CORSAIR PLEASE
So the other day I was tweaking my computer a bit. I was having issues with my H55 Corsair AIO Closed Loop Processor Cooler since the temperatures were quite a bit higher than I had anticipated. 

Temperatures for the H55 setup were 40 IDLE - HIGH 60's/LOW 70's LOAD (Cinebench R15) and cracking 85C when really stressed (Prime 95 or LinX). Quick to jump to conclusions I simply attributed it to the fact that AIO coolers simply just suck--However this now seems more like a concept propagated by the elitist on Overclock.net who sport Custom Loops. 

What had happened was that I had 'upgraded' really more like a side-grade from an Hyper 212+ from CoolerMaster that was equipped with two CoolerMaster Blade Master 120 PWM fans ($20 for 212+, one addition Blade Master $13 for a total of $33) to the H55 equipped with two Corsair SP120 Silent Fans (~$40 for the H55, $20 for a twin pack of SP120's on sale for a total of $60). 

The Hyper 212+ originally had  about 35C IDLE, HIGH 50's/LOW 60's LOAD (Cinebench R15) and about 65 to 68C when really stressed (Prime 95 or LinX). Perhaps the it was due to the fact that the SP120's aren't moving enough air (sacking CFM for lower db)--it was the first time I purchased fans marketed as "quiet" or "silent". 

Anyway--back on to the story, I originally had the H55's pump power input (3 pin) going directly to the Power Supply since I read that the pump should be on full throttle at all times. I read a couple of forum posts stating that it should be connected to the CPU Fan 4 pin headers on the forums (I did this but had to change my fan configuration around). Long story short, this worsened my temperatures so I decided to change back to the original configuration I had.

I then thought to myself, "Well, I guess I'm basically sacking performance for aesthetics." I like how much cleaner my rig appears without the over sized 212+ Heatsink covering the top half of my motherboard, but ultimately I really appreciated the price to performance ratio that CoolerMaster products provide. 

After I switched back to my old configuration for the fans and pump, I tried to turn on my rig but was faced with an issue I've never had before. When I pressed the power button other status LED's and the power LED on my Corsair Carbide 330R lit up for a SPLIT second and just turned off. What gives? I started freaking out because it appeared that the motherboard was being shorted somewhere. On the other hand I was super meticulous and made sure nothing had dropped on the motherboard (like a screw or something conductive). I couldn't tell what was the source of the issue. Did the motherboard die? Did the processor die? The ram die? No clue where to start, I had to spend my entire day debugging the issue. I took everything out and popped them back in one at time only to still have the issue. Holy crap.

I was about to give up, but I knew in the back of my head there was ONE COMPONENT that I did not isolate. The Power Supply--Corsair CX750M. I had an old 460 Watt CoolerMaster power supply laying around so I popped it in for kicks. I kept thinking to myself, its probably not the power supply--but lo and behold, my computer booted with the 460 watt power supply (I had to pull out my 290 of course). I thought to myself, WOW. This is awful. My second Corsair power supply was faulty...(I had previously rocked a CX500 when using a GTX 670--NVIDIA so power efficient (^: ) 

So I went over to the Corsair Support Site and they suggested to do a Paper Clip test before trying to RMA the power supply so I tried it out and WOW! The CX750M was working! I then hooked it back up and my computer booted with the CX750M and 290 installed again. What the hell just happened? I told my friends on Skype what just happened and they made jokes about Ghosts :^)

Anyway the next day, I couldn't boot my computer again with the same issue as before. It still passed the paper clip test but it couldn't power my rig. I switched back to the CoolerMaster and it booted again without a hitch. 

I was then put into a dilemma. Do I RMA or just buy another Power Supply? I was hoping that with Corsair being the Top Dog when it comes to computer components (Case, PSUs, Fans) they would have a different RMA process, however their process matches every other company where I need to send in my power supply out of my own pocket and wait until they send me another one back. 

Here lies CX750M. Maybe low end Corsair products cut too many corners?

Normally this may not be too bad but I live in Hawaii. Not only are shipping costs to and from here are atrocious, the time it takes to receive and send packages are atrocious as well. Basically I only shop on Amazon or sites that have Free Shipping promotions that apply to Hawaii now. Newegg and TigerDirect are basically off limits here due to shipping costs ($10 heatsinks from newegg? Sure! To Hawaii? Sure, shipping is $30, that will be $40 SIR). 

Before I switched to my new LG G3 phone, my Samsung S3 died. I simply called T-Mobile up, they sent me a box with a new S3 very quickly (free of charge). I was instructed to put my dead S3 in the box the new S3 was shipped in and was able to send the dead S3 box back--also free of charge. This all happened within the course of 3 days. I think this should be a standard in the RMA process, but of course crappy people could always take advantage of this system.

In the end I opted to buy a new power supply. There was a GOLD 80 PLUS rated Rosewill 750 Watt Capstone power supply that retails at ~$90 but was at $60 on Amazon. I chose the Rosewill since it was on sale, and I was very happy with the Rosewill 630 Watt Green Series my little brother now has in his rig powering the GTX 670 I used to use. Although the Rosewill Capstone is not modular like the CX750M, the modularity of the CX750 did not help with cable management in my case. There simply was not enough space in the back side of the 330R.

In Hindsight
I know I didn't dump $100-200 on a "High End" Corsair Power Supply and opted for their CX (entry level) Power Supplies, it still sucks to be out $70 (Price I paid for CX750M on Amazon) + $60 on the new power supply. Sure I could've just paid $150 on a "High End" power supply, but if that were to be faulty to, I'd be simply gouging myself. 

But I felt I should've saw it coming.

In hindsight, now that I think about it, there were some things about my computer that made it appear to the power supply was not stable. Keep in mind I only had the CX750M for two months. I got it right before I returned from Atlanta (internship with a great company!) so I could use my 290 (which is rated 300W TDP and on AMD's page, requires 750 Watt Power Supply!). 

I also realized how difficult it was to diagnose a bad power supply without proper tools like a multimeter and/or oscilloscope. Though I probably could have brought it to the EE labs as a computer engineering student :^) 

First thing I noticed with the new hardware installed was that my original i5-2500K OC @ 4.5GHz at 1.35volts was no longer stable. I had to bump core voltage up to 1.37-1.38. Even then, the voltages never seemed to even remain at 1.37/1.38 on load, it would simple fluctuate to 1.344 to 1.35 (the original stable V-core). I kept expericing BSOD's and lock ups until I tweaked numerous voltages on my motherboard in order to achieve stability.

I had a feeling I had a bad power supply from the start, but I fooled myself into thinking it was good since forum posts all over Overclock.net and other forums judge the power supply by 12v, 3.3v, etc. readings on their motherboard sensors. All of my voltage readings were well within expected parameters so I assumed there was nothing wrong with my power supply.

With the CoolerMaster 460W power supply, my IDLE are now 31-32C and load temps HIGH 50's/LOW 60's CINEBENCH R15 (similar load temps to 212+, cooler in idle). Much closer to what I expected. Not sure why the processor runs much cooler with this power supply considering the voltages in the bio settings were not changed.

On the other hand

Now all I'm hoping is that the power supply was a piece of crap from the get-go and hopefully the bad PSU was the cause of my R9 290 blackscreens. I will make another post as an update.

Update:
I have installed the new capstone power supply from Rosewill and my rig is up and running again. However, unfortunately the power supply was not cause of the black screens. I am now 100% sure the black screens are caused by a hardware issue on the R9 290.