Corsair AX1500i Titanium PSU Review

[Guest]

Today, we're taking a look at Corsair's flagship power supply unit. The AX1500i is a digital, 1500 watt, 80 PLUS Titanium-rated beast of a PSU!

Corsair AX1500i Titanium PSU Review : Read more

 

[Nuckles_56]

For such an expensive unit, why on earth did they put the CapXon caps in rather than a complete set of Japanese ones?

 

[basroil]

Wow, this thing has almost as good of regulation and transient responses as the Seasonic 660XP2! And at 1500W no less... Might be a good PSU for not just 4-way K80 workstations, but also powering 12VDC robots too!

 

[mctylr]

Corsair's flagship power supply unit (PSU) offering, the AX1500i, is the best PSU money can buy today, according to many experts in the field.

Honestly?! Do you believe that anyone can reasonably assume that this is an impartial, unbiased review when that is the review's opening?

Argument from authority (or appeal to authority) isn't what I expect from a Tom's Hardware review.

 

[Bossyfins]

Corsair's flagship power supply unit (PSU) offering, the AX1500i, is the best PSU money can buy today, according to many experts in the field.

Honestly?! Do you believe that anyone can reasonably assume that this is an impartial, unbiased review when that is the review's opening?

Argument from authority (or appeal to authority) isn't what I expect from a Tom's Hardware review.

He said to many others in the field. Pretty sure he is not implying himself.

 

[jimmysmitty]

For such an expensive unit, why on earth did they put the CapXon caps in rather than a complete set of Japanese ones?

They are polymer caps, as mentioned, which might not make a difference even if they went with Japanese caps. In fact looking at the results even some that probably have all Japanese caps got beaten in many areas.

 

[Eggz]

Good review, but please do something about the large arrows blocking the garphs' labels. I can't read what the data actually presents with that info blocked.

As for the actual unit, we know it's good. This thing's been out for about a year now. We at least now have conformation from a pretty reliable source, so thanks for that!

And for this:

Argument from authority (or appeal to authority) isn't what I expect from a Tom's Hardware review.

What is wrong with appealing to authority? I don't know astrophysics, but I can tell you something about it if an astrophysics professor tells me about it. And how would the professor learn his basic knowledge before becoming a professor? Text books, probably. Who wrote those? Ah, yes authorities in the field!

Dismissing references to authorities, as a non-expert, is stupid. It's essentially saying "Since this person has dedicated his (or her) entire life to researching this topic, I will definitely make up my mind on that topic without considering what he (or she) has to say about it." That falls right under the definition of intentional ignorance.

To be fair, though, the article didn't cite to an actual authority. It assumed that the readers will have familiarity with other rigorous review sites like Jonny Guru, who reviewed the AXi1500 back in April of 2014, giving it the only 10/10 ever with the following comment: http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&op=Story&reid=378

I was starting to think nobody would ever send me a unit good enough. People, THIS is what it takes to get a perfect total score from me. Might be the last time you see it, too. Goes without saying I need to slap in that good old recommended logo right here

 

[mctylr]

Argument from authority (or appeal to authority) isn't what I expect from a Tom's Hardware review.

What is wrong with appealing to authority? I don't know astrophysics, but I can tell you something about it if an astrophysics professor tells me about it. [...]

Dismissing references to authorities,

Argument from authority is not about presenting or relaying knowledge from a known authority, but the premise that the argument(*) should be accepted on the basis that it came from an authority, not that the argument should be evaluated and (conditionally) accepted based on its own merit.

(*) or in this context a review

Perhaps I was sloppy in my usage. My concern is that by making such a reference to unspecified experts' opinions, introduces a potential cognitive bias, namely that the reviewer (Aris) expected the review unit to perform to those expectations, and not necessarily report with an impartial review of the unit as received and as actually measured.

While I assume the power supply is of excellent quality, and I have no reason to expect any intentional or deliberate wrong-doing, the opening of a review with such a reference of praise, suggests that they reviewer could be subtlety influenced by these expectations during the review process.

In my opinion such a reference to other reviews / opinions does not belong in a review introduction, but if mentioned it should be brought up during the conclusion of the review.

 

[Amdlova]

I see some corsair s... inside its not better than an evga power, Seasonic all for the win!

 

[iam2thecrowe]

For such an expensive unit, why on earth did they put the CapXon caps in rather than a complete set of Japanese ones?

They are polymer caps, as mentioned, which might not make a difference even if they went with Japanese caps. In fact looking at the results even some that probably have all Japanese caps got beaten in many areas.

Here's some opinions of capxon caps: http://www.badcaps.net/forum/showthread.php?t=20979
I know I wouldnt trust them, have seen too many blow, and theres really no reason to cheap out on such a high end psu. But, the reason they used them may have been due to sizing, availability of those specs or something else....... They might measure well when theyre new, but will they last?..... This is something a review can never tell us unfortunately. I guess as long as theyre rated generously, they should be ok, polymer caps will have much less tolerance to overvoltage.

 

[Eggz]

My concern is that by making such a reference to unspecified experts' opinions, introduces a potential cognitive bias, namely that the reviewer (Aris) expected the review unit to perform to those expectations, and not necessarily report with an impartial review of the unit as received and as actually measured.

That's a fair concern generally, but the reasons giving rise to it seem misplaced. The particular place in a review that someone gives praise - beginning, middle, or end - doesn't make much of a difference for anyone who edits their writing, which I'm sure this reviewer does. It's actually good practice to open with lessons learned for this type of article; otherwise, the piece would be meandering and simply take readers through the experimentation process in real time. That's boring and would probably decrease readership.

As for whether to mention (or allude to) other reviews at all, I am not sure it's a good idea for Tom's reviewers to intentionally ignore other reputable reviewers. In all likelihood, many of them are acquaintances from various trade shows. But more importantly, I'd expect a Tom's reviewer to have read all other serious reviews before writing his own. Without doing that, they'd run the risk of writing repetitive information, or worse, writing a less informative review than others currently available. Being familiar with the work of others in your field is part of what builds credibility.

I'm not trying to say that we should pretend Tom's is immune to fallacious logic. It's good to think about those things. My point is just that it didn't seen to present a real problem here.

 

[Aris_Mp]

We PSU reviewers have a gathering place where besides us other users with increased knowledge on this matter (and not only) take part as well. I find it good to keep a good contact with your colleagues and not be closed to yourself. There are lots of things that you can gain and of course you can help others as well.

 

[Compuser10165]

I also looked to an EVGA 1600w T2 read a review Jonnyguru.com and they are very similar in efficiency and build quality. However the EVGA one sometimes tends to go to platinum efficiency if when the fan kicks in.

 

[nate1492]

I don't think you can justify this as a 'top choice' when it's $450!

That's insane for a PSU, and I love my PSUs. You have to consider value here, not just 'what is best'.

This shouldn't be the highest possible level, it would be recommended or approved. For a $450 PSU, you are getting *exactly* what you pay for. Not some excellent choice!

 

[Aris_Mp]

In life you don't always get what you pay for and this applies to PSUs as well. If you always got what you paid for then product reviews, among others, would be useless or we would only review affordable products.

Also I am well aware that many users don't want to spend $450 for a PSU that it is the most important part of a system and will last for many years but on the other hand they have no problem spending the same amount of money and even more for a VGA, which in a couple of years will need replacement in order to keep up with the new games.

Anyway everyone of us deserves to have an opinion and I respect yours.