Thermaltake Purepower 430 W NP, which is also known by other names like W0070, TR2-430W and XP550 NP, is one of the simplest and cheapest power supplies from Thermaltake. In this review we completely disassembled this unit and tested to see if it can really deliver 430 W. Check it out.
In the past we took an in-depth look on this power supply when it was still called TR2-430W. Because now we look power supplies into much more details and also perform load tests, this is a completely new review of this power supply, written from scratch.
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Figure 1: Thermaltake Purepower 430W NP.
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Figure 2: Thermaltake Purepower 430W NP.
As you can see, this power supply uses two 80-mm fans, one on the front and another on the rear of the unit. We prefer the design using a big 120- or 140-mm fan as it provides not only a better airflow but the power supply produces less noise, as the fan can rotate at a lower speed in order to produce the same airflow as an 80-mm fan.
The first thing you have to be careful about this power supply is that on its box Thermaltake says this power supply has a PFC circuit, which is not the case. In fact the “NP” letters on the name of the model stands for “No PFC”. PFC is optional and is present only on the W0069 model. The absence of the PFC circuit means only that Thermaltake can’t sell this unit in Europe (read more about PFC on our Power Supply Tutorial).
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Figure 3: The box says this power supply has PFC.
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Figure 4: The box says this power supply has PFC.
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Figure 5: End of the mystery. It is optional, not present on the reviewed model.
As for efficiency, Thermaltake says that this product has a 65% minimum efficiency, which is a low value for today’s standards. Of course we will measure efficiency during our tests. Keep in mind that more expensive power supplies have an efficiency of at least 80%. The higher the efficiency the better – an 80% efficiency means that 80% of the power pulled from the power grid will be converted in power on the power supply outputs and only 20% will be wasted. This translates into less consumption from the power grid (as less power needs to be pulled in order to generate the same amount of power on its outputs), meaning lower electricity bills.
This power supply comes with five peripheral power cables: one auxiliary power cable for video cards with 6-pin connector, two cables containing three standard peripheral power connectors and one floppy disk drive connector, one cable containing three standard peripheral connectors and one cable containing two SATA power connectors.
We didn’t like the way the peripheral connectors were installed on this unit. Instead of using the traditional configuration where the cable coming from inside the power supply is connected to the last connector on the cable, on this power supply this cable is connected to the middle connector, and the other two connectors are connected there as well.
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Figure 6: How peripheral connectors are installed.
The number of available connectors is enough for a mainstream user that won’t have more than two SATA devices willing to build an entry-level or mainstream PC with a good video card. However, users with more than two SATA devices (i.e. more than two hard drives) will need to use adaptors.
The main motherboard cable uses a 20/24-pin connector, and this power supply has one ATX12V connector, not coming with an EPS12V connector.
On the aesthetic side Thermaltake used nylon sleeving only on all cables, but this protection doesn’t from inside the power supply housing.
A more concerning problem is that wires used on the video card auxiliary power cable and on the ATX12V cable are 20 AWG, i.e. thinner than recommended. All other wires are 18 AWG, though.
This power supply is manufactured by HEC (Compucase) and on their website we couldn’t find any power supply that is identical to Purepower 430W, so it is an exclusive model manufactured only for Thermaltake.
