Why are Corsair PSU more popular?

[REDALiCE]

Why do people prefer Corsair PSU compare to other PSU such as XFX, Evga, etc. The Corsair seem abit more expensive too.

[Saracen]

Several reasons, I think.

For quite a long time, Corsair used pretty high quality PSUs, bought in from Seasonic, IIRC, at very good prices. that gave them a reputation for good quality, and good value. Which built a brand. And that means they're now pretty well trusted among those building PCs.

Personally, my opinion is that while they're still good quality, they're not quite the value for money bargain they used to be.

Bear in mind that while a PSU is a 'boring' component, and when spec'ing up a PC it's tempting to go for CPU power, fancy graphics, loads of RAM, SSDs, etc, that 'boring' PSU has the ability to wreck the lot if it fails catastrophically. So a good quality PSU, good design, plenty of safety features, made from quality components, will not only be less likely yo blow up your PC, but should last longer too.

For instance, it's astonishing how many cheap PSUs fail because the cheap sleeve bearings in the cooling fan seize up, resulting in overheating. An extra £1 or two on a decent fan with decent bearings should prevent that.

"Expensive", therefore, is a relative term, if it's paying for build quality. A Bentley isn't exactly a cheap car, but if you've ever examined the way they're built, you'd know where some of the price comes from. Personally, I'm not likely to buy a Bentley, but BMW? Yup.

[REDALiCE]

Thank you for explaining why Corsair a popular choice.

I've read somewhere that XFX PSU are supplied by Seasonic and the Evga are rebrand of superflower, both are well known PSU OEM, plus Evga has some nice quality cable sleeving too and most of corsair psu are not from Seasonic now. Still I think the extra cost are just paying for the name.

[pastymuncher]

A lot of it is blind fanboys that won't hear a word said against them. We used to have a big problem over at the OCUK forums where if anybody said anything against Corsair half the forum would start ranting against the poster. Thankfully this is now a thing of the past and people have woken up and realised that there are other brands available that are much better.

As Saracen has said, Corsair got established using Seasonic as a OEM. Seasonic is one of the top quality psu OEM's in the world. Once they got established they changed to cheaper OEM's with inferior designs while keeping the price the same or higher. The CX400 is a prime example. The original was a unit built by Seasonic, had high quality internal components and could deliver 360w on the 12v rail. It's replacement the CX430 built by CWT was massively inferior with cheap internals (still going on today) and a pathetic 336w on the 12v rail. This has gone on throughout their ranges and now Seasonic only build three psu's for Corsair. That's not three model ranges, just three psu's, the HX650, AX760 and AX860 and I expect these to be replaced before long as well. The vast majority of their psu's are now made by CWT (Channel Well Technology) with some models also made by Flextronics (AXi series), Chicony Power Technology (RM750 & RM850) and Great Wall (CS series).

Personally I don't like Corsair and I wouldn't buy one of their psu's plus for a RMA you have to return them to the Netherlands which costs £25+ from the UK. They do make some fine cases, though, like their psu's, are overpriced for what you get in my opinion.

If I was looking to buy a psu now I would be looking at the EVGA Supernova G2 (gold rated) and P2 (platinum rated) models. Both models are built by Superflower and based on their Leadex platform and are top quality units with EVGA's outstanding 10 year warranty.

XFX psu's are indeed all built by Seasonic but XFX is generally accepted as having abysmal customer service should anything go wrong with it.

There are also Superflowers own units which are quality units sold by OCUK. The Leadex series has annoying LED's were the modular cables are plugged in and unfortunately they can't be turned off. That's about the only downside to them though.

[RobbieRoy]

Makes me wish I'd read your post PastyMucher before I bought my Corsair CS750M, for which I have today got an RMA number from Scan as it's an inconsistent, trippy pain!

[MrComputerSaint]

When I bought mine it was still a good quality PSU for a little cheaper than it's competitors.

[Pob255]

This is why PSU's are not about brand but model, because most of the brands use multiple OEM's and different models are built to different budgets.
CWT are not a bad manufacture but they produce a range of psu's to different budgets, some of their lower end ones are not that good, while there top end efforts can be very good.

AFAIK XFX warranty on their psu's are actually handled by Nanopoint (who is seasonic's UK distributor and service agent)
Warranties on "brands" is rather complex question, you have to look into the country and seller as well as the brand, heck even the product can make a difference.
XFX is a great case here, in the UK they changed the way they handled warranties a while back when they stopped using 3rd party distributors for their graphics cards, they offer a warranty to retailers not the customers of retailers and leave it up to the retailer as to what sort of warranty to pass on.
So if a UK customer contacts XFX about a failed graphics card they'll just tell you to contact the retailer. (most of the bad XFX warranty reputation comes from the US because in the UK there isn't a direct warranty with them)
However for their psu's it's different, first you have to register your psu with XFX within 2 weeks of purchase to claim the 5year warranty, then you have to contact them via email when you wish to make a warranty claim, once accepted the physical rma is handled by Nanopoint (based in preston)

On Corsair psu's, when they first started they where very good high quality units at prices below the cost of other brands.
Since then the price has gone up a bit, but not that much, on their higher end models, it's more of a case of other brands lowering their prices on good units and Corsair bringing out a lot of cheaper models which are very much built to budget, the CX and TX models, had the issue that the originals were good seasonic units, replaced by a lesser CWT units (which cost slightly more) although the 3rd version of the CWT CX series (the 80+bronze ones) are good and pretty much the equal of the original seasonic made CX

My big issue is that Corsair is almost trading on their name with their lower end products, esp the VS series, quite a few people will buy them based on the low cost and Corsair brand and are getting something inferior to other units of around the same cost because Corsair have made a name with the high end units.
And I currently see them doing the same in the case market, although they are not as bad as Antec in the case market.

@RobbieRoy, you shouldn't be having any issues with the Corsair CS750M it's a good unit made by GreatWall, who make some very good psu's, sounds like you got a faulty unit from the start, it happens (even with seasonic) psu quality is something that shows with time, not from the start, although a lot of faulty units at the start could show an issue with quality control.

[surino]

When I bought my XFX CoreSeries 650w I was told that it was rebranded Seasonic. The quality of the product was decent in my eyes - I had no issues using it to run my £800+ rig. However, it did generate a clicking noise that dissipated when I turned it upside down and it didn't seem to stress out while sucking warmer air out of the case rather than from up its bottom. As others have said it's worth researching the reliability of the PSU before you buy just incase it damages your other components.

[Domestic_Ginger]

I never thought corsair was that popular. CWT make very good PSUs. Some models are top notch. Consistantly over their entire range they are not up to the great A* brands who you know 100% are going to be good. Realhardtechx psu review compilation is the go to source.

Unfortunaly enermax are to stop making their own PSUs so will be a supplier to scrutinise in the future.

[Pob255]

Unfortunaly enermax are to stop making their own PSUs so will be a supplier to scrutinise in the future.

The higher end enermax are still made by themselves, all of the Revolution models and Triathlor FC range (not the Triathlor Eco or the lower wattage Triathlor, which are made by CWT)
The cheap ranges like the NAXN which are not made by them can be more questionable, although the NAXN 82+ received some very good reviews

It's why so many of us say it's model not brand that you need to pay attention too, that and you get what you pay for, granted you can have two psu's that cost around the same but one could be better than the other but generally speaking the old rule of around £10 per 100w still holds true.

[RobbieRoy]

@RobbieRoy, you shouldn't be having any issues with the Corsair CS750M it's a good unit made by GreatWall, who make some very good psu's, sounds like you got a faulty unit from the start, it happens (even with seasonic) psu quality is something that shows with time, not from the start, although a lot of faulty units at the start could show an issue with quality control.

An update @Pob255 - RAM'd back to Scan who confirmed it was dead, so awaiting the replacement.

[Pob255]

Sounds like you had a DOA unit, it happens.

[watercooled]

When I bought my XFX CoreSeries 650w I was told that it was rebranded Seasonic. The quality of the product was decent in my eyes - I had no issues using it to run my £800+ rig. However, it did generate a clicking noise that dissipated when I turned it upside down and it didn't seem to stress out while sucking warmer air out of the case rather than from up its bottom. As others have said it's worth researching the reliability of the PSU before you buy just incase it damages your other components.

I've noticed this sort of thing with some fans, one example being IIRC some 120mm Antec TriCool fans which were fine when vertical, but clicked when lying horizontal, blowing upwards. I can't remember which sort of bearing they used, but it's generally not advisable to use sleeve bearing fans horizontal, although some PSUs still do.

[Game388]

I'll buy corsair due to reliability, I used to have a few which blew up on me.

[krazy_olie]

As mentioned, used to be the easiest way of getting hold of a Seasonic PSUs, which had a good reputation. Even then you had to look around forums to work out which were Seasonic ones and which weren't. Most of their PSUs still review quite well, though,

[LANCode41]

at the moment cant decide wether to go for a cooler master v850 or a corsair rm850 any ideas whats better?