Internals
Opening this unit shows almost exactly the same interior as we have seen previously with Xigmatek or Thermaltake. Corsair changed a few things that are not necessarily easily visible. Let's first start with checking the layout. As we mentioned in the Xigmatek review, this power supply is in fact split into two halves. Each half acts as a completely independent power supply with 12V and a smaller voltage rail. The 5Vsb rail is generated within its own circuitry, which is located above the filtering stage on its own PCB. We have the filtering stage at the top with coils and capacitors and then we have a big rectifier bridge that has its own little heatsink in the top right corner of the picture. From there, the power supply splits in half and each side has its own primary stage containing amongst other things the PFC stage with some nice Japanese capacitors from Nippon Chemi-Con. Both are rated at 420V and 330µF at 105°C.
Each side has only one transformer where the 12V rail is generated. Each of the sides has a smaller rail of 3.3V or 5V split from each of the 12V rails. The difference from other similar units lies in the secondary stage. Competitors only have a few solid-state capacitors here, which are supposed to have a much longer life expectancy. Corsair has the complete secondary stage equipped with solid-state capacitors even for the smaller voltage rails. There are only two normal electrolyte capacitors hidden under the cables. The heatsinks are very small due to the lack of space, but they have a decent surface area through the use of many small fins. The inside looks very packed and there are some areas where the airflow will be restricted, but most of the parts will be cooled just fine.
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Gholam - Wednesday, April 30, 2008 - link
I set up a pair of Dell PowerEdge 2950 III servers last week, each one running a pair of Xeon 5410 CPUs (2.33GHz quad-core), 8x2GB FB-DIMMs, and a pair of 15k rpm SAS drives hooked up to a PERC6 - peak power draw registered by BMC has been 293W so far on one box, and 276W on the other.HOOfan 1 - Wednesday, April 30, 2008 - link
and how many graphics cards are you running?Gholam - Thursday, May 1, 2008 - link
None, but desktop systems aren't large banks of FB-DIMMs either, nor multiple quad-core CPUs or rows of 15k rpm fans. The most power-hungry graphics card today is well under 200W power draw. You really, really have to work to exceed 500-600W power draw on a modern computer.Powervano - Tuesday, April 29, 2008 - link
I like most of your reviews very much guys and I have a suggestion/wish for the future reviews.Can you test (if possible, of course) Inter-Tech CobaNitrox IT-7750SG PSU?
I would also like to see the tests of FSP Epsilon series PSU.
Christoph Katzer - Tuesday, April 29, 2008 - link
Epsilon has already arrived and will come soon. CobaNitrox might not be interesting for most readers since (I think) they're only available in Germany.Powervano - Tuesday, April 29, 2008 - link
Nice to hear about Epsilon. I have seen about 87-89% efficiency about Epsilon series on several web-sites and I would like to see professional tests about that PSU.Yes, CobaNitrox is only available in germany, but it comes relatively cheap compared to other high quality PSUs and it is very interesting does it offer same functionality as other PSUs in the same class do?
Christoph Katzer - Tuesday, April 29, 2008 - link
http://www.planet3dnow.de/artikel/hardware/netztei...">http://www.planet3dnow.de/artikel/hardw...etzteile...HOOfan 1 - Tuesday, April 29, 2008 - link
Another CWT....Powervano - Tuesday, April 29, 2008 - link
Good review, but not the same high quality one as I see here, at AnandTech...JarredWalton - Tuesday, April 29, 2008 - link
Note the author. ;) But of course, that's about a year and a half old.