Specifications

All RM units feature Gold efficiency and are fully modular. They are also Haswell ready and have a full set of protection features. This unit's technical specifications are a bit odd as Corsair states its operating range to be 0°C-50°C while also stating this PSU to reliably deliver its full power continuously at up to 40°C. Companies usually state the maximum operational temperature at which the PSU can work under the worst possible conditions (e.g. full load) and avoid giving two maximum temperatures, one its operational temperature without any further details on the load and the other its true maximum temperature at which the full load can be delivered continuously. Corsair apparently tried to pull off a marketing gimmick that essentially backfired as it made things worse—we even found it misleading.

A 135 mm fan with a rifle bearing, which is essentially an enhanced version of a sleeve-bearing fan, keeps the unit cool, and our past experience has shown it to be incredibly quiet. The semi-passive operation also helps maintain low noise levels. The PSU's warranty is five years long, and given its features, its price looks good.


The single +12V rail can deliver more than 83 A, so it will easily handle a power hungry system with multiple VGAs. The minor rails are also powerful for a contemporary PC, and the 5VSB rail is powerful enough, although 3.5 A or more would have been nice to have.

Cables & Connectors, Power Distribution

The RM1000, like most units of its capacity, has eight PCIe and two EPS connectors that are all available at the same time. It also features a great number of SATA and peripheral connectors, and all cables are pretty long. While the distance between SATA connectors is good, we would like the peripheral connectors to ideally be 13-15 cm apart from one another. While six of the 24-pin connector's wires are 18AWG, all other are 16AWG. All PCIe connectors, on the other hand, use 16AWG gauges while all others—except for the FDD adapter and, strangely enough, the EPS cables which use 20AWG wires—use the 18AWG standard.

Since this PSU features a single +12V rail, we do not have anything to comment on when it comes time to describe its power distribution.