Corsair TX850 850W Power Supply Review

Temperatures & Acoustical Properties

Temperatures


Even though the TX850 is reasonably efficient it seems to produce a lot of heat, especially at higher loads. Things started off very well with this Corsair unit being slightly warmer that the two higher end units in the chart but by the end of the Max Load test, things started to get toasty. However, even with this large delta the TX850 didn’t exhibit any issues with wandering voltages or excess ripple.



Acoustical Properties

Considering the hellish, ear-drum shaking amount of noise that comes from our test system’s two HD 4870X2 cards and the dual Panaflo monster fans on the CoolIT Boreas, it is a miracle I haven’t gone deaf. As you can imagine, this setup isn’t the best for proper acoustical testing but by placing my ear next to the unit, I was able to get a pretty good approximation of the noise it produces.

Corsair units are known worldwide for their near-silent operation and the TX850 is no different…until you get into its upper operating ranges. As you approach the point where the unit pulls about 700W from the wall, the fan speed increases to the point where it is slightly above a muted “whoosh”. However, with GPU fans the way they are these days, the 140mm on the Corsair will be easily drowned out. When you push things a bit further, the TX850 makes its presence felt but not in an annoying way. Rather, the whoosh becomes a slight hum while that gargantuan fan pushes torrents of hot air out the back exhaust opening.