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

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.

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:

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

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