Corsair AX860 Modular Power Supply Review

Testing results (Efficiency, Noise & Thermal)

True to its 80Plus Platinum certification, the AX860 delivers efficiency levels of over 91% across its entire range and regardless of the input voltage. When powered from a 230V source, the efficiency peaks at 94.2%. This figure drops down to 93.3% if the voltage source magnitude is reduced to 110V, which is still much higher than what the 80Plus Platinum certification requires.

We recorded no noise level readings up to 40% load because the fan was entirely stopped up to that point. At 40% load, where the fan started, the AX860 was entirely quiet. That however quickly changed as the fan speed increased considerably after increasing the load by less than 100W, making the AX860 clearly audible from 3ft distance. Nevertheless, the speed of the fan did not increase much further after that point, not even at maximum load, allowing the noise levels of the AX860 to remain within comfortable working limits.

The temperature chart of the AX860 is erratic because of the fan’s cooling profile, which does not even start at low loads. The high efficiency of the AX860 allows it to keep its working temperatures low, even at maximum load, where the temperature delta reached only up to 8°C.