Corsair CMPSU-620HX 620 Watt Power Supply

INTRODUCTION

We alluded to the fact that today's systems are power hungry monsters in our last PSU article. Recent developments certainly support the truth of that statement. In the very near future it is safe to say that NVIDIA will be releasing drivers that will support the use of their newest 7950 GX2 VPU/GPU in a quad SLI™ configuration. I would hope that the same will be true for those motherboards that support both the Crossfire™ and the 7950 GX2 platform as well. In other words the power savings that have recently been brought to bear by the newer, cooler, more efficient processors that are currently being marketed by both Intel and AMD will be more than absorbed by the GPU/VPU should the enthusiast user opt for either the SLI™ or Crossfire™ configuration(s).

Many users saw the handwriting on the wall and immediately opted for either of PC Power & Cooling's mammoth offerings of a 850W or a 1KW power supply when the hit the shelves. That being said, not every enthusiast user can afford nor justify the $400 - $500 it takes to own one of these units. Manufacturers are well aware of this conundrum and in most cases have gone back to the drawing board to make their current mid-range power supplies more energy efficient. We have also seen the entry into this lucrative market by a number of companies that here-to-fore had been more unidirectional in their product lines. Is this change in marketing strategy simply a diversification for these companies, or is it a well thought out plan to bring new and exciting technology to the table? Time alone will answer that question!

Today we have the rare opportunity of reviewing a product before its actual release date. Corsair, a company well known to the entire enthusiast market for making some of the finest memory currently available has joined a few of its memory manufacturing brethren in moving into the manufacture and sales of power supplies. Corsair's first two offerings consist of both a 520W and 620W watt PSU that offer most if not all of the bells and whistles currently available. Please join us while we review the Corsair's CMPSU-620HX 620 watt power supply to see if this product fully warrants your consideration as a viable alternative to its considerably more expensive counterparts in the PSU arena.

Corsair: The Company's Overview

Corsair has been a leader in the design and manufacture of high-speed modules since 1994. Our focus has always been on supporting the special demands of mission-critical servers and high-end workstations, as well as the performance demands of extreme gamers.

As a pioneer in high-speed module design, Corsair is a trusted supplier to many computer manufacturers. In high-density memory solutions, Corsair has always been one of the first suppliers to achieve advanced qualifications on Intel, Tyan and SuperMicro server platforms. We also work closely with other major server platform manufacturers to release product that is 100% compatible with their latest server products.

Their flagship memory products are part of the XMS (Xtreme Memory Speed) family which is designed for the unique demands of the serious enthusiast community. The XMS memory line has become the world's most awarded memory, garnering more awards and Number One rankings from review sites and users' polls than any other performance memory. The XMS family includes XMS2, high performance DDR2 modules that have broken world speed records; XMS Xpert, the first modules with real-time display of parametric data; Pro Series, gaming memory with real-time activity LEDs; and XMS Classic with black or platinum heat spreaders.

Their ValueSelect line of desktop memory brings our quality and compatibility standards to cost-effective products for today's most popular desktops and laptops. Value Select is available in DDR1 and DDR2.

They also offer a large range of ultra-reliable server memory and memory for laptops and OEM desktop systems.

Corsair has expanded beyond memory modules to offer performance water cooling units under our Corsair COOL brand. In addition, we offer a line of Flash memory. Our world's first water-resistant, shock-proof Flash Voyager USB is winning kudos for its sleek and functional rubber housing. Our range of SD and CF cards offer a lifetime of reliable performance for popular photo and MP3s devices, cell phones and PDAs.

With more high-speed experience than anyone out there, we know the importance of design features like tightly-controlled trace lengths, controlled impedances, clock trace design, unbroken power and ground planes, and selectively plated gold. Corsair Memory has developed an industry-wide reputation for quality, compatibility and performance

Sidebar

Our recent Power Supply reviews have been pretty much cut and dry as we felt that most of our readers were primarily interested in seeing a thorough description along with a few pictures but primarily the performance figures. In other words taking a "more meat and less potatoes" approach. Recently we have received some valuable feedback from several of Bjorn3d's members as well as from some of our readers telling us they appreciated the thoroughness of our other reviews and not to change our content for power supplies. For that reason we'll be returning to the same highly detailed and extremely thorough format that we use for all the other products we review.