Corsair CX650F RGB Power Supply Review

The Corsair CX650F features RGB lighting which can be controlled either manually or through software.

Corsair CX650F RGB Power Supply
(Image: © Tom's Hardware)

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Protection Features

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

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Protection FeaturesRow 0 - Cell 1

OCP

12V: 63.4A (117.41%), 11.936V
5V: 27.7A (138.5%), 4.892V
3.3V: 27.4A (137%), 3.266V
5VSB: 5.4A (180%
), 4.899V

OPP

833.41W (128.22%)

OTP

✓ (129°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 point at 12V is conservatively set and we agree with this. The minor rails are also within 140%. For the 5V rail which can take lots of stress if the system features lots of RGB lighting that doesn't use 12V, this is understandable. On the other hand, there is no reason to allow for such high amperage at 3.3V. Lastly, the over power protection is set within 130% of the PSU's max power, so it is correctly set.

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.

The 3.3V rail is lower than the other two in all cases, so there is no problem here. 

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 Chart

(Image credit: Tom's Hardware)

Ripple Charts

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 FLIR E4 camera able to deliver an IR resolution of 320x240 (76,800 pixels).

A coil, belong to a PI filter, right next to the -12V rectifier gets quite hot. This can be an issue since this coil is right next to the mainstream Teapo SC caps. 

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Contributing Editor

Aris Mpitziopoulos is a Contributing Editor at Tom's Hardware US, covering PSUs.

  • mdd1963
    LEDs....! (Thank goodness!) <rolls eyes sarcastically>
    Reply
  • derekullo
    If you use 2 Geforce 3090s the power supply changes to another color.

    :tongueout:
    Reply
  • Cata1yst
    Is this a joke?
    Reply