Are Corsair Power Supplies Any Good?

Andy7

Andy7

Andy7

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Just read a post from another thread and was surprised with what the guy said.

As far as I know Corsair make great Power Supplies. This is what the guy said:

what were we saying yesterday at psus !!!!!

ive just tried my rebuilt i5 rig and the brand new 750W Corsair blew straight away, without even a GPU in it............it cost £ 25 to send it back to Overclockers. ..... 25 flipping quid

the guy in the shop said ``we've had a few of these PSUs blowing recently, Corsair aren't as good as they used to be``

this Corsair looks rubbish too.... i will spend a bit more cash and get another 1000w, Be -Quiet, because i cant see a replacement Corsair handling a 7990

i expect the Corsair is made in China.... cheap Chinese junk....i'm really fed up today !!!!!!!!!!!
 
Several problems with this.

If it's a brand new PSU and dies in first use you get the retailer to pay for return. £25 suggests picking the most expensive option.

Corsair don't make PSUs, they pay OEMs to make them.
Who the OEM of the PSU makes a big difference.
Always research the PSU you are going to buy.

Most PSUs are made in China, the really scat ones are probably made outside china. :)

get another 1000w, Be -Quiet
Click to expand...
So the old one died?
 
Corsair units were great up until about 3-4 years ago, they used only Seasonic to build their PSU's... however they had a change in direction and moved to Channel Well Technology (CWT) to produce all their PSU products, sadly it seems that CWT made units are not as nearly as good a quality as their old OEM partner.

My suggestion is to look at who uses Seasonic and go with an vendor who works with Seaonic to produce their units.

My suggestion is to use this site to find out who makes what....
http://www.realhardtechx.com/index_archivos/Page447.htm
 
Corsair units were great up until about 3-4 years ago, they used only Seasonic to build their PSU's... however they had a change in direction and moved to Channel Well Technology (CWT) to produce all their PSU products, sadly it seems that CWT made units are not as nearly as good a quality as their old OEM partner.

My suggestion is to look at who uses Seasonic and go with an vendor who works with Seasonic to produce their units.

My suggestion is to use this site to find out who makes what....
http://www.realhardtechx.com/index_archivos/Page447.htm
 
Corsair were good when they first launched and some of their psu's still are very good. Other's however, are poor. Corsair have never made their own psu's. When they first launched they used Seasonic as their OEM and all their units where high quality. Once they got established they changed to several cheaper OEM's and ended up with inferior units while keeping prices the same or higher. The CX series are a prime example. The original was the CX400, a unit built by Seasonic and capable of delivering 360w on the 12v rail. The replacement, the CX430, built by CWT despite being supposedly a 430w unit could only deliver a pathetic 336w on the 12v rail. The worse case was the CX600 which could only deliver a hopeless 480w on the 12v rail. Any modern decent psu should be able to deliver, or near to, it's full output on the 12v rail. Recent revisions have improved things but the CX range still cannot do this.

Now we have a even lower entry series called the VS. The CX series is built with cheap internals so god knows what is inside the VS series. There are no reviews available despite them being out for a while now.

Seasonic still make a couple of psu's for Corsair (HX650, AX760, AX860) although I can't see it lasting much longer before they swap to a cheaper OEM on those too. Other OEM's are CWT, Great Wall, Chicony Power Technology and Flextronics. See full details here also linked to by cactusweasel. It's a excellent site with details of who makes what, 12v rail power and links to reviews. It should be the first stop for anyone considering buying a new psu.

Corsair RMA's outside the first year have to be sent to the Netherlands so can cost around £25. Any failures in the first year should be dealt with by the retailer it was purchased from and delivery charges for returning should be refunded.
 
Just noticed that some of the Corsair units on that site linked above are only rated to 30 degrees too. That is not good, as PSU's under load will be operating way over 30 degrees.
 
On my 4th unit.

TX650. Died within a year. Replaced with another.
2nd TX650, died after around a year. Replaced by Corsair.
3rd TX650, the replacement one from Corsair. Had a bad fan on arrival.

Currently on a HX750. Which Corsair gave me as a free upgrade and paid shipping both ways, because of the TX650 being bad on arrival. No problems with that one so far.
 
pastymuncher said:
Seasonic still make a couple of psu's for Corsair (HX650, AX760, AX860) although I can't see it lasting much longer before they swap to a cheaper OEM on those too. Other OEM's are CWT, Great Wall, Chicony Power Technology and Flextronics. See full details here also linked to by cactusweasel. It's a excellent site with details of who makes what, 12v rail power and links to reviews. It should be the first stop for anyone considering buying a new psu.
Click to expand...

Great info, cheers. :)
 
pastymuncher said:
Corsair were good when they first launched and some of their psu's still are very good. Other's however, are poor. Corsair have never made their own psu's. When they first launched they used Seasonic as their OEM and all their units where high quality.
Click to expand...

Corsair has always used 2-3 OEMs, not just Seasonic, this is not a new thing. :) Your link even shows this.

In the early days Seasonic didn't make PSUs above 650 W, so any PSU above that was a different OEM. CWT was almost certainly responsible for the biggest number of models with Seasonic and Chicony Power Technology pretty even in model numbers.

The only big changes to their OEMs are the high end Flextronics units as Seasonic have only recently gone above 860 W with their Platinum Series.
And GreatWall for their new budget line, while they are no Seasonic they aren't too bad.

Also having a lower +12 V output rating compared to the total rating doesn't make the PSU bad (It may be bad for other reasons). Many unit based on older tech will have this. Just make sure you buy the PSU with the + 12 V rating you require. :)
 
cactusweasel said:
Corsair units were great up until about 3-4 years ago, they used only Seasonic to build their PSU's... however they had a change in direction and moved to Channel Well Technology (CWT) to produce all their PSU products, sadly it seems that CWT made units are not as nearly as good a quality as their old OEM partner.

My suggestion is to look at who uses Seasonic and go with an vendor who works with Seaonic to produce their units.

My suggestion is to use this site to find out who makes what....
http://www.realhardtechx.com/index_archivos/Page447.htm
Click to expand...

Seasonic and Superflower built PSU's are amongst the best. :)
 
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I've bought 4, 50% failure rate (both HX psu's) the other 2 (a VX450 & a CX430 MK1) are still OK.

RMA turnround time is very good, despite the good after sales service from Corsair I wouldn't buy another one again. I've bought Seasonics since then as I bought one about 8 years ago & that is powering my sisters PC right now.
 
HX520 on previous build, lasted 7 years and is now in sons build and still going strong (although he doesn't use it much)

RM850 in my build (Nov 13) and no issues at all.
 
My HX750 lasted years, bought back in 2011 and up until recently it was and still is really fine but I only RMAd it due to the cap whine that started to show up if I turned the PC off. I'm not too impressed by their new mid range models, seems only the AX seem to be the ones to go for.

I'll be selling the replacement they send me as I've found a new PSU of choice via Super Flower in their Leadex range :)
 
Gibbo said:
Seasonic and Superflower built PSU's are amongst the best. :)
Click to expand...

I agree with you. My XFX is a Seasonic unit, had it for 3 years now without any problems.

I don't know much about Superflower but their units seem to get good reviews.
 
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