Corsair CX450 PSU Review: Two Flavors, Tested and Compared

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Ripple Measurements

To learn how we measure ripple, please click here.

The following table includes the ripple levels we measured on the CX450’s rails. The limits, according to the ATX specification, are 120mV (+12V) and 50mV (5V, 3.3V and 5VSB).

Corsair CX450 - CWT

Swipe to scroll horizontally
Test 12V 5V 3.3V 5VSB Pass/Fail
10% Load 15.3mV 8.3mV 9.2mV 6.2mV Pass
20% Load 20.0mV 8.2mV 9.9mV 7.0mV Pass
30% Load 19.2mV 8.2mV 10.0mV 7.3mV Pass
40% Load 19.6mV 9.2mV 10.5mV 7.8mV Pass
50% Load 32.5mV 9.1mV 11.4mV 8.2mV Pass
60% Load 32.3mV 8.5mV 12.0mV 8.5mV Pass
70% Load 33.9mV 10.4mV 17.6mV 8.7mV Pass
80% Load 28.3mV 11.3mV 15.6mV 11.5mV Pass
90% Load 29.0mV 12.3mV 16.1mV 12.1mV Pass
100% Load 30.6mV 12.6mV 17.0mV 14.1mV Pass
110% Load 32.1mV 13.5mV 17.7mV 16.3mV Pass
Cros-Load 1 26.1mV 7.3mV 11.0mV 8.7mV Pass
Cross-Load 2 33.8mV 13.7mV 16.1mV 12.2mV Pass

Corsair CX450 - Great Wall

Swipe to scroll horizontally
Test 12V 5V 3.3V 5VSB Pass/Fail
10% Load 22.8mV 7.4mV 7.1mV 6.5mV Pass
20% Load 35.3mV 8.8mV 8.3mV 7.0mV Pass
30% Load 54.7mV 10.0mV 9.2mV 7.6mV Pass
40% Load 41.7mV 10.6mV 10.5mV 8.1mV Pass
50% Load 37.1mV 12.1mV 11.5mV 9.0mV Pass
60% Load 35.7mV 14.4mV 12.3mV 9.8mV Pass
70% Load 35.3mV 14.8mV 14.0mV 11.1mV Pass
80% Load 36.6mV 14.7mV 14.9mV 12.8mV Pass
90% Load 39.0mV 15.6mV 16.7mV 14.6mV Pass
100% Load 44.2mV 17.9mV 18.1mV 14.9mV Pass
110% Load 48.1mV 20.0mV 18.6mV 20.1mV Pass
Cross-Load 1 54.1mV 13.9mV 15.5mV 10.7mV Pass
Cross-Load 2 45.2mV 14.8mV 13.7mV 15.7mV Pass

Comparison Graphs

The Great Wall-based unit's minor rails performed well. But ripple at +12V was higher than what we measured from CWT's model. That latter design served up excellent ripple suppression on all of its rails. To be sure, you don't often see 31 millivolt (mV) of ripple under full load at 47°C from a budget-oriented PSU.

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Ripple Oscilloscope Screenshots - Great Wall

The following oscilloscope screenshots illustrate the AC (alternating current) ripple and noise registered on the main rails (+12V, 5V, 3.3V and 5VSB). The bigger the fluctuations on the screen, the bigger the ripple/noise. We set 0.01 V/Div (each vertical division/box equals 0.01V) as the standard for all measurements.  

Ripple at Full Load

Ripple at 110 Percent Load

Ripple at Cross-Load 1

Ripple at Cross-Load 2

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Aris Mpitziopoulos
Aris Mpitziopoulos
Contributing Editor

Aris Mpitziopoulos is a contributing editor at Tom's Hardware, covering PSUs.

6 Comments Comment from the forums
  • jpe1701
    Oh thank you Aris, I've been waiting for a review of this. It's always low in price and tempting to recommend but there weren't any reviews.
    Reply
  • Darkbreeze
    Why do both of the review summary boxes list the Great Wall version? Both the one on the front page and the last page are the same. Seems like you ought to include a summary box for both versions since there seems to be some major differences between them. And even more so since you seem to indicate the CWT version is the better unit, but only include a summary box for the Great Wall unit.
    Reply
  • crmaris
    This was not my choice. Initially the review had both summary boxes.
    Reply
  • Darkbreeze
    I totally understand. No worries mate. Editorial has a bad habit of effectively pooping all over the independent contributors writing as well. Not surprising that they are doing so with your work, but I sure wish somebody in editorial would make a few changes to policy that keeps the finished product a bit more in line with what the contributor intended, which often they don't. In this case, it totally makes zero sense that they didn't leave it as you had it.
    Reply
  • Rexper
    We preferred CWT's version of Corsair's CX450, but that doesn't mean you should avoid Great Wall's
    Not that we have a choice.
    Great article, once again, Aris!

    There is some controversy appearing relating to the fan bearings used in the CX450. JonnyGURU, who works at Corsair, claims both CX450 versions use a rifle bearing.
    Unfortunately, we can't know for certain until someone dismantles the fan.
    http://www.jonnyguru.com/forums/showthread.php?t=15943&page=2
    Reply
  • Darkbreeze
    I don't think it even makes a tremendous amount of difference. Fan failure on power supplies due to bearing fatigue is the least of the issues I've usually seen in the past on older units. Plus, it's not terribly difficult to replace a PSU fan if you have at least of a modicum of common sense and don't possess four thumbs.

    If fan noise is the biggest worry, or bearing failure over the long term, then I'd say these are winners for the price point. Most would never hear them over the sound of the rest of the system in any case.
    Reply