Page 3 - Physical Look - Inside
As always, we opened up our Thermaltake Toughpower GF1 Snow 750W 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 Snow 750W 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. The overall layout is once again very similar to the Toughpower GF1 1000W, which is not too surprising.
Starting with the transient filter stage, there is a total of two X-capacitors and four Y-capacitors near or around the AC receptacle. This is two times the amount of X and Y capacitors than recommended. In addition, we have two ferrite coils and one metal oxide varistor. The MOV helps with suppressing voltage spikes. Considering some modern-day PSUs have missing MOVs, I am happy to see it here.
On the primary side, we can see two Japanese brand capacitors; one from Nichicon and one from Toshin Kogyo. 100% Japanese brand capacitors are specified on the marketing material, so this is to be expected. Our 750W version of Thermaltake's latest Toughpower GF1 Snow series power supply incorporates one 390µF x 400V capacitor and one 470µF x 400V capacitor for an equivalent capacitance of 860µF x 400V. They are rated at 105c; whereas more value-oriented power supplies usually use 85c rated capacitors.
The active PFC circuit featured on the Thermaltake Toughpower GF1 750W uses two GBU1510 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 Great Power GP28S506 power transistors; one on each side of the larger heatsink. Each is certified for up to 28A at 100c. These transistors present a typical resistance of 125 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 two Champion CMS6024 switchers attached to it. Each is certified for up to 11.4A at 100c. These transistors present a 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 main switchers. Champion's CM6901X is the switching controller. The Champion CM6502UHHX and CM03X are part of the APFC controller circuit.
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. Six Infineon BSC014N014LS MOSFETs are responsible for generating the +12V output, located on an add-in board immediately after the transformer. The BSC014N014LS' rated continuous drain current is 125A at 100c. 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 four UBIQ Semiconductor QM3006D on another add-in board. Each QM3006D is certified for up to 80A at 25c. These transistors present a maximum resistance of 5.5mΩ and typical resistance of 4.7mΩ at 10V when turned on according to the manufacturer's data sheet. The PWM controller is the On-Bright OB5269. 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 Snow 750W 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 Snow 750W 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 Snow 750W'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
