I have a couple of Corsair PSUs that can be monitored (over USB) for power usage and while I am happy with it as a PSU, I am not too charmed by Corsair Link, iQUE, etc. In fact I can't really figure out what is their recommended solution, and what is being depreciated, how to configure things without it constantly being a PITA about upgrading, etc.

I also find it odd that I can't seem to find many other vendors with that kind of monitoring capability - seems like ThermalTake has it, although I couldn't be sure. Surely Seasonic must have something? Ideally, I'd like something with just a device driver that can be picked up by HWInfo or something.

I guess USB is the only viable solution today, though it seems like a bit of a waste of a socket, shouldn't there should be some kind of wireless IoT protocol for motherboards yet for this kind of non-critical low bandwidth infrastructure?

Anyone have any suggestions for a decent PSU with a lightweight monitoring solution?

Thanks in advance for your help.

I'm updating my PSU with my most recent build (first in 9 years) and see that now software-monitored PSUs are a thing (along with fully-modular cabling...thank God). I'm struggling to see the utility, though, and could use some enlightenment. Temperature monitoring I do see the value in but I don't see the value of voltage or fan speed control. Is this just a suite for those who like to have all the data about their environment whether it's useful or not?

Regarding voltages, having access to that data I would think pretty much just says whether you are over-using or under-utilizing your PSU, in which case you need a new PSU. That doesn't strike me as a very valuable feature to have - a PSU that tells you that you that you bought the wrong one but only after you buy and install it. If anything they should include this for free, not charge a premium. Or is this more of a diagnostic tool than anything?

Regarding fan speeds, I really don't see why I should care. The PSU should regulate its own fans and shouldn't need to bother me, just like my CPU or GPU fans. I only ought to be notified if the fans are failing. Is there a common use case for this besides the desire for control?