Tough Power – Thermaltake XT 775W PSU
Options for installing the power supply and cables
Thermaltake’s ToughPower XT 775 W PSU is an extraordinarily quiet PSU with an almost silent 140 mm automatically variable speed fan. It also features a short delay where the fan keeps spinning for about thirty seconds after the PSU is powered down, thus keeping its internal components cooler and likely lasting longer.
We note that Thermaltake’s ToughPower XT 775 W PSU can be installed so that the intake fan can be up or down. There are advantages and disadvantages either way. We have dropped screws inside the PSU when the fan faced up. As a tip, cover your open PSU with a cloth when you are adding a video card, for example. In the above example, we are using HD 5870 CrossFire in our Thermaltake Element G case and the best way to orient the PSU is this specific case is as shown so that the cool air is drawn from the bottom of the case and not from two hot video cards. Of course, the Element G case has superb airflow and we simply could not overheat that case.
There is one further disadvantage with the the PSU turned “upside down” (below) as we no longer see the three LEDs that indicate the PSU state. It is not so important unless you have a window in your case’s side panel.
If the fan is facing down, it draws air in from below the bottom of the case and exhausts it out the back of the PSU – outside of the case airflow completely. If the fan is facing up, it draws warm air from inside your PC and exhausts it out through the PSU back grille. We used the Element G’s built-in dust filter only with the Thermaltake’s ToughPower XT 775 W fan facing downward.
Facing downward with the fan drawing air in, the Element G’s built-in dust screen does not allow the PSU to become clogged with dust; however to keep the PS cool and with good air flow, the dust filter itself may need to be cleaned – especially if you are in a dusty environment. If the dust filter starts to clog with dust, simply tip your PC on its side and vacuum the dust away. You can also use a brush to loosen the dust, if necessary.
Note the back of the Thermaltake’s ToughPower XT 775’s grill (image below) which allows a free flow of air to cool your power supply unit’s internal components. If your case is extraordinarily hot, you might consider turning the PSU over and drawing cool air in from below the case (in modern case setups where the PSU is on the bottom of the case).
Do you ever wonder what is inside a quality PSU that differentiates it from other power supplies? Take a look:
Inside the Thermaltake’s ToughPower XT 775 W PSU we see one Japanese capacitor; not plural as the box indicates, so something was lost in translation. It features a single 64 amp 12 volt rail to handle most dual-videocard SLI and CrossFire configurations and it features all of the necessary components to support the complete stability of their unit.
Thermaltake has built a solid power supply unit that you can depend on from what we can see and from what we have tested. Lets wrap it up.
The Thermaltake’s ToughPower XT 775 watt PSU looks awesome and the specs are right on. So let’s test it under practical situations with gaming as well as extreme conditions with synthetic tests, using our overclocked Core i7-920 and our GTX 480 plus GTX 280 f0r PhysX. Then let’s get a little carried away with a more extreme situation. Our overclocked Core i7-920 and HD 5870 CrossFire sounds about right for a showdown with this PSU.
Last I checked, from 2010 to 1999 was eleven years, not twenty-one. Just saying