GF1 1000W's internal components. It is connected to the main board using a 2-pin connector. A 140mm fan is the largest you can fit in a power supply with a bottom mounted fan, and if not a lot of heat is being generated, noise will be kept to a minimum. The model of the fan is Thermaltake TT-1425, as shown in our photo above. Further research indicates the TT-1425 A1425L12S is a hydraulic bearing fan specified at 51.15 CFM, 1.58mmH2O, 28.1 dB(A), and 0.30A for a maximum speed of 1400 RPM.
Page Index
1. Introduction, Packaging, Specifications
2. Physical Look - Outside
3. Physical Look - Inside
4. Minor Tests and Conclusion
