WEBVTT 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 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 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 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 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 00:00:27.920 --> 00:00:34.000 that power supplies can get for hitting certain power efficiency targets. To qualify, a power supply 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 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, 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 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. 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 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 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 00:01:22.560 --> 00:01:28.320 implies that the power supply itself is made with better quality components that will last you 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 00:01:34.960 --> 00:01:41.440 that can not only mislead buyers, but that some manufacturers have used to game the system. 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 00:01:47.520 --> 00:01:52.480 load levels. While the idea behind it makes sense, take samples from light, moderate and heavy 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 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 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 00:02:10.480 --> 00:02:15.360 to be graded on these three points, with the exception being titanium certified units, 00:02:15.360 --> 00:02:21.920 they can specifically tune their power supplies to be impressively efficient at those three points 00:02:21.920 --> 00:02:28.480 only, with more lackluster performance in most other situations. This is a particular issue 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 00:02:34.560 --> 00:02:40.960 many power supplies see their efficiencies drop well below 80%. And there are also concerns around 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 00:02:46.400 --> 00:02:51.200 specially built units off for verification that are not representative of what most customers 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 00:02:56.800 --> 00:03:01.520 proper efficiency targets when they were independently tested by third parties. The 00:03:01.520 --> 00:03:06.320 manufacturers are basically cheating, not to mention that there have been 80 plus certified units 00:03:06.320 --> 00:03:11.840 made with shoddy components resulting in high failure rates, as well as some models that got 00:03:11.840 --> 00:03:17.840 certified once, then they switched to cheaper components, but unscrupulously kept the 80 plus 00:03:17.840 --> 00:03:24.320 sticker on the box. And another thing, 80 plus certification tells you nothing about whether 00:03:24.320 --> 00:03:29.840 important safety features are present, or whether the power delivered is clean enough for more 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 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. 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, 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 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 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 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 00:04:07.840 --> 00:04:13.680 popularity. In fact, they've already rated over a thousand different models. Although the cybernetics 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, 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 00:04:23.520 --> 00:04:29.200 the same familiar certification levels as 80 plus. Additionally, cybernetics ratings take into 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 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 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 00:04:46.000 --> 00:04:51.040 say much about the overall reliability of the components. So yeah, rather than buying a just 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. 00:04:56.480 --> 00:04:58.320 Get something you can trust.