1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:05,360 For a long time, we've treated 80 plus as the gold standard when it comes to judging the quality 2 00:00:05,360 --> 00:00:10,400 of a power supply. But 80 plus has borne criticism over the years for being a very 3 00:00:10,400 --> 00:00:16,000 incomplete way to think about power supplies. And now it looks like a new challenger could be 4 00:00:16,000 --> 00:00:22,080 gaining traction in the PSU certification market. But let's start by explaining exactly what 80 plus 5 00:00:22,080 --> 00:00:27,840 is for those of you who are new to the space or maybe just forgot. 80 plus is a certification 6 00:00:27,920 --> 00:00:34,000 that power supplies can get for hitting certain power efficiency targets. To qualify, a power supply 7 00:00:34,000 --> 00:00:40,960 has to convert at least 80% of the incoming power to actual power that your computer can use at loads 8 00:00:40,960 --> 00:00:48,960 of 20, 50 and 100%. In other words, the power supply has to be 80% efficient. For example, 9 00:00:48,960 --> 00:00:54,640 let's say you have a 750 watt power supply at 50% load, meaning the components are drawing 10 00:00:54,720 --> 00:01:04,720 375 watts. The power supply itself can't draw more than 469 watts, since 375 is 80% of 469. 11 00:01:04,720 --> 00:01:10,960 Nice. The extra wattage that is not getting to the components is lost to waste heat or goes back 12 00:01:10,960 --> 00:01:16,960 to the grid. To get a higher 80 plus rating like bronze, gold or platinum, the efficiency at each 13 00:01:16,960 --> 00:01:22,560 load point has to be greater, which not only means bigger savings on your power bill, but usually 14 00:01:22,560 --> 00:01:28,320 implies that the power supply itself is made with better quality components that will last you 15 00:01:28,320 --> 00:01:34,960 a longer time. This sounds straightforward, but there are some real holes in the 80 plus system 16 00:01:34,960 --> 00:01:41,440 that can not only mislead buyers, but that some manufacturers have used to game the system. 17 00:01:41,440 --> 00:01:47,520 One big issue with 80 plus is the paradigm of only testing power supplies at three specific 18 00:01:47,520 --> 00:01:52,480 load levels. While the idea behind it makes sense, take samples from light, moderate and heavy 19 00:01:52,480 --> 00:01:58,640 workloads, the amount of stress you put on your power supply is highly variable, meaning 80 plus 20 00:01:58,640 --> 00:02:05,280 might not be a good indicator of how your PSU will behave under the conditions that you specifically 21 00:02:05,280 --> 00:02:10,480 use it for. But even worse is that because power supply manufacturers know that they're only going 22 00:02:10,480 --> 00:02:15,360 to be graded on these three points, with the exception being titanium certified units, 23 00:02:15,360 --> 00:02:21,920 they can specifically tune their power supplies to be impressively efficient at those three points 24 00:02:21,920 --> 00:02:28,480 only, with more lackluster performance in most other situations. This is a particular issue 25 00:02:28,480 --> 00:02:34,560 when the computer is at or near idle, where it probably remains much of the time, and where 26 00:02:34,560 --> 00:02:40,960 many power supplies see their efficiencies drop well below 80%. And there are also concerns around 27 00:02:40,960 --> 00:02:46,400 the testing process itself, as it's been reported that manufacturers have sent cherry picked or even 28 00:02:46,400 --> 00:02:51,200 specially built units off for verification that are not representative of what most customers 29 00:02:51,200 --> 00:02:56,800 would be buying. That's why there have been plenty of instances of 80 plus models that didn't hit the 30 00:02:56,800 --> 00:03:01,520 proper efficiency targets when they were independently tested by third parties. The 31 00:03:01,520 --> 00:03:06,320 manufacturers are basically cheating, not to mention that there have been 80 plus certified units 32 00:03:06,320 --> 00:03:11,840 made with shoddy components resulting in high failure rates, as well as some models that got 33 00:03:11,840 --> 00:03:17,840 certified once, then they switched to cheaper components, but unscrupulously kept the 80 plus 34 00:03:17,840 --> 00:03:24,320 sticker on the box. And another thing, 80 plus certification tells you nothing about whether 35 00:03:24,320 --> 00:03:29,840 important safety features are present, or whether the power delivered is clean enough for more 36 00:03:29,840 --> 00:03:35,840 aggressive overclocking. So if 80 plus has more holes than a slice of Swiss cheese, why do we even 37 00:03:35,840 --> 00:03:41,520 pay attention to it in the first place? Well, we're not saying that 80 plus is useless or a scam. 38 00:03:41,520 --> 00:03:47,360 It's fine as a starting point when you're looking to buy a PSU, but in addition to the 80 plus rating, 39 00:03:47,360 --> 00:03:52,000 you should find reviews from folks who know what they're talking about, preferably involving a tear 40 00:03:52,000 --> 00:03:57,760 down, and look at the components inside the PSU to make sure that your power supply won't fail or 41 00:03:57,760 --> 00:04:03,040 explode on you when you're putting it through its paces. And we're hoping that the situation gets 42 00:04:03,040 --> 00:04:07,840 at least a little bit better in the near future with the new cybernetics rating system gaining 43 00:04:07,840 --> 00:04:13,680 popularity. In fact, they've already rated over a thousand different models. Although the cybernetics 44 00:04:13,680 --> 00:04:19,040 procedure doesn't address every weakness of 80 plus, it tests a huge number of wattage loads, 45 00:04:19,040 --> 00:04:23,520 meaning you get a better idea as to the power supply's overall efficiency while still using 46 00:04:23,520 --> 00:04:29,200 the same familiar certification levels as 80 plus. Additionally, cybernetics ratings take into 47 00:04:29,200 --> 00:04:35,040 account vampire power, which is how much power the PSU wastes while your system is actually turned 48 00:04:35,040 --> 00:04:40,080 off. And they even give out a separate rating for noise so you can quickly confirm that your power 49 00:04:40,080 --> 00:04:46,000 supply won't sound like a turbo problem. But remember that the cybernetics system still doesn't 50 00:04:46,000 --> 00:04:51,040 say much about the overall reliability of the components. So yeah, rather than buying a just 51 00:04:51,040 --> 00:04:56,480 released power supply, it's probably best to let someone with more money than you be the guinea pig. 52 00:04:56,480 --> 00:04:58,320 Get something you can trust.