400-450W PSU Roundup
by Christoph Katzer on November 6, 2007 4:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
Corsair 450VX 450W
The 450VX Corsair is another power supply based on the same basic power supply as the Antec Earthwatts, a fact that will become clear when we crack open the housing. However, unlike the Earthwatts, Corsair chose to use the exact same housing and black paint job as the original Seasonic unit, and they use a 120mm fan located on the bottom of the housing. The length of the power supply is 140mm, allowing it to fit in most PC cases. The packaging is quite good and the power supply comes wrapped up in a little bag - not necessarily as environmentally friendly as other options, but there's a good chance shipping won't cause any damage to the PSU.
The 450VX comes with a single 12V rail rated at 33A. The original design used two 17A 12V rails (as does the Earthwatts), but given the lower total wattage the single 12V rail may make for easier power management - there's no need to worry about whether you're overloading one rail and not using the other rail enough.
All cables come with sleeving, even between the connectors, so despite the moderate 450W rating we can expect the cost to be somewhat higher than competing models. The main 24-pin ATX cable is 60cm long, which is good for some of the larger cases. There are six Molex and six SATA connectors on four cables with a maximum length of 60cm. The first connector is only 30cm from the power supply, which might be a bit close to the PSU for some peripherals, but unless you plan on using all six connectors this should not present a problem. The maximum length is the bigger concern here, and it might prove difficult to reach the bottom drive bays on a full-size tower case if the PSU is located at the top of the box.
The inside looks quite empty, as is often the case with these smaller power supplies. It is not necessary to have as many components -- or as large of components -- considering the smaller amounts of current passing through the PSU. The heatsinks are quite small, but higher efficiency should help to keep heat levels down. Hitachi makes the primary capacitor, rated at 330µF with 400V. The fan blows air directly at the circuit board and heatsinks, which should easily provide adequate cooling.
The 450VX Corsair is another power supply based on the same basic power supply as the Antec Earthwatts, a fact that will become clear when we crack open the housing. However, unlike the Earthwatts, Corsair chose to use the exact same housing and black paint job as the original Seasonic unit, and they use a 120mm fan located on the bottom of the housing. The length of the power supply is 140mm, allowing it to fit in most PC cases. The packaging is quite good and the power supply comes wrapped up in a little bag - not necessarily as environmentally friendly as other options, but there's a good chance shipping won't cause any damage to the PSU.
The 450VX comes with a single 12V rail rated at 33A. The original design used two 17A 12V rails (as does the Earthwatts), but given the lower total wattage the single 12V rail may make for easier power management - there's no need to worry about whether you're overloading one rail and not using the other rail enough.
All cables come with sleeving, even between the connectors, so despite the moderate 450W rating we can expect the cost to be somewhat higher than competing models. The main 24-pin ATX cable is 60cm long, which is good for some of the larger cases. There are six Molex and six SATA connectors on four cables with a maximum length of 60cm. The first connector is only 30cm from the power supply, which might be a bit close to the PSU for some peripherals, but unless you plan on using all six connectors this should not present a problem. The maximum length is the bigger concern here, and it might prove difficult to reach the bottom drive bays on a full-size tower case if the PSU is located at the top of the box.
The inside looks quite empty, as is often the case with these smaller power supplies. It is not necessary to have as many components -- or as large of components -- considering the smaller amounts of current passing through the PSU. The heatsinks are quite small, but higher efficiency should help to keep heat levels down. Hitachi makes the primary capacitor, rated at 330µF with 400V. The fan blows air directly at the circuit board and heatsinks, which should easily provide adequate cooling.
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Christoph Katzer - Tuesday, November 6, 2007 - link
Yup and before the use of very bulky heatsinks made the power supplies heavier. Today the components are better and the heatsinks are getting smaller again (Seasonic and FSP standard design for example).Pale Rider - Tuesday, November 6, 2007 - link
It's easily the best of the "lower" power choices.JarredWalton - Tuesday, November 6, 2007 - link
We already reviewed the Seasonic 330W and 500W, and given that Seasonic is the ODM of the Corsair and Antec units... except while Corsair is basically identical to the Seasonic model, Antec messed around with the fan to cut costs or something. 430W S12II and 450VX are pretty much the same PSU.Modular - Tuesday, November 6, 2007 - link
Page 2: "360W combined equates to 15A when both are "fully" loaded."-Should read 30A fully loaded.
Page 5: "The original design used two 17A 12V rails (as does the Earthwatts)"
-Per this review http://www.jonnyguru.com/review_details.php?id=51&...">http://www.jonnyguru.com/review_details.php?id=51&... the Earthwatts line isn't really 2 12v rails either. No biggie, but just wanted to clarify.
The Ultra is listed as a V-Series when it's actually the XVS, which is basically a step above the V-Series in that it has the flex cables and is modular.
Overall this was a pretty informative review. I'm glad that you included heat sink temps and fan noise, and it's really good to see the ripple included.
drebo - Tuesday, November 6, 2007 - link
In the retail computer sales business, I don't consider a $60 430W power supply to be a "Budget" power supply. That's more of a midrange, and is generally overkill for most of the computers sold. Even the Ultra is too expensive to bother with for most of my customers.I'd like to see a true budget roundup. Powersupplies in the $20-30 range. Like those from Athenatech or Maxtop(Q-Max) or even the lower-end Thermaltakes. I realize that they're going to be pretty crappy results, but I think it's important to see, comparitively, how they do. If it were up to me, all of my customers would be using Antec EarthWatts power supplies, but they don't understand why the extra money is necessary. With information like this, it would be far easier to convince them to spend the extra $20.
magreen - Tuesday, November 6, 2007 - link
I second that call for lower cost PSU roundups. I was under the impression that FSP makes decent enough PSUs. Can you include reviews of their 350W, 400W and 450W models? They won't have active PFC, but let's be honest, most users don't care at all about that.Iger - Tuesday, November 6, 2007 - link
+1 actually. I'd really like to understand what kind of performance can one expect from a low-end psu. Then again, Ultra probably answers the question, at least vaguely. I just wish we'd have a bigger choise of psus in europe... And better prices <sigh>Christoph Katzer - Tuesday, November 6, 2007 - link
No choice in Europe? Which country are you living in? Most shops are sending the stuff all around Europe already and you'll probably find even more in Ebay.The problem with a low end PSU roundup is that I am living in Europe as well and it will not be easy to convince a company to send me their stuff when the shipping is triple the cost of the actual product. But let us find a way and in the beginning of next year we will see what we can do...
xsilver - Wednesday, November 7, 2007 - link
Also, has it been investigated whether there are differences between varying PSU's coming off the assembly line?I would like to think that the high end manufacturers could produce identical products but Im not so sure the QC of the cheapo PSU's will give u the same PSU every time. eg. some cheap psu's seem to live on through torrid abuse and yet some just die only after 1 month of use.
Super Nade - Tuesday, November 6, 2007 - link
Hi,Why did you guys cut down on the internal component analysis? Hate to see a single picture and a few cursory words about the internal architecture. Load testing aside, I find everything else a bit boring. You had a nice thing going looking at the components, why cull it? If you decided to shorten the reviews, you could have trimmed the part about acoustics. ;)
Regards,
Super Nade
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