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The Thortech Thunderbolt Plus 1200W has been named to instill imagery of a hammer wielding Norse God showering down lightning on his enemies. However in the real world it is a decent, well built power supply. We also like the small physical size, which means it will fit into a variety of systems without problem.
The inclusion of the iPower meter device is a talking point, and if you are the kind of person who likes to play with gadgets then it is certainly worth installing into a drive bay at the front of a case. Just don't be expecting to read close to real results, as it proved highly inaccurate during our testing.
On a positive note the supply managed to deliver over 1,300 watts and did so without a problem, but there are some issues under the hood.
The Thortech Thunderbolt Plus 1200W technically is a fairly good unit, although there are areas of weakness which mean it won't be winning one of our top awards today. Voltage regulation is decent for a 1,200w power supply although there is quite a drop on the +12V and +3.3V output, especially when tasked with an intensive cross loading test.
Noise/ripple suppression is below average, and we recorded 75mV on the +12V output at full load which while within rated tolerance parameters, is higher than we would like from such a high end unit.
Noise emissions are also higher than I would have expected. At full load, the large fan spins very fast which subsequently produces a significant level of noise. Granted, there will be few instances when you are pulling 1,200watts from the socket, but even at 800Watts, the Thortech Thunderbolt Plus 1200W is clearly heard.
The balance of hard wired to modular cables also disappoints me. There are too many hardwired cables and moving some of these to the modular panel would have helped improve cable routing in a wider cross section of system builds.
Overall, we think this is definitely worthy of a shortlist, however with the Seasonic Platinum 1000W Modular, BeQuiet! Dark Pro 10 1200W and Corsair Professional Series AX1200i currently available it is difficult to wholeheartedly recommend.
Pricing in the UK is around the £230 inc vat mark. With the Corsair Professional Series AX1200i available for only £10 extra, we see no reason to buy the Thortech Thunderbolt Plus 1200W. If it dropped to under £200 then it would make for a more viable purchasing decision.
Pros:
- Small physical size is practical.
- good build quality.
- delivered over 1,300watts
- iPower meter is a cool addition.
Cons:
- better units available for close to same price from Seasonic, Corsair and BeQuiet!
- can get noisy
- ripple suppression isn't the greatest.
- iPower readings are inaccurate.
Kitguru says: A decent power supply, but it is currently overpriced.
Not bad, but yeah its outclassed by others, so the price needs to drop to reflect that.
If anyone is buying this, I recommend AMAZON as they have a great returns policy,. I dont know how the warranty would work in the UK
for those who dont know, this is under the ‘GEIL’ umbrella……
This is one of the worst power supplies ever made it literately has so much ripple it will ruin all your components. You have lost any credibility with me saying this is worth considering. Look at what TTL customs / overclock3d said on this for actual honest indepth review.
James – seems to get quite a lot of good reviews on some sites too. Techpowerup reviewed it and it did well.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Thortech/TTBPK20G/
Looks like a decent PSU to me.
James you are using overclock3d as a guideline for PSU reviews? wise up dude. Techpowerup reviewer is much better than them. havent read an OC3D PSU review in some time as Tom talks shit.
Look if you overclock alot ripple is the one of thoses things you must totally avoid otherwise components get wrecked. Iv seen it first hand its totally observable its based in standard electronic engineering. If you wanna buy it go ahead but if you need 1.2kw psu you shouldnt cheap out because you going to have alot of tech on it. I have a 1.2kw enermax platimax for very good reason.
My friend has this and its fantastic, had it since March this year. two 580s in SLI and rock solid!
People dont understand the results in many PSU reviews, thats the problem. then we get a guy making a video who maybe had a bad one and everyone thinks they all blow up.
I trust techpowerup and Kitguru over that.
I agree this PSU has problems, techpowerup recorded fairly high ripple, like this review but its well within the rated specs listed by the industry. thats not an opinion, its a hard cold fact by the industry who set out ripple ratings.
It is possible to get a bad power supply, ive had 2 corsair AX units fail on me, but they get great reviews and I haven’t stopped buying them.
ive been reading techpowerup for years and CRMARIS is very good. his results are different to Kitguru, but close, especially with ripple. its all within spec.
ENERMAX? I wouldn’t trust them to power my toaster. THEY ARE A NIGHTMARE TO GET REPLACEMENTS TOO!. don’t believe me, check out some threads http://www.google.co.uk/search?client=opera&q=enermax+failures&sourceid=opera&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&channel=suggest
They are a disaster.
Seasonic for me all the way, Enermax suck.
@ James “Look if you overclock alot ripple is the one of thoses things you must totally avoid otherwise components get wrecked” – are you for real or having a laugh?
Where did you read this? if it came from your preferred websites then you need to get a new reading source, because its total bollocks. EVERY power supply will emit some level of ripple. they have yet to make a power supply to produce 0 readings at full load on all +3.3V, +5 and +12V output rails.
The rated parameters for safe ripple readings are
+3.3V – no more than 50 mV
+5V – no more than 50 mV
+12V – no more than 120mV – applies to all, if there are more than one.
So even if a power supply produces 90mV on +12v, its safe long term. its not ideal, sure, but things won’t suddenly ‘blow up’, unless you get a crap unit and it pops to 180mV. Most top class PSU’s are generally under 20 mV for +3.3V and +5 V at full load and +12V under 50 mV, but just because its a little more, doesnt mean they are dangerous. only if they break the tolerance guidelines set out by the industry listed above.
In regards to this review, several sites have quoted very similar mV/ripple ratings which while far from ‘awesome’ are fine in everyday use.
Before you start spouting crap best to get your facts right, otherwise you just sound like a total munchbucket.
So much misfed nonsense in the power supply industry, such as people thinking a huge single +12V rail is the only design to buy etc.
the only problem I have with power supply reviews is that these units are tested across a few days. ideally we would like to see 5 month long term tests in everyday use, b ut thats not logistical