InsaneTek

Conclusion and Thoughts

The Thermaltake 680W has placed Thermaltake in the recommended overclocker's choice for power supplies. While offering amazing aesthetic features, such as a titanium finish and fully sleeved cables, it has enough power to supply the most straining components available. The power supply is also one of the few power supplies that is able to power two PCI-E video cards, aside from the PC Power and Cooling SLI series. While the 12v dropped considerably with a high CPU and GPU overclock, the 12v never dipped below 12v and still ran stable.  Thermaltake has also illustrated their excellent service by quickly sending me an adaptor for the PCI-E connectors that didn't fit. Unfortunately, while this power supply is awesome in most regards, the PCI-E connectors that did not fit can be annoying with the use of the adaptors. Hopefully Thermaltake has fixed this problem in production. The unit was also much louder than the 17dBA specified.  Perhaps it was because of the high amount of load, as it was near silent in IDLE mode but noticeably loud at LOAD.  At a price of $159.95, the unit is much cheaper than the other power supplies in its class, which average around 200 dollars.  The Thermaltake 680W, despite its PCI-E connector problem, will still receive the InsaneTek "Recommended" award because of its combination of looks, functionality, and affordability.

John's Addition:

Thermaltake's flagship power supply is definitely a great product.  From the looks of Randy's pictures, there seem to be adjustable potentiometers readily available for extra tweaking.  The sleeved power cables are a nice touch, providing great looks and a clean system.  Unfortunately, as Randy mentioned, the PCI-E connector was faulty; the connection didn't allow proper installation.  The good thing is that Thermaltake provided a replacement connector that fixes this problem.  With such a robust power supply available for a decent price, there is no doubt that this should be a top consideration for your high end SLI system.

Pros:

• An excellent number of connections
• Beautiful mirror finish on the chassis and nice use of color-coded sleeving
• Powerful enough, even for an SLI system.
• Active PFC
• Heavy

Cons:

• Louder than rated noise level
• PCI-E connectors do not fit

We would like to thank Thermaltake for providing us the sample.  If you have any questions or comments, feel free to hit us up in the forums. You can also check out more of our latest reviews on the front page.