Introduction Thortech Thunderbolt Plus 1000w
Thortech are a very old company, they have been bringing you top notch power supplies for many years. One such power supply is what we have here for you, the new Thortech Thunderbolt 1000w “Plus” edition. The Thortech Thunderbolt, an interesting name, but will its boastful name live up to its marketed claim, well I’m not going to spoil it for you but it certainly does. The Thunderbold offers great features such as a top quality build, modular cables and great performance while ultra silent. Read on to find out more about the Thunderbolt.About Thortech
If Thor is the God of Power, then Thortech should be considered the God of Power Supplies. Thortech is determined to bring to the market only the best blend of performance, efficiency, technology and value of Power Supply brand and products. Thortech Power’s R&D team has experience in designing innovative industrial level power supplies for over 15 years, such experience will be transferred to make first grade consumer level power supplies with high yield rate of 80Plus Gold level or higher efficiency performance. All of Thortech Power Supply products will carry a five year warranty and service policy to ensure the highest level of customer satisfaction. Computex 2010 brings the first chapter of Thortech Power in the power supply industrial history and it is just the beginning. Everyone at Thortech is ready to continue writing chapter after chapter of successful stories with you. “Thortech, throws nothing but power”.Thortech Thunderbolt 1000w Specifications
Efficiency performace of up to > 90% with 80Plus Gold certificationThortech Thunderbolt Plus Series provides High Efficiency performance with up to 90% at 115Vac and 92% at 230Vac
-Single +12V rail design providing up to 83A(1000w)
Single +12V rail design can provide most compatibility to all high wattage requirement system.
-iPower Meter: Industry’s 1st interactive PSU control panel chassis panel mounting 5.25”
The world’s first interactive PSU control panel with fan speed control which also provides critical PSU data such as efficiency, wattage, Voltage, current, fan RPM and PSU internal temperature
-Modulized Cable Management
Providing a neat and efficient cable environment inside you chassis
-Comply with all the latest Intel and AMD CPU
Ready for most high end Intel and AMD CPU generation
-Designed to sustain at 50℃ ambient with full wattage output
All of Thortech PSUs have been burned-in in 50℃ chamber to ensure the best product reliability.
-Active PFC circuit helps to provide perfect PF value >0.99
Providing an extremely high PF value, resulting an extremely high PSU efficiency.
-Supports Intel ATX 12V V2.3 and EPS 12V V2.91 standards
All of Thortech PSUs comply with the latest Intel power supply design guide.
- 135mm Dual Ball Bearing Fan with smart fan control circuit to provide better system airflow
-Support NVIDIA SLI & ATI Crossfire multiple graphic cards platform
- Low ESR 105℃ solid state capacitors
Solid state capacitors can provide longer PSU life and better output quality.
-Dimension: 160 x 150 x 86mm
-Multi-Protection as OCP/ OVP/ OPP/ UVP/ SCP/ OTP
-MTBF: 120,000 hours
-Safety Approvals: cUL, TUV, CB, CE, FCC, C’tick, Gost-R, PSE CCC, BSMI
-5 Year Warranty
Packaging
There is a non-Plus version available with less features and extras but we have for you today the Plus PSU version, of which you get the following:
Note: the Plus version comes with unfortunately the EU two pin power cable.
Contents
Cable ties, manual, 4 x screws. Also included are the various cables and adapters, which have been listed in the next page. What was amusing to me, was the unusual case they were in as you can see. I really did fall in love with this "mans DIY tool kit" they were in, what man wouldn't.
1000w Plus PSU
Opening up the box and taking the PSU out, it is nicely covered in a black fabric, initially stating itself in the high end PSU market as this is always what the higher end products cover their PSU’s in. Thortech are clearly here to make the statement that they are back are providing only the highest quality of products.
The 1000w PSU features a matt black panel design and looks very 2011, having all the mesh airflow features that all high end PSU’s offer in their design. As for the units size it is the normal average dimensions, it is only slightly longer than say one of Antec’s high current power PSU’s which are very high end by about 10mm, but as you see from the features and specs, the PSU does seem to offer more features on protection and heat reduction inside.
Here the continued picture tour around the full PSU so you can get a good look at this high quality build, and you can see 2 x 8-pin modular ports and 2 x 6-pin modular ports. The PSU features the classic nylon cable management.
Included with the “Plus” version is a Led backlit digital monitor, which allows you to monitor the PSU’s temperature, fan speed, voltage lines, wattage AMPs, and efficiency. You may be thinking , is this really necessary, but it is something not many other brands offer you that often, and it is good because it makes sure your are constantly kept in the know with how your system is performing, which is a really good idea.
iPower Meter
Non-Modular Cables
Testing
Test Bench| Motherboard | ASRock Z64 Extreme GEN3 |
| CPU | Intel core i7-2600K (3.4GHz) |
| RAM | GeIL EVO Corsa CL9 2133MHz (2 x 4 GB) |
| Graphics Card | Asus ATi Radeon HD 6970 2GB |
| Hard Drive | Plextor SSD 120 GB |
| PSU | Thortech Thunderbolt Plus 1000w |
| CPU Cooler | Thermolab Trinity |
Methodology
At HardwareLOOK our Power Supply tests consist of three main
factors: Noise, Stability and Efficiency. All these tests are conducted
at both idle and load states. Efficiency is also tested at standby as
well to draw a suitable conclusion.
In order to effectively test power supplies, an expensive artificial
load tester called ATE load tester, is required in order to accurately
test rail voltages. We do not use one of these so instead we use real
world applications such as Furmark to stress test the whole system and
drain as much power out of it so that we can see fluctuations in the
rails and we can monitor stability of the rail voltages to see which
power supplies are more efficient. The we present to you in an some easy
to digest results that give a reasonable indication to a power supplies
rail stability.
For rail voltages to be stable and acceptable, you should not differ
by more than 5%. Meaning that from each rail, they can differ from the
following and be acceptable:
3.3V Rail - 3.135V - 3.465V
5V Rail - 4.75V – 5.25V
12V Rail - 11.4V – 12.6V
Results
With the iPower meter you are able to manually increase the fan speed
of the unit. As you can see below the increase in PSU fan speed will
decrease your PSU temperature by 0.5 of a degree.
iPower Fan Results:
| RPM | Temperature | |
| Idle @ Celsius | 808 | 21c |
| 1455 | 20.5c | |
| RPM | Temperature | |
| Load @ Celsius | 808 | 21.5c |
| 1455 | 21c |
The rails voltages have stayed extremely stable throughout the testing. The 5 volt rail could be just slightly better but it is still well in the acceptable level, and the 5v rail is the most common one to change.
Wattage Efficiency
The next test is to find out if the PSU is efficient. We test for
efficiency by finding the power factor rating using our testing
equipment. The higher the PF (Power Factor Rating) is the better.
Another way we test efficiency is by measuring the amount of watts used.
This chart shows how much watts are being used while on idle and
load. This chart shows how efficient the PSU is because the lower the
wattage, the less power the unit requires.
For a 1000w power supply and this system test bench the results for
the wattage have come out outstanding. For example, when we reviewed the
OCZ 1000w ZX Series power supply, we had a weaker system spec on a AMD,
that would supposedly draw out less power, but was giving out higher
wattage levels at idle which is worst, and it wasn’t powering an
external iPower Meter.
PSU Efficiency (Essentially Power Factor)
The Thortech iPower Meter is a very special thing, it a very handy
gadget to have with a PSU. The iPower Meter is able to give us the exact
efficiency level on the PSU. Normally to get this we would test and
measure the Power Factor to get a result, but the measure on the iPower
Meter is even more accurate. Efficiency was as follows.
The Power Factor is out of 100, if a PSU ever reaches 100, it is the ultimate and most efficient PSU.
The PSU is an 80PLUS Certified product and it has done well in showing this. As they say, “It does what it says on the tin.”
Conclusion
To sum up this review for the Thortech Thunderbolt 1000w PSU, it’s not hard to say after the performance results of the units great, and low wattage level that the Thunderbolt power supply is a great product to have installed and powering your high end system. The stability levels for the voltage rails for the unit are extremely stable even with the most demanding equipment. To note as well, that the power supply is also extremely quite. It comes with loads of cables and adapters for them making it very versatile.The Thortech iPower meter is a great addition to this PSU and really raises the bar for power supplies, it’s most likely that we will now start seeing all higher end power supplies having a external digital power read out. If you have a gaming case with say a fan control setup, possible a digital water cooler monitor, plus adding the iPower meter to your case, you machine externally will look like one of the most advanced pieces of kits for PC on the market to date.
source:www.hardwarelook.com
