Installation:

Installing a power supply is quite simple - fasten it using the four included screws, plug it in to the wall, and route the wires to the components inside your case. Included for your viewing pleasure is a comparison of the Thermaltake Toughpower XT 750W power supply we are reviewing today versus the OCZ Technology EvoStream 720W that used to power the test system. As you can see the Toughpower unit packs thirty additional watts of power within a smaller footprint than the older EvoStream power supply.



Test System:

The specifications of the system used to benchmark the Thermaltake Toughpower XT 750W power supply are listed below:

» Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo E6400 Conroe 2.13GHz (Overclocked to 3.32GHz)
» Motherboard: ECS PN2-SLI2+ nVIDIA nForce 680i SLI
» Memory: 2x1GB Crucial Ballistix Trace PC2-8500 DDR2 (5-5-5-15 timings)
» Video Card: nVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT
» Case: Antec P160 Performance One
» Harddrive #1: Maxtor DiamondMax 21 SATA 300GB
» Harddrive #2: Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 SATA 400GB
» Harddrive #3: Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 SATA 1TB
» Optical Drives: 2x CD-RW, DVD-ROM
» Operating System: Windows XP Professional

Testing:

The Thermaltake Toughpower XT 750W power supply was evaluated using the standard Bigbruin.com power supply test methodology. For comparison purposes the Thermaltake Toughpower XT 750W power supply test results are compared to the OCZ Technology EvoStream 720W.

We begin by recording the idle performance of each power supply. Idle performance is evaluated using the Seasonic Power Angel and a Craftsman multimeter to record idle voltages on the 12V, 5V, and 3.3V rails. Load is evaluated similarly however a Seasonic brand "loader" is connected to the system, which adds up to 150W of additional load on the 12V and 5V rails. The system is then evaluated using the Seasonic Power Angel and voltages are recorded as the system runs a combination of Folding@Home (2 instances) and 3DMark06 all running at the same time. Every two minutes the values of the three rails are recorded for a total of thirty minutes. Results for each of these tests are described below.

The first chart is a plot of the 12V rail voltages during the load test for a period of thirty minutes. We are looking for a constant voltage with little fluctuation. As you can see the Thermaltake Toughpower XT 750W stays very close to 12.12v for the duration of the test. The OCZ Technology EvoStream by comparison fluctuates over a much wider range. Both units are operating within specification.