Thermaltake Smart RGB 700W After 6 Months. Worth Buying In 2021?
Update: I've had it for over 2 years now. The PSU still works great, although the computer usage is minimum these days. I'm facing no crashes or strange noises from the PSU, and I haven't had anything in my PC fail due to the PSU (or any reason for that matter). So in case you are planning to buy this one, or already have it and want assurance, I can tell you it's good and reliable so far.
At the time of building my new computer, I had a hard time finding a good, budget-friendly power supply unit. Being in Pakistan, I didn't have a lot of options from reputable brands, and all the nice ones like Corsair or Cooler Master's 80 Plus Gold units were out of stock. This kept on for quite some time until I finally decided to go for the Thermaltake Smart RGB 700W PSU.
Back then I was struggling to find a good review of it since I had built myself a fairly expensive PC, and my budget was limiting me so I decided to get whatever I can and upgrade later on. Still not knowing how good it is, I was always in doubt praying that it doesn't harm other expensive components. And now I've been using it for nearly a year I believe so I'm writing my personal review on it so far.
Basic Specs and Features
The Thermaltake Smart RGB 700W features a compact build with pre-attached cables, meaning it's not modular. It has a rated capacity of 700W and an 80 PLUS power efficiency rating. Moreover, it has a nice RGB fan with a button on the back. This button can be used to change the colors of the RGB fan, which offers 10 different color modes: Red, Green, Blue, Yellow, Purple, Teal, and a full-color cycle mode. The fan is also pretty quiet although not so much under load, more on that below. Finally, it has a high-ampere 12V rail which is rated for up to 54 amps.
Talking about connectivity, it offers 6 SATA connectors, 2 8-pin (6+2) connectors, and an 8-pin (4+4) CPU power connector. The rest are basic connectors like the 24-pin and 4-pin peripherals and FDD cables.
My Experience So Far
The best thing about this PSU is that it still works. My current PC is packed with Intel Core i7 9700K, 16GB of DDR4 RGB RAM, a 6TB mechanical hard drive, a 256GB solid-state drive, 6 RGB case fans, and an Aorus Z390 Elite RGB motherboard.
I recently added the Zotac RTX 3070 Twin-Edge OC graphics card and I was really worried that it would damage something. But rest assured, I've played many games on it, even some of the top titles like Cyberpunk 2077 and Forza Horizon 4. I've tried playing at max settings and on 4K resolution too. Although my GPU isn't fully capable of that, I could still play without any crashes or anything like that.
For the purpose of testing, I also tried mining with my 3070, for a full 48-hour duration. I faced no problems and the power supply kept up for the full 2 days under full GPU load. Although if you have more than one GPU, that's a different story. To further push it to limits, there were slight electricity fluctuations, and sudden power outages while the PC was on. Yet the PC works and so does the PSU.
I should clarify that I'm not recommending you to do anything mentioned above. I did some of the tests at my own risk and things like power outages were natural and not intentional. I'm not giving any guarantee that you will get the same results as me, just sharing my personal experience here.
The Ugly
Being on a cheaper end, this PSU isn't perfect or great. There are some minor issues I've had in the past. For instance, while gaming on 4K resolutions or on 1080p but without VSYNC or any FPS limits, the GPU fans become quite audible. This may be due to a powerful graphics card not having enough fans for cooling (has only two), But it also sometimes causes the PSU to make slight noise. I don't know why that is and if it's a problem with my particular unit, but it happens when the load on PSU is very high. But again, that's all there is, slight noise. The PSU still holds up, the game doesn't crash and everything is running smooth.
Conclusion
If you're in the market for a decent power supply within the Rs.12,000 limit, you should definitely consider the Thermaltake Smart RGB 700. It's a fairly decent PSU and the fact that I'm still using it today further proves that it's actually usable, even for a slightly high-end PC. However, new competitors are currently entering the market like Seasonic which should provide you with many great alternatives.
On the other hand, if you're spending a lot of money on your PC, and your budget allows for more expensive and reputable PSUs, you should definitely get that and treat your PC with a stable power supply, not to mention it will protect your components from damage and could last longer too.
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