Corsair CX Series 500 Watt 80 Plus Bronze Certified Non-Modular Power Supply

This is a great deal for an 80 Plus Bronze certified 500W power supply. If you are running any machines 24/7 on power supplies that aren't 80 Plus certified, let alone Bronze, Silver, Gold or Platinum, there are a good amount of power savings to be had. For the layman, anything labelled 80 Plus certified means it is 80% efficient at 20,50 and 100% loads. Bronze, Silver, Gold and Platinum are even more efficient, respectively.I had thought that I had tuned my file/media server/video encoder to be pretty energy efficient. It consisted of an i5 2500k, 16GB DDR3, no video card, 5 WD Green drives, 3 WD Black drives, one SSD, two internal PCIE SATA 3 extenders, and a BD-R drive, running Win 7 Professional 64. It consumed about 62 Watts at idle, and 73-80 Watts under moderate load, when streaming or transcoding high bitrate 1080p video. Not bad, and about the same as leaving a single incandescent lightbulb on. All of this was powered by a several year old sturdy Thermaltake Purepower 500 (W0100RU). The old power supply was not 80 Plus certified.I got this Corsair 500W 80 Plus Bronze power supply because the price is fantastic at around fifty dollars, and the old power supply was getting loud. I wasn't expecting phenomenal power savings, but according to my UPS wattage reading, this power supply is kicking butt! My file server now idles around 40W and operates at 56-63W under moderate load. These are big, big savings. I had no idea my old power supply was so energy inefficient. Considering the higher electricity cost in Southern California, this power supply will save me about $4 each month, possibly more if it helps prevent me from crossing into higher Tier level payments. It will pay itself off in savings within a year, and after that, will start providing me with some real savings. $4 a month in savings may not sound like much, but in a tight economy, every bit helps. On top of the power savings, this power supply is also whisper quiet.Due to the high savings I experienced, and out of curiousity, I ordered a 400W FSP Aurum 80 Plus Gold power supply ($76), to see how much more efficient a Gold certified PSU is in relation to Bronze. Statistically, the difference should be minimal, and I have a feeling this Corsair will prove to be the highest value, in terms of cost:savings. Updates to be posted accordingly.UPDATE 10/20/2012:I've put this PSU up against a slightly more expensive, lower wattage, but more efficient FSP AURUM GOLD 400-Watt 80 PLUS Gold Certified ATX Power Supply Compatible with Intel Core i3 i5 i7 AU-400 to compare the efficiency ratings of Bronze and Gold.The FSP Aurum 400 80 Plus Gold came in the mail today and here are the results:On my system, as detailed above, it idles at 32W, operates around 60W under moderate load. Very, very nice. These results are a bit better than the Corsair, as expected, but I'm going to have to stick with the Corsair as the best value proposition-- My reason being-- the Corsair is a 500 Watt power supply and supplies 38 Amps on a single 12v rail. The FSP Aurum is a 400 Watt power supply and supplies 18 Amps on a single 12v rail, but has two 12v rails for a combined 36 Amps. The Corsair CX500 is useful for a wider variety of computer uses, as the single 12v rail providing 38A meets the minimum requirements of most of today's higher end video cards, while also having great efficiency for lower power 24/7 machines like video servers. The FSP Aurum has up to 36A, but it's split into two 12v rails, and not all video cards have two plugs for power. This, along with the 400W rating mean that it is not suitable for higher end gaming computers. The Corsair's higher Wattage rating means it has a bit more headroom for high end/high power CPU+GPU combos. The price differential, for me at least, means that it would take about half a year longer to recoup the extra cost of the 80 Plus Certified Gold on the Aurum, compared with the Corsair. At the CX500's price point, it is definitely the best bang for the buck, particularly if you are coming from a PSU that isn't 80 Plus, and the machine is on 24/7.

I spent a long time researching power supplies, as they are one of the more important parts of a build. They are the foundation to the theoretical house, and when building one, you want the foundation to be stable, not cheap and flimsy. This supply was perfect in price, performance, and ease of use. The sleeved cables make cable management much easier, and it fit great in my Cooler Master Storm Scout. I also liked the adaptability of the connectors, such as the 8 pin CPU power plug, which splits into 2 four pin adapters. The fan is quiet and keeps the unit cool, even though I mounted it upside down.To conclude, this was the perfect supply for my upgrading, and I would recommend this to anyone looking for a great, reliable power supply.My current Rig (being upgraded):PSU: Corsair Builder Series CX 500 Watt ATX/EPS 80 PLUS (CX500)CPU: AMD Athlon II x4 645 @ 3.1 GHzGPU nVIDIA GeForce GT 610 (upgrading to dual Radeon HD's sometime in the future)RAM: 4 GB KingstonYour basic 500 GB hard driveCase: Cooler Master Storm ScoutA very generic mATX motherboard (soon to be upgraded)

Easy to Install - worked as promised - very quite once I had it in and running. It took me a little under an hour to pop the old unit out - clean up all connections and mother board - then pop this bad boy in. I took pics with my phone of all connects to help me realize what needed to align with what and what connectors went where. I am not a pro at this and I was nervous - my first time changing out a power supply actually - but it all went smoothly and the product is great. The computer issue I was having (graphics card/constant running fan) where the computer would just power off after grinding a loud fan noise for a while-was fixed with this upgrade. I had upgraded my video card and I believe after reading blogs and posts on the Net the power supply was over working and going bad. Factory power Supply is never enough for upgraded video cards. Very Happy with this company and this product.3/9/2014 - I bought a second one to upgrade my son's computer - his computer was completely different than mine - but still same easy switch out as with mine. Both computers run cooler and quieter! Do not be afraid of this install - this product is universal and easy to install. Like I said before, I used my phone to take pictures and video of the inside connections of the existing power supply - then disconnected & removed old unit and put this new one in. You will be surprised at how easy it is and it is a great product from a good company.

I was originally worried about purchasing this product because I was not sure if it would work with my old 2003 windows XP computer. The computer used an older 10 pin motherboard connection instead of the newer 14 pin connection. The motherboard fan power adapter is only 4 pins instead of the new 8 pin connector.I was pleasantly surprised to find out that it did work! The connectors do hang off through, ( I have 4 pins hanging off of the side of my motherboard connector, and 4 hanging off for the fan connector). I was not sure if it would work at first. I was surprised to find out that it is the correct way to connect to old hardware.The unit is very quiet. I was happy to find this out as I am always worried about noise coming from the fans. The only time you really hear the noise is when it does a power cool down cycle. This cycle only lasts a minute and then it goes back to being very quiet. I can hear it do this once every hour maybe.The computer that it is in is a DVR so it is always on. So far, it has been on constantly for over 3 weeks and it is working well. There was even a lightening storm and it did not faulter.