Corsair HX850 Gold Professional Series Power Supply review

1. Introduction2. Corsair HX850 Professional Series (Bundle & Cables)3. Corsair HX850 Professional Series (External)4. Corsair HX850 Professional Series (Internal)5. Corsair HX850 Professional Series (Super High Res Gallery)6. Testing Methodology & Results7. Closing Thoughts8. View All Pages

The HX850 Professional Series Power Supply is unquestionably another strong offering from Corsair. The custom Channel Well Technology design has no noticeable weaknesses, combining a high level of efficiency with much desired, low noise levels.

Aesthetically the design will fit into a wide range of systems, inoffensive, yet professionally finished with deep black paint able to resist a moderate level of abuse under normal circumstances. The paint didn't scratch when we pressed the tip of a screwdriver gently down the side panels for instance. The finish also doesn't attract fingerprints unnecessarily, which is always a bonus.

Technically, the unit is well balanced. It almost delivered 92% efficiency at 50 percent load which is an excellent result. The high efficiency has meant that Corsair have been able to reduce the clutter of heatsinks inside, improving the air flow across the components underneath the large fan.

Noise suppression is excellent, with all output falling well within industry tolerance levels. +12V peaked at 45mV, +3.3V peaked at 15mV and +5V peaked at 20mV. Acoustic performance is very strong, with the fan only becoming noticeably active when the power demand exceeded 750W.

Power regulation is stable and the design handled the intensive cross loading test without any concerns. The modular design is very welcome, ensuring that cable routing will never be a concern, especially in a high performance media system build.

In real world terms we tested this power supply with a system comprising 16GB of 2,400mhz DDR3 memory, two AMD HD7970 graphics cards in Crossfire, and an overclocked Core i7 3960K with liquid cooling. We looped 3DMark 11 for hours, and played Max Payne 3 without a hiccup.

You can buy the Corsair HX850W Professional Gold from Overclockers, for £139.99 inc vat.

Pros:

• Excellent load regulation.
• high efficiency.
• good quality of finish.
• quiet.
• modular.
• 7 year warranty.

Cons:

• not cheap.

Kitguru says: Another excellent power supply from Corsair.

Become a Patron!