Can You Trust 80 Plus?

We've gotten used to using 80 Plus efficiency ratings when deciding which power supply to buy - but is 80 Plus a fundamentally flawed system?

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[techquickie]

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[anmolagrawal]

I liked the last line :
"Let someone with more money than you be the guinea pig"
Highlighting both the importance and service of independent quality reviewers

[lukasfun]

1:10 a little correction: Power cannot go back to the grid. Anything that doesn't go the system, is lost as heat.

[rekire___]

A wise man once said "Don't cheap out your psu kids"

[rossharper]

Short answer: No. After the manufacturer has had it verified for 80 rating there is nothing stopping them from changing the insides half way through its life cycle. GN exposed this.

[Voltaic_Fire]

There really should be ongoing random testing by the certification organisation, as well as testing more loads like this "Cybernetics" certification.

[MarcSpctr]

Remember kids,

When building a house, never cheap out on Wires and Pipes.
When building a PC, never cheap out on PSU.

[RaydeusMX]

Which brands are guilty of exchanging components for cheaper ones after certification btw? It would be a good starting point for at least knowing which brands to skip altogether.

[DoctorX]

To be fair, 80PLUS was never _meant_ to tell you anything past general efficiency, so you can’t really ding them for issues around reliability, quality, etc. — we either need a set of other certifications for other points, or an overall certification that covers everything

[TimothyWhiteheadzm]

You say the extra wattage is lost as waste heat or goes back to the grid. This is incorrect. You cannot ever loose wattage 'back to the grid'. It always has to be turned into some kind of work (typically heat if it is being wasted).

[kevinwetsch]

This reminds me of those quotes from the movie Tommy Boy. The ones about how a guarantee makes the buyer feel all warm inside, and the other one about taking a dump in the box and marking it guaranteed.

[NicosLeben]

I like that cybenetics differentiates between 115V and 230V input voltage because this seems to make a very big difference.

[BlueberryJamPie]

I've also seen that some test sites having a mixed recommendation, and sometimes, results between 110v or 220v. In 220v they pass but at 110v some of them fail. I think the Gammax PSUs had that.

[selohcin]

I'm so glad that Cybenetics is including a noise rating in its rating system. I bought a power supply from Corsair a few years ago and that fan noise was annoying as hell in a quiet room. I mean, I've been playing PC games for several years, so I appreciated the importance of a quiet system. I knew to get a good CPU cooler and to read graphics cards' reviews to know which cards produced a reasonable noise level, but never in a million years did I expect I would have a noise problem from A POWER SUPPLY.

[xDUnPrdiCtabl]

I have a 600W LC Power PSU (12V Just 500W) and it still works over 10 years now. Its silent, cold and never failed despite tests have shown that it is bad. I guess I was lucky.

[GuilhermeLPC]

Cybenetics also has a certification system that goes beyond just efficiency and they even have a database where you can actually look up the components and construction of the PSU thats certified. It's high time we give others the recognition they need in order for companies to want to be certified by them and start using their standard. In Brazil some of the national "makers" are already doing this.

[nishaybennie]

I've got a Superflower 650w leadex 3 80+ gold. Did a ton of research on it and so far never had a issue at all, been using it for about 2 years now.

[FerricWolf]

Just a note on the Cybnetics noise testing, it's done at 30-32° celsius ambient, meaning you should still look up seperate reviews for more modest noise data if you use your PC in a cooler environment.

[JimCKD]

Cybenetics is more complete than 80plus. And would be better in the future. Also, is ran by a famous PSU reviewer, crmaris (Cybenetics, Hardware Busters International Youtube), who really knows his way around PSUs. Just like the other legend, JonnyGuru who opened up our eyes...

[stinky]

I saw reports on LTT forum that major manufacturers like cooler master sell inferior quality PSUs in countries like India where there are no reviewers. What they say is not what they give. Sucks to be those guys