Testing
Instead of just getting some performance numbers and throwing them down on the table without a reference on which to base their value, we have decided, yet again, to include numbers from another power supply in this test. The testbed we configured expressly for this test was originally equipped with a TG1100-U96 power supply from Tagan. This 1100W power supply is used heavily around the boutique system integrator circles for its uniquely sleeved cables and overall attractive look. The performance and reliability of the unit, unfortunately, are not necessarily factors in the usage of this PSU. By using it in this particular system, we should be able to test its merit in addition to getting some numbers for reference against the TP1200.


The first thing you might notice is the 1040W figure for power consumption under full load. This is a it more than the numbers we were seeing when we tested the Enermax Galaxy 1000W against the Cooler Master Real Power Pro 1000. This is certainly due to the extra hard drive and USB devices we attached to the system this time around. Something else you should notice is that all the voltages on the Tagan unit remained very stable under testing, although several of them might be considered “high”. We use the term high very loosely in this instance, because all of the recorded voltages were well within the accepted ranges and are only high because they are above the target values.

Thermaltake Toughpower 1200

Unfortunately the installation of the TP1200 was not without its hang ups. However, all of these grievances were the result of the case and the previous cable management configuration that was employed. In the Thermaltake Armor case, it is quite difficult to remove larger power supply units from the sideways-mounted area that houses them. In addition, the ASUS L1N64SLI-WS motherboard used is not exactly the most cable management-friendly motherboard in existence, so we had to get pretty creative wiring it. Removing zip-ties and trying not to disturb the heatsink was entirely too difficult when replacing the incumbent power supply. On the other hand, attaching all of the modular cables to the TP1200 provides the user with more connectors than we’ve ever seen on a power supply, and it was a good thing too because we had plenty of places to plug them in. The labeled rails also proved very beneficial when testing the TP1200, as it is very easy to test each +12V rail individually based on this naming scheme.


You can see here that there is almost one tenth of a volt of fluctuation on the second +12V rail. In this case, the rail in question happened to be the one that supplied the EPS12V and 24-pin motherboard connectors. Being the single most power-hungry component in our system (motherboard + processors considered as a single entity that is) it is reasonable to believe that these rails suffered somewhat under extremely heavy load. However, fluctuations are minimal across the board on the other rails, and voltage readings were closer to target values here than with the Tagan unit. One thing that really stuck out here, however, is that the system only seemed to consume 999W with the TP1200 as opposed to the 1040 with the TG1100-U96. The only thing you can attribute this decrease in power consumption, given that the system remained configured identically in both tests, is the efficiency. The ~40W decrease here suggests that the TP1200 is a more efficient power supply than the TG1100-U96. Unfortunately we do not have the necessary equipment to test for actual efficiency numbers, so a relative comparison is all we can provide you with at this time.