Final Words & Conclusion

Final Words

ASUS has an excellent offering with the Thor power supplies. Their problem, however, is that there is no need for a 1200 Watt model. Sure, last year there was a spike in super-high efficiency power supplies over a kilowatt, but that was for the cryptocurrency mining farms. And trust me, these guys do not care about a good looking product. So what I am trying to say here is that really, I am steering you towards the 850 Watt model, as that one makes sense in this year and age. The DIY PC over the years has seen the trend of energy efficiency, and as such the requirements of a modern PC have gotten way lower. Any Crossfire or SLI setup on a high-end processor with a tweak or two will be fine with that 850 Watt model.  Acoustics, the Thor series is a really silent product. The PSU has seen modest tweaks with better/more internal heatsinks. When you flick that passive button, you'll be hard-pressed to see the fan spin up as it needs a lot of load for a long time for that to happen. 

Efficiency

As with any power supply, half the maximum load rating is the point of equilibrium, the sweet-spot where it'll be the most efficient and in this case that is 94% efficiency (at 230 Volts). As such, the 300~450 Watt range is actually a sweet-spot as your average gaming PC with one dedicated (yet high end) graphics card would consume roughly that during a hefty gaming session. Again why I recommend the 850 Watt model over the 1200 Watt one. So let's assume 175 Watts for the GPU + 100 Watts for CPU and cooling and then add to that the mobo chipset and your connected devices.

Efficiency savings

So how much money do you actually save each year if you have a gaming PC compared top all these efficiency certifications? Well, Let's create a showcase. Ranging from Bronze too platinum you can buy more efficient power supplies. Over the years, it has become a bit of a marketing thing really as differences a few percents really is the margin what we are talking about here. That's also the same percentual difference in your electric bill.

50% Load in Watt	80plus	Bronze	Silver	Gold	Platinum
350	420	402,5	392	385	378
3 Hours per day	0,25	0,24	0,24	0,23	0,23
5 Days week/year	65,52	62,79	61,15	60,06	58,97

So above you can see a quick chart I created. Let's say you game 3 hours per day, 5 days a week for a full year. During gaming, you'll consume 350 Watts and then add the inefficiency loss (350W = a fairly high-end setup with perhaps a bit of overclocking right?). We assume you pay 20 cents for each KWh of energy (the average going rate in the EU). As you can see, from Bronze to Platinum the difference really is to give or take 6 euros at best for over a thousand hours of gaming. That 6 euros / USD for a full year calculation.  Overall, my generic advice is to go with silver or gold if priced nicely, the Platinum power supplies often carry a price premium. I do want to state though that efficiency also says something about internal build quality. Follow your instinct I'd say. Now, this chart was based on gaming, of course, if you'd have your PC active 24/7, you'll want an efficient as possible PSU to save on energy consumption.

Aesthetics

The PSU looks fantastic by the way, but do people really care about that for a PSU that often is tucked and hidden away? I don't know. I do like the OLED screen showing real-time power consumption and the RGB LEDs, these two, however, add likely 10~15 watts on average when enabled. Keep that in mind. We love the fact that ASUS included partial sleeved cabling, that is an expensive feature and most primary cables in the vicinity all come sleeved, very nice. The rest of the cables are delivered in a dark black coating including all dark connectors, which is nice to see. Modular designs are the way to go. You use what you need in terms of wiring, keeping the innards clean and tidy, plain and simple. And overall it is a great looking power supply, albeit that RGB lit ROG logo is getting a little too visual if you stick it everywhere.

One last remark, the OLED screen for some might be on the wrong position? Not an issue as you can reverse the PSU of course (upsidedown), but mounted at the bottom of the PC the fan then point upwards (which is far from ideal).

Stability

Stability wise we have very little, actually nothing to complain about, voltages remained to drop dead in sync. But we'll trust that some other reviews will offer you some ripple tests yet have no doubt the product will come out totally clean as this is an enhanced Seasonic PRIME. Kick-ass is obviously massive 12V/100A rail, the tested 1200W model has enough power to handle a handful of high-end graphics cards. Realistically for a PC with a single graphics card, a 650 or 750 model would likely be better suited as a recommendation. If you are an overclocker/tweaker .. leave some reserve and go with the 850W model. 

   Final words

Right is platinum needed? No, not really, Gold is the new sweet spot in efficiency. I mean Platinum, Titanium offer merely a few percents more on efficiency whereas a Gold specced PSU is very efficient and more affordable. You also need to look at the workload, Platinum makes sense if your PC runs 24/7. But if you game a couple of hours per day, it all becomes very trivial and almost irrelevant. We have no doubt about the quality, stability, and efficiency of this PSU series though. It really performed spot on where it needs to be. Nice to see is the 10-years warranty, a little lame, however, is that the RGB implementation and OLED screen only get 3-years. I stated it, 1200W for a gaming PSU makes no sense anymore in the year 2018/2019. Ergo if you are in the market for the THOR, please do select the 850 Watt model and save yourself some money. Talking about money, I expected the prices to be worse. The 1200W model you can spot for 329,- EUR/USD and the 850 Watt model can be spotted at 229 EUR/USD. For a PSU of this class, silence and with the aesthetic RGB, OLED and sleeved cabling that's simply not a bad deal. Remember though on the RGB stuff, you'll need a compatible ASUS motherboard with aura support as well to be able to control it. For a gamer, gaming a few hours per day you need to wonder if you need a Platinum or even Titanium power supply as the price premium might be way more then what it will cost you in energy. Looking at it from the other side, the less power you consume the better, of course. We like the fact that the PSU has a 10-year warranty, however, the OLED screen and RGB implementation are covered for just 3-years, I do find that a little silly. Overall though we cannot complain at all as the power supply is super silent and efficient combined with terrific looks. The icing on top of the cake is the sleeved cabling of course. In the end, though, it is just a power supply, albeit a damn good and nice one. I am impressed with this one, really I am.

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