Corsair CS850M 850W Power Supply Review

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Shneiky

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Another CS PSU with bad caps and short life. And at 120 USD or more than 120 EUR as it appears in my district, this PSU does not stand a chance against the competition. Still a lot of people will buy it just because it has a Corsair name on it. I feel kinda bad that Corsair ruins their legacy of quality with products like CS and VS.
 

giantbucket

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and then there are people who are going to hate on it just because it has a Corsair name on it...
 

Shneiky

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ykki,

I do not hate Corsair products because they are Corsair. I have a Corsair K70 and I love it. What I hate is cheaply made equipment that wants a price premium because it is X brand.
 

Aris_Mp

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@ykki The relative performance graph can play this role and with much more accuracy. However it measures pure performance and doesn't take into account other factors as output noise, warranty period etc. For these factors a final rating is needed, indeed.
 
Good review, Aris.

I see no reason to buy this PSU when there are other good units with lower price built with better components. Example: Many XFX (Seasonic) and Golden Green (Capstone/B2) cost less but are more reliable with all good caps. Unfortunately, most consumers will be suckered in by the Corsair sticker.

On the bright side, these Great Wall units have far less problems than the CX series. Probably even more reliable than the RM.
 


You can't just say any Corsair units made by CWT are good. Their lowest-end series is the VS series, which is made by CWT. It's not better than these units made by Great Wall.

Their Seasonic units are fine, but Corsair relies much less on Seasonic than it used to.
 
I don't think it's so much that people want to hate on corsair because of their name, rather the reputation they've earned themselves. It only takes a little to earn a bad rep but takes a lot of turning that around to overcome and fix the way people regard them. Continuing to build low tier products at high prices and embracing low budget materials isn't doing them any favors.

Companies like seasonic aren't nearly as heavily advertised and at that they're more recognized now than they used to be. Instead of cranking out tons of low quality components, they've concentrated on quality and maintained a good reputation. That's not saying every corsair is junk or seasonic never has a bad unit once in awhile. Corsair would rather flood the market with a lot of cheap units so they can't be surprised when many start avoiding the headaches and potential problems, instead investing the same money in better quality units.

The review here is a bit confusing. On one hand it's a lower tier unit with a short(er) warranty, meant for moderate gaming. On the other it's powerful enough for 'enthusiast' builds with mulitple gpu's. Multiple gpu's are for 'moderate' gaming? If someone has an extra $300-500 for an additional gpu, surely they can muster up an additional $50 or so for a quality psu.
 

Aris_Mp

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this is a mid-level PSU, not a mainstream one, and with its true 850 W capacity can easily support at least two high-end VGAs, so it will do just fine into a gaming unit.

Now as for the other matter you are referring, unfortunately many users while choose to invest a great amount on the mainboard, VGAs and CPU they leave the PSU for last so they buy one with the leftovers. Normally it should be the other way around since the PSU plays a key role in the health of all the rest system components.
 

endeavour37a

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OK........
 

MasterMace

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Corsair did not build this as a gaming unit, despite being at the wattage for gaming. Having lower quality capacitors will not earn them any favors for gamers willing to drop $120 on a power supply.

Corsair -raised- the price on their HX series. The HX 850M used to be well priced around $100-$110. I am not a fan of a company name being used to justify high prices, nor am I a fan of making worse quality products to raise the prices on old products.

OEMs own their reputations longer than companies like Corsair who pay them to make it and slap their name on it after.
 

Shankovich

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Who's Who In Power Supplies, 2014: Brands Vs. Manufacturers
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/power-supply-psu-brands,3762.html

Thank you hahaha, that's what I get for skipping over the links at the bottom of the page
 

ykki

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Who doesn't know about that lol. I am talking of a numeric based system rather than a tier based one.

 
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