First Look
The last Corsair product I reviewed was the HX750, and it turned out to be a very good power supply. Today, we have one of Corsair’s more budget-oriented products – the VS450. While the VS line lacks some of the features of higher end units, such as modular cables and 80plus certification, they are still intended to provide the quality and performance that Corsair products are known for. Let’s see if Corsair has succeeded in delivering such a product at an attractive $50 price tag.
The Box
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The top of the box contains a picture of the fan grille, the product name and a few of its features, namely, the fan size (120mm), the efficiency (up to 85%), and the Warranty (3 Years). Most of the marketing is actually on the bottom of the box. There, we have two graphs, one for the fan noise and one for the efficiency, with a small blurb next to each which is repeated in other languages. There is also information on the cable configuration, and a load table, which we will discuss in more detail shortly.
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The front of the box tells us the AC input voltages (200-240V), which ATX standard it complies with (ATX12V 2.01, 2.2 and 2.3, and EPS12V 2.91), and the dimensions (150mm x 86mm x 140mm). With the marketing out of the way, let’s open it up.
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The box contains the power supply itself, (which comes wrapped in bubble wrap), a warranty guide, a safety information sheet (which tells us to get the full manual online), a power cable, and a bag of screws. Having a hard copy of the manual would have been nice, but most users can figure out how to install it without the help of a manual.
The Power Supply
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This is a single rail power supply, with 34A available on the 12V rail. Normally, I prefer having two or more 12V rails due to the inherent safety issues with powerful single rails, but this is less of an issue on lower powered units. The power supply itself is a matte black colour, which is my preferred colour. It looks modern without attracting fingerprints. Like on the HX750, the label is located on the bottom (or top, depending on how you install it) of the power supply, so you probably won’t see it when the power supply is installed in a case.
The cable configuration consists of a 20+4 pin ATX Connector, a 4+4 pin ATX/EPS12V CPU power connector, two 6+2 pin PCI-E connectors, four SATA connectors, four molex/peripheral connectors and two FDD power connectors, all of which are sleeved. Such a configuration is compatible with an entry level 450W product.
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The fan grille is punched out, and is considerably more restrictive than it needs to be. A wire fan grille, like the ones used on most other Corsair power supplies, would be prefferable. The back vent, on the other hand, is fine – being the popular honeycomb kind.
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