Performance (40% of the final score) - the last Thermaltake Toughpower XT I looked at had enough going on in this section to score quite well. In that review, I asked for better ripple performance on the minor rails, and a little better efficiency. Well, I got what I asked for. Unfortunately, Thermaltake let something slip through the cracks. While they were replacing the aging CWT PSH platform with this one, and thus insuring better ripple suppression and higher efficiency, they forgot to make sure the voltage regulation was still under tight control. So, what we have here is a new platform that performs better than the old in many ways, and worse than the old in another way. I'm going to have to pull out a 9.5 again here.
Functionality (20% of the final score) - even without the extra little rubber grommet to help silence the unit, I still feel that Thermaltake did a decent job here making with the extra goodies. And I don't consider it a bad thing that the FanDelayCool switch was removed in favor of having the feature work all the time. But I am still going to sit here and whine about the sleeving not going all the way into the case. 9.5.
Value (30% of the final score) - $154.99 is the price of the day at Newegg for this unit. This compares well against the Corsair 750HX and 950TX. Now, Corsair has been taking the value section of my scoring by storm lately, so when a unit compares favorably to not one but two of their units, I tend to sit up and pay attention. I say this is quite a good value indeed. But the 750HX is a slightly better product at a lower price, so half a point comes off. 9.5.
Aesthetics (10% of the final score) - U! G! L! Y! This thing got no alibi! It ugly! I just don't like this color, people. Not at all. Back when Thermaltake was making shiny off brown units, those I could almost see myself wanting to kind of think about starting to sort of debate liking. But this with the sleeving that still doesn't go all the way into the case? Just... no. 4.
Performance
9.5
Functionality
9.5
Value
9.5
Aesthetics
4
Total Score
9
Summary
Thermaltake's latest attempt to lead the pack with the Toughpower XT line continues to improve on past models when it comes to performance. The two issues I most wanted to see addressed, namely the efficiency and the minor rail ripple, have been addressed. It's just too bad that in the process, voltage regulation took somewhat of a back seat to these improvements. Now, this is barely a complaint at all, as this unit is in general better than the previous generation XT units, but Thermaltake will have to be careful in the future to not let little things slip in the name of improving a couple big things. All in all, this is a very good unit indeed. But still not quite there at the top of the dog pile.
The Good:
more efficient than the 80 Plus logo on the box would have you believe
3.3V and 5V ripple reduced from previous generation XT models
less wasteful packaging
The Bad:
voltage regulation slightly worse than previous generation models
