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Pros, Cons, And Final Verdict
The CX750M offers decent performance and thanks to its affordable price it is able to achieve a solid value score. Still, it's not as efficient as the CX650M, which also offers tighter voltage regulation. Given that both units come equipped with the same number of EPS and PCIe connectors, we see no reason to pay more for the CX750M over the CX650M. Really, you should only consider the higher-capacity model if you need more SATA and four-pin Molex connectors.
Compared to the competition in this category, we unfortunately don't have a clear recommendation since we haven't evaluated another Bronze-rated 750W PSU for quite some time now. However, the platform Corsair uses appears reliable enough. After all, it's backed by a five-year warranty. The semi-modular design with only two native cables should make installation easier, while the fan's noise under light and moderate loads is kept low.
We think that the CX750M should be equipped with a couple of EPS connectors to establish an advantage over Corsair's own CX650M. The larger number of peripheral connectors isn't enough to make someone spend more on this unit. Moreover, the hold-up time is one of the lowest we've ever measured. The only comfort is that the power-good signal is accurate, dropping before the rails go out of spec. The 3.3V rail needs some tuning to better handle transient loads. We pushed this rail pretty hard during our Advanced Transient Load tests and it didn't pass the last of them. Finally, the minimum fan speed should be lower (around 500 RPM, perhaps), allowing quieter operation under light and moderate loads.
To wrap up, the CX750M is a decent power supply. However, it faces tough competition from a smaller model of the CX-M family that clearly outperforms it. As mentioned, if you don't need the CX750M's extra SATA and peripheral connectors Corsair's CX650M is more efficient, it has tighter load regulation, and it's less expensive. We'd like to see Corsair add a second EPS connector to a subsequent revision of the CX750M, creating a bit of differentiation. At the same time, it could add a larger bulk cap for increased hold-up time. Speaking of bulk caps we should note here that the CX650M sample that we evaluated a while ago proved to belong to a small production batch equipped with larger bulk caps. This means that the majority of CX650M units don't come with a 470uF bulk cap but use instead a 330uF one, which naturally offers a notably reduced hold-up time. Based on this fact we avoided any mention to the CX650M unit's hold-up time in this review since we expect it to be at the same low levels with the CX750M. Once we have in our hands the CX650M sample with the 330uF bulk cap that Corsair has already shipped, we will measure again its hold-up time and update the corresponding entries in our database.
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