What's the difference between the Corsair CS and CX series?

[lsquare]

There seems to be a slight price premium that Corsair charges for their CS series. Seems like Anandtech favors the CS as one model appeared in last year's recommended PSU. The only difference that I can really see is 80 PLUS Gold certified efficiency for the CS. I'm not sure what the difference is between gold and bronze efficiency. I'm leaning on getting a CX model as I can pretty much get a higher wattage PSU for the same price of a lower wattage CS model, albeit with less efficiency.

What do you guys think?

 

[Blain]

What's the difference between the Corsair CS and CX series?

Custom PC Guide.Net...
"The Differences between All Corsair Power Supply Units"

 

[theAnimal]

80 Plus certification means the PSU has to meet certain minimum efficiencies at 20%, 50% and 100% load. Bronze is 82, 85, 82 and Gold is 87, 90, 87.

The CS model is semi-modular, meaning you don't need to have all the connectors plugged in if you don't need them all, thus reducing clutter and increasing airflow in your case.

There is no point in buying a higher wattage PSU if you don't need more watts.

Before buying a PSU I would recommend reading reviews at jonnyguru.com. A good quality PSU is a very good thing to have since it is the most important part of your system.

 

[lsquare]

Apparently from what I gather, the Corsair CS and CX series ain't worth buying.

So from the following list, which PSU would you guys go with?

Corsair RM650I, Corsair RM550X, or EVGA SUPERNOVA 650 G2?

 

[MongGrel]

EVGA.

 

[Charlie98]

The CX PSU's aren't junk, they are reasonable budget PSUs (I have 3 in service right now and they have been very good.) If you are looking for something that's going to stand up to some punishment (benchmarks, multi GPUs, etc) then you are wise to look elsewhere.

Overbuying wattage doesn't serve any purpose, size the PSU correctly for your application...

 

[Blain]

Overbuying wattage doesn't serve any purpose, size the PSU correctly for your application...

It can add a buffer for future component upgrades as well as adding a buffer for internal PS component degradation.

 

[alexruiz]

Custom PC Guide.Net...
"The Differences between All Corsair Power Supply Units"

That page is quite out of date.

The best of the Corsair PSU are not included (AXi, HXi, RMi)
The TX and GS lines are discontinued.
It also mentioned that most Corsair PSUs are made by Seasonic. That is false. The best Corsair PSUs are made by Flextronics (Axi) and their second best (HXi, RMi) are made by CWT. The only Seasonic made units still left in Corsair's line up are the AX lower than 1200w, and I am not even sure the regular AX line is still alive.
Given that the regular AX PSUs were the product line with the highest RMA percent of any Corsair PSU, you can see why they moved toward other OEMs.

To the OP, the CX series is a CWT design. Nothing fancy about them, other than they are still the best budget PSUs on the market. 80+ bronze, some semimodular
The CS series is made by great wall. Great wall used to make the OCZ ZT and ZX series, PSUs that got a lot of positive reviews. It is an premium budget line. 80+ gold, semimodular.

In your question between RMi 650, RMx 550 and eVGA 650 G2, grab whatever is at the best price, they are all 3 fantastic units. My nod goes to the RMx 550W as will save you some money, and a single 12V at 45A will be plenty for anything other than exotic crossfire setups.

 

[cruzinforit]

Don't buy a CX series. Just don't. They are completely terrible value. They are only rated for 35c at maximum load, which is insanely low. Also meh efficiency, meh fan, meh build quality... They just aren't worth the money considering what you can get for a little more.

CS is a bit better, still meh as far as capacitors go (Teapo, CapXon mostly)

I'd go for a lower wattage, high quality EVGA G2, or FSP Hydo G series.

Specifically though, what hardware are you planning on running? Personally I'd go for one of these. They are very high quality and in all likelihood would easily last 10 years. Both have reviews over on jonnyguru.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...4200&cm_re=fsp_hydro_g-_-17-104-200-_-Product

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817438054&cm_re=evga_g2-_-17-438-054-_-Product



http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&op=Story&reid=456

http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&op=Story&reid=429

 

[EMUracing]

The CS and CX are both budget PSU options. CX is bronze 80+, CX gold 80+.

They are good for budget builds, but aren't good PSU's.

While they will do the job for regular home systems, there are better budget options. For anything high end, I would get something better.

With that said, I recently purchased a cx500m for a htpc build that I am doing. Got it for $35 after rebate. For a non overclocked system using igp, it should do just fine...

 

[jumpncrash]

I am using many CX series PSUs insystems right now, and have had pretty good success, got one DoA and another that died inexplicably,but there might or might not have been a power surge where it was installed