Fractal
Seasonic
it matters in the sense just like what pcie or hdmi or DP version etc. yes it will run and yes it will work. But it is nice to know. It’s also a sign of age and with the upcoming changes it’s even more important. I agree with everything you and doc said. I’m just saying they should at least put the atx version the PSU is constructed to on the box.
There should actually be 3rd party testing to get a certified sticker for it like energy efficiency. I mean we have all seen PSU reviews where the PSU does not even meet the atx standard for ripple among other things. Maybe they should slap a big sticker on it Not ATX spec certified so you know you’re getting a pos.
Seasonic's platforms (with the exception of some low cost models like the S12 III) tend to be quite modern. If you purchase a Focus or Prime, especially the latter, you're pretty much golden. The AX1000 I mentioned earlier is a slightly modified Seasonic Prime Titanium platform and it's an extremely high performance, advanced power supply; you won't find anything better in the analog realm; you're basically looking at the AX1500i and the AX1600i to outperform it in efficiency and regulation. If you want to be ultra picky about maximum efficiency, real-time monitoring, high capacity and clean, manageable power, then you have to fork for a Corsair AXi series, they're the only power supplies that will provide what you're looking for. The 1500i is a few years old now, but remains a solid #2 in the PSU rankings, losing only to its newer GaN FET 1600 watt successor. TPU has reviews for both:
Corsair is first to release an 80 Plus Titanium-certified PSU, which is the flagship of their top-notch AXi line. The AX1500i is the best PSU we ever tested, and at 1.5 kW, it is strong enough for an incredibly powerful system with a four-way SLI or Crossfire configuration.
www.techpowerup.com
Simply put, the Corsair AX1600i is the best PSU money can buy today. Because of its huge capacity and price tag, it only addresses a small portion of users; those only satisfied with having the best of the best.
www.techpowerup.com
Fractal, like Corsair and EVGA, uses OEM platforms for their supplies. That's what reviews are here for, and Aris does an excellent job here at TPU and at Tom's disassembling them piece by piece and showing you the inner works of all PSU's. Perhaps his latest review shows precisely what I was trying to get at before, Gigabyte released the first "ATX 3.0 spec" power supply... it doesn't actually meet 3.0 standard and it performs as mediocre as it comes for a PSU of its capacity:
The Gigabyte UD1000GM PG5 is the first available PSU with a 16-pin PCI-Express 5.0 connector. The only graphics card requiring such a connector is the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Ti, which also comes with an adapter, but the upcoming 4000 series will need it as well, so it is good to be ready.
www.techpowerup.com
The tl;dr of it is that you really shouldn't worry about the ATX specification, it will not cause compatibility issues and if you're concerned about 12VHPWR/PCIe 5.0 very high power GPU connectors, most high end power supplies should receive adequate adapters or replacement cables to support these correctly. After all, if you intend to run a GPU that will use up to and perhaps even more than 600 watts of power, you want that to be on a single, high-current rail on a PSU sized 1000W or larger.
