With the HX850W - this time with a blue writing - Corsair renews the high qualitative HX-series. Therefore the Power supply which delivers 850W Watts shines with a very high efficiency near 90 percent, a single-rail power design and highly durable solid state capacitors. 
On the following pages we will show you the strenghts and weaknesses of Corsairs HX850W.
| Page 1 - Introduction | Page 5 - Performance 50 % load |
| Page 2 - Preview | Page 6 - Performance 100 % load |
| Page 3 - Delivery/Specs | Page 7 - Efficiency/Off-Power |
| Page 4 - Test setup | Page 8 - Conclusion |
Discuss this article in our forums. [pagebreak]
Preview
| Page 1 - Introduction | Page 5 - Performance 50 % load |
| Page 2 - Preview | Page 6 - Performance 100 % load |
| Page 3 - Delivery/Specs | Page 7 - Efficiency/Off-Power |
| Page 4 - Test setup | Page 8 - Conclusion |
Discuss this article in our forums. [pagebreak]
Delivery and Specifications
The fact that there is a wide variety of connectors we desicribe the delivery as very good. You'll have the possibility to connect far more than 20 drives to the power supply as well as three graphic cards. Probably it would have been worth a thoght adding a second 8-pin ATX 12V plug to make the unit ready even for EATX workstation mainboards.
Delivery |
|
| 1 x ATX 24 pin | |
| 1 x EPS/ATX 12V 8-4 pin | |
| 6 x PCI-E 6+2 pin | |
| 12 x SATA | |
| 12 x 4 pin Peripheral | |
| 2 x Floppy | |
Specifications |
||
| Voltage | Current | Power |
| + 3.3 V | 25 A | 150 Watt |
| + 5.0 V | 25 A | |
| + 12 V | 70 A | 840 Watt |
| - 12 V | 0.8 A | 9.6 Watt |
| + 5 Vsb | 3 A | 15 Watt |
| Page 1 - Introduction | Page 5 - Performance 50 % load |
| Page 2 - Preview | Page 6 - Performance 100 % load |
| Page 3 - Delivery/Specs | Page 7 - Efficiency/Off-Power |
| Page 4 - Test setup | Page 8 - Conclusion |
Discuss this article in our forums. [pagebreak]
Test setup
Hardware |
|
| CPU | Intel Core i7 975 XE |
| Mainboard | ASUS P6T |
| Memory | Corsair Dominator TR3X3G1600C8D, 3 x 2 GByte |
| Graphic cards | 2 x GTX285 |
| Hard disk | Samsung Spinpoint F1 640 GB |
Software |
|
| Operating system | Windows Vista 64 bit |
| Monitoring | ASUS PC-Probe |
| Page 1 - Introduction | Page 5 - Performance 50 % load |
| Page 2 - Preview | Page 6 - Performance 100 % load |
| Page 3 - Delivery/Specs | Page 7 - Efficiency/Off-Power |
| Page 4 - Test setup | Page 8 - Conclusion |
Discuss this article in our forums. [pagebreak]
Performance values at 50 percent load
50 percent load matches an every day scenario. Modern power supplies have their efficiency peak
at 50 percent of the maximum load.
Following you'll find the products in alphabetical order, voltage as well as its deviation from the reference value, noise level
and price. Regarding the noise level we classify within the following subjective values: very silent, silent, audible, loud and
very loud.
12 V 50 percent load |
||||
| Product | Current | Deviation | Noise | Price |
| Corsair HX850W 850 Watt | 12.14 Volt | + 1.16 % | leise | CHF 230.- / EUR 153.- |
| OCZ EliteXStream 1000 Watt | 12.19 Volt | + 1.58 % | hörbar | CHF 333.- / EUR 222.- |
| OCZ Silencer 910 Watt | 12.31 Volt | + 2.58 % | hörbar | CHF 269.- / EUR 179.- |
5 V 50 percent load |
||||
| Product | Current | Deviation | Noise | Price |
| Corsair HX850W 850 Watt | 5.12 Volt | + 2.40 % | leise | CHF 230.- / EUR 153.- |
| OCZ EliteXStream 1000 Watt | 5.09 Volt | + 1.80 % | hörbar | CHF 333.- / EUR 222.- |
| OCZ Silencer 910 Watt | 5.17 Volt | + 3.40 % | hörbar | CHF 269.- / EUR 179.- |
3.3 V 50 percent load |
||||
| Product | Current | Deviation | Noise | Price |
| Corsair HX850W 850 Watt | 3.23 Volt | - 2.17 % | leise | CHF 230.- / EUR 153.- |
| OCZ EliteXStream 1000 Watt | 3.26 Volt | - 1.23 % | hörbar | CHF 333.- / EUR 222.- |
| OCZ Silencer 910 Watt | 3.30 Volt | + 0.00 % | hörbar | CHF 269.- / EUR 179.- |
| Page 1 - Introduction | Page 5 - Performance 50 % load |
| Page 2 - Preview | Page 6 - Performance 100 % load |
| Page 3 - Delivery/Specs | Page 7 - Efficiency/Off-Power |
| Page 4 - Test setup | Page 8 - Conclusion |
Discuss this article in our forums. [pagebreak]
Performance values at 100 percent load
At this point we generate maximum load on the power supply unit. The specifications therefore wont be exceeded.
Following we well see if the voltage drops. Generally there shouldn't be any voltage drops of more than five percent. Otherwise the unit is running havily at it's load limit.
Following you'll find the products in alphabetical order, voltage as well as its deviation from the reference value, noise level
and price. Regarding the noise level we classify within the following subjective values: very silent, silent, audible, loud and
very loud.
12 V 100 percent load |
||||
| Product | Current | Deviation | Noise | Price |
| Corsair HX850W 850 Watt | 12.02 Volt | + 0.17 % | hörbar | CHF 230.- / EUR 153.- |
| OCZ EliteXStream 1000 Watt | 11.91 Volt | - 0.76 % | laut | CHF 333.- / EUR 222.- |
| OCZ Silencer 910 Watt | 12.05 Volt | + 0.42 % | sehr laut | CHF 269.- / EUR 179.- |
5 V 100 percent load |
||||
| Product | Current | Deviation | Noise | Price |
| Corsair HX850W 850 Watt | 5.07 Volt | + 1.40 % | hörbar | CHF 230.- / EUR 153.- |
| OCZ EliteXStream 1000 Watt | 5.05 Volt | + 1.00 % | laut | CHF 333.- / EUR 222.- |
| OCZ Silencer 910 Watt | 5.12 Volt | + 2.40 % | sehr laut | CHF 269.- / EUR 179.- |
3.3 V 100 percent load |
||||
| Product | Current | Deviation | Noise | Price |
| Corsair HX850W 850 Watt | 3.20 Volt | - 3.125 % | hörbar | CHF 230.- / EUR 153.- |
| OCZ EliteXStream 1000 Watt | 3.22 Volt | - 2.48 % | laut | CHF 333.- / EUR 222.- |
| OCZ Silencer 910 Watt | 3.28 Volt | - 0.61 % | sehr laut | CHF 269.- / EUR 179.- |
| Page 1 - Introduction | Page 5 - Performance 50 % load |
| Page 2 - Preview | Page 6 - Performance 100 % load |
| Page 3 - Delivery/Specs | Page 7 - Efficiency/Off-Power |
| Page 4 - Test setup | Page 8 - Conclusion |
Discuss this article in our forums. [pagebreak]
Efficiency and Off-Power
The following table shows you the efficiency we measured with the different power supplies at a load of 50 percent which corresponds to highest possible efficiency due to the fact that modern power supplies have their efficiency-peak at 50 percent of their maximum load.
With our Off-Power values we show the amount of power which is being drawn from your power plug when your computer is switched off. It is interesting to see that these values differ quite gravely.
Effizienz 50 percent load |
|
| Product | |
| Corsair HX850W 850 Watt | 90 % |
| OCZ EliteXStream 1000 Watt | 86 % |
| OCZ Silencer 910 Watt | 89 % |
Off-Power |
|
| Product | |
| Corsair HX850W 850 Watt | 15.21 Watt |
| OCZ EliteXStream 1000 Watt | 13.80 Watt |
| OCZ Silencer 910 Watt | 16.80 Watt |
| Page 1 - Introduction | Page 5 - Performance 50 % load |
| Page 2 - Preview | Page 6 - Performance 100 % load |
| Page 3 - Delivery/Specs | Page 7 - Efficiency/Off-Power |
| Page 4 - Test setup | Page 8 - Conclusion |
Discuss this article in our forums. [pagebreak]
Conclusion
With the HX850W Corsair presents a very solid product. The claimed efficiency of 90 percent was reproducible in our test and features like cable management and a silent fan make this a very good power supply unit.
Generally practical is a cable management which allows a user to connect only the cables he really needs
to wire his rig neatly. The fact that there are twelve HDD-plugs as well as twelve SATA-plugs makes wiring an even very well equppid file server possible.
With the six 6+2 pin connectors you'll have the possibility to power triple-SLI systems as wells as triple-Crossfore rigs.
Very confortable is the at 50 percent load subjectively silent fan. Under 100 percent load it is still only subjectively audible.
If we look at the performance values the Corsair HX850W does show a good overall stability. The maximum deviation from the reference values regarding the voltages is being exceeded by 3.125 % which is still below the five percent barrier. Truely excellent, that's what the efficency is. 90 percent is therefore a very good value.
The Corsiar HX850W can be recommended to anyone who likes to assemble a stable system which is as efficient as possible. Therefore it doesn't matter if you're a gamer or hardware-enthusiast. The HX850W is stable and provides your rig with plenty of power.
The Corsair HX850W can be bought at Digitec to a price of CHF 230.- (ca. EUR 153.-).
| Page 1 - Introduction | Page 5 - Performance 50 % load |
| Page 2 - Preview | Page 6 - Performance 100 % load |
| Page 3 - Delivery/Specs | Page 7 - Efficiency/Off-Power |
| Page 4 - Test setup | Page 8 - Conclusion |
Discuss this article in our forums.
Author: m.buechel@ocaholic.ch