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Corsair Builder Series CX430 V2 Review

Manufacturer: Corsair
UK price (as reviewed): £34.25 (inc VAT)
US price (as reviewed): $44.99 (ex tax)

The Builder Series of PSUs resides at the lower end of Corsair’s power supply range; a fact that's reaffirmed the rock-bottom price of the CX430 V2. This isn’t any reason to write off the range, though, as Corsair has forged a reputation for producing excellent power supplies at both the low and high end of the market.

Unfortunately, there’s no avoiding the fact that £35 doesn’t buy you a whole lot of power supply. The CX430 V2, which is built to Corsair’s requirements by CWT, is equipped with only a single 6+2-pin PCI-E connector and captive cables. Annoyingly, the unit also sports only three Molex connectors, meaning that if you did want to add an extra PCI-E connection through the use of a Molex to PCI-E adaptor, you’d be left with only a single Molex connection. Complementing the single PCI-E and three Molex connectors are four SATA power connectors, as well as a single floppy disk connector.



The CX430 V2 only has a single 28A-rated 12V rail with which it can output a maximum of 336W; at this price, this amount is plenty. The PSU is also rated to produce 20A from both its 3.3V and 5V rails, and 3A from its 5VSB rail.

At 50 per cent load, the CX430 V2 proved to be competent and managed to output stable voltages while maintaining an efficiency of 86 per cent. This is a good result and marginally better than the similarly priced Thermaltake SP-430PCWEU.

This efficiency figure dropped a little to 83 per cent when we ran the PSU at 100 per cent load, although this is still a reasonable result.

The output of all the PSU's rails also remained within the ATX spec, even when drawing the unit’s maximum rated wattage. The CX430 V2 was also relatively quiet during operation, with the unit emitting only a light hum when running at anything between 50 and 100 per cent load.

The CX430 V2 punched above its price point when it came to the ripple test, though, where it was recorded as having a peak ripple amplitude of 18.4mV, a result that was only bettered in any meaningful way by the vastly more expensive Enermax Pro 82+ EPR525AWT II and Seasonic X-560.

Holdup times were a little disappointing, however, as both the 12V and 5V rail returned holdup times that were below the recommended levels noted in the ATX spec.

As a result, the CX430 V2 stands up as a solid, if unspectacular PSU. Its Achilles' heel, though, is its lack of a second 6+2-pin PCI-E connector, which limits its appeal to those only looking to use a low-end graphics card. However, it’s still a good choice for a basic desktop or media PC.