frontpagephoinix | Staff posted Dec 15, 2025 07:50 AM
Item 1 of 2
Item 1 of 2
frontpagephoinix | Staff posted Dec 15, 2025 07:50 AM
Thermaltake Toughpower GF A3 850W 80+ Gold Fully Modular ATX Power Supply
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$130
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For example SAMSUNG SSDs.
This company designs, builds, and supply ALL components for their drives. There are no third party suppliers, They provide the nand, the controller, the firmware, the dram etc. Are they perfect no, do they change parts as end of life is reached for certain parts like nand, Yes, however, they do update the actual part number of the actual drive to indicate the part has changed. Your generalization of the industry does not apply to all parts or all manufacturers. Your statement DOES apply to companies like ADATA, and some other companies that do in fact change critical system parts without any method to idenify such changes.
It is not difficult to shop based on the brand of a product, for example. For my own data including my irreplaceable family pictures, I would never trust an ADATA, Transcend, or similar SSD. I would purchase a Crucial (Micron), Samsung or SK Hynix (All with updated firmwares) as these companies are generally high quality manufacturers that control most or all parts of the product. 2nd example, I would not hesitate to purcahse a Logitech mouse, any cooler from Noctua etc... etc...
Honestly, this thread is designed to those of us who have significantly more experience to provide PRODUCTIVE feedback for those who have purcahse or are looking to purchase the item that is on sale. In this case a power supply. I provided legitimate facts as well as first hand experience with thousands to tens of thousands of systems I have personally touched about the manufacturer and potential quality of the specific power supply shown here. Then you show up will some BS about not industry philosophical crap that helps nobody with anything.
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Our community has rated this post as helpful. If you agree, why not thank lookalikehuuh
Source: I worked at a high volume computer repair shop for years. The shop also happened to be the go to provider for SDG&E when customers were blaming them for burning up their PCs. We saw tons and tons of thermaltake PSUs fail.
Our community has rated this post as helpful. If you agree, why not thank LesCaster
Source: I worked at a high volume computer repair shop for years. The shop also happened to be the go to provider for SDG&E when customers were blaming them for burning up their PCs. We saw tons and tons of thermaltake PSUs fail.
Our community has rated this post as helpful. If you agree, why not thank lookalikehuuh
For the record, LTT Labs did test this series of PSUs (not this exact model, but the 750W version of this PSU) and found that they failed power regulation testing. Toms hardware also essentially rated this as a "poor power quality" also noted it was noisy under load.
There are simply much better options out there that have better reputations for a reason. If you have expensive hardware one of the worst things you can do is power it with a cheaper designed PSU. It appears the 750w thru 1000w models are designed/manufactured by CE-Link and have been problematic. Again... not a PSU I would recommend to anyone, hence my original post.
I saw over $8K dollars worth of dual nvidia Titans and top end intel CPU die because of a Thermaltake 1200w power supply that failed shortly after the customer brought in the PSU for us to install. We recommended he not go with that brand, a few months later, sure enough the majority of his hardware was toast thanks to the PSU.
For the record, LTT Labs did test this series of PSUs (not this exact model, but the 750W version of this PSU) and found that they failed power regulation testing. Toms hardware also essentially rated this as a "poor power quality" also noted it was noisy under load.
There are simply much better options out there that have better reputations for a reason. If you have expensive hardware one of the worst things you can do is power it with a cheaper designed PSU. It appears the 750w thru 1000w models are designed/manufactured by CE-Link and have been problematic. Again... not a PSU I would recommend to anyone, hence my original post.
I saw over $8K dollars worth of dual nvidia Titans and top end intel CPU die because of a Thermaltake 1200w power supply that failed shortly after the customer brought in the PSU for us to install. We recommended he not go with that brand, a few months later, sure enough the majority of his hardware was toast thanks to the PSU.
- In this industry of PC parts that designs, parts selections, and manufacturing partners changed over time
- Yesterday's dog can be tomorrow's darling, including from model to model in any given year/manufacturing run
- It's hard to shop purely based on a brand and past make/model history
What is "partly true" of anything I said?
I said nothing that you tried to rebut with about brand 'indicators', nothing about this particular supply, the manufacturer of it, relative merits or value of it. I only made those 3 statements. As I read them, they're all objectively true, particularly when speaking about the topic of 'computer parts'.
I don't own this brand power supply or work for the company, so if there's any question about my motivations... I have none. I was pointing out that past experiences with any given brand of computer accessory, be it a power supply, motherboard, video card, drive, memory, etc. isn't a reliable indicator in the industry of computer parts (among other things). You know yourself that few brands manufacture much of anything of their own, and part selections and substitutions can change over the life of a model. Year over year, model over model, most any of them can have good, bad, or indifferent products. Sadly, brand is an decreasingly reliable indicator.
Reviews, customer feedback, tear downs, etc. are all good sources of information, once enough data is accumulated and assuming the make/model didn't undergo any of the 'quiet' changes that can made that doesn't result in a model number change, but can result in quality change - usually not for the better. :-(
Our community has rated this post as helpful. If you agree, why not thank lookalikehuuh
- In this industry of PC parts that designs, parts selections, and manufacturing partners changed over time
- Yesterday's dog can be tomorrow's darling, including from model to model in any given year/manufacturing run
- It's hard to shop purely based on a brand and past make/model history
What is "partly true" of anything I said?
I said nothing that you tried to rebut with about brand 'indicators', nothing about this particular supply, the manufacturer of it, relative merits or value of it. I only made those 3 statements. As I read them, they're all objectively true, particularly when speaking about the topic of 'computer parts'.
I don't own this brand power supply or work for the company, so if there's any question about my motivations... I have none. I was pointing out that past experiences with any given brand of computer accessory, be it a power supply, motherboard, video card, drive, memory, etc. isn't a reliable indicator in the industry of computer parts (among other things). You know yourself that few brands manufacture much of anything of their own, and part selections and substitutions can change over the life of a model. Year over year, model over model, most any of them can have good, bad, or indifferent products. Sadly, brand is an decreasingly reliable indicator.
Reviews, customer feedback, tear downs, etc. are all good sources of information, once enough data is accumulated and assuming the make/model didn't undergo any of the 'quiet' changes that can made that doesn't result in a model number change, but can result in quality change - usually not for the better. :-(
For example SAMSUNG SSDs.
This company designs, builds, and supply ALL components for their drives. There are no third party suppliers, They provide the nand, the controller, the firmware, the dram etc. Are they perfect no, do they change parts as end of life is reached for certain parts like nand, Yes, however, they do update the actual part number of the actual drive to indicate the part has changed. Your generalization of the industry does not apply to all parts or all manufacturers. Your statement DOES apply to companies like ADATA, and some other companies that do in fact change critical system parts without any method to idenify such changes.
It is not difficult to shop based on the brand of a product, for example. For my own data including my irreplaceable family pictures, I would never trust an ADATA, Transcend, or similar SSD. I would purchase a Crucial (Micron), Samsung or SK Hynix (All with updated firmwares) as these companies are generally high quality manufacturers that control most or all parts of the product. 2nd example, I would not hesitate to purcahse a Logitech mouse, any cooler from Noctua etc... etc...
Honestly, this thread is designed to those of us who have significantly more experience to provide PRODUCTIVE feedback for those who have purcahse or are looking to purchase the item that is on sale. In this case a power supply. I provided legitimate facts as well as first hand experience with thousands to tens of thousands of systems I have personally touched about the manufacturer and potential quality of the specific power supply shown here. Then you show up will some BS about not industry philosophical crap that helps nobody with anything.
Sign up for a Slickdeals account to remove this ad.
For example SAMSUNG SSDs.
This company designs, builds, and supply ALL components for their drives. There are no third party suppliers, They provide the nand, the controller, the firmware, the dram etc. Are they perfect no, do they change parts as end of life is reached for certain parts like nand, Yes, however, they do update the actual part number of the actual drive to indicate the part has changed. Your generalization of the industry does not apply to all parts or all manufacturers. Your statement DOES apply to companies like ADATA, and some other companies that do in fact change critical system parts without any method to idenify such changes.
It is not difficult to shop based on the brand of a product, for example. For my own data including my irreplaceable family pictures, I would never trust an ADATA, Transcend, or similar SSD. I would purchase a Crucial (Micron), Samsung or SK Hynix (All with updated firmwares) as these companies are generally high quality manufacturers that control most or all parts of the product. 2nd example, I would not hesitate to purcahse a Logitech mouse, any cooler from Noctua etc... etc...
Honestly, this thread is designed to those of us who have significantly more experience to provide PRODUCTIVE feedback for those who have purcahse or are looking to purchase the item that is on sale. In this case a power supply. I provided legitimate facts as well as first hand experience with thousands to tens of thousands of systems I have personally touched about the manufacturer and potential quality of the specific power supply shown here. Then you show up will some BS about not industry philosophical crap that helps nobody with anything.
- In this industry of PC parts that designs, parts selections, and manufacturing partners changed over time TRUE
- Yesterday's dog can be tomorrow's darling, including from model to model in any given year/manufacturing run TRUE
- It's hard to shop purely based on a brand and past make/model history TRUE
Can you increase your chances? yes, in theory... that doesn't make it NOT hard to shop PURELY based on brand. Why not?
Well, let's take your well chosen example of Samsung SSD's (your example, not mine). You can get a top shelf product or a very middling one, depending on the model. But that's not all.. Surely you know that Samsung released drives with flawed/poorly engineered firmware that led to bricked or read-only drives. A very real problem. You must know that, right? Even upper tier drives with firmware flaws leading to early death. It was a mess. Samsung. Go figure.
Allow me to thank you for the excellent example of Samsung that only makes my point of it being hard to PURELY rely on brand. I think you may be the one over generalizing, not me. Now get off your self-righteous hypocritical step stool about the thread and the purpose of it.
Enjoy.
- In this industry of PC parts that designs, parts selections, and manufacturing partners changed over time TRUE
- Yesterday's dog can be tomorrow's darling, including from model to model in any given year/manufacturing run TRUE
- It's hard to shop purely based on a brand and past make/model history TRUE
Can you increase your chances? yes, in theory... that doesn't make it NOT hard to shop PURELY based on brand. Why not?
Well, let's take your well chosen example of Samsung SSD's (your example, not mine). You can get a top shelf product or a very middling one, depending on the model. But that's not all.. Surely you know that Samsung released drives with flawed/poorly engineered firmware that led to bricked or read-only drives. A very real problem. You must know that, right? Even upper tier drives with firmware flaws leading to early death. It was a mess. Samsung. Go figure.
Allow me to thank you for the excellent example of Samsung that only makes my point of it being hard to PURELY rely on brand. I think you may be the one over generalizing, not me. Now get off your self-righteous hypocritical step stool about the thread and the purpose of it.
Enjoy.
The up time is about 2 weeks, running 24/7, mining XMR, just to test if it's stable, and so far, there is nothing wrong with it.
Thermaltake was funded long time ago in Taiwan.
And in this product and my GF1, both PSUs come with 10 years warranty.
Save your Amazon receipt in paper form and pdf form, so within 10 years of time, you can go do the RMA and get a working PSU. RMA shipping is not free and PSU is heavy. It may be a bit costly to ship it. I have not done RMA with Thermaltake, not 100% sure how it would go.
This is a parts-swapped PSU, meaning previously it used HKC higher end parts and has now swapped (internal components, like how companies did with SSD flash from TLC to QLC) to lower end CE-Link internals.
Here's a few Reddit posts about it and a HWBusters review of 750W verison: one [reddit.com], two [reddit.com], three [hwbusters.com].
Just wait for Montech Century 2 or if you don't want to go higher than a 5070 Ti, you can get a MAG A750GLS for $60 with rebate (Steam code N/A for new purchases)
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Source: I worked at a high volume computer repair shop for years. The shop also happened to be the go to provider for SDG&E when customers were blaming them for burning up their PCs. We saw tons and tons of thermaltake PSUs fail.
The problem with Thermaltake is they make all different levels of quality. Their high end PSUs are good. Their cheap ones suck. You can't just blind by the brand.
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