I installed the 520W version a few hours ago, replacing an old enermax 350w .
Acording to my UPS the AC draw has decreased with almost 20W to ~160W, and that includes my 21" LCD that's also on the UPS.

btw, does anyone know if these SATA power cables will be for sale after market in case I ever want to use 10 harddrives or something?
Would be kind of clever since the connectors on the PSU are the same and I still have 2 open slots after adding 4 hdds, 2 dvds and a fan.

You can probably get some extra cables from the manufacturer if you ask nicely.

And that 20W reduction your UPS is reporting might also be because of more effective PFC on the Corsair, did your enermax have PFC? The UPS probably counts VA and not Watts.


And Welcome to SPCR!!

Hello,

I'll bet that the Corsair is that much more efficient!

The numbers you post would make it about 12.5% more efficient, and from the SPCR review of the 520, we see that it is ~82.5% efficient at the 160watt level, so the Enermax was ~70% efficient at that level -- which makes sense.

Thanks nici

The Enermax had an active PFC and I found a figure of 70% efficiency somewhere, but that was for 110V/60Hz and I'm on 230V.
The UPS has a control software that reports the load in watts, it might not be very acurate but it still gives you an idea.

Hello,



Both units would have a similar improvement for efficiency on 230v, right?

Hi

I've had this PSU for some weeks now and I love it, it is simply amazing. I have had (discounting the non premium PSUs before these of course) Hiper Type-R 580 modular, Type-M 530watt, Enermax Liberty 500 modular (WHICH DIED!!!...then RMA'd and sold :p), Jeantech Storm 700watt and now this.

This PSU is so silent, the cables are so nice, I can feed the cables nicely through the small slots on the side of my drive cages on my case which is ace for keeping cabling tidy

It also looks the business, the guy who designed it is on SA forums and posted some useful info on it there a few weeks back. It was made to beat the competition and be a no BS PSU and it shows

So Mike or anyone else who can answer this. THe 2db difference between this model and the Seasonic 550 isn't that much and could be due to experimental variance? 2db sounds like a big difference but the idea of having modular cables is extremely enticing but I'm a little worried when I'm spending about 150 on a power supply, I want it to be the quietest out there. Do you think the Enermax fits the bill or should one, if one desires the quietest, still stick to the reference, the Seasonics?

It's not significant. Some people will even say 2 dBA is only audible to fanatics.

Smallest perceivable noise level difference is 3 dB, smallest perceivable pure tone level difference is 2 dB.

Only some trained people can discern sounds with difference 1 dB less than above-mentioned (2 dB noise or 1 dB pure tone).

So, 2 dB is a very little difference.

Hi,
Im considering getting an antec p180 after my financial situation looks a bit better (curse christmas shopping!!!!) and want to get myself a nice quiet psu with a lot of power seing as the graphics cards of today seem to follow a ridicolous upward trend in power consumption. perhaps i am being conned by the "more is better" marketing tactic, but with 4 hds, 2 optical drives and a serious addiction overclocking my radeon 1900xt and e6400 allendale i would prefer to be on the safe side. therefore i was wondering if the 4 pin motherboard connector on the corsairs is long enough to reach to the top in the p180, i have a asus p5wdh deluxe and the connector is right at the top above the cpu. would love to hear a reply from someone, especially if anyone uses another powerfull, silent powersupply in a p180 and could tell me if the cable is long enough to reach without having to be drawn accross the entire board obstructing airflow and blocking pci slots.

thx in advance, SPCR rocks!!! (just wish i wouldve found your site before i bought that "#¤&%/ heatrap that is the antec sonata II)

Actually, 1dB is the smallest level difference that can reliably be perceived by most people. 3dB is double the sound power but 10dB is what people PERCEIVE as being double the sound output.

Greg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decibel#Acoustics



If you have a different, more authoritative source which says otherwise, please cite it.

Listening to the sound clips I would say wikipedia is more correct; the 3dB change is clearly discernible, whereas unless you are listening carefully the 1dB changes all sound the same.

Not sure whether A weighting makes a difference, but there's no question that <3 dBA differences are audible in the lab. The difference between, say, 20 and 22 dBA is obvious. Maybe it has to do with how close the level is to ambient.

Or, perhaps the 3 dB change only applies when the sound source is identical except for amplitude.

Question: How well does the dB scale on my receiver correlate to actual changes in dB? If it's accurate, I have no difficulty distinguishing between the volume set at -30 dB and -28.5 dB, for example. I can distinguish single dB differences with difficulty.

http://www.audioholics.com/techtips/roo ... litude.php

That's the whole point - 1dB is the limit of what is discernable to most people and you have to be listening carefully to be able to tell the difference at the limit. It isn't a casual listening definition.


It should be relatively easy for manufacturers to calibrate the relative signal output vs the indicator. For absolute volume level, of course, source level, the speaker efficiency, room response etc, come into play.

Greg

That's a very good article, manages to sum up a century's R&D into sound & human hearing perception. I agree with the conclusions:
1) in non-controlled settings, most folks can't resolve better than 1 dB amplitude differences
2) this capacity varies with many factors, everything from the setting & environment, to the kind of sound, noise or music, and from person to person. (example: if you hate opera, you won't hear any differences between singers; they all sound horrible no matter what.... )

Added the HX520 to my harem of hardware.

Quiet and doing much better with my UPS. Don't have the figures yet but can tell right away that it draws less when doing a System Power on (UPS doesn't complain) than an Enermax Liberty 500W.

Overall my only complaint is the modular power cords.

1. They are "ribbon" non-rounded.

2. PSU connector side of the cords are of a style that makes it difficult to make custom power cords with.

3. Would have liked both SATA's to be 90 degree instead of only one.

4. Would have liked x3 SATA per cord (as with the Enermax).

Other than that, recommend this PSU over an Enermax Liberty.

Will the 520 be sufficient for an e6400, gigabyte Ds3, and Sapphire x1950XT? The card requires 30A!! sustained on the 12V, and I'm not sure if the 520 can supply that.

In the article is mentioned that the corsair PSU's use the same printboard as the seasonic S12 PSU's, difference is that they are modular. I have compared the data and pictures of the 2 reviews:
http://www.silentpcreview.com/article692-page1.html
http://www.silentpcreview.com/article656-page1.html

The internals of both the psu's (corsair and seasonic) do indeed look the same, however when I look at the tables (in both reviews on the first page) of the output specifications there are some differences:

1) The corsairs have 3 12V rails, the seasonic's have 4 12V rails (actually two rails, but that is still a difference comparing to the corsairs). Also different combined output on the 12V rails.
2) The corsair 520 and seasonic 550 have different output on +5V line (also resulting in a different combined output of +3.3V and +5V)
3) two points above resulting in a different total combined output, and resulting in...
4) ...the corsairs are rated 520W and 620W, the seasonic's 550W and 650W

Also the corairs seem to have better efficiency @high power outputs and the seasonic's seem to have better efficieny @lower power outputs.

What would be the explanation for these differences? Does this mean that there is yet a difference in the design of the psu's (and which components would differ then)?

yes.will you be overclocking?



doesn't require 30A, more like 13A. 30A is a CYA figure from manufacturer.

The cpu will be overclocked from 2.13ghz to 2.8 (7x400fsb), ram will be left at 1.9V for a 1:1 ratio.

I won't be overclocking the card though. It already runs pretty hot, and since it's essentially an overclocked x1900xt, the ceiling is pretty low. But Crysis performance will determine whether I overlock or not lol




Excuse my ignorance, but what is CYA and how is it different?

CYA (link) Will you leave the CPU at stock voltage?

CYA = Cover Your Ass, meaning it's vastly overstated to ensure that they don't get sued by some idiot with 25 drives and dual overclocked Pentium D's doesn't complain when their system overloads. For ordinary systems, take Jaganath's advice.

lol thanks guys. I was thinking "current...yardage..amps" haha. never heard that acronym before.

The CPU is going from 1.265 to 1.312v

I've noticed that these power supplies don't have a "3-pin PSU fan speed monitor connector for motherboard" (like the S12-500 does)?

Is that feature a.) a gimmick, b.) less important for larger PSUs, or c.) a significant omission?

a) a gimmick. The only real reason is so that you can tell when the fan is speeding up ... but your ears are probably a better judge of whether this is a problem than an electronic monitor.

Quote from SPCR review: [i]“As claimed by Corsair, the capacitors are rated for 105°Câ€

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/other/ ... su5_4.html
"Sometimes the term industrial class components refers to capacitors meant for operation under a temperature up to 105°C, but that’s all clear here, too. The capacitors in the PSU’s output circuits heat up by themselves and also located very close to the hot chokes are always rated for a temperature of 105°C max or their service life would be too short. [...] The input high-voltage capacitors work almost at the temperature of the ambient air, so the use of somewhat cheaper 85°C capacitors there doesn’t affect the PSU’s service life much"

Thanks. So what am I to conclude from that article? That capacitors rated to 105 degrees are common fitment by most PSU manufacturers. So the Seasonics are almost certainly the same rated capacitors? So the venting on the Seasonics might well be superfluous, if the Corsairs can do without??