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Hello,

after ~11 years of using my old PC, I'll be building a new one in the upcoming days/weeks and in a nutshell (as mentioned in the topic title) - is the Thermaltake TR2 RX 450W PSU any good (for my needs and/or in general)?

In detail: I was planing on getting a "real" PSU (most likely a Corsair, either the old VX 450W or some of the newest models, but < 600W), but I just found the perfect deal - the chassis I was looking for at a ridiculously low price just because it's a discontinued model which comes with the TR2 RX 450W PSU (this one: http://www.thermalta...72&ID=1534#Tab1 ) and it's even cheaper than the chassis offered everywhere else WITHOUT the PSU (!). I'm not asking if I should go for it because I definitely will, but the thing is - it would save me some hassle (and money) if I'd actually keep the PSU instead of selling it and going for the Corsair. Question is - is it worth the risk or is there even a risk?

Now, here's what kind of PC I'll be building:
- MoBo: ASUS P7H55
- CPU: Intel Core i3 540 3.06 GHz (Clarkdale)
- RAM: 2 x 2 GB DDR3 (Kingston HyperX Blu) 1333 Mhz
- GPU: ASUS GeForce GT220 512MB DDR3/128bit
- HDD: Seagate 500 GB Barracuda 7200.12 (16MB, Serial ATA II)

PLUS the leftovers from my current PC, that is:
- IDE DVD+/-RW drive
- SB Live Platinum w/Live Drive front panel
- ATI TV Wonder Tv-card

Note: I will NOT run any games on this PC (the only reason why I chose the GT220 GFX-card and not an even older model is because I can still easily get it brand new and at this price range, it's really a matter of a couple bucks to get something that MAY be useful in the future).

I'm planning to run this on Windows 7, probably 32-bit, but that's not the final decision and not the problem.

According to this PSU calculator: http://extreme.outer...culatorlite.jsp I'll be sucking ~260W or ~300W at capacitor aging set to 20%.

Again - will the TT TR2 RX 450W PSU be good for me? Just "by numbers" (Wattage) it should, but the more important question is - will it provide good, stable energy to the PC mentioned above, running ~13h/day for the next ~10 years? Right now I have also an old PSU which came with the chassis (back then I wasn't aware of how important a PSU is) that's not even close to a "real" brand PSU and according to the calculator and any logic - it should be dead by now and explode along with the whole PC and I can't say I've had any issues with it. I realize it's not worth to take a risk, but then - maybe it's not that bad at all.

The only concern I have (probably due to lack of knowledge of that matter) is that the TT has two 12V rails (V1 and V2) divided into 14A and 15A, while the Corsair (VX450W) has one 12V rail with 33A on it. Although that's 4A more for the 12V rail, the rest looks better for TT:
+3.3V 22A (vs Corsair's 20A)
+5V 32A (!) (vs Corsair's 20A)
except for the 0.5A more on +5Vsb whatever that is. but maybe it'll be enough for my config anyway...?


Thanks in advance for any help/opinion on this.

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You could do a lot worse.
ThermalTake power supplies tend to suffer from being overrated for the output they claim on the label. One that labelled as being able to supply 550w is documented as having conked out at just 300w. The products are a mixed bag, some are good, some are very good and the others I wouldn't even use to prop the door open with.

The Corsair power supply will be more reliable. Corsair is a "decent" brand in the world of power supplies.

[Neil Jones]

You could do a lot worse.
ThermalTake power supplies tend to suffer from being overrated for the output they claim on the label. One that labelled as being able to supply 550w is documented as having conked out at just 300w. The products are a mixed bag, some are good, some are very good and the others I wouldn't even use to prop the door open with.

The Corsair power supply will be more reliable. Corsair is a "decent" brand in the world of power supplies.

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(...) One that labelled as being able to supply 550w is documented as having conked out at just 300w.

That bad? Based on my relatively low need for power, I wouldn't mind if the 450W would struggle at 430W, but -250W is unacceptable.

I've been researching this issue and found this: http://www.overclock...hermaltake_PSUs it turns out that indeed it's true, but mostly for earlier versions 400W/420W/430W/480W. Although they're mentioning the Purepower series as quite reliable, they don't say anything about the 450W version of the TR2 PSU. In fact, they only mention the old 430W unit coming with the (also old) Soprano case. The case I want (Element S) is itself quite new (comparing to Soprano).

But if it's a gamble, I'd rather not take the risk especially considering that (AFAIK) a dying PSU can do way more damage than any other component that kicks the bucket.

Still, thanks for the info, if someone has some intel on the 450W model in particular, I'd appreciate it.

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For what it's worth, I've decided to go with the Corsair CX500 V2 and what I fount in the chassis wasn't even the TR2 RX 450W PSU which I though it would be. It's ... something called TT-430AL1NC What the...? It can't even be found on the Thermaltake website and is one of the blacklisted PSU-like ... "things" mentioned in the post above that may or may not supply something around 100-300W or energy IF I'm lucky.

Now, I don't regret the purchase as the chassis is fantastic and was a bargain (cheaper than the version without the PSU!), but now I know why they made it so cheap - no one wanted it for years.

That said - anyone wanna buy a "great" Thermaltake 430W PSU?