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Thermaltake says it's bringing innovation back to power supplies with its latest unit, shown off at its booth right in the centre of Computex's busiest intersection. It was hosting a surprise visit by Jensen Huang at the time of my visit—chaos. Luckily I could hide away from the action down the company's power supply aisle.
The Dockpower series looks to be more or less your standard power supply. Available from 750 to 1200 watts, in black or white, and including a 12V-2x6 connection, it's got most gaming rigs covered. Though remove one screw from the end with all the ports and it reveals its hidden talent: this part comes away from the body entirely.
The idea is that you can fit the PSU inside the case without this part, which Thermaltake calls the dock module. Then you fit whichever cables you need to it and reattach, saving having to fiddle around with each individual connection in what can be a cramped space inside a PC or under a PSU shroud. The dock modules uses, what I'm told is, a server-grade gold-plated connection. It's secured in place with a provided screw (which has a d-ring to make it easier to tighten by hand).
"Last time when the power supply had innovation was 20 years ago," says Thermaltake representative Mingkei at the booth. "When modular units came out."
"There's no innovation at all until now."
Those are fighting words, as I'm sure some of the power supply products from Seasonic (Connect), Corsair (Shift + AX1600i), and Lian Li (Edge) could claim innovative aspects to their designs over the years, to name a few.
In a press conference from its Computex booth, Thermaltake called the PSU the "next generation of PSU architecture." It also noted the upgradeability of the power supply: rather than rewiring your entire PC, you just swap the power unit and reconnect the dock module.
I do wonder about the overall utility of Thermaltake's design. For one, you can fit most of the cables you need onto a modular PSU before you install it with fairly little effort. Similarly, how easy will it be to secure the connection module into place with the screw once the PSU is installed and cables are attached? Lastly, upgrading a PSU is such a rare occurrence, I doubt most mind the odd bit of cable management that comes with it.
Nevertheless, I get what Thermaltake is reaching for here: it's trying to do something different with what is usually, but not always, a fairly boring black box. How well this works will be clearer once it's out into the hands of PC builders. The Dockpower series—FS, FC, and FI—launches this September.
1. Best overall: Wooting 80HE
2. Best budget: Gamakay X NaughShark NS68
3. Best wireless: Keychron K2 HE
4. Best low profile: NuPhy Air60 HE
5. Best looking: NZXT Function Elite MiniTKL
6. Best with a numpad: Keychron Q5 HE
