We bought one of the best-selling power supplies on Amazon, the AresGame AGS850 80 Plus Gold, and found it doesn't meet the requirements of 80 Plus Gold. It didn't explode, though!
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The AresGame AGS850 is one of the cheapest 80 Plus Gold power supplies on the market -- but the "80 Plus Gold" is in name only, and the manufacturer knows it. There are some upsides, however, like the PSU's protections passing our testing in a non-Gigabyte-like fashion and the PSU generally working and being cheap-ish -- but it certainly isn't an 80 Plus Gold unit. This power supply is among the top PSUs on Amazon for a gaming PC, and is one of the best selling "80 Plus Gold" ATX PSUs. As such, we wanted to buy it and see if it's any good. There are some upsides and some downsides alike, landing us in more traditional review territory with a lot of educational and informational background to learn more about PSUs. It was odd to do this one, since the manufacturer didn't fight us when we emailed and instead said it realized its "mistake" (if it wasn't intentional) and began reverting its advertising to simply "80 Plus" -- but it still retains the pagerank, and that's not good.

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We did a speedrun on the Gigabyte GP-P750GN here:    • Speedrun Gigabyte Power Supply Explos...  
And you can see the full review on that PSU here:    • Exploding Power Supplies: Gigabyte & ...  
We also looked at Dell’s surprisingly adequate PSU here:    • Dell Did Something Mostly Right: Powe...  

RELATED PRODUCTS

If you must, the Aresgame AGS850 is on Amazon:
EVGA Super Nova 750 G5 on Amazon is actually good: https://geni.us/73O0h
Seasonic Focus GX-750 on Amazon is also actually good: https://geni.us/JNVMaI

TIMESTAMPS

00:00 - Aresgame AGS850 PSU Review
02:16 - Bronze is the New Gold
05:10 - Aresgame's Response (Spoiler: They Don't Blame Us)
08:20 - Leaving the Amazon Listing is Misleading
09:41 - Additional Marketing & Claims
10:42 - How False 80 Plus Results Can Happen
11:28 - Brief Recap of Issues
12:05 - Maybe the Cost-Benefit is Worth it For You
13:38 - Component Analysis with Patrick
18:03 - Power Efficiency Testing & 80 Plus Validation
20:41 - Load Regulation Concerns
21:26 - Voltage Ripple Inadequacies
23:06 - Fan Bearing Mismatch
23:47 - Protection Testing Passes Without Explosions
24:06 - SCP Testing Passes
24:26 - Overcurrent Protection Testing
24:49 - Over Power Protection Testing Passes
25:05 - Some Positives
26:08 - Conclusion

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Host, Test Lead: Steve Burke
Testing: Patrick Stone
Video: Andrew Coleman & Keegan Gallick