this post was submitted on 06 Sep 2025
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I'll bite. Why is this PSU so cheap? (sh.itjust.works)
submitted 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) by csm10495@sh.itjust.works to c/buildapc@lemmy.world
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Link: https://www.walmart.com/ip/XPG-CYBERCORE-ATX-Modular-PSU-1000W-80-Plus-Platinum-26-Connectors-Intex-ATX-12V/724286138

PC Part Picker Link: https://pcpartpicker.com/product/rtD7YJ/adata-xpg-cybercore-1000-w-80-platinum-certified-fully-modular-atx-power-supply-cybercore1000-bkcus

.. why is this PSU so cheap? It's on at least one tier list as being A+ rated. It's 80+ Platinum. No idea if it has the latest connector for Nvidia, but I don't really personally need or care about that.

Sold and shipped by walmart.com, so should be a legit seller. Has a 10 year warranty. Returnable in store. What am I missing? lol

(I acknowledge there are some bad reviews.. but still sold and shipped by walmart. Maybe a bad batch?.. but come on that price still)

Why is this so cheap?

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[–] finitebanjo@piefed.world 59 points 4 days ago (3 children)

According to the reviews many of this unit is dead on arrival or dies within 3 months, but if you've got time to continuously file warranty claims until you get one that lasts a little longer then go for it.

Keep in mind that faulty power supplies are capable of damaging other components as well.

[–] vinnymac@lemmy.world 12 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Just want to callout the safety risk here.

Out of all the electrical components inside your computer that are capable of setting your home on fire, power supplies are at the top of the list. It’s not worth saving a little money on that one component compared to pinching on something else if you must.

[–] BigDanishGuy@sh.itjust.works 3 points 3 days ago

ONE OF US!

When people talk PSUs I come of as paranoid. I will not buy PSUs from manufacturers I don't know and trust.

The potential energy an outlet can deliver frightens me. If something is left plugged in unsupervised, it better be safe. And if you sleep next to it plugged in, then you're effectively trusting it with not only your own life, but also the lives of everyone else in your home.

My pet peeve is people charging their "one hung low" brand electrical scooters indoors. OMG shitty construction, crap components, and it's being used in all weather conditions... And then it's left to charge indoors?!?

[–] cows_are_underrated@feddit.org 4 points 3 days ago

And are also capable of destroying a whole lot of stuff, if it starts bursting into flames.

[–] csm10495@sh.itjust.works 1 points 4 days ago (3 children)

Even then, half the reviews are good. Half are bad: . I think the sample size is too small to know for sure.

[–] Lucidlethargy@sh.itjust.works 16 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Good thing reviews are never fake.

[–] Gladaed@feddit.org 4 points 4 days ago

There's 9 of them. They are hardly gonna fake just 4 positives

[–] DebatableRaccoon@lemmy.ca 6 points 4 days ago (1 children)

I've seen a few of your comments now where you're at least bordering on defending the product so as a best case scenario, I'd say you're already sold on it. If so, just buy it. Otherwise this is starting to feel like a weird advertising strategy. When reviews are 50% I'd happily throw it into the category of "if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is" and it's not even a particularly spectacular price. Most people don't need 1000W so you can save some money by getting a gold rated unit from good known brands. The drop from platinum to gold isn't all that important for a consumer. Otherwise, wait for a sale on tried and true Seasonic. We aren't all that far from Black Friday, have some patience and buy a product with some pedigree.

[–] csm10495@sh.itjust.works -1 points 3 days ago (2 children)

I don't know if I'm really defending the product. It seems odd to me that 4 bad reviews are enough for people to completely discount the product. Especially when its highly rated by reputable sources (like Tom's Hardware) and at least A grade on various tier lists.

Heck even Amazon reviews are decent.

For my specific case I'm close to around 800w in the max case with my current build; though it rarely hits that high point. In idle, it's much less though. I just wanted a bit of headroom for the future.

Now for the Platinum vs Gold, I've done a bit of chatgpt math here. The theory is it would save me about $10-$11 bucks a year in energy usage. I plan on running it for about the full 10 year warranty span if not longer. It'll be on 99% of the time. If that math is even ~half right, it pays for the difference for me. For Platinum, this is the cheapest on pcpartpicker: .

I find it hard to believe that the tier lists, review sites, amazon reviews, are all wrong based off ~4 bad walmart.com reviews.

idk.

[–] BigDanishGuy@sh.itjust.works 4 points 3 days ago

I don't know if I'm really defending the product.

To be honest, I was already thinking the same about your comments. Giving you the benefit of the doubt I'd say:

Buy it or don't. I wouldn't, but you do you I suppose. Just make sure that your home owners insurance is paid up.

[–] captainlezbian@lemmy.world 2 points 3 days ago

8 reviews are not a significant number. But regardless it looks like it's a little cheap and poorly reviewed. You clearly want it, second worst case scenario it's like $20 back in your pocket at the scrap yard

[–] TrickDacy@lemmy.world 9 points 4 days ago

I've learned to only trust the negative reviews. I've been burned so many times by trusting reviews.

[–] Romkslrqusz@lemmy.zip 21 points 4 days ago

[–] aramis87@fedia.io 28 points 4 days ago (2 children)

8 ratings: 3 5-Star, 1 4-Star, 4 1-Star.

Every single person who gave a 1-star review also wrote a note saying the unit was either DOA or failed shortly after arrival. The four reviews are spaced out over time, so this is a consistent problem with the item.

Only one of the people who gave a 4- or 5-Star review left a comment. That review was posted after 3 of the 4 negative reviews were left and it's specifically marked as an "incentivized review". Which means that the seller was trying to take specific action to overcome the previous negative ratings, and would've made damn sure he sent out a working unit.

The other three positive reviews don't have comments and it's impossible to tell if they were verified purchases, straw purchases, fake reviews, or what. But honestly I'd pass on this.

[–] chonglibloodsport@lemmy.world 2 points 3 days ago

To be fair, I think it’s pretty hard to get legitimate reviews from happy customers of a PSU. If it’s doing its job, you don’t even notice that it’s there. However if it fails, you’re likely to be highly motivated to go leave a negative review.

Not saying this is a good PSU. I’ve never used it; it could be a piece of crap with leaky recycled caps for all I know. The above issue is a possibility with many different utilitarian products.

[–] csm10495@sh.itjust.works 2 points 4 days ago (2 children)

Idk it seems well regarded on tier lists and in reviews like: https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/xpg-cybercore-1000-platinum-power-supply-review

The 1300w has good reviews on Amazon: https://a.co/d/gVbDtmL

How could it do well in those cases, but bad for Walmart folks?

[–] TheOakTree@lemmy.zip 6 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (1 children)

Unfortunately it's not a good idea to cross-compare PSUs within one series/model at different wattages because they can behave very differently.

Typically the higher-wattage units within a series/model have better performance, voltage regulation, efficiency, etc. - sometimes in small ways, sometimes in big ways.

[–] csm10495@sh.itjust.works 1 points 3 days ago (1 children)

That's fair. Still this one is also A tier on multiple tier lists like: https://cultists.network/140/psu-tier-list/ . They specifically list Cybercore.

Also just found it on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/XPG-CYBERCORE-1000Watt-Cybenetics-CYBERCORE1000-BKCUS/dp/B09XMZF6GL

68 reviews: 4.4 stars. Reviews seem about as real as regular products.

[–] TheOakTree@lemmy.zip 1 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

Yeah. I saw that the ratings were good too. Not sure why it's priced the way it is. Maybe others are right in saying they're doing some QC deflation type stuff.

[–] jqubed@lemmy.world 9 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Walmart presses harder for a deal, Walmart gets the units that passed QC but barely. Good enough to not have to call it B-stock but you don’t want to send it to your better retailers either.

[–] csm10495@sh.itjust.works 4 points 4 days ago (1 children)

From a logistical standpoint that seems like a major pain to do. Possible but idk if probable.

[–] JennyLaFae@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 4 days ago

Let's say you want 1000 units. Lets say normal QC takes out 20% of units produced, now your manufacturer needs to make around 1250 units to ship. Walmart says they're only going to pay $x, and the manufacturer squeezes that buck by lowering QC on the run for wally to only kick out 10% of the units so they only need to make 1100. Only now roughly 10% of the stock is defective.

[–] Schmuppes@lemmy.today 18 points 4 days ago

Doesn't seem particularly cheap to me, to be honest. You can get a great 750 or 850 Watt unit for that money.

[–] TowardsTheFuture@lemmy.zip 26 points 4 days ago

I mean if you really need 1kw I wouldn’t bother trying to save ~$100 on a PSU that could be very iffy.

[–] Ziglin@lemmy.world 3 points 3 days ago

It really doesn't seem that cheap but maybe that's because I've never shopped in the 1kW range.

[–] SGforce@lemmy.ca 14 points 4 days ago (4 children)

What the hell is "Cybenetics quality standards"? That's not a real rating.

[–] edgemaster72@lemmy.world 7 points 4 days ago

Cybenetics is an alternative to the 80+ rating system, supposedly more thorough and demanding. Here's a writeup from Corsair on the differences as part of their switch to use only Cybenetics going forward.

[–] yetAnotherUser@discuss.tchncs.de 6 points 4 days ago

Cybernetics is the leading authority in PSU testing. This is the report for this power supply:

https://www.cybenetics.com/evaluations/psus/1994/

It doesn't seem too bad from that test.

[–] PainInTheAES@lemmy.world 8 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Speak for yourself. I bought this PSU for my Neuralink

[–] SGforce@lemmy.ca 5 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Are you allowed to use a microwave?

[–] Brunbrun6766@lemmy.world 1 points 3 days ago

Not after the incident. Court ordered

[–] Brunbrun6766@lemmy.world 7 points 4 days ago (1 children)

It's like when companies say "military grade" on their parts...if you know anything about military that means it's the absolute most shitty quality, the cheapest of the bidders that just "gets the job done", but only just.

[–] Waraugh@lemmy.dbzer0.com 0 points 3 days ago

It’s not shitty quality. It’s built to spec, if the spec was shit then yeah, they get shit, because no contractor is going to overbuild and bust profit beyond the required spec.

[–] t_berium@lemmy.world 11 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Almost nobody needs a PSU that strong. Further I guess the real output is nowhere near to 1000W. Buy a model from a renowned company/brand and never ever cheap out on a PSU.

[–] TheOakTree@lemmy.zip 3 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Buy a model from a renowned company/brand

Unfortunately this doesn't mean much in the realm of PSUs. Most reputable brand names have little to nothing to do with the PSU designs, aside from the stickers. They are simply ordering units from ODMs most have never heard of like CWT, FSP, XHY, Helly, Andyson, etc. and labeling them as their own product.

Even within a brand name, different power supplies are made by different ODMs, and vastly differ in quality. Knowing the ODM doesn't always define quality either, as the ODMs that produce high quality units for one brand also make lower quality units for other brands.

The main exception is Seasonic, as they have their own manufacturing. Even then it's not always true, as their lower end models are made by RSY and Helly, who generally make low-to-middle end power supplies.

Sorry for the writeup, it's just something I've looked into in the past.

[–] t_berium@lemmy.world 1 points 3 days ago

Yeah, I'm aware of that. I've worked in the hardware business myself (even though for Graphics Cards, Mainboards and the like), so thanks for pointing it out, I'm sure many are not aware. So no need to apologize at all. I switched to Seasonic myself something like 15 years ago and never looked back. Before that, a cheap PSU grilled a 500 Euro Graphics Card and another literally went up in smoke (Enermax) the first time I switched the system on. I've learned my lesson and payed the price.

[–] theunknownmuncher@lemmy.world 11 points 4 days ago (2 children)

Huh? Why would you expect to pay much more than $130 for a 1000W PSU?

[–] Anivia@feddit.org 5 points 4 days ago

Yes, you can get a high quality Seasonic 1000w PSU for that price 🤔

[–] DragonTypeWyvern@midwest.social 3 points 4 days ago

Because not everyone watches the good sites for deals

[–] hperrin@lemmy.ca 6 points 4 days ago

My guess is they skimp on components and more importantly QC. It probably won’t last long.

[–] M1ch431@slrpnk.net 4 points 4 days ago

Just wait for a deal on a Seasonic or Super Flower, IMO. Get it and forget it.

[–] CMDR_Horn@piefed.world 4 points 4 days ago

Zoom zoom boom