Introduction

We would like to thank Fractal Design for supplying the review sample.

We already reviewed Fractal Design’s top PSU offering, the Newton R3 1000 W. It left us quite satisfied with its overall performance. Today, we will take a good look at its budget sibling, the Tesla R2 1000 W. It is made by the same manufacturer, ATNG, and is based on the same platform. Some compromises had to be made in order to lower the final price, and these have resulted in a non-modular design and several internal component changes, but with the 80 Plus Gold certification, efficiency is still very high despite the lower-grade components used internally. The cooling fan remained the same and utilizes ball-bearings instead of an inferior sleeve-bearing.

The R2 1000 W features a single +12V rail that can deliver up to 80 A of current, is equipped with six PCIe connectors, so it can feed up to three high-end VGAs, is covered by a three-year warranty, and has a maximum operating temperature of 40°C at which it can deliver its full power continuously. All the above sounds very interesting, and the Tesla unit will score a pretty high price / performance ratio, which is what most users pay attention to first when they plan out their next purchase, if it manages to register a good overall performance on our test bench. The lack of modular cables will most likely turn many off, but modular cables apparently cost a lot and are the first to be left out when the price has to go down significantly. I personally prefer keeping the grade of internal components high, which makes leaving out a modular cabling system to keep costs down a reasonable tradeoff.