Corsair CX650M PSU Review

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.

Ripple Measurements

To learn how we measure ripple, please click here.

The following table includes the ripple levels we measured on the CX650M's rails. The limits, according to the ATX specification, are 120mV (+12V) and 50mV (5V, 3.3V and 5VSB).

Swipe to scroll horizontally
Test12V5V3.3V5VSBPass/Fail
10% Load8.8mV8.0mV10.9mV11.0mVPass
20% Load9.8mV8.4mV12.0mV12.0mVPass
30% Load11.6mV8.7mV12.6mV13.7mVPass
40% Load12.7mV9.7mV13.3mV14.6mVPass
50% Load14.4mV10.1mV15.7mV16.3mVPass
60% Load21.2mV12.0mV16.2mV17.8mVPass
70% Load24.1mV12.9mV18.8mV19.3mVPass
80% Load26.3mV13.4mV18.0mV21.2mVPass
90% Load27.5mV13.5mV19.5mV22.7mVPass
100% Load31.8mV16.6mV23.4mV25.8mVPass
110% Load34.8mV18.0mV24.9mV28.0mVPass
Cross-Load 110.5mV10.0mV13.1mV13.2mVPass
Cross-Load 232.9mV15.9mV23.6mV25.1mVPass

Ripple suppression is amazing for this price category. The +12V rail exceeds 30 mV only during the full load and overload tests, while the 5V rail stays below 20 mV and the 3.3V rail doesn't exceed 25 mV in any case. The combination of electrolytic and polymer caps does an excellent job.

Ripple Oscilloscope Screenshots

The following oscilloscope screenshots illustrate the AC 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 0.01 V) 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

Aris Mpitziopoulos
Contributing Editor

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

  • Dark Lord of Tech
    Thanks for the review on this new CXM platform.
    Reply
  • JQB45
    Looks to be better then the old CX line up.
    Reply
  • Onus
    Good to see that Corsair didn't produce a Turkey with this one.
    Reply
  • turkey3_scratch
    Onus why would Corsair produce me?

    Anyway I think the price/performance page shows all. This thing rocks!

    Also Jonnyguru claims it is a rifle bearing fan that has the same model # as the sleeve variant.
    Reply
  • benedict78
    Does the CX650 perform the same as the CX650M? I'm not interested in modularity anyway.
    Reply
  • turkey3_scratch
    The CX650 is not out yet.
    Reply
  • Aris_Mp
    I have several CM and CX-M units, which I plan to fully evaluate. So far I figured that there are differences (something natural of course) in their performance.
    Reply
  • Dark Lord of Tech
    Could you put the newer CXM 750W OR 850W on deck soon , as they are widely use for DUAL CARD configurations.
    Reply
  • turkey3_scratch
    The 750W and 850W CXM units are basically unchanged except for a bridge rectifier upgrade. Everything else is the same. Only the CX450-650M got the major revisions.
    Reply
  • Dark Lord of Tech
    Yeah I know that , but want to see one reviewed , to compare top older generations.
    Reply