![[H]ardOCP](/images/blank.gif){kind=small}
- Date:
- Tuesday , December 04, 2007
- Author:
- Paul Johnson
- Editor:
- Kyle Bennett
- Google +1
Corsair VX550W vs. Corsair HX520W
We know Corsair's mid-range power supplies are some of the best in the industry, but what if we put their PSUs head to head? If you are set on a Corsair PSU, you will want to check this out. Which is the best 500w+ PSU for you?
Corsair VX550W
The first thing we are going to look at with the VX550W is its packaging, accessories, and documentation. While normally 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.
The packaging of the Corsair VX550W fits in the trend of all of the other Corsair units to date with an accent color of orange, though a slightly different Orange from that found on the TX750W. Corsair is remarkably consistent on their packaging from unit to unit and from power supply line to power supply line so much of this information is formatted the same as we have seen on the TX750W and the VX450W. As with previous units the packaging includes information about the connector count, power label (which will be broken down below), fan noise graph, and an efficiency graph. The efficiency graph and text indicates the unit peaks at 85% efficiency (or a bit above), but that value appears to be derived at 230v AC input with the 120v peak at about 82%. The units packaging also indicates the inclusion of “High-quality Japanese capacitors” like previous Corsair offerings along with APFC coupled with the various typical safety features. Also included on the box is a listing of all the connectors that the unit has complete with pictures. Like the last Corsair unit we saw the box proudly promotes the fact that the unit has a full 5 year warranty. This is the second longest warranty we have seen to date in our reviews trailing only the Limited Lifetime Warranty offered by Ultra and BFG (PC Power and Cooling has recently, post our reviews, extended their warranty support on both the Turbo-Cool and the Silencer lines technically making the Corsair’s 5 year warranty the 4th longest now). The warranty information can be found on the Corsair website and in the manual (both included and online) and is reprinted below.
The Product is guaranteed for sixty (60) months from the date of delivery to the end-user against defects in materials or workmanship. During this period, the Product will be repaired or have parts replaced, at our discretion, provided that: (I) the Product is returned to the agent from whom it was purchased with shipping prepaid; (II) the Product has been purchased by the end-user and not used for hire purposes; (III) the Product has not been misused, handled carelessly, or other than in accordance with any instructions provided with respect to its use; (IV) the Product has not been damaged due to acts of nature, such as lighting, fire, flood, or earthquake; (V) the warranty stickers have not been removed or tampered with. Corsair Memory’s warranty on the Product is to the first end user or consumer only, in accordance with the Corsair Memory’s Limited Warranty.
As one would expect from a 550w power supply in this time frame the unit is not billed as being multi-GPU capable and at the time of writing the unit does not appear on either the SLIZone or ATI CrossFire website. However, from the specifications below the unit seems capable of powering most dual midrange graphics card in most users systems.
The Corsair VX550W is a single 12v rail power supply from CWT and it shares this 12v arrangement with all of Corsair’s previous power supplies that we have reviewed. That single 12v rail is rated at 41A which makes it good for a possible 89% of the unit’s total DC output capacity depending on system load. To go with this 12v capacity the unit has been paired with 2 PCI-Express connectors. The VX550W also has 6 Molex connectors for peripherals and 6 SATA connectors good for powering your RAID array. Overall this flexible, well appointed setup should make this unit a natural fit almost any mid to high end PC and looks very much like a scaled down arrangement of the TX750W.
Once we open the packaging we find that the Corsair VX550W ships as a unit inside a bag inside a box. Once we remove the contents of the bag we find the usual assortment of items including the power supply, AC cable, screws, and some zip-ties. Also in the packaging is the manual which covers not only the VX550W but also the VX450W we recently reviewed. The manual runs 40 pages and includes 8 languages. The 5 pages in each language contain the warranty information, power table, cable count, and mounting instructions. While far from the worst documentation we have seen it is far from the most complete as well. The included information is not as detailed as we have seen with many units which could be due to the amount of printing on the box. For a bargain priced unit the manual isn’t bad per se but it still feels a little light on the information front overall and hopefully Corsair will flesh these out on future products as this information can come in very handy.
Build Quality
As we already know the Corsair VX550W features a single 120mm fan design like the rest of Corsair's offerings that has come to be the preferred standard for quiet cooling environments due to the ability to move a larger volume of air at slower speeds than a smaller diameter fan. While great for quiet computing environments the key criteria in our evaluation is whether or not the cooling solution is sufficient, not necessary it’s sound level or form factor.
External Build Quality
The external finish of the VX550W is identical to that of other Corsair branded units. It features a flat textured black that is resistant to scratching unlike the mirrored finishes found on many units. Like the finish used previously on Corsair units it is resistant enough that it did not scratch even when I had to use a flathead screw driver to pry the two halves apart to do the internal examination just like was required during the VX450W dissection (these cases are rather snuggly fit). The back of the unit is bare except for the on/off switch as the unit is full range and has a single overhead 120mm fan which is covered with a wire grill. On the front we see the wiring bundle exit the housing with a wire guard as we have seen now with a number of CWT built units.
The cables on the VX550W provide a serviceable length of ~20 inches while the unit itself comes in at a short ~5 1/2 inches.
Internal Build Quality
Once we open the casing to the VX550W, by removing the 4 screws securing the upper half to the lower, we are left looking at power supply that looks for all intents and purposes like the Corsair TX750W we recently reviewed. After a bit of poking around we find the familiar PCB markings of the same PSH series power supply used in the TX750W with the silk screening for the same PCB as used in the TX750W. It would seem that this unit and the TX750W are built on the same platform with the same PCB and have just had the corresponding components swapped out in order to scale the output accordingly. This is common practice and is fine for users so long as the components on the larger output units are scaled up accordingly (which they were on the TX750W). The TX750W did very well in our test so this certainly gives us hope for this unit. The big other change between the two is the smaller housing for the VX550W as it employs a 120mm ADDA fan rated at 0.37A at 12v as opposed to the 140mm fan in the TX750W.
On the primary side we see that the unit has a lone primary capacitor is a 420v 390uF capacitor rated at 105c provided by Nippon Chemi-Con since the unit has APFC provided by the chip on the small PCB next to the primary capacitor. We also see the green labeled main transformer bearing a CWT initial and part number. Unfortunately, this unit being in a smaller housing with a high side wall and dense heatsinks makes it a bit more difficult to examine on the primary side without pulling the unit apart than was the case with the TX750W. But suffice to say the unit is an identical design to the TX750W.
Over on the secondary we see a PCB that contains the output safeties (OCP, etc) and the fan controller. While looking at the secondary we find that the unit is again filled out with Nippon Chemi-Con capacitors making this unit an all Nippon Chemi-Con affair which is very good. Finally, we see all the wiring bundled here zip tied and exiting the housing with a wire guard in place (though the sleeving does not extend back to the housing leaving the unit looking a bit unfinished).
Overall the build quality of the VX550W is uniformly excellent. The unit is neat, well designed, and is stocked with very good Japanese capacitors. The only small ding for the unit is the unfinished looking cables that CWT seems to do on most units these days as they stop sleeving the cables right before they enter the housing.