Stunning failure of msi Neo2 Plat tied to Ultra XConnect?

[Dadofamunky]

I just had my system in my sig below go down out of the blue (two pops and the screen went blank, no burning smells, system will not POST) while I was doing production for my work. Thank GOD I have a Dell laptop as backup!

Because I didn't have the time to rip the thing apart right now, I had a local tech shop do some troubleshooting for me. It turns out that the mobo failed. CPU and everything else are fine.

The tech thinks the Ultra XConnect modular power supply could be the culprit. I'm ordering another MSI K8N Neo2 Plat board from Newegg (they are now discontinued by MSI) but I'm concerned about going through something like this again.

Does anyone think it might be a good move to swap out the PS as well?

If so, what in your experience is the most rock-stable PS around? It doesn't have to be modular, although I'd prefer it.

 

[Greenman]

I'd sure test the psu under load.
PC Power & Cooling seems to have a sterling reputation. Do a forum search and you will find at least ten "Whats the best PSU" threads

 

[Cheesetogo]

Will the system turn on? In my experience with Ultra power supplies failures, they just stop working, without any damage done to anything other than themselves.

Excellent brands are: Antec, Enermax, OCZ, Seasonic, Fortron, PC Power & Cooling, and Zippy.

 

[Bona Fide]

If you want a solid power supply that will get the job done, get an Antec Truepower, an OCZ Powerstream, or a Fortron Blue Storm. The other PSU's have a lot of stuff that's unnecessary for the majority of us

 

[Lazien]

PC Power & Cooling PSU's are indeed AWSOME....I've used them for about 5-6 years now (bought 4) althought I just recently bought the Antec Neo Power 480 due to 3 very very impressive reviews. MaximumPC rated it higher than the PC Power & Cooling which is the first time that's happened in PC Power & Cooling's history I'd wager. If You go with the Antec Neo Power 480 (modular) or a PC Power & Cooling PSU You wont be dissapointed.

My 2 Cents

 

[Idleuser]

i'm running ultra x connect 500w uv blue with my msi neo2 platinum and I havn't ran into any problems so far.

 

[Operandi]

The X-Connect is crap. You're experiences are not isolated ones, sadly it's rather common.

Seasonic make some of the best; the S12-430 gets my recommendation.

 

[Mrvile]

Shoulda done your homework. If you had read further into the X-Connect you would've known it to be a piece of crap.

 

[Dadofamunky]

Research only goes so far, sometimes it's just the luck of the draw

Thanks guys. Looks I'm gonna have to suck it up and deal, either a PCP&C or an OCZ for me

 

[Arky]

Originally posted by: Mrvile
Shoulda done your homework. If you had read further into the X-Connect you would've known it to be a piece of crap.

The fact is that a lot of reviews you can find on the internet ended up giving the X-Connect really good scores, because they had no problems at all with the reviewed units; just google ''Ultra x connect review'', you'll see what I mean. I'm not arguing that IT IS a good power supply, because it is clear that a lot of people have trouble with them, and I wouldn't trust a TigerDirect brand; I'm just saying that if you usually look at online reviews for that kind of components before you make you final buy, you could have been fooled easily.

 

[Operandi]

Originally posted by: Ark4ngeL

Originally posted by: Mrvile
Shoulda done your homework. If you had read further into the X-Connect you would've known it to be a piece of crap.

The fact is that a lot of reviews you can find on the internet ended up giving the X-Connect really good scores, because they had no problems at all with the reviewed units; just google ''Ultra x connect review'', you'll see what I mean. I'm not arguing that IT IS a good power supply, because it is clear that a lot of people have trouble with them, and I wouldn't trust a TigerDirect brand; I'm just saying that if you usually look at online reviews for that kind of components before you make you final buy, you could have been fooled easily.

It's really easy to give a good score when you don't know or care what you?re doing. Power supplies are rarely tested properly; of the few times the Ultra has been tested the right way it's failed several.

Originally posted by: Dadofamunky
Research only goes so far, sometimes it's just the luck of the draw

Thanks guys. Looks I'm gonna have to suck it up and deal, either a PCP&C or an OCZ for me

PCP&C would be a great choice as long as you can justify the price. OCZ is built by Topower, a budget PSU manufacture; I would look elsewhere.

Seasonic and Forton Source are normally my first choices.

 

[Zepper]

Yup, most of the fanboy sites couldn't test a PSU properly if their lives depended on it. Tom's Hardware has a pretty good methodology. About the only thing they don't do (at least on purpose) is "test to failure". That's the only way to test to have a good idea that the PSU would be unlikely to take out attached equipment when in failure mode.
. I certainly won't allow any Ultra products in my systems.

.bh.

 

[Dadofamunky]

I wound up going for an Antec TruPower 2.0 550 - I couldn't jsutify the exorbitant cost of a PCP&C unit....

 

[QueBert]

Originally posted by: Operandi
The X-Connect is crap. You're experiences are not isolated ones, sadly it's rather common.

Seasonic make some of the best; the S12-430 gets my recommendation.

"rather common" really? please point me to a review outside of the 2 that had problems. You do realize the RMA ratio for Ultra X-Connects is low? This is units sold, compared to units RMA. Ultra doesn't sell as many psu's as an Antec or Enermax, but I ASSURE YOU the % of RMA's isn't much higher. I've built over 50 computers for people, all of them have X-Connects and I've had one I had to return and one I had to rma. that's it...

you fan boys are crazy, I'm not defending Ultra as the "greatest psu evar!" but PLEASE shut up with the "rather common" statement, there's zero basis to that.

I suggest everyone who talks badly about the X-Connect search on here for the review a dude did a few weeks ago. On professional level equipment. His Ultra ran stable at OVER 500 watts with it pushing 32a for an extended period of time.

the 2 reviewers who had it blow up got bad units, hell I had a Enermax I paid 120 bucks for die in 2 minutes on me. His review shows it's not nearly as bad as idiots who claim if it's not OCZ or some "uber brand" it sucks.

 

[Mrvile]

Originally posted by: Ark4ngeL

Originally posted by: Mrvile
Shoulda done your homework. If you had read further into the X-Connect you would've known it to be a piece of crap.

The fact is that a lot of reviews you can find on the internet ended up giving the X-Connect really good scores, because they had no problems at all with the reviewed units; just google ''Ultra x connect review'', you'll see what I mean. I'm not arguing that IT IS a good power supply, because it is clear that a lot of people have trouble with them, and I wouldn't trust a TigerDirect brand; I'm just saying that if you usually look at online reviews for that kind of components before you make you final buy, you could have been fooled easily.

You have to know the right places to look.

 

[Operandi]

Originally posted by: QueBert

Originally posted by: Operandi
The X-Connect is crap. You're experiences are not isolated ones, sadly it's rather common.

Seasonic make some of the best; the S12-430 gets my recommendation.

"rather common" really? please point me to a review outside of the 2 that had problems. You do realize the RMA ratio for Ultra X-Connects is low? This is units sold, compared to units RMA. Ultra doesn't sell as many psu's as an Antec or Enermax, but I ASSURE YOU the % of RMA's isn't much higher. I've built over 50 computers for people, all of them have X-Connects and I've had one I had to return and one I had to rma. that's it...

you fan boys are crazy, I'm not defending Ultra as the "greatest psu evar!" but PLEASE shut up with the "rather common" statement, there's zero basis to that.

I suggest everyone who talks badly about the X-Connect search on here for the review a dude did a few weeks ago. On professional level equipment. His Ultra ran stable at OVER 500 watts with it pushing 32a for an extended period of time.

the 2 reviewers who had it blow up got bad units, hell I had a Enermax I paid 120 bucks for die in 2 minutes on me. His review shows it's not nearly as bad as idiots who claim if it's not OCZ or some "uber brand" it sucks.

Common? Yes, In this forum alone there are two recent threads / three failures regarding the Ultra, Thread 1 (this thread, read it?), Thread 2 (two failures). This is all within the time span of about a week, if it's not common then what is it?

 

[QueBert]

Sorry common isn't 3 reports. That's like a person saying "I own a store, and 3 black people stole from me last week, so it's common for black people to steal" Ultra's sell out at the local pc shop up the street every week. They get returns (as with everything) but common to me would be a % of bad units not a fraction of a %

that's just my opinion though. maybe the 50 people who I've read got bad units got legit Ultra's, and the thousands like myself who've never had a problem just got lucky *shrug*

 

[JEDIYoda]

Define the word "common".........lol

 

[Dadofamunky]

Originally posted by: QueBert
Sorry common isn't 3 reports. That's like a person saying "I own a store, and 3 black people stole from me last week, so it's common for black people to steal" Ultra's sell out at the local pc shop up the street every week. They get returns (as with everything) but common to me would be a % of bad units not a fraction of a %

that's just my opinion though. maybe the 50 people who I've read got bad units got legit Ultra's, and the thousands like myself who've never had a problem just got lucky *shrug*

I think that's just because of the bling factor. I admit I was seduced by the modular aspect and its cosmetics myself. Typically, the stuff that local OC Shops sell is not going to be pro-quality - especially when you get into the odds and ends like PSs, HSFs, cables, and fans and such. In retrospect, for my next system build (which will not be for QUITE some time), I'll be going only for PCP&C. This was the first build in a number of years in whcih I hadn't used them and it was a mistake. At this point I have no more money to throw at the problem and the Antec 2.0 seems to be doing quite well (knock on wood).

Based on what I've been able to find out, no modular power supply is ever going to have the rail stability of the best of the other type. Some makers (PCP&C for one) say they will NEVER make a modular.