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- Date:
- Wednesday, March 14, 2007
- Author:
- Paul Johnson
- Editor:
- Kyle Bennett
- Google +1
Corsair HX620 620w Power Supply
What happens when you put Corsair’s 620w power supply in an oven as hot as your computer case and then see how it works? If you are looking for a new PSU, put Corsair's on your short list.
Overview
The first thing we are going to look at with the HX620W is its packaging, accessories, and documentation. While none of these items is a real make or break item for a power supply the packaging quite often contains a lot of information about the product we are purchasing. The inclusion of an owner’s manual that provides actual information about our product is also of great help. Accessories are almost unnecessary with a power supply as the unit is self contained, unless it is modular, but there cases where a manufacturer can include useful accessories to make installation, routing and use more efficient.
As we see from the box we get a lot of information about the power supply it contains including the fact that it carries a 5 year warranty, certainly a worthy warranty, but not as long some others. While some people may debate the value of a 1 year, 3 year, 5 year, or lifetime warranty, Corsair at least believes that their unit is of a sufficient quality that they won't need to replace it in the near future. A brief survey of Corsairs warranty section does not show anything specific to the HX520/620 but the product page gives a brief overview:
Legendary Corsair Warranty and Customer
Corsair stands behind the HX product family with an industry leading 5 year (60 months) warranty. Because questions occur at all hours, on-line customer support is accessible 24/7 at: www.askthepowerguy.com. You'll find FAQs and helpful hints from experts and other users, as well as easy directions for organizing returns if needed.
The HX620's user manual however, does outline the warranty terms more clearly. It should be noted that Corsair does offer the HX620 manual as a download on their website so any user needing the warranty information can still find it in a slightly round about manner.
Also on the box we see a plethora of certifications from various safety authorities and NVIDIA’s “SLI Certification.” A quick check of SLIzone shows that NVIDIA has certified this unit only for SLI 7900GTX, which I must admit I find odd given that Corsair has been seen running 8800 series cards in SLI on the HX620W at various press events. What the issue is here with at least 8800GTS SLI certification I can't say for sure given the paper specs we see on the box below.
Included with the power supply is the power cord, 4 mounting screws, some zip ties, a bag containing the modular cables, and a fairly thick manual, which gains some of its girth from the inclusion of 5 languages.
Below we have taken the information from the manual (and box) and broken it down into easier to read tables.
* Neither the included documentation nor the box makes reference to what 12v rail feeds which connectors but as we shall see in a bit that point is moot as the Corsair behaves like a single 12v unit.
At first glance the Corsair is an interesting power supply. Most power supplies in the 600w range, or any range for that matter, would not have nearly 97% of their capacity available on the 12v rail/rails as the Corsair does. The power table on the unit, box, manual, and Corsair website all neglect to mention what the load regulation, line regulation, and ripple values are so we would assume they are simply ATX12v specification compliant.
The connector count is about what we would expect from a unit aimed at the HX620's markets and includes the often neglected fan only connectors via adapters. There are plenty of Molex/SATA connectors and the unit includes both a 4 pin P4/AUX connector and an 8 pin EPS connector. These two connectors are not a breakaway 8 pin EPS design but rather independent fixed cables as we will see in a moment. As is becoming standard in units shipping in the US, this unit also features active power factor correction (APFC).