Introduction

We would like to thank Corsair for supplying the review sample.

Corsair definitely is one of the key players in the PSU market today. Their products are characterized by high quality and performance and another important factor is the peace of mind that Corsair’s warranty provides. Currently the top Corsair PSU series is called "AX". It consists of three models, with the two smaller ones, AX750 and AX850, made by Seasonic while the AX1200 is made by Flextronics, a very large company that offers manufacturing and design services in several markets while is not a dedicated PSU OEM.

The AX850 will have the honor to be the test subject of today’s review. Briefly this PSU is 80PLUS Gold certified, utilizes a fully modular cabling design, has a single +12V rail, features an ultra-quiet 120 mm double ball-bearing fan which is temperature controlled and finally it is covered by seven years of warranty. As we mentioned above, the OEM of AX850 is Seasonic and it is based on X-850 design, an extremely good PSU so we have high expectations.

Specifications

The PSU is only 160 mm long, which is pretty small for an 850W PSU. Also it features overcurrent protection although it has a 70A +12V rail.


Since AX850 uses DC-DC converters to generate the minor rails, it can output almost all of its capacity on the single +12V rail.

Cables & Connectors, Power Distribution

The AX850 has four PCIe connectors in separate cables so it can support up to two hi-end VGAs. The distance between the connectors is the recommended by ATX, 150mm. The main ATX, PCIe and EPS connectors use 16 AWG wires while the SATA and peripheral connectors use 18 AWG. In the above scheme you see two instances of "FDD adapter". These are 100 mm long separate cables and can be connected to a Molex to provide a floppy power connector, they use 22 AWG wires.

Since this PSU features a single +12V rail there is nothing to say about its power distribution.