![[H]ardOCP](/images/blank.gif){kind=small}
- Date:
- Tuesday , December 01, 2009
- Author:
- Paul Johnson
- Editor:
- Kyle Bennett
- Google +1
Corsair TX950W 950 Watt Power Supply Review
Corsair's cannons are blazing with its 950 watt TX series PSU that claims to sustain a full 950 watt load at 50°C and up 85% energy efficiency under "real-world" load conditions. We put the TX through our normal gamut of higher-than-industry standard tests and tell you if our TX sinks to the bottom or stays proudly afloat.
Build Quality
As we already know from the product images and packaging the Corsair TX950W features a single 140mm fan design. 140mm fans are in the same vein as 120mm fans in that they can provide for quiet cooling environments due to the ability to move a larger volume of air at slower speeds than a smaller diameter fan. The 140mm fan is the almost the largest diameter fan we are likely to see in ATX power supplies given the physical constraints of the form factor. While great for quiet computing environments, the key criteria in our evaluation is whether or not the cooling solution is sufficient; not necessarily its sound level or form factor.
External Build Quality
Externally the Corsair TX950W is almost identical to every other Corsair unit we have reviewed to date. The top of the unit is dominated by the large 140mm fan, and the rear is mostly clear as the unit is well perforated to allow air to vent. The finish is the same textured black that we have come to know and love as it is smart looking while being heavy duty and resistant to scratching. The unit features a fixed cable design, like all of the TX line before. However, unlike the TX line before this unit we find that CWT has finally sleeved the cables all the way into the housing. Thank you CWT and Corsair for finally rectifying this on your new TX units as well as your new HX units because it really was something easy to correct.
The TX950W comes in at a length of 6 1/4 inches. The cables provide variable serviceable lengths of ~19 inches to first (or only) connector (Molex and SATA cables) and ~25 inches for the EPS, Motherboard, and PCI-E connectors. As stated above, the sheathing is also run completely into the housing which is great to see.
Internal Build Quality
Once we open the Corsair TX950W we find ourselves looking at the first TX unit that is not another CWT PSH power supply. This particular unit is the base model of CWT's new "DSG" platform that we saw in tweaked format for the HX850W. From the top here the topology looks even less different from PSH series than the HX850W did on the primary side. The heatsinks once more are thinner and very much bar like compared to other CWT built units of this capacity. This was not an issue with the HX850W in our short time with that unit so I doubt we will see much of an issue with it here today either. The TX950W, differs from all previous Corsair units we have seen in one other noticeable way at this point as the fan used here is provided by HongHua Electron Technological CO LTD. and is rated at 0.50A at 12v. Why the mid level Yate Loon fan used previously has been ditched is unknown for sure, but if they were going to switch up brands a better than Yate Loon quality fan would have been nice.
As we move over to the primary side we see that the base model DSG has a primary that is almost identical to the typical CWT PSH primary design. The APFC circuitry is housed on the card next to the primary capacitor (and is marked PSH) while the APFC coil is situated behind the primary filtering capacitor. In this particular build the primary filtering capacitor is a Nippon Chemi-con rated at 400v 680uF 105c. We also see that like on the PSH units of old, the APFC heatsink also has the bridge rectifiers attached to it directly, and via a thin heatsink sandwiched between the pair.
Once we move past the primary, we see mostly the same layout as the HX850W. The unit has a single 12v transformer along with the +5VSB transformer and a number of optocouplers in the center of the unit. We also see that the once more the new CWT design uses synchronous rectification for the 12v output and DC-DC VRM's for the minor rails. Each of the minor rails is supplied by one of the PCB's housed next to the big torroid coil which is for the 12v output. The capacitors filling out the secondary are all Nippon Chemi-con again including the solid polymer capacitors on the DC-DC VRM's. The wiring that leads out of the unit is all well routed but there is no wire guard used here today. On the upside, CWT and Corsair have sheathed the cables all the way back into the unit so there is that protection this time at least.
Build Quality Summary
Overall the build quality of the Corsair TX950W is almost identical to the HX850W we reviewed a little bit ago, but there are a few changes here today. While the overall external build quality is identical to the TX and HX lines before it (except for the modular interface being present on HX series units) this unit actually has fully sheathed cables for once on a CWT built Corsair TX unit! We saw this on the HX850W recently and are grateful to see this change trickle down to the slightly lower tier TX series as well. Once we pop the top and look inside we see the same design on the secondary as we saw with the HX850W. The secondary design uses synchronous rectification for the 12v rails and DC-DC VRM's for the minor rails. Differing from the HX850W we see that the primary is laid out the same as the PSH based units of old. This indicates to us at least that the HX850W was indeed a tweaked design as we proposed before and the TX950W represents a design that is more close to the base DSG unit from CWT. Lastly, the capacitor selection is once more all Nippon Chemi-con including both the standard electrolytics and the solid capacitors which is something we are extremely happy about. All this adds up to make the TX950W one of the best builds we have seen from Corsair to date for their TX line. Let's move on now and see if that PSH primary arrangement on this unit has brought back any dead pirates of the past.