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
Hot Test Results
Going by the results presented in the following tables, the Corsair CM450M offers good power quality. It is not going to break performance records but the CM450M performed well considering its price range. The maximum ripple on the 12 V line was 72 mV at 100% load, a good figure considering both that the design limit is at 120 mV and that this is a unit rated for operation at 40°C. The same goes for the 3.3V/5V lines, which reached a maximum ripple of 30 mV and 34 mV correspondingly. Voltage regulation is fair, at 2% for the 12V line and just a little higher for the 3.3V/5V lines.
| Main Output | ||||||||
| Load (Watts) | 91.52 W | 226.95 W | 337.9 W | 447.81 W | ||||
| Load (Percent) | 20.34% | 50.43% | 75.09% | 99.51% | ||||
| Line | Amperes | Volts | Amperes | Volts | Amperes | Volts | Amperes | Volts |
| 3.3 V | 1.77 | 3.4 | 4.42 | 3.38 | 6.63 | 3.36 | 8.84 | 3.32 |
| 5 V | 1.77 | 5.16 | 4.42 | 5.12 | 6.63 | 5.07 | 8.84 | 5.01 |
| 12 V | 6.28 | 12.16 | 15.69 | 12.07 | 23.54 | 11.98 | 31.39 | 11.92 |
| Line | Regulation (20% to 100% load) |
Voltage Ripple (mV) | |||||
| 20% Load | 50% Load | 75% Load | 100% Load | CL1 12V |
CL2 3.3V + 5V |
||
| 3.3V | 2.5% | 12 | 20 | 26 | 30 | 26 | 32 |
| 5V | 2.8% | 16 | 20 | 28 | 34 | 28 | 30 |
| 12V | 2% | 20 | 32 | 50 | 72 | 60 | 34 |
Once again, we need to mention that this is a PSU rated at 40°C and we perform our testing at temperatures higher than 45°C - we could reduce the ambient temperature of our hotbox testing but we chose not to do so as the results would then not be comparable to those of our previous reviews.
High ambient temperatures, even if they are above the unit's rated temperature, do not seem to affect the CM450M significantly. On average, the energy conversion efficiency is reduced by about 0.5%. The efficiency loss is slightly higher as the load increases, reaching a maximum of 0.74% reduction at 100% load. It is nothing short of a miracle for this PSU to be capable of such performance with an ambient temperature higher than 46 °C.
Once again, the low output and high efficiency of the CM450M allow it to maintain fairly low internal temperatures. The maximum internal temperature is just over 71°C at maximum load, with an ambient temperature of 47.2°C. The cooling fan is partially to blame for that, as it now begins to increase its speed faster and reaches a higher maximum speed as well. Nevertheless, the CM450M does operate silently when lightly loaded, even under those adverse conditions.
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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.