Thermaltake 750W TR2 RX Power Supply Review

Ah, the heartbeat of the machine.  The driving force that sends every pulse of electricity and every turn of the fan.  The most important part of the computer and the most dangerous part are one.  I’m talking about the power supply.  Without it, every other part of your computer is just a bunch of silicon, wire, and metal sitting in a box.  It must be reliable, it must be powerful, and it must look good.  Well, that’s the consensus these days, isn’t it?

Thermaltake has tossed us another bone with the TR2 RX 750-Watt power supply.  It looks great, its 750 watts strong, and today I’ll find out how reliable it is.  Thermaltake doesn’t disappoint very often, and I have high hopes for this particular piece of hardware.  I’m going to be testing it on my usual testing rig, a 2.9Ghz Athlon 64 X2 dual core with 2GB of 800Mhz RAM.  I also have six 120mm case fans all running at once, two DVD-RW drives, two SATA HDDs, and an ATI 4870 video card.  Normally, this setup would warrant at least a 500W power supply, so the TR2 should have no trouble keeping up.

Before we go into the box, here’s a little info on the PSU:

FEATURES

• ATX 12V V2.3 &  EPS 12V 2.91 enables most reliable and robust power delivery.
• Guarantee to deliver 750W of continuous power output at 40?
• Robust and dedicated single +12V output provides superior performance under all types of system loading.
• 80 PLUS® Standard Certified: 80% or more efficiency at 20%, 50%, and 100% load.
• Double forward ultra-efficient circuitry design for added power savings.
• Ultra-quiet 140mm cooling fan delivers excellent airflow at an exceptionally low noise level by varying the RPM in response to temperature.
• Universal AC input 115V~240V automatically scans and detects the correct voltage for different countries.
• 99% Active Power Factor Correction provides clean and reliable power to your system.
• Cable Management improves internal airflow by reducing cable clutter within PC to promote accelerated heat removal.
• Intel® & AMD CPU compliant.
• Nvidia® & ATI/AMD graphic card compatible.
• Dimension: 150mm(W)x86mm(H)x160mm(L).
• High reliability: MTBF>100,000 hours.
• Built in industrial-grade protections: Over Current, Over Voltage and Short-Circuit protections.
• Safety / EMI : UL/ CUL, TUV, FCC, CE and BSMI certified.

SPECIFICATIONS:

	Wattage 750 watts Fan 140mm 2200 RPM ± 10% Hold-Up Time 16ms Switches ATX Logic on-off additional power rocker switch Power Good Signal 100-500ms Form Factor ATX 12V 2.3 & EPS 12V 2.91 Dimension 6.3 x 5.9 x 3.3 inches (L)x(W)x(H) 160 x 150 x 85 mm Warranty 5 Years AC Input Input Voltage 115 VAC~240 VAC Input Current 115 VAC / 10 amps max 230 VAC / 5 amps max Input Frequency Range 50 ~ 50 Hz MTBF > 100,000 hours Protection Over-Voltage Protection Over-Current Protection Over Load Protection Over Temperature Protection Under Voltage Protection Short Circuit Protection

On the next page we look at the included goodies…

Well, that was a mouthful.  Glad I didn’t have to pull all that out of my own arse.  Could have been time-consuming.  Anyway, it’s time to open the box and see what’s what.  The outside of the box is plain white with pictures of the PSU and the TT logo on the front.  The bottom states all the information from above as well as more pictures.  Not an eye-catching box, but straight to the point.  I like it.  Opening the top, we find the PSU wrapped in bubble wrap with the instruction sheet folded on top of it.  Two black boxes share the inside of the box as well, one marked POWER CORD and one marked CABLE SETS.

This PSU is modular, so all but the most necessary cableswill be in the latter box.  Unwrapping the PSU from its protective cocoon, I get to see it in all its glory.  The casing itself is a deep gunmetal gray with THERMALTAKE embossed on the side.  The extra large 140mm fan takes up nearly all of the bottom (or top, if your PSU mounts in the bottom of your case) and has direct air flow to the integral parts underneath.  On the side with the cables, the ones that are permanently affixed are tied back with a twist tie.  Four modular ports for Molex, SATA, and FDD are colored in black and share the same area as the red PCI-e connections.

Using the provided set of screws, installation was a snap.  It’s only four screws, and if you’ve never done it before, and have the option, always install your PSU before you install anything else in the case.  It’s a pain in the rear to have to replace a broken heatsink or entire motherboard, not to mention your PCI/PCI-e cards, simply because your hand slipped and you dropped the damned power supply.  Not worth it.

Okay, once the PSU is installed and hooked up with the necessary modular cables, we can move on to the testing portion of our show.  All tests were performed using a multitester to get accurate readings from the lines, including any dangerous fluctuations that might occur and destroy your components.

The system I am testing on includes the following:

Motherboard	MSI K9A2GM-FIH AMD Motherboard
Processor	AMD Athlon 64 X2 2.9Ghz dual core processor
RAM	4GB 800Mhz DDR2 Samsung RAM
Video Card	Sapphire 4870 Toxic Video Card (read review)
HDD	1GB Western Digital 7200RPM SATA HDD
Power	Thermaltake TR2 RX 750W
Case	NZXT Gamma Case (read review)
OS	Windows 7 Ultimate
Thermal Compound	Arctic Silver 5

At idle, the TR2 RX got readings of 3.22V, 4.97V, 12.0V on the 3.3V, 5V, and 12V rails.  We were only able to push a 500W maximum load on this test, which definitely doesn’t push this PSU to its limit, the TR2 RX was getting readings of 3.18V, 5.11V, 11.56V at load.  The only major fluctuations occurred on the 5V rail during the load test, with a ripple of nearly 3.3%.  Not many computers would be able to put this kind of stress on a power supply rated at 750W, so chances are that you wouldn’t see this variation in your home PC.  We have read how this PSU has died when running at full load, but we were unable to verify this finding.

	Thermaltake TR2 RX 750W Test 12v 12v variance 5v 5v variance 3.3v 3.3v variance Thermaltake TR2 RX Idle 12.0 0% 4.97 1% 3.22 2% Ultra X3 800W Idle 11.9 1% 4.92 2% 3.21 3% Corsair TX-750W Idle 12.3 1% 5.18 1% 3.29 1% Thermaltake TR2 RX Load 11.56 4% 5.11 1% 3.18 4% Ultra X3 800W Load 11.87 2% 4.86 3% 3.15 5% Corsair TX-750W Load 12.32 1% 5.21 1% 3.29 1%

On the next page, Judge Mental declares his findings…

Concluding, the Thermaltake TR2 RX 750W is power supply is pretty good all things considered.  The high variation during load is nothing to be worried about in my opinion unless you are running a 24/7 powerhouse in your case.  Most of us turn our computers off at night anyway, or at least put them to sleep.  As for the noise, it could be worse, but it could be better.  I personally have six 120mm fans running in my case at all times.  If the noise from a fan is all I have to sacrifice to make sure my components stay cool, then so be it.

As mentioned earlier, some people have found that this PSU can’t handle full load.  While we couldn’t verify this finding, we did notice how the variance and ripple increased with the load.  Coupled with the average internal components, I wouldn’t find this possibility unbelievable.  This unit costs $110 online, and for that price you can find a higher quality PSU like the Corsair TX line.  Thermaltake makes great power supplies, but this mid-range line performs a little lower than an enthusiast should expect.

All in all, I was satisified with what I came up with and what the TR2 RX had to offer for an average build.  Constant stability right up until max load, and did do a great job of keeping its own internal components cool.  I’ve seen better power supplies, but I’ve also seen much, much worse.

	REPORT CARD : Thermaltake TR2 RX 750W PSU category rating comments Quality 4 Not top-of-the-line internal components, but well built Innovation 3 Pretty standard stuff for a modular power supply Performance 3 Higher variance than we’d like to see Installation 5 Modular cables make this thing easy to install and route cables. Value 2 You can find better power supplies for the same price FINAL VERDICT: 3 out of 5 stars