Corsair AX1500i PSU review - Introduction

Element 22 - Titanium

So as 80plus certification board you just gotta figure, power supplies will not get any better then Platinum, right ? But yeah, we are talking about the technology sector, and the tech industry will always improve to remain competitive. So as an organization what do you do when hardware and technology advanced to even higher efficiency levels ? That's right, you grab the periodic table, close you eyes and boom ... you hit Titanium :) Not sorted by Atomic number at all. Ah well, perhaps after Titanium we will see a Chromium or oooh-ooh ... a Vanadium certification, hehe.

As such today we review the beast amongst the beasts of power supplies -- it is time my fellow gurus to review the Mighty Mo -- the Corsair Professional Series AX1500i PSU. The 1500W PSU is exorbitant performance, the one massive 125A 12-volts says it all really. Superb for multi-GPU solutions and hardcore enthusiasts that overclock their systems with liquid nitrogen, and then some. Corsair also embeds their LINK technology into the PSU. That means you can monitor the PSU with the help of software, things like PSU efficiency, power usage or simply to adjust the fan RPM. We'll show you that in the review though as the latest iteration of the software also allows you to configure some of the voltage rails.

Now we all know that the sheer amount of PSUs out on the market are diverse and plentiful. Only a few names really stand out though and amongst them obviously is Corsair. AS IF their power supplies are not good enough they decided to bring out yet another updated series aimed at the true aficionado's and PC entrepreneurs. Amongst the Power Supply product lines from Corsair there is the Professional targeted Series AX PSUs, they just released the AX1500i which is a 1500 Watt power supply that is tagged as digital (DSP) ATX power supply. The AX series are all about being quiet and very efficient. The PSU as tested today carries a Titanium certification. Bronze, Silver Platinum and now Titanium is what you want, however the upper stack in hardware is expensive, that we have to agree to.

That means it's roughly 94% efficient at 50% load at 110 volts, and it gets even better at 230V with 96% efficiency here in Europe! Efficiency matters; years ago PSUs were as low as 70% efficient, meaning that 30% of the used power simply vanishes, whilst you are paying for it on that electricity bill. If your components eat away 500W then with that 70% efficient product you'd actually use 650W from your wall power socket. With today's AX1500i Platinum Platinum you'd be using 530W. It's that simple. The PSU itself is 100% modular, for most of you with a side panel window in their chassis a must really as you'll want modular cables. Even the ATX power connector for the motherboard can be removed. The new PSU also improved on the audibility front, if your PC is in idle and pretty much doing nothing, the rather silent fan will actually disable itself. That's right, the thermally-controlled fan spins up gradually above 30% load thus up-to 450W power consumption this PSU makes no noise whatsoever, but even during normal use and when gaming it remains silent really. All in all we have plenty to show you and test. Mind you that being the Professional range you'll get an added benefit as well, Corsair Professional Series PSUs are backed by an excellent 7-year warranty.

But have a peek at the product and then let's head on-wards into the review.