XPG Power Supply Hands-On Review: XPG CyberCore, XPG Core Reactor, XPG Pylon

It was around 2019 that ADATA’s gaming brand, XPG, has branched out into other product lines other than flash products. We were present at their booth when they debuted their new XPG line of chassis, AIO coolers and power supplies at their COMPUTEX booth and fast-forward years later and now XPG has expanded from just the Core Reactor line to include the high-end CyberCore model as well as the more accessible Pylon line of power supplies.

In this article we’ll go over these different power  supplies to see if they can manage the latest graphics in the market with the RTX 4090 which has a total board power rating of up to 600W on the card alone. Ranging from entry-level to high-end, we take a closer look at these XPG power supplies and see what’s best for you. Read on!

Specification

XPG CyberCore 1300 Platinum

The CyberCore Platinum line is XPG’s top-end offering and competes with most of the high-end power supplies in the market right now. With XPG heavily  investing in their “Mera”verse branding, you will see this product mostly accompanied by their mascot Mera which if you haven’t noticed, is the anime girl in the packaging.

Speaking of packaging, the 1300W XPG CyberCore is a hefty package tipping the scale at more than 4KGs. The packaging takes some precaution due to the weight and the CyberCore PSU is lined with heavy styrofoam.

Inside the package we have relatively large assortment of cables together with the power supply unit itself. This is the largest cable set from XPG with the 1300W version including up to 10 PCIe 6+2 cables which means you can power two RTX 4090s or three RTX 3080 Ti with this thing and still have a spare for the board if it has a 6-pin AUX power input.

The XPG CyberCore 1300 Platinum also comes a large assortment of SATA and MOLEX connectors which with the SATA cables up to 16 connectors on the 1300W and 12 on the 1000W.

This power supply arrived at a time before the RTX 4090 and RTX 3090 Ti so it does not come with a 12+4 pin power connector but the PSU supports it thru the power adapter supplied by the graphics card if you own one.

The XPG CyberCore Platinum is a fuilly modular power supply. At 160mm length, the modular plugs should add a bit more to the length so take that into consideration when planning your chassis and cabling. XPG’s plug layout is decent and cable length is quite long where needed particularly the ATX+12V EPS power connectors. The cables have wire thickness ranging from 16-18AWG and of very good quality. There is also no capacitors on the cables which is good to see.

XPG rates this power supply for a sustained load of 1300W.

As highlighted on the box, the XPG CyberCore features a Nidec fan. XPG has a ongooing partnershipn with Nidec for many of their fan needs and have publicly sworn to upheld this partnership for years to come. Nidec is a long-standing of cooling fans for various industries. They are most popular in the PC scene for their Gentle Typhoon fans which had great feedback for more than 2 decades now.

Here is the PSU in various loading conditions which includes a 12900, RTX 4090 and RTX 3090 all loaded. The PassMark Inline power tester only capture 1 PCIe pair but the system is drawing around 900W. I was hoping to get another RTX 3080 Ti in the mix but we don’t have another slot available. Under lighter loads, the fans on the CyberCore remain fairly quiet. This ramps up to hum at 900W+ of load which is a win for both XPG and their Nidec partnership, proving that its not just a pure PR move. The main PSU unit gets fairly warm at higher loads but barely goes above case ambient with anything lower than 400W

XPG Core Reactor 850 Gold

The Core Reactor is the upper mainstream power supply offering from XPG. Available in 650W, 750W and 850W capacities, and rated with Cybenetics efficiency rating of Platinum and noise rating of A-, the XPG Core Reactor was a good first stab at the PSU game from XPG.

Out of the box, the XPG Core Reactor is a standard mainstream power supply bundle consistent of the main unit, some documentation and a sticker sheet. As a modular PSU, the cables are shipped in their own pouch sorted by main cables and peripheral/SATA cables.

The cable inclusions vary by capacity to make sure users aren’t overloading their unit on their capacity. All the cables are sleeved and black and made of decent quality wiring. They are quite firm just like the CyberCore so cable management will need some elbow grease.

At 140mm long, the CyberCore is relatively of standard size. This size applies for all capacity so sizing is uniform across the different wattages so you should be able to compare with photos on the web if you need to measure for your build. Again, please allow for some bend space as the modular plugs do take up space.

The XPG Core Reactor features a quiet-tuned fan curve to prolong the life of the fan on the unit but keep it cool when needed.

Here are some results on various loadings. This is a single RTX 4090 load on the PSU and it holds very well. You can ignore the timings reading as this is only used for measuring power stability.

XPG Pylon 750 Bronze

The most cost-efficient PSU from XPG’s lineup. The Pylon is a budget-oriented 80 PLUS Bronze power supply unit available in 450W, 550W, 650W and 750W capacity options.

To reduce cost, this is a non-modular power supply.

XPG does make it worth the XPG gaming brand as they clad the cables in sleevings as well as in full flat cables done in black. The ATX 12-pin EPS power is daisy-chained though so you’re pulling from a single line there.

All cables originate from a single area on the PSU’s side.

Our test unit is the largest capacity model available with 750W. That is enough to power a modern unit, even our high-end one that we will be loading this PSU with.

This PSU tends to heat up quickly under full load and the fans work really hard to cool it down causing the most audible of fan noise amongst all the PSUs from XPG we tested.

At maximum loading, the XPG Pylon 750W really gets cranking on the fan with the PSU drawing almost 750W. We held this test 30 minutes at a time so this is definitely rated to sustain at this capacity. It will trip eventually but we didn’t push further than the rating. We did see the 12v drop quite a bit but this was only on the full loading scenario. It was sporadic at best but nothing that held as our average voltages was within acceptable numbers throughout the test.

Closing Thoughts

This is the first time I’m trying our XPG PSUs and its great to see and test them all at the same time.  You can refer to the Cybenetics database for verification on the ratings and grade of these power supplies here.

There’s not much variety here but its good and concentrated effort from XPG to offer products for entry-level gamers, mainstream and enthusisats and not inflate their product line with in-between models. While that may be more on economy rather than strategy, it makes it easier for consumers to pick out what they need from XPG’s line-up.

I have to nitpick a bit and say that while they Pylon is of very good build quality for a budget PSU, having the same cable quality and sleeving does feel that the CyberCore and Core Reactor feel too similar to their budget brother. This amplified further by the Core Reactor and CyberCore pretty much sharing the same cables. With XPG selling RGB lighting extensions, it would’ve worked out better for them to include some more extras to really define the CyberCore’s premium status.

Speaking of premium, the CybeCore’s cooling is superb and all 3 PSUs performed well under load when it comes to temperature with the CyberCore easily winning top marks for its absolutely cool operation followed by the Core Reactor. The Pylon gets a bit warm and audible but doesn’t drag the performance too much when it starts to warm up.

Again, all these systems were tested with a 12900K and an RTX 4090 and all of them managed to run our torture test without tripping. We did try to overload these PSUs by sticking a 3090 along with the 4090 but the Pylon triggered its safety when it spiked to >850W. To satisfy anyone’s curiousity, I was actually hoping either the Pylon and Core Reactor to really struggle with the RTX 4090 even on GPU-only loading but alas, the PSUs performed gracefully.

To wrap things up, this was a good first dip into XPG’s power supply line-up and its obvious the company wants us to experience their PSU offering as they now become available locally in the Philippines. XPG currently has the Core Reactor readily available in Philippine dealers with the Pylon and CyberCore hopefully landing on dealers soon. For now you canc check out their official Lazada Philippines stores:

• Lazada Official Store
• Lazada Authorized Partner

XPG’s CyberCore and Core Reactor come with 10-year warranties while the budget Pylon at 5-years for PSUs purchased in 2022. That is quite a long time and holds up against many of the juggernauts in the PSU industry. I can easily recommend the CyberCore and Core Reactor if you like the XPG brand. For the XPG Pylon, its a much stiffer market where it sits but should you be left with only this option for a mainstream or entry level build, rest assured it can definitely hold its own.

All in all, XPG power supplies well-made and are of decent quality and performance. If you’re in  the market for a new power supply, don’t discount XPG as a possible choice for your next build.