Page 4 - Minor Tests and Conclusion
Power supplies are interesting products, because often, reviews of products in this category are conducted and tested in methods that make it difficult to distinguish one power supply from another. Many aspects must be taken into consideration. Certain criteria consist of efficiency, noise, power ripples, and of course the ability to pull out the rated specifications. Because many cannot afford such equipment to obtain results regarding those aspects, articles covering power supplies often come out with less than adequate and acceptable information. As this is a product report -- not a review -- what we are doing is a close examination of the power supply and the internal hardware and build. But what we can do for you is do some minor testing with the results we can present to you with and let other review sites with professional equipment show you the actual test results. We are not going to try to create useless test results by installing the power supply into the latest gaming rig and try to take readings from that, as this is not even remotely the correct way to test power supply units. We understand that many websites do that as a means of load testing, but the results, even if you use an oscilloscope and multimeter at each output location, are not sufficient, nor does it accurately reflect the performance of the power supply.
Using our power supply tester which exerts minimal load on the power supply, the initial consumption was 4W as measured by our wall meter unit, indicating that the basic load-free power consumption of the power supply is excellent. There are no independent sources with professional load testing equipment at press time, but the basically identical Seasonic FOCUS GX-1000 ATX 3.1 1000W delivered good efficiency for its class and tight ripple suppression across all rails. However, its load regulation and transient response have room for improvement according to Cybenetics. This power supply unit has an 80 Plus Gold rating, but no Cybenetics ETA certification at the time of writing this review. However, the FOCUS GX-1000 ATX 3.1 1000W is Cybenetics Gold certified.
Voltages with minimal load are accurate, which is a basic requirement of power supplies out of the box. The Power Good or PG delay is tested at 180ms. This power supply is ATX 3.1 compliant and officially supports Alternative Sleep Mode with 100 to 150ms PG specifications, so it looks like the PSU tester I used was not fast enough to pick up the true PG signal. The ATX design specifications state a PSU's PG is required to be between 100ms and 500ms, with 250ms maximum for Non-Alternative Sleep Mode and 150ms for Alternative Sleep Mode.
Active power correction is important to correct AC load line loss. In AC power, there are three components to it, as there is a phase difference between current and voltage. This makes up the power triangle, which consists of the following: Average usable power (P, measured in watts), reactive power (Q, denoted as VA-R), and total power (S, written as VA). While they all have the same physical units, it is not the same thing as aforementioned. What we want is the average usable power with as little wasted reactive power as possible. The total power provided over the AC line is the magnitude of the two combined (sqrt(P^2+Q^2)). Power factor can then be easily calculated by P divided by S. The ideal value is 1.00, and this is where active PFC comes in. The Fractal Design Ion 3 Gold 1000W has active PFC, and the power factor will approach 0.99 with a nominal load.
The Fractal Design Ion 3 Gold 1000W is a silent to very quiet power supply, depending on the amount of power being drawn. Under idle level loads, or less than approximately 30%, the Ion 3 Gold 1000W is inaudible because the fan is shut off completely. Under moderate loads above 30%, the power supply remains barely audible. Personally, I found the Fractal Design Momentum 14 to be reasonably smooth, but will become audible at high speed. While this is very subjective, I am quite a picky person on noise. On a scale from 0 to 10 where 0 is silent and 10 is the loudest, I would rate the Fractal Design Ion 3 Gold 1000W to be at 0.0/10 when the fan is off, because, well, the fan is off. Above that, I would peg it at 2.5/10 acoustically under moderate loads. This PSU is not Cybenetics rated for noise. If you are a silent PC enthusiast, the Fractal Design Ion 3 Gold 1000W will fit the bill for loads below 300W, and the fan curve profile is pretty conservative to keep the fan speed in check until 600W.
Fractal Design provided this product to APH Networks for the purposes of evaluation.
The Fractal Design Ion 3 Gold 1000W is a mainstream performance PSU with Gold-grade efficiency and innovative with its internal design for improved cooling. It is ATX 3.1 and PCIe 5.1 compliant for all your latest hardware, and can operate in semi-fanless mode up to about 30%. Internally, it is nearly identical to the Seasonic FOCUS GX-1000 ATX 3.1 1000W, featuring the OptiSink design and a good selection of components including 100% Japanese brand capacitors. The Fractal Design Ion 3 Gold 1000W delivers average performance, both electrically and in noise output, according to others with professional load testing equipment. For about $160 at press time, the Fractal Design Ion 3 Gold 1000W is reasonably priced -- in fact, $30 cheaper than the nearly identical Seasonic version -- and still comes with a 10-year warranty to keep you assured.
Page Index
1. Introduction, Packaging, Specifications
2. Physical Look - Outside
3. Physical Look - Inside
4. Minor Tests and Conclusion
