Corsair AX1500i Power Supply Review
by E. Fylladitakis on September 11, 2014 5:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
- Corsair
- PSUs
- 1500W
Conclusion
The AX1500i is definitely a special kind of product. It aims not for a particular group of users, but for the cream of hardcore overclockers, enthusiasts, gamers, and professionals. In other words, it targets users that both have crazy power requirements and, at the same time, require excellent overall performance. Of course, if you do not possess a very power-hungry system with multiple high end GPUs and CPUs, the massive output of the AX1500i would not make any sense to begin with.
Both externally and internally, the AX1500i has been very carefully designed and built. It is aesthetically appealing without being extravagant and the fully modular design is appreciable on a unit with so many cables. Only the size of the chassis could become a problem in smaller cases but we can hardly imagine someone purchasing a $450 PSU with the purpose of installing it inside a run of the mill case. Inside the AX1500i, Corsair uses fine quality components and has one of the most detailed assembly jobs ever performed. They really cut no corners when designing and building this power supply.
When it comes to performance, the Corsair AX1500i is almost frightening. Starting with the efficiency, as the 80 Plus Titanium certification is one of the primary selling points of this product, the AX1500i has a higher average efficiency than the top efficiency many 80 Plus Platinum units can achieve. It also has exceptionally high efficiency at low loads, which is very useful for a unit of this output, as the power requirements of even the most power hungry systems while idling are just a few percent of this unit's capacity. The quality of the output is also breathtaking, with very low voltage ripple even under massive loads and unparalleled regulation. Furthermore, due to the high efficiency, the AX1500i emits only very low volumes of heat, allowing it to operate virtually fanless across a large portion of its capacity range. The Corsair AX1500i undoubtedly delivers the best all-around performance that we have seen to this date.
With the release of the AX1500i, to our eyes, Corsair has simply tried to create the very best power supply possible, regardless of the cost and market potential. They did succeed on breaking almost every performance record we can come up with for a consumer-grade PSU... but that includes the record for being the most expensive unit a consumer can currently buy.
With a retail price of $450, this is definitely not a product aiming for the masses. Using any 1500W PSU to power even a high-end gaming PC, let alone a basic Home/Office PC, would be the very definition of the word "overkill". Corsair's AX1500i is a PSU meant for the most advanced gaming computers and workstations, and only for those users that are willing to spend a few hundred extra bucks in order to get the very best there is.
It's doubtful most of us will ever use such a product, but just as the 80 Plus program brought higher efficiency power supplies to the masses, products like the AX1500i will inevitably have a "trickle down" effect. Seven years ago the cost of a good 80 Plus Bronze 1000W PSU ranged from around $250 to over $300. Such power supplies were mostly overkill even then, but today you can find them for less than half the price, and higher efficiency 80 Plus Gold PSUs aren't much more. It may take some time to get there, but undoubtedly we will see much of the technology in the AX1500i makes it's way into more reasonable products. You have to start somewhere, and R&D often starts at the top.
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sweetca - Thursday, September 11, 2014 - link
Thank you!tim851 - Thursday, September 11, 2014 - link
>>The advantage of having more power than you need is to let the components breathe better,>>widen the pipeline so to speak.
What? This is audiophile-grade fluffy language. And a load of...
>>You may not need 1500W, but the extra headroom provides for stabilty and overclocking potential.
...bullsh!t.
You either need 1500w or you don't.
If you're overclocked setup draws 600w from the wall, having a 1500w PSU is not going to improve stability or overclocking.
quick brown fox - Thursday, September 11, 2014 - link
Maybe he worded it with some level of ambiguity, but the point he wanted to come across can be easily understood.If your overclocked setup draws 600W from the wall, theoretically you can have a 600W PSU supply all of that without the PSU going out of regulation. However, if you still have some room for additional overclocking (from better cooling), your overclocked setup might draw an additional 50-100W, and your 600W PSU (depending on its quality) won't have that headroom to sustain the additional power draw, which would lead of course to instability.
So what you're avoiding is the PSU becoming a bottleneck when you still have the capability to overclock further.
tim851 - Friday, September 12, 2014 - link
Perhaps that's what he means.But the fluffy language he uses let's me rather suspect he's one of those people who believes a higher powered PSU makes his PC faster. Because moar power!!!
Like the audiophiles who think a super-expensive HDMI cable that is thick as a child's arm is improving colors and clarity of their blu-rays.
DanNeely - Thursday, September 11, 2014 - link
Maybe. If you've got a low power system with a decent smaller PSU this would probably be worse becuase you're in the sweet spot for the smaller PSU and in the low-load suck range on this monster. if you're running a 500W box on a 550W PSU, this would probably do better at full load since the 550 would be in the nearly maxxed out suck zone; OTOH the 550 would probably still do better at idle. You normally get peak efficiency around the 50% point and good performance from 20-80% before falling off at either end (see the curves on pages 3/4).80+ Platinum is the first 80+ spec to set an efficiency requirement at 10% too; and platinum units generally do a lot better at low loads. OTOH since they're all still halo priced; unless you live somewhere with really expensive electricity they're not going to pay for themselves vs more mainstream models.
AnnihilatorX - Friday, September 12, 2014 - link
Different PSUs have different efficiency curves at different power loads, so it is hard to say. Generally they are most efficient between 20-80% load.FriendlyUser - Thursday, September 11, 2014 - link
Great product, but the price is only meant for high-end workstations and the like. I think it would be useful for such extreme products to enumerate the connectors.I am asking this because I was looking at the ASUS Z10PE workstation MB supporting dual Haswell Xeons with massive 150W TDPs. The MB in question requires 1xATX 24pin, 2x8pin EPS AND an optional but recommended 6pin EPS 12V connector for SLI/Crossfire. I haven't yet found a PSU with a 6-pin ATX 12V power connector, and I am almost certain it's not the same as PCIe.
vred - Thursday, September 11, 2014 - link
It is the same as PCIE 6-pin connector. You have not found a PSU with a 6-pin ATX 12V connector, because there is no such connector. :)
vred - Thursday, September 11, 2014 - link
Running this PSU to power my watercooled quad-Titan Black workstation running CUDA calculations. PSU remains surprisingly quiet and mildly warm to touch even under full load.philosofa - Thursday, September 11, 2014 - link
What a beautiful piece of hardware; fantastic to see something pushing so hard at the bounds that define 'well made'. Cheers for the review, was fantastic H/W pr0n to read :D