Thermaltake PurePower 480W Butterfly PSU Review

 

Power supplies affect how your computer runs. It determines if your computer is stable, unstable, getting enough power to your components or not, and also helps in system cooling. A cheap power supply will give you headaches and you will regret it down the line, but a quality power supply will give you the assurance of maintaining your computer safely and effectively. Thermaltake have been producing power supplies for some time. Most noticeably, they have their PurePower line of power supplies. Today we are reviewing their Thermaltake PurePower 480W Butterfly PSU.

Specifications – Thermaltake PurePower 480W Butterfly specifications

The Thermaltake PurePower 480W Butterfly power supply comes in a bigger box than usual. You don’t expect a power supply box to be this big but the Thermaltake PurePower 480W Butterfly power supply is a power supply with some extras. Those extras include the Thermaltake X-Blower fan to be used as an exhaust fan, and a 5.25” rheobus, which controls two fans. Those two fans are the X-Blower exhaust fan and the internal 80mm fan inside the power supply. Other items that are included is a nice manual which shows you how to connect everything together, a power cord, mounting screws and rubber washers to be used when screwing in the X-Blower to your case. These prevent possible vibration, which translates into noise.

The Active PFC Thermaltake PurePower 480W Butterfly power supply is relatively heavy and that is a good sign of a quality power supply. The exterior housing is made of steel and not aluminum and is black in color (have silver too). This is why the PSU is heavier than usual, save Thermaltake some costs, but will somewhat decrease the level of heat dissipation as opposed to using aluminum, but in all reality not much in a small enclosure. The exterior enclosure is of excellent quality and has a textured feel to it, something like what the Silverstone HTPC case had.

The Thermaltake PurePower 480W Butterfly power supply is striking. It comes with funky looking sleeving reminiscent to butterfly colors. Not only is the ATX connector sleeved like other manufactures do, ALL the cable connectors are sleeved! Unlike other manufactures…Thank you Thermaltake for sleeving ALL of the cables. Expect your case to be very neat and cleaner than usual. No more spaghetti wires. The Thermaltake PurePower 480W Butterfly power supply includes 1 ATX connector, 1 AUX connector, 1 P4 connector, 9 MOLEX connectors, 3 FDD connectors, and 2 SATA connectors integrated. The wires are nice and long and you will have no problems with them in full size cases. I like the fact that there are 2 SATA connectors. These SATA connectors are not adaptors but integrated ones drawing power straight from the power supply. Two SATA connectors will benefit SATA RAID users out of the bat because usually, companies only supply one SATA connector. In the exterior enclosure, there is a golden color theme going on as the fan grills and screws and golden. This adds a visual flair for people with side window cases.

Speaking of side window cases, the Xaser emblem you see at the side of the Thermaltake PurePower 480W Butterfly power supply can actually be removed. Removing this will provide you with a side window in which you can view the LED’s inside, which transits between a couple of colors. This power supply has many surprises!

The back of the power supply is standard stuff but with a big power switch.

The Thermaltake PurePower 480W Butterfly power supply has some muscles and the peak load is a massive 550W! I am amazed. That’s a difference of 70W already on top the typical load of 480W, so you will have the extra power if you ever do max the power band out.

Deciding to look inside of the Thermaltake PurePower 480W Butterfly power supply, I opened it up and was introduced to two aluminum chunks and a very neat looking power supply. Beside the fan you see the LED, which transits between different colors.

The last thing I want to talk about is about the X-Blower fan. It can push up to ~27 CFM’s at a maximum noise level of ~41dBA’s. On the highest fan speed, it is a screamer but not louder than the 60mm Delta fan. With the rheobus, the X-Blower shines. I like it because it pulls great air and pushes it within the center spot that other fans can’t do. I almost think the maximum spec of 27CFM is misleading because it feels like more.

Testing

I will be testing the Thermaltake PurePower 480W Butterfly power supply on the Athlon 64 system I have in testing phase. The basic description of the system is listed below.

  • AMD Athlon 64 3000+
  • MSI K8T FIS2R Motherboard

Results

Idle (30 mins)
Load (Toast 5 mins)
+12V = 12.10
+12V = 12.00
+5V = 5.08
+5V = 5.02
-12V = -12.10
-12V = -12.05
-5V = -5.08
-5V = -5.15


As you can see, the Thermaltake PurePower 480W Butterfly power supply is giving clean power and performs great. No problems were encountered during testing.

Conclusion

The Thermaltake PurePower 480W Butterfly power supply impresses me. It impresses me because of the bundle you get with it. You get case cooling, and a noise solution. Think of it as a 3-in-1-power supply bundle. I like the fact that this is the first power supply I have seen and used with all of the wires sleeved and contains two SATA connectors. I really did not have a real downfall to pick on. I would have liked the enclosure to be aluminum, but that is of preference. Obviously the X-Blower fan is loud on full blast but that’s where the rheobus comes into play. I have no hesitation in highly recommending the Thermaltake PurePower 480W Butterfly power supply.

Pros and Cons

+ 3-in-1 PSU Bundle
+ Quality
+ Massive power
+ ALL cable connectors sleeved!
+ LED window
+ Surprised me
- Steel instead of Aluminum enclosure (preference)

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