Corsair CX550M, is it a budget psu?

[Newb]

Hey guys!

I'm thinking of upgrading my deepcool de600 psu to this corsair cx550m power supply but I can't decide because I've seen so many good and bad reviews about this one. What are your thoughts about this?

 

My Specs:

Micro atx board

Ryzen 5 1400 (upgrading to 3000 series in the future)

Gtx 1050 ti 4gb OC (upgrading to an rx580 8gb or gtx 1660 in the future)

2x8 gb ddr4 3200mhz

1 hdd(1 tb)

1 hdd(500 gb)

1 nvme m.2 ssd(250 gb)

1 sata ssd(120 gb)

 

[Mindovermaster Global Moderator]

Want to give us exact products, not just "mATX board" or "GTX 1050". Brand names will help us more.

 

Why are you going from a 600W to 550W? With your hardware (I'm guessing) 550W is a bit low. Plus your upgrades.

 

Corsair CX is actuallyt a budget PSU. I'd rather you go with a SeaSoniic. They are good.

[spaceelf]

14 minutes ago, Mindovermaster said:

Want to give us exact products, not just "mATX board" or "GTX 1050". Brand names will help us more.

 

Why are you going from a 600W to 550W? With your hardware (I'm guessing) 550W is a bit low. Plus your upgrades.

 

Corsair CX is actuallyt a budget PSU. I'd rather you go with a SeaSoniic. They are good.

The rest of that build is budget as well.  The Deepcool is a 450W sustained 600W peak and isn't 80+ rated so the CX550M is likely much better.  If they can get a good deal on it I'd say why not?

[Jim K Global Moderator]

Go for it. Those cheap Corsair power supplies are pretty solid.

[Newb]

9 hours ago, LostCat said:

The rest of that build is budget as well.  The Deepcool is a 450W sustained 600W peak and isn't 80+ rated so the CX550M is likely much better.  If they can get a good deal on it I'd say why not?

My current power supply is not 80+ rated, so I think getting an 80+ bronze efficient psu would get me an upgrade.

[Newb]

9 hours ago, Jim K said:

Go for it. Those cheap Corsair power supplies are pretty solid.

Is $70 a good deal for it or should i go save some more and get something more efficient?

[Newb]

9 hours ago, Mindovermaster said:

Want to give us exact products, not just "mATX board" or "GTX 1050". Brand names will help us more.

 

Why are you going from a 600W to 550W? With your hardware (I'm guessing) 550W is a bit low. Plus your upgrades.

 

Corsair CX is actuallyt a budget PSU. I'd rather you go with a SeaSoniic. They are good.

Msi b450m mortar max

Zotac gtx 1050 ti OC 4gb

 

My current psu is not 80+ rated, should i go save some more and get something around a 80+ 750w for future proofing.

[Jim K Global Moderator]

oh...70 bucks.  I had to double check pcpartpicker to make sure I wasn't crazy ... I could have sworn I've seen them for around 40-60 bucks.  Sure enough, according to them, they've been that low for long stretches of time on NewEgg.  It seems prices have pretty much skyrocketed the last 9-12 months.  /sigh

 

Even still ... looking at NewEgg for 80+ Bronze, that wattage ... it would still be the PSU I would pick up if on a budget (except it is $80 on NewEgg and they are out of stock).

 

Just seems to be a really bad time to buy components right now.  Any reason you need it now or can you wait until things start normalizing again?  If you do need it now ... it'll be fine I guess.  🙂 

 

 

[adrynalyne]

1 hour ago, Jim K said:

oh...70 bucks.  I had to double check pcpartpicker to make sure I wasn't crazy ... I could have sworn I've seen them for around 40-60 bucks.  Sure enough, according to them, they've been that low for long stretches of time on NewEgg.  It seems prices have pretty much skyrocketed the last 9-12 months.  /sigh

 

Even still ... looking at NewEgg for 80+ Bronze, that wattage ... it would still be the PSU I would pick up if on a budget (except it is $80 on NewEgg and they are out of stock).

 

Just seems to be a really bad time to buy components right now.  Any reason you need it now or can you wait until things start normalizing again?  If you do need it now ... it'll be fine I guess.  🙂 

 

 

Prices on a lot of stuff is out of control right now. 

[Newb]

1 hour ago, Jim K said:

oh...70 bucks.  I had to double check pcpartpicker to make sure I wasn't crazy ... I could have sworn I've seen them for around 40-60 bucks.  Sure enough, according to them, they've been that low for long stretches of time on NewEgg.  It seems prices have pretty much skyrocketed the last 9-12 months.  /sigh

 

Even still ... looking at NewEgg for 80+ Bronze, that wattage ... it would still be the PSU I would pick up if on a budget (except it is $80 on NewEgg and they are out of stock).

 

Just seems to be a really bad time to buy components right now.  Any reason you need it now or can you wait until things start normalizing again?  If you do need it now ... it'll be fine I guess.  🙂 

 

 

In my country, the price of that psu is equivalent to $70, but I can't decide because I've read so many bad reviews on Amazon and Newegg. 

[Mindovermaster Global Moderator]

3 minutes ago, Newb said:

In my country, the price of that psu is equivalent to $70, but I can't decide because I've read so many bad reviews on Amazon and Newegg. 

EVERYTHING has bad reviews. Don't base your purchases off them. It's dumb people doing stupid things with them. Try looking at professional hard-info reviews about products. Or ask about it here. We know most "budget" brands that are still good.

 

Send some links, and we can tell you if they are good, 'just ok' or carpy.

[adrynalyne]

23 minutes ago, Mindovermaster said:

EVERYTHING has bad reviews. Don't base your purchases off them. It's dumb people doing stupid things with them. Try looking at professional hard-info reviews about products. Or ask about it here. We know most "budget" brands that are still good.

 

Send some links, and we can tell you if they are good, 'just ok' or carpy.

17% of reviews on Newegg are 1 Star, but there are only 127 reviews. overall it has a 3.9 star rating. That’s about what I would expect of any bronze rated PSU. @OP: if you want better stuff, use gold as a minimum rating. That said, this has good overall reviews for a budget PSU. 

[Newb]

3 minutes ago, adrynalyne said:

17% of reviews on Newegg are 1 Star, but there are only 127 reviews. overall it has a 3.9 star rating. That’s about what I would expect of any bronze rated PSU. @OP: if you want better stuff, use gold as a minimum rating. 

I guess that's the logical way... I'm planning to upgrade my main components soon so I dont want to mess up on buying a psu

[Newb]

29 minutes ago, Mindovermaster said:

EVERYTHING has bad reviews. Don't base your purchases off them. It's dumb people doing stupid things with them. Try looking at professional hard-info reviews about products. Or ask about it here. We know most "budget" brands that are still good.

 

Send some links, and we can tell you if they are good, 'just ok' or carpy.

With that being said, what are your thoughts about cooler master mwe series for gaming? I've also been eyeing that psu for a while. I just want to hear your opinion

[spaceelf]

15 minutes ago, adrynalyne said:

17% of reviews on Newegg are 1 Star, but there are only 127 reviews. overall it has a 3.9 star rating. That’s about what I would expect of any bronze rated PSU. @OP: if you want better stuff, use gold as a minimum rating. That said, this has good overall reviews for a budget PSU. 

I'm happy with bronze or silver, at least it means they aren't bottom of the barrel stuff.

 

The only bad experience I've had was high end stuff (850W) that hasn't played nice with my house wiring.

[adrynalyne]

7 minutes ago, Newb said:

I guess that's the logical way... I'm planning to upgrade my main components soon so I dont want to mess up on buying a psu

One thing I would spare no expense on is the PSU. It’s a very important part of your PC and it can really make a mess of things when it goes bad. 

[adrynalyne]

1 minute ago, LostCat said:

I'm happy with bronze or silver, at least it means they aren't bottom of the barrel stuff.

 

The only bad experience I've had was high end stuff (850W) that hasn't played nice with my house wiring.

They work—I’m just a PSU snob. I want clean, efficient power and don’t want to risk my system dying on a cheap PSU. 

[Mindovermaster Global Moderator]

I go by this:

 

https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/1116640-psucultists-psu-tier-list/

 

Some say this is bogus, but I go by it, and never had any issues...

[Newb]

2 minutes ago, adrynalyne said:

They work—I’m just a PSU snob. I want clean, efficient power and don’t want to risk my system dying on a cheap PSU. 

What psu's have you used before?

[adrynalyne]

8 minutes ago, Newb said:

What psu's have you used before?

I use SeaSonic when I can, but am ok with Corsair RM series too, which is a step up from CX.

[spaceelf]

13 minutes ago, adrynalyne said:

They work—I’m just a PSU snob. I want clean, efficient power and don’t want to risk my system dying on a cheap PSU. 

Fair enough, but with modern system components I can't see a need to go high end unless you use extra hard drives or GPUs.  Or Xeon/Threadripper/EPYC systems anyway.

[Newb]

2 minutes ago, LostCat said:

Fair enough, but with modern system components I can't see a need to go high end unless you use extra hard drives or GPUs.  Or Xeon/Threadripper/EPYC systems anyway.

So a 600w-750w 80+ bronze are just fine for most cases?

[spaceelf]

1 hour ago, Newb said:

So a 600w-750w 80+ bronze are just fine for most cases?

Absolutely.  I've got an upper mid range system (two HDs 3 SSDs a 5700 XT Ryzen 2600X and 16GB of RAM) and I don't see the point of going higher than 600-650.

[Mindovermaster Global Moderator]

39 minutes ago, LostCat said:

Absolutely.  I've got an upper mid range system (two HDs 3 SSDs a 5700 XT Ryzen 2600X and 16GB of RAM) and I don't see the point of going higher than 600-650.

And then look at me who has a 1200W PSU... 🤣

[PGHammer]

I've had my Corsair CX550M for years - it's a quality (yet BUDGET) PSU.  It's 80+-rated, it can work in any configuration from mATX to full ATX, and can even drive SLI configurations in mATX - not easy to do.  Why folks want high-wattage PSUs is usually due to large numbers of platter drives.  I get it; platter drives - and especially those with large capacities - can eat wattage like Reese's Pieces.  The real issue nowadays with how much PSU will be storage - and platter drives in particular.