Page 3 - Physical Look - Inside
As always, we opened up our Thermaltake Toughpower XT Platinum 1275W power supply to take a detailed look at what is going on inside. Please note that doing this at home will void your seven year warranty, thanks to the warranty seal Thermaltake applied over one of the attachment screws. But for the benefit of you, we cracked ours open so you don't need to, haha. There are no user serviceable parts inside.
Disassembling the Thermaltake Toughpower XT Platinum 1275W is a little more complicated than other power supplies, but straightforward nonetheless. Simply remove five screws on the bottom, along with two screws hidden by the label on each side, and you are on your way. Built by Channel Well Technology (CWT), our photo above shows an overhead view of its internal components. At first glance, the build quality appears to be pretty good, as one would expect from the OEM. Its components are well organized for optimal cooling and reduced heat congestion as well. There are three main heatsinks inside the power supply; they are all quite low profile and flat at the top.
A quick pull with the top cover off, 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 done a great job in the past to make sure their power supplies met or exceeded the recommended requirements, and the CWT built Toughpower XT Platinum series is certainly no exception. The Thermaltake Toughpower XT Platinum 1275W has two ferrite coils, one metal oxide varistor, five metalized polyester X-capacitors, and six ceramic Y-capacitors. That is five times the amount of X capacitors and three times the amount of Y capacitors than recommended. Considering how many 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. Heck, they even have a copper EMI shield at the input. I am not entirely sure if this actually makes a difference, but I am sure it could not hurt, haha.
On the primary side, we can see two Japanese brand Nippon Chemi-Con capacitors connected in parallel. Japanese brand capacitors are usually what we expect from something in this price range, so this is nothing surprising. Our 1275W version of Thermaltake's Toughpower XT Platinum incorporates two 560µF x 400V capacitors for a total capacitance equivalence of a single 1120µF x 400V capacitor (Remember that values add up when capacitors are hooked up in parallel, unlike resistors). These units are rated at 105c; whereas more value oriented power supplies usually use 85c rated capacitors.
The active PFC circuit featured on the Thermaltake Toughpower XT Platinum 1275W 1000W uses three Diodes Incorporated GBU1006 glass passivated bridge rectifiers, and is controlled by a Texas Instrument UCC28070 two-phase interleaved CCM PFC controller. At 115V, the maximum rectified forward current capacity with heatsink is 10A for each diode, so you can theoretically pull up to 3450W (10A * 3 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 are able to keep up. Of course, the goal of having three rectifiers is not necessarily for big power, but for big efficiency. One Cree Inc. CSD10060 silicon carbide Schottky diode and one Infineon IPW60R099CP power transistor are used on each of the parallel interleaved active PFC circuits on the Thermaltake Toughpower XT Platinum 1275W power supply. Four Infineon SPW35N60C3 power transistors are attached to a dedicated heatsink. Each Infineon IPW60R099CP MOFSET can deliver up to 19A at 100 degrees Celsius continuously. These transistors present a maximum resistance of 0.09 ohm when turned on; with a typical resistance of 0.099 ohm according to the manufacturer's data sheet. The Infineon SPW35N60C3 MOSFETs can deliver up to 21.9A at 100 degrees Celsius continuously; with a maximum resistance of 0.1 ohm, and a typical resistance of 0.081 ohm. 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 secondary side, we can see more Nippon Chemi-Con 105c capacitors. I am pleasantly surprised by this, as most companies usually resort to cheaper Taiwanese 85c units for secondary capacitors. A row of solid state capacitors can be seen as well. As with modern high efficiency power supplies, all rectifiers produces 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. The +12V rail is generated by a total of twelve Infineon IPD031N06L3G power transistors. Each of them is capable of delivering 100A at 100 degrees Celsius continuously, with a maximum resistance of 0.0031 ohm, and a typical resistance of 0.0025 ohm.
The DC-to-DC converter has one ANPEC APW7159 synchronous buck PWM controller, four M3004D, and four M3006D power transistors for its rectification and DC +3.3V/+5V output process, respectively. I cannot find any information on the M3004D and M3006D on the internet, so I have no idea what its specifications are. I even tried to match the logo marking on the chip, unfortunately, even the name of the manufacturer cannot be found, haha. Meanwhile, a Silicon Touch PS229 IC provides over/under current and over/under voltage protection on the vertical PCB.
At the back, we have a large daughterboard covering the entire rear panel for the modular cable sockets. After the secondary stage, all the wires lead into the secondary board, as shown in our photo above. The output voltage generation process is completed voltage regulator modules on the modular PCB to further improve efficiency. The output connector configuration can be seen on the previous page. Overall, the internal build quality of Thermaltake's Toughpower XT Platinum 1275W power supply is pretty good -- certainly an overbuilt power supply purely based on parts selection. Components are arranged beautifully for optimal cooling with minimal wires running around inside, and solder points on its black PCB is very clean in general. I would say the Thermaltake branded, CWT built Toughpower XT Platinum 1275W is very commendable with regards to the selection of components used under the hood.
Lastly, we can see a large 140mm fan that provides cooling to the Thermaltake Toughpower XT Platinum 1275W's internal components. It is connected to the PSU via a daughterboard using a 2-pin connector. This is the largest fan you can fit in a standard ATX power supply. With an overhead design, it can provide lots of airflow at lower speeds for quiet operation in most cases. Yate Loon is the fan OEM, but branded as a Thermaltake TT-1425B, as shown in our photo above. Do note that the TT-1425B is completely unrelated to the TT-1425 found in the Thermaltake Toughpower Grand 1200W. Further research indicates the TT-1425 -- a rebranded D14BM-12 -- is a ball bearing fan specified at 0.7A with a maximum of speed of 1400 rpm. The rated airflow is 62.0 CFM at 29 dB of noise. Yate Loon is known for making fans that are quite appealing to quiet PC enthusiasts from our past experience, so I think this is great news.
Page Index
1. Introduction, Packaging, Specifications
2. Physical Look - Outside
3. Physical Look - Inside
4. Minor Tests and Conclusion
