Corsair vx550w - Impressively quiet

T

tazeat

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Jul 3, 2007
Messages
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My older OCZ GameXStream 600w was acting up and the fan was making loud noises so I went to go RMA it only to find out I would be w/o PSU for about a week... So needless to say I bought the Corsair vx550w.... This thing barely makes a sound, I'm impressed.

Even sitting in my hand right in front of me the hard drive I threw on for load while jumping to check noise levels was much louder than the PSU, I could barely hear the thing. Anyway tested my OCZ bam Whaaaaaa annoying fan.

It seems to be more than stable powering my system too
x2 5000+
x1900GT
4x512 PNY DDR2
3ware 9500s-8
7x320gb Seagate 7200.10
1x500gb Samsung

Anyway I was impressed so I figured I would share my experience since I haven't seen too many reviews on Corsair's PSUs... Great price too $69.90 after MIR.
https://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=10006757
 
I am looking at this PSU and the Corsair CMPSU-520HX. The 520HX is a bit more money with less watts, but has three 12v rails. Both are listed as SLi capable, what to do.......
 
I just installed the 520HX and it too is virtually silent! I can't believe I'm excited over a power supply!!! :)
 
after i bought the HX620 for my main new machine, i built a folding quad and a music server PCs using the HX520 and VX450. they are very good PSUs. IMO
i like the simple black with old school racing stripe. (even thought you cant see it in any of my builds) but mostly the efficiency silence and reliable stable power.
 
the hx are modular right? that would have been sweet, but seeing as I used almost all the cables it hardly seems worth it :p. (Unless of course it comes with extra SATA cables that you can use instead of the regular molex ones! Way too many hard drives ftw)


edit:
ya I have 5 in my raid-5 and have room on my 3ware card to go to 8 drives if need be... I also have an SATA OS drive and another regular IDE drive to power as well, another set of 3 would have been a good addition imho.
 
tazeat said:
the hx are modular right? that would have been sweet, but seeing as I used almost all the cables it hardly seems worth it :p. (Unless of course it comes with extra SATA cables that you can use instead of the regular molex ones! Way too many hard drives ftw)
Click to expand...

Even the "economy" model VT550 has six SATA connectors, on 2 strings of 3 connectors each. With a 4 drive raid 5, OS drive, and a hot spare it was one thing I was looking for. Love mine, good stuff.
 
lov3rboy408 said:
not worth it to buy.. this pSU only single rail.. can't upgrade to SLI in the future
Click to expand...

This is incorrect. The SLI certification doesn't require multiple rails, in fact, single rail is sometimes easier for people due to the fact it is less likely to have compatibility problems (worrying which cable is which rail, etc).

In fact, according to nVidia's website:

Ultra High-End SLI PC*:
You must have a power supply that can provide a minimum of +12V @ 22A of dedicated power for the two graphics cards. Of this 22A requirement, +12V @ 5.5A must be available to each of the two PCI Express 6-pin auxiliary power supply connectors. The remaining 11A must be supplied to the motherboard for dedicated graphics card use.
Click to expand...

The VX550 has 41A on the +12V rails, more than enough to run their "ultra high-end SLI PC".

It should easily power 8800GTSs in SLI, for GTXs you would want to go for the TX650 or TX750 I would wager, just a bit more headroom.
 
Silentbob343 said:
I am looking at this PSU and the Corsair CMPSU-520HX. The 520HX is a bit more money with less watts, but has three 12v rails. Both are listed as SLi capable, what to do.......
Click to expand...

520 is modular which is nice. But also a little more money =\
 
The hx series has three virtual rails, basically 1 rail which really is better as long it is well made, and these corsair's definitely, definitely are!
 
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