Qestion About Ultra PSU Quality

[GraemeM]

Hi, Looking at the Power Supply Reference Thread Part 2 I am a bit confused.

It says about Ultra power supplies "There is an ultra series of PSU's, which can be found here
These are NOT manufactured by Powmax, and are now very high end and reliable PSU's."

Does this mean that older ones were manufactured by Powmax and were not reliable. Cus about a year and a half ago I bought an Ultra Modular 500 watt PSU (the second edition ones with clear sides and LED lights, and SATA cables), and afterwards I always felt like I'd made a mistake and bought a low quality (although cool looking and expensive) PSU.

The PSU has worked fine, although it always seems to smell a bit funny (neve rlost the new computer smell), the mobo connector comes a bit lose causing weird problems (although I think I have it in tight now), and I suspect somethings wrong with the floppy cable (although I can't pinpoint this to the PS for sure).

Otherwise though it gives me good voltages and has been reliable.

So purely for curiosity, would this be considered a good qulaity PS or did Ultra PSUs get good after I bought one?

Thanks,
Graeme

[Mr.Ferrari]

Your right, ultra haves changed. But very recently.
The old ultra x-connect modular series of powersupplies were very low quality.

They have recently brought out a new series called X--Finity, although being better compared to the old series and more decent. I would stilll stay away from them.

They are overpriced heavily for what they offer and there are some much much better choices in the same price range. And even a few bucks below.

[GraemeM]

so why does whoever made that topic have them listed as one of the best (under good quality and colored blue)?

[FLG]

Seems ultra started as good quality PSU's, then had quality control issues..and now there back on track.

[glc]

I would not touch them with a 10 foot pole. Reasons follow:

1. We recently received 2 Ultra power supplies for testing and review. Both were 400+ watt units, one modular and one standard. We tested them on a low demand system - and one caused major Windows instability, the other had seriously wandering voltages according to Asus Probe. The system runs PERFECTLY with stable voltages with a 350 watt Rosewill power supply (not that we recommend those either!). I can understand an occasional defective unit - but 2 out of 2, when they knew they were going to be tested and reviewed? If I were a manufacturer providing test units to reviewers, I sure would test a unit before sending it.

2. Ultra's main outlet is Tiger Direct. My next door neighbor works for them and tells me that Ultra is their high profit margin cash cow.

Bottom line - you can do a lot better than Ultra for the same wattage and price.

[larrymoencurly]

Originally Posted by GraemeM Hi, Looking at the Power Supply Reference Thread Part 2 I am a bit confused. It says about Ultra power supplies "There is an ultra series of PSU's, which can be found here These are NOT manufactured by Powmax, and are now very high end and reliable PSU's."

I think people originally assumed that they were Powmax because Powmax is a manufacturer (part of Leadman) and had been selling PSUs that looked almost identical to the original Ultra X-Connect. But the real manufacturer for both was Young Year, but Ultra dropped them because of quality problems (inadequate design?) and switched to Wintech, which had already been supplying the Ultra X-Finity series. Wintech is OK but in no way can be accurately termed "very high end", and my experience with the Ultra V-Series, also made by Wintech, showed some quality problems -- fan wouldn't spin sometimes in one sample (I'm not the only person to experience that), a ground wire wasn't soldered well, a drop of molten solder had been embedded in the insulation of one of the 120VAC wires, and the long leads of the current-limiting thermistor were crossed over so they touched, preventing the thermistor from doing its protective job.

[glc]

There are some other issues in our "good - bad" list - we are reviewing it. I have a link in that thread to an excellent thread over at the Nvidia forums that groups manufacturers into 5 tiers.