Last year I wrote a negative review of the Corsair AX860 power supply in which I said that I had two units on me fail in a short period of time:
When an 800W power supply can better keep a system stable than an 860W power supply, there’s a problem with the power supply, especially when it cannot keep the system stable under the kind of load every online evaluation says it should be able to sustain.
There was a variable in this equation that I was overlooking. I had the AX860 connected through a 24-pin ATX extension cable and 8-pin CPU power extension cable to the mainboard (first picture), while the GS800 was connected directly without using extension cables (second picture):
When I pulled the AX860 out of the system to replace with an EVGA 1050 GS, I noticed that the extension cables had started to deteriorate. Indeed in later examining the 24-pin extension, the cable had started disintegrating with the end almost readily coming apart in my hand.
On a whim, I also decided to use the AX860 to power the graphics cards in Colony West. I didn’t buy a new unit, but used the one that Corsair sent to me in response to my RMA. And I didn’t have any stability concerns with regard to power delivery. Power consumption, yes. (More on that separately.) But the graphics cards never experienced any issues from the power supply.
So as such, I retract in full my review of the AX860. I’ve noted such on my original review. I’ve pulled the Amazon review and asked NewEgg to pull the review I published there as well.
