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What if Corsair's CX power supplies aren't any good?
Corsair has gone through several generations of its CX line of power supplies pretty quickly. It's always been their low end, but earlier generations still reviewed well as a nice budget product. Lots of people have bought a Corsair CX power supply on the basis that it's cheap, and if it's a Corsair, it's got to be decent, right?
http://hardocp.com/article/2015/01/21/corsair_cx750_750w_power_supply_review/9
They went and bought a retail CX750 off of New Egg. They found dodgy CapXon capacitors, a bad interior layout, and a unit that couldn't deliver it's rated wattage--or even 80% of its rated wattage in their torture test (8 hours at 80% load and 45 C; the power supply shut down after a few minutes).
It's still not "replace immediately if you have one because it's a danger to your system" junk. But I'd generally want higher quality than that. I can understand it if you're trying to save every last dime and going with integrated graphics and a 400 W power supply. But if you justifiably have a need for 600+ W, you've got the budget to get something much better quality.
Comments
Yeah, I agree not to skimp, the issue is if your buying Corsair, you'd ~think~ that you aren't skimping, even on their budget lines. I admit, Corssair was one of the very few brands that I had considered a safe bet across pretty much their entire product line.
Corsair seems to have some QC issues as of late - the RM series was pretty bad when it first released as well.
I guess it just goes to show that just because a PSU is good, it doesn't mean all PSUs sold by that company are good. After the RM-series debacle last year, and now reading this, it doesn't mean all Corsairs are bad, or that Corsair is a bad brand name, but it does mean I no longer just endorse the name as a safe bet across their entire lineup.
No more blanket Corsair recommendations, what has the computing world come to? Am I to understand that Seasonic is ultimately to blame for Corsairs CX series issues?
You might remember the thread I created a little while ago about my corsair PSU failing. THIS is the replacement they're sending.
Whats the next, safest brand to default to gentlemen?
Corsair's latest CX series is made by Channel Well, not Seasonic. Their RM series is made by Chicony. For what it's worth, Hard OCP was not impressed with their RM series, either:
http://hardocp.com/article/2013/11/13/corsair_rm750_750w_power_supply_review/4
Can deliver 100% of rated wattage just fine (unlike the CX series!), but shuts down if you try to pull 50% wattage in a hot case due to the fan doing something stupid.
But it's not the sticker on the label that matters, nor is it the original manufacturer. It's which particular model you get. Channel Well can make some very nice power supplies when so inclined--such as Corsair's HX series. Seasonic's platinum series is massively better than Seasonic's own entry level stuff. It costs more to make high quality units than low quality ones, which is why companies commonly offer several different models at the same wattage.
Some power supplies are complete garbage that no reputable brand would ever associate itself with. And Corsair is still one of those "we don't sell complete garbage" brands. Hard OCP intentionally tests power supplies at high temperatures (45 C, which is 113 F), with the idea that you want to see if a power supply is good under harsher than real world conditions. The high temperature is probably the underlying culprit found in both the CX and RM power supply reviews. But computer case interiors sometimes do get hot.
Isn't it Channel Well that does most of the CX line?
bah ninja'd
Brenics ~ Just to point out I do believe Chris Roberts is going down as the man who cheated backers and took down crowdfunding for gaming.
In DMKano you must trust.