Introduction

We would like to thank Corsair for supplying the review sample.

Corsair's PSU products are highly appreciated by most users and praised by expert reviewers all over the world. Only recently Corsair decided that was time for a big change in their GS series which addresses mostly the budget oriented gamers that look for a reliable, well performing and stylish unit. The new GS PSUs carry exactly the same naming scheme as the older ones (no V2 additions like the TX series), probably because Corsair wanted to keep a low profile with this series refresh, for unknown reasons.

The updated GS PSUs feature a totally new appearance which makes them unique and most likely they will be highly approved by most users. Also like in the older GS units the fan features switchable red, white and blue LED lighting and if you ever get bored of this you can turn it off. On top of that Corsair offers a color ring accessory pack, sold separately, which allows you to match the PSU's accent color to your system's look. This is going to be great for users with windowed and lighted cases.

In today's review we are going to torture a Corsair GS800 for you. This unit has Bronze efficiency, all of its cables are fixed and its single + 12V rail can deliver up to 66 Amps. Moreover, according to Corsair, its fan outputs around 38dBA noise at worst case. Up to 20% of the unit's max rated capacity it doesn't spin at all so there will be zero noise when you don't stress the PSU. Lately more and more manufacturers adopt this semi-fanless approach which greatly helps in reducing the output noise at low loads.

Specifications

Efficiency is compliant with the 80 PLUS Bronze requirements but the max operating temperature in these new units has been lowered to 40°C. Nevertheless we are going to test it at higher temperatures even though the PSU doesn't feature Over Temperature Protection (OTP). As we already mentioned in the prologue the fan features LED lighting and you can select among three colors or switch off the lighting completely. The dimensions of the unit are the standard ones and the warranty period is set to three years. Surely a longer warranty would be highly desired by most users since the price of this unit is not that low.


There is a single +12V rail which can deliver the unit's full power. The minor rails are very strong with 150W max, a power level that will be left unexploited by the 99% of the contemporary systems since all energy hungry components nowadays draw power from the +12V rail. Finally the 5VSB have a little more capacity than the standard 2.5A and -12V (a practically useless rail in modern mainboards) are stronger than the usually seen 0.6A. Speaking of -12V, in the next major ATX spec revision we are waiting for the abolishment of this rail which is a remnant of the past since it is used only by RS232 ports (which most mainboards now simply don't have).

Cables & Connectors, Power Distribution

The PCIe connectors are enough but unfortunately this is not the case with the EPS since Corsair equipped the PSU with only one. An 800W capacity unit should have at least two, in our opinion. It would have been easy to add a second one, since the PSU can handle that load easily.
The length of all cables will not cause any problems even in full tower cases, however the distance among the SATA and peripheral connectors is short at 95-100mm. According to ATX spec 150mm is the suitable distance among connectors. Finally all wires are 18AWG, which is the correct size for a desktop PSU of this capacity.

Since this PSU features a single +12V rail we do not have anything to comment about its power distribution.

Packaging

The box's front real estate takes over a close-up photo of the PSU's fan with the blue LED in action. As you can see the model description remains the same, GS800, most likely because Corsair wanted to keep this upgrade distinct.


On the top side of the box we find a brief feature description, the corresponding badges for the three year warranty and the 80 PLUS and ErP compliances and finally there are three photos showing the different LED colors of the fan.


As it is used, on the rear side of the box we find useful info about the PSU and its characteristics. In this case Corsair lists the available connectors, provides information about the most crucial features of the unit and there are also two graphs illustrating the PSU's efficiency and output noise. Finally the power specifications table is given here along with three photos, which also exist on the box's top side, showing the different LED lighting of the fan.