Ultra X-Connect 500w

[Anthony The Daddy]

Originally posted by: ky
What are some other reputable modular PSUs out there?

Currently the only true reputable modular PSU is the NeoPower.

 

[QueBert]

who runs their system under constant max load?

I have 2 HD's 3 optical drives, 4 case fans and a Radeon 9800 Pro. Maybe not a high end system. What I'm concerned about is how well my system runs. And so far the Ultra has done nothing but shine in my box. I could have based my PSU choice off reading reviews where they performed extreme tests, on some uber system I'll never own, with some ungodly 100 day system torture burn in. But real world usage is all that matters to me.

I've owned Antec, Enermax, dozens of PSU's. My Ultra gives me the juice I need, and the modular cables helped drop my system temps. For MY needs, this is the best PSU on the market, hands down *shrug*

and to gameingphreek, not sure how important/valid that "8 light" PSU test is, but the Ultra lit up all 8, the reviewer said it was one of the only PSU's able to do that. I have no idea how that translates to performance though

Despite comments I've heard about possible performance problems, and my concerns over the single supply to the PCB which powers all the connectors, the X-connect was one of the few power supplies I've tested that was able to "light all the lights" as they say in all tackiest game shows.

That's 300 watts, or if you prefer, 25 Amps of power being sucked down the 12V rail.

some crap psu!

 

[anthony88guy]

very debatable topic

 

[Gamingphreek]

I dont know where you are getting that review from but i know what i am talking about i read it a couple times. THe Ultra lit up like 3 or 4 of them, the Nexus lit up all of them but refused to post into windows on the last 3 i think.

How about a link.

Also 25A is nothing to shudder about (if that is true) but the PSU is advertised at 34A, producing 25 (maybe) with voltages going haywire is nothing to be proud of.

The Modstream and the Neopower are much better alternatives than the Ultra.

-Kevin

 

[MaverickBP]

i own the 500w ultra xconnect and havent had a single problem with my 3200+ @ 2600mhz. Stable voltages and cant hear it running. like many said its a gamble. But so is everything else.

 

[QueBert]

Ummm it's right on the link you posted "Link 1" he said very clearly the Ultra X was one of the only PSU's he's ever tested that lit up all the bulbs in his test. It didn't light up 3 or 4, it did every single one.

Link to what you're looking for

If you want to say a PSU that costs 50 bucks more then mine will deliver more, cleaner power. Sure you'd be right. But TRUST ME, I've done plenty with my PSU and it's 100% solid on my system,.

 

[Gamingphreek]

Looks to me like it only lit up 3 out of six bulbs. The TAGAN lit up all of them however the Ultra only lit up 3 of them and still booted. Under 25A load the 12V line was pitiful rangine from 11.40-10.20. I dont know what you are looking at.

-Kevin

 

[QueBert]

what exactly are you reading? nowhere does it say anything about 3 or 4 lights being lit up.

the X-connect was one of the few power supplies I've tested that was able to "light all the lights" as they say in all tackiest game shows.

it didn't give good numbers under the extreme load, but honestly his testing methods are way beyond 99% of high HIGH end systems.

I wouldn't say it was "pitiful" considering he was trying to boot a high end system with six 50 watt light bulbs. Not a math wiz, but 6x50 = 300, and that's not including the components in the system. It's safe to assume most PSU's wouldn't be able to boot the system with the six bulbs. It's not a fault of Ultra. I'm not going to argue this, the PSU is far better then most people give it credit.

 

[Gamingphreek]

It may have lit them up like i said but it didn't boot. The Tagan 420Watt, significantly less than the "500Watt" lit them all up and booted with them all like that.

Also they are not beyond 99% of high end systems. You put a 570J with a Geforce 6800U and a couple HDD then run P95 or S@H for a couple of hours its gonna hit that level. Also the fact remains it was rated by Ultra/Powmax/Who ever you want to call it, at 500Watts. It cannot even output 300Watt reliably, that is pitiful.

-Kevin

 

[MaverickBP]

my ultra is running a 3200+ @ 2600mhz, a 6800gt at 423/1189, gig of ram, 3 optical drives, 4 hd's, floppy, 4 usb devices, audigy 2 zs, 3 led fans, etc. and gaming, encoding, prime95 etc my rails are steady at 12.12v, 5.13v, and 3.36v. Pretty nice imo

 

[QueBert]

Originally posted by: Gamingphreek
It may have lit them up like i said but it didn't boot. The Tagan 420Watt, significantly less than the "500Watt" lit them all up and booted with them all like that.

Also they are not beyond 99% of high end systems. You put a 570J with a Geforce 6800U and a couple HDD then run P95 or S@H for a couple of hours its gonna hit that level. Also the fact remains it was rated by Ultra/Powmax/Who ever you want to call it, at 500Watts. It cannot even output 300Watt reliably, that is pitiful.

-Kevin

ummm no... it does way more then 300 reliable. If you read the reviewers conclusion.

Despite my original concerns, the X-Connect did a fine job of supplying power even as the going got tough, though its tendency let the 12V line go walkabouts as I increased the load to 25 Amps was slightly worrying. That said, most people aren't likely to hit that ceiling, particularly when you remember that's 25 Amps in addition to the power already being supplied to the graphics card. you'd need one hell of a system to have it generate that level of load on a regular basis.

I can't think of anyone I know who has a system that'll hit 24A without a powerful video card. The six bulbs alone were hitting 24A, the graphic card had to be using a good ammount of power on it's on, no? the dude above me has nice specs, and I proimse you he's not hitting close to 25A if you take the video card out of the factor.

 

[Idleuser]

Oh but it's crap maverick You got alot of ignorant people out there who have yet to try the product but proclaim another psu is superior. Ignorant is Bliss

 

[Anthony The Daddy]

I am gonna laugh when this crap psu goes south and takes all of that expensive hardware with it.

 

[Idleuser]

go ahead we'll see which one craps out the ocz powerstream 520w which already had 2 rma or my ultra 500w that's running fine for months.

 

[Gamingphreek]

Originally posted by: Idleuser
go ahead we'll see which one craps out the ocz powerstream 520w which already had 2 rma or my ultra 500w that's running fine for months.

Well evidently you got a bad PSU. The OCZ is incomparable to the Ultra. The build quality, everything is so much nicer about it. The Ultra was not intended to compete with the OCZ and PCP&C which is what you are pitting it against.

THe Ultra is and remains a nice entry level PSU. It cannot supply its rated voltages nor can it supply 100Watt below them.

Say all you want the graphs prove my point.

-Kevin

 

[ribbon13]

The X-Connect vs PCP&C is like a candle vs a Taifun.

 

[MaverickBP]

everyone has their opinions and as long as mines working mine will stay the same. i had 4 hd's 3 opticals, a ti 4200, plus a bunch of crap runnin my tbird with a 200w ps. IT WAS A GATEWAY PS!!! if anything went to crap that shouldve. at my work ive seen 2000w ps'a that cost nearly 2k be the cause of failure while were building $1,000,000+ in blade servers. Defect quota. theres gonna be some.

 

[Mucker]

You don't need to justify your choice of hardware to anyone Maverick. All that matters is that it works well for you and it sounds like it is. Some people around here think you are simply trash if you use anything other than OCZ, Lian-Li, Panaflo, etc.... Fact is, you don't have to have to break the bank to have a machine that functions just as well as theirs, and that fact can be proven again and again with a little searching around....

m

 

[MaverickBP]

its true people become cult like followers. It annoys the hell out of me seeing people praise to their holy "Sony" gods and bashing anything that tries to compete. Or someone who uses a certain model and something goes wrong and they swear off the line completely themselves and to everyone they talk to. Which makes for bad/biased recommendations. I do not favor one company over the other. If walmart came out with their own brand of mobo's that killed the competition...i'd be all over it. The point is take each opinion as it is...an opinion.

 

[Gamingphreek]

Im not bashing the Ultra PSU. You are worshipping it like it is a god though. You are acting like it is the absolute best thing money can buy when in reality it does not have a very good price/performance ratio. Yes, it is pretty, yes it is way better than generic, yes it is a modular PSU, however behind all of that there is cheap construction and horrible actual readings (ie Looks good on paper but performs poorly).

Or someone who uses a certain model and something goes wrong and they swear off the line completely themselves and to everyone they talk to

Well you seem to have done that to the Powerstream line which is (this is a proven fact) superior in all ways to the Ultra series of PSU.

-Kevin

 

[Idleuser]

that''s funny gamingfreak you come in like the apocalypse that this is a bad psu and then mucker comes around and you switch sides so easily and then you change your mind again... quit the preaching like you know it. Numbers will always be numbers, and there will always be a bad production models which fails. I never compared the psu i'm just saying which one lasts longer the ocz or my ultra simple as that. Never once did I say my UltRa PWNzzz my OCZ powerstream i was just saying that if my ocz is so good it wouldn't have to go to 2 rma while my ultra hasn't, I was simply trying to state a fact that even for such a fine psu as ocz has it's problems as well in the assembly line.

 

[MaverickBP]

i have done nothing of the sort. please copy/paste anything ive said bad about any unit. The most ive said is every company can make a bad product and/or make a defect. Ocz ps's from what ive read ROCK but doesnt mean they are infalible(early mornin spelling). I havent been worshipping ultra, only specifying that it does indeed work and shouldnt be placed a bad name by some people's "opinions"

 

[VirtualLarry]

Originally posted by: QueBert
who runs their system under constant max load?

Gamers/enthusiasts/distributed-computing participants, mostly. Things such as games and DC projects tend to keep the CPU at nearly 100% load running in the background, and 3D gaming tends to push the video card and the CPU pretty hard. On a modern system, the two components that individually draw the most power, are the CPU and the video card, and these days, both off of the +12V line, making it one of the most critical for stability. Likewise, someone that does P2P or downloading in the background all of the time will be drawing more power on their HDs, and even moreso if they are also running a RAID array, because the power flux would be approx double in magnitude during drive activity.

For systems that are just used occasionally, and/or only for web-browsing/office-type tasks, then the continuous power load will be a lot less.

Most people posting here are more-or-less enthusiast types, so it stands to reason that they might be both more demanding of their PSUs, and more critical of the majority of the lower-quality PSU market.

Originally posted by: QueBert
I have 2 HD's 3 optical drives, 4 case fans and a Radeon 9800 Pro. Maybe not a high end system. What I'm concerned about is how well my system runs. And so far the Ultra has done nothing but shine in my box. I could have based my PSU choice off reading reviews where they performed extreme tests, on some uber system I'll never own, with some ungodly 100 day system torture burn in. But real world usage is all that matters to me.

Well, I'm running my rig with 3 HDs, 4 opticals, 4 case fans, and a R9200 AGP. Not really a high end system either, and with a lighter-weight (in terms of power-draw) video card as well. I've been running it for two years off of the Codegen semi-generic "350W ATX" PSU that came as stock in my $40 case.

So by that comparison, if you paid more than $40 for your Ultra, then you likely overpaid, although adding the modular feature surely drives up the cost a bit as well.

Originally posted by: QueBert
I've owned Antec, Enermax, dozens of PSU's. My Ultra gives me the juice I need, and the modular cables helped drop my system temps. For MY needs, this is the best PSU on the market, hands down *shrug*

My factory-stock case blowhole does the same thing, drops my temps about 1-3C, if I don't cover it with something. It also helps to keep my consoles cool, if I sit one of them on top of the case. (Some like the DC were known to overheat after extensive usage. So it's like my case has a built-in console-cooler in it. )

But if you're happy with your purchase choice, then don't let anyone else's comments bother you. If it works, it works, right?

Originally posted by: QueBert
and to gameingphreek, not sure how important/valid that "8 light" PSU test is, but the Ultra lit up all 8, the reviewer said it was one of the only PSU's able to do that. I have no idea how that translates to performance though
Despite comments I've heard about possible performance problems, and my concerns over the single supply to the PCB which powers all the connectors, the X-connect was one of the few power supplies I've tested that was able to "light all the lights" as they say in all tackiest game shows. That's 300 watts, or if you prefer, 25 Amps of power being sucked down the 12V rail.
some crap psu!

That's not the greatest test, it tests effectively for max power capacity, but it says nothing about the quality of regulation and noise/ripple in output, which are really the bigger issue with PC PSUs. A purely-resistive load like that one, doesn't say anything about the heavily-dynamic switching loads that a PC causes, nor about the overall range of voltage swings under varying average load conditions.

 

[Operandi]

I don't see what's so hard to understand.... every good test points to the Ultra being a crap PSU (because it is). It can't sustain it's maximum rated output without outputting horrible voltages or shutting down/dieing what else do you need to know?

 

[MaverickBP]

you speak of these "tests". but whats a better test then actual everyday usage? Many members here and myself included own this power supply and have no complaints. But like mucker said, theres no reason to justify anything. what works for one person may or may not work for another. You cant educate the opinionated. you cant teach the ignorant.