Corsair HX1200 PSU Review

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Cross-Load Tests & Infrared Images

Our cross-load tests are described in detail here.

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

Load Regulation Charts

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Efficiency Chart

This is a highly efficient power supply. It's able to achieve greater than 92% efficiency in the 300W to 650W load range, with the minor rails delivering up to 75W load at the same time. In the majority of its operating range, this PSU delivers between 90-92% efficiency.

Ripple Charts

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Infrared Images

We applied half-load for 10 minutes with the PSU's top cover, along with its cooling fan, removed before taking photos with our modified FLIR E4 camera that delivers 320x240 IR resolution (76,800 pixels).

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The temperatures inside of Corsair's HX1200 are pretty low considering we applied 600W to it for 10 minutes. The bridge rectifiers are at around 66°C, the APFC FETs at 57°C, the primary FETs at 58°C-60°C, the bus bars on the +12V board at 73°C, and the hottest components look to be the FETs of the VRMs that handle the minor rails, at close to 84°C.


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Aris Mpitziopoulos
Aris Mpitziopoulos
Contributing Editor

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

16 Comments Comment from the forums
  • davidgirgis
    In the Conclusion, 'TO' should be 'To'; and 'demands' should be 'depends'; and 'product' should be 'protect'.
    Reply
  • grozzie
    Not another plug/connector change!. I, like many people on this site, build custom PC's, part of which includes sleeved cables. One bug bear is 2 wires into 1, which is a in in the arse. I personally like the HXi series of Corsair PSU's which only have one such connection. I also think the 24 pin ATX supply is outdated and needs revision. I can't see the point of supplying motherboards with 3.3 and 5v rails. If only 12v was supplied with any or all voltage reduction made on board life would be so much simpler and neater. By providing more noise reduction at source (the PSU) gives Motherboard manufacturers an open cart to reduce the quality of voltage regulation i.e capacitor quality, on the motherboard. Is there really a need for another PSU on the market?
    Reply
  • panathas
    On the specifications table it says: "Efficiency: 80 PLUS Gold, ETA-B", which is wrong since this is a Platinum PSU.
    Reply
  • Aris_Mp
    yes we didn't pay much attention to the 80 PLUS efficiency certification :)
    Reply
  • 10tacle
    ^^What are you talking about? Register and get on Corsair's support forums:

    https://sso.corsair.com/idp/AuthnEngine#/authn

    Of course they have a customer support phone number: 888-222-4346 (North America customers).

    Anyway, back on topic, first the $#@! miners have negatively impacted our GPU market, and now they may negatively impact our PSU market. :fou: What makes this really aggravating is that the PSU makers really can't prove a PSU was used 7x24 for heavy mining operation.

    Worse, even if PSU vendors like Corsair offer a mining-specific PSU for less money with just say a 2-3 year warranty, nothing would stop the miners from buying the full 10-year variant. This mining craze is becoming a real pain to we PC enthusiasts.
    Reply
  • 10tacle
    You are making everyone's head hurt. If you want to complain about Corsair, then do so on Corsair's customer support forums and social media. Also, just FYI, Tom's only reviews what is sent to them. They do not go "cherry pick" buy products and review them. For someone who is an alleged "original reader" of Tom's I'd have expected you to understand that.
    Reply
  • jonnyguru
    jellwood... aka: Alex Jones.
    Reply
  • jonnyguru
    20057343 said:
    Not another plug/connector change!. I, like many people on this site, build custom PC's, part of which includes sleeved cables. One bug bear is 2 wires into 1, which is a in in the arse. I personally like the HXi series of Corsair PSU's which only have one such connection. I also think the 24 pin ATX supply is outdated and needs revision. I can't see the point of supplying motherboards with 3.3 and 5v rails. If only 12v was supplied with any or all voltage reduction made on board life would be so much simpler and neater. By providing more noise reduction at source (the PSU) gives Motherboard manufacturers an open cart to reduce the quality of voltage regulation i.e capacitor quality, on the motherboard. Is there really a need for another PSU on the market?

    Bro.. You're all over the place. :D

    So only the 24-pin is pin incompatible with the Type 3 cables. And yes... it's because of the extra sense wires. If you're really going to get all wound up about having to do 2-to-1 wires when doing custom cables, you know what you should do? Don't do 2-to-1 wires. They're only sense wires. The lack of them doesn't prevent the PSU from working. It'll just make your voltage regulation "as bad" as any other PSU that doesn't have the sense wires.

    Yes. The ATX spec is out of date. But Intel wrote it and nobody is going ot implement a new standard without Intel's blessing. They even released a whole new ATX design guide last month that changes almost everything (T1 timing, T3 timing, standby efficiency..) but DID NOT TOUCH the pinout (they made -12V "optional", but that's hardly much of a change).

    Reply
  • beatnutz
    Jellwood: I find it hard to believe that someone who does not know how to write a proper sentence is preparing any students for anything. Let alone the ACT.
    Reply
  • beatnutz
    Jellwood: I find it hard to believe that someone who does not know how to write a proper sentence is preparing any students for anything. Let alone the ACT.
    Reply