Corsair HX1000W

Conclusion

Many users have waited for a higher power Corsair unit, and the HX1000W is finally in the market. It may be overdue, but with their 1000W power supply Corsair now offers power supply that can officially support the highest-end graphics configurations. Not many users will need such a power supply, but that's a topic we've discussed before. If you are building a 3-way SLI system, you will want a very good PSU, and the Corsair HX1000W warrants a look; for anything less it just doesn't make sense from the efficiency point of view.

The build quality is nothing less than we would expect, as Corsair has a deserved reputation for quality. The package is eye-catching and will stand out in a retail setting, and the power supply is held safe and secure inside its box to protect it from damage during transport.

The cables are a bit short overall, but in typical mid-tower cases there won't be any problems. Corsair includes a vast number of harnesses for the user to choose from, so you can tailor the harnesses to your needs. With ten SATA and Molex connectors, there will be enough for all kinds of users. The six PEG connectors are a very nice addition and as mentioned earlier the HX1000W is the first 1000W power supply NVIDIA has certified for triple-SLI use. That this certification of lower wattage power supplies is long overdue is clear, as we are running our test setup with 3-way SLI with an 860W Turbo Cool from PC Power & Cooling. Obviously, it's possible to run such a demanding setup with much less than a 1200W power supply.

The performance shows a good use of the basic CWT design. The efficiency is very good but Xigmatek reaches one percent higher even though Corsair has a better component selection. The stability sets new standards however, as this unit has the best stability we have experienced so far and the output quality was as good as any we have seen. A low 25mV maximum deviation on the 12V rails was as bad as things got.

Coming to acoustic noise, this unit was far less noisy than we would have expected from the graphs shown on Corsairs website. The fan only reaches up to 2070RPM, so maximum noise levels top off at around 34dB(A); unfortunately this is from 80% onwards. With lower loads the power supply is clearly audible, and at 18dB(A) as the fan constantly produces a buzzing noise. It then goes quickly to a higher pitch as it turns faster with only 250W of power draw. Normally we see better results from Corsair here, but the similar builds from Xigmatek and Thermaltake don't increase fan speed until a much higher load. Going back to our 8kW Roundup where we compared eight 1000W units, we can see that the fans in those units also start turning faster at 500W (except the Enermax Galaxy) instead of 250W.

Corsair offers a 5-year warranty, which is quite good. Over in Europe users are used to at least a 2-year warranty, since that's the law, and most companies over there already have 3-year warranties. Corsair's 5-year warranty is only topped by PC Power & Cooling with their 7-year warranty for the Turbo Cool series. Buying a power supply with such a warranty represents a long-term investment; you never know what might happen, but at least with a lengthy warranty you know your high-end PSU isn't going to fail (without a replacement) for quite some time. For other components that are regularly upgraded every few years, that sort of warranty may not matter as much - for example, most users never have to deal with a broken graphics card after three years of use, since they've moved on by then. Power supplies stay in most systems until it's time for a completely new setup; like monitors, they are something you can keep using for half a decade or more. The price is $250 for this unit in the US and in Europe Corsair is offering this power supply for 170 EUR - approximately the same price with the current conversion rates. Seeing that competitors are offering a similar product for almost the same price but with a shorter warranty, the Corsair HX1000W definitely has an advantage over some of the competition.