Corsair AX860 Modular Power Supply Review

External Design of the AX860

Although the AX860 is physically similar to the AX760i/AX860i models, it is not quite the same. The ribbed design at the bottom of the power supply is gone and the unique fan guard has been replaced with a standard circular one. Still, the chassis remains only 160mm (6.3″) long, allowing it to fit inside virtually any ATX-compliant case, and Corsair sprayed with the same quality matte black paint as with every other AX series power supply.

The side stickers of the AX860 are matte, with the company logo to the left and the model’s logo dominating the rest of the sticker. The sticker is placed in an embossed area between two decorative lines.

The sticker with the detailed electrical specifications of the AX860 has been placed on the top side of the chassis, where it will be visible through a windowed side panel only if the case has the PSU mounting area towards its bottom and the unit’s fan is still facing downwards.

Much like any other AX series power supply, the rear side of the fully modular AX860 is littered with connectors for the modular cables. There are two connectors for the single 24-pin ATX cable, six connectors for PCIe devices and CPU EPS cables and five connectors for the SATA/Molex device cables. If all cables are installed in the aforementioned connectors, the AX860 provides a total of two EPS 12V connectors, six 6+2 pin PCIe connectors, eight Molex connectors and twelve SATA connectors; a very healthy number of connectors considering the output of this power supply. There are also two floppy disk adapters but which negate one Molex connector each if used. Finally, a small switch can be seen at the top right corner, which can be used to set the fan control to either “normal” or “hybrid”. When in hybrid mode, the fan is generally quieter and will even stop when the unit’s load is very low, while the normal mode is more aggressive towards cooling.

The front side of the AX860 is the standard perforated honeycomb mesh design, with only the standard on/off switch and power plug receptacle are to be found, as well as a small sticker with the unit’s model.