I've just purchased the 520W Corsair HX Series

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Nielo TM

Gawd
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Aug 27, 2006
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997
Hey guys, I've just purchased the 520W Corsair HX Series and I was wondering is there any know issues with the unit cos I've spend five days researching on PSU and every single one had some kind of problem.

The reason I went for the Corsair is because of 105C Chemi-Con capacitor and stable voltage on all rails. However, I am a little worried about reliability of the unit cos couldn’t find any user reviews.

Thx for any help.
 
Truth be told if you look hard enough you'll find someone that has something bad to say about a particular power supply. Sadly you'll rarely find people that speak up about how reliable and powerful their PSU is.


The Corsair you've chosen is in fact one of the best. Check out JonnyGURU's review:

http://www.jonnyguru.com/PSU/HX520W/

It got a 9 out of 10 - which is pretty damn good considering Jonny really puts his review subjects through the ringer.


Enjoy your new PSU. :)
 
Good choice, but I usually ask the questions you asked before I buy. ;) :p
 
Blue Falcon said:
Truth be told if you look hard enough you'll find someone that has something bad to say about a particular power supply. Sadly you'll rarely find people that speak up about how reliable and powerful their PSU is.


The Corsair you've chosen is in fact one of the best. Check out JonnyGURU's review:

http://www.jonnyguru.com/PSU/HX520W/

It got a 9 out of 10 - which is pretty damn good considering Jonny really puts his review subjects through the ringer.


Enjoy your new PSU. :)
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thx. I have read his review but I am little concerned about the buzzing noise.


dBTelos said:
You couldn't of made much of a better choise.
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thx
:)

w1retap said:
Good choice, but I usually ask the questions you asked before I buy. ;) :p
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I accidentally found this forum while researching on the HX520 lol
 
Blue Falcon said:
Truth be told if you look hard enough you'll find someone that has something bad to say about a particular power supply.
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FACT.

No power supply company is infallible and you will find more complaints about any power supply than you will praise.

As for the buzzing, Corsair said it wasn't normal and they've asked that I ship the unit back to them for exchange.
 
oh ok, thats good to know.


Are all the capacitors made by Chemi-Con or is it just the primary?
 
Have you heard it in action?

I need to know how loud that thing is...

I'm about to pull the trigger on a Liberty but waited on JG suggestion to wait on the Corsair. I waited and was disappointed by the loud sound. However if is just a fluke I will have that PSU 1st and the Liberty 2nd.

Corsair $120 Wish it was a tad cheaper.
Liberty $90 after rebate
ZZF
 
MC FLMJIG said:
Have you heard it in action?

I need to know how loud that thing is...

I'm about to pull the trigger on a Liberty but waited on JG suggestion to wait on the Corsair. I waited and was disappointed by the loud sound. However if is just a fluke I will have that PSU 1st and the Liberty 2nd.
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Of course the buzz is just a fluke. Come on, people. It's based on the same platform as the HX620W and that one didn't buzz.

You guys are killing me. Buy a PSU because it's so new that nobody has had a chance to complain about it yet? That's really kind of funny if you think about it.
 
jonnyGURU said:
Of course the buzz is just a fluke. Come on, people. It's based on the same platform as the HX620W and that one didn't buzz.

You guys are killing me. Buy a PSU because it's so new that nobody has had a chance to complain about it yet? That's really kind of funny if you think about it.
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I test all our PSUs before they ship out, but that 520W that got sent to you went directly past me and through your contact, Jonny, otherwise I would have caught any noise.

That being said I've screened over 50 620W PSUs and about half a dozen 520W PSUs and haven't heard any of this "buzz" noise on our production models.

If you get one and it is making a buzz we will gladly RMA the product for one that works to spec.
 
I think that the Corsair HXs are based on Seasonic M12s, which are modular S12s, which are very very quiet. :eek:
 
Redbeard said:
I test all our PSUs before they ship out, but that 520W that got sent to you went directly past me and through your contact, Jonny, otherwise I would have caught any noise.

That being said I've screened over 50 620W PSUs and about half a dozen 520W PSUs and haven't heard any of this "buzz" noise on our production models.

If you get one and it is making a buzz we will gladly RMA the product for one that works to spec.
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Red,

You're not supposed to tell everyone you hand pick every PSU that goes out for review. ;) LOL!

Anyhoo.... Yes, I went around your back for that unit. Corsair wasn't giving out 520W samples but I insisted on one. It's already on the way back to Fremont via FedEx. It should get there by the end of this week.
 
jonnyGURU said:
Red,

You're not supposed to tell everyone you hand pick every PSU that goes out for review. ;) LOL!

Anyhoo.... Yes, I went around your back for that unit. Corsair wasn't giving out 520W samples but I insisted on one. It's already on the way back to Fremont via FedEx. It should get there by the end of this week.
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Haha, I don't hand-pick them, I just screen them to make sure they work and don't have any problems. It's a way of saving time. We have a QA process that does this for the most part, I just double-check the QA guys' work for review samples to make sure they didn't miss anything. I'm not soldering fancier capacitors to the board or boosting voltage regulation circuits with my mind or anything. :p

When that 520 gets back here I'll take a look at it and see what the buzz was all about.
 
jonnyGURU said:
Red,

You're not supposed to tell everyone you hand pick every PSU that goes out for review. ;) LOL!

Anyhoo.... Yes, I went around your back for that unit. Corsair wasn't giving out 520W samples but I insisted on one. It's already on the way back to Fremont via FedEx. It should get there by the end of this week.
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We already know this....most all companies cherry pick review products. The only way to get a 100% legit review is to shell out the bucks for one off the shelf like the rest of us poor bastards. :p
 
Ok, so all this buzz talk. Just how loud is this buzz? I bought a HX520W, and I can hear sort of a buzz, if I stick my ear within 6 inches from the back of the power supply. Does that constitute the buzz? Or are you talking about a much louder buzz? I'm assuming what I'm hearing is normal, of course I'm also only drawing around 100 watts from the outlet when listening for this buzz. Who knows what it'll sound like when drawing 500watts from the components.
 
bcwang said:
Ok, so all this buzz talk. Just how loud is this buzz? I bought a HX520W, and I can hear sort of a buzz, if I stick my ear within 6 inches from the back of the power supply. Does that constitute the buzz? Or are you talking about a much louder buzz? I'm assuming what I'm hearing is normal, of course I'm also only drawing around 100 watts from the outlet when listening for this buzz. Who knows what it'll sound like when drawing 500watts from the components.
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Truth is you are probably going to hear humming or buzzing from any PSU if you listen hard enough. Have you seen the size of some of the coils in your everyday PC power supply? My guess is that unless they are absolutely bathed in some kind of glue or something they are going to resonate a little.
 
bcwang said:
Ok, so all this buzz talk. Just how loud is this buzz? I bought a HX520W, and I can hear sort of a buzz, if I stick my ear within 6 inches from the back of the power supply. Does that constitute the buzz? Or are you talking about a much louder buzz? I'm assuming what I'm hearing is normal, of course I'm also only drawing around 100 watts from the outlet when listening for this buzz. Who knows what it'll sound like when drawing 500watts from the components.
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READ.

I already said I knew it was an isolated incident. I already said that I had the 620W which is based on the same platform and there was no buzz at all. Red had already said that he had not heard a buzz sound from any of the review samples that he's sent out.

And as Blue said, any PSU buzzes. It's just a matter of how loud that varies because the varnish they put over the transformers may not be as thorough as it should and some of the windings can vibrate.
 
This maybe a silly question but I'll ask anyway lol.

What causes the PSU to explode and how loud is it? Also, does it damage any components?


PS: I’ve just installed the HX520 and there isn’t any buzzing or any abnormal noise. I just don’t want it blow up lol.
 
Nielo TM said:
This maybe a silly question but I'll ask anyway lol.

What causes the PSU to explode and how loud is it? Also, does it damage any components?


PS: I’ve just installed the HX520 and there isn’t any buzzing or any abnormal noise. I just don’t want it blow up lol.
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How load the PSU is, is due to the fan(s). If you take out all the fans in your PSU you will hear almost nothing coming from it. Exploding PSUs is what happens when you overload a really crappy PSU like Deer, Leadman, or something similar.
 
The reason I asked cos the PC is connected to an APC UPS. If the PSU had catastrophic failure (blow up/high surge), will it damage the UPS?
 
Nielo TM said:
The reason I asked cos the PC is connected to an APC UPS. If the PSU had catastrophic failure (blow up/high surge), will it damage the UPS?
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I don't see how that could happen. I've seen other manufacturers' PSUs blow up and kill internal components like video cards and motherboards, but never a UPS.
 
Would the 520W be enough to power two 7900GTs in SLI along with only a couple hard drives and a Laing D5 pump?
 
CRXican said:
Would the 520W be enough to power two 7900GTs in SLI along with only a couple hard drives and a Laing D5 pump?
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Yes. I've personally used the HX520W to power dual X1900XTs in Crossfire on a P5W DH board with a 965 processor, 2 optical drives, and 4 hard drives as well as the Nautilus 500 watercooling kit. Ran 24 hours of 3DMark06 demo loop with CPU Burn-In running in the background (4 instances, an affinity for each "processor") stable when overclocked to 4.2 GHz.
 
Redbeard said:
I don't see how that could happen. I've seen other manufacturers' PSUs blow up and kill internal components like video cards and motherboards, but never a UPS.
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Well, a PSU can blow up one of two ways: On either the primary or secondary side. Usually when they blow up on the primary side, the circuit protection on the UPS would trip the same way it would if it were overloaded or if there was a short.

And keep in mind, when a PSU "blows up" it's so very rare. It's something that might happen only 1/4th of a % of the time with even low end PSU's like Deer and Powmax.

Typically when a PSU "blows up" because it's overloaded, there's just a "pop" and the PSU ceases to work and nothing else happens to any of the other components.
 
Just picked up the 620W Corsair (due in large part to johnnyGuru's recommendation), not a single problem and the fan is pretty quiet. (though it's hard to hear anything over my x1800xt).

P.s. Thanks johnnyguru, i'd spent the last couple of weeks attempting to buy a PS and was very interested in the corsairs. I read your review and was sold. :p
 
Redbeard said:
Yes. I've personally used the HX520W to power dual X1900XTs in Crossfire on a P5W DH board with a 965 processor, 2 optical drives, and 4 hard drives as well as the Nautilus 500 watercooling kit. Ran 24 hours of 3DMark06 demo loop with CPU Burn-In running in the background (4 instances, an affinity for each "processor") stable when overclocked to 4.2 GHz.
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That's some serious setup for the HX520W. I guess the HX620W wouldn't even break a sweat then.
 
The 520 has 3 rails and has most of the power on the 12. That's why.

It really is a nice PSU.
 
MC FLMJIG said:
The 520 has 3 rails and has most of the power on the 12. That's why.

It really is a nice PSU.
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Thanks, we designed them with the current high-end system in mind. No sense in throwing a bunch of power on, say, the +5V rail when it's almost completely unnecessary in today's systems.
 
I just got my 520 and it is completely quite :( If only Redbeard could check them all. ;)
I am looking forward to a power supply with reliable 12V (I run a lot of drives).
 
How about silent... I am going to blame the typo on my recently broken finger.
 
Quiet?... :p

He did put a frowny face so it's a tad difficult to know what he's saying!
 
ram484 said:
I just got my 520 and it is completely quite :( If only Redbeard could check them all. ;)
I am looking forward to a power supply with reliable 12V (I run a lot of drives).
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By the time I check them they've already been checked twice. Heh.

BTW, JonnyGuru, I just got your PSU at my desk and I will be plugging it in to verify the buzzing thing to see what it is.

When I find out what it is I'll post the results here for you guys if you want.
 
And I will update the review accordingly.
 
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