Corsair AX1600i 1600W Power Supply Review @ [H]

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FrgMstr

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Corsair AX1600i 1600W Power Supply Review

1600 watts is a lot of computer power supply to shoehorning into one small box. We have seen this attempted many times, and many times companies have fallen short. Corsair's new flagship AX1600i claims to be the world's best PSU that has gotten even better. We will be the judge of that and judgement has been passed.

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Wtf, my ax1500i has been dethroned :(

How does it compare to the AX1500i ? Is it substantially better or just a small incremental upgrade ?

Not that I am going to upgrade, but it would be nice to know how much better if any compared to the 15 hunnad i
 
EVIL-SCOTSMAN said:
Wtf, my ax1500i has been dethroned :(

How does it compare to the AX1500i ? Is it substantially better or just a small incremental upgrade ?

Not that I am going to upgrade, but it would be nice to know how much better if any compared to the 15 hunnad i
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If only someone had spent hundreds of dollars using thousands of dollars' worth of equipment and then spent the time to write it all down and give you objective data that spoke directly to your question.
 
I am watching and reading the review.

However, not sure if this is how it is meant to be, but all I see is a missing photo error image.
 
Good review Kyle.

It looks like corsair did a good job with the 1600, as the 1500 not easy to beat.

I have no need to upgrade though, but if I was, it would in all probability be to the 1600.

I like my corsair stuff, their stuff just seems to work, never had anything corsair die on me, with one exception, one of the plastic slide things for holding a bluray burner in place in my 800d case. I pushed it kinda too hard and it came off, never did like that solution, screws much better.

I would like to see a sunpower psu review, things are meant to rival/possibly beat corsairs offerings, it would be a good read I think.

Good review though,

Forgot to add.

Test 4 dafuq.

wtf crazy watts and all rail voltages are still bang on.

Crazy needs a photo, I stole this pic from some website, hope its ok.



35BF4AD9-AD0B-448A-A9E3-D962D30BE45F.gif



Just think, that psu is more powerful than UK vacuum cleaners, they are not allowed to exceed 1600 watts and are slowly being lowered to a max of 900watts. Who would of thought a pc psu would rape a hoover.
 
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Good review overall, but I feel as it lacked a more in-depth look at the fact that this is the very first consumer PSU that uses GaN.

From the technical papers and other reviews out there, the use of GaN really is quite an interesting tech to keep an eye on which I don't feel is being communicated in this review at all.

The real value here is that, as a PSU, not only it's very efficient and stays at low-temps during high wattage but also manages to keep the power very clean. Which could be an indicator for much longer durability. A GaN-based PSU around 750W could very well the last PSU you ever buy and be passively cooled. That's quite a step from PSU tech that has effectively remained unchanged since the early 2000's.
 
PolishRenegade said:
Good review overall, but I feel as it lacked a more in-depth look at the fact that this is the very first consumer PSU that uses GaN.

From the technical papers and other reviews out there, the use of GaN really is quite an interesting tech to keep an eye on which I don't feel is being communicated in this review at all.

The real value here is that, as a PSU, not only it's very efficient and stays at low-temps during high wattage but also manages to keep the power very clean. Which could be an indicator for much longer durability. A GaN-based PSU around 750W could very well the last PSU you ever buy and be passively cooled. That's quite a step from PSU tech that has effectively remained unchanged since the early 2000's.
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I almost never speculate in reviews as it is just that (speculation) not the review of the performance of a product. As for PSU tech being effectively unchanged since the early 2000's, you have missed far more radical changes then what is a marketing bullet point at this time in GaN.
 
Given the power involved, I would assume that the AX1600i has a 20A plug on the AC power cable, but I couldn't find any info on Corsair's site.
Can you confirm if that's correct?
 
gathagan said:
Given the power involved, I would assume that the AX1600i has a 20A plug on the AC power cable, but I couldn't find any info on Corsair's site.
Can you confirm if that's correct?
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The power cord is a NEMA 5-15P to C19.
 
Paul_Johnson said:
The power cord is a NEMA 5-15P to C19.
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Wow, that's cutting it pretty close. Now bear with me as I am neither an electrical engineer nor an electrician (my degree is on the mechanical side)

120V at 15A is 1800W, but line voltage varies based on demand on the line, and most utilities run a little low on purpose to save money. (according to my UPS, my line voltage is currently 113V)

My UPS is set up to switch to battery if the line voltage drops below 106V. At 106V and 15A, you are looking at 1590W.

So, if you happen to have an unusually hot summer day, and everyone in your area is blasting AC, and the line level goes down to 106V or below, I'm guessing the PSU is going to try to pull it up by compensating and drawing more amps. In a 15A circuit you won't have enough, and you'll pop the breaker.

It really ought to have a 5-20 plug, IMHO. It's close enough to the 15A spec that this ought to have been a reasonable precaution.
 
Zarathustra[H] said:
Wow, that's cutting it pretty close. Now bear with me as I am neither an electrical engineer nor an electrician (my degree is on the mechanical side)

120V at 15A is 1800W, but line voltage varies based on demand on the line, and most utilities run a little low on purpose to save money. (according to my UPS, my line voltage is currently 113V)

My UPS is set up to switch to battery if the line voltage drops below 106V. At 106V and 15A, you are looking at 1590W.

So, if you happen to have an unusually hot summer day, and everyone in your area is blasting AC, and the line level goes down to 106V or below, I'm guessing the PSU is going to try to pull it up by compensating and drawing more amps. In a 15A circuit you won't have enough, and you'll pop the breaker.

It really ought to have a 5-20 plug, IMHO. It's close enough to the 15A spec that this ought to have been a reasonable precaution.
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No, it really ought not. We do this every time we have reviews of anything over like 1300W. Search back through the 1500W and 1600W review threads. We have answered these questions each time.
 
Paul_Johnson said:
No, it really ought not. We do this every time we have reviews of anything over like 1300W. Search back through the 1500W and 1600W review threads. We have answered these questions each time.
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Well, you're the expert.

It just seems like it's a bit on the close side to me.

But as I said, this is not my field.
 
Biostud said:
Besides miners, what setup requires that kind of power?
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Well I got the AX1500i and the main reason I got this was headroom and silence. Yes silence. I never hear it since I probably never exceed 50% usage so the fan stays off. I use it in my signature system and I am really satisfied with it.

Whenever I build a new system I am going to go for the 1600 model.
 
It is funny how PSU demands are either going higher or lower, with the middleground becoming less of a market. It's either some beast of a machine with dual GPUs, WC, and a billion core processor, or, with video cards getting more efficient and fewer and fewer spinning drives, even 800w is overkill.
 
Thanks for the in depth review guys! As usual I learned a little more each time I read one of these. If the CPU is the brain than the PSU is most definitely the heart.

I pretty much always chime in on the Corsair reviews about the ones I have. Still using a 1200Gold from almost 10 years ago in my 1080 SLI rig. Got a spare one about a year ago in this product line and actually looking forward to using it. Obviously won't be as good as the 1600 but still a good family to be a part of. I've got a AX1000i in my 1080TI rig and it's been great too, got it almost 2 years ago when this current gen started. Corsair may not be hands down the best but they've been solid for me for nearly a decade now with the PSU's I've used.

Always love the bags/pouches and cables/connectors that come with 'em too. No matter how convoluted I might make things I always have what I need to power it.
 
"Though, I do question users need for noise mitigation if they are actually pulling 1600W."

Yes, when you figure that all that power is being dissipated in a nearby load, which is going to need vastly more cooling than the PSU. A little fan noise in the latter will be negligible. Even a loud PSU fan would probably add only slightly to the overall sound level.
 
Paul_Johnson said:
I almost never speculate in reviews as it is just that (speculation) not the review of the performance of a product. As for PSU tech being effectively unchanged since the early 2000's, you have missed far more radical changes then what is a marketing bullet point at this time in GaN.
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Point taken. Would love to hear about your speculation in a separate medium outside of a review when possible.

And yes, I admit I over-reached about the early 2000's. Material advancements in consumer electronics is a personal interest, really excited to see what GaN components can do for mainstream as it did for enterprise in the last few years.
 
I would just run this P/S at 240v, having one 120v outlet dedicated just to this one power 1600w supply to ensure you don't pop the breaker in most homes would be kinda hard if you push it.

Two Vega 64 LC OC would be pushing 800w + easily if gaming CFX, add in an OC 32 core TR2 :geek: and some additional graphics cards for mining and that power supply would be pushed.

Very impressive power supply and results here - worthy for a very high end build. Glad to see the very high end power supplies looked at here.
 
I just had to necro this thread as my 1500i took a shit and fried itself on friday, Corsair the bomb company that they are, are sending me a AX1600i instead, w00t.

But, I’m still concerned as to why my 1500 took a shit in the first place. Since my rig only ever gets used for sabnzdb+, serviio and Roon, I doubt any of them shits would make it blow up ?

Now I just have to find out if my fucking life’s work, my memoirs, bucket list, hit list of people I want to kill, keys for software I “own” and my porn, is all gone or is still intact. I think I will start uploading more encrypted shit to drop,box from now on.

Fuck 4k pr0n.
 
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I got my 1600 freebie today.

However, di’ fuckng’ lemma time.

I get to keep my Ax1500i cabling thats inplace, cool, but there has been a change from Type 3 cables in the 1500 to type 4 cables in the 1600.

I had to swap the old 24pin atx cable, the dude at corsair was adamant that it had to be done, so I done it, however, can I use the 12V EPS cable from the 1500 ?

Reason I ask is, why they did this is unknown, but the last 3 inches on each end of the eps cable is rock solid and cant be bent, thus they do not manage to go from the mobo to the psu, thats in a 800d case. But. The eps cable from the ax1500i reaches the psu from the mobo, can I just use the old type 3 eps cable instead, or do I have to use the type 4 eps cable that comes with the ax1600 ?

Someone please untangle my text above, and tell me if a 12V EPS cable from an AX1500i psu cable pack, is ok to use on a AX1600i psu.
 
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Sorry I can't be of further help, but you meant

di-fucking-lemma

I was so confused by di' fucking' lema, I thought it was some sweet Hrothgar phrase or something.

Anyways, GL. I have read not to use cables from one PSU to another, not sure how credible that info is though.
 
ZeqOBpf6 said:
Sorry I can't be of further help, but you meant

di-fucking-lemma

I was so confused by di' fucking' lema, I thought it was some sweet Hrothgar phrase or something.

Anyways, GL. I have read not to use cables from one PSU to another, not sure how credible that info is though.
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As far as I’m aware, Type 3 and 4 cables are more or less the same, but that type 4 have a built in capacitor on the cables. The atx 24 pin cable has to be changed, as we cant use an ax1500i atx 24pin cable on a ax1600i, the others like sata and molex are ok to use, but I’m not sure if that extends to the 12v eps cable ?

Edit.

I recabled the entire pc with 1600i cables, but the answer to the question regarding, can a type 3 12v Eps cable be used with a corsair pc that uses type 4 cables, yes, type 3 and 4 cables are interchangeable except the 24 pin ATX cable aka the big one.
 
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Read through your review after buying my own AX1600i. Thank you for doing a review so thorough that it even includes testing with input down as low as 100V. This has been valuable for troubleshooting my system.
 
Ended up getting the 1600i AFTER I got the 1500i because the 1500i wouldn't fit in my new case right. (Slightly too long) Was thinking about selling the 1500i but may keep it as a backup when needed.
 
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