Corsair Answers Questions on Recent Issues with RAM, PSUs

Terry Olaes

Terry Olaes

I Used to be the [H] News Guy
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Corsair’s VP of marketing Jim Carlton spoke with HEXUS about a recent increase in failures affecting their Dominator GT DDR3 line that resulted in the pulling of those modules from the market. Additionally, Corsair had to lower their 80Plus rating from Gold to Silver on their new HX units, the 850 and 750. Follow the jump for details on what’s going on and if you need to do anything. Thanks to our own Paul Johnson for the link!

Look at it this way: when we market something, we're making a promise to the customer. He's giving us his hard-earned money in exchange for a product that he believes in, based on what we tell him about the product. That's a lot of trust for someone to put into a company and a product. I'd prefer to over-deliver on that trust because I think, in the long run, that's going to do more for Corsair than a few more sales of the HX850 or HX750.
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The ram issue is a bit of a biggie that I am glad they are taking care of so well.
The PSU portion is a non issue imho. They are not confident that every single HX750/850 unit they sell is going to be truly 80+ Gold, and are instead going to slap the 80+ Silver logo on them instead. The difference is truly small between 80+ Gold and Silver anyway. It would not stop me from buying one at least.
 
I actully own 2 Corsair PSU's a 550 and a 650

They both are very awesome imo.. I have also used there ram along with OCZ.. and honestly.. those 2 are probably the only ram companies i will use...

But it's good to see Corsair looking out for the customer, and not being a greedy fuck tard like the riaa and mpaa fucks..
 
i'd take a silver rated Corsair PSU over most gold ones from competitors. Corsair PSU's look good, they perform very well, and there are plenty of offerings for virtually any build that isn't in need of a micro ATX PSU or other niche PSU requirement, as well as modular stylings for the cable management minded. really, covering all those bases without being ridiculously overpriced is hard to do, and in my opinion Corsair balances all that very well. a silver rating versus gold is hardly a setback, since its already 80+ Certified, unless you truly need every last ounce of efficiency. at that point I think you have other factors to sort out.
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I don't understand how these two events could be taken as bad things. To me, they show that Corsair is really trying to stand behind their products. Do you think OCZ would do these kinds of things (particularly their power supply branch)? (sorry if that's sort of a low blow)
 
This is why I always use Corsair products. Everytime I present a memory problem to them their response is always, "Let's fix it."
 
Why would you want to return it? It's a difference of something like 2%. No big deal at all. I'm keeping mine, it's been doing great for me.
 
race301 said:
What did he say about returning the 850HX? I just bought one?
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As far as Corsair is concerned, your PSU deserves an 80+ Silver logo instead of an 80+ Gold if it has one on it. It is nothing to really worry about except that it is not quite as efficient as Corsair believes it should be for the 80+ Gold logo. I would not bother returning it, it is not a quality or safety issue.
 
When evaluating PSU's, I care more about steady and transient load voltage regulation and ripple and noise (and the HX750/850 excels in all of these according to the HardOCP Review) than I do about efficiency. When it comes to 80+ ratings, alot of them are suspiciously higher than the efficiency measurements obtained by HardOCP and other trust worthy review sites, so I tend to take them with a grain of salt anyway. As others have pointed out the difference between 80+ Silver and Gold is small; furthermore, the difference between almost meets gold requirments and barely meets gold requirements is smaller still. So this news doesn't affect my opinion of the HX7508/850 PSU's in the slightest. Though it is nice to see Corsair being honest with 80+ ratings.
 
Kind of a flip flop of emotions from title to article. Just glancing at the article, I was expecting bad news. Read the article, and it turns out to be good news. Yay for Corsair!
 
Read the article, and it turns out to be good news.
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I feel that the word good is misused here.
If Corsair did not admit that their PSU quality was slightly overestimated, a wise guy somewhere could have raised the issue.
It looks more like damage control to me.
 
At least they're responding to the problems and fixing it. Rather then neglecting the whole situation and pretend it never happened like many other manufacturers..
 
RadXge said:
I feel that the word good is misused here.
If Corsair did not admit that their PSU quality was slightly overestimated, a wise guy somewhere could have raised the issue.
It looks more like damage control to me.
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yeah they took a hint from PCP&C receiving an unwarranted thrashing for overestimating their psus...silencing abilities here in the forums, and decided to own up to something much lamer. in return, they are now acknowledged as gods of moral behavior, and PCP&C is the devil for their flagrant horrible lie. also, i think my eyeballs just rolled out of my freaking skull
 
Corsair is one of the best companies out there.

Everytime I have delt with them they have been superb. About the only other company up there with them in my mind is BFG, which has also always gone up and over the requirements to help rectify any issues. I also like that Corsair is honest and moves slowly, so many companies in the PC world just try to keep throwing products out there. Corsair stepped carefully into the PSU realm and it really shows. Their first 620w PSU I have is an amazing rock solid beast and now their PSUs are some of the best in the industry.

There are a few decent memory companies out there that have good support and will get you replacements easily (OCZ, GSkill, Kingston), but Corsair really goes over the top to make sure everything is perfect.
 
__hollywood|meow said:
yeah they took a hint from PCP&C receiving an unwarranted thrashing for overestimating their psus...silencing abilities here in the forums, and decided to own up to something much lamer. in return, they are now acknowledged as gods of moral behavior, and PCP&C is the devil for their flagrant horrible lie. also, i think my eyeballs just rolled out of my freaking skull
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While your opinion has truth, I think you lack perspective. It would be quite awesome if every company took the tact that Corsair is taking here, even if it's just for marketing purposes.

I'll gladly call them gods of moral behavior in this day and age where nearly everyone would assume bend their customers over while stealing their wallets.
 
Vryce said:
While your opinion has truth, I think you lack perspective. It would be quite awesome if every company took the tact that Corsair is taking here, even if it's just for marketing purposes.

I'll gladly call them gods of moral behavior in this day and age where nearly everyone would assume bend their customers over while stealing their wallets.
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Yeah, like companies that claim that the problems consumers are experiencing with their products are not flaws/bugs, but "features". ;)
 
i have more respect for a company who owns up to there mistakes then some company doing the exact opposite.
 
Sad about the problems with the ddr3 modules, those Dominators are the best there is, even though only for those with the ca$h. Its really good that Corsair acknowledges issues like these, inform and tries to resolve them. Though that gold certificate would have been nice. ;)
 
Corsair is a top notch stand up company and always has been in my experience. I've rma'd ram with them twice over the years and it was always a painless experience. I will continue to use their products into the future.

Bottom line, I'm not suprised that they would do something like this. It's what they are about, good stuff.
 
Corsair is good - but only if they can deliver. Hey Corsair, where is the Corsair P256 from Europe ? :D
 
Vryce said:
While your opinion has truth, I think you lack perspective. It would be quite awesome if every company took the tact that Corsair is taking here, even if it's just for marketing purposes.
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i lack perspective? i havent said anything to indicate that, so im calling out your baseless inference. i like corsair a lot as a company, ive bought their ram before and its just great. so is their support. i agree that erring on the side of modesty...after the fact surfaces, anyway...is still a perfectly admirable and desirable quality to have in a hardware company.

SamuraiInBlack said:
Yeah, like companies that claim that the problems consumers are experiencing with their products are not flaws/bugs, but "features". ;)
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thanks for picking up the slightly tongue-in-cheek air of my post.. but come on, a loud fan on a high-powered unit is not a "bug" problem that needs addressing, nor is it a "feature"; it simply...is ;)

knothead34 said:
i have more respect for a company who owns up to there mistakes then some company doing the exact opposite.
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rofl. like they're sliding around like dirty weasels avoiding acknowledging that one fan gets loud sometimes? give me a break.
 
It's nice they're admitting to it and all, but I'd have preferred they make products that reach their stated specifications, and test to ensure they reach these specifications. If you purchased the PSU for it's 80+ Gold rating, and then find out it's really an 80+ Silver PSU, you might be a touch annoyed. Similar to buying a car based on it's advertised MPG rating, and then finding out the production models test to a lower MPG rating. You're paying for a premium product, and now that product has been revealed to be less 'premium'.
 
convexion said:
Why would you want to return it? It's a difference of something like 2%. No big deal at all. I'm keeping mine, it's been doing great for me.
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Thanks, mine is great and working fine, I just did not understand, I will stay with mine also. :)
 
i have more respect for a company who owns up to there mistakes then some company doing the exact opposite.
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When a company sells premium products at a very high price, the consumer is allowed to demand perfection.
At ~$200 for a 850W PSU, there is no room for mistake!
 
I believe Corsair uses Micron Technologies made memory chips. To be succinct: They suck..a lot.
 
AbsintheGuy, did you bothered to read the article ? The issues with Dominator GT are due Elpida, which have nothing to do with Micron... So next time try at least read the article before posting.
 
faugusztin said:
AbsintheGuy, did you bothered to read the article ? The issues with Dominator GT are due Elpida, which have nothing to do with Micron... So next time try at least read the article before posting.
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Have you bothered to learn English properly? Corsair uses chips from many manufacturers. I am just saying that when a company uses substandard chips, it pisses a lot of people off. Corsair is simply a company that uses crappy suppliers. I will never own any of their products. 100% quality rules in this economic climate.

The G.Skill RAM that I bought about 10 months ago is working flawlessly with no problems. (previously I had used Crucial memory which is supplied by Micron. That is the crappiest memory I have ever owned.)
 
Kudos to Corsair. My secondary box is running on a HX1000w and I'm using Dominator DDR3 on my main box.
(Seconary is running G.Skill) :p
 
It is nice to see Corsair not only owning up to their mistakes but doing something about it. I can think of several companies that rather cripple their products, rebadge them, or simply kick dirt over it and look the other way.
 
This is why I love Corsair. I like how well they are taking care of all this, and the consumer as well. I hate it when companies try to up-sell themselves, then over promise and under deliver.

+2 Corsair, +4 Everyone else.
 
AbsintheGuy said:
The G.Skill RAM that I bought about 10 months ago is working flawlessly with no problems. (previously I had used Crucial memory which is supplied by Micron. That is the crappiest memory I have ever owned.)
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The article is about 2 things :
1) Dominator GT problems due Elpida memory modules
2) Downgrading the 80Plus rating from Gold to Silver.

This is not the general Corsair lowend product bashing thread.

PS: Btw, my supplier refused to sell me a G.Skill products, because of their extremly bad RMA. And if he says that, then i will not argue with him, becuase he is the most skilled seller with rare computer stuff - G.Skill in Europe belongs to that category. Same applies to DFI - they can make good boards, but their RMA process makes their stuff unatractive to sell.
 
AbsintheGuy said:
Have you bothered to learn English properly? Corsair uses chips from many manufacturers. I am just saying that when a company uses substandard chips, it pisses a lot of people off. Corsair is simply a company that uses crappy suppliers. I will never own any of their products. 100% quality rules in this economic climate.

The G.Skill RAM that I bought about 10 months ago is working flawlessly with no problems. (previously I had used Crucial memory which is supplied by Micron. That is the crappiest memory I have ever owned.)
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Almost every RAM company, including GSkill, uses chips from multiple manufactures. Micron is one of the largest chip producers and just about every company uses their chips in some of their products. They also have a wide range of chips and some are very well regarded and sought after.

How well they screen the chips and produce their products as well as supporting them is what counts, and Corsair does a very good job on all those levels.

Your rant is pointless, false, and just an attempt at bashing a good company.
 
faugusztin said:
PS: Btw, my supplier refused to sell me a G.Skill products, because of their extremly bad RMA. And if he says that, then i will not argue with him, becuase he is the most skilled seller with rare computer stuff - G.Skill in Europe belongs to that category. Same applies to DFI - they can make good boards, but their RMA process makes their stuff unatractive to sell.
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For what its worth, I have had a few RMAs with GSkill and all have been flawless and extremely quick turnarounds.

Would have no hesitation buying GSkill products personally.
 
Rendus said:
It's nice they're admitting to it and all, but I'd have preferred they make products that reach their stated specifications, and test to ensure they reach these specifications. If you purchased the PSU for it's 80+ Gold rating, and then find out it's really an 80+ Silver PSU, you might be a touch annoyed. Similar to buying a car based on it's advertised MPG rating, and then finding out the production models test to a lower MPG rating. You're paying for a premium product, and now that product has been revealed to be less 'premium'.
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the thing is they set out to make a 80+ Silver and the one they sent to get rated just happend to get make gold
so they just droped it one rank which if you read the difference is like 1% and it only made gold by .5% so if your really that miffed about 1.5% on easily the best PSU on the market then maybe you should return it
 
Elios said:
the thing is they set out to make a 80+ Silver and the one they sent to get rated just happend to get make gold
so they just droped it one rank which if you read the difference is like 1% and it only made gold by .5% so if your really that miffed about 1.5% on easily the best PSU on the market then maybe you should return it
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If they had a Silver product, and their testing indicated it was a Silver product, and they knew it was a Silver product, but one golden unit out of a batch happened to test Gold... They should have marketed it as a Silver product, instead of a Gold product.

I'm just bemused at the support Corsair is getting for, basically, stating they sold products rated for performance they could not deliver, got caught, and are now admitting it. There's a price premium associated with things like Gold certification. We'll see how much the price drops now that they no longer market a product with a label it cannot properly claim. Several reviews of this product online mention it met the qualifications for a Silver certification (most notably JonnyGuru.com's review here, where it barely squeaks out a Silver if they're generous and round up, granting 0.1% at the 100% load test).

Personally, I have an 850TX, purchased very recently - I was too cheap to buy an HX, so I'm not out anything by this. I personally didn't see the value in the HX, and certainly don't now that it's merely a Silver. They're hardly deserving of the accolades they're receiving for copping to having mislabeled their power supply (which they knew to have received a certification it's not deserving of, but went with anyway), and ceasing to sell memory with a high failure rate.

My posts aren't boo-hooing about percentages in reviews, though, or even the difference between a Gold and Silver rated product. They're about my amazement at people applauding Corsair for doing this. I'm pretty forgiving of the RAM issue - I do wonder, though, how the failure rates of these modules compares to the IBM Deskstar 75GXP, which people still hold against Hitachi to this day.

I could pick and choose quotes from the linked interview and throw them back at Corsair (such as the statement "There wasn't a single person that made the decision. As a company, we know the right thing to do is to sell the product exactly as we designed it: as the very best 850W and 750W 80Plus Silver certified modular PSUs you can buy. We have the complete support of the entire executive team on this decision." - Those same people surely were involved in the decision to slap the 80Plus Gold label on the 80Plus Silver product).
 
Rendus, are you sure they have a right to put a 80Plus Silver logo if they got certified for 80Plus Gold ? Their response indicates that they can't just slap a 80Plus Silver logo without permission :
We've asked the 80Plus group to allow us to use the 80Plus Silver logo and they've granted us permission to do that (though I have to say, I think they think we're crazy!). We'd like to have it moved into the 80Plus Silver category as well, and will work with them to get that done.
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The thing is, there are so many companies SOOOOOOO much worse out there that feed garbage specs and garbage products to people all day long and never do anything in return or try to rectify the situation. Some of which are well defended by many consumers....

Does it make it right? No...but when a company handles the situation well I give them praise.
 
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