Corsair Builder Series CX 500 Watt ATX/EPS 80 PLUS (CX500)..
GET Corsair Builder Series CX 500 Watt ATX/EPS 80 PLUS (CX500) By Corsair
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130 of 135 people found the following review helpful.
By Justanotherbuyer
When it comes to Power Supplies, never be stingy and spend a good amount on a solid one. Corsair is one of the most well known PSU companies and their supplies are up top in terms of qualities and specs. When it comes to buying a power supply it is important to remember that two things are needed:
1. Enough watts, look up the total watts of everything you own and buy a power supply that is at least 100w more so as to give you enough headroom for upgrades or overclocking if thats your cookie.
2. Enough Amperage. This is veryyy important. The +12v rail is whats important as most modern cards require a minimum of 25A on a single rail. Dual rails are also nice if they are each at 25. For example, my XFX DD Black edition Radeon HD 7970 will not run on my old psu. It was a solid Rosewill 600w psu which had more than enough watts to run it, however, the thing maxed at 35A on both rails together. The minimum needed for the card was 36. This PSU, has 750w and the following ratings on each charge: +3.3V@25A, +5V@25A, +12V@62A, -12V@0.8A, +5VSB@3A.
+12v@62A is excellent for the card now. This also gives me headroom if any future parts require more Amperage or watts. The price is seriously perfect here on Amazon. The power supply retails for 100 bucks on other sites.
PROS:
-Great price
-pci express power at 62A (+12v)
-sleeved components with the cables reaching full tower( they arent short cables so it works on an NZXT Phantom and an Antec twelve hundred tower.) Both of which are full towers.
-active APF correction
-80 plus bronze (Not found often at this price point level with this amount of watts)
-750W (More than enough for sli gtx 660's) or in my case, still more than enough for my xfx overclocked 7970, 9 fans, 2 hard drives, fan controller, card reader, blu ray drive, dvd burner, 8gb ram, overclocked cpu and bigger more powerful cpu fan.
-power protection
-a nice big fan
CONS:
-its not modular, but at this price, who cares?aha.
EDIT: OCTOBER 11th 2012-The first one arrived with a definite loud buzzing so I had to exchange it. It happens with mass electronics and typically just bad luck. Corsair was good about it and the new unit was perfect.
DO NOT get stingy when it comes to power supplies. If a 850w power supply is selling for 50 dollars from a random company, you will put your other parts at risk. This one offers Over-voltage and over-power protection, under-voltage protection, and short circuit protection provide maximum safety to your critical system components.
It is also rated at 80 plus BRONZE. Which is excellent for the price. At this price range you mainly see psu's with just 80 plus certification. This one is one step higher.
Lastly, the card offers 0.99 Active Power Factor Correction provides clean and reliable power. (APF) for short. Another thing that is not found at this price range.
Top this with a 3 year warranty and bam, solid computer.
Don't let a cheap power supply kill your whole system, with this excellent brand, only the power supply will die if it eventually happens. A cheap psu will more than likely take it, along with all your expensive components.
For reference, here are my specs>
-Processor: intel ivy bridge i5 3570k @3.5ghz
-CPU Cooler, at the moment: standard intel one. getting: thermal take frio OCK
-Video Card: XFX Double D Radeon HD 7970
-Memory: 8gb Patriot intel extreme series ram @1600
-Hard Drive: 500gb Seagate drive
-Case: Thermaltake Msi Snow edition mid tower
-Power Supply: Corsair Builder Series CX 750 Watt
-Fans: 4x Coolermaster 120mm fans
-Motherboard: AsRock Pro 4 H77 mATX
FOLLOW UP EDIT December 2nd 2013: ***Sorry for the wrong date here. I meant December 2nd****
The power supply is still going very strong. The system it is now powering involves additional lights, watercooling, another drive, and a max overclock on the card. The cable sleeving on the 24 pin board power has become rigid and a ripping in areas. However, with a few cable ties it isn't so bad.
56 of 60 people found the following review helpful.
By M. McFall
This is a great deal for an 80 Plus Bronze certified 500W power supply. If you are running any machines 24/7 on power supplies that aren't 80 Plus certified, let alone Bronze, Silver, Gold or Platinum, there are a good amount of power savings to be had. For the layman, anything labelled 80 Plus certified means it is 80% efficient at 20,50 and 100% loads. Bronze, Silver, Gold and Platinum are even more efficient, respectively.
I had thought that I had tuned my file/media server/video encoder to be pretty energy efficient. It consisted of an i5 2500k, 16GB DDR3, no video card, 5 WD Green drives, 3 WD Black drives, one SSD, two internal PCIE SATA 3 extenders, and a BD-R drive, running Win 7 Professional 64. It consumed about 62 Watts at idle, and 73-80 Watts under moderate load, when streaming or transcoding high bitrate 1080p video. Not bad, and about the same as leaving a single incandescent lightbulb on. All of this was powered by a several year old sturdy Thermaltake Purepower 500 (W0100RU). The old power supply was not 80 Plus certified.
I got this Corsair 500W 80 Plus Bronze power supply because the price is fantastic at around fifty dollars, and the old power supply was getting loud. I wasn't expecting phenomenal power savings, but according to my UPS wattage reading, this power supply is kicking butt! My file server now idles around 40W and operates at 56-63W under moderate load. These are big, big savings. I had no idea my old power supply was so energy inefficient. Considering the higher electricity cost in Southern California, this power supply will save me about $4 each month, possibly more if it helps prevent me from crossing into higher Tier level payments. It will pay itself off in savings within a year, and after that, will start providing me with some real savings. $4 a month in savings may not sound like much, but in a tight economy, every bit helps. On top of the power savings, this power supply is also whisper quiet.
Due to the high savings I experienced, and out of curiousity, I ordered a 400W FSP Aurum 80 Plus Gold power supply ($76), to see how much more efficient a Gold certified PSU is in relation to Bronze. Statistically, the difference should be minimal, and I have a feeling this Corsair will prove to be the highest value, in terms of cost:savings. Updates to be posted accordingly.
UPDATE 10/20/2012:
I've put this PSU up against a slightly more expensive, lower wattage, but more efficient FSP AURUM GOLD 400-Watt 80 PLUS Gold Certified ATX Power Supply Compatible with Intel Core i3 i5 i7 AU-400 to compare the efficiency ratings of Bronze and Gold.
The FSP Aurum 400 80 Plus Gold came in the mail today and here are the results:
On my system, as detailed above, it idles at 32W, operates around 60W under moderate load. Very, very nice. These results are a bit better than the Corsair, as expected, but I'm going to have to stick with the Corsair as the best value proposition-- My reason being-- the Corsair is a 500 Watt power supply and supplies 38 Amps on a single 12v rail. The FSP Aurum is a 400 Watt power supply and supplies 18 Amps on a single 12v rail, but has two 12v rails for a combined 36 Amps. The Corsair CX500 is useful for a wider variety of computer uses, as the single 12v rail providing 38A meets the minimum requirements of most of today's higher end video cards, while also having great efficiency for lower power 24/7 machines like video servers. The FSP Aurum has up to 36A, but it's split into two 12v rails, and not all video cards have two plugs for power. This, along with the 400W rating mean that it is not suitable for higher end gaming computers. The Corsair's higher Wattage rating means it has a bit more headroom for high end/high power CPU+GPU combos. The price differential, for me at least, means that it would take about half a year longer to recoup the extra cost of the 80 Plus Certified Gold on the Aurum, compared with the Corsair. At the CX500's price point, it is definitely the best bang for the buck, particularly if you are coming from a PSU that isn't 80 Plus, and the machine is on 24/7.
36 of 41 people found the following review helpful.
By Zalzan
Upgraded my graphics card to a new one (GTX 660) and needed to upgrade my power supply as well. This seemed like a well rated, well priced appropriate option, so I bought it. Was easy enough to install, runs quietly and effectively, has lots of extra hookups to handle whatever I might have in my system.
Only complaint, which is really more a lack of foresight on my part, is that there were no actual instructions in the box. The one thing that would have been super handy to know is that if you have a 4 prong ATX12V motherboard plug, you have to take the 8 prong plug this comes with and split it in half. They clearly explain this on their website, but that is harder to access with your power supply out and halfway replaced :). Otherwise, great product, great value.
Better Fins: An Improvement on the CX 680s - UPDATE