is the Corsair CX850M good?

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They have a pretty bad reputation, partly because they're far from the best and partly because there's almost always better options for your money.

Having said that, if you already have one, you're probably okay. I wouldn't run it near capacity for long periods of time, but 850W is a lot of power, you'd need a hefty rig to start pushing that. If you're not pushing the PSU very hard I wouldn't go out and replace it as a matter of urgency myself. They're far from the best, but they're nowhere near as bad as some of the cheap junk that's out there on the market.
 
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I have an i5 4690k and a GTX 970, too much?
 
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You will usually be sitting under 300W with most heavy gaming scenarios. You are miles and miles under capacity. Even OC'd you're gonna struggle to break 500W with those components. That PSU will serve you just fine.

File it away and next time you're looking to upgrade read a few reviews or post here on the forum for some recommendations and you can do better for your $$s, but you're absolutely fine. Don't worry.

 
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Just to clarify mate... Xemko rightly describes it as "bad value" and "mediocre"... neither of those things mean terrible or dangerous!

All that's happened is you over-paid for a mediocre unit... I've done it myself in the past as have loads of people. Don't sweat it!

I would actually run SLI 970s on that unit myself if I wasn't overclocking. You'd still be miles under capacity. You can see from the JonnyGuru review Xemko linked that it's a capable PSU (again - just overpriced), so you'd be fine.

If it helps you sleep at night by all means get a Tier 2 or 1 unit, but I wouldn't bother myself.
 
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It's a bad choice, if you are in need of a cheap low power psu, the 430,500 or 600 are passable but you really ought to simply purchase a quality. If you need 850 watts to power your setup Ill assume it's fairly highend, a psu is no place to skimp.

While this is not leaps and bounds better it is a better quality unit.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817438030&ignorebbr=1

This is much better

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817182359&ignorebbr=1

And this is what I would buy in your position.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151108&ignorebbr=1

What are we powering with 850 watts again?
 
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OP has stated above it's a 4690k and 1 970, with a potential future upgrade to SLI 970s.

FYI, he already has the CX850M, the question is whether he needs to replace it.

There's no question if he was looking to buy that PSU, he'd be better choosing something else instead, but I'm suggesting that given he already has it, it'll do the job. They tend not to last long, but they're not junk.
 
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well I did have a problem earlier with my system, the asus bios kept turning off my system to tell me it was protecting it from a power supply surge, I searched this up and found it was a common problem and you dont have to worry about it since the asus bios is too sensitive but now that I know the CXM series isnt all that great and is a tier 4 PSU so I think the asus bios actually protected the system from making its own 4th of july celebration. I am going to replace the PSU with an EVGA SuperNOVA G2 750w
 
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Any problems you may experience are not with Corsair as a brand, but with the series. CX psus are very low budget and run on a quite old design from way back when the pc ran mainly on the 3.3v and +5v rails. Modern pc's run more on 12v, basically reserving the low voltage rails for hdd's and ram. To add insult to injury, the CX also uses sub-par capacitors and semiconductors as they are much cheaper per unit vrs the solid Japanese caps etc.

All this adds up to the CX being great server psus, running much more than standard home user amounts of hdd's, but not so good gaming psus where the majority of the 12v rail is sucked up by the gpu. Corsair branded CX psus usually come with a 3yr warranty, and with its design and manufacturing, its a real safe bet that before that 3 yrs is up (or 1 day after) you'll have no choice but to replace or RMA (really not worth the shipping costs or the wait).

That said, the Corsair CX aren't bad units as such (for the first year, give or take 6 months), its just the expected lifespan that's down right miserable.

Asus surge protections are a tad bit sensitive, but to be honest, when you are dealing with partial voltages, like the difference between 1.208v and 1.216v on a cpu, or 1.5v vrs 1.505v on Ram, highish sensitivity is not such a bad thing, and if you are already getting that OVP shutdown, chances are that your mediocre psu is a little more mediocre than is warranted and should be replaced sooner rather than later.
 
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I do not have my cpu overclocked and my I brought back my GPU to get a different one, when I get my GPU I will get a new PSU specifically the EVGA SuperNOVA G2 or GS 750w
 
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The G2's are about the best there is, especially considering they are Evga branded SuperFlower leadex units. The GS is usually a little cheaper, built by Seasonic, so is still excellent value and quality, but are slightly outclassed by the G2's. Either psu would be an excellent choice.
 
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I just got the EVGA G2 850w psu yesterday
 
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Well, that was a bunch of money spent without a good reason, the cx 850 would have easily powered that setup with 2x GTX970.

System Wattage with GPU in FULL Stress = 439 Watts that is with a 6 core core sandy bridge e processor overclocked to 4.6Ghz, please note that is a 130 watts tdp + overclock.

55% load on a cx psu with a bronze rating, that was easily manageable for this psu. While the cx series isn't the greatest it can easily manage a load of 550 watts which is what your maximum power requirement at full load would have been.

You were well within the limits for that psu according to guru 3d power consumption numbers.

http://www.guru3d.com/articles-pages/geforce-gtx-970-sli-review,4.html
 
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The problem with CX units isn't the power capability, the CX/CS/VS are all about the same when it comes to power protections, thermal properties, ripple and power output. Solidly mediocre. The problem lies in the build itself. It's well beyond mediocre, and we'll into downright pathetic. Very sloppy soldering, barely adequate protections, wire gauges bordering on criminal, cheap semiconductors, cheaper capacitors, all adding up to a unit that works decent for a short time, then goes downhill in a hurry.

Not all 970's are the same. Asus STRIX pulls 145w, msi gaming 4G pulls 185w and the big daddy Gigabyte G1 pulls a whopping 220w. In sli you are looking at @400w in gpu alone, plus anywhere upto @200w in OC , @100w for mobo + accessories, so 700w isn't out of reach. The cx850 op previously had was already aged, and I personally wouldn't put it past an aged CX850 to fail miserably under a 700w load if Op stress tested his system. While the 850 G2 might have been a little overkill, I can't fault either his decision to dump the CX or his choice in replacement. That G2 should have no problems powering either this pc or the next, and has a good chance of still being around for the pc after that. And its Evga with a 10yr warranty. It's a smart investment no matter which way you look at it.
 
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You are really not basing those measurements in reality, but I digress while also fully agreeing the new psu is a better option, despite being completely unneeded.

200 watts per gpu as a very unlikely maximum but lets use that.
186 watts for the 4690K @ 4.7Ghz including the rest of the system sans the gpu's

586watts vs the 750watts you are suggesting. And remember these numbers are at absolute load which never happens outside of benchmarks or burn tests.
Mind you I am glad that everyone managed to provide the OP piece of mind.
 
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Agreed, you'll likely not see that high wattage use other than benchmarks or burn ins, but honestly, I don't know of anyone with a high end cpu/gpu who hasn't tried them at least one just to see where they stand. And then they buy a new cooler, and do it all again. Or add fans, and reburn to see if the fan makes a difference.

What's bad is when ppl get a really badly optimized game like the new batman, and all good for a minute, then frame drop city. And ppl think something is wrong with cpu/gpj/psu so burn time, just make sure nothing is bunk.

In the meantime, their poor old CX is taking abuse, even at 586w, because even Corsair recommends not using the CX for gaming. It's a crappy psu series, no matter what size. Who but a gamer needs 850w anyways?
 
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I have a Asus dc20 660ti that's OC to Gigabyte 960 G1 performance, and just got a Asus 970 Stix, that's barely out of the box, haven't gamed on it yet.

You do have an advantage though, I'm lousy with the inner workings of software, so delving into the ini isn't a wise idea for me.
 
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