Corsair HX750W/850W PSUs Get 80Plus Gold Certification

[Sphere]

Did I miss something?

http://en.expreview.com/2009/06/24/corsair-hx750w850w-psus-get-80plus-gold-certification.html

[Spectre]

Redbeard posted this in the HX850 review thread at [H] IIRC

[Sphere]

Ahh, I didn't see his comment.

[HOOfan_1]

They apparently have asked 80plus to back the rating down to Silver, as they didn't get Gold worthy numbers and reviewers aren't getting Gold worthy numbers

http://channel.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=19218&page=3

[Travis]

They apparently have asked 80plus to back the rating down to Silver, as they didn't get Gold worthy numbers and reviewers aren't getting Gold worthy numbers

http://channel.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=19218&page=3

A brave and responsible move. Hope other gold-medalists follow them.

[jonnyGURU]

CWT gets Gold because of dirty tricks and one-off samples. Good for Corsair for stepping up and saying "hmm.... maybe something fishy is going on here."

I didn't want to throw Corsair under the bus before, but now that I see that they've stepped up and did the right thing, I will say that I know for a fact that CWT tweaks their 80 Plus samples to get unrealistically high efficiency numbers.

Unfortunately, 80 Plus doesn't test for EMI/RFI or poor regulation, so they'll pass anything that get better than 80% efficiency regardless of whether or not it's something a customer can buy/use.

[Zero82z]

CWT gets Gold because of dirty tricks and one-off samples. Good for Corsair for stepping up and saying "hmm.... maybe something fishy is going on here."

I didn't want to throw Corsair under the bus before, but now that I see that they've stepped up and did the right thing, I will say that I know for a fact that CWT tweaks their 80 Plus samples to get unrealistically high efficiency numbers.
I was under the impression that it was Corsair themselves who picked and sent out the sample, not CWT.

[Sphere]

Here is a good read from Hexus interviewing a marketer from Corsair on this issue, and it does look like Corsair tested and sent in the unit for it's cert.

http://channel.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=19218&page=3

It really pissess me off to no end to think a unit get's rated gold, then you take per say, 10 off the shelf, test'em, and find that maybe half were gold and the rest silver, but yet it *could* still hold the gold rating. That's bullshit.

[jonnyGURU]

No.

In most cases, the OEM sends the unit in. The OEM pays a large lump sum of money and a couple of units to get it tested. Someone that uses that OEM's platform that also wants to be listed on 80 Plus sends in a unit in with a smaller sum of money. That company doesn't have their individual unit tested. They just send it in telling 80 Plus what OEM they are using and 80 Plus takes pictures of the unit and uses the OEM's test results for the listing.

For example: Andyson sends in a 1000W. It gets tested and passes 80 Plus. I then use the Andyson platform for my own PSU. I send in my version, they take pictures, and use the test results from when Andyson sent in their unit.

[Zero82z]

No.

In most cases, the OEM sends the unit in. The OEM pays a large lump sum of money and a couple of units to get it tested. Someone that uses that OEM's platform that also wants to be listed on 80 Plus sends in a unit in with a smaller sum of money. That company doesn't have their individual unit tested. They just send it in telling 80 Plus what OEM they are using and 80 Plus takes pictures of the unit and uses the OEM's test results for the listing.

For example: Andyson sends in a 1000W. It gets tested and passes 80 Plus. I then use the Andyson platform for my own PSU. I send in my version, they take pictures, and use the test results from when Andyson sent in their unit.
There are a few things that make me think the situation was different in this case though. First of all, 80Plus doesn't have an 850W DSG listed under CWT, so they couldn't have reused results for the HX850 (unless CWT did send an 850W model and it just wasn't put up, but it wouldn't make sense for them not to put up the results if they did the testing). The second thing is that the way the Corsair rep worded his statement makes it seem like Corsair sent in the test samples themselves. Also, Redbeard's post here has the same kind of wording: http://www.hardforum.com/showpost.php?p=1034343285&postcount=154

The third thing is that the 750W DSG listed under CWT's name on the 80Plus site has different results listed than the HX750 which is listed under Corsair's name. If the same test sample was used for both, the results would be identical.

[HOOfan_1]

Here is a good read from Hexus interviewing a marketer from Corsair on this issue, and it does look like Corsair tested and sent in the unit for it's cert.

http://channel.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=19218&page=3

It really pissess me off to no end to think a unit get's rated gold, then you take per say, 10 off the shelf, test'em, and find that maybe half were gold and the rest silver, but yet it *could* still hold the gold rating. That's bullshit.

That is what I linked :p

[Sphere]

That is what I linked :p

That's what I get for speed reading :p

[Zero82z]

Better watch out or you will become the Salmon Rushdie of the PSU world. :p
Never heard of that kind of fish before... :p
So, one way to remedy the problem is to have 80+ get their head out of their proverbial asses and ensure what is coming in is exactly what's going out to the consumer.

Is 80+ reputable enough to have interest in keeping the industry honest? or is money the important issue, in your opinion?
80Plus is pretty useless as a metric of PSU quality anyway since good efficiency doesn't mean a PSU won't be crappy otherwise (see the Xigmatek review Wolf put up today). You need the whole battery of tests to find out whether or not a PSU is decent.

[Zero82z]

Looks like it was indeed Corsair who sent in the samples: http://www.hardforum.com/showpost.php?p=1034346531&postcount=45
When we got our first production units in, we screened them all for functionality and ran full efficiency/spec tests to make sure we understood what kind of range of specifications we were talking about. Then we grabbed two of them and sent them to 80 Plus to test.

[Redbeard]

Looks like it was indeed Corsair who sent in the samples: http://www.hardforum.com/showpost.php?p=1034346531&postcount=45

We send in units to 80 Plus, SLI and Crossfire certification groups.

Which ends up being a big pain in the butt sometimes because the process for some of these certifications requires a mountain of paperwork.