Cables & Connectors cont'.


The 8-pin PCI-E connectors get the same flat cable treatment as their smaller cousins but they use an additional wire for a total of two bundles of four wires.


The additional 8-pin CPU connector is modular and unlike the other modular cables it is covered in regular sleeving instead of being completely flat. While this may strike you as a bit odd, it was a welcome change after seeing what happened to the PCI-E cables.


Corsair really pulled out all the stops when it came to the HX1000W since everything is done to near-perfection and that even includes something as small as a Molex connector. All of the Molex connectors have the very handy quick-release tabs installed which makes them a breeze to remove from components.


We have finally come to the brains of this operation: the modular interface. In our option, this is one area which either makes or breaks many power supplies since some companies have gone completely the wrong direction with their interfaces. That being said, like so many other things about the HX1000W, Corsair got this right.

To begin with they have included an easy to understand diagram detailing the locations of each cable along with the +12V rail it is associated with. In addition, they make the process of installing the connectors downright easy since a Molex or SATA cable won’t be able to fit into the connectors designated for the CPU and PCI-E cables and vice versa. To make matters even simpler, Corsair has color-coded one set of modular connectors blue while the other set stays black. Once you have chosen which cables you will use, it is just a simple matter of aligning the connector with the modular interface and pushing it in until you feel it click into place.

If you have been keeping track of the number of cables we have been going through, right about now you have probably realized that there are more cables than there are modular interfaces on the HX1000W. While there are six connectors for the SATA and Molex cables, there are actually eight cables in total. The same goes for the four blue connectors where Corsair gives you four additional PCI-E cables and one additional CPU connector. So, if you are using a Skulltrail system you will be able to use three modular PCI-E cables while the last blue interface connector will be take up by the extra CPU cable. All in all this suits us just fine since if you need every cable supplied you are probably running a system that would draw more power than the HX1000W could safely provide.