XPG CYBERCORE II 1300w ATX 3.0 80 PLUS Platinum PSU Review

TweakTown's Rating: 96%

The Bottom Line

XPG's CyberCore II 1300 offers one of the best price to performance ratios in ATX 3.0 PSUs in the market today, making a great and solid backbone for a high-end system.

Pros

• + Full 600w 12VHPWR cable
• + Packaged well & 10-year warranty
• + Nidec Gentle Typhoon PWM 120mm fan and the fan at load was inaudible
• + 105C Japanese capacitors
• + 80 PLUS and Cybenetics Platinum rated but performs like Titanium

Cons

• - Understated design

Should you buy it?

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Introduction, Specifications, and Pricing

When I looked at the Fusion 1600w ATX 3.0 PSU from XPG, I thought it was a solid-performing ATX 3.0 PSU, but it had a super premium price. Now XPG has sent over a more budget option ATX 3.0 PSU, 1300 watts, and a little smaller. Here is the CYBERCORE II 1300w ATX 3.0 PSU with a single 12VHPWR connector for a high-power GPU; many thanks to XPG for sending the review sample.

The CYBERCORE II ATX 3.0 PSU is available in two models, 1000w and 1300w. Both models are respectively MSRP priced at $279.99 and $319.99. Having an 80 Plus Platinum rating and a Cybenetics Platinum and A- ratings means this PSU from XPG is a solid offering with many certifications to boot.

AMD Ryzen 9 7950X CPU

	Today	Yesterday	7 days ago	30 days ago
	$516.54	$516.54	$516.54	-	Buy
	$549.99	$549.99	$514.50	$531.91	Buy
* Prices last scanned on 2/19/2024 at 11:02 pm CST - prices may not be accurate, click links above for the latest price. We may earn an affiliate commission.

Packaging

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The CYBERCORE II comes packaged in a red box with various certifications and specs in the upper left corner. In the lower-left corner, XPG also shows off its pseudo mascot, Mera.

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The rear of the product packaging shows all sorts of information, complete with cable lengths, dimensions, and power efficiency information.

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XPG has its gaming slogan, "Game to the Xtreme," printed on the inside of the flap.

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Inside the packaging was a red sleeve with a quick start guide and stickers.

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The cables came neatly packed in this pouch with the XPG logo and logo that represents the CYBERCORE naming.

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Inside the black pouch were all the cables in a clear plastic bag, which was a little overboard.

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The power cable, zip ties, and a few screws were provided for installation.

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All the main cables that XPG included with the CYBERCORE II were sleeved with black sleeving.

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The rest of the cables, consisting mainly of SATA and MOLEX connections, were not sleeved.

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The CYBERCORE II was packaged exceptionally well, having two high-density soft foam pieces and surrounded in bubble wrap.

Outside the XPG CYBERCORE II 1300w ATX 3.0 PSU

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Taking the CYBERCORE II out of its packaging reveals a black casing with an offset 120mm fan.

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This fan is unique. If anyone remembers the Gentle Typhoon from Scythe, this is the next generation of the classic. More on this later.

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The underside of the CYBERCORE II shows all the electrical information. Notice the +12V rail has over 108 amps available.

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The cable input side of the CYBERCORE II is full of inputs. Starting with the upper left, two inputs labeled Motherboard, the full 600w 12VHPWR input put next. Under the motherboard input section are three six-pin SATA and MOLEX cable inputs. Lastly, a metric butt-ton of eight-pin CPU and VGA cable inputs totaling ten inputs.

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The rear of the CYBERCORE II is plain looking with the standard power rocker switch and power input. The circular mesh also provides ventilation for escaping hot exhaust air.

Inside the XPG CYBERCORE II 1300w ATX 3.0 PSU

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Cracking the seal of the CYBERCORE II to get a better look, XPG has opted to use a Nidec fan with the model number C1225C12B6ZPAC7 Vento Pro 120 PWM. This fan features a dual ball bearing for an extremely long life. Originally in the US, Scythe was the distributor for this famous fan in 2010. Going by the name of "Gentle Typhoon," these fans became very popular due to their phenomenal static pressure while being very quiet. You can pick up these fans here from Amazon for around $20.

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Moving to an overall layout view of the insides of the CYBERCORE II 1300w ATX 3.0 PSU, which is very clean and has no visible issues with the soldering. The design platform from CWT uses a primary transformer alongside its two 105C-rated Japanese capacitors with two secondary transformers.

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Rubycon makes the 105C Japanese capacitors. Each capacitor is rated at 420v with 680 microfarads each.

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Here is the primary transformer on the XPG CYBERCORE II 1300w ATX 3.0 PSU.

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The two secondary transformers on the XPG CYBERCORE II 1300w ATX 3.0 PSU.

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Lastly, here is the input stage daughterboard, which is very nicely designed.

Ryan's Test System

• Motherboard: B650 AORUS Elite AX (AMD B650) - Buy from Amazon
• CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 7950X - Buy from Amazon
• Cooler: Arctic Freezer II 360mm AIO - Buy from Amazon
• Memory: Patriot Viper Venom RGB DDR5-5600 32GB - Buy from Amazon
• Graphics Card: NVIDIA RTX 3090 Founders Edition - Buy from Amazon
• Storage: Corsair MP600 PRO XT Gen4 PCIe x4 NVMe M.2 SSD - Buy from Amazon
• Case: Phanteks NV7 - Buy from Amazon
• Software: AIDA64 Engineer 6.32.5600, and CPU-z 1.94.0 x64
• Power Supply: XPG CYBERCORE II 1300w ATX 3.0 PSU - Buy from Amazon
• OS: Microsoft Windows 11 Pro 64-bit Build 22621 - Buy from Amazon
• Software: AIDA64 Engineer 6.8.6300, and CPU-z 2.03.0 x64

Testing & Final Thoughts

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Testing the CYBERCORE II 1300, I assembled some newer, higher power draw components as a test PC. I mainly replaced the Intel Core i5 12600K running on the Z690 platform for a B650 AORUS Elite AX motherboard running an AMD Ryzen 9 7950X, which is a hotter, more power-consuming AM5 CPU with a default TDP of 170 watts. In testing, which ran for over four hours using Aida 64 Engineer's System Stability Test, the default TDP was exceeded by almost 80 watts, totaling 248 watts with its iGPU under full load. The GPU, the Founders Edition of the NVIDIA RTX 3090, drew around its typical 350 watts while fully stressed to 100%.

Combining the two most power-hungry components plus the rest of the system, which should consume around 40 watts, nets around 640 watts. Looking over to the Killawatt P3 for the power draw from the wall, reading out 662 watts under full system test, gave the CYBERCORE II 1300 a 96.5% efficiency rating at around a 50% PSU load. XPG has underrated the CYBERCORE II 1300 with a platinum rating in 80 Plus and Cybenetics, which spells out better value for the end-user.

Looking at the pricing of the CYBERCORE II 1300 at an MSRP of $319.99, rated Platinum in both 80 Plus and Cybenetics, which at first does seem a bit high, but like we just found out in testing, the CYBERCORE II 1300 performs like a Titanium rated ATX 3.0 PSU. Searching on Newegg for a 1300-watt Platinum-rated PSU starts at around $325, so XPG has done market research to price the CYBERCORE II 1300 competitively. In contrast, the 1000-watt model has an MSRP of $280, higher than the rest in the 1000-watt PSU pack, making the 1300-watt version the better buy.

In conclusion, the XPG CYBERCORE II 1300 is a fantastic buy for someone looking for the best efficiency in a higher wattage Platinum-rated ATX 3.0 PSU. But what makes the XPG CYBERCORE II 1300 an even better buy? I would say getting more than what you paid for, in this instance, paying for Platinum and getting Titanium in return. Pricing out comparable Titanium-rated ATX 3.0 PSUs, the only one that popped up was the Seasonic Prime TX-1300 ATX 3.0 PSU, which is a great PSU in its own right, but it goes for well over $500.

This value makes the CYBERCORE II 1300 significantly better than the other Platinum-rated ATX 3.0 PSUs in this wattage category.