ASUS ROG Thor 850W & 1200W PSU Review

Inside the Box – What does an ROG PSU look like? 

When it comes to ROG packaging, ASUS always tries to one-up their competition, offering a similar unboxing experience regardless of whether you are opting the box of an AIO liquid cooler, a motherboard or other high-end components. This same attention to detail applies to their Thor power supplies, making them feel distinctly ROG. 

As far as packaging goes there is little to complain about here, everything is contained in its own compartment, and the box itself can handle getting dropped without harming the precious components inside. You will need to find an especially careless courier to damage this unit in transit, which is an excellent thing in the world of online retail. 
  

  

Now that we have made our way inside, we can finally see what power supplies look like within the Republic of Gamers, presenting us with an angular look with a diagonally stripped fan grill which features a painted ROG eye logo on top as well as ROG lettering.

We can also see a lot of exposed screw points, adding a rugged feel to the unit, while also making the power supply appear easy to disassemble, not that we recommend dismantling your PSU.  

When looking at both the 850W (top) and 1200W (bottom) ROG Thor units, we can see that both feature similar designs, with the 1200W being 30mm longer, making it 190mm in length. This extra space allows the larger unit to feature a larger RGB illuminated eye logo as well as the volume needed to contain 1200W-grade componentry. 

Both units also feature a button on the rear of the unit that allows users to enable or disable the power supply’s 0dB fan mode, granting users no fan noise under low loads or the peace of mind that their PSU fan is always gently spinning and dissipating heat. 

  
  

Both the 850W and 1200W ROG Thor PSUs offer an OLED display on the side of the unit, which allows them to show users how much power is being drawn at any given time. 

This design feature will force users of this power supply to mount this PSU in a “fan-facing-up” orientation in most PC cases, as otherwise the text on the unit would be upside down. Cases with a PSU shroud are not ideal for this power supply, as they will typically force users to cover the Thor’s ARGB LEDs and its OLED screen, blocking the unit’s major selling points. 

The ARGB LEDs on this power supply can be controlled using ASUS Aura Sync on any motherboard with an ARGB LED header. I wonder how these powered elements will impact the PSU’s efficiency ratings. 

  

As expected the 1200W Thor PSU features more power outputs than it’s little brother, with both PSUs featuring a single 24-pin connection, two 8/4-pin CPU/EPS power connectors, twelve SATA connections, five Molex connections and a single floppy connector.

The only difference between each unit is in its PCIe connections, with the 850W model featuring four 8/6-pin PCIe power connectors while the 1200W model offers up to eight PCIe 8/6-pin connectors. 

  

Looking at the cables below, we can see that the most important cables are all individually sleeves, including the 24-pin, the 8-pin EPS cables and four of the 8/6-pin PCIe connections with the 1200W unit. The other 8/6-pins (which are unlikely to be used by most builders) are sleeved together with a plastic braid. 

  

The Molex, Floppy and SATA power cables are all using black plastic cables, all of which are unlikely to be seen from a case window. No major PSU makers ship these cables with individual sleeving, so we don’t expect ASUS to do so.
 

  

Bundles with all of ASUS’ ROG Thor power supplies is a 20% off Cablemod voucher as well as a set of ROG Cablemod cable combs, allowing ROG Thor users to purchase more sleeved cables at a discounter price and to better manage their sleeved cabled wothout the need to purchase cable combs. Nice touch ROG. 

Also bundled with the unit is a collection of ROG velcro ties and standard cable ties, both of which will be useful when cleaning up the cabled runs inside your system. The unit also comes with four screws which will allow you to mount the PSU to your case, a standard add-on for most, if not all, ATX power supplies. 

  

Like all power supplies, ASUS needs to stick a certifications sticker onto their unit, with the label being seated at the bottom of the unit, the opposite side of the ROG Thor’s 135mm fan. This sticker will be hidden from view in most cases, as ASrecommendscomends placing this PSU in a fan-facing-up configuration, albeit just for aesthetic reasons.