Corsair AX1000 PSU Review: Titanium-Class Efficiency, at a Premium Price
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Transient Response Tests, Ripple Measurements and EMC Pre-Compliance Testing
Advanced Transient Response Tests
For details on our transient response testing, please click here.
In the real world, power supplies are always working with loads that change. It's of immense importance, then, for the PSU to keep its rails within the ATX specification's defined ranges. The smaller the deviations, the more stable your PC will be with less stress applied to its components.
We should note that the ATX spec requires capacitive loading during the transient rests, but in our methodology we chose to apply the worst case scenario with no extra capacitance on the rails.
Advanced Transient Response at 20 Percent – 200ms
Voltage | Before | After | Change | Pass/Fail |
---|---|---|---|---|
12V | 12.166V | 12.075V | 0.75% | Pass |
5V | 5.050V | 5.001V | 0.97% | Pass |
3.3V | 3.356V | 3.285V | 2.12% | Pass |
5VSB | 5.036V | 5.001V | 0.69% | Pass |
Advanced Transient Response at 20 Percent – 20ms
Voltage | Before | After | Change | Pass/Fail |
---|---|---|---|---|
12V | 12.166V | 12.041V | 1.03% | Pass |
5V | 5.051V | 4.993V | 1.15% | Pass |
3.3V | 3.356V | 3.269V | 2.59% | Pass |
5VSB | 5.037V | 4.999V | 0.75% | Pass |
Advanced Transient Response at 20 Percent – 1ms
Voltage | Before | After | Change | Pass/Fail |
---|---|---|---|---|
12V | 12.165V | 12.071V | 0.77% | Pass |
5V | 5.052V | 4.993V | 1.17% | Pass |
3.3V | 3.357V | 3.262V | 2.83% | Pass |
5VSB | 5.038V | 4.987V | 1.01% | Pass |
Advanced Transient Response at 50 Percent – 200ms
Voltage | Before | After | Change | Pass/Fail |
---|---|---|---|---|
12V | 12.158V | 12.128V | 0.25% | Pass |
5V | 5.044V | 4.997V | 0.93% | Pass |
3.3V | 3.353V | 3.279V | 2.21% | Pass |
5VSB | 5.023V | 4.975V | 0.96% | Pass |
Advanced Transient Response at 50 Percent – 20ms
Voltage | Before | After | Change | Pass/Fail |
---|---|---|---|---|
12V | 12.158V | 12.107V | 0.42% | Pass |
5V | 5.044V | 4.989V | 1.09% | Pass |
3.3V | 3.353V | 3.264V | 2.65% | Pass |
5VSB | 5.024V | 4.977V | 0.94% | Pass |
Advanced Transient Response at 50 Percent – 1ms
Voltage | Before | After | Change | Pass/Fail |
---|---|---|---|---|
12V | 12.157V | 12.113V | 0.36% | Pass |
5V | 5.045V | 4.989V | 1.11% | Pass |
3.3V | 3.354V | 3.262V | 2.74% | Pass |
5VSB | 5.025V | 4.962V | 1.25% | Pass |
The results from each rail are very good. Particularly on the all-important +12V rail, registered deviations are low.
Turn-On Transient Tests
In the next set of tests, we measure the PSU's response in simpler transient load scenarios—during its power-on phase. Ideally, we don't want to see any voltage overshoots or spikes since those put a lot of stress on the DC-DC converters of installed components.
There aren't any notable spikes or voltage overshoots to report, so everything checks out.
Ripple Measurements
Test | 12V | 5V | 3.3V | 5VSB | Pass/Fail |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
10% Load | 12.5mV | 9.7mV | 12.9mV | 10.7mV | Pass |
20% Load | 13.0mV | 5.2mV | 10.8mV | 12.7mV | Pass |
30% Load | 6.7mV | 5.0mV | 10.1mV | 9.1mV | Pass |
40% Load | 7.7mV | 6.4mV | 9.1mV | 7.3mV | Pass |
50% Load | 8.4mV | 5.0mV | 8.7mV | 7.2mV | Pass |
60% Load | 8.8mV | 5.2mV | 9.0mV | 7.4mV | Pass |
70% Load | 9.7mV | 5.3mV | 9.1mV | 8.2mV | Pass |
80% Load | 10.4mV | 5.5mV | 9.8mV | 8.5mV | Pass |
90% Load | 10.9mV | 5.6mV | 10.1mV | 8.4mV | Pass |
100% Load | 15.2mV | 6.5mV | 10.7mV | 9.6mV | Pass |
110% Load | 15.7mV | 6.6mV | 11.0mV | 9.9mV | Pass |
Cross-Load 1 | 15.2mV | 5.2mV | 11.6mV | 7.0mV | Pass |
Cross-Load 2 | 15.1mV | 6.2mV | 9.5mV | 9.0mV | Pass |
Ripple At Full Load
Ripple At 110-Percent Load
Ripple At Cross-Load 1
Ripple At Cross-Load 2
EMI Results – Average & Peak Detector
The EMI emissions we observe remain much lower than their allowable limits. Obviously, the AX1000's EMI filter does its job well.
MORE: Best Power Supplies
MORE: How We Test Power Supplies
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Aris Mpitziopoulos is a contributing editor at Tom's Hardware, covering PSUs.
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marcelo_vidal evga 430 die in one year =) if you do the math you will spend 370 on cheap evgas or you can pay 27 dollars for year to get a monsterReply -
wdnemesis I would like to see Cable Mod team up with Corsair and seasonic. I prefer cable Mod cables. The Corsair ones look fine but most people that purchase this type probably use modded cables as well. This PSU would be amazing with that option.Reply -
drtweak I just got a AXi1200i on Newegg. Damn good price. Was on sale for 149.99 + a 20 dollar mail in rebate. I love using it with the Corsair link software and watching this baby be 91-93% Efficient all the time. I had a CM600 before which was fine, but between planed upgrades soon, and also combining my plex server with my gaming PC, 600 wasn't enough power, amps, or connectors to power a FX8320 OC'ed, GTX 960, and 13 hard drives lolReply -
PapaCrazy 21722950 said:I just got a AXi1200i on Newegg. Damn good price. Was on sale for 149.99 + a 20 dollar mail in rebate. I love using it with the Corsair link software and watching this baby be 91-93% Efficient all the time. I had a CM600 before which was fine, but between planed upgrades soon, and also combining my plex server with my gaming PC, 600 wasn't enough power, amps, or connectors to power a FX8320 OC'ed, GTX 960, and 13 hard drives lol
Hard drive power requirements can sneak up on you. I once plugged too many HDDs into a SATA line and started having drives randomly disconnect. I think I might have corrupted them that way.
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jimmysmitty 21722950 said:I just got a AXi1200i on Newegg. Damn good price. Was on sale for 149.99 + a 20 dollar mail in rebate. I love using it with the Corsair link software and watching this baby be 91-93% Efficient all the time. I had a CM600 before which was fine, but between planed upgrades soon, and also combining my plex server with my gaming PC, 600 wasn't enough power, amps, or connectors to power a FX8320 OC'ed, GTX 960, and 13 hard drives lol
I got a AX860i for less than retail as I worked at a repair shop so discount about 5 years ago and its still going. its a great little unit. I still think the AXi series is one of the best PSUs out there and worth the money. -
Dark Lord of Tech I have the RM1000i White Special Edition which was limited to 100 total units. Great PSU.Reply -
BoredErica From 0-300w it seems cooler than passive 600w Seasonic PSU. Did you remeasure the PSUs since a year ago?Reply