Corsair Professional Series AX760 and AX860 review

The Corsair AX860 power supply uses a premium grade San Ace 120 ‘9s1212f404' fan. This is a Sanyo Denki unit which incorporates dual ball bearings. We have seen this fan incorporated into many Seasonic designs recently and there really is no better a fan on the market today for this environment. This is the same high grade fan as the one used in the AX760.

This is a Seasonic design and the soldering quality throughout is excellent and the layout is very clean, with several rows of thin heatinks across the PCB to help the thermal curve. This power supply uses a high quality dual sided PCB providing key advantages over standard PCB layouts. They can use double the copper for traces and return planes for instance. This in turn can increase efficiency as a result of lower resistive losses and helps enhance cooling proficiency.

The AX860 uses hole soldering to help improve reliability when using a double sized PCB design.

The +3.3V and +5V voltage regulators have been from the main PCB to a modular DC connector board which attaches to the front of the enclosure. The design comprises two coils, two X caps, two Y caps and a MOV. Inside are high grade 105c Nippon Chemi Con capacitors (420v 390 uF each). The secondary stage also uses a mixture of solid polymer and electrolytic capacitors.

The AX760 utilises LLC resonant switching technology to switch at zero voltage, increasing efficiency and reducing heat. Over-Current Protection (OCP) is present on all rails, including the single +12V rail. Over-Temperature Protection (OTP) and Short-Circuit Protection (SCP) are both also included.

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