Corsair CX850M and GTX 1080 Ti?

warren_hastings · Jul 10, 2018

Hello guys, I'm using Corsair CX850M grey with my 1080 Ti and 8700k. I know it's not meant for that, but I didn't know about it back then, sorry. So now, it's been a month and a half and it's running fine. Should I get a better PSU? should I be worried with my current one? And can anyone tell me why it's a bad choice for high end computers? Thanks.

I'm not sure where to post, but I thought this thread will be relevant.

P.S. The scare on the internet about CXM makes me really paranoid.

Barty1884 · Jul 10, 2018

The grey label CX units (both M and non-M) are substantially better than the old green label units and are totally fine for higher-end units.

If you were buying a PSU today, I would suggest more of a top-tier unit (SeaSonic Focus+ or something) to match the quality of the balance of your components.

But, since you already have the CX850M.... I really don't see any need to change it.

zyh1987 · Jul 10, 2018

i think you are worrying over nothing, really.
a cx650m should be fine for that 1080 ti, 8700k system. i don't see why you would need to worry. your full load system power draw at stock should be around 50% or less.

what exactly are they complaining about?

you have to also consider, people without issue usually don't complain about their psu.

warren_hastings · Jul 10, 2018

Thanks for the quick reply, but any thought on why CX is considered as something for 'basic' builds? Is it about component quality or is there anything more which I'm supposed to know?

jankerson · Jul 10, 2018

There is no way I would run a GTX 1080Ti or GTX 1080 on any CXM or CX, but that's me.

I would recommend getting a higher quality PSU than that for that system.

A higher grade unit like the Focus Plus that Barty1884 recommended or.

Corsair RMX
EVGA G2 or G3

However if it was my machine I would get a Seasonic Prime Titanium 750W.

jankerson · Jul 10, 2018

warren_hastings :

They are a budget PSU, one slight step up from their VS series.

For higher end builds it's highly recommended to go with their RMX series or higher.

Barty1884 · Jul 10, 2018

The revisions are a decent step up from the old CX units where they garnered their "bad" reputation.
http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&op=Story6&reid=486

Wouldn't be my first choice for a build of this nature, as I mentioned...... but I don't see any reason to spend the money to upgrade it right now.

There;s a 5 year warranty on that unit.
https://www.corsair.com/ca/en/warranty

I wouldn't necessarily view it as a PSU for the long-haul like I would with a Focus+ or something, but you should be able to use that without issue for 3-5 years IMO.

warren_hastings · Jul 10, 2018

So, in general if PSU fails, will it damage other components or will it just stop working?

jankerson · Jul 10, 2018

Barty1884 :

Remains to be seen if they start blowing up in about 3 years like the older ones did or not.

They haven't been out long enough yet so only time will tell.

I have my doubts just like I did with the old ones, they are still budget units so they cut quality someplace to keep the price down. Only time will tell if they actually hold up or not, and that will be about 2 more years or so....

jankerson · Jul 10, 2018

warren_hastings :

Could go one way or the other really.

I would say likely not, but I wouldn't chance it with an $800 GPU.

jankerson · Jul 10, 2018

Barty1884 :

I don't trust them at all, still a budget unit and reviewed on a site that is owned by a guy who works for Corsair.

The RMX and above obviously good, but those CX and below are questionable.

Karadjgne · Jul 10, 2018

My 2¢.

If it ain't broke, it don't need fixing. The revamped CXM are decent, not top tier, but substantially better than they used to be. There's one thing about Corsair products, and this is from reviews, posts, experience etc. Corsair dies quietly. I've never heard of a Corsair psu, even the old junk, blowing up a mobo, gpu, pc, house. There's enough decent protections built into the new units that even if it does eventually fail, the worst you could expect is Mebe a little data loss or corruption, that's all.

It's not the best unit for sure, but there are plenty worse and being an 850w it's not like you'll even come close to 100% loads, you'll be lucky to see over 500w total.

warren_hastings · Jul 10, 2018

AFAIK, JonnyGURU doesn't own the site anymore. He didn't want to rename it since the name JonnyGURU itself became a tag attached to a good PSU review, he left it as it is.

jankerson · Jul 10, 2018

Karadjgne :

Whole bunch of posts here about CX's firing GPU's and MB's...

At least one Mod here lost a MB to a CX.

Barty1884 · Jul 10, 2018

warren_hastings :

With a PSU with decent protections (like the CX850M), you'll likely experience instability issues or the PSU will just stop working. Chances that other components getting damaged is pretty slim IMO.

jankerson :

Agreed that only time will tell for sure..... but you can see where the improvements were made. The cheap/mixed Caps have been replaced and the temperature rating increased.

Realistically, if it truly is built down to a pricepoint..... the savings certainly are not past on the consumer by way of MSRP.

The CX850M is a ~$110 USD unit (before sales/rebates).

Considering you can have quality units, anything from an 850W G3 from EVGA at $100

Or a Focus+ Platinum 850W @ $128

Or an 850W RMx @ $130

It's certainly not priced as an outright "budget" unit.

jankerson :

JG rarely reviews anything these days - and certainly does not review Corsair units. Countless times he's been on the record about that.

jankerson :

Not to get too much into a back and forth here, but there's a lot more "no display" or "GPU instability" posts/threads than there is outright blowing up.

I've never heard of a lost MB as a result of solely a CX PSU though.

jankerson · Jul 10, 2018

Barty1884 :

warren_hastings :

With a PSU with decent protections (like the CX850M), you'll likely experience instability issues or the PSU will just stop working. Chances that other components getting damaged is pretty slim IMO.

jankerson :

Agreed that only time will tell for sure..... but you can see where the improvements were made. The cheap/mixed Caps have been replaced and the temperature rating increased.

Realistically, if it truly is built down to a pricepoint..... the savings certainly are not past on the consumer by way of MSRP.

The CX850M is a ~$110 USD unit (before sales/rebates).

Considering you can have quality units, anything from an 850W G3 from EVGA at $100

Or a Focus+ Platinum 850W @ $128

Or an 850W RMx @ $130

It's certainly not priced as an outright "budget" unit.

jankerson :

JG rarely reviews anything these days - and certainly does not review Corsair units. Countless times he's been on the record about that.

I know he doesn't do them anymore. (Be sure there is still politics involved there though) You know they aren't going to say anything negative about Corsair PSU's.

The Higher wattage CXM's would have to be better quality than the lower ones, that's obvious.

I think it was the CXM 650 and up are OK, it's the ones from 550W and down that are questionable still (The real budget units)

jankerson · Jul 10, 2018

Barty1884 :

warren_hastings :

With a PSU with decent protections (like the CX850M), you'll likely experience instability issues or the PSU will just stop working. Chances that other components getting damaged is pretty slim IMO.

jankerson :

Agreed that only time will tell for sure..... but you can see where the improvements were made. The cheap/mixed Caps have been replaced and the temperature rating increased.

Realistically, if it truly is built down to a pricepoint..... the savings certainly are not past on the consumer by way of MSRP.

The CX850M is a ~$110 USD unit (before sales/rebates).

Considering you can have quality units, anything from an 850W G3 from EVGA at $100

Or a Focus+ Platinum 850W @ $128

Or an 850W RMx @ $130

It's certainly not priced as an outright "budget" unit.

jankerson :

JG rarely reviews anything these days - and certainly does not review Corsair units. Countless times he's been on the record about that.

jankerson :

Not to get too much into a back and forth here, but there's a lot more "no display" or "GPU instability" posts/threads than there is outright blowing up.

I've never heard of a lost MB as a result of solely a CX PSU though.

There is at least one Moderator here on THG that lost a MB to a CX.

Barty1884 · Jul 10, 2018

jankerson :

You appeared to imply that JG's employment with Corsair would impact the reviews performed on his site by others.

jankerson :

That may well be true (don't know which Mod you're talking about here).
All I said was I'd never heard of such an extreme situation.

Just so we're clear on this though...the CX units didn't actually have any higher failure rate than most of their competitors - they just sold huge numbers, so it appears there were more.

Regardless, I can almost guarantee this was on the old platform, not the new/revised CX units anyway.

The older issues either had problems from day #1, or they failed around year 2-3.
Obviously there's not widespread issues with the revisions at day #1..... and we're right at the 2-3 year mark. I'd expect, if there were to be concerns, they'd have started to appear by now....

jankerson · Jul 10, 2018

Barty1884 :

That's the way politics works when you have a huge company involved in the loop one way or another.

And they are involved with GamersNexus YT/Forum now setting him up to do PSU reviews....

I used to do reviews myself in another field so I do have some idea how it works. There is politics involved one way or another.

Yeah it was on one of the old units.

I did read that OW is not going to be doing PSU reviews anymore on JG, the Last one was the Seasonic Prime Ultra 750W.

Barty1884 · Jul 10, 2018

jankerson :

In all seriousness, unless it can be proven, I wouldn't take the indirect "involvement" to mean anything whatsoever.

As for "involved in the loop", the vast majority of PSU vendors are involved in the testing loop. Most cherry pick samples and send directly. Very few (SeaSonic is the only one I know of) actually send retail stock from, say Newegg or similar for review. Doesn't say a lot when review samples have the poor soldering etc frequently seen in the budget range.

Yes, JG/Corsair are setting GN up with equipment, but I full expect GN's integrity to remain.

Hadn't heard that about OW - who does that leave for PSU reviews then? I know OW has been pretty much the only one doing them for the last few years.

jankerson · Jul 10, 2018

Barty1884 :

I don't know who is going to do them, he mentioned it in the Prime Ultra Ti 750 review.

There isn't any tin foil hat going on, there is always politics involved when a large company is involved one way or another.

The reason why I stopped doing reviews completely and doing writeups in magazines.

I am directly involved with a Company and have a product I designed that is due to be out in a few months. (Different field)

So I completely removed myself from doing any reviews at all anymore, still active on their Forum however and in the industry in general.

Karadjgne · Jul 10, 2018

Many ppl are just elevators for word of mouth. The old, blocky green CX weren't actually bad units as such. They had decent outputs, good sized rails, passable caps etc. They worked perfectly fine in an office type pc. They only had 2 issues, one related to ghe other. They simply were not built heavy duty. Designed entirely for stock replacement, not gaming abuse. Consequently, life expectancy in a gaming pc averaged less than 18months. THAT'S what made them junk, average lifespan, but all those elevators skipped that part and started hounding on the junk label.

They really weren't. Just not designed for a gaming pc, even Corsair has said so in the past.

I find it foolish to blame the tool when things go wrong, especially when it's the wrong tool for the job.

jankerson · Jul 10, 2018

Karadjgne :

I know what they were made for, I never recommended them at all.

The issue is that people recommended them for gaming systems.

You know how anything cheap is great right?

Kinda like I will get me one of them there Corsair PSU's because it's Corsair..... Or buy one of them there Corsair Bronze PSU's, it has more than enough wattage for that gaming PC. And so on...

And even though Corsair says what they are for they STILL get recommended for gaming machines all the time.

The VS also gets recommended way more than it should... We see way too many of these things in gaming machines here on the forums....

Barty1884 · Jul 10, 2018

jankerson :

Straying into off-topic territory here, but I've yet to see a VS unit outright "recommended".

Typically, they're only recommended in the sense they're the best of a bad bunch available in certain markets

As far as what they're used for, I don't believe Corsair specifically market any PSU as a "gaming" PSU.

The CXM has changed the verbiage, sounds like they're more confident in the units (and rightly so)

Old CX:

CX750 PSUs deliver the power needed for medium specification home or office PCs that do not have high numbers of components, while also offering high energy efficiency and low noise.

Vs new CXM:

CX Series™ Modular power supply units are an excellent choice for basic system builds and desktop PC computer upgrades, offering high reliability, low noise, and the flexibility of modular cabling.

They do still refer to basic systems, but considering that wording is lifted from their 850W unit product page.....
https://www.corsair.com/ca/en/Power/cxm-series-2015-config/p/CP-9020099-NA

RMx

Corsair RMx series power supplies give you extremely tight voltage control, virtually silent operation, and a fully modular cable set.

AXi

The revolutionary AXi Series™ PSUs are the first desktop PC power supplies to use digital (DSP) control and CORSAIR Link to bring you an unprecedented level of monitoring and performance customization. The DSP in the AX860i makes on-the-fly adjustments for incredibly tight voltage regulation, 80 PLUS®, PLATINUM Efficiency, and clean, stable power.

logainofhades · Jul 10, 2018

It isn't the best PSU, but it isn't dumpster fire quality, so I wouldn't worry about it. If you are truly worried, and want something else, just as a precaution, an Evga G3 750, would be plenty. Platinum and Titanium rate PSU's are just throwing money away.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Power Supply: EVGA - SuperNOVA G3 750W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($83.98 @ Newegg Business)
Total: $83.98
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-07-10 15:07 EDT-0400

Corsair CX850M and GTX 1080 Ti?

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