Rosewill Fortress Platinum 450W

Rosewill is a familiar name here at AnandTech. It's Newegg's in-house brand, through which they sell products such as notebook accessories, peripheral equipment, cases and power supplies. Their stated goal is to "bring quality hardware and affordable prices together". In most cases they really care about the pricing, but today we will review one of their more expensive high-class offerings. Not long ago we tested their Gold PSUs, which also belong to this classification; the new products go one step further.

The Fortress series from Rosewill has four different versions, all with 80 Plus Platinum certification and non-modular cables. We'll be focusing on the 450W model in this article as this rating is interesting for the largest number of potential buyers. Japanese capacitors and a single 12V output are just two out of many features. Let’s see how the unit performs and whether it is able to surpass their Capstone series.

Gigabyte Z77X-UP4 TH Review: Thunderbolt Times Two

Now that the exclusive license Apple had for Thunderbolt has expired, since Computex 2012 we have seen a number of motherboards destined for PCs with a Thunderbolt connector.  Thunderbolt on a motherboard is still an added luxury, adding some $40 to the cost of the board to the user, though that can pale in comparison to the cost of Thunderbolt devices and storage.  Despite all this, Gigabyte’s foray into the Thunderbolt world is initiated in part by the board we are reviewing today – the Gigabyte Z77X-UP4 TH.  Using the Z77 chipset we get a motherboard with two Thunderbolt ports, but it also has the enhanced power delivery brought about by Ultra Durable 5.

Gigabyte Z77X-UP4 TH Overview

Like many Gigabyte boards in the Z77 range, there are very few issues with the Ivy Bridge platform in Gigabyte’s hands.  Due to MultiCore Enhancement, CPU performance matches that of other Gigabyte and ASUS products this generation, and the Z77X-UP4 TH comes with the two major additions – a two port Thunderbolt controller, and IR3550 ICs to help with the power delivery.  As we saw on the Gigabyte X79S-UP5, these ICs do help with power consumption assuming the cost can be justified.

Visually, the board does look a little empty with smaller heatsinks, a gap left for an mSATA drive and some empty IO, but we do have a classic three-way PCIe device implementation such that with an Ivy Bridge processor, the board can run x16/-/-, x8/x8/- or x8/x4/x4 in PCIe 3.0 mode.  We lack any extra SATA ports, with only those provided by the chipset being used, and the back panel uses only USB 3.0 – two from the chipset and four from a VIA VL800 controller.  The other two USB 3.0 ports that the chipset provide are used for an onboard USB 3.0 header.

In terms of extra hardware and controllers beyond the chipset standard, we are hard pushed to find anything special beyond the Thunderbolt controller – sure there is a USB 3.0 VIA VL800 chip, but the audio is a Realtek ALC892 and the Ethernet is a Realtek 8111.  The iTE chips onboard give us access to a combination PS/2 port and a COM port as well.  But the lack of extra SATA ports is perhaps a little strange for a UP4 product.

Performance on the Z77X-UP4 TH comes on par with the other Gigabyte motherboards tested.  This is due to the fact that the Z77X-UP4 TH enables MultiCore Enhancement when XMP is enabled, as per our standard testing methodology.  This gives our test bed an extra 200 MHz under full threaded load, which benefits all CPU intensive tasks.  Power consumption, due to the use of IR3550 ICs, is low compared to most Z77 motherboards we have tested, and the third PCIe 3.0 slot at performs well with a PCIe 3.0 GPU plugged in.

The only question mark comes down to the price.  Thunderbolt and Ultra Durable 5 are, to quote a famous brand, ‘reassuringly expensive’.  Thunderbolt adoption in the PC market is quite low right now due to the lack of competitive pricing, so having two ports on board for up to twelve devices is a bit overkill.  This limits the Z77X-UP4 TH more into a niche target segment.  Though if you have 6-12 TB devices, then this is a nice board to consider.  For all other usage scenarios, your $190-$200 might be worth investing in a Z77X-UD5H.

Visual Inspection
One of the benefits of using the IR3550 ICs in the power delivery is that because each one is rated up to 60 amps, this means fewer phases are needed on board.  Having fewer phases means saving energy and cost, but also results in smaller heatsinks, especially when we consider the IR3550s have unique IP to help keep cool.  This reduction in the number of phases along with the smaller heatsinks gives the socket area of the Z77X-UP4 TH a lot of room.  Almost every air cooler under the sun should fit on this motherboard, even a NoFan.  (Actually, the NoFan will probably impinge on the memory slots, requiring low profile memory).