CORSAIR AX1600i Digital Power Supply Review

1. Introduction2. Bundle & Cabling3. External4. Internal5. Testing Methodology & Results6. Closing Thoughts7. View All Pages

The AX1600i is distinctive and immediately recognisable as a Corsair power supply. Its a long power supply, but its 2cm shorter than the AX1500i (22.5cm). The other measurements of the AX1600i are 86mm (H) x 150mm (W) . Paintwork is very good, with it proving resistant to light scratches. Its a well finished unit, expected at this price.

The Corsair branding gets pride of place in the centre of the unit on one side, as shown above.

The large fan is visible behind the metal grill, above. We will take a closer look at this when we open the supply later in the review.

One side of the power supply is home to the power switch and connector cable. There is a removable sticker here explaining that the supply fan will not activate at lower load demands.

The power supply needs a larger C19 power cable (supplied) as indicated by the size of the three individual power pins.

The modular panel is packed with connectors and buttons. All the connectors are labelled to make it easy during the build phase. The connectors are all different sizes so it makes it impossible to plug in the wrong connector.

In Multi Rail mode, the +12V rail is split into twelve separate +12V rails, each with a default OCP of 40A. In Link, this OCP can be adjusted from 0A to a maximum of 40A.

The Corsair Link connector is useful, as you can monitor efficiency, voltage regulation and it allows you to change fan speeds and individual over current protection points on each connector.

With the 24 pin cable removed from the connector, the ‘self-test' button tests the functionality of the power supply. If the PSU passes the self test then the LED on the left (under the word ‘SELF) will light up green.

The LED on the left represents USB data communication. Once the USB cable is attached to the motherboard the LED will illuminate green. Once data communication is enabled between the power supply and the LINK software the LED will switch colours between green and amber to show you that the communication is working fine.

Corsair Link software will be known by some of our readers already — it offers control over the power supply, including changing it from Single Rail to Multi Rail, and back again. In Multi rail +12V rail mode each PCIe output connector can have its OCP trigger point set. Additionally the SATA and Molex connectors have their own OCP as well as the +12V on the 24 pin.

The AC power in and DC power out can be monitored from the software and the efficiency level will get automatically calculated. It is possible to monitor the +3.3V, +5V and +12V rail voltage as the internal temperatures and fan speed. Those who like to create custom fan profiles will be happy to hear that the software allows for this as well.

CORSAIR AX1600i Digital Power Supply Review
DC Output	+3.3V	+5V	+12V	-12V	+5Vsb
Max Output	30A	30A	133.3A	0.8A	3.5A
Total Power	180W		1600W	9.6W	17.5W
	1600W

The single +12V rail can deliver 133.3A which is a crazy amount of power. Its true that many gaming systems today will never need close to 1600 watts, but we thought this might be a good time to take a (funny) trip down memory lane !

‘With this kind of juice on tap there would be no problems powering even two overclocked AMD R9 295X2. Our previous review of the OverclockersUK Infinity Vesuvius system highlighted that two R9 295X2 cards could demand close to 1,200 watts under load.'

Good times from 2014!

Obviously in 2017 this kind of power delivery will be specifically useful for miners and perhaps render stations with multiple GPU's. Those people running systems with two GTX 1080ti's will be likely only hitting around 600-700 watts under load.

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