Hey guys, Jarrod here and today we’re going to check out the Corsair HX1000i power supply,
which I’ve chosen for my Threadripper PC.
Inside the box we have a manual, warranty information, power cable, cable ties, a bag
of modular cables, and finally the power supply itself.
First let’s take a physical look at the unit.
On the back there’s the AC power connector, power on/off switch, holes for airflow, and
some subtle branding.
Over on the other side on the front you’ll find the USB port for Corsair Link, more on
this later, a fan test button, and the modular outputs for you to connect the included cables.
These connectors are designed so that you can only put the right cable in the right
spot, so you can’t really mess it up.
Additionally this means we only need to plug in the specific cables that we need for our
build which will help with cable management.
The modular cables provided include 1 ATX connector, 2 EPS connectors which is important
for Threadripper, as my x399 board needs 2 of these, 12 four pin peripheral connectors,
8 PCIe connectors, 12 SATA connectors and 2 floppy connectors if for some reason you
still need those.
The cables are a bit stiff and don't like to bend much which made the cable management
process a bit slower, I had to pre bend them a little in some cases.
On the sides of the unit there’s nothing other than some Corsair branding, which will
look right way up in most cases regardless of if you mount the power supply fan up or
down.
On the top or bottom depending which way you mount the unit is the 140mm cooling fan.
The fan will not actually need to spin with a load less than 400 Watts, so in order to
check that the fan is operating correctly without generating the necessary load we can
press the fan test button which will start spinning the fan, confirming that it’s all
good.
So at anything lower than 400 Watts the unit will be operating silently.
The fan will start getting progressively faster and louder after around the 600 Watt mark.
On the side opposite the fan is nothing other than an informational sticker.
The power supply is 150mm x 86mm x 180mm and weighs 3.59kg
As you may have guessed, the 1000 in the name refers to 1000 Watts which is how much power
the unit is able to supply.
The power supply has been given an 80+ platinum rating, meaning that at 20% load the unit
should be at least 90% efficient, at 50% load it should be at least 94% efficient, while
at 100% it should be at least 91% efficient.
With such high levels of efficiency less heat is created, which is why it’s able to run
below 400 Watts without spinning the fan.
When the fan does start up it’s rated to only run at 12 decibels, so it’s still fairly
quiet, however it will peak at around 23 decibels under maximum load.
Now let’s take a look at Corsair Link.
The Corsair Link software can be used to monitor various Corsair parts in your system such
as fans, lights, Corsair power supplies and Corsair CPU coolers.
In order to use it with this power supply, we need to plug the included USB cable into
an internal USB header on the motherboard.
While this sounds cool in theory it's probably only going to be most useful if you stick
within the Corsair ecosystem and make use of various parts from them if you want to
be able to check everything within the same set of software.
I’m not actually using any other Corsair components in my Threadripper PC, so it's
unlikely that I'll make use of Corsair Link just to monitor the power supply.
Sure it'll be interesting to look at once or twice, but I can't see myself regularly
wanting to check the status of my power supply.
You can actually save $20 if you get the HX1000 which is basically the same but without Corsair
Link.
While there are some one star reviews on Amazon stating that the power supply stopped working
these definitely seem to be a small minority, there’s always a failure threshold with
every product, nothings perfect.
There’s a 10 year warranty on the power supply if you do have any issues, and my previous
Corsair power supply has lasted me for over 7 years, and I’ve got another in my recent
server that I made, so personally I’m pretty confident in them producing a quality unit
that will last.
So what did you guys think of the HX1000i power supply from Corsair?
Personally I’m happy to pay a little more to get a more efficient power supply as not
only will it save power long term, it will also produce less heat and thereby less audible
noise as a side effect.
While I probably didn’t need 1000 watts, just keep in mind I am running a 16 core CPU
with an Nvidia 1080 here, with plans on possibly upgrading the graphics in future to an SLI
configuration.
For most people out there 1000 watts is probably overkill, so do some research and find what
you need to power your components to save some money.
While I don’t have the tools required to thoroughly test and review this power supply
extensively I hope that the information in this overview has been useful.
If it was be sure to let me know down in the comments, or leave a like on the video.
Thanks for watching and don’t forget to subscribe for future tech videos like this
one.