Corsair Professional Series HX1050 Power Supply Unit Review

Looking inside power supplies is not the most interesting task, normally it is just the case of looking over generic components which are all very similar, and I may get the odd laugh out of one or two poor-quality units I have to review. However, with this unit I was quite taken aback by how nice this unit looked from the inside. It had a black PCB, great looking heatsinks, a well designed topography, clearly labelled and branded PCBs…  well, just have a look at the pictures yourself!

The first thing you see when you open up a power supply is the fan. This unit features a Yate Loon double ball bearing 140mm fan which is nice to see rather than the generic fans that most manufacturers use. I never actually heard the fan during testing which is always a good sign!

The first stage inside a PSU is the transient filtering. This is where the unit filters the AC power coming from the mains so there is less noise which is extremely important as it impacts the efficiency and safety of the later stages, which is partly the reason you see people investing hundreds of pounds in UPS systems which do a similar job. To do this, a system of capacitors, ferrite coils and a metal oxide varistor is used. The quality of this stage is determined by the number of components doing the filtering. Many generic units will only have a singular capacitor or won’t have a metal oxide varistor (MOV). The HX1050 goes above and beyond the call of duty by kitting out the unit with 2 X-capacitors, 4 Y-capacitors, an MOV and two coils.

Capacitors are one of the more volatile components when it comes to electronics and can leak or even explode when mistreated or exposed to high temperatures. Ever heard a PSU die with a pop? Chances are- it’s a capacitor! The main capacitors used here are Panasonic and the rest are Nippon-Chemicon, both extremely good and high quality brands. These are a big part of ensuring that the PSU meets the stated spec at 50 degrees. There is also a nice scattering of solid caps which is nice to see.

The large 12V rail at the front provides power to the 5V and 3.3V VRMs which are the two daughterboards behind it. The secondary heatsink is well designed to maximise cooling efficiency, you can see and old school thermistor on the heatsink which connects to the  fan control daughterboard.

Corsair has done a good job in keeping this unit cool and quiet. As you can see, almost everything is covered with good quality heatsinks which minimises the stress put on the fan. The PFC transistors, PFC diodes and switching transistors all get their own individual heatsinks.

The soldering quality on the modular connector daughterboard is also very good, matching the quality of the rest of the unit. There are also a few SMD caps soldered onto the board to ensure that it is providing clean power.