Looking for help understanding my PSU

chriso132 · 8 Jul 2020 at 16:53

Hi, so this is probably gonna sound stupid due to having the psu for so long.
It’s a old gen AX850. Still running great so gonna keep it for a while longer.
I’m looking on buying an RTX3080 when it releases and was looking at my cables to make sure I have the necessary cables just in case it may be dual 8 pin connectors. I have ran SLI with this in the past so of course it can, but only remembered this after I looked.
It’s currently got 2 separate 8 pins coming from the PSU which I assume are connected into the two 12 pin connections on my PSU ? As there is only one 8 pin for the CPU.
I know this can accommodate sli from 4 separate cables but cannot remember how this was achieved. I’m guessing it was the two 12 pin connections on the PSU going to the two 8 pins on my old 680s and two separate 6 pins as well ?
I’m just curious so I understand what I’ve done in the past.
Also, why do they use 12 pins on the psu for 6+2 connectors and not 8 pins to 6 + 2 ?

thanks !

chriso132 · 8 Jul 2020 at 16:55

Actually according to a review it has 4, 6 + 2 cables. How can you connect 4 of them to this psu if it only has the two 12 pin connection and a bunch of 6 pin connections ?

pastymuncher · 8 Jul 2020 at 18:53

You most likely have a pair of 6+2 pin cables daisy chained on each lead. That's the way it's normally done.

james.miller · 8 Jul 2020 at 19:05

No 12 pin connectors on the ax850. It has 4x 8 pin connectors for pcie. Are you sure it's an ax850 and not an ax850i?

Edit: oh god, there's two different ax850s. Wtf are corsair doing :confused:

pastymuncher · 9 Jul 2020 at 11:11

He means the psu side of the cable has 12 pins and the AX850 has 2x 12 pin connections on the psu itself. It appears that you have a pair of 12 pin connectors at the psu end because Corsair/Seasonic did something different to everyone else and instead of daisy chaining a pair of 6+2 pin cables at the end of the first connector they have teo seperate 6+2 pin cables coming from each single 12 pin connector. You should have a pair of these 12 pin to 2x 6+2 pin cables giving you your 4x 6+2 pin pci-e cables. It's not ideal but it looks better than the daisy chained way of doing it that most other manufacturers have implemented.

There has only been a single version of the AX850 which was built by Seasonic and based on their own X series and launched in 2010. It was replaced by the AX860 in mid 2012 which was also built by Seasonic and based on their XP2 platform and also brought a improvement in efficiency from a Gold to Platinum rating. At the same time Corsair introduced the AXi series which was built by Flextronics and were also Platinum rated apart from the 1500i and the new 1600i which are Titanium rated.

james.miller · 9 Jul 2020 at 12:16

pastymuncher said:
He means the psu side of the cable has 12 pins and the AX850 has 2x 12 pin connections on the psu itself. It appears that you have a pair of 12 pin connectors at the psu end because Corsair/Seasonic did something different to everyone else and instead of daisy chaining a pair of 6+2 pin cables at the end of the first connector they have teo seperate 6+2 pin cables coming from each single 12 pin connector. You should have a pair of these 12 pin to 2x 6+2 pin cables giving you your 4x 6+2 pin pci-e cables. It's not ideal but it looks better than the daisy chained way of doing it that most other manufacturers have implemented.

There has only been a single version of the AX850 which was built by Seasonic and based on their own X series and launched in 2010. It was replaced by the AX860 in mid 2012 which was also built by Seasonic and based on their XP2 platform and also brought a improvement in efficiency from a Gold to Platinum rating. At the same time Corsair introduced the AXi series which was built by Flextronics and were also Platinum rated apart from the 1500i and the new 1600i which are Titanium rated.

No, there's two of them.

the original ax850 was an 80+ gold unit and that had 2x 12 pin sockets. The updated ax850 is a titanium unit and that has 4x 8pin sockets.

New ax850. Not an ax860 or an ax850i.
https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/corsair-ax850-psu,5986.html

pastymuncher · 9 Jul 2020 at 13:39

That's not a old Gen AX 850 though and nothing to do with the OP's one. The OP's version was discontinued in 2012 and replaced by the AX860 with the AX860i being introduced at the same time. Interesting that after a 7 year break they decided to go back to 850w from 860w but at least they stuck with Seasonic as the OEM. At the cheapest price of £220 that's a hell of a price premium.

james.miller · 9 Jul 2020 at 16:02

That's not a old Gen AX 850 though and nothing to do with the OP's one. The OP's version was discontinued in 2012 and replaced by the AX860 with the AX860i being introduced at the same time.

Well..yes. Now you know why I questioned the number of pcie sockets on the back.