Question Are PSU tier lists really supposed to be trusted and the thing about 80+ certifications

[DudeGuyPerson21]

I have a friend who told me that PSU tier lists like this one (https://cultists.network/140/psu-tier-list/) are not to be trusted, as he also told me (accdg to his electrical engineer relative or sometn) that 80+ certifications not only checks for the energy efficiency but also for power safety measures. How correct is he and what does actual sources prove/say truthfully?

 

[dark_globe]

he is wrong :
it´s not than simple , 80+ doesn´t mean the psu is good quality
not to mention no name brands often "cheat" and simulate ideal conditions to achieve higher efficiency
for example they rate their psu to be 80+ and 650w
but only at 25-30 degrees celsius (86 fahrenheit) and below which is unrealistic .
low tier psus also have bad quality capacitors , soldering quality is poor ,
they have insufficient cooling , bad fans , no MOV ,
trigger points for various protections may be badly tuned or not working at all .
they struggle to deliver their rated power because of bad quality internal components etc .

so yeah tier lists are not 100% accurate but if you look at tomshardware tier list
or other reputable lists you can use it as a guideline :

general rules :
-always want 80+ gold nowadays (some bronze or 80+ units are good but it´s 2023) ,
-7-10 years warranty ,
-japanese caps rated for 105 degrees celsius ,
-strong 12V rail
( which equals or which is approaching psus max overall output wattage) ,
- DC-DC converters ,
-you also want your power supply to be rated
to deliver its max continuous power at 40-50 degrees celsius ,
-modular cables (but those are pretty much a sure thing in good quality gold cathegory)

 

[hotaru.hino]

Also be aware of a new-ish rating system from Cybenetics. Apparently it's been around for a while, but I only recently encountered it because it was on a Silverstone PSU with no 80PLUS badge on it.

 

[Eximo]

80+ is basically an efficiency standard only.

They actually don't cover safety at all. So you could be 80+ rated with no safety measures beyond a grounded chassis.

Cybenetics is an attempt to correct that. They look at ripples, and in rush, etc as compared to the ATX standard itself and their own rating system.

Lots of 80+ and 80+ Bronze units out there that are still group regulated and have awful ripple. Not to mention the aforementioned testing at relatively low temperatures. And sometimes general false advertising on combined wattage. Good PSUs will have their full rating available to basically just the 12V rail(s) and leave the 5V and 3.3 volt out of the sum.

There are also fake 85 Plus and 90 Plus certifications floating around that you will find on power supply shaped objects.

 

[DSzymborski]

I have a friend who told me that PSU tier lists like this one (https://cultists.network/140/psu-tier-list/) are not to be trusted, as he also told me (accdg to his electrical engineer relative or sometn) that 80+ certifications not only checks for the energy efficiency but also for power safety measures. How correct is he and what does actual sources prove/say truthfully?

Given that he doesn't even know what 80 Plus is, I doubt his opinion should be taken seriously about other things on this subject. From their own site:

​

What certifications does 80 PLUS offer?​

We offer six levels of certification from Standard to Titanium for internal power supplies at increasing levels of energy efficiency. There are currently five categories for certifications including 115V Internal desktop, 230V EU Internal desktop, 115V Industrial, 230V Internal AC and 380V Internal DC data center power supplies. The performance specification requires power supplies in computers and servers to be 80% energy efficient or greater at 20%, 50% and 100% of rated load with a true power factor of 0.9 or higher.

That's all 80 Plus is. It's a certification of power efficiency. It doesn't check for overcurrent or overtemperature protection. It doesn't check voltage regulation or ripple mitigation. It doesn't check to see if it uses quality 105 degree capacitors or the cheapest 85 degree capacitors that can be found rotting in the corner of a warehouse in Qingdao. It doesn't check to see if it uses an archaic topology or group regulation.

Tier lists are by no mean perfect, because nobody's judgment is perfect. But they tend to be based on *actual* reviews of PSUs that involve teardowns (not basic YouTube looks and certainly not *ever* customer review threads on commerce sites) and enough knowledge to interpret what the guts and bolts of each mean.