Corsair Professional Series HX1050 Power Supply Unit Review

Corsair are widely renowned for their top-quality components ranging from RAM to cases that cater for the enthusiast market. One area where Corsair has always delivered are power supplies- Corsair has always provided high-quality units ranging from their budget Builder series all the way up the enthusiast AX-series.

Both the high and mid range PSU markets are heavily saturated with the vast majority of case manufacturers jumping on the PSU bandwagon, as a result, many manufacturers looks to sell their products with various USPs such as the NeteQ unit I reviewed a while ago that had an advanced fan control system, or units that dress to impress bringing a vast array of LEDs and unique paint jobs to the table. What I respect Corsair for is sticking to their current market and trying to beat the competition with raw performance the old fashioned way rather than coming up with ‘innovative’ ideas that turn out to be useless. Because, let’s face it, a PSU has a boring job that does not require any additional accesories to operate more effectively, it just wants to be placed into the corner of the chassis and left to do it’s job! That is exactly what Corsair have been good at for many years, providing raw power and performace that will look pretty and give you no worries for many years to come.

The unit we will be taking a look at is Corsair’s HX1050 which is the replacement for the slightly aged HX1000 and provides a slight efficiency boost as well as a completely different power delivery method which we will take a look at later. The HX1050 is an enthusiast grade product that is delivered at a lower price point than the premium AX units, but what does this unit sacrifice to lower the costs? That, we shall find out later.