The Newton R3 800 W model managed to register better performance than its bigger brother, the R3 1000W, mostly because of the significantly lower ripple I measured on the minor rails. The extra polymer caps that were used on the modular PCB apparently did the trick. The unit's overall performance was great, with tight voltage regulation on all rails, high efficiency, and the +12V's very good response to sudden transient loads. This ATNG platform can easily meet the high-end competition from Delta, Seasonic, and all other worthy OEMs, but it still needs a good price tag to do so well, which is not the case as the R3 800 W sells for almost 200 bucks, a pretty large sum for a PSU of this category. Only ten bucks more will get users a digitally controlled PSU offering even better performance, higher capacity, and all the goodies digital control entails, like system monitoring, controlling, etc. The analog Platinum competition in the same wattage range also sells for much less, so I really am of the opinion that Fractal Design should immediately revise the price of this PSU to give it a chance of competing with all the other Platinum 800-850 W units. Skipping to the problems I found, there is obviously its high price, which is the most significant of all, but its hold-up time is also very low, which is due to the small bulk cap ATNG uses for this platform, and I would also appreciate it if this platform had less native cables, or, even better, a fully modular design.

To sum up, the Newton R3 800 W delivers great performance, but its stiff price unfortunately cripples its rice/performance ratio. It urgently needs a price revision if Fractal Design wants to make it competitive. I strongly believe that it has all the necessary ingredients to accomplish this, though it needs a price closer to 150 bucks. Fractal Design will then hopefully follow my advice, giving this nice PSU a chance to contribute to the high-end category where it belongs; given its nice performance, a more down-to-earth price would easily allow it to claim a recommendation from me.