Review: ThermalTake Smart 430W Power Supply

Posted by Ed Smith

Monday, 30 January 2012 03:38

Article Index
Review: ThermalTake Smart 430W Power Supply
Specifications and Features
The Box, The PSU, The Accessories
Testing Procedure and Results
Ripple Testing
Dissection and Component Specs
Verdict and Conclusion

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Introduction

Thermaltake sent me a box full of power supplies, so now I'll review them! At 430w this is the lowest capacity unit that showed up. The ThermalTake Smart 430W Power Supply is aimed at the value market, and should be affordable yet powerful enough to satisfy users who's on a tight budget.

tt430-box-front-better

Thermaltake's Smart series is looking to put a dent in the budget-but-still-good unit market, it's a very tough market balancing quality with low price. Without further ado, lets launch into things!

First, Thermaltake says that their Values and Principles are thusly:

"Values & Principles

- While still a relatively young company, established in 1999, Thermaltake is built on unwavering will and dedication to address issues and innovate at the same time for computer enthusiasts and corporate users worldwide .

- With strong support of Research & Development team standing behind the brand, Thermaltake is committed to never-follow but always-lead.

- In past decades, the industrial and technological advancements in different fields have shaped the world we live in today and have also made a big impact on the environment. Thermaltake takes great measures to ensure the product that we produce relieve these impacts by being first to act on 80 PLUS® specification for computer power supply that greatly reduces the amount of electricity that a computer consumes.

- Always striving to be the best, we continuously benchmark our performance against the very best internally and externally.

- Customers are our greatest asset and Thermaltake does not take that for granted. That is why Thermaltake is the industry leading in customer service and customer support with around-the-clock automated product return service."

tt430-PSU-sideshot

Power Supply Testing Methodology

Unlike most computer parts, power supplies require rather specialized equipment to test correctly. Sure, you can plug it into a computer system and see if it can run a 980x and a couple GTX580s, but that doesn’t tell you how much power the PSU is putting out, nor what that output looks like. Worse, if the unit is defective or simply underbuilt/overrated the unit can fail catastrophically and take your computer along with it!

Purpose built loads and the testing units to run them cost thousands of dollars. They’re easy to use and very accurate and definitely the ideal way to test power supplies, but also entirely too expensive for me to afford. Instead I have built my own! It’s entirely mechanical and not automated in the slightest, but it can put a serious load on a PSU and will survive the PSU fails in the process.

For more on this, read on!

Now lets not waste any more time and check out the features and specifications of the ThermalTake Smart 430W Power Supply