The Corsair HX850 80Plus Platinum PSU Review
by E. Fylladitakis on October 24, 2017 8:00 AM ESTConclusion
Corsair is aiming the entirety of the HX series, including the HX850 that we reviewed today, towards overclockers and advanced enthusiasts. These groups of users primarily value reliability and stability, but also need high overall performance, and are usually not dissuaded by a hefty price tag. The HX units are designed around that concept - the platform is primarily focused around the longevity of the PSU above everything else but without forgoing other performance aspects.
The overall electrical performance of the Corsair HX850 is exceptional. Even with the PSU heavily loaded under adverse operating conditions, the power quality readings that we took were excellent, with minimal voltage ripple appearing on all of the voltage lines and very strong regulation. Our readings were impressive but not unexpected of a high-quality modern PSU. The HX850 is not going to break any performance records here but pinnacle electrical performance is not the purpose of this series - Corsair has the AX series for that.
Our sample did not fully meet the 80Plus Platinum certification with an input voltage of 230V/50Hz, failing to surpass 94% efficiency at 50% load. As most companies do, Corsair is having their units tested and certified for an input voltage of 115V/60Hz and this specific unit has been officially tested and awarded an 80Plus Platinum certification, so there is nothing suspicious going on here. Apparently, the company’s engineers optimized the platform for an input voltage of 115V, as the lower requirements make it easier to achieve a better efficiency certification. Regardless of that, the conversion efficiency of the HX850 can definitely be characterized as excellent, with our sample sustaining an average efficiency of 92.7% across its nominal load range.
Although we feel that its heatsinks and overall thermal design could use an improvement, the high efficiency allows the Corsair HX850 to display very good thermal performance - perhaps even a little too good. The thermal control is very sensitive when the internal temperatures of the unit are high, pushing the 135 mm fan to its limit in order to keep the internal temperatures as low as possible. With the maximization of the unit’s reliability and stability being the primary design focus, that is not surprising, as even a few temperature degrees can mean years of difference on the lifetime of some electronic components, especially that of capacitors. The downside here is that the HX850 can become quite loud when forced to operate inside a very hot ambient environment.
At room temperature, the thermal behavior of the HX850 is entirely different, with the unit’s thermal control not even turning the fan on up until the load reaches almost half of the unit’s rated capacity.
The retail price of the Corsair HX850 currently is $160 (MSRP $200), which is a fair price for a high quality 80Plus Platinum certified unit that comes with a 10-year warranty. 80Plus Platinum units can nowadays found for less but most manufacturers have their leading designs priced around this price point and the HX850 is more than capable of giving the competition a run for their money.
The Corsair HX850 should be into the shortlist of anyone seeking a powerful, efficient, and very reliable PSU that will be the heart of their gaming/workstation system for many years.
Recent Power Supply Reviews
AnandTech tests a good number of power supplies each year, mostly in the popular power ranges (650-850W) with a few reviews now-and-again for small form factor parts or larger behemoths. Here are the power supplies we have reviewed in the last twelve to eighteen months.
- [link] The Corsair HX850 80Plus Platinum PSU Review (this review)
- [link] The Enermax Revolution SFX 650W PSU Review
- [link] The Seasonic PRIME Titanium PSU (650W, 750W, 850W) Review
- [link] The Riotoro Onyx Power Supply Review: 650W & 750W Tested
- [link] The BitFenix Whisper M 450W & 850W PSU Review
- [link] The Silverstone ST30SF & ST45SF SFX Power Supply Review
- [link] The Zalman ZM1200-EBT 1200W Power Supply Review
- [link] The SilverStone SX700-LPT SFX 700W PSU Review
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BurntMyBacon - Wednesday, October 25, 2017 - link
I should probably mention that there are a few different versions of prime supply differentiated by efficiency:Titanium:
https://www.hardocp.com/article/2016/07/21/seasoni...
Platinum:
https://www.hardocp.com/article/2017/06/13/seasoni...
Gold:
https://www.hardocp.com/article/2017/08/23/seasoni...
evilspoons - Tuesday, October 24, 2017 - link
As a Canadian who has to translate from USD to CAD all the time mentally, I'm always surprised when I find out you review your power supplies at 230V/50Hz (i.e. not in North America). I guess you get to do that bit of mental translation too.Good to know the Corsair supplies are still solid. I've had an HX750 since I bought my i7-2600k and it ran SLI 680s and an overclocked CPU since whenever that was. The 680s have since been replaced with a 1080 but if I ever need a PSU, shouldn't be too hard to choose...
Morawka - Tuesday, October 24, 2017 - link
It's funny how we've come full circle with power supplies. At first a Single 12V rail was desirable but nowadays, a Multiple rail system is preferred with the advent of virtual rails. I have a question. I have a RMI 1000x PSU from Corsair which also has Single and Multi-rail options. So is it generally preferred to keep it operating in multi-rail mode? Could a single 1080Ti or a 7900X CPU OC'd for example -- go over the 40A rating. (I think the RMi1000 has the same multi-rail setup as this one, albiet more rails.)TheWereCat - Tuesday, October 24, 2017 - link
1080ti can go easily to 40A when you unlock the power and voltage limit. Not by default as most if not all cards have power limit at around 355W.I flashed my FTW3 with XOC BIOS and I am easily hitting 400W (I am using the FTW3 air cooler) so I don't dare to push the card more even if I could but then the very high temps would lower my clocks significantly so it would be pointless.
DanNeely - Tuesday, October 24, 2017 - link
Yup. We started with multiple rails due to a max current safety requirement. Then PSU makers started ignoring that limit and making single giant rails. The standard was updated to allow this. (Were any compensatory safety requirements added?) The safety benefits from smaller overcurrent limits never went away though, so now we're seeing them added back to individual outputs.It'll be interesting to see if the PSUs that have an internal USB2 header cable and a control app let you customize the max for each output port separately instead of being a single all or nothing option.
Morawka - Tuesday, October 24, 2017 - link
I'll let you known if that's possible here in a couple of days as i'm building a 7900x with a RM1000i Power supply w/ Corsair Link. Being able to set the max amperage per 12v rail would be ideal for enthusiast.jonnyGURU - Monday, October 30, 2017 - link
To clarify.. we started with multiple +12V rails until PC Power & Cooling, at the time one of the largest PSU vendors, screwed up and didn't split rails up accordingly for their Turbo-Cool line. Instead of correcting the issue, they went rogue and said "screw this rail B.S.! Make everything single +12V rail!!!" Because their marketing was so strong, they brainwashed everyone into believing that the mistake wasn't on their end and so all the other vendors had to switch to single +12V rail as well to maintain their market share.FaaR - Wednesday, November 1, 2017 - link
I think you'd have to work hard to make a single GPU pull over 480W of power (;P), but if this worries you, just attach two power cables from different (virtual) rails for a total of 80 amps DC to your GPU.Of course, an 850W PSU isn't going to be able to supply that much juice just to your GPU, but you knew that already of course. :)
gammaray - Tuesday, October 24, 2017 - link
so if the HX serie is for "overclockers and advanced enthusiasts" what is the AX and RM series for?Morawka - Tuesday, October 24, 2017 - link
Corsair Link seems to be the separating feature. Well that and type 4 PSU cables that reduce voltage droop by implementing capacitors along each 12v wire. The RM series are mostly Gold certified whereas the AX series utilizes platinum efficiency with a Digital switching controller (also missing from the TX line)