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

Pros: Terrific bang for buck for non-gaming systems

Cons: Corsair hasn't cleared up the confusion on Haswell "compatibility"

Overall Review: I have used this psu in two different systems for the past three years and have had no problems whatsoever. In the first system I overclocked an unlocked AMD Phenom II by 20% and now I am using it with an Intel Haswell 4670K overclocked by 25%. Both systems had at least five disk drives and a sound card *but* both also used integrated graphics, so 430 watts was more than adequate. I am commenting on this unit now because I see there is still a lot of confusion about whether or not the cx430 is Haswell "compatible" or not. Corsair has not updated their list from a year ago that indicated that the CX series was still being "further tested." This is disingenuous of Corsair: they know that in all likelihood none of the CX psu's will reliably work with the C7 deep sleep mode introduced with Haswell. Why? Because by their own admission a compatible power supply needs to use DC to DC topology and the CX series uses group regulation to save on costs. Normally this isn't a problem if the psu is used within spec but C7 has special requirements the cx430 cannot provide. Of course aside from C7 the psu is completely compatible with Haswell and those reviewers who are not experiencing sleep issues are not wrong. In all likelihood their motherboards came configured to disable the C7 mode and all other sleep modes work fine. Since the sleep modes are controlled by the motherboard bios, anyone with this psu who is experiencing problems with sleep and a Haswell cpu can simply disable C7 with only the most minor hit to power consumption in sleep mode. Upon enabling C7 auto with an Asrock z87 Extreme6 MB I experienced a lot of inconsistency with sleep mode. Occasionally the system would go into sleep and then shut itself off, requiring me to press the power button on the chassis to restart. Of course this defeated the purpose of sleep since I lost whatever was open when I put the system to sleep. Having turned off all the C7 options in the bios, everything works as expected and I can recommend this psu if you understand that its design has a limitation with Haswell specifically. I have not researched low power psu's enough to know if there is an inexpensive unit with a DC to DC design available, but if there is it is unlikely to match the cx430's cost after rebate. Five eggs for price/performance ratio. One egg deducted because Corsair has not publicly explained why the unit may not work with C7 sleep mode.

Pros: Corsair build quality 80 plus bronze rating Single 12v rail Quiet 3 year warranty

Cons: Not modular!

Overall Review: Unbelievable bang for buck, especially with the $20 rebate currently offered. I was going to pick up a cheap generic power supply for a low cost build, however decided on this as it was a ridiculous price. 430W, single 12v rail, 3 year warranty. After running this for a few days, it is quiet and has performed flawlessly. Usually if I buy power supplies I stick to Seasonic, CoolerMaster or Corsair. Can't go wrong with this one.

Pros: I have used this power supply for the last 2 and a half weeks and everything is working better than expected. I am using this in my VR rig and replaced a 650w power supply and can tell this is definitely running a lot easier and makes me feel better about adding anything else to my computer. I definitely see no issues so far and a 5 yr warranty on this power supply is great. My 250.00 Seasonic power supply died after just a few years and out of its 3 yr warranty so I always love to see 5 yrs on any product.

Cons: Heat from the unit did heat up my machine quite a bit and I did turn up some of the fan speeds on my case which did make it more noticeable when I'm running it at night. I have a noisy rig already with 9 fans in my case including the CPU and graphics card fans.

Overall Review: So far I love the upgrade. I am upgrading from the Corsair 650w CX650M. The size and weight is almost double of the 650W. My system feels more stable and seems to run better than it did with the 650w which I was running hard.

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: Bought this to replace a dead generic grey box power supply in my parents computer, which is only used for light computing. Runs real quiet, efficient, and doesn't look half bad either. Not modular but there's a version that's slightly more expensive if you want that. Cables are nicely sleeved. I like that the 12V rail is all one big rail, reduces the need for load balancing.

Cons: Wish it had more than 1 PCIe power connector. Even old graphics cards like the Radeon 5830 which I have need 2 connectors.

Overall Review: Great budget power supply- does it's job and it's always safer to go with a brand name power supply even for everyday tasks. Bought 2 more since the original for other budget builds.

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: Amazing Corsair reliability, and it has the solid single-rail cables and connectors that aren't easily breakable or anything. I searched high and low for a low-wattage PSU that would compliment my HTPC setup and this one powers everything I need perfectly - with plenty of room to add extra hard drives and that sort of thing in the near future.

Cons: None really other than it just barely fit the PSU bay of the case I bought (more of the case's fault than anything else).