Alan: When you are thinking about what type of power supply to get for your computer system, you must take into account just what type of user you are – are you a typical computer user; are you a power user; are you a gamer? Well, today in our series on “How to Choose The Right Power Supply For Your Computer System,” we will be looking at different types of power supplies for different types of users.
It’s our pleasure to have as our guest again, Ramsom Koay, Let’s Talk Computers Industry Expert on Power Supplies and Cases and Director of Marketing and Public Relations with Thermaltake. Welcome back to Let’s Talk Computers, Ramsom.
Ramsom: Thanks a lot, Alan.
Alan: In this series on “How to Choose The Just the Right Power Supply For Your Computer System,” we have been talking about many of the features to look for in choosing just the right power supply. We’ve been looking at how to judge what wattage we need and we’ve been looking at what the different certifications mean. And we have also talked about how important it is to make sure that you have all the right connectors for your motherboard.
But any time you are thinking about replacing or upgrading your power supply, what type of user you are can make a major difference in what type of power supply you choose. Let’s look at the toughpower series for example. Well, Ramsom, what makes this series of power supplies so popular?
Ramsom: Let’s go back to the power supply history. The first high-end power supply made was 1200 Watt – it’s Thermaltake. A lot of consumers or vendors have asked, “Who needs a 1200 Watt Power Supply?” But the whole Thermaltake thing comes up now. Our target market is actually more the enthusiast market, a unique market segment. People actually want something a little bit out of the ordinary, so we were the first ones that made the 1200 Watt.
And to be the first one, we maintain the quality, the components, everything. So that was the top power, until today. You can see that is the longest running power supply for Thermaltake.
Then you came out with the toughpower XT; then you came out with the toughpower XT All New and you’ve got the toughpower Grand. But basically, it branches out like that. There are all different features. The XT has different features, different wattage. And then the Toughpower Grand has a different design.
To be frank with you, the selling feature for us is due to the quality.
Alan: If I’m going to upgrade my motherboard, and I am going to put a couple of new hard drives into my system, which power supply should I start with? Should I start with the Toughpower Series or should I start with one of your other Series, like your PR Power Series.
Ramsom: It if is just a regular change and you are not looking into the long run like a graphic-intense power like a graphic designer or for Web programming or something like that. All you need is like a TR2 Series and a PR Power Series should be really, really good and flexible.
To be frank with you, the PR Power and TR2 Series should actually be one series. But at one point our company separated it into two series, but right now we bring it back to the TR2 Series, instead of the PR Power Series.
Those two are considered the same rank of power supplies. They give you all the features that you want, but it doesn’t cost you an arm and a leg. The reason it doesn’t cost you an arm and a leg is it is not bad quality. It’s just the component that which is used are not to be meant to be used 24/7 with high-end graphics and high-end gaming. It’s just a day-to-day power supply for you and it works on most systems. Most systems that you can get.
Now, if you are an enthusiast or if you are a gaming guy, you are not looking into buying those kinds of power supplies. But those systems are really reasonable and I would say that you might want to look into the TR2 Series. Then you will find something.
Alan: But let’s say I’m a gamer and I start doing things like overclocking – because Gamers and Modders want to get everything they possibly can get out of their computer system. Then, with what should I go with?
Ramsom: If you are a modder or Overclocker; or if you are a Gamer. I would suggest that you go straight to the Toughpower Grand. There’s always a reason why we named it the Toughpower Grand. It is because the efficiency level is different. The Toughpower Grand achieves Toughpower Gold and then the regular Toughpower Series you only go up to Silver and Bronze. It’s not that you can’t go that high; it’s just because we just remade the circuit to minimize our production costs.
That’s why we suggest that the user of the Toughpower Grand and so, why not the XT? Well, the XT is basically the same thing as the Toughpower, but it has a unique feature, which would be the lighting. Now, the XT Series has a couple of features like fan delay cool. Why is fan delay cool?
When you turn off your computer while running all day, the system continues to heat up. So when you shut down a computer, the power supply actually runs for a minute or so, just to cool off the component before it shuts down the power supply. That, again prolongs the lifespan of the power supply and gives you a more stable
boot-up the next time. So always, always there are features in our power supply that can help consumers make it more reliable.
Just the Toughpower Grand. The Toughpower Grand Series includes everything that we have, the technology that we have on all the other series into one power supply. That’s how we made it. Besides that, we realized a lot of people who don’t know how to choose a power supply, so our next power supply that comes out – we call it “Smart,” not “Smart Power,” but it’s just a “Smart Power Supply.” A Smart Power Supply would actually be compatible with anything you could have in it.
Not going to overrule that. It not compatible with the high-end requirement that you need, but it is just compatible with the market that have. We have 400 Watt; 600 Watt; 700 Watt series. It is just compatible! You don’t have to worry about that. You get 80PLUS certification. You’ve got a certification from UL; FCC; TUVs and then you’ve got SLI certification. You’ve got ATI and AMD certification. What else could you ask for when you choose a power supply? Go to Smart!
Alan: Well, when you get a power supply and you want to test it out to make sure it’s working, normally when you plug it into the wall and it doesn’t do anything. Well, Ramsom, how do we test out a power supply, then?
Ramsom: Alan, this is really simple to find out. A lot of people have to understand that when you plug a power supply into the wall, you don’t see anything at all. It’s because on a power supply it has one thing that’s called a bridge feature. It’s called Bridging.
Now, to test the power supply either you can be an expert or being a smart, intelligent person and you’ve can actually do that with a paper clip. Now the Bridging with a paper clip is that there is only one green wire on the 20-Pin or 24-Pin. That green wire, if you use a paper clip to bridge the green wire to any of the black or ground, the power supply will actually boot up.
Now remember that, the power supply is not running at full load. So some numbers might be off, but at least you know that the power supply powers up; then you use the multimeter to measure the voltage and everything. That’s the one way to find out.
Again, it will solve this by getting a power supply tester. You can purchase a power tester where Thermaltake has made a different version of that and you will go through a circle of power supplies, to find out if there is a good signal all the time and to make sure that all the voltage regulation is regulated, perfectly.
Alan: Well, Ramsom let me put you on the spot for a minute. If you had to pick one feature that separates your power supplies from all the other power supply vendors that are on the market, what would it be and why?
Ramsom: Simple. Everyone makes the same stuff, which is a power supply. And of course, when I started to work for my company, I would have to say why? And right now, we can compete with the major brands in the community or in the market, today. Again, a power supply is a power supply. How we are different is our customer service and our quality.
If today you think you bought a bad power supply, we don’t blame you because you bought our power supply. We will stand there and we will troubleshoot everything with you, including the motherboard. Of course it’s not our problem – it’s your own stuff. We just sold you a power supply, but we will take hours to find out what is different about this power supply and how it doesn’t work with that.
Of course, when it doesn’t work, and it comes back in, we have to figure out the solution. So we always talk to our partners, our motherboard partners, hard drive partners. We’ve got Seagate; we’ve got Western Digital; we’ve got Intel and SSD. We’ve got a lot of partners to actually exchange information about why does this not work and then we provide a solution or at least an answer back to our customer.
You called us to find out why and we give you an answer. That makes Thermaltake stand out. We don’t leave you to hanging out alone. Even though you called us for something else, we will try to be responsible for that because you buy our product. You called us, which means you trust us and have given us an opportunity to help you.
Alan: Well, what kind of price are we looking at with your power supplies? Would you kind of give me a ballpark figure from lowest to highest?
Ramsom: On our regular power supplies you are looking at about $30 to $300.
Alan: And of course, if we want to find out more about your great power supplies and your other products, all we have to do is go to your Website, which is http://www.thermaltakeusa.com/.
Well, Ramsom, it looks like we have again run out of time. It’s been our pleasure to have you as our guest again, talking about power supplies and what we should look for in a good power supply and why we really need to consider changing out our power supply when we do any upgrades.
And I look forward to talking to you again real soon.
Ramsom: Thanks, Alan. I really appreciate that. And hopefully those consumers and everybody out there that want to buy not just a power supply should go to find out about the company. They should go to research the company. Call the company up. Any company up and that would actually help you in the future. |