TTGI 550W TT-550SS PSU Review

Product: TTGI 550W PSU
Author: Weiye Zhou
Date Published: 08/01/04
MSRP: $90

TTGI who? That's exactly what I asked myself when I heard about them. Wanting to know more about them, I decided to visit their website. This yielded no useful information whatsoever. There wasn't even any information about my specific model! I then went to the Super Flower website hoping to find some info about the companies since the Super Flower logo was also on the box of the TTGI PSU. Same thing as with the TTGI website, there was no mention of my specific model or any useful information. I see this review isn't getting to a good start. Anyways, most people still don't realize the importance of the power supply. Instead of me explaining why it's so important all over again, please click here and read the introduction.

Features:
Supports Intel ATX 12V ver.1.1 & 2.03 Standard.
Compliant With AMD K8 (Opteron).
High Quality 2 Ball Bearing Fans, Suitable For "ALWAYS ON" application.
Fast Cooling, Low Noise & Ripple.
3 Speed Thermal Fan Control Switch.
Fan Grill & Gold Plated Connectors, Preventing Rust & Bad Connection.
I/O Short circuit & Overload Protection Design.
Standard 14cm blue LED fan.
Golden-coated connector.

Specifications:
Since there wasn't any info about my PS on either website, I just took a picture of the amp ratings.

+3.3V & +5V = 275W
Total Power = 550W
Peak Power = 600W

The PS came in a nice looking black box with numerous graphics all over it. Upon opening it, I was greeted with the power supply in bubble wrap, the manual, and a power cord. The next thing I did was take off the bubble wrap and analyzed the PS. It had a mirror-like finish on it and I could clearly see my reflection. The next thing that struck my eye was the overly large 14cm fan, the thing was huge! Included with the PS were tons of connectors. What I didn't like was how messy they were. Each power cord wasn't separated from each other; it was just a mess of wires everywhere. The only organization it had was one small zip tie at the end of each power cord; the main ATX connector is sleeved.

The box the PS came in.



Contents of the box: PS in bubble wrap, manual, power cord, and some screws.



Connectors: 1 ATX Main, 2 SATA, 1 P4 12V, 10 Molex, 2 Floppy, 1 fan rpm monitor, 1 thermal probe.



Enormous 14cm fan.



Honeycomb shaped back; note the fan speed control button. It can be set to low, auto, or turbo.



Here's the mirror-like finish, you can clearly see the camera.



Very messy power cords with only one zip tie at the end.

According to the box, on the "low" setting, noise should be less than 21dba. I found this claim to be true; I could barely hear the fan at work. On auto, the fan adjusts its fan speed according to the temperature of the case. The high setting is about as loud as one of my normal 80mm case fans, but moves a lot of air. It's defiantly doing a good job at cooling the PS, not the mention it's also radiating a nice borg-green color. What I really like is how the LED responds to the change in fan speed; the higher the RPM, the brighter they get. Finally, the last thing that's worth mentioning is the fan continues to run after the PC has shut down. It's a nice feature that's also on my Enermax 470W Noisetaker PS.

LED's in action; fan is set on high.

Testbed
P4 2.6C @ 3.2Ghz / Abit IS7
Swiftech MCX478-V Heatsink / Vantec 92mm Tornado
3 80mm case fans
Radeon 9500 Pro
1GB Corsair XMS-3200C2PT RAM
WD 36GB Raptor
WD 80GB 7200RPM 2MB
WD 200GB 7200RPM 8MB
TTGI 550W PS
Windows XP SP1

For idle measurements, I booted into the BIOS and waited a few minutes before taking voltages with a digital auto-ranging multimeter through the 20-pin ATX connector. For load, I ran prime95 and looped 3DMark03 for about ten minutes before taking measurements with the multimeter.

Both the +3.3V and +5V are rock solid, but the +12V takes a steep dive.

I was surprised at the results, I expected this PS to show solid rails, but apparently that isn't the case. The +12V rail should have more than enough juice to power my three hard drives and case fans without any drop. I don't have much more to say other than I can't recommend you buy this PS due to it's poor +12V performance.

This PS looks very nice, especially if you're a fan of the color green. It has plenty of connectors for all your power needs and two SATA connectors. All of the power cords are more than long enough if you own a large case. Although, what I didn't like was how messy the power cords were, they could've at least put another zip tie on each one. Also, noise isn't an issue due to the controllable fan speed (low, auto, high). On the "low" setting, the 14cm fan is barely audible. Simply put, this PS has all the looks, but not the performance I was looking for. Unfortunately there are a lot of bad power supplies out there and this is one of them.

Pro's
Solid +3.3V and +5V rails
Looks very nice
Nearly silent

Con's
Low +12V rail
No info about PS
Messy power cords