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In this article, I give you my Corsair CX550M 80+ Bronze Power Supply review with specs included. This is a semi-modular power supply with an MSR price of $60 (the price may be different at sellers).

This is an excellent power supply for an Intel i5 or AMD Ryzen 5 machine, either overclocked or not, with a graphics card in the mid-level line between a GTX 1070, or 1080, or a vega 56, for example. It’s a great choice for either upgrading older pre-built machines or if you’re custom building your own machine.

This device has plenty of great connectors, a five-year warranty, 80 plus bronze power efficiency, very reasonable price at $60.

In this article, I’m going to be showing you how it looks and works out of the box. I’m going to show you all the cables and connectors. I’ll explain to you a little bit more the exact CPUs, the cases, and of course the pre-built that I’d put it into and show you how much better it looks than those ugly ketchup and mustard-colored cables that cheap PSUs have.

Those old, cheap, or OEM PSUs usually do not have a PCI Express power connector. These separately sold ones do have that connector which is why you can install the nice graphics cards. It is, of course, going to be more power-efficient and quieter than the OEM units. It really is very nice.

Now, I would like to note that the power supply that’s physically in my PC right now (as I am writing this post) is the non-modular version of the same PSU. It’s the previous version, with a three-year warranty, versus five years on this. There is a $10 price difference between these two.

All things considered, I think for ten dollars more you get a two-year longer warranty, you get modular cables, and a couple of other things that the earlier version doesn’t have. It is a newer model, if you don’t mind the $10, it is a very nice choice. Less cable clutter too, because those are not detachable.

When you open up the package of Corsair CX550M power supply, this is what you have inside. The modular cables, the wall power cable, the power supply of course, as well as a warranty, and user guide. Let’s list them all next.

• Five-year warranty, as I mentioned before,
• User guide (which says install it and plug the cables in),
• Standard three-prong wall outlet,
• Four K screws for screwing this into your case, as well as some zip ties for cable management, which is always very nice,
• A whole stack of modular cables. There is one 8 pin CPU power connector, which splits into four plus four if your older system doesn’t have an eight-pin connector, so you just split it and used four of it. There are six Serial ATA power connectors, three Molex power connectors, and two 6 + 2 pin PCI Express power connectors a 1070, 1080, or even 1070Ti, or a Vega 56 would work just fine using two 8 pin power connectors with that cable.

With the power supply out of the packaging, you can see the two connectors which are not modular: the CPU power connector and the 24 pin ATX power cable for the motherboard. You have to use those so they might as well be connected but everything else is modular so just use what you need.

You can see on the bottom there is a 120-millimeter silent fan. Both sides of the power supply have very muted labeling. It’s just black with the gray lettering so that it’s not going to stand out when you install it in your case.

The actual label with all the legal details is on the top so depending upon how it’s oriented you may or may not see that inside your case.

On the back end, we have the actual connector for the wall and then we have a physical power switch. There is no voltage which it is auto-sensing between 100 and 240 volts, which is really nice.

On the front side, you can see were the two fixed connectors and then all the various modular cables plug-in, as well for cable management.

Overall Corsair CX550M is a very nice power supply for either upgrade or new system builds. I’ve used a number of Corsair power supplies over the years, I’ve always had very good luck with them, and I’ve used this level power supply in that kind of upgrade as well as new builds in the past.

It is worth noting, while this does have enough wattage to run say an i7 8700K, or Ryzen 7 1700X, I really wouldn’t go with a CX level power supply for something like that.

An 80 plus bronze is nice but if you’re building a 1,500 to 2,000 dollar machine take a look at Corsairs RMx line. It’s 80 plus gold, fully modular, longer warranty, some better features, they do cost a little bit more, but starting there about $100 or so you’re getting a more premium unit for a more premium build.

A GTX 1070 or an RX Vega 56 would be really really nice with a card like this, or even a GTX 1060 or an RX 580 would also be very nice for something like this.

This power supply is not meant for crossfire SLI and for super-premium machines, but again it’s only $60, and with a five-year warranty semi-modular the 120-millimeter quiet fan, remember that many om systems have like an 80-millimeter or 92-millimeter louder fan, it’s good value for the money.