CORSAIR CX Series CX500 500W 80 PLUS BRONZE Active PFC ATX12V & EPS12V Power Supply

Pros: Being 80% energy efficient, this 500 Watts Corsair power supply will be a good choice for most system builders. Fan noise problem noted by other reviewers have not been noticed by me, my sample of this PSU runs quiet in all positions. All cables were long enough for my system, and even furthest connection on motherboard (CPU Power 8-pins connector) reaches destination just fine with some slack. Corsair positions this PSU as a Intermediate Grade, however I'd position CX series as a General Purpose PSU as there is nothing advanced or innovative in this CX500 model.

Cons: At full load (simulated system stability test by AIDA64) one side panel of this power supply gets warm while power supply's cooling fan does not increase rotational speed (in my test cooling fan did not respond to increased internal temperature). Another significant limitation of this PSU is that it only have cables to power up single graphics card, and cannot be used with dual graphic cards configuration (SLI or CrossFire). Also I must note that under heavy load 12 Volts output dropped to 11.8 Volts. Evidently circuitry inside of PSU can be improved to keep output at 12.0 Volts until any load up to max allowable.

Overall Review: System that I used for testing this power supply: Antec Three Hundred Case Asrock Z97 Extreme3 Motherboard EVGA GTX760 Graphics Card Intel i7-4790K Processor running at 4.2Ghz 4x Corsair Vengeance 4GB Memory Sticks Also I should note that at the time of writing this review there was newer version of this class PSU available at Newegg, listed as CX series 550 Watts. One egg was removed for failure of builtin cooling fan to respond to temperature increase and failure to adequately stabilize 12 Volts energy bus under heavy load.

Pros: - Corsair Quality - 80 Plus Bronze - Cool and Quiet - Wrapped Cables - Price This CX500 was purchased to power a customers new mid-range gaming PC build. See "Other thoughts".

Cons: None.

Overall Review: A quality, yet inexpensive, PSU was needed to power a mid-range gaming PC build with the following hardware. AMD FX-8350 Vishera CPU AMD Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition Video Card GIGABYTE GA-990FXA-UD3 Motherboard Crucial M500 240GB SSD (Boot/OS) WD BLACK SERIES WD2003FZEX 2TB HDD 8GB G.Skill Ripjaws DDR3 1600 (2x4) RAM All sitting in a Cooler Master HAF 932 case. The CX500 from Corsair has more than enough power for this build. The CX and other series power supplies from Corsair are fantastic and I highly recommend them for just about any build. With the CX line you get a quality PSU at a reasonable price.

Pros: Black Sleaved Cables Long Cables

Cons: First one was DOA

Overall Review: My current opinion of corsair now rides on the reliability and life of this powersupply.

Pros: This unit provides a very good value and performance for the cost. It's seems to be well built all around. Internally everything looks sound and there is no lack of quality on the workmanship or component quality for the price point. The unit is quiet and doesn't seem to get overly hot under normal use. The fan grill is a nice touch and the logos and appearance of the unit are not too outrageous making it perfect for any windowed case. While it is not modular it offers a good selection of connectors. The cables are sleeved and I am very happy with the length of them. It has enough PCI-E connectors to run an entry level to mid-range GPU.

Cons: The CX500 seems to be a bit more budget looking at internal construction, the mains filter cap is a very good quality, but other Corsair PSUs have a different look and style inside than this one (aka corsair branding on transformers, beefier heatsinks, etc) even when compared to the VS series. I suspect this one may be a bit more budget in some aspects to allow for more features (efficiency, long cables, active PFC, etc). Outside of not being modular, I cannot really knock any stars off since this is a low cost supply, and works well even under decent load.

Overall Review: All in all is seems to be an decent PSU for light to moderate use, I would recommend this PSU as an entry level gaming PSU and as a decent replacement for any every day desktop computer that needs an upgrade or replacement. Internally the unit did not look bad, though it did seem to be a bit more budget than alot of Corsair's other lines (including the VS series which I have reviewed prior). The main filter cap in my unit is from a reputable manufacturer (Nichicon) and the output filter caps are an OK brand (CapXon). The heatsinks could be beefier. Everything else looked good and was as to be expected, no cut corners, no lack of features found in a decent PSU (filter and protection circuitry). I have had this PSU in a desktop for about a month and it was stable and performed as expected even under light gaming loads with mid-range GPU. Special Notes: I did take my unit apart to inspect it. I do not recommend doing this yourself as power supplies can be dangerous and it will void your warranty. I do this since I am reviewing the product as a Newegg Eggxpert and I am an electronics technician by trade.

Pros: - Build quality is as good as any - PLENTY of connectors for a PSU at this price point - ON/OFF switch - Fan is silent

Cons: - Not modular

Overall Review: I used this PSU for my media server, which probably only needs about 300W to run. It would be less, but is old and based on a 90nm Intel quad core and about ten hard disks with a RAID card. This is offset by a very large passive CPU cooler. There are abundant cables of top quality, all covered with a fine weave braided sheathing. The connectors themselves are all pretty standard and good enough for any application, but there is a nice thick band of heat shrink binding the wires before they go into the connectors. This is especially important with Molex connectors, as individual pins like to become dislodged and binding the wires helps prevent this. The one pet peeve I have is bad Molex connectors. It is less and less important these days as we use fewer of these than before, but these Molex connectors have a tight tolerance where the pins are lined up nicely and don’t have much play. Probably not a big deal to most of you, but if you care, these ones are some of the best I have seen. I am a firm believer that oversizing your PSU in conjunction with a good cooling environment is the key to longevity of every component. I have worked on probably close to 100 builds over the years, hard drives have been the number one failure, followed by PSUs. I do not count fans in this, because I went through a phase where I bought very cheap case fans in bulk and just used them as if they were disposable. I also almost never cleaned them or blew the dust out of the bearings (imagine the worst). I have over 2000 hours on this PSU and so far, no signs of any problem. I am not sure how useful that information is to the purchaser regarding PSU longevity because in my experience when PSU's fail, there are few if any symptoms leading up to the failure, and often they fail spectacularly... with fireworks! I will be sure to come back and report if and when anything changes. Another reviewer opened the PSU (not recommended and be careful!) and reported on the capacitors. This may be useful to you. Capacitors are the number one cause of PSU failure and if you are in the habit of looking at them (which I am not) you will see caps bulging before failure. Invariable, every PSU I have had fail had bulged caps. Again, I think keeping a cool environment, with a case that has lots of air flow inside and outside the case and low ambient temperatures will help these caps, and everything else, live longer. Over the years I have had many Corsair PSU's and generally regard them as above average to excellent.

Pros: good quality powersupply, it runs cool and silent. has not had any problems.

Cons: none

Overall Review: bought this to put in a buddy's computer. i'm the guy who he always calls when something is going wrong with his computer.. i wanted him to buy one that would outlast his other computer parts and he could reuse when it comes time to upgrade again. this power supply fits our needs perfectly

Pros: Not much to say but it works perfect as it should

Cons: None

Overall Review: Powers athlon II x4, nvidia GTS 250 graphics card, 8gb ddr3 1600, and rest of system no problem.

Pros: this power supply is worth every penny and its definitely worth what you pay. it has many of the features of higher end psu but for a fraction of the cost. it comes with fully sleeved cable's, sli/crossfire ready wwith 2 6+2 pin cable for almost any modern graphics card configuration it also comes 80+ bronze certified a dedicated single 12 volt rail for better power distribution. it comes with a big 120mm active fan for cooling, a superior manufacturer warranty and quality built, and I personally like the straight black look with minimal writing on it. it just looks good inside my case and has plenty of power and connecctions for my pc

Cons: the only cons I can write is minor at best now this psu can handle almost any configuration but if you building a super high end pc you may want to look at a higher wattage psu for example such as multiple sli and crossfire, high end liquid cooling, combined with high end cpu / ram / motherboard combo's. and last but not a big deal its not modular oor partially modular but this is usually a higher end psu thing it just makes for better cable management