Corsair AX1600i PSU Review

[@Pienimusta]

People crying about price - If you can't afford it, your pc doesn't need it.

[@TheAwesonymous]

Pienimusta haha exactly

[@girlsdrinkfeck]

dont tell them the cost of server rack PSUs

[@emi1557]

Except that's just as likely if you CAN afford it -_-

[@mydreampcuk2838]

So true

[@JoeJacksonJr]

@Pienim Yep.. LOL

[@philipwalters3565]

I'm a complete novice but was able to follow along no problem - thank you

[@Jooglesberry]

We got the EVGA 1600 G2 because it was the only 1600 watt psu I could find at the time. When you want to run 4 gpus and a high core count cpu for photogrammetry workloads, it's what you need.

[@droknron]

This really came out of the blue. I was not expecting Corsair to outdo their own AX 1500i for quite some time as it was seemingly the best power supply available (if money was no object). So this is quite surprising. Really nice to see them push the envelope, I certainly don't need one but I certainly want one!

[@brIceni-x4w]

Just managed pick one of these up for just £299 during a very brief and totally unprecedented Amazon price drop. Don't need more than 1000W but for just £10 more than the Seasonic Prime 1000W Titanium I was eyeing up, I wasn't gonna hang about. Got it just in time before it shot back up to £405. Very happy with it.

[@strelok305]

A power supply that cost that much should at least come with sleeved cable's come on corsair. Yes I know that probably 99% of people buying this psu will just get custom cables anyway but its about the attention to detail and quality.

[@CubeRepublic]

They sell sleeved cable kits lol.

[@nimrodery]

That would raise the cost significantly, although it would be nice to have the option. They're still going to have those capacitors wrapped in there, that might have affected the decision to stick with normal "flat" cables.

[@CubeRepublic]

Got to love add-ons!

[@SuaSponte75]

nimrodery buying sleeved cables seperately is going to increase the cost for the buyer anyways. Because whoever needs this big of a PSU is probably going to do sleeved cables anyways, so why not throw them in. Manufacturers find anyway to skimp on product and still charge a premium price. Just look at cases with shitty fans and AIOs that have rgb pumps and grey and black fans (Corsair h150i and h115i)

[@bothellkenmore]

Thinkin the folks lookin for this aren't into bling

[@nimrodery]

RM1000i hype! Nice to have something that looks good on a chart.

[@mariokrumsdorf6928]

I have just bought the AX1600i PSU and an aftermarket cable-kit for the PSU from CableMod. Can I Use these Mod-cables without the built-in capacitors (I haven't opened the CableMod box but I guess that they won't have the capacitors)? What are these capacitors good for?

[@AzraelIgnis]

6 years later this psu is still highly sought after. We are now at the 4090 with tdp of 600 watts. I bought one 4 years ago and it's the best psu I have ever owned.

[@dresdenk]

Just found your channel. Really like it so far!

[@choppergirl]

Wow, you have some SUn Moon equipment? I had a Sun Moon ancient PBX system with about 15 phones. Couldn't find the instructions for setup anywhere on the net, no manual, so I ended up gutting the wall mounted metal case and it now houses my NAT router and cable modem :)

[@andrewrobbins4168]

Id be really interested to see the ripple tests using those white cables that dont have the caps built in, as the majority of people who can afford this type of psu will go the custom cable route anyway. Perhaps a future video?

[@VeeDriving]

Why does this power supply have no connectors for the newer graphics cards?

[@analogaudiorules1724]

All these people crying about the price, you get what you pay for, this power supply uses Japanese Nippon chemi-con capacitors which are well known for being very reliable, they've been making capacitors for over 45 years. I can't remember exactly which capacitor series they use for the main filter capacitors from nippon, but they are very good quality, the gallium nitride switching transistors aren't simply a marketing gimmick, but are actually legitimately higher performing Parts than their silicone counterparts, they have low on Resistance, therefore they produce less Heat at the same output level as an equivalent silicon transistor, therefore they can also be made smaller because of the greater efficiency and less internal resistance, so that means they can pack even more them in a tighter space and select even higher current rated output devices. The extra money partially comes from using these transistors, not only that but all the other semiconductors inside of the power supply are all the name brand components, Texas Instruments, St semiconductors saken ect. This psu also has very low Ripple current on the output rails for rock solid system stability, they don't give you exact measurements, but under full load it's got to be well under 10 - 15mv, the line regulation is probably so good it doesn't drift more than 1/4 to .5 of a volt under full load. The PCB is probably fairly thick and the board traces are probably fairly thick as well, all the modular cables for the power supply are well-built and fairly thick. I believe this power supply gets a 10-year warranty. with a load life of over 100,000 hours. When it comes down to it, you get what you pay for, don't cry about the price, if you do, your computer probably doesn't need it anyway, the only thing that would make it justifiable would be if you get the latest RTX 3090, even more so if you SLI two of them, the 1600watter is a must for two, quite frankly, you could probably get away with the 1500 watt power supply. for two 3090s however it would be pushing it a bit, you should get corsairs 1200 watt ax series power supply at the minimum for just powering one. you just might barely be able to get by with a thousand watt power supply from Corsair for one, but a 1200 watt aX Series power supply for a single 3090 it's really what you should get. If you have high end graphics cards, ssds, inside of your computer tower, if you get a crappy power supply like a roswell or a coolermaster thermitake or whatever its called and it blows up and takes out your mobo and expensive cards, that's on you... Save up for a corsair, nothing compares or competes... even their cheapy buget cx series is better then 80 percent of the junk out there for the same price...

[@killacamfoo]

Two systems at once?

[@bee1445]

Thank you for a great review and being honest about your knowledge. I've subbed :)

[@clintonbothma3285]

Retest with upgrade pack cables with no caps in them, Intersted to see if Ripples change and or efficency slightly ?

[@jonmaster2143]

Where is the exhaust section for AX1600i if I may ask or which direction is the fan spinning?

[@michaelpoczynek]

Well done. Thanks. PS. If you change your frames per second from 24 to 30 to 60 you should be able to eliminate the flicker on the red display. Cheers!

[@EcoAcid]

From buying a used computer for a bit too cheap and selling all the other stuff from it, I got an AX1600i and a 2TB 970 Evo Plus for free. I had an RM1000i before. The full fan speed start of the AX1600i is really rather annoying. Since this PSU came out, has there been a way to disable that?

[@elliottslab]

After seeing that new Seasonic 600w passive that’s the only way to go for most builds wouldn’t want be be useing that kinda power

[@zerphase]

The advantage of the AX1600i is you can hit 800 watts, be completely silent, and not risk damaging components by riding too close to the max wattage for long. Have to remember every year a power supply loses head room.

[@sudd3660]

he just tested it and the fan start at 800 watts, not silent at all. efficient psu usually starts fans at 40% load so 700watts would be the sweet spot for this 1600w psu, now the problem is how silent can you get those 700 watts of hardware to be.... either way, its the electrical noise you have to worry about when you get to 25db or so with fans at 500rpm.

[@zerphase]

xuddish p If it's anything like the ax1500i you can play around with the fan curve. Even if there is a little fan noise I generally prefer to stay around 50% load. I've seen way too many people damage components by being cheap on the power supply.

[@MrSeon123]

zerphase Any PSU from any decent brand is rated to run at its full power 24/7 at its max temperature for the entirety of its warranty. So that's absolutely not a worry

[@zerphase]

Seon-Ho Don't psus have the actual max wattage drop overtime?

[@WeAreTwoDoorsDown]

A 10 year warranty doesn't mean shit when you never get your RMA back.

[@TheAwesonymous]

WeAreTwoDoorsDown my Corsair ax760i malfunctioned last week, had to return it under warranty. Good thing the retailer refunded me yesterday.

[@PaulinOsakanow]

Yes I know I have a Seasonic Platinum 6 months old and they wont help out.

[@girlsdrinkfeck]

it sthe retailers job by law to refund u

[@zahidshabir4038]

well I BROKE my M65 (I always cliick too hard and the thing attached to to the top which presses the switch snapped off) and went to Corsair RMA department and they replaced my mouse I got the replacement the day after they received my mouse and then it happens again (just a U shaped piece of plastic which can give way in the middle) so I just took apart my mouse and got a plastic dust cap off a HDMI port and cut a piece off and attached it to the underside of the mouse using double sided sticky foam piece and my mouse has last 3 x longer the original and current mouse before I ghetto fixed it (almost a year now) keep your receipt as proof of purchase or screen shot amazon/other website's purchase history page or whatever there is to show what you have bought and if that does not work then you are out of luck

[@utahmaximus2984]

great review as always, thanks

[@raw_pc]

Got two of those for workstation. 2990WX and 2x Titan RTX with possible addition of two Teslas M40 24GB in the future. It's a good practice to separate graphics cards from the CPU and other components for long renderings or simulations.

[@theeltea]

Just been restocked! GRABBED ONE!

[@theeltea]

@@Mappi75 nicely done

[@ags911]

What is the update on the 100% fan test at boot? I have a AX1500i and it also sounds like a jet taking off. The HX1200i sounded quiet on start up? I guess you can't just change or remove the fan.

[@videogamephenomhd]

That power supply is strong enough to support a GeForce 2080ti and 3 Quadro RTX 4000 cards.

[@fraizer2600]

will be great if you can test EVGA 1600 titanium to compare with this

[@solomonshv]

he did. look again. super flower leadex 1600 is the same thing as the evga unit. evga rebrands super flower units as their own.

[@arikelvara]

An nVidia 3090 would need this. Might get this or a HX1000i for a 3080 build!

[@bitrage.]

Im running a 32core system that under load hits 1100 watt... i dont understand how ppl are so mindblown about 1600 watt psu... I was running a 1200 watt psu for about a year and it went bad, i do alot of 3d rendering in Arnold...

[@gabrielosuna4310]

If my rig consumes 1500w there would be a problem with this power supply?

[@75Krusty]

What are btw the capacitors good for, inside the cables?

[@LuckyFecker]

will the american verson of this work in the uk?

[@OC3D]

Yes dude, there is only one type built now and they just switch afaik

[@LuckyFecker]

OC3D TV so theres no manual switch on it, just auto? .... thanks for your quick response

[@Viettzz]

So where can you buy this AX1600i psu right now? i dont see anywhere that selling them?

[@q8tech108]

Question If you answer me i will buy . when you unboxing include UK plug and NA both ?

[@cmdrflint9115]

Glad they've lost the red logo accents on the ax range, always avoided them as it would have clashed with my build. I'm still using an old(ish) hx1000i, maybe time for an upgrade as it's recently developed a clicky fan. Thanks for the in depth review :)

[@loloson1455]

does this mean i can run a vega with one cable with two 6+2 heads? or would i still have to plug in two separate cables?

[@1BigBen]

my old 1200AX still running strong after 8 years but I don't see it on the list, maybe I will update to this in coming mouths

[@benzgan3517]

Hi there, I just bought a Corsair ax1600i I found out the fan of PSU only run a while when I turn on, after entered to windows the psu fan will off automatically. Is this normal?

[@RathOX]

yes

[@mitchelldeupree4458]

I like big power suppies and I can not lie

[@lachlanlachlan4975]

some a bit true for me

[@antonisautos8704]

1600 isn't too far fetched now with the 4000 series RTX GPUs and the nearly 300 watt 12900k...

[@basherkabir]

But is it truly EPS12V SSI Complaint ?!!!

[@degreesdegrees-jr4eg]

Can it be hacked. Connect all 12 v cabes. 5 v and so on. ?

[@ManWithBeard1990]

Well... Innovation, I'm sure Corsair (or their OEM) didn't develop these GaN transistors in-house but rather compared a bunch of datasheets and thought: Oh, look, those look good. And they happened to be GaN. It's not as rare a semiconductor as you might think: Most modern (bright) LEDs actually use it. And so do some transistors, apparently.

[@d_dadang5467]

Corsair ax1600i or bequiet dark power pro 12 1500, which one the best?

[@Frozoken]

The ax 1600i, both impressively and annoyingly, is still the best power supply on the market and by a good amount too, 5 years later.... There's ur answer.

[@Kradym]

Very nice review thx

[@shangrilaladeda]

It's the same size as their ax1200i, the control from the link software was removed now it is being controlled through cue which has much less features. It is more efficient than their ax1200i by a couple percent which isn't bad right now i am see a ninety five percent rating.

[@orkistlnaabecker8680]

will you test the platinium psus from seasonic?

[@jeromemarquez8798]

well, gpu for 4000 might be 450-500w for 4090...

[@holenjd3]

Awesome stuff

[@Feragamotv]

hello, My GPU is 3090 Kingpin , looking for this PSU , please let me know this worth buy ? good PSU ? thanks

[@wtf-hc3tp]

Well it is recommended that you need a 750 watt PSU for a 3090, if you wish to go higher go right ahead.

[@andrewterry8661]

Why doesn't anyone sponsor you to go to CES? Doesn't make sense.

[@Tainted-Soul]

looking forward to 2022 LOL 13900k and a RTX 4090 this looking good :)

[@TwistarGaming]

TTL you rock M8

[@jumpwaffles]

Will that PSU sufficient enough to run an AMD Threadripper 1950x(still poor gaming and single thread performance but excellent multi-thread performance) or Intel I9 7980x cpu overclocked, 64GB of G.Skill ram, Gigabyte, Asus or Asrock X299 or TR4 motherboard, two Samsung 2tb 850 PRO ssd, Samsung 950 Pro 1tb, and two Volta or Ampere cards that supersede the gtx 1080 ti overclocked 24/7? I'm currently looking for an upgrade for i7 6700k at 4.5GHZ, 32GB 2015 special edition ram, Gigabyte Z170 motherboard, two 2tb of Samsung 850 EVO SSD, two EVGA 1080ti overclocked, and Corsair AX1500i psu... or should I wait until Intel or AMD release Zen2 , Ice lake or Cannon lake CPU- since, Coffee Lake processors were a rushed, unfinished product with a bad power consumption with a slight multi-thread lead over Ryzen.

[@jumpwaffles]

Thank for the advice. I'll probably hold on with what the Skylake system until I see what Ice Lake, Cannonlake or AMD Zen 2 processors has to offer in synthetic benchmarks, gaming, single-thread, multi-thread performance and etc.; hell, since both Coffee Lake and Skylake and Kaby X processors were rushed to the market because of Ryzen and Threadripper, only offered moderate multi-thread and synthetic benchmark increase over previous generations, and somewhat power hungry for its core counts... I might as well wait for the Intel's next line of extreme processors with better performance and something not rushed out to the market.

[@retartedfreak]

Yes, without breaking a sweat or even turning the fans on

[@mrmactknife]

Dayum, 1600watts? What a beast!

[@uttuslien]

Watched it with my tea & biscuits :::)))

[@EverythingBattletech]

2 years later... 3090 laughs at 1600w. Where those 2000w be at?

[@kchimusaru]

So much power

[@voluntarism335]

i have the seasonic prime ultra 1000w titanium psu is that a good psu for sli?

[@andljoy]

You broke the rule, you turned it on and did not take it apart

[@theeltea]

Good luck finding one in stock... Pfft... Shit, decent power supplies are next to impossible to get! Can't get the Prime Ultra 1Kw Titanium, can't get this. Damn...

[@andrecostin1288]

Oooooo GaN fets I've been following for a while. SiC fets too.

[@David-nd4to]

seasonic do a 2kw

[@tech-daddy]

I am not crying about the price, but its current lack of availability.... like everything else on the god damn market.

[@Therealmcdoc]

At first I read "7 mins" and I thought to myself "I everything allright with Tom? Does he need some help?" I mean < 10 minutes? Really? For a PSU? I mean even a fan would get 10+ minutes at least! Then I realized, this Video was uploaded 7 minutes ago and the duration is 18:11. Now I know everything is alright. :-D

[@gurugamer8632]

Hi - Seasonic PRIME TX 1000 or AX1600i 1600W Titanium.

[@absolutewarrior4253]

12:15 "Very tight indeed" 😶

[@userbosco]

That's like 13A at 120V (full draw). Jesus Christ. Don't have anything else on that breaker - assuming 20A. xD

[@fat4ll]

Well the efficiency differs. How can you say that at the 100% the psu had this and that efficiency and ripple if you are limited to 1200w load max?! 1600w psu with 1200w load is at its 75%. 1200w psu with 1200w load is at 100%. With your graphs both are at 100% but it is not true. If you took the same psu and put it under 75% load and 100% load you would see that at 100% load the efficiency is lower. You can really compare your results unless you are testing all psus at their rated 100% or 50% or whatever and not 100% of your load device. Your numbers are just wrong and you can't compare. Even gold rated psu at 50% will have better efficiency than platinum at 100% of its rated load. Doesn't make sense mate

[@David-nd4to]

evga been rocking the 1600w titaniums since 2016

[@purdy9431]

I thought having a psu of say 1600w but its only using say 850w would actually cause a lower efficiency so in fact your paying more to loose more money in effiency overal. I know some people will say 850w output for a PSU it not enough but modern GPU's, RAM, CPU's etc are so more efficient than previous generations it just doesn't make sense unless your mining etc.

[@purdy9431]

It would be like having a 3 litre v8 turbo engine and running in 1st gear.

[@sudd3660]

i dont think you know how psu works. they all work best at 50% load, and the good ones run at zero fan rpm below 40%, then do the math.

[@purdy9431]

I was under the impression that there is a difference in load variance for instance hybride units like I have maybe silent until a certain load peak but change efficiency when active cooling hits. Also I thought there is also a sort of bell curve in a sense in regards to efficiency and there is in effect a sweet spot you should aim for and not just buy the highest rated psu " because it has big numbers and big numbers mean better"

[@purdy9431]

Sorry I mean load/efficiency variance

[@OleBrumHonning]

You should see the movie Lucy www.imdb.com/title/tt2872732/ at 51min 18 sec. There you will see your "brother/ twin" in it. He is one of the drug mules in a red jacket.

[@waveformdistortion]

Capacitors in the cables are never a good thing. If I'm paying that much for a premium power supply, I expect good performance without using capacitors to mask it's flaws. The AX1500i didn't need them. Seasonic's Prime series doesn't need them. Why does this one? What's the bet that if you removed them, the AX1500i would still perform better? Realistically, a lot of them are going to be run without capacitors anyways once people start building custom cables for them. Tom, you've harped on manufacturers for making poor decisions like this before, can you start griping in your reviews about in-cable capacitors too? Jonnyguru already does.

[@brianc.7097]

Amazing PSU can't wait for OklahomaWolf to bench this one!

[@kokoronai594]

Only 10 PCIe 6+2 connectors total? Boo.

[@BluesFanUK_]

This might be enough for the Lovelace GPUs. 🤪

[@zacharyw4628]

I bought the best Seasonic available. Titanium. 1000W. Guess what? I don't know what any of this shit does for me... Or what ripple is.

[@nataflet]

I have GTX 780+Ryzen 1700X @ 3.9 on RM1000i lol

[@krunocrazy5051]

F**k, 500$, till it gets to Europe,then to my small poor country it will 1k $ s**t nice supply but pricey

[@nsxkkxlnmiyo8722]

sup