Corsair AX1500i PSU review

PSU - Power Supply Units 109 Page 9 of 9 Published by

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Final Words & Conclusion

Final Words & Conclusion

The tremendous quality that Corsair offers with its AX1500i really oozes and drips from the product. This unit is top of the line and kicks the proverbial aazz big-time. But we also understand that it will be a hard sell, as who really needs a PSU of this class and caliber ? These PSU's are designed for the true afficionado's that overclock to the extreme or the onces that build PCs with say 4 GPUs. Realistically that is a limited market. That said however, it does not disqualify how tremendous good this power supply really is. The efficiency is insane and has never been seen before at this level. The AX1500i is without doubt the most versatile and powerful PSU we have ever tested. The trend in hardware lately is to be more power efficient and since we test with real-world hardware .. that's tough job to fulfill. So admittedly this review is a little subjective, however we have shown you a Chroma test report of the PSU and present the raw data right here as well, should you want to dive into load testing. The AX1500i obviously had no issues whatsoever with what we threw at it, in real-world testing with actual computer hardware we reached just over 700 Watt (Wall socket side measurement) which is not even considered as stress to this PSU.

Equilibrium

Half the maximum load is the point of equilibrium for a power supply though, that's where it'll be the most efficient and in this case at 230V that is 96% (!). As such the 700~750 Watt range is actually a sweet-spot. While passing 700 Watt load we do can confirm that the power efficiency is most definitely excellent as it performed smack down where it needs to be with other Platinum and Titanium tested models. At a price of 449 USD the product is very expensive though. You do get what you pay for, an almost demonic PSU with very high efficiency levels, great looks, great connectivity and of course LINK. Great to see is that Corsair really believes in this PSU and grants it a massive 7 years warranty. That shows how much trust they have in this product.



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Stability

Stability wise we have very little to complain at half load say 700 / 750 watts voltages remained drop dead synchronized. But we'll trust that some other reviews will show some ripple tests yet have no doubt the product will come out totally clean. Demonic is obviously the massive single +12V rail, it has just so much power to handle multiple heavy duty graphics cards. I mean 125 AMPs ..  considering that one graphics card uses 15A on average these days you do the math. For those that wonder, it seems that Flextronics remains the OEM behind the product. But have a look at the report on page 7 of this review, it really says it all. Being so efficient also translates in drop-dead stable voltage levels, obviously.

Aesthetics

The Corsair AX1500i looks great with its dark and orange logo design. A word of advice however has to be the concern of length, this puppy is 21.5 CM deep, so make sure you have the right PC case for that. The cables are delivered in a dark black coating, flat-cable mostly. Good to see is that the connectors themselves are all black as well. Modular designs are the way to go. You use what you need in terms of wiring, keeping the innards clean and tidy, plain and simple. And overall the AX1500i is a great looking PSU, slightly longer than your typical ATX sized PSU though. Be sure to check if it even fits inside you PC, then again if you purchase a beast like this we assume you have mutiple graaphics cards and at least an XL-ATX sized motherboard in your chassis already.
 

Final words

The Corsair AX1500i is Bullet proof, it has nothing to lose, it is the Titanium factor the PSU makes this by far an incredible winner. Our tests show that the PSU positions itself where it needs to be. But lets round things up. Next to the efficiency it  has good looks, is modular, is horrendously stable, comes with dark cabling and then we have to acknowledge it's drop dead silent as well.  The one thing that could hold you back is the pricing as 450 USD is steep for any PSU really. The 7 year warranty that you receive with this product IMHO does make up for the price premium. The AX1500 stands out from others by a good margin. So yeah, highly efficient it has a Digital Signal Processor (DSP) to provide digitally-controlled power and an interface to Corsairs Corsair Link software for real-time monitoring and control. Though aimed at an extremely small crowd, this is a job extremely well done from Corsair, this PSU definitely deserves our Top Pick award. Yeah, you know thinking about it, you are going to have a very hard time finding somebody write something negative about these AX1500i power supplies. Aside from its price point, it is an incredibly impressive product.

I'm bulletproof, nothing to lose
Fire away, fire away
Ricochet, you take your aim
Fire away, fire away

You shoot me down but I won't fall
I am titanium
 

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