A Look Inside & Component Analysis

Before reading this page, we strongly suggest a look at this article, which will help you understand the internal components of a PSU much better. Our main tool for the disassembly of the PSU is a Thermaltronics TMT-9000S soldering and rework station. It is of extreme quality and is equipped with a matching de-soldering gun. With such equipment in hand, breaking apart every PSU is like a walk in the park!




CWT makes all HXi units, and the platform shares many similarities with the platform inside the RM1000, a unit we reviewed recently. A half-bridge topology and an LLC resonant converter are utilized in the primary side, while mosfets generate the +12V rail in the secondary side—a synchronous design. Two DC-DC converters in the secondary side generate the minor rails. As you can glean from the pictures above, the primary side's heatsinks are pretty small for a unit with 1 kW capacity, and there are no actual heatsinks in the secondary side.


Two Y caps reside at the AC receptacle, and we found another four Y caps, of which two were after the bridge rectifier, two X caps, two CM chokes, and an MOV on the main PCB.


A pair of GBJ25L06 bridge rectifiers fully rectify incoming AC voltage. They can handle up to 50 A combined, which is easily enough to cover this PSU.


The APFC converter utilizes three Infineon IPP50R140CP fets and a C3D10060A boost diode. Both bulk caps are provided by Rubycon (400V, 470uF each or 940uF combined, 105°C, MXH series).


Here are the NTC thermistor and its glue-covered corresponding relay which allows it to cool down while the PSU operates. The NTC thermistor protects the PSU from large inrush currents.


The APFC controller, an Infineon ICE3PCS01G, and a CM03X Green PFC controller are installed on a vertical daughter-board right next to the APFC's choke. The same board also contains the resonant controller, an Infineon ICE2HS01G IC. CWT lately prefers Infineon ICs over the popular Champion ones.


The main switchers are two Toshiba TK31A60W fets.


There are no proper heatsinks in the secondary side, and the mosfets regulating the +12V rail are installed on two vertical daughter-boards with several Chemi-Con electrolytic caps and a pair of polymer Apaq caps between them. These boards host six Infineon BSC014N04LSs which are cooled down by the bus-bars that transfer power to and from them. It is really weird to see such a strong PSU with a semi-passive operation and no heatsinks in its secondary side. However, Corsair's confidence in the design must be large as they wouldn't offer a seven year warranty otherwise.


Both VRMs (Voltage Regulation Modules) are installed on this large vertical PCB. Their common PWM controller is an Anpec APW7159, and each VRM also comes with three M3004Ds.


A Weltrend WT7502 supervisor IC is installed on the mainboard. We also found two more WT7518 supervisor ICs on the modular PCB. These probably provide OCP for the +12V rail once you enable multi-rail mode through Corsair Link.


Here is the MCU (PIC32MX) that allows this PSU to talk with the Corsair Link software. This PSU's platform unfortunately isn't purely digital, so the PSU doesn't actually utilize digital control in its operation as analog circuits are used instead. However, the Corsair Link software gives users many interesting options as it can be used to monitor and log fan speed and current, or +3.3V, +5V and +12V voltages. You can even monitor power-out, check power-in and efficiency, or enable and disable OCP on the +12V rails.


Many Enesol and Apaq polymer caps on the face of the modular PCB provide some extra ripple filtering. Several thick cables on the PCB's obverse side transfer power to the modular sockets.


Soldering quality on the main PCB is very good. CWT did an incredible job with the platform, during both the design- and manufacturing phase.


Corsair has been using this particular silent fan in many of their more recent products. The fan's model number is NR135P (12 V, 0.22 A) and it uses a fluid dynamic bearing, which is among the best money can buy today.