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FRONTPAGE Corsair AX1200i Power Supply Review

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Overclockers.com

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Nov 1, 1998
Corsair undoubtedly is one of the most active players in the PSU market. Aside from several series and tens of power supply units available, they have a very active R&D department as well. Today we will be having a look at the AX1200i, the second most powerful unit of the premium AX series. Although the AX1200i is only the second most powerful unit after Corsair's pinnacle, the AX1500i, the price difference between these two units is $150, making the AX1200i a more reasonable choice for anyone who is financially conscious. How well it can perform? We will see that in this review.

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Corsair Linc - Serious Issues

I see no mention of Corsair Linc in the review. This is a fairly prominent feature of the unit, and it appears entirely untested in this review.

I specifically bring this up, as I bought this supply specifically because of the Corsair Linc feature, which I have found has many issues. First Corsair has been trying to get the Linc software to work with Win8, and appears to be having many issues. The number of customers unhappy with how Linc is working with Win8 at Corsair's own forum, is really large. There seem to be issues with the entire product line that relies on Linc. Next, there appear to be issues with measurement performance of the Linc software, and it reporting very erroneous results.

If users want the supply, just as a supply, that is likely fine. If users expect to alter the fan profiles, or monitor power consumption as touted in the specs, they will likely encounter lots of issues if using Win8.

Beware of Corsair Linc on Win8, it just isn't reliable at this point.
 
I feel obligated to point out that while the review states this isn't a pfc unit, the input side includes a standard APFC circuit. There's even a picture of the APFC bits.

The regulation setup is a DSP (rather than analog) run interleaved LLC setup rather than a "classic pwm" setup like double-forward or full bridge, I think that might be what the reviewer is talking about.
 
The review does not state that there is no PFC, but that the traditional approach has been ditched for a DSP controller. It didn't occur to me that this wasn't written clearly enough.

There is no PFC controller or supervisor, they have been traded for a DSP that controls the PFC by receiving feedback from multiple points across the platform. The DSP also controls the PWM. Therefore, no, it does not include a "standard APFC approach". That would require the presence of a standard PFC controller and a supervisor IC, which is not the case here.
 
Depends on how you're looking at it, I suppose. I'd call an inductor or two, a MOSFET or two, and a diode or two, with a bulk storage cap or two, pretty standard.

I understand the angle you're coming from now, though.

How's the soldering on this thing?
 
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