Preview: Corsair CX550M – farewell, group design @HWI

[Behemot]

http://www.hardwareinsights.com/wp/p...orsair-cx550m/

The review is pretty much finished…I'll just do some tweaking and add the results in. Frankly, I am far from impressed by the final results unlike some ppl here. Their excitement kinda raised false hopes. It excels at some things but corners were way too much cut elsewhere. So what I call a "schizofrenic" unit.

[cossack]

Corsair's CX, RM (non-i & non-x) and VS series are suppose to be the bad ones to avoid anyway right?

[quest for silence]

Corsair's CX, RM (non-i) and VS series are suppose to be the bad ones to avoid anyway right?

Absolutely no.

[Jon Gerow]

Corsair's CX, RM (non-i) and VS series are suppose to be the bad ones to avoid anyway right?

LOL!

[quest for silence]

Frankly, I am far from impressed by the final results unlike some ppl here. Their excitement kinda raised false hopes. It excels at some things but corners were way too much cut elsewhere. So what I call a "schizofrenic" unit.

As far as I recall lots of "cut corners" were not apparent in likely any of the quoted reviews (the known issue of the small primary cap - Hold Up Time - and maybe 3.3V ATT are the ones I think of)... any spoiler, Pavel?

[Behemot]

My HUT results are bad. There may be some misunderstanding between me, Corsair and CWT regarding that. But the result is way too bad. Now I am not sure about any other reviews, RHTX only lists Aris'es review but he got that bigger cap in. Could have done some tests with the right one, I bet he has some in a drawer That may help. Other than that I only found some Vengeance reviews but none of this CXM.

Also the ripple suppression is far from good, and despite having some buck regulator for -12 V, it copes very bad with my fan-induced ripple. I know that fan is an uncommon load, but still, most other units handled that much better.

The efficiency and voltage regulation is nice, but quite frankly, IMO you expect reasonable performance in each regard from unit of such price. Not high-end voltage regulation and efficiency on one hand combined with microcap (resulting in high ripple and way too short HUT) on the other.

This is most likely one of the reasons for unexplainable problems and instabilities, escessive component heating lot of ppl have with similar units which go all away once they invest in quality unit. Ppl than tend to solve this by buying +50 % (or more) rated power cheap units instead of buying quality ones with only 100 W headroom. One stupid thing after another…nah, this cheap market is just screwed

All and all, Cooler Master GM series still looks as a better choice to me. Well, guess that nobody can make the best in everything I think Corsair tried to push the platform somewhere else (and it is nice the group design has been abandoned), they had great plans…but than they run into the budget wall. Maybe next generation will be lot better. Maybe Jon will also have some info to share here, this are just my thoughts…

I am also not sure where Corsair exactly wants to position it regarding price. Recent Newegg rebate suggests super-budget, which can of course not pay for the technology inside to generate ANY profit. Which would exaplain that. Here the price is much higher and as I told Corsair ppl, if the TX-M units will cost what I expect them to cost, the CX-M will basically compete with it; and for that the results are even more poor.

[quest for silence]

The efficiency and voltage regulation is nice, but quite frankly, IMO you expect reasonable performance in each regard from unit of such price. Not high-end voltage regulation and efficiency on one hand combined with microcap (resulting in high ripple and way too short HUT) on the other.

I guess your findings may be right: in the only other test reported here (the CX450M tested by the Mask @ CM facility), with a 180uF primary cap the ripple/noise ratio was rather good on the minor rails but up to 90mV on the 12V one.

[Smirnoff]

Corsair's CX, RM (non-i) and VS series are suppose to be the bad ones to avoid anyway right?

The RMx is an RMi with a different fan and no Corsair Link, so no, that series is just fine. The original RM was kinda meh, but far from being anything bad. Installed a VS450 in a relative's computer, got it at a good discount price and I trust it to do what it's supposed to. It's of course not a high end PSU, but it's not a gutless wonder either.

[ridgid13579]

Behemot, as a counter argument against "wayyyy to short HUT", what is the probability of that hold up time even being an issue? The PSU is more than likely not at 100% load all the time, and power (at least for where I've been/lived) is quite stable. I know the CX550m's are aimed at the NA market most likely, and there's almost no brownouts here/surges...


Are you sure your fan is not contributing to the ripple for the -12v load? Have you tried your headlight bulbs? (not that -12v is even used anymore is it??)

I do look forward to the review though. It's sometimes a no brainer to buy (especially in the US), 30 bucks for it on sale over a evga 600b.. Mediocre ripple or not, 100mv isn't gonna hurt rock hard budget hardware. People nowadays do buy higher quality units, but it's not really any manufacturers fault if you buy a 40 buck power supply and try power your GTX 1080s on it. Should it work? Yes it should. Should you use it? Not really. IMO it preforms good enough for it's price

[cossack]

Corsair's CX, RM (non-i) and VS series are suppose to be the bad ones to avoid anyway right?

The RMx is an RMi with a different fan and no Corsair Link, so no, that series is just fine. The original RM was kinda meh, but far from being anything bad. Installed a VS450 in a relative's computer, got it at a good discount price and I trust it to do what it's supposed to. It's of course not a high end PSU, but it's not a gutless wonder either.

whoops my bad I forgot the RMx series

by 'RM' I meant the non-i and non-x of cos (just plain RM)