I dedicate this post to my precious Power Supply Unit, which is (was) a Thermaltake W0089RE 470W (see specs below).
It has:
- 120 mm fan with “High thermal performance” they say, also “Optimum Air flow and Low Noise”. Low noise yeah, but optimal air flow not quite, it becomes hot-hot-hot after 5 hrs of usage, especially gaming;
- Dual +12V Rails… hmm, I’ll tell you later about it;
- 6 pin PCI-Express Connector – 1 piece;
- 5-pin SATA Connector – 4 pieces;
- 24 (20) pin Main Connector;
- 4-pin +12V Power Connector – 1 piece;
- 4-pin Peripheral Power Connector – 8 pieces;
- 4-pin Floppy Drive Connector – 2 pieces;
- “Intelligent Cable Management: Black cable sleeving Optimum air-flow”. That’s true. It’s very nice to see, also work with such cable management.
I own one of these from 1 full year and I must tell you I never encountered a problem with it:
- no blue screens, no restarts, no game crashes.
It beautifully handles a P4 925D CPU with a Ati X1600XT VGA and 2 HDD WD 250Gb/each.
The PSU heating was not a problem for me because I have a REAL optimal air flow in my CASE, thus overheating was something hard to achieve.
Up there I promise to tell you about the +12V Rails. Well, here it is.
Yesterday, 0400 hrs, 2 tremendous claps followed by a great power surge – both electrical fuses went off, then a nasty smell and quite a headache.
Now, translating.
My PSU decided to engage the auto destruct sequence yesterday morning at 4:00 by blowing up one of its capacitors and one of the 12V Rails.
Reason: I don’t know if I’ll find one.
The PC was turned off, not completely because it was (like always) unplugged, meaning that the PSU was still fueling the MB – keeping it ready for the launch 
That’s absolutely NORMAL!
How many of you unplug the PC after shutting down?
Only the paranoids and probably the people who’ll leave their houses for more than a few days.
If it was a spike my other electronic devices will have to be affected, or they didn’t have much time because of my PSU ‘reaction’? I don’t know.
What I know and it will become a must from now on is:
- stay out of that Thermaltake PSU. I still have another year of warranty, but to be honest that PSU will never power my PC again.
- surge / spike protected plugs.
- eventually an UPS.
And you know what’s even more bothering?
On the e-shop section on which the PSU is advertised I found a comment which details the same problem…
I begin to believe that it was no spike on the electrical installation, it was the freakin’ PSU!
So, if you’re a proud owner of the TT W0089RE 470W PSU and you’re reading this… You’re lucky, yet! 
I always liked Thermaltake products and I’ve encouraged others to trust them, also buy their products. But now when I look back I realize that it would be best for me to stay out of recommendations, at least for a while.
Well, that’s it! To me Thermaltake will never cross 2 stars out of 5.
Eyes wide open,
CJ
