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Thermaltake Purepower TWV480 PSU
Author: JonnyGuru
Date Posted:01/05/2005 12:47.37
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Bottom Line:
Initially it appears to be a very capable power supply..... but when you entice the buying public with bling and gizmos, slap a 400W label on it, and then bundle a 20-to-24-pin adapter, you invite disaster.
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Observations
So the TWV has less bling than the Butterfly and more...
well... bling. Instead of lights and a window, we have an LED that
tells us a number that's supposed to be the wattage of the power supply. This
is useful to know if you want a 15 second running start prior to your power
supply blowing up. We also get a bonus fan and a control knob for said
fan and the power supply fan. 
As with the other PurePower, we are given a bunch of toys to "sweeten" the
deal.
Two fans in "Thermaltake Orange" cool the TWV480.
The fans are very quiet, but once
the power supply was pushed, the fans spun at full RPM, which was VERY
loud, and wouldn't spin back down
even after I lowered the load. Not until I tured the power supply off
did it quiet down!
Ok. Maybe my SunMoon isn't picking up the load created by the PSU fans,
and the TWV dashboard is....
I really wish Thermaltake could have put something USEFUL
on the dashboard, other than "total watts." Like voltage,
or maybe even watts per rail. Then again, Thermaltake is selling a
480W power supply with only 18A available on the 12V rail. The client
base for this unit is obviously more concerned with "total wattage" then
more useful numbers.
...but that wouldn't explain getting a LOWER number with the dashboard. Hmm....
Oddly enough, the "Total Watts Viewer" never matched
up the total wattage indicated by my tester. If the numbers were
always a little higher or always a little lower, then I could easily assume
a logical explaination. But sometimes the reading would be high...
sometimes low. No rhyme or reason. At least the numbers were
never more than 6% off from each other.
This unit looks just like the other PurePower we took a look at, except for
the large circuit board to the left.
The added circuit board has to do with the Active PFC, as do the smaller
than normal caps. Don't be judgemental. It's normal to see
half-sized caps in active PFC power supplies.
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