Cybenetics certification program's chief engineer, a renowned expert with switching power supplies, and TechPowerUp contributor, Dr Aris Mpitziopoulos, released detailed commentary on the recent statement released by GIGABYTE on the GP-P750/850 GM series PSU design flaw reportage in the press. The earliest of this was broken on TechPowerUp, with our December 2020 review of the GP-P750GM, which led with the headline "With an Explosive Attitude."

Mpitziopoulos dives into the technical details of the design flaw being not just a badly programmed Over-Power Protection (OPP) safety mechanism, but a flawed hardware design overall. Since he reviewed PSUs from this series for TechPowerUp and Hardware Busters, he shares his perspective on how the reviews went, more importantly, the back-and-forth with GIGABYTE when the flaws were discovered.The following is a statement by Aris Mpitziopoulos:

Corsair on Wednesday refreshed its RMx series premium power-supply series with new 2021 models. Available in capacities of 1000 W, 850 W, 750 W, 650 W, and 550 W, these PSUs succeed the previous generation RMx series by featuring a new 135 mm "Magnetic Levitation" bearing fan that's designed for extremely high durability. This design change, along with other minor updates to the internals, allow Corsair to give these PSUs 10-year warranties. The PSUs continue to offer Cybenetics Gold switching efficiency with Acoustic A- rating, full modular cabling, and include two 4+4 pin EPS connectors on all models except 550 W. Prices should be on-par with the outgoing RMx series.

SilverStone today introduced the Nightjar NJ700, a premium power supply that's completely fanless. This 700-Watt PSU boasts of Cybenetics Titanium and 80 Plus Titanium switching efficiency ratings; and on virtue of being fanless, bags Cybenetics Acoustic A++ rating. It features a single +12 V rail design, with 100% Japanese capacitors, and ±2% voltage regulation, and ripple suppression. It offers full modular cabling, with enough juice and straws for a fairly powerful gaming PC. Connectors include a 24-pin ATX, two 4+4 pin EPS, four 6+2 pin PCIe power, twelve SATA power, and a handful 4-pin Molex and Berg connectors. The PSU offers active PFC, and protection against over/under-voltage, overload, overheat, and short-circuit. The company didn't reveal pricing.

Cybenetics, the company behind the Cybenetics power supply rating system, introduced a new certification badge system that makes it a lot easier to gauge the efficiency and noise of a PC power supply unit when making a purchase decision. Unlike competing PSU certification services, Cybenetics doesn't just use brute 12 V switching efficiency to gauge the quality of a PSU, but takes into account the efficiency of the individual voltage domains, power-factor correction, vampire power (losses), etc., to present a more complete measure of a PSU's efficiency. Cybenetics also offers a logo program to gauge the noise output of a PSU, so you know a PSU isn't cutting corners with noise in pursuit of switching efficiency, and has sufficient heatsink mass to afford a quieter fan.

Cybenetics Efficiency logo grades resemble precious metals and gems, much like sports medals. It begins with "Standard," and goes through "Bronze," "Silver," "Gold," "Platinum," "Titanium," and "Diamond." The first table below shows what it takes to qualify for each of these. It's important to note that the grading system takes input AC voltage into account (110~120 V or 220~240 V AC), and there are different parameters for each input voltage type. For PSUs that support both 110 V and 220 V AC inputs (automatic switching), it's likely that it comes with two efficiency logos. Noise output is a more universal rating, and depends entirely on how quiet the PSU is. Since its inception, Cybenetics tested and certified over 770 PSU models, and is testing many more.

Cybenetics was formed with one purpose in mind; to introduce new efficiency and noise certification standards for AC-DC power supply units (PSUs) through its ETA and LAMBDA ratings. So far, we have certified over 660 units, and beta tested over a thousand, to help brands worldwide deliver better products. Besides PSUs, we have also enrolled in chassis noise testing, and there is another program currently in development, where besides power measurements, through our Powenetics solution, we also measure the overall noise output of graphics cards.

We are relentless, and we are always trying to come with new ideas that will help in the production of better products in every IT section. This is why we decided to make public our complete PSU test protocol, which besides the energy efficiency and output noise measurements, also explains the overall performance algorithm that we use in our beta testing program to provide as accurate as possible comparison data. This test protocol has been developed through many years of PSU evaluation experience. The methodologies in place, have been forged after numerous hours of testing and experimentation to obtain accuracy and reliability.

Cooler Master, a global leader in PC component manufacturing, today, announced the availability of the new V Gold power supply unit (PSU), providing a new and improved series of PSUs for the next generation of high-end PC builders.

After five years, the V Gold succeeds Cooler Master's previously launched V Series PSU and will offer users an 80 Plus Gold efficiency rating. Available in the US and Canada in two wattage levels, 650W and 750W, the new V Gold PSU features a semi-fanless mode that enables the 135mm fan at 40% load. Users can manually de-activate the semi-fanless mode via the hybrid switch located at the rear of the PSU.

At Computex, BitFenix showed off its upcoming flagship PSU series, the Vision Titanium. Available in capacities ranging between 650W and 1500W, these PSUs are Cybenetics Lambda A++ and ETA-A+ certified, besides 80 Plus Titanium, making them some of the most efficient juice boxes out there. The units are cooled by 135 mm fans, and feature full modular cabling. Depending on the model, you get up to two 4+4 pin EPS, up to sixteen 6+2 pin PCIe, 10-16 SATA power and Molex connectors. The PSUs are compatible with the company's Alchemy 2.0 modular cables.

Cybenetics was formed with one purpose in mind; to bring revolution to the efficiency and noise certification standards of personal computer power supply units (PSUs) through the ETA (efficiency) and LAMBDA (noise) programs.

Both programs mentioned above use 115 VAC input mainly. Given the increased demand for 230 VAC results, we decided to initiate two new programs, the ETA-230V and LAMBDA-230V. The general methodologies that the new programs follow are identical to the ones used by the 115 V programs, with the main differences being the 230 V input and the different limits/ranges in the ETA-230V.

Mining is highly popular lately (again) thanks to Ethereum and besides suitable GPUs you will also need the proper power supply (PSU) for the job. The PSU has to be highly efficient, in order to keep the electricity cost as low as possible, and reliable as well since it will have to operate 24/7 under highly stressful conditions. For mining purposes, the PSU's noise isn't among the top priorities since most crypto-currency farming facilities operate in dedicated spaces where the operators don't have to stay long; even home miners should install their mining systems in isolated rooms, where noise won't be a problem. As a matter of fact, in PSUs used for mining purposes the fan is expected to operate close to its full speed most of the time, given the high load output, effectively cooling down sensitive components. This way the PSU's reliability is dramatically improved.

Our purpose for this program isn't to torture test each and every PSU that a manufacturer sends for certification since we already do this in our 10-110% load tests (part of the ETA Certification) during which we overload the PSU with the ambient temperature exceeding 45°C, but mostly to examine closely its components in order to find out whether it will survive on the (very) long run. For example, a PSU with a bulk cap which is rated at 85°C will have a significantly shorter lifetime compared to a PSU with a 105°C rated bulk cap under hard operating conditions. The same applies to the filtering capacitors on the secondary side. A PSU that uses low quality filtering capacitors with 1-3,000 hours lifetime under 105°C won't last as long as a PSU that uses 6-10,000 hours caps rated at the same temperature. Another important factor is the cooling fan, since if the fan breaks down then the PSU will most likely follow immediately, especially if it doesn't have Over Temperature Protection.