Corsair Link Software Overview

In the official page of the AX1200i and, more specifically, in the downloads-section, you will find the most recent version of the Corsair Link software to download. At the time of the review the software was still in the beta but Corsair informed us that the final edition would be released soon.


After you download and install the program you have to reboot your system. After you launch the Corsair Link program you will see the above image. The main screen has a picture of a Corsair case and you can right click on this image to change it, according to your liking, to one of the included cases or simply upload your own. On the left, you get the icons of the detected devices. Since our test system didn't have the Corsair Link hardware, aside from the USB dongle of the AX1200i, the detected devices were limited to the mainboard's and the HDD's temp sensors and the system fans. On the top there are five tabs which lead you to other pages/menus, while on the right sits the panel "pop-out" area. By selecting one of these tabs a new screen will open, showing the relevant data.


The most interesting tab is the one revealing the power options. From here you can get a serious amount of information about your AX1200i and control various functions like OCP setting per modular socket and fan speed. Let us take it from the beginning or from top to bottom. The first section on the top shows the real-time efficiency. On the left the actual efficiency is shown while on the right the graph shows its changes during a time period. Efficiency is calculated from the power input and output and it is displayed in the below section. Corsair states that the power input accuracy measurement at loads below 1 A is out of range (meaning not accurate at all), at 1 A to 3 A, A is 5% and for >3 A, A is 3%. Also, the DC power output of the PSU is measured to this accuracy: <100 W = undefined, 100 W to 300 W = +/- 10% and for >300 W = +/- 5%. As you can see, accuracy is not that great, especially at low loads, but measuring the input power with acceptable precision, is not as easy as it sounds.
The section with the fan in the Power tab shows the fan speed and the PSU's internal temperature. The fan speed is accurate to +/- 10% and the temperature is accurate to +/- 5 °C. If you double click the fan icon, a new secondary screen, through which you can adjust its speed manually, opens on the right.
Next to the fan icon there is the section that provides the voltage readings of the three basic rails (+/- 2% accuracy) - the voltage readings of the AC input to the PSU and the power output of the +12V rail. Below it you can find all 8 pin modular sockets, get informed about their output power and also set the OCP triggering point for each one of them.


Finally, through the options tab you can configure some basic settings, choose for which components you want to enable logging or update the firmware of the corresponding device.

To wrap up, the Corsair Link software offers valuable info to the experienced user along with many interesting capabilities. Nevertheless, its main disadvantage is reflected on the high inaccuracy at low loads, a problem that exists, according to Corsair, due to a limitation in the monitoring technique – something which cannot be fixed through software tricks.