PSU battle: FD Ion+ 2 vs Corsair RMx vs EVGA G6

[ecomorph]

One of the last parts of my build that are left to be decided is the PSU. Candidates are: (reviews hyperlinked)

• Fractal Design Ion+ 2 Platinum 860W (169e)
• Corsair RM850x Gold (181e)
• EVGA G6 850W Gold (160e)

According to the PSU tier list, all these are pretty good (high-end A tier). The price difference is so small (20 bucks), it shouldn't be a consideration. The three of them have a 10-year warranty.

The way I see it:

• FD has the advantage to be of higher rating (Platinum) and quieter than the other two
• EVGA G6 according to the tier list is 'The best Seasonic-made PSU on the market, ironically not sold by Seasonic themselves. Better built than Focus GX, comparable to competition like Corsair RM/RMx.'
• RMx read some nice reviews

Any further insight?

The rest of my build is:
CPU: Intel Core i5-13600K 3.5 GHz 14-Core Processor (€359.90 @ Datatronic)
CPU Cooler: Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120 SE 66.17 CFM CPU Cooler (€40.00)
Motherboard: Gigabyte Z690 GAMING X DDR4 ATX LGA1700 Motherboard (€223.90 @ Datatronic)
Memory: Kingston FURY Renegade 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3600 CL16 Memory (€101.90 @ Datatronic)
Storage: Kingston KC3000 2.048 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive (€182.90 @ Datatronic)
Case: Lian Li LANCOOL 215 ATX Mid Tower Case (€109.90)
GPU: 4070ti or a 6800XT/6950XT

Thanks!

 

[wNotyarD]

Does any of them already come with 12VHPWR connector or cables? If you want a 4000-series GeForce, it already avoids using NVIDIA's adapters.

 

[evernessince]

Does any of them already come with 12VHPWR connector or cables? If you want a 4000-series GeForce, it already avoids using NVIDIA's adapters.

The problem is with the connector, not the adapter itself. Native 12VHPWR can burn up all the same if you don't full insert the connector.

There is a revised version of the spec in the works that will address the connector but it'll be awhile before that makes into new power supplies.

There's really no benefit to having a 12HPWR native PSU aside from not having to use the adapter.

To the OP, if I had to choose between those three I'd pick the Corsair or EVGA. EVGA has the best warranty service.

 

[dirtyferret]

corsair RM850x currently gets the blue ribbon on Aris's best of list for 850w. A better list in my opinion than the tier list which often has oem bias in it.

Any of the three will do the job so you can go by price if you want to.

EVGA has the best warranty service.

I would say Corsair is just as good but both are definitely leaders in that category

 

[ecomorph]

Between the EVGA and the Corsair one, the latter seems to have a better noise profile

And FD one seems like the best of them all:

Edit: as mentioned below, the above is FD's marketing material. Haven't found any review curves, just these two data points:

 

[Assimilator]

The Ion+ 2 is the way to go. I have one and very happy with it. Especially because it doesn't use sleeved cables or ordinary stiff plastic ones, but really soft silicon ones that are a pleasure to route.

 

[evernessince]

Between the EVGA and the Corsair one, the latter seems to have a better noise profile

And the FD one seems like the best of them all:

The superNova has an eco mode that enables fanless operation up to 50% of the PSUs max wattage and reduces overall fan speeds so in the end all three of these PSU are likely similar.

FYI the fan noise profile for the ION you provided is from Fractal's marketing material (as specified in the following review: https://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/fractal_design_ion_2_platinum_860w_psu_review,7.html)

As you can see from that review, the PSU hits 33 Db at 80% load. Now if you look at the other charts you provided, they measure Db at 900w load, which is significantly higher than the 688w max load applied to the ION. At the end of the day all three PSUs likely produce similar amounts of noise when you normalize all factors. Mind you noise levels alone don't tell you the whole picture, you want to ensure that no component in the PSU is getting too hot and lower fan speeds are not always a good thing.

 

[ecomorph]

The superNova has an eco mode that enables fanless operation up to 50% of the PSUs max wattage and reduces overall fan speeds so in the end all three of these PSU are likely similar.

FYI the fan noise profile for the ION you provided is from Fractal's marketing material (as specified in the following review: https://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/fractal_design_ion_2_platinum_860w_psu_review,7.html)

As you can see from that review, the PSU hits 33 Db at 80% load. Now if you look at the other charts you provided, they measure Db at 900w load, which is significantly higher than the 688w max load applied to the ION. At the end of the day all three PSUs likely produce similar amounts of noise when you normalize all factors. Mind you noise levels alone don't tell you the whole picture, you want to ensure that no component in the PSU is getting too hot and lower fan speeds are not always a good thing.

Nice catch! Extrapolating from those two points I plotted the following:

So RMx is probably a bit quieter between 400 to 600W (>700W is anybody's guess)

 

[dirtyferret]

you are not going to break 600w gaming with the 6950XT, 500w if you pick one of the other cards making the RMx the quieter unit in those real world scenarios.