The Difference Between All of Corsairs PSU Lines

All right what’s up Internet. Today we’re going to be talking about Corsair power supply units and what the heck is the difference between their different lines. Depending on how you count they have 14 different lines. Some of those lines have different colors so there’s the CX gray or the CX green. To top it all off, they refresh the lines but they keep the names. So an RM from 2013 is very different from an RM now the latest REM is the RM 2019.

So they change the 00:32 - insides but they keep the names. And the naming system is not intuitive it’s very difficult to understand, is an AX better than a TMX is that better than an HX? But definitely once you hear VS you think oh that’s no good, whenever a manufacturer puts V in a name you know that they want to imply value and value is just code for this is what you get if you can’t afford anything else. Before I begin I’m going to be talking a lot about 80 plus in this video and I’m sure you’ve seen a plastered everywhere on most PSUs. use 80+ is certification for efficiency so once you see that on a PSU it just means that that PSU will be 80% efficient all the time, at least 80% efficient. There are six levels to the 80 plus certification there’s 80 plus white or the base level 80 plus then bronze silver gold platinum and titanium.

The difference in efficiency between the 01:35 - different colors is just a matter of a few percentage points so even getting the 80 plus titanium, you won’t be able to make up the difference in cost just based on the power savings. And while 80 plus is just really a question of efficiency most people tend to look at the colors also as a mark of quality. In general a titanium PSU will last much longer will run quieter will be more efficient definitely and will be better all around for your computer than let’s say a bronze PSU or even a gold PSU. So while 80-plus is a measure of efficiency it has become a stand-in for quality as well and finally a disclaimer for PSUs the topic is really very technical, Japanese capacitors ripples in the voltage wave of the cables. I’m trying to keep this as simple as possible number one for myself and number two because this is just supposed to answer for an average PC user what the heck PSU should I buy.

So 02:40 - if I do get some of the technical details wrong I’m sure you’ll correct me in the comments and I’ve tried to gloss over or ignore a lot of the quasi mysticism involved, there’s a lot of - it’s supposed to be technical but there seems to be a lot of emotion and basically just take my word for it kind of thing about PSUs and I’ve tried to stay away from that. We’ll just be very basic but at the same time useful for the average consumer. Okay so we’re starting out on the lower tier of the Corsair power lines. These are the budget units and those starts with the VS series. The VS is really like I said that once you hear V you know that’s gonna be kind of doubtful. Don’t get me wrong it is 80 plus it’s the basic 80 plus or 80 plus white. But the design is old the interior circuitry is old so Corsair hasn’t bothered to update this. And actually it only sells the VS line outside of the United States so shout out to all the third world PC builders like us. And you can tell that yes it just meets the bare minimum quality that you need to get rated as 80 plus and you know you might use it in an office computer but you definitely would not want it here’s a more high-end computer next after the vs line is the CV line which is basically just an upgrade that VF specifically the active power factor correction circuit and what does upgrade allowed Corsair to do was they now mapped the 80 plus bronze certification so the CV line is bronze certified beyond that there’s not much difference between the CV line and the vs line next is a CX line and this is basically the best of the budget lines from Corsair it’s actually the latest CX DX 2017 actually can meet Silver certification but for some reason is just advertised as bronze so you can get a sense that the internals are better than the CV or the vs lines the CX line actually comes in gray or green you want the gray color because that’s the newer color the vs line also comes in gray or green grey is also the newer version of that line yes we’re creeping up to a bit more premium market because the CX line does come with modular options modular options are great for any builder because they allow you don’t use the wires that you need so it simplifies cable management it also reduces the clutter inside your case so airflow is generally better and modular power supplies are generally more expensive than or not modular the CX series does come with a sleeve bearing fan which is noisier than some other fans spikes on the market you know to be honest when you talk about CPU noise there are a lot more potential things in a computer to be noisy about and if you’re buying a CX you’re probably just you know it will be for an office computer it won’t be for a computer for node so generally those kinds of users don’t really care so much about the noise of a 6-bit next up is the GS line and Corsair targeted this towards the intro level gamers it had RGB which is the automatic feature you want to have when you’re appealing to the gaming market it was a bronze PSU its fan was ball bearings so a bit quieter it also has fan management so tour notes the fan would spin store and thereby creating less noise again this time has been discontinued but some of the features have been carried on to the existing exm line alright so those four are really the budget line of course tears of BS t s CX and GS lines up next are the mid-range BSU’s that we start with the cs line please come in a semi modular up front so a bit more premium than the previous lines these are gold certified and they earn high marks from reviewers for have being a high load on single dwell well-drilled which is what you need to look at if you’re concerned about powering your graphics cards because the 12 walls really will be the one to supply power to your graphics cards the CF series also has fan management as well and so it’s really a very good overall vanilla PSU quality is a bit more assured than the previous lines and if your startup on the fans you don’t want to spend a lot of money but again you want an assurance of quality then the PS line is probably what you’re looking for next is that the XM line this is actually a revival there was a previous px line which course there is continued but it revived it in 2017 under txm it’s also both certified but this one comes with all Japanese capacitors again a synonym for quality when you’re talking about PS use these also come semi modular and the family is a one hundred thirty-five millimeter rifle bearing fan so not as quiet as some of the other fans but these generally tend to last longer this is the same type of fan used in the more expensive rmx line so again you sort of come to this great area why would I get an e XM over a TS unit both of them are gold certified both of them sound ok both of them okay good enough quality is assured and I have no good answer for you yes you can say that the txm has all Japanese caps and therefore it will probably last longer and there are some minor changes between the CX m and CS series but for value for money I honestly can’t give you a straight answer your if you can afford it generally get the pxm over to see it and we come to the upper range of Corsairs lines some of the lines that I mentioned us upper range or higher end are actually only considered mid range let’s say in the States or in Europe but I’m coming from the Philippines where high n you know something that may be considered mid range elsewhere zone is already considered high end here so the beginning of the high end power supply unit is the RM series and as mentioned in the intro they recently got a refresh the latest version of the RM is the RM 2019 and generally this is the PSU we recommend here at hardware sugar you know if you’re a PC aficionado and you’re eating into computers and you expect to run your PC upload we generally already tell you to get the RM this is a gold PSU and actually there were minor changes between the RM 2018 and the RM 2019 and the 2019 version is actually cheaper they figured around a bit with the RM to make it a bit more affordable but still maintain the quality one of these changes was a change in fan as mentioned it uses the 135 mm rifle bearing fan which is a bit noisier but lasts a bit longer the RM does not have capacitors in its cables and apparently you want that because it counteracts the voltage ripple again I don’t want to be too technique and I don’t want to pretend I already know something about something that I don’t but even reviewers generally saying that not having the capacitors in the cables are not a deal breaker and RM 2019 was also updated to support modern standby with modern standby allows you to wait your PC from sleep much faster and it allows you to maintain a network connection while the PC is asleep so you can still be downloading files and things like that a small step higher than the RM series is the RM X these PS use do have capacitors in their tables so they smooth out that voltage ripple that we talked about earlier maybe thinks may be a bit more efficient the signal is sphere there’s less noise and the fan used is a bit more expensive so it’s quiet herbs but really minimal difference between the RM and RM x lines if you really want to get technical about this the manufacturers are different for the capacitors of the RM and the RM x lines the RM uses the Apple elite cups whereas the RM X uses people Chemical cups so again very technical when it comes to BSU’s and for the last two main stream lines is really the top tier of Corsairs offerings we have the H X line which is basically an RM X but it’s platinum rated its finest a big bigger at 140 millimeters it’s also very quiet and based on the many reviews online people really really like the H X 750 it’s apparently a very quiet PSU even running at full load and finally we have the ax line which is the best of the best for Corsair it’s titanium rathus it has a zero rpm mode where the PSU will automatically not spin it’s fast if it doesn’t need to thereby ensuring quieter operation if you’re just you know typing or browsing operations which don’t need a lot of power the fan itself is 135 millimeters it’s a fluid dynamic bearing span and for the ax 2019 the refresh of this line Corsair added a little something where they included magnetic labels you can turn your PSU upside down but because you have that label you can just magnetically stick it on to the side so it’s it won’t be apparent that you flip your PSU very minor changes really are buying the quality of the titanium rating if you can afford an ax why the heck not but even for enthusiasms we just usually recommend the RM or our MX lines because the HX and the ax do tend to be a lot pricier so those are the mainstream offerings of Corsair but they do have an SF line the SF line is for small form factor computers the MITx builds which are actually becoming more and more popular the SS line comes in gold and platinum certifications they are fully modular generally if you’re building these very small computers then the parts will be pricier because you know the manufactures have had to miniaturize some components to get the graphics card to fit and the PSU to fit and it’s like that so if you’re building an bill then you already know going in that things will be a bit pricier than your larger desktop reference and because Corsair knows that you will pay for the quality it’s all Japanese capacitors again they’re fully modular the ratings are higher gold and platinum compared to some of the other times we do actually sell as a series PSU here at Harvard sugar and they have been quite popular the SF series also comes to 8:05 mode which is becoming more and more common in high-end PSP and the last three lines are basically just variants of like you’ve already talked about these are the RM I H X I and II X I’d lines the I just means that you can connect them to the Corsair IQ software and through that software you can monitor the temperature the wattage and the fan RPMs of the PSU you can also switch from multi rail the single rail but most users won’t need to do that DC I lines are for those users that really need to have all the information about everything that’s running on their computer if you’re not that type of user then the benefit to you is really minor for the price difference of the iSeries compared to the plain RM line or the plain HX line you know it’s hard to justify the cost of getting the iSeries so that is all the 4d and Corsair power supply lines I hope I’ve been able to distinguish some of them and why one line is generally better than another line if you in doubt you know I just say get the RM RM x-series don’t worry about it don’t think about it anymore it’ll last you a long time and if you can afford it then the HX which is that hum rate then or the ax which is titanium rape and you know if you can afford it why the heck not go ahead and get that but for most users within that sweet spot that you know you’re making a rig and you want to be assured of the quality then the RM or RM x lines are what you’re looking for don’t stress about it there would be as used some people on the internet will disagree but again there’s so much chapter about the issues there are literally black boxes which people like speculating about and having different opinions about but at the end of the day man just get an RM get an RM X and you’ll be fine thanks for watching .