The Fractal Design Ion+ 760P 80Plus Platinum PSU Review: A High-End PSU For the Mainstream Builder
by E. Fylladitakis on August 6, 2019 9:00 AM EST
Fractal Design is a reputable Swedish manufacturer of PC components. The company started off as a PC case manufacturer and quickly became known for their sleek, quality, and innovative case designs. Having an established presence as a designer of advanced PC cases, Fractal Design is reservedly but steadily diversifying into other segments of the market, such as power and cooling. Aside from numerous of their cases, we reviewed some of their first liquid cooling solutions when the company was diversifying into that part of the market.
Meanwhile, although Fractal Design has not been completely inactive when it comes to the power supply unit (PSU) market, they have not released new products in several years. The last new product in the company’s PSU product line-up, the 80Plus Gold certified Edison series, was four years ago. However, that four year drought is finally coming to an end, as the company is releasing a completely new series, the Ion+, which is meant to be the technological pinnacle of their PSU lineup.
Overall, Fractal Design is aiming rather high with their new Ion+ PSUs; the official specifications list some rather impressive quality and electrical figures, including 80Plus Platinum efficiency levels. And, as we'll see in our review, they have the real-world performance to back up those lofty claims.
Interestingly however, rather than going for ultra high wattage power supplies as some other PSU vendors do, the company has sized their PSUs more conservatively, releasing just four units that are rated from 560W up to 860W. Considering that an 860 Watt PSU is enough power for a dual GPU gaming/workstation system, the company can still cover almost the entire market, with the infrequent exception of users requiring a PSU for quad GPU or other power-hungry systems.
Even then, 860 Watts is going to border on overkill for most of today's single-CPU/single-GPU systems. So for our first review of an Ion+ PSU, we're going to take things down one step to their 760 Watt model, the Ion+ 760P.
| Power specifications ( Rated @ 50 °C ) | |||||
| AC INPUT | 100 - 240 VAC, 50 - 60 Hz | ||||
| RAIL | +3.3V | +5V | +12V | +5Vsb | -12V |
| MAX OUTPUT | 22A | 22A | 63,3A | 3A | 0,3A |
| 120W | 760W | 15W | 3,6W | ||
| TOTAL | 760W | ||||
Packaging and Bundle
Fractal Design loves simple, functional designs, and the very box of the Ion+ PSU is a testament to that philosophy. The artwork on the box is very simple, with a picture of the PSU itself on a white background. However, there are many details regarding the performance and specifications of the PSU on the sides and rear of the box. The box itself is very sturdy, with extra packaging foam surrounding the PSU itself, providing ample shipping protection.
The bundled items are few but useful. Fractal Design supplies a standard AC power cable, four black mounting screws, a couple of cable straps and a typical user’s guide.
The Ion+ series is fully modular, meaning that every cable can be detached, including the 24-pin ATX cable. The modular cables are "flat" type, ribbon cables, with the sole exception being the main 24-pin ATX cable. It is noteworthy that Fractal Design is using highly flexible multi-stranded wires, which the company calls “UltraFlex” cables, allowing for easier cable management.
| Fractal Design Ion+ 760P | ||
| Connector type | Hardwired | Modular |
| ATX 24 Pin | - | 1 |
| EPS 4+4 Pin | - | 2 |
| EPS 8 Pin | - | - |
| PCI-E 6+2 Pin | - | 6 |
| PCI-E 8 Pin | - | - |
| SATA | - | 10 |
| Molex | - | 4 |
| Floppy | - | - |
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Jane_JJ - Wednesday, August 28, 2019 - link
I thought people on this site were better than that -"I am surprised how narrow minded most Americans are about globalization," that could be said about almost any other country on the planet. Brexit being the comically obvious example. We just have the largest English speaking population and trashing on "americas" is like trashing on one age demographic for the media. While not necessarily wrong there just doing it for the clicks/views. Also while globalization is very much increasing make no mistake we are still about a quarter of the GLOBAL GDP. Almost any product on the market at any reasonable scale is made for the US market and adapted for other countries. (I’m not saying this is a or bad thing) Do some research into standards body and that will become apparent.fist003 - Wednesday, August 14, 2019 - link
thisSkeptical123 - Wednesday, August 14, 2019 - link
Zepi your point "Over 95% of world population doesn't live in US" is "irrelevant" in this case. As the US makes up ~24% of GLOBAL GDP. Ie we are the worlds largest consumers and while counties like China are close as I'm sure you know they play by a different rule book over there. So laws that are very applicable in the "western world" are not a factor (at least yet). So these stickers are very much for the US market even if they only are applicable in say Germany or the UK.evernessince - Tuesday, August 6, 2019 - link
No, it wouldn't pass muster in court. The law doesn't make exceptions of non-user serviceable parts. If it did then every manufacturer would simply declare their products "non-serviceable". FYI power supplies ARE user serviceable if you discharge the capacitors, it's just not recommended for amateurs. To a certain degree all parts are serviceable assuming you have enough skill. The law isn't going to start guessing which are and which aren't.If companies want to void warranties they are going to have to prove the customer damaged the item, not because of some arbitrary definition of what is and isn't serviceable or some silly sticker.
Peichen - Wednesday, August 7, 2019 - link
Another Asian product with an European label for premiumAlyxSharkBite - Saturday, August 17, 2019 - link
They’re not illegal they are unenforceable in the US (regardless of what some people say about the user serviceable) but these are sold in the North America (content not region of the US) that includes markets such as Canada where it might be enforceable (I don’t know Canadian laws). It’s not a US Exclusive product. That’s why they are on there.YB1064 - Tuesday, August 6, 2019 - link
I haven't seen this in any PSU review till date, but in addition to quoting ripple (rms?), it would be useful to show a voltage power spectrum (V^2/Hz vs Hz). This will clearly show noise at various frequencies. You could also integrate this PSD to get cumulative noise (should be equivalent to RMS).I would not suggest this to any other run of the mill review site, but you guys seem to do a good job of providing technical analysis and details.
PS: I can post a MATLAB script to do this if you want.
umano - Tuesday, August 6, 2019 - link
That sounds good, upvote!Chaitanya - Tuesday, August 6, 2019 - link
Compared to seasonic how good are the sirfa units?kyuu - Tuesday, August 6, 2019 - link
While I can't speak from experience, the article itself seems to answer your question. Sirfa units, by themselves, are generally not high quality. However, Fractal's modifications to the platform has resulted in a product that is top-tier, and appears to beat other brand's products, even Seasonic, in most every measure.