Corsair RM1000 Power Supply Unit Review

There are plenty of high-end components in your system, from dual GPU cards to overclocked processors. Lots of power is what you would need and to satisfy the need, you need power. Many enthusiasts don’t understand the importance of a well-built power supply, but it plays an essential role in the stability and life of your system. How? Resistance means lost power and heat. Heat is not good for the system and wears down parts so any way to avoid it is a plus. So a highly efficient PSU reduces heat output, and the fan uses a low turbulence design for a quiet operation when it does need to spin.[divider]

Corsair RM 1000 PSU – Optimized for performance and silence.

The Corsair RM series are available in a variety of wattages. This series known for its Low Noise, efficiency and modular design. They recommend this for Light to Moderate Overclocking, and Moderate to Heavy Gaming.

Here’s our unboxing video for the Corsair RM1000 PSU:

If this is a bit too high for your need’s you may want to check out our review of a budget PSU.

The official description for the RM1000 reads:

Each component in the RM Series is optimized for performance and silence. The 80 PLUS Gold certified efficient design of the RM Series means minimal excess heat generation, and thanks to the Zero RPM fan mode the fan doesn’t even need to spin under low to medium loads. The custom-designed fan is an optimized operation even at full speed. And when you’re pushing it hard, the thermal sensor controls the fan speed to ensure that it gets the cooling it needs without any extra noise.[divider]

Build

Dimensions without cable (L x W x D), (mm) 180mm x 150mm x 86mm
Color: Black
Material: Steel

Logistical data

Dimensions, package (L x W x D), (mm) 390 x 153 x 224
Gross weight, package (kg) 3.55
Pieces per packaging unit: 2
Dimensions, shipping box (L x W x D), (mm) 470 x 405 x 170
Gross weight, shipping box: 8.1 kg

This comes with a big heavy box with beautiful packaging, flashing a huge zoomed in pic of the large grill and fan on top.  Inside the box – warranty guide, Safety info, All the modular cables, Corsair sticker, zip ties, black screws, Thick 15 gauge power cable, the PSU and a 4GB USB flash drive. This comes with a 5 year warranty, which is a Corsair way to place faith in their product. Although because it is a niche product you might be waiting more than a few days for a replacement as we had to when we our first test unit gave up.

The unit looks very sturdy with the logo on both sides, so it looks the same whether you decide to mount it with the fan facing up or down. There is a nice hex pattern for the grill on the back and the slots for the modular cables are well labeled. The curved body design and small depressions for screw slots are some smaller unnoticeable attention to details which marks a quality product. I placed the unit under three different sized cases: small, mid and full towers and it fit fine in all of them with no vibration even on my cheap local branded mid tower.

The cables are not sleeved but are black color, flat ribbon style. This flat cable design allows for easier cable management. The flexible black colored cables allow you to route them behind things like a motherboard tray or hard drive cages to keep things neat and improve airflow. This comes in handy in those towers with smaller clearance on the right side panel. With extra PCI-e cables you have the option for triple SLI as well. However, I was disappointed by the small plastic click lock for the cables, not on the side of the motherboard, but on the PSU‘s side as there was no definite click sound and they were much harder than needed to push in. I had to switch off the PC and reset a cable which I thought was connected. It’s a minor annoyance, but still disappointing.
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DC Output cables

Cable management: Fully modular
Sleeved cables: No
Flat cables: Yes
No. Of cables: 15
Multi-GPU ready: Yes (can support upto 3 way SLI)

A. 1x ATX 24 pin 610mm
Motherboard cable length (mm, +/- 10mm) 610mm
B. 2x EPS 8 pin 650mm
CPU power cable length (mm, +/- 10mm) 650mm
C. 8x PCI-E 8 pin 750mm
PCIe power cable length (mm, +/- 10mm) 750mm
D. 12x SATA 700mm; 850mm – SATA 5-pin connector
E. 11z Peripheral 650mm; 750mm
4-pin Peripheral power connector (“Molex”, HDD)
F. 2x Floppy adapter 100mm – Floppy power
G. 1x Corsair Link 800mm

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Noise

With 6 dB(A) noise as the base for testing (when switched off), the supply gives Impressive numbers and will most likely be drowned by your CPU or GPU fan noise much before it reaches your ear. This is a power supply that features design choices made for silent operation. In fact, there is a sticker on the sea itself to tell you that under low loads the fan would not spin. Up to 40% load it will have 0 RPM and offer 0 fan noise. After that the fan spins up to low levels in order to move the air inside, up to 70% load before finally ramming up. With capacitor and transformers specially made with low noise in mind it also eliminates coil whine and other electrical noises like constant static, which are present in all PSU’s.

Now, since the fan spin up is tied to the load and not the temperature it does raise some concerns. However, in my testing I was not able to produce such a scenario. So it would be a considering factor for small form factor builds.

Fanless mode: Yes
Load for fans to turn on (%): 0.4
Fan bearing technology: Rifled
Fan size (mm): 140mm
Max. Fan speed (RPM): 1,105

DB (A) at 20% load: 6.0
DB (A) at 50% load: 10.9
DB (A) at 100% load: 26.7
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Efficiency

80+ gold certification means that it will be more efficient with the power that it draws out your wall socket. On the back you can see the efficiency chart. Arc which you can see varies between, (89-92). The supply is much more efficient with the 230 V we use in India. Also, unless you are using it to the max you will see some great efficiency. Below you will find the efficiency breakdown with varying loads.

Efficiency (%) at 230V, 10% load*** 88.92%
Efficiency (%) at 230V, 20% load*** 91.72%
Efficiency (%) at 230V, 50% load*** 92.36%
Efficiency (%) at 230V,100% load*** 89.42%

Power consumption in standby (W): <0.45W
Energy Star: 5.0
ErP Lot 6: 2,013
WEEE: Yes
RoHS: Yes
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Performance

Single rail design gives you much more stability, particularly if you are connecting a high-end GPU, This delivers stable, continuous power (wattage). It is important to note that this is continuing power and not peaks,. This is important to handle peaks in the systems power draw for situations like switching your system on. The peak here is 1100w which is more than enough for such a setup allowing 10% extended range at max. Corsair’s power chart with rail config shows single 12v rail designed with 83.3 Amps

Another important stat here are Continuous temperatures, which tells us under normal usage the psu averages out at 40° which is a good 10° lower than other similarly powered psu’s.

Corsair Link is a software that gives you more details on feedback and control on the psu and how it works on your system. You can use the Corsair Link with other Corsair products or you can use it by itself. RM Series power supplies connect to Corsair Link software for real-time monitoring of fan speed and power delivery through the app on your desktop. The cable is included with the 1000W, one end connects to the psu and other to your motherboard. You will need the Link software to make use of it.

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Protections & safety certifications
OCP (over current protection) Yes
OVP (over voltage protection) Yes
UVP (under voltage protection) Yes
SCP (short circuit protection) Yes
OTP (over temperature protection) Yes
OPP (over power protection) Yes
CE Yes
CB Yes
TÜV Yes
FCC Yes
cUL Yes
cTÜVs No
CCC (China) Yes
BSMI (Taiwan) Yes
GOST-R (Russia) Yes
KC Mark (Korea) Yes
IRAM (Argentina) Yes
RCM (C-Tick, A-Tick, RCM) (Aus/NZ) Yes

Top-level Specs
Continuous power (W) 1000W
Peak power (W)* 1100W
ATX12V Version 2.4
EPS12V Version 2.92
Special technology N/A
C-Link Digital No
C-Link Ready Yes (Basic)
MTBF (hours) 100,000.
Operating temperature range (°C) 0° to 50° C
Continuous output rated temperature (°C) 40°C

Author’s notes:
Also, as a small side note, I do like the way Corsair offer loads of info on their tech blogs for enthusiasts as while researching for this I was amazed at their well detailed guides, explanations as well as the openness for their internal testing methods. Link here. [divider]

Conclusion

There is not much to argue with here, the piece works as advertised, looks good, performs stable and offers a lot of extras like low noise and lots of cables. However, one must note when going to the top tier product you lose the value for money argument as you are paying premium for the top of the line features. An INR 14,000 price point will be a high barrier for entry for most people. This is not meant for everyone, and if you do end up with a system that needs this much power, this is the choice to make without hesitation.

However, there are other PSU that perform almost the same, have the same wattage (1000W) and cost cheaper. Knock off about INR 1,500 – 2,000 from the RM1000’s price and this would have been a great product.

What’s iLL

• Lots of cables
• Solid performance, low noise, ease of setup
• Corsair Link software

What’s not

• Low price to performance ratio
• Cables not sleeved and their plastic locks are flimsy