Are the Corsair CX series a risk?

N

NetTechie

Limp Gawd
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Jan 10, 2014
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I've been reading reviews, and someone posted on Newegg that their hard drives kept failing, and after a bit of testing they found the power supply voltage to the hard drives was jumping. Review was written on 11/9/2013, but they had had the power supply 6-7 months. I'm just wondering if sometimes there are bad ones, bad batches, or if the entire CX series is a real risk?

If my hard drive fails it's ok, I think, as warranty should cover replacing it I think? If failing hard drives is the only risk... maybe it would blow my motherboard, though I don't know if an unstable PSU would do that.

The model I am looking at buying is the one reviewed, a CX750M.

How risky are these CX series?
 
PSU like anything can have issues, CX is not a high end version of corsairs lineup but they are far from crappy as the many reviews I have read on them would attest to their overall quality(far from best, but quite decent overall though there is tons of choices out there) the m version(modular) are a more updated version far as I understood, the RM is their newest lineup, suppose it depends on how much you want to pay for a power supply, the TX2 are supposedly decent, CX know many who built systems with them.

As fro the can a bad psu kill motherboard, yes, they are not at all supposed to if they are built with the proper quality and safety in their design, but it would not be the first time, read up on ultra and OCZ exploding and fire causing power supplies lol.
 
Yeah, I bet a fire would do a bit of damage! :D

Ok, well I'm hoping a CX doesn't fry my motherboard, that would be really sad.
 
I've stopped using them after 2 builds for customers, they are notorious with coil whines
 
Do coil whines mean impending doom, or just something to be ignored if it isn't too loud?
 
Phrik said:
I've stopped using them after 2 builds for customers, they are notorious with coil whines
Click to expand...

Are you sure you're thinking of the CX series? AFAIK, only the Seasonic made Corsairs had those coil whine issues. None of the current CX PSUs are made by Seasonic.

NetTechie said:
Do coil whines mean impending doom, or just something to be ignored if it isn't too loud?
Click to expand...

No, you can ignore the coil whine. At best, they're annoying. However, I honestly would not go with the CX750M since they don't make sense as a purchase: If you have a system that needs close to 750W of power, more than likely you're powering a lot of expensive hardware. As such, why would you trust a $80 750W PSU for that kind of hardware? Especially considering that the quality on the CX750M may not be all that great considering that the majority of high quality modular 750W PSUs are well above $100. If you're going to spend $80 on a PSU, I'd rather get a higher quality lower wattage PSU than a higher wattage but decent quality PSU. Something like the Seasonic SSR-550RM 550W PSU.
 
If you really don't need a 750W, I'd do as suggested above and go for a lower wattage higher end unit.

A guy I know uses a CX600 with an i7 3770k and a GTX680, and it's been fine for about a year and a half, but then again, he doesn't even load it 50%. Still, his rig is fine after that time. Though it wouldn't have been my choice had he consulted me on components before he ran off and shopped for them. I buy -good- quality PSUs these days after repeatedly getting burned by the gutless wonder types back in the days, even if it's a low end rig with modest power needs.
 
Dangman said:
Are you sure you're thinking of the CX series? AFAIK, only the Seasonic made Corsairs had those coil whine issues. None of the current CX PSUs are made by Seasonic.
Click to expand...

Yes, the CX series, but this was when it was still new. I didn't know they changed the manufacturer. Once bitten, twice shy, I didn't look into the CX series since then.

Sorry to the OP, lack of information on my side
 
Corsair's quality vs price isn't competitive these days.
Whatever you're going to pay for the 750M you can probably get a significantly better quality unit for the same price or maybe $10 more.

And if you don't actually need 750W then you're really punishing yourself.
 
Any PSU can have problems.
People forget to change their receptacle if its sparking, and use a zerosurge if your wiring/sub panel is flaky and you can't change it.
 
from reading the reviews seems like the quality has declined on their newer models, probably the bean counters again chipping away at the quality parts like they seem to do with all modern items.
 
Dangman said:
Are you sure you're thinking of the CX series? AFAIK, only the Seasonic made Corsairs had those coil whine issues. None of the current CX PSUs are made by Seasonic.
Click to expand...

I just recently had a CX600 RMA'ed for a coil whine that was just vile. If you can hear it doing it's "EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE" from outside the room and on another level in the house, then it's definitely a problem.
 
All of us can wait, if you're a builder at heart. I'm using a CX430 that's running fine for my parents rig I made for them. I paid $19.99 AR (which came thru in less then 3 weeks!) & it's been almost 2 years now. On a side note...I just purchased a Antec Neo 620 PSU for $34.99 (AR) & the rebate hasn't come thru (yet) & I expect it will & this is an older platform (yet reliable Seasonic build) There are decent semi-budget PSU builds out there. I buy them & hope they work, if not...it goes back to the manufacturer.
 
I have an HX750 and its a wicked power supply never had an issue so far, ~ 2 years now Phenom II 955 heavily clocked(4.3Ghz) with 2 7870 also heavily clocked(1200+ core 1400+ memory) at one point for a good 2 months 24/7 bitcoin mining and such.

RM series is supposed to be that much better, and there are numerous newer power supplies out there, Rosewill makes a few decent ones, EVGA supernova supposed to be pretty good, XFX Black/core great reviews overall etc, there is lots to choose from.

coil whine for most folks they don't hear it, for some it just happens to have that right level of shrill sound that makes your nerves stand on end like cicadas or something :)
 
I just picked up a CX750 modular for $70+ tax at Best Buy last week. I had an older Antec that worked great, just didn't have enough juice for my new GPU. Since installing, its been solid. Ive been mining 24/7 and haven't had a single hiccup besides overclocking components too far, but that falls on user error.

When I was looking for a new PSU it was hard to make a decision, because almost every unit had reviews bashing the product / killed my components / burned my house down , et cetera. I've had good luck with Corsair products in the past so I thought id give it a shot and ive been more than happy with it thus far, plus the reviews for this particular unit were overall positive.

Ive used a few CX power supplies in customer / friends PC's and they've all held up thus far. If you're budget oriented like myself ive been happy with the CX line, however if your a l33t power user that will be using squeezing every last bit of juice out of your unit then go with the higher end models.
 
i got several of the 450 here in work computers and still going solid after about 2 years use.
 
I've never had a Corsair die on me, but I did get a 450w with coil whine. Glad to hear they switched manufacturers since then.

Reviews aren't really worth much unless they're overwhelmingly negative. Consumer reviews tend to have a negative bias because people who have a problem are more likely to leave feedback. Professional reviews are unreliable because reviewers can be bribed.

The only PSU's I've had issues with were Antec units from many, many years ago. Seems like they had a batch that all blew up (literally) after a year or so. Probably had something to do with the capacitor plague.
 
i had 1 corsair with coil whine that went away after i moved my load around across different cables.
 
I had the CX 500. Damn good PSU, ran dual 6870s for a while with a AMD 5800k, 8gb Ram, dual DVDRWs, 4 fans, H50. Kept it for almost a year.
 
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