TTake Power Express GPU PSU

[dbunder]

Was at the local computer megamart earlier, and saw the Thermaltake Power Express 250W graphics card PSU. Since the 6800GT or so, I've been one to ask "these graphics cards are sucking so much power, why don't they just let us plug them into a wall socket?" Well, with this, you pretty much can.

However, I've been unable to find any decent reviews on it. Anyone have any experience with this cool (in theory) little thing?

May be jumping the gun, as I'm not gonna SLI for a while, and I may not need more power, but my current specs (they won't be changing) are: EPoX 9npa+sli, 2x Corsair XMS 1gb DDR400, 1x Seagate SATA2 320gb, 1x Hitachi SATA 250 in enclosure running from eSATA, 1x Liteon dual-layer burner, 1x XFX 7900GT (will be 2x, obviously), Opty 146 (max OC so far is 2.8ghz with stock cooler), 4x case fans, Enermax Liberty 500W +3.3V@28A, +5V@30A, +12V1@22A, +12V2@22A (peak 12v@32a), Zalman vf-900cu 12v VGA cooler.

That was a mouthful. Thanks much for any help!

 

[josh6079]

It's not cool. A good system PSU should be all you need. I would recommend a OCZ Powerstream 520W as I have had a good experience with mine.

 

[dbunder]

I was just curious about it, mainly. It seems like a good idea and should have been done earlier. I know TT doesn't make the best PSUs.

Think my Liberty will work in my configuration? Anyone? I'm pretty confident that it will. I've read reviews and such about my PSU and similar setups and they haven't had a problem at all. It's just hard to tell until you actually have a power issue. If I do end up having a power issue, I was planning on getting an OCZ Powerstream 520w or 600w. I chose the Liberty cause I'm a bit of an Enermax fanboy, it was a nice price, and as I said, I was confident it'd run all my stuff and SLI. Maybe SLI-able not with GTX boards, but who needs a GTX when the GT is clockable to a GTX and SO much cheaper?

 

[rbV5]

Looks pretty cool to me. I see that it is x1900 Crossfire certified also. For ~ $50 it could save you some money if you are going dual graphics and already have a decent powersupply thats not quite up to SLI/Crossfire.

I don't see many reviews for it unfortunately.

 

[schneiderguy]

Originally posted by: josh6079
It's not cool. A good system PSU should be all you need. I would recommend a OCZ Powerstream 520W as I have had a good experience with mine.

sadly, dual psu's are probably here to stay. a nvidia engineer i know says that nVidia has been trying to get system manufacturers to put dual PSU's in their system since the 6 series days when SLI was introduced

 

[rbV5]

I went ahead and picked one of these up to power my X1800 Crossfire setup. I've been running my Crossfire rig on a sturdy FSP AX400 for the past several months, but has had an issue with load switching after a cold boot which occasionally required changing the power connections for the X1800 cards...PITA, but I rarely shut this rig down, so not a deal killer by any means.

I had thought about ponying up for a premium power supply, or perhaps modding an AT powersupply, but Thermaltake Power Express seemed to suit my needs, so I ordered one up and installed it yesterday.

So far, it appears to work as touted. Installation was simple. It looks decent mounted (the power LED's could be a bit more subtle), and the 6 pin cables are sleaved and plenty long. It seems very quiet (however, everything sounds quiet compared to the twin X1800's LOL

It also easily handles the x1800's power requirements from boot to full load with no issues. Seems like a decent deal coupled with the budget Fortron, we'll see if its as dependable