Anyone who is a regular reader of this site, or any other hardware review site for that matter, is probably very familiar with Corsair. Well known for their enthusiast memory, over the past few years, they've expanded their product line to cover various forms of flash based memory as well as water-cooling products.

While Corsair produces mainstream products, enthusiasts are their primary target market. Said enthusiasts are probably armed with some pretty decent PCs, which probably also have some hefty power requirements. One of their competitors obviously saw the market for this, so why not go for a piece of the pie? Today we'll be looking at their newest creation, the Corsair CMPSU-620HX. How will it stack up against some industry veterans? Read on to find out.

Corsair CMPSU-620HX

The Corsair CMPSU-620HX PSU arrived neatly packed within Corsair's black rectangular packaging. The box cover lists several marketing tag lines, but one of interest is the very nice 5 year warranty. Most others only supply 3 years, and surprisingly enough, some have no manufacturer warranty at all.

Inside, the PSU was wrapped tightly in protective wrap, surrounded by high density packaging foam. A manual is included that runs over the general features and installation, as well as a mysterious nylon bag tucked to the side.

The Corsair CMPSU-620HX measures 5.9in (W) x 3.4in (H) x 5.9in (D), about the same size as your typical ATX PSU, but smaller in some ways when you think about it due to the fact it is a modular system, which we will elaborate on later. The CMPSU-620HX is rated at 620W, featuring a 99% Active PFC which allows for clean and reliable power. The power supply is auto-switching between 90~264V which means no guessing where to flip the red switch found on some PSUs.

The CMPSU-620HX has a good amount of weight to it. While it's not a scientific way of gauging a PSU's quality, most of the time, the heavier it is the better. This generally means that the manufacturer used higher quality metals and materials in their product. The PSU supports ATX12V v2.2 and EPS12V 2.91 standards, as well as being backwards compatible with the very common ATX12V 2.01 standard. Other safety features include over current, voltage and power protection. There is also under voltage protection as well as short circuit protection. The internal capacitors are rated for 105°C, which increases reliability and the overall life span of the unit.

The PSU features three 12V rails which is extremely important these days with water cooling, and multiple video card setups being all the rage. The rails peak at a max load capacity of 18A for each rail, which is higher across the board than some of the PSUs we've recently looked at. The 520W model features a combined maximum output of 40A while our review model has a rating of 50A max (600W). For the +3.3v and +5v rails, we have a maximum output of 170W, and just under 10W for the negative rails. Corsair guarantees the ratings up to 50°C and an estimated 100 000 hour run time.

Through Double Forward Switching Circuit Technology, Corsair is able to achieve 84% power efficiency. In layman's terms, this means for every 10W of power drawn, 8.4W is converted into usable power for the PC. While this rating isn't as high as some of the "Green" power supplies we've seen, the 84% rating is higher than the Enermax Liberty 620W, which we will be using as the comparison unit in testing.

The CMPSU-620HX uses a larger 120mm fan as opposed to smaller 80mm fans, thus Corsair chose the "Honey Comb" structure for the rear of the unit. The perforations allows a fair amount of air to be exhausted (via the 120mm fan) and is less obstructive than traditional precut grill methods. The fan doesn't have any fancy LED lights, which does surprise us in some ways since it's something of a case modder's must have. In use, the unit is very quiet for a fan equipped PSU, even at load. The fan is rated at about 36dBA under full load, which is rarely achieved by most users. We expect most users will put the PSU at about 30 to 33dBA.

As mentioned earlier, the CMPSU-620HX is a modular power supply, and features 7 connections outside of the 24-pin main power, 4-pin +12V and 8-pin EPS12V connections. These connections are for the power cables packed into the nylon bag we referred to at the start of the review. The bag isn't as organized as the one the Enermax Liberty, as that one had compartments for each cable.

For the 620W unit, the product includes 7 cables total. Two cables measure 800mm and have three 4-pin Molex connections. Each of these connections feature quick release tabs to make upgrades easier. There are also 2 shorter cables that have two 4-pin connections. For your video needs, the CMPSU-620HX includes two PCI express cables that will work with either single cards, SLI or CrossFire. Eight SATA connections are offered, split across two cables with three connections and one cable with two connections. Wrapping things up are two more connections for floppy drives and a fan only connection.

Installation is pretty straightforward, just plug in the cables you need and you're all set. We like the flat cables Corsair uses as it makes routing them a little easier. We didn't really plan out the path that well, so you can see it's not the cleanest wiring job, but since these are smaller than your typical modular cable, it doesn't really matter all that much.