Legit Power Supply Reviews

Corsair AX760i Digital Power Supply Review

Manufacturer: Corsair
Product: Corsair AX760i
Date: Tue, Nov 06, 2012 - 12:00 AM
Written By: Emmanouil Filladitakis -
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A look inside the AX760i

The cooling fan

It would appear that Yate Loon D14BH-12 fans are Corsair's favorite, as they can be found in most of their power supplies. The AX760i is no exception. The ball bearing fan has a maximum speed of 2800RPM, which is unlikely to ever reach since, as you will read in the following pages, the thermal control circuit will not even turn on the fan while the unit is lightly  loaded. A simple ambient temperature probe has been placed next to the fan's engine, monitoring the intake (ambient) air temperature.

Inside the Corsair AX760i unit

It appears that the AX760i is a mini AX1200i not only externally but internally as well. Corsair seems to have ditched the Seasonic design they have been using for the AX750 and went with a Flextronics design for their new AX760i units. We are not currently aware if the plain AX760 is based on a Flextronics design as well or if Corsair is still using a Seasonic design for that. Apparently, the AX1200i must have been a great success for Corsair to approach Flextronics again for their smaller units. Flextronics did not let Corsair down either, as the AX760i is every bit as well made as the larger AX1200i, without any structural flaws and with excellent soldering points.

The filtering stage

The AX760i is narrower than the AX1200i and so Corsair had to ditch the A/C receptacle EMI filter, as that would block the installation of other components. Nevertheless, the filtering stage of the AX760i is excellent, with six Y capacitors, two X type capacitors, two chokes and a MOV.

Primary side

We found the bridge rectifier mounted on its own, fairly large dedicated heatsink. The heatsink is not large because the transistor is inefficient but because Corsair has this unit operating without any active cooling at low loads. Next to the bridge rectifier, the APFC circuit starts with a massive filtering coil and a 420V/560uF 105°C capacitor from Panasonic, with the diode and transistors on their own dedicated heatsink. The transistors forming the primary side of the LLC resonant converter have been placed on another heatsink, all the way to the other side of the main board.

Secondary side

The secondary side rectifier (LLC type) has been placed on a vertical board, ending to a thick metallic bar which distributes the 12V line around to the other PCBs and sensing circuits, while it also serves as a basic heatsink. The 5V DC to DC conversion circuit can be seen on a vertical PCB to the left side of the rectifier and the 3.3V DC to DC conversion circuit on a separate vertical PCB to the right side of the rectifier. The secondary capacitors are a mix of Rubycon and Nippon Chemi-Con products. Most of the power distribution takes place directly on the PCB holding the modular connectors, which thick metallic rails transferring the large lines about the plugs.

Daughterboards

Next Page - Test Setup


Review Index
Page 1 - Corsair AX760i Power Supply Introduction
Page 2 - Unboxing the Corsair AX760i
Page 3 - External Design of the AX760i
Page 4 - A look inside the AX760i
Page 5 - Test Setup
Page 6 - Testing results (Regulation & Ripple)
Page 7 - Testing results (Efficiency, Noise & Thermal)
Page 8 - Corsair AX760i Review Conclusion