How can a PSU in the lower middle tier obtain GOLD certification?
I wondered which of the Corsair PSUs the components in it correspond to.
There are a lot of gold rated units, and they all use many different components of various quality. When you look at a product to determine where it falls on the budget, midrange, and high-end range, you have to look at exactly how it is made (and from what components, capacitors, topology, quality, warranty, manufacturer, etc). It's exactly why they have the "tier" list over on Linus' site, as there are a lot of variables when figuring out how well the power supply is built.
Power supply inventory and pricing is generally all screwed up right now, but I'd say a Corsair unit like the TX-M series is the most comparable (although it's only semi-modular). Cooler Master power supplies generally are priced lower than comparable products from Seasonic, Corsair, FSP, Be Quiet, Fractal Design. Generally when I buy a new power supply for a build, I spend the extra few bucks and buy a unit with a 10 year warranty (as those units are over-engineered, and I can resuse them for multiple builds without worry. Units like the Corsair RMx, Seasonic Focus Gold & Prime, Super Flower Leadex III, Fractal Design Ion+, etc.