The Corsair CS450M PSU Review
by E. Fylladitakis on June 10, 2015 8:00 AM EST- Posted in
- PSUs
- Corsair
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
- 80Plus Gold
Cold Test Results
For the testing of PSUs, we are using high precision electronic loads with a maximum power draw of 2700 Watts, a Rigol DS5042M 40 MHz oscilloscope, an Extech 380803 power analyzer, two high precision UNI-T UT-325 digital thermometers, an Extech HD600 SPL meter, a self-designed hotbox and various other bits and parts. For a thorough explanation of our testing methodology and more details on our equipment, please refer to our How We Test PSUs - 2014 Pipeline post.
The Corsair CM450M makes a borderline pass through our efficiency test, just meeting the standards required for 80Plus Gold certification. The energy conversion efficiency reaches 92.1% at 50% load. An average conversion efficiency of 90.2% is achieved within the nominal load range (20% to 100% of the unit's capacity). It seemingly does not perform very well at very low loads, with a conversion efficiency of just 76.1% at 5% load. That however corresponds to an actual load of just 23 Watts and more powerful units would likely fare far worse at so low a load. With a load of 45 Watts, a fairly reasonable figure for the idling state of an average home PC, the conversion efficiency jumps to 83.5%.
As the power output of the CM450M is low and the conversion efficiency is high, it does not have high cooling requirements. Our testing results are not surprising, as the little 450W PSU maintains very low operating temperatures even when heavily loaded. The cooling fan does remain inaudible across most of the load range but it increases its speed at higher loads, reaching audible (but not intrusive) figures.
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Shadow7037932 - Thursday, June 11, 2015 - link
" Even those of secondary importance are supplied by known manufacturers and are rated for operation at 105°C, a figure that it is next to impossible to be reached inside a 450W unit as efficient as this one. "This isn't entirely accurate. The ambient temps around the caps especially the ones near the bridge rectifiers can be significantly higher than your average ambient temp of 25C. Sure, they won't really hit 105C ambient but temperature has a significant impact on the performance of electrolytic capacitors.
TurboTastic - Thursday, June 11, 2015 - link
I know there's already a huge number of comments saying this, but as someone who clamored for sane-wattage PSU reviews, I want to add my voice to the chorus saying "Thank you for listening to the readers and reviewing a <500W PSU!" I will definitely be considering this PSU in future builds - we need a new HTPC in the living room, and this might be a perfect fit!Seasonic's SSR-450RM is also in the running. It looks like it does have a few more cable options, including the 2x PCIe 8/6 pin power cables, but I'm not sure if it has the efficient rectification or quiet operation demonstrated in this review.
Seasonic - if someone is listening, thinks your product is better than Corsair's, and wants to make a (bunch of) sale(s), send an SSR-450RM to E. Fylladitakis!
Pissedoffyouth - Friday, June 12, 2015 - link
I love anandtech but PLEASE can you stop this graph crap. Start it at zero and end at 100, otherwise it makes the results seem different than they are.I expect more from this site.
ShieTar - Friday, June 12, 2015 - link
0 to 100 Watts? Degrees? Decibels? Efficiency? The graphs are perfectly fine as they are, why would anybody want to scale any single graph to 0 to 100 Units? Even on efficiency, scaling them to the proposed range would just make all graphs in all reviews look the same. Whats the point in that?FredAZ - Saturday, June 13, 2015 - link
When adding "age" to a word it means the rate at which something is attained. For Example "mileage" means the number of miles per gallon that a car attains. The term "watts" is the term for power, which already measures the flow of energy, or joules per second. Proper electrical terminology: power, current, Voltage, Energy, charge,wattage is redundant, please use "power", power already means the rate at which energy is being delivered, watts are the units
amperage is redundant, please use "current", current means the rate at which charge is being delivered, amperes (amps) are the units
voltage is proper because the correct term is elector-motive-force or emf, and no one understands this.
lagittaja - Sunday, June 14, 2015 - link
Great to see more reasonable power supply reviews from you.Now go and pester Super Flower, Seasonic and EVGA for review samples.
For example the Seasonic G-360, G-550. Super Flower Leadex or just EVGA's G2 lineup, the 550W G2 would be nice to see.