This is the last PSU review for a little while! We know it's been a lot of them, but we normally try to do things in waves like this once we get into gear (it takes a lot of work to change testing for a week). More content soon, but there'll be a short break in PSU stuff. If you want to support this type of testing, grab something on the store & get quality items in return for the help: store.gamersnexus.net/ or visit patreon.com/gamersnexus for behind-the-scenes videos (shooting more this week). In the meantime, check out our Gigabyte explosion speedrun: ua-cam.com/video/7JmPUr-BeEM/v-deo.html Or see how a PSU is supposed to work here! ua-cam.com/video/2SleaZ68ZO0/v-deo.html
A SFX psu Cooler Master think people would be getting it for there mini itx especially because it seems "affordable" for a mini itx Cooler Master v750-sfx-gold Cooler Master v850-sfx-gold
More top quality reviews! I appreciate the depth. Personally, I don't really care about efficiency and I'd probably grab it for my media center if I needed a PSU. It's not got a 3090 or something in it.
Dude I'm a quality engineer in aerospace, and he just gave you the I'm sorry a couple of us knew these were bad all along but management told us to sell them anyway, response. George is a pro.
You’re doing such a huge service to the pc industry! I sincerely appreciate what this team does, and without you this industry would be SIGNIFICANTLY more dirty than it currently is. Please, keep up the fantastic work you do.
Gamers Nexus is basically what "Consumer Reports" was in the 70's-00's everyone trusted the publication for it's testing of electronics and consumer goods.
normally I’d ignore the bot comments/replies, but 8 of them? Are you kidding me? They really have to add some kind of ‘suspected bot comment’ as a report function. All they have to do to prevent this specifically is check the timing between each post… don’t even need an AI for that. On another note, I do love that most of the comments on this channel are appreciative of their efforts. Could be wrong here, but it seems that most (if not all) of the stuff they review, they buy out of their own pocket too.
Steve, It don't surprise me at all that its 80+ White label at best, the trouble is, we have no trading standards checking this crap on a regular basis anymore, they are just left to do what they want and get away with it.
I’d wager most PSUs produced over the last 18 months have slipped in efficiency rating due to component substitution. It would be interesting to see a comparison between two different runs of the same SKU.
It makes sense a shitty brand like "AresGame" (like wut) would do so. I'd love to see PSU's from reputable vendors ie Seasonic/Corsair, Cooler Master tested instead.
LOL True ... but I'm not sure if GN could actually give it that banner in this particular instance. If it had at least had less variance... At least to me, not a single person at GN would even feel comfortable putting it into one of their own computers, then it could be said that they hate it. Completely. LOL Just sayin'...
@@justsomeperson5110 Well, given that, "We don't completely hate it" is a direct quote from Steve at 28:41 in this video stated while wrapping up and summarizing their feelings regarding the power supply-I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that you're probably wrong and that it actually could *not* be said that they hate it. Completely. LOL Just sayin'...
I’m a big fan of how Steve handled this. He acknowledged the market differences between the east and the west, but also didn’t allow it to be used as an excuse for lying about the product. He was stern, but professional. And after that, he still presented the product in a fair light. That’s what I love the most about this channel. Steve’s push for ethical marketing and solutions that don’t treat the consumer like an idiot.
They’re probably thinking, “the UK is _east_ right? East of the US? They only said we should be honest with western markets, so we can keep it listed as gold here.”
@@SpaniardNL The sad thing is, I have Gigabyte motherboards in my 2 desktop PCs and have used other Gigabyte MBs in the past and they have always served me well. The one in my music recording PC is still going strong with a 3770K in it, that should tell you just how old it is. I was excited that it had USB 3. Haha. They used to be quality, and some of their components probably still ARE, but the more these companies start getting into areas that they really are not experts at, like PSUs, the more they run the risk of tarnishing any good will they have built up. Just do what you are good at. Make MBs and graphics cards, and maybe some other types of expansion cards, but leave PSUs, cases, etc, to the people who do those well already.
@@eboethrasher Sad is correct, Gigabyte is now on my nooooooope list for any component. For another example, Ubisoft did its original U-play root kit nonsense. Denied it, got sussed out. Redenied it and got straight up proven to have a root kit. THEN said, "oh it wasn't us!" That got them on my banned for life list. Haven't put an Ubisoft game on any PC since 2013.
Maybe they meant the age of people buying them? Why back in my day you could get a thousand watts for a tenner after having permission to go to work to come back and sleep in our shoe box! Luxury!
"We don't completely hate it." I'd put that on the amazon product listing. I like how GN says when they don't know something and doesn't spread rumors or speculate, but gives us the facts what could have happened and clearly gives the manufacturer / seller the benefit of doubt even in cases like this where one could easily draw quick conclusions which are not as favorable. Good job reporting the facts, GN.
Can we finally make it illegal to silently downgrade a product without changing the model name/number? It’s wide spread, it’s anti-consumer, and it will continue to become the norm if nothing is done about it. Product reviews would become rather meaningless.
Amazon helps them by combining multiple products on one page so the reviews are mixed. They even allow them to completely change the listing while keeping old reviews. I learned not to buy any PC parts that aren't reviewed favorably by our lord and savior Tech Jesus.
@@freefall5x Agreed. If you're looking for ... sanity ... on Amazon, look elsewhere!!! Everything about Amazon is not how to business right. But they're easy. So for PC parts I shop there last, only buying on Amazon if if if the price is actually better than it is elsewhere AND I've already seen reviews I trust elsewhere AND find the seller behind the curtain to appear trustworthy. And even then, there's some shade to be found, so I always consider it a risky endeavor when I do. Buying PC parts on Amazon is like a barely legit eBay IMHO. LOL
@@justsomeperson5110 Right. Amazon provides good customer service and fast shipping, but has no supply-chain integrity (especially with their commingled inventory system with 3rd-party sellers).
This PSU is completely fine even for most demanding graphics cards and processors. It has over 700W on +12V and that is most important. For example 3090 ti has TDP of 350W , and let's say Ryzen 9 5900X has 105 W . Therefore, enough power to have them both plus plenty of room for OC, despite usual GN drivel, and their "standards" . Bottom line, if you could find it at fair price, buy it . As for 80 Plus Gold or Bronte, only idiots in Commifornia worry about that :)
@@aleksazunjic9672 a smart person once told me to just make sure it's UL, only very cheap equipment fails UL cert. Unfortunately from this video you wouldn't know.
@@aleksazunjic9672 the sad part is that 3090's have power spikes of up to 579w in testing (transient spikes of under 10ms duration, but still) and 5900x will draw signifficantly more than the 105w labled "tdp" which is just a marketing formula for AMD which doesnt even have the power the CPU consumes in there. and overclocked the 5900x pulls more like 180-200w or more. And even the stock powerdraw is closer to 130w. OC'ing those parts on THIS psu is ill-advised at best in my opinion, but other than this extreme case i think this unit will be fine for 98% of pc builds. (also worrying about who much power you WASTE to get the same amount of pc running is not a bad or communist thing, what the hell. It should be common sense that wasting more to get the same out is bad in every percieveable way, especially if you speciffically bought an "efficient" unit and get cucked with something like this.)
Just want to say I really appreciate these PSU pieces; it's such an underexamined area of custom builds - the typical advice always seems to have been "gold or above from a named company" and just roll the dice. Having a real depth of detail is enormously valuable. Excellent work.
I ain't no PC expert, nor an Electrical Engineer, just a simple farmer. But I'm concerned on your personal safety during testing. Is it a good idea if there's a transparent durable plastic shield between the psu and you guys? Or just use eye protection. Concerned on catastrophic failure and metal fragments flying.
@@GamersNexus It's the sort of thing that you should never need.............. but in a world where a company like Gigabyte can make a unit that bad who knows what would happen to a lesser brand. 2000w of 95 Plus Gold PSU from the brand ฿ for less than some 1000w units should feel worried right now.
I'm one of the "Got suckered in by gigabytye to buy a kit" PSU guys, and thanks to you, i was able to return it. still waiting on my refund. I am thus now currently looking at replacement power supplies, and would honnestly love to see tests on a Titanium 750-850W Psu. Ive been looking at Be Quiet, Seasonic and Superflower. My current EVGA 1000W P2 is getting old and does have a melted connector, and has been working hard 24/7 since I bought it. I'd like to have a good spare before something goes south. I Had an EVGA 750W G2 Blow up on me and that actually forced me to use the gigabyte PSU for some time, which was not great for the nerves. Thanks a lot for your content and efforts! It has not been wasted! The EVGA Testing reinforced confidence in my EVGA Units!
Don't cheap out on a PSU, guys. A good one can last through multiple computer builds. And if it fails catastrophically, it can ruin any or all parts of your system. Your motherboard, case, and AIB features on your GPU are a better place to stretch your budget.
I'm still using the same Corsair PSU from 2006. It first powered a E6400/gt8800 and I've carried it over with every upgrade since. I'm now at the stage where I'm just intrigued to see how long it lasts before crapping out.
As someone who has sold well over 40 rigs using the 500 watt model, I can tell you guys that I haven't had ONE issue with any buyer regarding these units. What's more impressive is I ran ONE of the 500w units mining Ethereum using FOUR GTX 1060 6gb cards for 2 months straight, let me repeat, 4 cards. Very impressive. I will continue to use these units until any consistent negative issues arise.
I've been running the 500 watts PSU on my PC for nearly a year now with zero issues and no irregularities. Cool and quiet. I've pretty much only heard good things about them, too! For a person living in LATAM like me this was a godsend, honestly.
Steve and GN Team, Thank you so much for doing a detailed video on this PSU. I have reviewed AresGame products in the past but do not have the technical tools and full knowledge of the inner-workings of PSUs like your team does. I have made a post to my community too, to come check out this video for detailed information about this PSU. Thanks again for taking the time to review this unit! I am very relieved to see these units survive your testing, though not quite an "as advertised" unit. Thanks again!
This seems similar to the hard drives that Linus was harping on last year, iirc. The original spec for the device is validated and marketed on that validation. Then over time components are changed, but never validated again, yet the sky and marketing go untouched.
Gamers Nexus: I think the recommendation you're looking for is, "This will work if you're really desperate. We don't know how long it will work, or what it will do when it ultimately fails."
Man it's actually been years since you got this PSU test equipment and you mentioned how you were refining your precesses. The payoff for that due diligence has been immense! I love the way you guys do things and I can only imagine how great the fan testing will be when you get it set up in your new place. Whenever that is. It'll be worth the wait.
@@GamersNexus And we've been waiting (not so) patiently every year since! From the bottom of my heart, thank you for taking the time to be able to do it right!
I love compoment testing, I'd like to see more reputable brands and how good/accurate they really are. Might be less thrilling of a video, but still super fun/informative
So many cool and informative tech pieces in the last few days. Can't wait for the factory tour video releasing in the next week you teased. Thanks Steve! (Thanks to the rest of the team too! Really appreciate everyone's work!)
That definitely sounded like they heard about your gigabyte piece and wanted to try and be as truthful as possible while not trying to admit they were lying to consumers about something 95% of people wouldn't even know how to test.
To be as charitable as possible to them, I don't think they're necessarily guilty of actively lying. Swapping parts because of shortage and then not testing them isn't necessarily lying. It sounds a lot more like unethical negligence to me.
@@afelias I'd like to believe it's simple negligence, because I can 100% see how if you were running a massive shortage, and your suppliers told you that these components are roughly equivalent in quality and performance, you could easily take a misstep by not actually verifying those claims and just pushing out product to meet demand. It would certainly corroborate their claim that they have both units that met the standard and units that failed, which would imply that there's a mix of people who got the product as advertised and those who got what is essentially a decent but still cheap 80+ White/Bronze unit. Maybe it's being a bit too charitable, but seeing as they're essentially a no name Amazon seller that could easily rebrand and barely suffer losses yet still chose to be honest with Steve, I'm leaning on giving them that benefit of the doubt that they simply made a poor decision which unknowingly caused them to sell products that didn't meet their advertising claims.
@@afelias Heya, Electrical Engineer here. They're full of shit. As Patrick showed in his teardown there are a lot of critical components missing. In the desgin you can quite easily tell that this is not a DNP but just straigt up not present in the design. Ergo, if what Steve was "suggesting" happened (they got lucky) they had to have gone through a redesign. And going to a redesign by removing critical components is imo way past unethical. In my eyes it sounds a lot like Steve's first scenario. They created a "better" sample and sent that for certification, then slapped it on their cheaper variant. It's probably also likely that they did eventually cost down their components once they learned they got away with it. Probably was silver, not more bronze/white. TL;DR Their reply reeks of "sorry we got caught, please don't assblast us" and they're full of shit 100%. Edit: To add, just buy a good high quality unit. These will last FOREVER. I'm still rocking my AX860 I paid 150 euros for almost 10 years ago. I'm quite sure it paid itself off by now.
For another psu I'd love to see something on the opposite end of the spectrum that's crazy expensive. Rog titan or maybe something 80+ titanium certified. Let's see what it takes to be a top tier psu.
You may laugh at this but actually I consider failure tests to be even more important than efficiency tests! In fact, if a faulty PSU blows up it can pull all your expensive peripheral hardware into the grave as well. Don't want that to happen. Safety > efficiency.
@@FeuerblutRMit's 2 years but you are absolutely right! Not fine for both, but the bigger evil is when a power supply throws 400V down the 12V line. Nasty!
Would love the next one to be Seasonic platinum and/or titanium so we have a benchmark for those high end/priced models. And just to see how reliable those are.
These already exist, you can find numerous reviews of Seasonic power suppose with very detailed data for years. Have bothered to look for this information? And yes, Seasonic consistently exceed their specifications.
Oh IDK every company needs to be double checked. Every maker of computer parts have been caught with some BS they forgot to mention. I don't trust anything lately. Especially sense covid with supplies of good parts getting swapped out because of availability.
Thank you Steve for your and your teams hard work making sure the customer isn't getting the shaft by companies! This is one of the main reasons I love your channel.
Would love to see some SSD deep dives given that multiple outlets over the last few days have caught both WD and even Samsung swapping components out of existing stock that vastly affect performance in some cases.
@@muckdriver From what I saw of Samsung's information, that's the case. I just clarified with "some" cases as I had lumped Samsung and WD into the same sentence. That's on me lol. Was aimed more at WD and the others than Samsung specifically. Though, the fact that (forgive the possible crap reference) a V6 could be swapped with an I4-Turbo that has almost the same torque, gas-mileage, and top speed doesn't make the swap any less disingenuous without telling the buyer that it changed since you showed off, and still market it as a V6.
Kingston has been doing this crap for years and nobody cared about it. A400 960GB dropping in price by 40-50eur overnight a couple years back from ~180 to ~130. What did they do? Swap to crappier NAND. Was it ever in the news anywhere? nope... nothing whatsoever. And of course that happened *after* it got tons of decent reviews
Another great piece, thanks for this content. It really puts the lack of consumer protections in this country in stark relief. If we had agencies that inspected and qualified goods, Steve wouldn’t have to tell us about power supplies that may explode. I don’t even fault gigabite and ares, their aim is to make as much money as possible… even (maybe especially) at the cost of customer well being, and the regulations some bitch about are supposed to stop false advertising and products that will burn houses down. We keep slashing budgets and cutting these regulations, so expect lots more of this.
you are talking there about one country, your country, but, it is like this pretty much everywhere someone uses fake certificates, or no certificates at all to sell, sell fast and get rich, no matter what is a sad reality we live, and is a blessing to have a youtube channel testing things like gamers nexus does, i never use the written review, i do prefer the video
I feel like we're back in the '90s, where PSUs were the wild west and you REALLY had to tread carefully to protect your build from the many lies that could take down your PC with a bad PSU. Which is weird considering how improved PSUs have gotten with protections and standards. But, clearly, not enough with VALIDATING those protections and standards.
@@justsomeperson5110 well back in 90s when we called them "Power Supplies" , there wasn't 80 plus sh!t. No rating, just an output in peak wattage, 300 was suffice for most higher end systems and they all worked perfectly. I have some that still run! And we are STILL using 24 pin mobo connector!!!😄
I could never go with a "It's okay" or "Sort of fine" PSU. That is the one part that can cause serious damage to literally everything else if it fails. Never ever skimp on the PSU quality.
I learned this lesson long ago, with a plethera of skimp'd PSUs I was lucky however as I only had dead fans instead of a gigablast PSU! I'm now a proud owner of Seasonic titanium that I got on sale!
Agreed. If anyone is going to brand a PSU as Platinum and actually get there, it is likely to be Seasonic. I'd like to see a PSU that isn't just 'sorta fine', but is likely to be actually good, even if that means it is expensive enough that it isn't super-popular.
I got a seasonic platinum 550w bought in 2017 still works flawless, but if it's really as efficient as they say - no idea. been very happy with it tho. Silent fan with great bearings.
AGS being somewhat transparent with GN? I appreciate them being somewhat truthful. The world changes and them reaching out is respectable! Not fully what was expected but still seems like they are trying so I'll give them a place in the market.
This is just a general message of support for this PSU series. Its one of the less covered, and more important, components. And im sure that many others like myself are interested in finding a good safe quality psu for our machines as we wait for GPUs to come back to semiaffordable prices
I really like how detailed your PSU reviews are. One brand that i would really like to see is PC Power & Cooling. They have been around since the 80's and i would really be interested to see how the quality stacks up in this day and age. Has to be one of the oldest PSU manufacturers around...
I have a 610 watt PC power and cooling PS that I bought over ten years ago and its still going silent and strong in its second build - theyre expensive I paid over $100 for my 610 watt but when I bought mine they claimed all Japanese caps w/ high end parts and specs, but I never see reviews probably due to their price or availability you dont see many around.
I like the deep PSU testing. I know that testing equipment (and the knowledge to use it) cost money but I'm here to confirm it's worth it. I look forward to more. Great video.
Got a EVGA Supernova 750w power supply near 5 years ago, it's happily supported all the upgrades I've done since, went from a Athlon X4 880k & Radeon RX 470, all the way to a Ryzen R5 2600X & Sapphire Nitro+ Radeon 5700XT and its happily kept everything fed
Yep EVGA's mid-high end PSUs are generally pretty good with Seasonic and Superflower being the manufacturers of most of their high quality PSUs, I've had a 650w P2 since 2015 and it's still going strong and I expect it to keep chugging along for at least another 2-4 years but honestly I expect it to go much longer than that and just hope when it dies it doesn't take any other components with it.
This PSU is completely fine even for most demanding graphics cards and processors. It has over 700W on +12V and that is most important. For example 3090 ti has TDP of 350W , and let's say Ryzen 9 5900X has 105 W . Therefore, enough power to have them both plus plenty of room for OC, despite usual GN drivel, and their "standards" . Bottom line, if you could find it at fair price, buy it . As for 80 Plus Gold or Bronte, only idiots in Commifornia worry about that :)
@@aleksazunjic9672 IT IS A LIE ! END They still can sell it for a 80 Plus Bronze PSU ! No need to fake things ! But if you are happy if someone lie to you i have something nice for you: "you are very clever and a good looking person, go on like this" :D
@@MrLince-hr4of Technically speaking, they still have valid 80 plus gold certification from proper authority, so it is not a lie. GN is not such authority, and frankly I doubt accuracy of many of their tests. But let's leave it at that, because 80 Plus Gold or Bronze only matters to "eco-friendly" green idiots who do not understand basic stuff about physics. Most of other people care about power delivered at +12V and stuff like OPP, OVP and SCP . Overall, this PSU seems decent, if the price is right you could buy it even for some "heavy" gaming rig.
Actually amazing how much effort they put on reviewing this PSU, even making the company having to do something just 'cause they're scared of being another Gigabyte PSU case.
I suggest that no MOV, no relay around the thermistor and double-forward design (to quote jonnyGuru, "Lower efficiency and the hard switching doesn't like the high transient loads of higher end graphics cards.") are fundamental choices of a lower efficiency PSU rather than component alternatives causing a drift away from Gold.
I mean, if the design was barely capable of skirting by with good components, I'm not sure how a component change could just ... go forward to production. No matter what their response is from now on, their behavior up to this point has still been extremely dishonest. One black eye is better than two like Gigabyte now have, but they still pulled shady tactics. I know it's extremely difficult to do these days, but I'm more and more trying to not buy from shady companies. These guys aren't even a ubiquitous or even a well known name, so they have no chance with me.
These videos along with the Gigglebit debacle, have convinced me to reeeeallly think about the quality of the PSU as the first component of consideration for my next future build. Thanks, Steve!
Steve you probably have a Folder for storing all of these Damning clips for easy access and regular use right? Is the folder named something awesome like, "Blood of my OEMemies" I must know your secrets. I will not rest sir!
@@GamersNexus Thankyou Thankyou Im a bit of a metal head, particularly Viking metal, favorite band probably Manowar. And while I have you here, I dunno wether or not you can or want to add it to the list but Im curious if the internals of my Psu, The Phanteks Revolt-X, are a proper gold standard that might set a bar for other companies. I refuse to buy consoles and would like to use it as a full on home entertainment system in a single case and Im a little scared to plug in a second Gpu
@@vortraz2054 Unless you suspect something super shady is going on, the "powered by Seasonic" should tell you everything you need to know about your power supply. More than likely, Phantek has just put their sticker on the most reputable PSU manufacturer's product. Unlike AresGame, Seasonic has been making PSUs for over 40 years, and their 10+ year warranties actually mean something.
@@semosesam I refer you to the clip of Steve commenting on Seasonic her in this video. Which is to say meehh?.. Why would I take the worlds word for it. There is only one thing I truly wish Death upon, sir. Blind Faith.
Yeah, a lot of the store review sites have "credible reviewer issues". I've gotten to where I ignore the five starts and start at the one and two star reviews to see what they said.
@@jackielinde7568 Don't forget to look at the "strata" of reviews too! The earliest ones are always 5 stars and it's the latest ones that you have to read into to get the whole picture for what you're buying.
Hey Steve, thanks for providing good content for this niche in the PSU hardware sphere. Even though Aris is a great reviewer, he's only one person and cannot alone devote time to probably the most important component that DIY builders purchase. We all really appreciate your work here and hope to see more in the future.
I’d love to see something like a sea sonic prime vs focus review (similar with other brands as well) within the same efficiency branding and claimed wattage.
Agreed it would be interesting to see family comparisons inside of reputable brands. The differences in marketing are really difficult to understand what you are paying for that actually matters.
I genuinely love these PSU reviews and would love to see more of them. I love seeing how companies react to you guys tearing through their BS claims and seeing you guys making some legitimate changes for the better within the power supply market. I would love it if it became a series of Steve and the team blowing up cheaply made PSUs, even if they don't hear back from the companies we get some very fun fireworks out of it
Good, gigabyte deserves it in every way. gigabyte lack of acknowledgement of this ongoing issue was disgusting and a general disservice to their customers. They were given ample amount of time and information from different tech outlets, not just gamers nexus, about this issue. They could have just owned up to the problem, issued mass recalls of their power supply, and just took a bit of a credit hit and be done with it. Instead they sat on this issue for a long time, causing who knows how many customers time and money either due to power supply frying on them or in worst case, losing multiple computer components when it fails. Worst was that they tried to attack the very outlets that wanted to help in the first place. Gamers nexus is completely in the right to continually harass gigabyte about this scummy practice. Seems it is the only way nowadays to make a corporation do their actual job of making a non faulty product instead of screwing their customers then double downing on their own screw ups and make it the customer fault instead.
The high rankings likely come from the fact that aresgame sends a LOT of units to medium-sized techtubers and techtokers, which are more interested in entertainment rather than informational value. Also giving free mousepads to people who rate 5 stars.
Classic communist Chinese jobs. But then if you watch docs on how bad the employment situation is in China, esp now, worse than ever, you'll realise they have no option. Still shite to do that
It's hard to test a PSU. Few people can load-test it. Then measure the noise level at different loads. Also, few people can measure load and line regulation and noise. And even fewer can measure the efficiency, since you both needs to have a well controlled load and be able to measure the piwet input. And since the power factor isn't 1.0, the input load isn't pure sine wave. So the power meter needs to integrate the current and voltage curves and produce a calibrated result with less than 1% error. That is way better than any hobby equipment manages. So in the end, most web sites can't give PSU scores based on actual performance and component/design quality. Besides possibly checking if electrolytes are of high-temperature type from a known manufacturer.
@@perwestermark8920 If those websites / youtubers don't have the capability to test a power supply then they shouldn't call it a review. It's an unboxing, build, hands on, or something else but NOT A REVIEW.
@@ThaexakaMavro The high rank is because most people rank items based on price per claim. This item claims a lot and sells for a low price - so it will get a huge amount of good votes from happy 80 PLUS Gold buyers. And most bad PSU doesn't announce yhemselves as bad until they fail - so you can't know what is bad until the magic smoke shows up. Also - not too many cheaper PSU has (partially) modular cables. That alone steps up the votes from the customers this PSU is aimed at.
as for reccomendation on PSU: if you want to do it as an exercise you could look at a more expensive reputeable PSU like the Seasonic prime GX-850. for me it would be interesting if its as good as claimed or even better (or worse and you get to have a lot of headache again) for lower end PSU you could test some bottom bin 550 watt units to see how much 40-50$ psu screws you over (or might deliver what was claimed)
I would like to see an efficiency test of some seasonic or other "good" supplies. And then a direct comparison with something like this with the internals. Having Stone explain it is nice but something side by side would I think be better. Esp if that would be something that is verifiable by the consumer pre purchase.
There are already a plethora of good power supply reviews from reputable sources (Techpowerup, TomsHW, HWBusters etc...) for those good PSUs. I'd recommend reading ones by Aris, he's one of the major PSU testers/reviewers. They're always extremely thorough and includes full disassembly/teardown all the way down to the individual component level and includes component-by-component discussion/commentary
@@DuyLeNguyen cool. If I wanted to see other people do that I could have searched UA-cam. Thanks? for the tip? Did you assume I was unable to search? Did you assume I didn't know others have done this work? But either way, I don't care. I want to see THIS channel do it. Ya know, it is why I commented on this video that asked us to tell the what we want to see. Again, thanks so very much for YOUR input. It was exactly what I was looking for.
@@sobertillnoon Happy to help, friend! Internet search can be a difficult and scary place indeed! Aris' initial reporting on the dodgy Gigabyte PSUs was the one GN followed up on for these pieces, so they are a very very useful place to start, especially as you said, you wanted to see how the componentry differs between a 'good' PSU and the bad Gigabyte units (and especially since he goes through the standard tear-down process for the Gigabyte bombs in the same way he does the 'good' units
It would be really cool to see you guys do an interview with Jon Gerow and talk about his experience with the path you're on with power supply testing. Really enjoying the content and hope to see a lot more.
One of the most sold psu's "it's Sorta Fine" Great Content as always Thank you for the video Would like to see the Corsair cheaps ones like VS/CV/CX series although this is just me and my selfish request XD
I would love to see an evaluation of older higher quality power supplies (ex.: Corsair AX gold series) that came with long warranties to see how they hold up and help determine when its time to replace them. I am sure many of us tend to keep those supplies for a very long time due to their costs and perceived quality.
I have a Corsair 950w PSU from 2011 that still runs and i swear it's still kicking real good. I would gladly send it to Steve for some testing and he can keep if he wants.
@@kaldogorath My 2007 Seasonic S12 II 430W (early example without the 80+ Bronze certification) survived 3 PC generations (late P4, Core2 Duo/Quad, then i7-2600k) and was in daily use till I upgraded to a Ryzen 3700X which got another Seasonic (Platinum Fanless 520W) after seeing how well the old one did. The i7 with the S12 II is still in use as my 2nd PC. Zero issues in ~14 years is a pretty fcking good track record considering all I've ever done to it was clean out dust. And especially late in it's lifetime as my main PC, I wasn't always kind to it. At worst, it had to deal with the i7 OCed to 4.8GHz and had a GTX 1080 in it. That alone made a lot of people cringe telling me how I'd need "at least a 650W PSU for that!" and how it could "blow up at any second". Yeah no it ran like that for the last 2 years of its life as my main rig and coped with it just fine lol
As long as the system still powers on and is stable, there's really no reason to replace a PSU. They don't have a set life span. If the manufacturer is willing to warranty it for 10 years, it's reasonable to believe it should last at least 10 years. So far, every power supply I've personally had fail in 25 years of building PCs.....has either been connected to something with Gigabyte branding....or it was an external power issue resulting in failure.
Power supplies are one of the most misunderstood PC components, even though I’ve been building for 20+ years, I still don’t know a whole lot beyond the basics and a few tricks, like wiring up 12v to power TECs or bridging the 24 pin to turn on the PSU with the switch. But I have to say I’ve been loving these PSU reviews and I’d love to learn more about them.
The ATX spec is available for free if you want to read up on it, there's a bunch of stuff that's interesting and required to officially be an "ATX power supply". Things like voltage tolerances, the "stable voltage" signal, the voltage compensation wire to make sure the voltage of the 12V rails at the ATX 24-pin connector is actually 12V. For a long time 12V and 5V was also tied, in that you needed a certain amount of load on the 5V rail to have the 12V rail work properly, if you've ever seen "Haswell compatible" on a PSU, now you know what that was about.
I can see other PSU makers suddenly pulling all their samples and testing them out of fear of GN finding out first that their advertised specs are incorrect.
Doesn't matter. He's going for store bought samples. They would have to pull their entire stock. They're just betting on Steve's team not having the time to test each and every PSU out there and missing theirs.
With SFF getting more and more popular, I'd love to see something regarding SFX vs. ATX and important things (if any) to pay attention to when getting the smaller models. Maybe in the inevitable PSU roundup y'all have in the works ;)
OMG, yes! Ideally, get sets of PSU from different manufacturers that make both SFX and ATX PSUs with the same/similar performance claims. For example, compare a 600W 80+ Gold ITX and ATX PSU from Corsair.
I'd wonder if Aresgame is just a company who wasn't thorough in vetting their factory. They might have gone to a factory, asked what the price was, they got quoted a price, were shown a few units that did pass verification, and then went on to set up box art and channel distribution. The factory might have even told them "we're subbing out some components because of limited availability." And they just assumed the factory wasn't doing them dirty. That might be why you got an honest response in email.
This is the last PSU review for a little while! We know it's been a lot of them, but we normally try to do things in waves like this once we get into gear (it takes a lot of work to change testing for a week). More content soon, but there'll be a short break in PSU stuff. If you want to support this type of testing, grab something on the store & get quality items in return for the help: store.gamersnexus.net/ or visit patreon.com/gamersnexus for behind-the-scenes videos (shooting more this week). In the meantime, check out our Gigabyte explosion speedrun: ua-cam.com/video/7JmPUr-BeEM/v-deo.html
Or see how a PSU is supposed to work here! ua-cam.com/video/2SleaZ68ZO0/v-deo.html
Hope you can find a way to keep reusing the exploding gigabyte psu clips for a long time to come, they're gold! Nice work!
The psu testing has been wonderful & insightful. Don’t worry about that definitely not boring
A SFX psu Cooler Master think people would be getting it for there mini itx especially because it seems "affordable" for a mini itx
Cooler Master v750-sfx-gold
Cooler Master v850-sfx-gold
If you would please, could you look into the lowest star/egg sea sonic psu
More top quality reviews! I appreciate the depth. Personally, I don't really care about efficiency and I'd probably grab it for my media center if I needed a PSU. It's not got a 3090 or something in it.
“It’s better than Dell” becomes “It’s better than Gigabyte” lol
And dell’s putting 80+ platinum psu’s in their gaming pc line
While Dell's PSU may seem basic, at least they don't skimp on their quality. However, they seem to skimp everything else but the PSU
@@yourlilbrudder5766 Dell kind of has to, to meet EP rules in states like CA.
@@triadwarfare yeah they just skimp everywhere else instead.
there's intentionally making something bad then there's gigglebyte
You should do more of the "Most Purchased" Power supply reviews. They will provide the most information for a lot of us since we likely have that PSU.
I totally dig that. I want to see most popular PC parts analyzed and criticized.
Linus tech forum has this type of psu ratings.
Or not just PSUs but more "most purchased components" in general. Coolers, cases, PSUs, fans (as soon as fan testing is actually working), whatever.
Yea this.
I hope you don't have that PSU, yikes.
Dude I'm a quality engineer in aerospace, and he just gave you the I'm sorry a couple of us knew these were bad all along but management told us to sell them anyway, response. George is a pro.
this
this
this
That.
Ya maybe
Steve “I will twist the knife until they learn their lesson” Burke
But he'll do so with protective equipment like gloves for the knife, just in case it sparks and burns as it dies
Steve, The Destroyer of Hardware Companies)
@@afelias You say that, but he opened this video by picking up a bare PSU board with his hand!
Works for me. These companies try to deceive you and now there is someone actually throwing this in their face. Better for consumers for sure.
LOL, awesome :)
You’re doing such a huge service to the pc industry! I sincerely appreciate what this team does, and without you this industry would be SIGNIFICANTLY more dirty than it currently is. Please, keep up the fantastic work you do.
Gamers Nexus is basically what "Consumer Reports" was in the 70's-00's everyone trusted the publication for it's testing of electronics and consumer goods.
Do I find you here, you old er!🎏🎎🎍🎋🎊🎉🎈
she will be better to eat than🍅🍓🍒🍑🍐🍏🍎
not hear how sweetly the little🍲🥘🍳🥚🥙🌯🌮
normally I’d ignore the bot comments/replies, but 8 of them? Are you kidding me?
They really have to add some kind of ‘suspected bot comment’ as a report function. All they have to do to prevent this specifically is check the timing between each post… don’t even need an AI for that.
On another note, I do love that most of the comments on this channel are appreciative of their efforts. Could be wrong here, but it seems that most (if not all) of the stuff they review, they buy out of their own pocket too.
Appreciate the analysis by Patrick. Great way to learn what makes a good PSU! (or doesn't)
The Speedrunner? :-)))
Eh, he isn't bad. Oh no it's an electronic DC load ahhhhh they're meant to power thin air, you know!
well, we learnt by now: good PSU don't explode
Steve, It don't surprise me at all that its 80+ White label at best, the trouble is, we have no trading standards checking this crap on a regular basis anymore, they are just left to do what they want and get away with it.
I’d wager most PSUs produced over the last 18 months have slipped in efficiency rating due to component substitution. It would be interesting to see a comparison between two different runs of the same SKU.
It makes sense a shitty brand like "AresGame" (like wut) would do so. I'd love to see PSU's from reputable vendors ie Seasonic/Corsair, Cooler Master tested instead.
@@EminemLovesGrapes ^^ THIS. Very much.
@@EminemLovesGrapes Even EVGA.
Every company is doing it, when the brand is popular enough they start to cut corners to increase profits.
"We dont completely hate it!" should be the confetti banner.
LOL True ... but I'm not sure if GN could actually give it that banner in this particular instance. If it had at least had less variance... At least to me, not a single person at GN would even feel comfortable putting it into one of their own computers, then it could be said that they hate it. Completely. LOL Just sayin'...
@@justsomeperson5110 Well, given that, "We don't completely hate it" is a direct quote from Steve at 28:41 in this video stated while wrapping up and summarizing their feelings regarding the power supply-I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that you're probably wrong and that it actually could *not* be said that they hate it. Completely. LOL Just sayin'...
I’m a big fan of how Steve handled this. He acknowledged the market differences between the east and the west, but also didn’t allow it to be used as an excuse for lying about the product. He was stern, but professional. And after that, he still presented the product in a fair light. That’s what I love the most about this channel. Steve’s push for ethical marketing and solutions that don’t treat the consumer like an idiot.
When "It didn't explode" becomes a selling point. They're still advertising it as 80+ Gold in the UK and on their product page on their website.
@asdrubale bisanzio yeah they really don't and Gigabyte doesn't care either it seems.
They’re probably thinking, “the UK is _east_ right? East of the US? They only said we should be honest with western markets, so we can keep it listed as gold here.”
@@SpaniardNL The sad thing is, I have Gigabyte motherboards in my 2 desktop PCs and have used other Gigabyte MBs in the past and they have always served me well. The one in my music recording PC is still going strong with a 3770K in it, that should tell you just how old it is. I was excited that it had USB 3. Haha. They used to be quality, and some of their components probably still ARE, but the more these companies start getting into areas that they really are not experts at, like PSUs, the more they run the risk of tarnishing any good will they have built up. Just do what you are good at. Make MBs and graphics cards, and maybe some other types of expansion cards, but leave PSUs, cases, etc, to the people who do those well already.
@@eboethrasher Sad is correct, Gigabyte is now on my nooooooope list for any component.
For another example, Ubisoft did its original U-play root kit nonsense. Denied it, got sussed out. Redenied it and got straight up proven to have a root kit. THEN said, "oh it wasn't us!" That got them on my banned for life list. Haven't put an Ubisoft game on any PC since 2013.
Maybe they meant the age of people buying them? Why back in my day you could get a thousand watts for a tenner after having permission to go to work to come back and sleep in our shoe box! Luxury!
"We don't completely hate it."
I'd put that on the amazon product listing.
I like how GN says when they don't know something and doesn't spread rumors or speculate, but gives us the facts what could have happened and clearly gives the manufacturer / seller the benefit of doubt even in cases like this where one could easily draw quick conclusions which are not as favorable. Good job reporting the facts, GN.
Well, for that price it seems like a nice psu, shame about the marketing bs.
The part about Damages Not Covered, was friggin' hilarious lol
can we just name this series "Psu or Pos?"
i wonder how often people ask for warranties over psus exposed to nuclear radiation to mention nuclear accident
I think Ares would want his power supply to be covered in the case of: damage by war. Great video!
Can we finally make it illegal to silently downgrade a product without changing the model name/number?
It’s wide spread, it’s anti-consumer, and it will continue to become the norm if nothing is done about it. Product reviews would become rather meaningless.
Amazon helps them by combining multiple products on one page so the reviews are mixed. They even allow them to completely change the listing while keeping old reviews. I learned not to buy any PC parts that aren't reviewed favorably by our lord and savior Tech Jesus.
@@freefall5x Agreed. If you're looking for ... sanity ... on Amazon, look elsewhere!!! Everything about Amazon is not how to business right. But they're easy. So for PC parts I shop there last, only buying on Amazon if if if the price is actually better than it is elsewhere AND I've already seen reviews I trust elsewhere AND find the seller behind the curtain to appear trustworthy. And even then, there's some shade to be found, so I always consider it a risky endeavor when I do. Buying PC parts on Amazon is like a barely legit eBay IMHO. LOL
well kingston, adata and a few other manufaturers are downgrading their memory controller for their ssds and nvmes...
Believe me, this was not downgraded. It is like that from the start.
A lot of companies do that, they will sell it until they get recalled.
@@justsomeperson5110 Right. Amazon provides good customer service and fast shipping, but has no supply-chain integrity (especially with their commingled inventory system with 3rd-party sellers).
Appreciate this view into PSU testing. Makes me miss JonnyGuru and his reviews back in the beige tower days.
Steve didn’t just kill gigabyte. He stabbed them, shot them, and just to make sure they never forget, set them on fire with their own psu’s
Steve activated their fire alarm, not realizing it was rigged up to the self destruct sequence for the power supply division.
The last part is great.
I was thinking more a stake through the heart. Cut off the head and put a communion wafer in their mouth.
@@haldorasgirson9463 put the Gigabyte management on electric chairs, powered by PSU explosions.
He didn’t set them up in fire,they were engulfed in flames by the anger build-up
Yes, but they gave gigabyte months of warning!
I like how honesty and forthcomingness from a manufacturer stopped Steve dead in his tracks
Specifically honesty and forthcoming from a manufacturer who had apparently been deceptive in their marketing.
It's been a while when companies were this straight forward and reacted so quickly. Steve is quite a force to be reckoned with.
It's refreshing to see, even if they didn't remedy the situation correctly
Honestly, I'm more impressed with how they handled it so far. Already convinced me it's 1000x better than Gigabyte.
"No You" :)
This PSU is completely fine even for most demanding graphics cards and processors. It has over 700W on +12V and that is most important. For example 3090 ti has TDP of 350W , and let's say Ryzen 9 5900X has 105 W . Therefore, enough power to have them both plus plenty of room for OC, despite usual GN drivel, and their "standards" . Bottom line, if you could find it at fair price, buy it . As for 80 Plus Gold or Bronte, only idiots in Commifornia worry about that :)
@@aleksazunjic9672 a smart person once told me to just make sure it's UL, only very cheap equipment fails UL cert. Unfortunately from this video you wouldn't know.
@@jeebus6263 UL certifications is mostly used for industrial equipment, but it is certainly IEC certified.
@@aleksazunjic9672 the sad part is that 3090's have power spikes of up to 579w in testing (transient spikes of under 10ms duration, but still) and 5900x will draw signifficantly more than the 105w labled "tdp" which is just a marketing formula for AMD which doesnt even have the power the CPU consumes in there.
and overclocked the 5900x pulls more like 180-200w or more. And even the stock powerdraw is closer to 130w.
OC'ing those parts on THIS psu is ill-advised at best in my opinion, but other than this extreme case i think this unit will be fine for 98% of pc builds.
(also worrying about who much power you WASTE to get the same amount of pc running is not a bad or communist thing, what the hell.
It should be common sense that wasting more to get the same out is bad in every percieveable way, especially if you speciffically bought an "efficient" unit and get cucked with something like this.)
Just want to say I really appreciate these PSU pieces; it's such an underexamined area of custom builds - the typical advice always seems to have been "gold or above from a named company" and just roll the dice. Having a real depth of detail is enormously valuable. Excellent work.
Gold PSUs from tier 1 manufacturers is a pretty safe bet.
I ain't no PC expert, nor an Electrical Engineer, just a simple farmer.
But I'm concerned on your personal safety during testing. Is it a good idea if there's a transparent durable plastic shield between the psu and you guys? Or just use eye protection. Concerned on catastrophic failure and metal fragments flying.
We are working on getting a blast shield in place, actually. Thank you for your concern!
Definitely useful, especially.given the need to keep some of those rare metals away from the tester.
Might want to use a fume hood. No telling what toxic stuff came flying out of that capacitor.
@@haldorasgirson9463 Mostly the hopes and dreams of gamers. Mostly hopes and dreams.
@@GamersNexus It's the sort of thing that you should never need.............. but in a world where a company like Gigabyte can make a unit that bad who knows what would happen to a lesser brand.
2000w of 95 Plus Gold PSU from the brand ฿ for less than some 1000w units should feel worried right now.
"It doesn't explode" GN award/approved... make it happen guys? subbed.
“Hey Boss, there’s a video about our power supply.”
“Oh no.”
“It’s from Steve…”
“OH NO.”
Change the first "oh no" to just "oh", and your joke gets funnier.
@@jackielinde7568 Dammit, you’re right. 8)
"There's more"
oh yeah -kool aid man
Burn our stock, fast, before the police arrives ;)
I'm one of the "Got suckered in by gigabytye to buy a kit" PSU guys, and thanks to you, i was able to return it. still waiting on my refund.
I am thus now currently looking at replacement power supplies, and would honnestly love to see tests on a Titanium 750-850W Psu. Ive been looking at Be Quiet, Seasonic and Superflower.
My current EVGA 1000W P2 is getting old and does have a melted connector, and has been working hard 24/7 since I bought it. I'd like to have a good spare before something goes south.
I Had an EVGA 750W G2 Blow up on me and that actually forced me to use the gigabyte PSU for some time, which was not great for the nerves.
Thanks a lot for your content and efforts! It has not been wasted! The EVGA Testing reinforced confidence in my EVGA Units!
Man, this GN video is so fresh i can smell burnt electronics.
😂😂
Nothing like starting your day, with the smell of magic smoke in the morning 🤦♀️
Don't cheap out on a PSU, guys. A good one can last through multiple computer builds. And if it fails catastrophically, it can ruin any or all parts of your system. Your motherboard, case, and AIB features on your GPU are a better place to stretch your budget.
Yes buy guality PSU only. I know from experience ;D
Until your motherboard shits the bed two months after your build like several people I know.
in some shitty circumstances it could cost your house and loved ones....
Shoutouts to that one cheaper Corsair PSU that killed my motherboard and CPU because the protection was too slow to kick in
I'm still using the same Corsair PSU from 2006. It first powered a E6400/gt8800 and I've carried it over with every upgrade since. I'm now at the stage where I'm just intrigued to see how long it lasts before crapping out.
As someone who has sold well over 40 rigs using the 500 watt model, I can tell you guys that I haven't had ONE issue with any buyer regarding these units. What's more impressive is I ran ONE of the 500w units mining Ethereum using FOUR GTX 1060 6gb cards for 2 months straight, let me repeat, 4 cards. Very impressive. I will continue to use these units until any consistent negative issues arise.
I've been using Aresgame on all my builds recently. Kinda hard to beat the price and reliability.
I've been running the 500 watts PSU on my PC for nearly a year now with zero issues and no irregularities. Cool and quiet. I've pretty much only heard good things about them, too! For a person living in LATAM like me this was a godsend, honestly.
25:28 The "It didn't explode/It's Sorta Fine" achievement!!!
Steve and GN Team, Thank you so much for doing a detailed video on this PSU. I have reviewed AresGame products in the past but do not have the technical tools and full knowledge of the inner-workings of PSUs like your team does. I have made a post to my community too, to come check out this video for detailed information about this PSU. Thanks again for taking the time to review this unit! I am very relieved to see these units survive your testing, though not quite an "as advertised" unit. Thanks again!
Here again
This seems similar to the hard drives that Linus was harping on last year, iirc.
The original spec for the device is validated and marketed on that validation. Then over time components are changed, but never validated again, yet the sky and marketing go untouched.
Gamers Nexus: I think the recommendation you're looking for is, "This will work if you're really desperate. We don't know how long it will work, or what it will do when it ultimately fails."
Well said.
May be better for a low cost, low power business PC. But even a med power PC may experience issues. But at lest it doesn’t explode... maybe.
Man it's actually been years since you got this PSU test equipment and you mentioned how you were refining your precesses. The payoff for that due diligence has been immense!
I love the way you guys do things and I can only imagine how great the fan testing will be when you get it set up in your new place. Whenever that is. It'll be worth the wait.
Takes us a long time to trust ourselves with what we're producing! Glad you remember when we first got the equipment! Probably 3-4 years now.
@@GamersNexus And we've been waiting (not so) patiently every year since!
From the bottom of my heart, thank you for taking the time to be able to do it right!
@@GamersNexus It was like a king crowning his successor, I can't believe JohnnyGuru's old testing equipments are still in such good condition.
@@matasa7463 A master takes good care of their equipment!
@@matasa7463 this is JohnnyGuru's testing equipment? Hah that's amazing, I've been reading all his reviews in the past
I love compoment testing, I'd like to see more reputable brands and how good/accurate they really are. Might be less thrilling of a video, but still super fun/informative
True. At one point there was UL or Consumer Reports, but those days seem long gone.
thats why im excited for the ltt labs
So many cool and informative tech pieces in the last few days. Can't wait for the factory tour video releasing in the next week you teased. Thanks Steve! (Thanks to the rest of the team too! Really appreciate everyone's work!)
We're really excited about that one!
That definitely sounded like they heard about your gigabyte piece and wanted to try and be as truthful as possible while not trying to admit they were lying to consumers about something 95% of people wouldn't even know how to test.
To be as charitable as possible to them, I don't think they're necessarily guilty of actively lying. Swapping parts because of shortage and then not testing them isn't necessarily lying. It sounds a lot more like unethical negligence to me.
@@afelias I'd like to believe it's simple negligence, because I can 100% see how if you were running a massive shortage, and your suppliers told you that these components are roughly equivalent in quality and performance, you could easily take a misstep by not actually verifying those claims and just pushing out product to meet demand. It would certainly corroborate their claim that they have both units that met the standard and units that failed, which would imply that there's a mix of people who got the product as advertised and those who got what is essentially a decent but still cheap 80+ White/Bronze unit. Maybe it's being a bit too charitable, but seeing as they're essentially a no name Amazon seller that could easily rebrand and barely suffer losses yet still chose to be honest with Steve, I'm leaning on giving them that benefit of the doubt that they simply made a poor decision which unknowingly caused them to sell products that didn't meet their advertising claims.
@@afelias At least they're honest. SSD manufacturers change up their memory and actively try to hide it.
The actual percentage of PC users not knowing how to test a PSU is probably closer to 99.999%
@@afelias Heya, Electrical Engineer here. They're full of shit. As Patrick showed in his teardown there are a lot of critical components missing. In the desgin you can quite easily tell that this is not a DNP but just straigt up not present in the design. Ergo, if what Steve was "suggesting" happened (they got lucky) they had to have gone through a redesign. And going to a redesign by removing critical components is imo way past unethical.
In my eyes it sounds a lot like Steve's first scenario. They created a "better" sample and sent that for certification, then slapped it on their cheaper variant. It's probably also likely that they did eventually cost down their components once they learned they got away with it. Probably was silver, not more bronze/white.
TL;DR Their reply reeks of "sorry we got caught, please don't assblast us" and they're full of shit 100%.
Edit: To add, just buy a good high quality unit. These will last FOREVER. I'm still rocking my AX860 I paid 150 euros for almost 10 years ago. I'm quite sure it paid itself off by now.
For another psu I'd love to see something on the opposite end of the spectrum that's crazy expensive. Rog titan or maybe something 80+ titanium certified. Let's see what it takes to be a top tier psu.
Like my Seasonic prime 80+ titanium tier, sorry, I just got it not long ago on sale, so I'm proud of my purchase!
I look forward to every single PSU review including a "Did It Explode?" test.
Sounds like Moose Test for PSUs...
You may laugh at this but actually I consider failure tests to be even more important than efficiency tests! In fact, if a faulty PSU blows up it can pull all your expensive peripheral hardware into the grave as well. Don't want that to happen. Safety > efficiency.
@@FeuerblutRMit's 2 years but you are absolutely right! Not fine for both, but the bigger evil is when a power supply throws 400V down the 12V line. Nasty!
Would love the next one to be Seasonic platinum and/or titanium so we have a benchmark for those high end/priced models. And just to see how reliable those are.
These already exist, you can find numerous reviews of Seasonic power suppose with very detailed data for years. Have bothered to look for this information? And yes, Seasonic consistently exceed their specifications.
Probably would not make for an interesting video, as most of it should be "this is according to the specification"
@@lootyy true, but good products from good brands needs to be known. We can't always have exploding videos or cases that chop cables :D
@@allanwilmath8226 I don't disagree, but it would be nice to have a recent one from Steve just to rub it in Gigabyte's face 👀
Oh IDK every company needs to be double checked. Every maker of computer parts have been caught with some BS they forgot to mention. I don't trust anything lately. Especially sense covid with supplies of good parts getting swapped out because of availability.
Thank you Steve for your and your teams hard work making sure the customer isn't getting the shaft by companies! This is one of the main reasons I love your channel.
Glad to see PSUs get more attention. They’re so important. Also glad to see good OEMs like Seasonic getting a mention.
Would love to see some SSD deep dives given that multiple outlets over the last few days have caught both WD and even Samsung swapping components out of existing stock that vastly affect performance in some cases.
@@muckdriver From what I saw of Samsung's information, that's the case. I just clarified with "some" cases as I had lumped Samsung and WD into the same sentence. That's on me lol. Was aimed more at WD and the others than Samsung specifically.
Though, the fact that (forgive the possible crap reference) a V6 could be swapped with an I4-Turbo that has almost the same torque, gas-mileage, and top speed doesn't make the swap any less disingenuous without telling the buyer that it changed since you showed off, and still market it as a V6.
It seems the new meta for manufacturers is to make us go from scandal to scandal so everything gets blurred and forgotten
@@CalgarGTX Sounds like politics lol
Kingston has been doing this crap for years and nobody cared about it. A400 960GB dropping in price by 40-50eur overnight a couple years back from ~180 to ~130. What did they do? Swap to crappier NAND. Was it ever in the news anywhere? nope... nothing whatsoever. And of course that happened *after* it got tons of decent reviews
@@CalgarGTX Yup, best way to deal with a scandal is manufacture an even bigger one somewhere else away from your own doorstep lmao
Another great piece, thanks for this content. It really puts the lack of consumer protections in this country in stark relief. If we had agencies that inspected and qualified goods, Steve wouldn’t have to tell us about power supplies that may explode. I don’t even fault gigabite and ares, their aim is to make as much money as possible… even (maybe especially) at the cost of customer well being, and the regulations some bitch about are supposed to stop false advertising and products that will burn houses down. We keep slashing budgets and cutting these regulations, so expect lots more of this.
you are talking there about one country, your country, but, it is like this pretty much everywhere
someone uses fake certificates, or no certificates at all to sell, sell fast and get rich, no matter what
is a sad reality we live, and is a blessing to have a youtube channel testing things like gamers nexus does, i never use the written review, i do prefer the video
"it doesn't explode" is the new thing you considered when buying a PSU
what a time to be alive
Don't worry, with the vaccines and the crypto ready to crash, everything will be back to normal, have faith as i do!!!
*proceeds to kill himself
I feel like we're back in the '90s, where PSUs were the wild west and you REALLY had to tread carefully to protect your build from the many lies that could take down your PC with a bad PSU. Which is weird considering how improved PSUs have gotten with protections and standards. But, clearly, not enough with VALIDATING those protections and standards.
Lmao
@@justsomeperson5110 well back in 90s when we called them "Power Supplies" , there wasn't 80 plus sh!t. No rating, just an output in peak wattage, 300 was suffice for most higher end systems and they all worked perfectly. I have some that still run! And we are STILL using 24 pin mobo connector!!!😄
Steve and the crew have been busting out absolute banger videos. Thank you for you guy's hard work!
I could never go with a "It's okay" or "Sort of fine" PSU. That is the one part that can cause serious damage to literally everything else if it fails. Never ever skimp on the PSU quality.
I learned this lesson long ago, with a plethera of skimp'd PSUs I was lucky however as I only had dead fans instead of a gigablast PSU!
I'm now a proud owner of Seasonic titanium that I got on sale!
We sometimes forget how good Steve's Chinese is, among the wealth of technical knowledge, abilities and attention to detail on the testing.
Why dont u ask him out. I bet him is not taken.
I'd love to see a Seaonic Gold or Platinum reviewed.
Agreed. If anyone is going to brand a PSU as Platinum and actually get there, it is likely to be Seasonic. I'd like to see a PSU that isn't just 'sorta fine', but is likely to be actually good, even if that means it is expensive enough that it isn't super-popular.
@@sadlerbw9 Why bother with platinum, go straight to titanium.
I got a seasonic platinum 550w bought in 2017 still works flawless, but if it's really as efficient as they say - no idea. been very happy with it tho. Silent fan with great bearings.
There are already plenty of reviews of Seasonic PSUs. Reviews of things like this that haven't been actually reviewed are much more valuable.
It will be a very boring video that you can summarise in a couple of sentences. It's good. If you can afford it you can buy it.
AGS being somewhat transparent with GN? I appreciate them being somewhat truthful. The world changes and them reaching out is respectable! Not fully what was expected but still seems like they are trying so I'll give them a place in the market.
„But it didnt explode“ haha what a featureless PSU
This is just a general message of support for this PSU series. Its one of the less covered, and more important, components. And im sure that many others like myself are interested in finding a good safe quality psu for our machines as we wait for GPUs to come back to semiaffordable prices
Always nice to see the team getting on camera.
Whether it’s actually gold rated or not, I’d use this over the gigabyte lol
Especially if they go out of their way to reply and respond to this sort of thing! I think that speaks loads
They should add that in their marketing too. "It does not explode".
Same, I had once a PSU going boom, it took the mb with it in the fall😜
@@conyo985 Too much liability. If even 1 explodes I would think they would be way more open to litigation. ;)
@@ReivecS LOL! I did not think of that.
Gigabite sure as hell regrets that pathetic "statement" they put out. They are now the benchmark for bad PSU's 🤣
forget to say, “Good morning” 👊✊👎👍👌✋🖐
forget to say, “Good morning” 👊✊👎👍👌✋🖐
but took a pair of scissors💯🆎️🅰️🅱️❌✔️📛❎♀
RIP you got botted
@@ataready8810 Hahaha. Seems like 🤣
I really like how detailed your PSU reviews are. One brand that i would really like to see is PC Power & Cooling. They have been around since the 80's and i would really be interested to see how the quality stacks up in this day and age. Has to be one of the oldest PSU manufacturers around...
I have a 610 watt PC power and cooling PS that I bought over ten years ago and its still going silent and strong in its second build - theyre expensive I paid over $100 for my 610 watt but when I bought mine they claimed all Japanese caps w/ high end parts and specs, but I never see reviews probably due to their price or availability you dont see many around.
I like the deep PSU testing. I know that testing equipment (and the knowledge to use it) cost money but I'm here to confirm it's worth it. I look forward to more. Great video.
*"I only paid 2x MSRP for my PC... and it didn't explode!"*
The state of PC buying in 2021.
The blue bars on the sides while the graph is up are a super nice touch!
Got an EVGA supernova 1200 Platinum 2 years ago when they weren’t obscenely expensive. Been happy with it ever since.
2 years is nothing for a psu, i have ones from the 1990`s that still work
Got a EVGA Supernova 750w power supply near 5 years ago, it's happily supported all the upgrades I've done since, went from a Athlon X4 880k & Radeon RX 470, all the way to a Ryzen R5 2600X & Sapphire Nitro+ Radeon 5700XT and its happily kept everything fed
Yep EVGA's mid-high end PSUs are generally pretty good with Seasonic and Superflower being the manufacturers of most of their high quality PSUs, I've had a 650w P2 since 2015 and it's still going strong and I expect it to keep chugging along for at least another 2-4 years but honestly I expect it to go much longer than that and just hope when it dies it doesn't take any other components with it.
Steve you're doing a great service to the PC community, keep doing what you're doing. Let the world knows the real contenders to the pretenders. 👍
This PSU is completely fine even for most demanding graphics cards and processors. It has over 700W on +12V and that is most important. For example 3090 ti has TDP of 350W , and let's say Ryzen 9 5900X has 105 W . Therefore, enough power to have them both plus plenty of room for OC, despite usual GN drivel, and their "standards" . Bottom line, if you could find it at fair price, buy it . As for 80 Plus Gold or Bronte, only idiots in Commifornia worry about that :)
@@aleksazunjic9672 wow. Just no.
@@aleksazunjic9672 IT IS A LIE ! END They still can sell it for a 80 Plus Bronze PSU ! No need to fake things ! But if you are happy if someone lie to you i have something nice for you: "you are very clever and a good looking person, go on like this" :D
@@jasonhemphill6980 Well, you do not understand what I'm talking about so never mind ;)
@@MrLince-hr4of Technically speaking, they still have valid 80 plus gold certification from proper authority, so it is not a lie. GN is not such authority, and frankly I doubt accuracy of many of their tests. But let's leave it at that, because 80 Plus Gold or Bronze only matters to "eco-friendly" green idiots who do not understand basic stuff about physics. Most of other people care about power delivered at +12V and stuff like OPP, OVP and SCP . Overall, this PSU seems decent, if the price is right you could buy it even for some "heavy" gaming rig.
need to refresh this topic by using this ARESGAME AGT Series 1000 and 850. these has to be the number 1 selling from this company
Actually amazing how much effort they put on reviewing this PSU, even making the company having to do something just 'cause they're scared of being another Gigabyte PSU case.
I suggest that no MOV, no relay around the thermistor and double-forward design (to quote jonnyGuru, "Lower efficiency and the hard switching doesn't like the high transient loads of higher end graphics cards.") are fundamental choices of a lower efficiency PSU rather than component alternatives causing a drift away from Gold.
I agree.
I agree too. This was never a gold rated supply.
I mean, if the design was barely capable of skirting by with good components, I'm not sure how a component change could just ... go forward to production.
No matter what their response is from now on, their behavior up to this point has still been extremely dishonest. One black eye is better than two like Gigabyte now have, but they still pulled shady tactics.
I know it's extremely difficult to do these days, but I'm more and more trying to not buy from shady companies. These guys aren't even a ubiquitous or even a well known name, so they have no chance with me.
These videos along with the Gigglebit debacle, have convinced me to reeeeallly think about the quality of the PSU as the first component of consideration for my next future build. Thanks, Steve!
The PSU is one of the most important components in a system. Skimping there is potentially one of the biggest mistakes you can make.
Steve you probably have a Folder for storing all of these Damning clips for easy access and regular use right? Is the folder named something awesome like, "Blood of my OEMemies" I must know your secrets. I will not rest sir!
OEMemies is easily the best thing to come out of this comments section! I will use this one day!
@@GamersNexus Thankyou Thankyou Im a bit of a metal head, particularly Viking metal, favorite band probably Manowar. And while I have you here, I dunno wether or not you can or want to add it to the list but Im curious if the internals of my Psu, The Phanteks Revolt-X, are a proper gold standard that might set a bar for other companies. I refuse to buy consoles and would like to use it as a full on home entertainment system in a single case and Im a little scared to plug in a second Gpu
@@vortraz2054 Unless you suspect something super shady is going on, the "powered by Seasonic" should tell you everything you need to know about your power supply. More than likely, Phantek has just put their sticker on the most reputable PSU manufacturer's product. Unlike AresGame, Seasonic has been making PSUs for over 40 years, and their 10+ year warranties actually mean something.
@@semosesam I refer you to the clip of Steve commenting on Seasonic her in this video. Which is to say meehh?.. Why would I take the worlds word for it. There is only one thing I truly wish Death upon, sir. Blind Faith.
This is why you don’t trust Amazon recommendation. Gotta find credible reviewer.
Yeah, a lot of the store review sites have "credible reviewer issues". I've gotten to where I ignore the five starts and start at the one and two star reviews to see what they said.
@@jackielinde7568 Don't forget to look at the "strata" of reviews too! The earliest ones are always 5 stars and it's the latest ones that you have to read into to get the whole picture for what you're buying.
I really appreciate you guys picking up PSU reviews. Since the demise of hardocp I didn’t have a good resource for objective testing. Bravo.
Hey Steve, thanks for providing good content for this niche in the PSU hardware sphere. Even though Aris is a great reviewer, he's only one person and cannot alone devote time to probably the most important component that DIY builders purchase. We all really appreciate your work here and hope to see more in the future.
I’d love to see something like a sea sonic prime vs focus review (similar with other brands as well) within the same efficiency branding and claimed wattage.
Agreed it would be interesting to see family comparisons inside of reputable brands. The differences in marketing are really difficult to understand what you are paying for that actually matters.
Same. I had a very early failure from a seasonic focus not long ago.
Companies just admitting short falls is refreshing.
-Definitely a good deed in my eyes.
I'd like them to place a "It's probably fine." Gamers Nexus badge on their amazon.
Too bad this video wasn't sponsored by Gigabyte. Imagine the irony.
" It's Sorta Fine * " is the official badge
I genuinely love these PSU reviews and would love to see more of them. I love seeing how companies react to you guys tearing through their BS claims and seeing you guys making some legitimate changes for the better within the power supply market. I would love it if it became a series of Steve and the team blowing up cheaply made PSUs, even if they don't hear back from the companies we get some very fun fireworks out of it
PSU market is a mysterious one. Thanks for shedding the light to at least some part of it!
I think you can extend the mystery to all of electricity. It is a very magical force.
Damn steve really chose violence with the psu test. Gotta love it
Good, gigabyte deserves it in every way. gigabyte lack of acknowledgement of this ongoing issue was disgusting and a general disservice to their customers. They were given ample amount of time and information from different tech outlets, not just gamers nexus, about this issue. They could have just owned up to the problem, issued mass recalls of their power supply, and just took a bit of a credit hit and be done with it. Instead they sat on this issue for a long time, causing who knows how many customers time and money either due to power supply frying on them or in worst case, losing multiple computer components when it fails. Worst was that they tried to attack the very outlets that wanted to help in the first place. Gamers nexus is completely in the right to continually harass gigabyte about this scummy practice. Seems it is the only way nowadays to make a corporation do their actual job of making a non faulty product instead of screwing their customers then double downing on their own screw ups and make it the customer fault instead.
I finally paused the Squarespace Snowflake portion to read and I am happy I did.
I want a link to that website Steve! Please publish it on the internet so we can read through it all!
Really like this idea of a "most purchased" review, for any category of product that GN reviews.
Kinda surprised that off-brand psu came up better than Gigabytes.
Where I'm from, we'd say AresGame was "f🇺cking lying".
It's great how you guys are looking out for the consumers. It's very commendable.
Yes, the term used today is "not accurate". Not fair to consumers.
@@Garth2011 I prefer a simpler word "scam"
@@MiGujack3 agreed, scam and also "flat out lying"
It's awesome having thorough PSU reviews now
The high rankings likely come from the fact that aresgame sends a LOT of units to medium-sized techtubers and techtokers, which are more interested in entertainment rather than informational value. Also giving free mousepads to people who rate 5 stars.
Classic communist Chinese jobs. But then if you watch docs on how bad the employment situation is in China, esp now, worse than ever, you'll realise they have no option. Still shite to do that
It's hard to test a PSU. Few people can load-test it. Then measure the noise level at different loads.
Also, few people can measure load and line regulation and noise.
And even fewer can measure the efficiency, since you both needs to have a well controlled load and be able to measure the piwet input. And since the power factor isn't 1.0, the input load isn't pure sine wave. So the power meter needs to integrate the current and voltage curves and produce a calibrated result with less than 1% error. That is way better than any hobby equipment manages.
So in the end, most web sites can't give PSU scores based on actual performance and component/design quality. Besides possibly checking if electrolytes are of high-temperature type from a known manufacturer.
@@perwestermark8920 If those websites / youtubers don't have the capability to test a power supply then they shouldn't call it a review. It's an unboxing, build, hands on, or something else but NOT A REVIEW.
the high ranking is because a loot of noob buys it
@@ThaexakaMavro The high rank is because most people rank items based on price per claim. This item claims a lot and sells for a low price - so it will get a huge amount of good votes from happy 80 PLUS Gold buyers. And most bad PSU doesn't announce yhemselves as bad until they fail - so you can't know what is bad until the magic smoke shows up.
Also - not too many cheaper PSU has (partially) modular cables. That alone steps up the votes from the customers this PSU is aimed at.
I really appreciate your videos, I saw your Gigabyte PSU explosion video and immediately ordered a NZXT one to replace it.
as for reccomendation on PSU:
if you want to do it as an exercise you could look at a more expensive reputeable PSU like the Seasonic prime GX-850.
for me it would be interesting if its as good as claimed or even better (or worse and you get to have a lot of headache again)
for lower end PSU you could test some bottom bin 550 watt units to see how much 40-50$ psu screws you over (or might deliver what was claimed)
I would like to see an efficiency test of some seasonic or other "good" supplies. And then a direct comparison with something like this with the internals. Having Stone explain it is nice but something side by side would I think be better. Esp if that would be something that is verifiable by the consumer pre purchase.
I think the EVGA speed run PSU will probably pop up as a review soon.
There are already a plethora of good power supply reviews from reputable sources (Techpowerup, TomsHW, HWBusters etc...) for those good PSUs. I'd recommend reading ones by Aris, he's one of the major PSU testers/reviewers. They're always extremely thorough and includes full disassembly/teardown all the way down to the individual component level and includes component-by-component discussion/commentary
@@DuyLeNguyen cool. If I wanted to see other people do that I could have searched UA-cam. Thanks? for the tip? Did you assume I was unable to search? Did you assume I didn't know others have done this work? But either way, I don't care. I want to see THIS channel do it. Ya know, it is why I commented on this video that asked us to tell the what we want to see. Again, thanks so very much for YOUR input. It was exactly what I was looking for.
@@sobertillnoon Happy to help, friend! Internet search can be a difficult and scary place indeed!
Aris' initial reporting on the dodgy Gigabyte PSUs was the one GN followed up on for these pieces, so they are a very very useful place to start, especially as you said, you wanted to see how the componentry differs between a 'good' PSU and the bad Gigabyte units (and especially since he goes through the standard tear-down process for the Gigabyte bombs in the same way he does the 'good' units
Good work. PSU testing is coming along nicely. Would like to see the Corsair RM750 tested.
when the manufacturer replied : yes steve your findings seem to be correct, steve got disarmed and didnt know what to do lol, that was the funniest xD
“But it didn’t explode” in all my years as a PC enthusiast I’ve never heard a greater burn
It would be really cool to see you guys do an interview with Jon Gerow and talk about his experience with the path you're on with power supply testing. Really enjoying the content and hope to see a lot more.
Ty! Great review, I love keeping manufacturers honest, especially when it comes to power efficiency in the current warm climate.
damn, now that he got his PSU testing kit running, he's hunting for his -content- prey.
Now he has the means to expose.
One of the most sold psu's
"it's Sorta Fine"
Great Content as always
Thank you for the video
Would like to see the Corsair cheaps ones like VS/CV/CX series
although this is just me and my selfish request XD
I have been using Corsair Psu's for many many years not had any problems. Cx750M, recently TX750M. no problems so far
same, i've been using my Cx750M for years. nothing to complain
this is the best god damn channel on youtube... im addicted to the sarcastic shade thats always thrown out
I would love to see an evaluation of older higher quality power supplies (ex.: Corsair AX gold series) that came with long warranties to see how they hold up and help determine when its time to replace them. I am sure many of us tend to keep those supplies for a very long time due to their costs and perceived quality.
I have a Corsair 950w PSU from 2011 that still runs and i swear it's still kicking real good. I would gladly send it to Steve for some testing and he can keep if he wants.
I have a few 20 year old Seasonic PSUs that are still going in always-on machines. Can't part with them though.
Would be a interesting watch
@@kaldogorath My 2007 Seasonic S12 II 430W (early example without the 80+ Bronze certification) survived 3 PC generations (late P4, Core2 Duo/Quad, then i7-2600k) and was in daily use till I upgraded to a Ryzen 3700X which got another Seasonic (Platinum Fanless 520W) after seeing how well the old one did. The i7 with the S12 II is still in use as my 2nd PC. Zero issues in ~14 years is a pretty fcking good track record considering all I've ever done to it was clean out dust.
And especially late in it's lifetime as my main PC, I wasn't always kind to it. At worst, it had to deal with the i7 OCed to 4.8GHz and had a GTX 1080 in it. That alone made a lot of people cringe telling me how I'd need "at least a 650W PSU for that!" and how it could "blow up at any second". Yeah no it ran like that for the last 2 years of its life as my main rig and coped with it just fine lol
As long as the system still powers on and is stable, there's really no reason to replace a PSU. They don't have a set life span. If the manufacturer is willing to warranty it for 10 years, it's reasonable to believe it should last at least 10 years. So far, every power supply I've personally had fail in 25 years of building PCs.....has either been connected to something with Gigabyte branding....or it was an external power issue resulting in failure.
Power supplies are one of the most misunderstood PC components, even though I’ve been building for 20+ years, I still don’t know a whole lot beyond the basics and a few tricks, like wiring up 12v to power TECs or bridging the 24 pin to turn on the PSU with the switch. But I have to say I’ve been loving these PSU reviews and I’d love to learn more about them.
The ATX spec is available for free if you want to read up on it, there's a bunch of stuff that's interesting and required to officially be an "ATX power supply".
Things like voltage tolerances, the "stable voltage" signal, the voltage compensation wire to make sure the voltage of the 12V rails at the ATX 24-pin connector is actually 12V.
For a long time 12V and 5V was also tied, in that you needed a certain amount of load on the 5V rail to have the 12V rail work properly, if you've ever seen "Haswell compatible" on a PSU, now you know what that was about.
Note to editor: We need the kids "yay" sound when the awards come on screen!
rip it straight from fnaf lmao shitd be hilarious
Geez that ripple's awful
it's sorta 5V haha
You only drink Night Train?
I can see other PSU makers suddenly pulling all their samples and testing them out of fear of GN finding out first that their advertised specs are incorrect.
Doesn't matter. He's going for store bought samples. They would have to pull their entire stock. They're just betting on Steve's team not having the time to test each and every PSU out there and missing theirs.
Thanks!
With SFF getting more and more popular, I'd love to see something regarding SFX vs. ATX and important things (if any) to pay attention to when getting the smaller models. Maybe in the inevitable PSU roundup y'all have in the works ;)
OMG, yes! Ideally, get sets of PSU from different manufacturers that make both SFX and ATX PSUs with the same/similar performance claims. For example, compare a 600W 80+ Gold ITX and ATX PSU from Corsair.
Given that SFF is a typically lower power, lower performing platform, I don't really see the point.
7:48 looks like you've come a long way on learning chinese, congrats man
I'd wonder if Aresgame is just a company who wasn't thorough in vetting their factory. They might have gone to a factory, asked what the price was, they got quoted a price, were shown a few units that did pass verification, and then went on to set up box art and channel distribution. The factory might have even told them "we're subbing out some components because of limited availability." And they just assumed the factory wasn't doing them dirty. That might be why you got an honest response in email.
Steve going into in depth review on your product, is like
60 minutes showing up at your company's doorstep.