ADATA XPG CYBERCORE Platinum 1300W Power Supply Review

How Much Does it Cost?

XPG has confirmed that the 1300W CYBERCORE power supply is set to hit retailers imminently for a price in the region of $300. – Not, while this certainly seems like a lot of money (and it is) you do have to consider this power supply and what it offers. This is not a generic PSU, this is, despite the lack of any real formal branding or marketing, and enthusiast-level product with an 80-Plus Platinum efficiency rating and 1,300 watts of power output.

If you think the XPG CYBERCORE is expensive, then you clearly don’t know how this overall level of performance is priced!

Performance

With the exception of its efficiency performance in our testing, which we’ve already conceded might be due to a conflict between this particular PSU and our tester, the XPG CYBERCORE is, without a doubt, a very decent power supply. This was clearly borne out between all the other results obtained which, on the whole, do seem to back up the opinion that the efficiency is probably higher than our specific results provided. – You don’t get 8 A’s on a report card and 1 singular F.

Admittedly, the XPG CYBERCORE doesn’t quite reach the heights of what we would truly consider being a premium/enthusiast-grade product, but again, XPG hasn’t seemingly marketed this PSU for that particular consumer.

Practicality & Functionality

The biggest factor of practicality offered in the XPG CYBERCORE is undoubtedly seen in its fully modular cable design. And, not to mention the fact that you are provided with enough cables to probably hook up two or three gaming PCs. – Admittedly though, this isn’t perfect as the rather terse sheeting does make them a bit tricky to bend which, by proxy, could result in a little frustration when attempting to handle the cable management within your PC case.

Another huge plus does also appear to be in its acoustic performance. Despite having that rather fancy Nidec fan (which XPG themselves make quite a fuss over), the passive cooling seemed good enough that throughout our testing (with the only exception being OPP), it never deemed it necessary to operate it once. As such, we’re pretty certain that the XPG CYBERCORE is (probably) a very quiet power supply.

Should I Buy One?

This is honestly a difficult question, and, on the whole, I suspect that for 99.9% of consumers the answer to this is probably going to be no. – Why though? Well, let’s look at this in a more subjective manner. – As we said right at the start of this review, for a generic gaming PC, this power supply is 100% overkill. You don’t need 1,300 watts of power, and, quite frankly, for £300, you can spend significantly less money on something way more suitable.

At the same time though, can I really say this is an ideal choice for enthusiasts, overclockers, or professionals? This is, after all, the only other direction we can go if generic gamers are out of the question. Well, again, honestly? No. – Sure, it has a lot of wattage output, and a high-efficiency rating, all good stuff for that particular community, but if that is who this product is being marketed towards, it feels like XPG thinks that this is all that matters.

I think in some respects though, I may have hit the nail on the head there. The XPG CYBERCORE really does have something of an identity crisis. On paper, and looking at the pure specs, this should be an enthusiast-level product. In its branding and aesthetics, however, this has garish gamer written all over it with the only apparent lack being an RGB light inserted somewhere. – In something of a rarity, I can’t give this PSU an award. Not because I think it’s bad or out of any kind of personal spite, but because I just can’t legitimately think of anyone who’d find this truly good.

It’s probably too powerful and expensive for generic consumers. It’s probably not quite good or practical enough for enthusiasts and overclockers. So, if neither of those markets are going to want this, who will?… – I’m sorry XPG, the CYBERCORE is a good PSU, but one that I suspect just doesn’t have a real purpose or a home with consumers.