Corsair CP-9020048-UK Builder Series CX600 ATX/EPS 80 PLUS Bronze Power Supply Unit, 600 W

My PC was a home build bare bones Core i3 2nd generation, with an Asus motherboard. I do not put it to very demanding tasks, but had some very annoying issues. The first being the refusal of Media player to play videos properly, but some would play normally. The second issue is that the PC would boot normally on about half the occasions it started it up, but on other occasions it would show the BIOS screen, giving a message that a new CPU had been installed. This was not the case, it had just lost all the BIOS settings. This became annoying very quickly. I changed the battery, upgraded the BIOS and tested the PSU and tried the video card in another PC, but nothing fixed this issue. I was googling the issues one day, to try and find a cause and I saw a recommendation go check the Asus power draw website, based on the components. I did this and it came out at 650 watt, which was a bit of a shock, as I had a 550watt Corsair. I decided to gamble on a more powerful PSU and opted for this one. The existing Corsair was given to me and the most I had for a previous PSU was under £30, of paying two and a half times as much was a bit of a gamble. The PSU arrived quickly, had loads of connectors and appears to be of good quality. I fitted it and I am very pleased to say that I have a BIOS that no longer forgets and all videos now open! I did not realise that such a difference would be made. Also, my PC now feels noticeably faster and a good bit more responsive - not sure a PSU can do that, but if a PSU cannot make that difference, then it is just a coincidence. I am delighted with the results and I do not begrudge paying a good bit more than I would do normally for this very good PSU. Very highly recommended, as a bonus. it is not too noisey either.

Even though this power supply is a bit pricy compared to the cheaper ones it is certainly worth the money for anything above a low-end gaming PC or workstation.If you compare the specs of this PSU to those of a cheap one of the same wattage you will realise just how much of a difference there are between the two. The most important difference is that the cheap power supplies use certain tricks to sell it as a higher wattage as possible by having dual 12v rails which isn't as good for stability as a single rail and putting all of the current capability on the 5v rail and as the 5v rail has far less load on it than the more important 12v rail it's entirely useless. So for example a cheap PSU could be rated for 100A on the 5v rail and only 20A on the 12v rail meaning that it could be marketed as a 750W PSU but it would barely be able to power a low end PC, the Corsair CX750 on the other hand can output 62A on the 12v rail meaning that it can output 744W on the 12V rail alone.Another advantage of better quality power supplies is that they are more efficient meaning that they output less heat and waste less energy. A cheap PSU might have an efficiency of 60% or less meaning if it is outputting 500W then it will output 200W of heat! This fact alone means that good quality and efficient power supplies like this one will pay for them selves over time as they save you money on your electricty bill.

Before I'd built my first PC, a friend had recommended I get a modular PSU to help me with my cable management. I (at the time) was skeptical about paying the extra money for it, thinking I could get by fine with the normal cable bundle I'm used to.However when it came to building, I had the money to spend (only about £10-20 difference I believe) so I took the plunge. And indeed that was the right choice. Corsair are a very good brand for PSUs - their reputation across the web seems to be highly positive - and are worth spending more to get one instead of a cheap no brand one. The PSU is a crucial part of your PC, and you don't want to risk frying your components with a dodgy one.This PSU came with an abundance of cable connectors, with lots of SATA, PCI-E and Molex connectors to choose from. I used the three Molex connectors for my case fans, two PCI-E connectors for my graphics card, and three SATA connectors for my drives - and I still had spare cables for all of them! Brilliant for future expansion. The cables are of a high quality, and have plenty of length for most cases. My mid tower had no issues whatsoever.I honestly cannot fault it after a week of use. It runs fairly cool, very quietly, and provides reliable efficient power to all my components. I'd really recommend this for someone looking for a reliable PSU either for a new build, or to replace a broken one.