Are Corsair PSUs over-hyped?

  • Yes.

    Votes: 6 25.0%
  • No.

    Votes: 16 66.7%
  • What's a PSU?

    Votes: 2 8.3%

  • Total voters
    24

dragonic2020

Distinguished
Jun 13, 2011
137
0
18,710
I see everyone on this forum recommending Corsair PSUs, some even bashing other people's choices of different branded PSUs.
I know a reliable PSU is essential to any build, there's no doubt about that.

But what makes Corsair PSUs one class above other manufacturers such as Ultra, Silverstone, ThermalTake, etc.? Or does it matter?
 
Corsair has a very wide coverage area when it comes to PSU's. They almost have a unit for every typical wattage or scenario. The quality is excellent and the price is right. What's not to like!
 
Corsair PSUs are overhyped, there are some other units out there which beat them out. The XFX units, many Seasonic units(especially the X series), and some Superflower built units(some kingwins and a few others) are quite good, on the same tier sometimes better. Corsair units arent special, they are built by the same OEMs as the other guys on the same platforms, they just chose good platforms and didnt try to make the bargin prices for most of the units by going for cheap parts which helped them stand out against the likes of raidmax which has some really good units, and some really really bad units. Consistency is what counts.
 

dragonic2020

Distinguished
Jun 13, 2011
137
0
18,710

Well Ok. Where comes this "reliability" you speak of?
I want proof!
 

soulsavior

Distinguished
Jun 17, 2011
3
0
18,510


Corsair has a good reputation because all of their power supplies are decent to excellent. They don't sell any horrible PSUs. A lot of the PSU makes have a least a few stinkers in their lineup that end up marring their reputation some.

Corsair uses Seasonic in most of their PSUs (as does XFX) and Seasonic has been making superb PSUs for awhile. In fact, many of Corsair and XFXs PSUs are exactly the same, with a different shell on the outside.

Go to jonnyguru.com and read their reviews and read their forums. You should get a good idea of why some PSUs are better than others. Basically, it comes down to the design of the internals, the quality of the parts that make up the internals, and how well the internals were put together. All of which you can see in their reviews, since they always crack the PSU open and examine the setup and parts. The choices they make regarding those items will effect the PSUs efficiency, its voltage regulation and ripple under varying circumstances. A poor quality PSU will go out of spec (meaning its voltage is too high to be safe for a component or too low to properly run it) under circumstances it is supposedly labeled to be able to handle or will have bad ripple (shortening the lifespan of the parts over time). A good quality (IE: reliable) PSU will keep voltage regulation and ripple within spec under all circumstances up to the PSUs rated power.
 
read the reviews, corsair dont always get great reviews, but.......they generally produce their rated power and thats more than most can do. Forget crossloading tests that produce an unnatural load that wont likely ever happen in a normal system. If your worried about it get an Antec Trupower New. And remember that all manufacturers make a dud PSU, so read a review before you buy one. If you cant find a review of your Radimax or Diablotek PSU, its because everyone already knows they are shite.
 

ghnader hsmithot

Distinguished

Corsair most of the time designs psu.Manufacturing enters the hands of Seasonic.
 
Like many other brand name PSU, Corsair PSU are outsourced to other OEM companies to be manufactured. Additionally, many brand names use several OEMs. In Corsair's case they only use two; CWT (Channel Well) and Seasonic.

Seasonic has a solid reputation for manufacturing high quality PSU. CWT is above average. Therefore, those which are manufactured by Seasonic are generally better than the ones made by CWT. Regardless how excellent a companies track record is, even some PSU units made by Seasonic can be defective.

XFX exclusively contracts Seasonic to manufacture their PSUs (at least for now).

I prefer Seasonic PSUs to all other brands since 2004.
 

ghnader hsmithot

Distinguished

So is there any way to find out if its CWT manufactured?
 

ghnader hsmithot

Distinguished

Thanks, and i thot these psus were made in batches rather than group(eg 850hx is made by one company).

But one thing all psu's should have are Japanese Capacitors.
 

dragonic2020

Distinguished
Jun 13, 2011
137
0
18,710
Well, it seems I just clueless or misinformed.

I thought Corsair PSUs were just a "fanboy/girl" thing. Possibly similar to hardcore nVidia or AMD fans.
Wouldn't this create a monopoly for Corsair though?
 
Far from it. Its important to realize that performance computers and homebuilt units are a very small part of the market, less than about 10% of desktops.

The vast majority are built by OEMs like HP and Dell for workstations and small home computers that have no real graphics card. In both these cases the power supply is ordered direct from the OEM like CWT, Seasonic, Delta or many others. Dell custom orders the vast majority of its units so that it knows the quality of the unit and the components in it, they pick ones that will have a low failure rate but arent going to cost a ton and have enough overhead for graceful aging, if you look at the 80+ site you will see they actually have a large number of gold units and other units in interesting shapes
http://www.plugloadsolutions.com/80PlusPowerSuppliesDetail.aspx?id=26&type=2

In reality Corsair cant be shipping more than about 1% of the overall power supply market, likely much much less. Seasonic has a much greater market share than Corsair would, but i doubt any OEM breaks about 15% of the total market share.
 

jamie_1318

Distinguished
Jun 25, 2010
188
0
18,710
yeah I see a lot of people on the forum overspending on power supplies just to be on the safe side. Corsairs are okay, but not great for the price even though their quality on average is pretty good. the best thing to do is go to your favorite retailer, check what they have on sale that meets your specs, and than check for some good reviews about it and read the whole thing. If the reviews are good they will tell you whether the PSU is good or not. Some really terrible manufacturers have put out some really good stuff at really good prices and there are bargains to be had if you spend some time looking around. Just make sure you get a power supply that has good 12v rails (most of the current should be on the 12v rails, fails gracefully and infrequently , and meets or exceeds your required maximum in the review, the manufacture specs are often measured in conditions that are not realistic.
 

jamie_1318

Distinguished
Jun 25, 2010
188
0
18,710
It is very Important that you check some reviews on your PSU of choice. Good companies often make bad PSU and bad companies often make good PSUs. Just as Saint19 says it depends on the individual model/product line more than just choosing a reliable company
 

ghnader hsmithot

Distinguished

Hunter really knows psus.