Corsair Blog

In August of 2006, Corsair entered the power supply market with 2 now legendary PSUs — the HX520 and HX620. I won’t say we entered the market with a bang or with a splash as those are two sounds one should never associate with PSUs.

What we did do was successfully enter into a highly competitive segment of the PC market. Since that initial entry, we have had great success with our PSUs. We now have five PSU lines that cover the entire spectrum of the DIY PSU market:

Professional Series Gold

Professional Series

Enthusiast Series

Gaming Series

Builders Series

Among the many things we have learned over the past six years, we learned two important things relating to how and why customers buy PSUs. One, there is a great deal of misleading or incorrect information available that is not helpful in making a really well informed and sensible PSU choice. And two, due to item number one, many customers need more assistance in how and why to select a PSU than with some other PC components. We have generated some information and resources to assist our PSU customers and we have adhered to what is often referred to as the K.I.S.S. principle.

No, this does not mean that we dress as glam rockers with horror makeup on. It is an acronym for Keep It Simple Stupid. Buying the right PSU should be an easy task and we have chosen to make the process as simple as possible. One of our first resources we came up with is the Corsair Power Supply Finder.

This tool embraces the tenets of the K.I.S.S. principle and it is extremely quick and easy to use. You can literally determine the correct Corsair PSU for your system in a matter of seconds. It’s not nearly as complex as some online calculators that can be found but that is by design in the interest of K.I.S.S. Additionally, we’ve seen some wildly inaccurate conclusions using some online tools so we decided that less is more in this case.

This finder is the proper tool for many customers but we also have that segment of customers that want more information. We generated a written how to guide detailing all the aspects of selecting the ideal PSU for your system — How to Select the Ideal PSU.

This guide outlines the specific criteria customers need to evaluate while selecting a PSU and breaks them down into four easy steps. We have also collected some links that are extremely useful in this process.

The geeks over at Geeks3D have graciously allowed us to link their Graphics Card Thermal Design Power (TDP) Database in our forum and in our guide. This is essential information to help users find the power requirements for their GPU or GPUs and to then factor them into their selection.

Users of Intel processors can find TPD information and more HERE.

Users of AMD processors can find TDP information and more HERE.

Users of AMD GPUs can find more detailed information on their GPUs and the associated power requirements here on the AMD CrossFireX™ Certified Components page.

Users of Nvidia GPUs can find more detailed information on their GPUs and the associated power requirements here in the Nvidia SLI Zone, Power Supplies section.

Many users also like to rely on independent reviews of our products. Finding a good review site with technically qualified people and the proper equipment to reviews power supplies is essential. Some of these sites include but are not limited to:

JonnyGURU.com

HardOCP

Hardware Secrets

PC Perspective

Overclockers Club

All that is left now is to select the Corsair line of PSUs that has the proper features to fit your needs. As you well know by this point, there’s a lot more to consider than just efficiency. Here are some of the reasons to buy a Corsair PSU.

Quality Component Selection

Great products are a sum of great parts, and Corsair power supplies use only quality components and resistors from high-end brands. On our Professional Series Gold power supplies, for example, utilize all Japanese capacitors, solid state where possible, and are rated at higher than industry standard. This means that not only will your PSU work well when you get it out of the box, but it’ll keep working well for years down the road. Here’s a great picture from a detailed review at JonnyGURU.com.

Rigorous Engineering

While other parts strain to meet their rated specifications, Corsair engineers spend enormous amounts of time qualifying design choices. Our Professional Series products keep voltage regulation 150% tighter the ATX specification. Other specs, like ripple and electrical noise receive special attention. Why? Because the better the spec, the lower the stress on your other valuable components, potentially increasing the lifespan of your motherboard, CPU, or video card. Load testers FTW!

Compatible and Flexible

Corsair power supply cables are specially designed to be long enough for even a full tower case like the Obsidian Series 800D. And because cables are designed to be functional, we’ve either sleeved them in a tight black sleeving and heatshrink, or use all-black flat-style cables that can be easily hidden away, leaving your other components to shine. With our modular power supplies, you use only the cables you need, making it even easier to put a system together and keep things neat and tidy in your case. We also offer individually sleeved cables for our modular PSUs for those users that want to take their case aesthetics to the next level.

Quiet Operation

Power supplies should be the strong, silent type. If it works correctly, you should never have to think (or worry) about it. Corsair power supplies are all designed with large, 120mm or 140mm fans that are thermally controlled so they only spin up when the PSU heats up. In fact, most of our newer PSUs can run without spinning up the fan at all at low loads.

World-class Support

Warranty support is only as good as the company that backs it. With over 18 years experience in the PC industry, Corsair is here to stay. We have support on our online forums, through email, phone, or our world-class web-based support. And with up to a seven year warranty (Professional Series), you’ll likely get bored waiting for the product to fail before you ever have to use it.

 We want Corsair customers to be 100% confident that they have bought the ideal Corsair PSU for their system. We hope this guide will make that easy.