Thermaltake Smart BX1 RGB 650w PSU

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Thermaltake have had a considerable number of new products recently, they are well known as a case brand, and I have covered affordable options such as the View 22 and View 32, along with the premium Level 20 XT and GT RGB.

They also produce some fantastic other components for your PC including the Floe RIING RGB all in one CPU cooler, and the budget-friendly Smart RGB 700 Watt 80+ PSU.

Today I have the Smart BX1 RGB 650w PSU which on face value isn’t all that different from the Smart RGB, so much so I had to check the product names and boxes to make sure I wasn’t sent a duplicate sample.

Thermaltake Smart BX1 RGB 650w 1

While this model has 50w less power, it is one step up from the Smart RGB which was only 80+ rated while this is 80+Bronze rated. It is small, but to many, an important difference. With 80+ the efficiency is guaranteed at 82% at 20% and 100% load, while the Bronze achieves 85%/85%.  A 3% efficiency increase is not likely ever going to pay itself off, but consumers perceive an increase in build quality and reliability the higher up the standard a PSU goes, and there will undoubtedly be some correlation to this.

Thermaltake Smart BX1 RGB 650w 3

Apart from that, there is not a whole lot of difference between the two PSUs, in fact, the BX1 has one less peripheral adaptor. This PSU does specifically advertise that it uses high-quality Japanese capacitors, normally that could just be marketing fluff but it appears that they use Nichicon capacitors which are known to be reliable options.

The one notable difference is the price, but thankfully it is not a huge jump. The 650W Thermaltake Smart BX1 RGB costs £69.99 while the 700W Smart RGB is £59.99. Both are still well into the budget end of PSUs.

In order to achieve the low price, this is a fully-wired PSU which is a bit of a pain when it comes to building a clean looking system but if you have good cable management skills and perhaps a PSU shroud it shouldn’t provide too much concern.

Just as the Smart RGB, Thermaltake have outfitted this with RGB and you have 7 colour options, and RGB cycle mode. You can, of course, switch the lights off if you want. Unlike some of the premium options from Thermaltake, this is not smart/app controlled, there is just a button on the back of the PSU.

Performance

As with the previous PSU, this also used an ultra-quiet PSU fan, but it is not semi-passive. So, at very light loads they claim it should have a sub 20db noise which ramps up to 38.9dB at full load. Depending on your other cooling options this will likely be similar to a decent CPU cooler or case fan.

Thermaltake Smart BX1 RGB 650w 2

I don’t have the expensive hardware to test how well this performs but with a little research online, other people have suggested that it more than met the Bronze requirements. It typically achieves just under the silver requirements and manages almost 85% at full load. One tester also suggested that it peak

Conclusion

Overall, just like the Smart RGB PSU, this is a solid option for an affordable build. 650w is about the sweet spot for a lot of people; it will easily be able to power any single GPU system. If you are forking out for a mid-range or higher end GPU, I would suggest that the extra £10 on this PSU is well worth it for the increased power efficiency and superior internal components.

The only small issue is that the 650w bronze PSU market is a little crowded and this PSU isn’t strictly the cheapest. The RGB LEDs arguably justify the price, for others the Japanese capacitors and the near silver performance will be worth it. It is a brand-new PSU too, so the price will likely drop a little. If you can live without RGB, I would argue that the Thermaltake Smart DPS G Digital 700 W 80 Plus Bronze Semi-Modular Power Supply is a better buy at £80.47 on Amazon and it has been as low as £75

Thermaltake Smart BX1 RGB 650w PSU

Product Name: Thermaltake Smart BX1 RGB 650w PSU

Offer price: 69.99

Currency: GBP

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