Installation & Use
Installing the Corsair tx850 was effortless, as usual. I’ve grown accustomed to modular power supplies and prefer them, but the stability of the Corsair tx line trumps the inconvenient lack of modularity.
I connected the PSU to my rig with an ASUS M3A32-MVP motherboard, Athlon X2 6000+, 8 GB of DDR2 RAM, three SATA hard drives, a Creative X-Fi gamer, and a Foxconn-made nVidia 8800 GTX.
I used OCCT Perestroika to perform a stress test. OCCT produces some very telling graphs. I’ve included for reference the output graphs of the tx750, as well.
Spot checks of the voltage on the rails were 3.3V idle and load, 5.08 idle and load, and 12.03V idle and load.
Like the tx750, the 3.3V and 12V rails were incredibly stable. The tx850’s 3.3V rail had a trip up near the beginning of the test, but that could have been an environment factor or other negligible change.
The 5V rail is a different story, though. Since the review of the tx750 several months ago, I added the third hard drive. There was a small ripple of 0.59% throughout the test. This is nitpicking, though, as a ripple that small is insignificant.
Final Thoughts
The only thing I don’t like is its non-modular design, which necessitates additional cable management (read: tucking cables into places where I’d rather have airflow!).
Available for $140 at NewEgg as of the time of writing, the Corsair tx850 is worth every dime paid for it. It’s one of the most stable, quietest power supplies I’ve ever used. The five year warranty is a bold claim that Corsair knows what it’s doing. Throw in the 80PLUS 80% efficiency certification, and we’ve got a sure winner.
ThinkComputers gives the Corsair TX850 850W Power Supply a 9 out of 10 score and our Editor’s Choice Award.
Pros:
– 80PLUS certification
– 5 year warranty
– Incredibly stable
Cons:
– Expensive for wattage
– Not modular
