Installation & Testing
Getting the CS850M installed is quite easy. As I said it is a smaller power supply so getting it in a case should be easy and since it is semi-modular you really only use the cables you need.
Once you have your power supply installed just connect your power and power on your system.
For testing we will be using our X79 system which uses the most power at out all of the test systems we have here.
Processor: Intel Core i7-4960X Extreme Edition
Motherboard: ASUS P9X79 Pro
Video Card: Sapphire R9 280X Toxic
Memory: 16GB Kingston 10th Anniversary
Power: Corsair CS850M
Storage: 750GB SATA II Drive
Cooling: LEPA LV 12
Case: Cooler Master Cosmos II with 5 fans
Disclaimer: We do realize that our testing methods for power supplies are not up to the standards that we would like. Unfortunately we do not have the equipment to properly test power supplies the way that we would like. The tests below do give you a good idea of how the unit will perform, but we know they are not as accurate as we would like. All power supply manufactures are made aware of our testing methods before they send us a unit.
Multimeter Testing
Our first set of tests we will be using a Mastech MS8268 digital multimeter. Here we will measure the rails but at idle (Windows Desktop) and then at load (Heaven Benchmark looped). This will give you a good idea of power fluctuation during gaming sessions.
As you can see the rails did not really fluctuate at all! Let’s see what OCCT has to say about things.
OCCT Testing
We will also be using OCCT to test this power supply. Initial spot checks on the 3.3V, 5V and 12V rails were 3.33V, 5.12V and 12.29V respectively. We will be running OCCT’s power supply test for 1 hour to stress test the power supply. Below are the results.
12V
5V
3.3V
According to these tests the voltage regulation on the rails are: 12V: 1.54%, 5V: 1.56%, 3V: 2.40%. These results are quite respectable for a power supply that is more entry-level.
