Corsair CX550F RGB Power Supply Review

The CX550F is one of the few Corsair PSUs with RGB lighting.

Corsair CX550F RGB
(Image: © Tom's Hardware)

Why you can trust Tom's Hardware Our expert reviewers spend hours testing and comparing products and services so you can choose the best for you. Find out more about how we test.

Protection Features

Check out our PSUs 101 article to learn more about PSU protection features.

Swipe to scroll horizontally

OCP

12V: 55A (120.09%), 11.851V 5V: 27.2A (136%), 4.807V 3.3V: 26.7A (133.5%), 3.259V 5VSB: 5.2A (173.33%), 4.911V

OPP

693.62W (126.11%)

OTP

✓ (127°C @ 12V Heat Sink)

SCP

12V: ✓ 5V: ✓ 3.3V: ✓ 5VSB: ✓ -12V: ✓

PWR_OK

Accurate but lower than 16ms

NLO

SIP

Surge: MOV Inrush: NTC Thermistor

The OCP triggering points are correctly set. There is more room for overloading at 5V because this PSU is destined for ARGB systems where this rail is stressed more than the average. The over power protection is also reasonably set, within 130%. Finally, all other protection features are present and operate normally. 

DC Power Sequencing

According to Intel's most recent Power Supply Design Guide (revision 1.4), the +12V and 5V outputs must be equal to or greater than the 3.3V rail at all times. Unfortunately, Intel doesn't mention why it is so important to always keep the 3.3V rail's voltage lower than the levels of the other two outputs.

No problems here since the 3.3V rail is always lower than the other two. 

Cross Load Tests

To generate the following charts, we set our loaders to auto mode through custom-made software before trying more than 25,000 possible load combinations with the +12V, 5V, and 3.3V rails. The deviations in each of the charts below are calculated by taking the nominal values of the rails (12V, 5V, and 3.3V) as point zero. The ambient temperature during testing was between 30 to 32 degrees Celsius (86 to 89.6 degrees Fahrenheit).

Load Regulation Charts

Efficiency Graph

(Image credit: Tom's Hardware)

Ripple Graphs

The lower the power supply's ripple, the more stable the system will be and less stress will also be applied to its components.

Infrared Images

We apply a half-load for 10 minutes with the PSU's top cover and cooling fan removed before taking photos with a modified Fluke Ti480 PRO camera able to deliver an IR resolution of 640x480 (307,200 pixels).

On the secondary side, a coil between the Teapo SC caps looks super-hot without active cooling under a typical load applied for ten minutes. However, the temperatures in the rest of the parts are at normal levels. 

MORE: Best Power Supplies

MORE: How We Test Power Supplies

MORE: All Power Supply Content

Aris Mpitziopoulos
Contributing Editor

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

  • Panzerbjorne39
    Curious why a rifle bearing fan is listed here under a Pro. Isn’t that the cheaper and louder of the common fan bearings?
    Reply