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Fractal Design managed to impress me again, this time with its new Ion SFX models. Its people selected one of the best SFX platforms available in the market today, which is provided by Seasonic, and the outcome is excellent since the overall performance of the Ion SFX 650G matches that of the Corsair SF600 Gold, which, to date, was the top SFX PSU offering with ETA-A and 80 PLUS Gold certifications. The advantages of the Ion SFX 650G over its Corsair adversary are the larger, 120mm fan that it comes with along with the highly flexible modular cables, which indeed make a difference during the cable routing and installation processes. Moreover, in its bundle, you will find an SFX-to-ATX adapter bracket, which is missing from the plain Corsair SF600 model (but is present in the more expensive SF600 Platinum).
With an MSRP of $110 (and $90 for the Ion SFX 500G), the Ion SFX 650G is slightly less expensive than the Corsair SF600, and the Seasonic Focus SGX-650, while it has the same price as the EVGA 650 GM. Along with the Seasonic SFX unit, the Ion SFX models are the only PSUs in this category that are covered by a ten-year warranty, which is a good indication of this platform's expected reliability through time. Now that the competition managed to reach the performance levels of Corsair's older SF models, I am eager to see some competition in the high-end SFX market segment where the SF750 dominates and why not, another passive unit that will be able to meet SilverStone's excellent passive Nightjar NJ450-SXL model, eye-to-eye.
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Disclaimer: Aris Mpitziopoulos is Tom's Hardware's PSU reviewer. He is also the Chief Testing Engineer of Cybenetics, and developed the Cybenetics certification methodologies apart from his role on Tom's Hardware. Neither Tom's Hardware nor its parent company, Future PLC, are financially involved with Cybenetics. Aris does not perform the actual certifications for Cybenetics.
