My bad, I thought you had recommended the CX430, not the CX450. I'll go find some bad reviews on that and be back.
Ok, I'm back, I don't see any bad reviews on the CX450, but that may only be because there are NO reviews of the CX450. I'll reserve judgement until I see the inside for myself. I may just buy one of these and send it to Aris for review.
However, history tells us that CWT has done a lousy job in the past on CX units, so while I can't say anything definitive on the CX450, I can look to the past and say this:
The Corsair CX430 is made by CWT and uses the DSAIII platform. All the CX430-600w units use the same DSAIII platform and they are all made by CWT. Newer CXm models are not the same. The CSAIII platform, and all the DSA platforms really ( DSA = OCZ ModXStream Pro 400, Zalman ZM450-US), DSAII = Enermax EX, Sharkoon WPM, DSAII = Corsair CX430-600w units), DSAIV = Enermax Revolution X't) are all inferior power supplies.
And it isn't necessarily just the platforms, it's the build quality, poor assembly, good components sometimes with terrible soldering, tons of reasons why people in PSU circles cringe the majority of the time when CWT is mentioned.
Even the newest of those platforms, the DSAIV used in the Enermax Revolution X't, which you'd think might be improved since Enermax is trying to change their historical reputation of putting out some pretty terrible units and CWT has had several generations to improve the design and offer a more polished budget platform, still sucks. Case in point. There are LOTS more cases in point for ALL these platforms if you really feel the need for me to toss them in the pile.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/enermax-revolution-xt-ii-750w-power-supply,4549-10.html
And believe me when I say that's the best of the bunch. Not totally terrible, but for me, I'd never recommend a unit that died during testing whether it was an isolated incident or not. An that the fact that it's hold up time is out of spec, it's 5v rail performed poorly and it had sub-standard efficiency when not heavily loaded is enough to fully convince me there are much better units available for the same price, and actually, for a lot less.
As far as the CX430 goes, there are reviews on it. Jonny Guru's website said it wasn't horrible, it actually scored pretty well, but then, most Corsair units score well there since he works for them. Not that he's biased or anything, I've heard it go both ways and popular opinion is that since Oklahoma wolf does most of the reviews there these days, that Jonny's influence doesn't reach to the reviews (Which I highly doubt), however, seems he did this review himself, possibly before he began working for them.
In that review he says:
The Bad:
Not as efficient as we would like to see.
The Mediocre:
Use of Chinese Samxon capacitors throughout.
Group regulated design.
SamXon caps are enough for me to walk away. There are better units within reasonable reach of the price of the CX430 to not have to settle for group regulation and Samxon caps.
Further, he indicates:
Apparently the CX-430 product page is chock full of typographical errors because a good amount of the product description was copied and pasted from the CX-400 product page. One such error is the statement that this power supply is 80 Plus certified. Corsair tells me that this unit is NOT 80 Plus certified. Another error on the website is that the unit has a ball-bearing fan. Of course, in our autopsy we found that the CX-430 actually has a sleeve bearing fan.
More nails in the coffin as I see it. Group regulated, poor choice of capacitors, not 80plus certified and poor efficiency even for a non certified unit. Nah, no thanks.
Hopefully the CX450 doesn't share any of the inherent problems from the past models, but given the continuing mediocrity of the majority of CWT's budget platforms, I'd have to see it to believe it, and so like I said, I may just buy one and send it in for review or take a look myself although I don't have the proper equipment to fully test it properly like Aris, Gabriel or Wolf would do.
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram