Efficiency, Differential Temperature and Noise
Efficiency
The overall efficiency of a power supply is very important. The less waste heat generated the better. Efficiency is defined by the power output divided by the power input and is usually expressed as a percentage. If a PSU were a 100% efficient (which none are) 860 watts of AC power going in would result in 860 watts of DC power coming out (with no waste heat to dissipate). In the real world there are always inefficiencies and power is lost in the form of heat during the conversion process. Newer revisions to the ATX12V Power Supply Design Guide V 2.2 have continued to increase the efficiency recommendations for PC switching mode power supplies and now lists both required and recommended minimum efficiencies.
We measured the AC power input to the Corsair AX860i Digital PSU with the Extech power analyzer while the total DC load was found by adding all the individual +3.3V, +5V, +12V, -12V and +5VSB loads together.
The overall efficiency of the AX860i Digital power supply is excellent and complies with the 80 Plus Platinum criteria even when operating at elevated temperatures.
80 Plus Program
Note 1: Power Factor =0.90 (50% to 100% Load)
Note 2: Tests conducted at room temperature (25°C)
Differential Temperature and Noise Levels
To simulate real world operation, some of the warm exhaust air from the PSU under test is recirculated back to the intake through a passive air duct, which allows the PSU air inlet temperature to increase with load, just like it would in a real PC.
The differential temperature across the power supply was calculated by subtracting the internal case air temperature (T in) from the temperature of the warm exhaust air flowing out the back of the power supply (T out).
Thermocouples were placed at the air inlet and exhaust outlet. The ambient room air temperature was 23ºC (74ºF) +/- 0.5ºC during testing.
T out = temperature of air exhausting from power supply
T in = temperature of air entering power supply
Delta T = T out – T in
Sound pressure level readings were taken 3’ away from the rear of the PSU in an otherwise quiet room. The ambient noise level was ~27 dBA.
*Fan not running
Below ~200W output and with a relatively cool ambient inlet air temperature, the Corsair AX860i Digital PSU is silent as the fan does not even turn on. Above 30% load the fan starts to spin and slowly speeds up as the load increases. At 50% load the fan is still very quiet. Having high efficiency helps with less waste heat to dissipate. Alternate fan speed profiles are also available through the Corsair Link software if you want to customize the fan speed settings.
Note: I was not able to take SPL readings at the higher loads due to all the programmable DC load cooling fans running in the background.
(Corsair AX860i Fan Noise – Courtesy of Corsair)
I wonder if Ron Holt would
I wonder if Ron Holt would have ever imagine such awesomeness.
I wonder that nobody thought
I wonder that nobody thought of PSU monitoring software before this; after all, the least a computer should be able to do is monitor itself, and user control of the power supply is a no-brainer. Kudos to Corsair for taking this bold step, which is kind of a gamble given the price range and state of the world economy. I think the “i” series will be a runaway best seller, despite the high price tag. Same for the “i” series of liquid CPU coolers. Enthusiasts love anything that gives them more info, control, or both, and Corsair has been delivering nicely.
Gigabyte has thought of PSU
Gigabyte has thought of PSU monitoring software years ago, so did nVidia with ESA supportive PSU’s.
The “i” series won’t be the runaway best seller. How many people shell out $250 for a 860W unit like seriously?
Most people are after bang for the buck, which is what this unit definately is not.
WillRock
I have one on the
WillRock
I have one on the way to replace my Silverstone ST65ZF.
Silence and dual/tri SLI 680 will be awesome.
I bought one and it failed to
I bought one and it failed to self test. First time I’ve spent such an amount of a PSU thinking I was getting quality and all I’ve got is something they couldn’t be bothered to QC before leaving the factory. Very disappointed, not buying anything from Corsair ever again.
One thing “i” version is
One thing “i” version is worse at than non “i” version, is having lower quality fan. AX860 non “i” has San Ace fan – generally regarded as higher quality than Yate Loons. One can argue it doesn’t matter with semi passive mode in place, but it still looks out of place to have lower end fan on a supposedly premium unit.
The two murdered troopers,
The two murdered troopers, Power and Cahill, were men from good Irish families.
Not only does a digger realize that it’s very possible
he might discover a lots of gold with little or no
trouble, but, worse still, he knows he might work very, very
hard without getting any gold at all. Juni, als Bombenanschläge in
Kathmandu und anderen Städten Nepals acht Tote und 22 Verletzte forderten.
Does anyone know if you have
Does anyone know if you have to use Corsair Link in order for this PSU to work?
You probably do, and assuming
You probably do, and assuming they insist that you do (Ive never seen the fan spin up on its own) you also need to use this powersupply exclusively on a windows machine, or at least have a windows virtual machine in linux running the software with the USB attached to the virtual machine (most VM apps support this) and yes I did do this until the stupid connector broke, now I just want to figure out the pinouts and voltages (which they don’t release the spec for) to find out if it’s really PMBus like they claim:
if it is, my motherboard has a connector for it granted I will have to make my own because the PSU’s connector is missing a NC (no connection) “null” pin. This corsair link is the most idiotic thing I’ve ever seen and I expected to at least not get jacked for what I paid for my 1200i … nothing more or short of that was acceptable when I made the decision to purchase it, I really shouldn’t have to detail check things that are supposed to be standard.
This is wrong, this PSU works
This is wrong, this PSU works perfectly fine without CorsairLink.
This is a complete ripoff.
This is a complete ripoff. Supposedly its a USB to PMBus (SMbus) interface and they indicate that it’s pmbus, except every motherboard that supports pmbus is 5 pin at least, granted there is an NC pin. This power supply should be connected to mine, especially since the cheap cable broke and I never saw any advantage to this device (which is only supported in windows, so I had to attach it to a windows VM to do anything with it.) The ASMB4 management chip in my server does a decent job of managing the fan speeds and temp thresholds, and supposedly supports a conntected pmbus device, so I think I’ll wait (which I really dont want to wait because I just want to be done with this already) until I can get my volt meter out of storage and see if I can hook this psu up to the pmbus connector on my motherboard. I can’t think of any good reason why this wasn’t done right the first time, especially on a “high end” power supply like this one.
I reckon if despite my best efforts and intentions, I may just pour lighter fluid all over the $5,000 dollar computer and set it on fire like I did the Senn. HD380 pros when I couldn’t salvage the cable myself after 10 tries I could have just paid the 30 dollars, but no and I don’t think I’ll let this one go either.
mass produced crap is never worth what you pay for it: http://www.formfactors.org/developer%5Cspecs%5CATX_ATX12V_PS_1_1.pdf
It seems that Corsair has
It seems that Corsair has destroyed the value of the Link system by refusing to release the protocol used on it, so no one can do anything on Linux, or do anything on Windows for that matter other than through the GUI. Of course competitors will be motivated to reverse engineer the protocol, so the only one that Corsair is “protecting” itself from, are the army of eager software engineers that would write free software, boosting Corsair’s sales. Good thinking Corsair!