How do folks feel about the "Ultra" PSUs from TigerDirect?

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I have two Ultras a 400w that has been powering a 3000xp and 9800pro both OC'd for 4+ years. The 500w has been powering a 7900Gt and 3800x2 both OC'd for over 2 years. I can't say I have had any problems with them. But I also have a Hiper 580 and a PCP&C silencer 610 in the last 2 PCs I built. The last is powering an OC'd Q6600/8800GTS unit as I wasn't about to take a chance with a lesser PSU. I think that a quality PSU is worth the extra money for a high end system but the Ultras are sufficient for budget builds and if you over spec the psu for your actual needs.
 
I have had four Ultras over the past 2 1/2 years and I have not had one problem with any of them. A 600w Xfinity powered my Opteron 170 overclocked to 2.5Ghz, 2 Gigs of ram, a 7950GX2 video card, three hard drives, one DVD burner, and my swiftech water cooling system. Like I said I never had any problems with them. The only drawback with the Xfinity is that it is not very power efficient, something like 73%. My new rig does have a PC Power & Cooling 610w in it, but only because I wanted to overclock the crap out of my Q6600. For most systems the Xfinitys work great. Plus it has a lifetime warranty so if it does crap out you can always get another.
Too many people say the Xfinitys will crap out after a few months, but thats BS! These people really don't know what there talking about, any power supply can crap out at any time. If you don't use an UPS all you need is one good power spike and boom there goes your tier one power supply just as easily as your tier four power supply!
 
Yeah, an Xfinity is really as good as a tier one PSU because they will both be damaged by a power spike.

Do you have any idea how ridiculous that sounds? :pfff:
 
I've never had an Ultra die on me, however, I do agree that they aren't up to running at their rated power. I have an X2 550W Ultra PSU. The computer in my sig. could run (most of the time) but would randomly restart after I added the 2900XT. I added a 250W graphics power supply, and now everything is great. I really like having 2 PSUs, now neither is very strained.
 
I have the same one right now. Had it for 2 years and it works flawlessly. I only have one GPU so I dont about 2 GPUs if you plan on running 2. Anyways, I would recommend that PSU.
 
If you don't trust the tier charts, then what about the recommended PSU's for ATI cards?

http://ati.amd.com/online/certifiedpsu/index.html

I haven't compared the lists extensively, but the recommended PSU's I own are in tier 2 or 3. The only tier 4 I own is an old Cooler Master Real Power 450 that's in a 7 year old's PC (and that will get upgraded soon too).

The Antecs I've bought since I started paying attention to the chart are great budget gaming power supplies for around $99 that I got on sale at Fry's for $49 (the 500 True Power) and $79 (the 550 Neo).

The failure of a PSU can be catastrophic for a PC. If anyone doesn't like the tier lists because they're old, then read reviews and also look at the PSU's certified by AMD/ATI, Intel and Nvidia for a comparison.

Read articles at Johnny Guru as well. While a "not recommended" power supply company can have an occasional tier 4 winner, with the rest in tier 5, the ranking shows consistent reports of issues from not reaching the promised watts to cheap components that make failure a bit more likely.

They are guidelines, but guidelines followed make more sense than blind faith that an extremely low cost PSU will be the exception to the rule.

 

I interested in getting quality products, but somebody just making a list (half of which are actually products, the other half just brand names) based on their opinion and no substantial facts doesn't help me at all. I would actually like to see some real data on which PSUs are good and how they stack up against each other. THGs charts for various components, backed up with actual data, are a great tool for selecting the right parts. However all I ever seem to see about PSUs is "that brand is crap" or "I only buy such and such brand". Nothing useful to me as somebody you makes decisions based on real data not opinions. So the only thing I really have to go on is the PSUs I've used. It just seems that today all you have to do is put something in a list and everybody takes it as fact (probably a lot of VH1 viewers).
 
The list is meant to be a guide not the gospel. It is reasonably accurate and will give you a good indication of PSU that it would be wiser to avoid. You still need to do your own research and read the reviews. Why don't you complain about the garbage reviews out there that have no testing of any substance.

At any rate, you are free to disregard any information that you want. I think it is a pretty good guide that is born out by some in depth reviews that I have read on jonnyguru.
 
I own 2 ultra 550's for 1 1/2 years and no problems at all. One is in operation 24/7 on my sons computer, it only gets turn off because of an power outage which is rare. and the other runs about 8 to 12 hours daily. If these go bad or if I build a new system, I'll go for another "Ultra".
 
Why don't you complain about the garbage reviews out there that have no testing of any substance.
Click to expand...
Actually I often do. Sometimes if I can get the email of the author I'll email him/her to tell them just how useless I found their review. Anyways my biggest complaint about that list is that it in many cases it just lists a specific brand not an actual product. I think that's much of why people think Ultra PSUs are so bad. People just see the name Ultra and think they're garbage. I just really hate buying things based on brand recongnition alone. It reminds me of being in highschool where only certain brand shoes/clothing was acceptable. Also I'm some what skeptical about PSU rankings without evidence to back it up because the PSU is probably the simplest component in a computer. Unlike a CPU, RAM, HDD, Motherboard, Video Card, etc. a PSU is fairly simple to manufacture. Really with just a little knowledge of electronics and the right parts/schematics you could easily make one from scratch. So when it comes to a brand/company like Ultra/Tigerdirect it's often times more financially beneficial to make a halfway decent product then a crap one which will have a high return rate. Really do you think it costs as much to manufacture a PSU as a CPU? ~$260 for a Q6600 or for a 500W PSU? I think you're probably correct in that there is a difference in quality between various PSUs, but it's no where near the price difference. I can tell you from my days at Best Buy that PSUs are probably the most over inflated (price wise) component you can buy when building a PC.
 
Quoted from the list
Tier 2 Brands - Top Quality components With Top Notch Stability - For Those With Price/Availability Issues With Tier 1
Ultra X3
Ultra X-Pro

Tier 4 - Not Recommend With Tier 3 In same Price/Wattage Range
Ultra Xfinity/X2

Tier 5 - Other than the units listed above for any of these brands, NOT RECOMMENDED
Ultra X-Connect
Click to expand...
Clearly they didn't reference the Ultra PSUs with the broad brush that you were concerned about. The only BFG on jonnyguru was the BFG 650. It got a total score of 6.5 out of 10 which is pretty poor. It looks like he was trying to be nice in his summary as well. So maybe BFG, as a company, is wise to avoid for PSUs.
 


Remember that Ultra isn't a manufacturer, just a marketing company. It's owned by Systemax, the same company that owns TigerDirect and Global Computer. In fact, Ultra was originally just a brand name Systemax dreamed up as a label for unbranded (generic) memory modules sold through its TigerDirect site, in response to its customers fears of unbranded parts!

The most amazing thing about Ultra is that you can find the brand being sold by COMPETING COMPANIES! Imagine this: K-Mart used to sell "KMC" (K-Mart Corpartion) branded tools. Wouldn't you be amazed if KMC tools showed up in Wal-Mart? Yes, they've done a good job on the marketing front.

Ultra sells some very nice power supplies, manufactured by companies you might not have heard of. Its X3 power supplies for example are manufactured by Andyson: http://www.andysonet.com/e/andysonet_e.html The qaulity of various models depends on the supplier and the supplier name isn't something you'll find on the TigerDirect website.
 



Wow you should be a politician the way you interpret things. I love how you take something out of context to try and make your point. Apparently you aren't familiar with electricity and how a power surge or spike can ruin a good power supply or a bad power supply. If you have dirty power going in it can ruin any power supply, thats why a good UPS will help regulate the power and deliver clean power to the power supply. I never said the Xfinity was as good as the PC power and Cooling, for you to interpret what I said to mean that is really reaching it.
 
http://www.overclock.net/power-supplies/154057-jonnyguru-power-supply-buyers-guide-updated.html

jonnyGURU Power Supply Buyers Guide. *Updated 2/25/07*

Someone needs to sticky this as it's one of the best PSU guides I've ever seen.
*Note: This entire Guide was written by jonnyGURU and was copied from the jonnyGURU forums to here as an aid for the overclock.net members.jonnyGURU Power Supply Buyers Guide. *Updated 2/25/07*


Tier 2:

Enermax Galaxy product line
Lots of power
Semi-Modular
Very quiet
Very efficient
Crossfire X1900/X1950 Crossfire certified
3 years

Seasonic S12 and M12 product lines
Very good voltage regulation
Very efficient
Very quiet
M12 series is modular
Crossfire X1900/X1950 Crossfire certified
S12 650W is 7950 GX2 Quad SLI certified
3 year warranty

Corsair product line
Based on same platform and component quality as Seasonic S/M12
Very efficient
Very quiet
Modular
HX620W is 7800 and 7900GTX SLI certified
5 year warranty

PC Power and Cooling Silencer product line
Based on same platform and component quality as Seasonic S/M12
750W is 7950 GX2 Quad SLI certified
3 year warranty

Coolmax Greenpower product line
Based on ATNG server platform
A little on the loud side
X1900/X1950 Crossfire certified
3 year warranty

SevenTeam SSI EPS 12V 2.91 Series and "Fanless" product lines
Strong regulation
Efficient and quiet, despite being based on a server platform
Good price, but rarely available in the U.S.
2 year warranty

MGE/XG Duro and Magnum
Based on SevenTeam's higher end units
Lifetime Warranty
Andyson's server line (recognized by dual 80MM fans) and high-efficiency line (recognized by single 130MM fan.)
Extremely affordable
Solid performance and quality components
High efficiency models are 84% typical and very quiet
Not commonly found in U.S. or E.U.
End user warranty unknown
Hiper Type-M 670 and 730W and Type-R 730W
Based on server grade Andyson units
3 year warranty

Ultra X-Finity and X-Pro 800W
Based on server grade Andyson units
3 year warranty/Lifetime with product registration
Ultra X-Pro/X-Finity/X3 600W, 800W, 1000W and 2000W ("EE" for "Energy Efficient") APFC (not non-APFC)
Based on high-efficiency Andyson units
Quiet and efficient
3 year warranty/Lifetime with product registration

Silverstone Olympia OP1000
Uses SevenTeam 1kW server platform
Very stable power
80A continuous power on a single 12V rail
Single, rear mounted 80MM fan is loud
8800GTX SLI certified
3 year warranty
Silverstone Olympia OP650, 750 and Decathalon DA750
Supposedly using Enhance's new Taiwan factory (confirm?)
Quit and efficient
 
I've had great experiences with Ultra Power Supplies. I had one that lasted forever and then I needed to upgrade to higher output, so I bought a 1000W one. That one lasted until we got a huge power spike and it sacrificed itself for the rest of my computer. I called Ultra about it and they said the lifetime warranty is only in place if you registered the product within 30 days, but as I stated I wasn't aware and that I would have done that if I had noticed (realizing and admitting it was my fault) and thank you, anyway, they honored a replacement...despite that. They gave me a 750W power supply to meet the equivalent price, but I was OK with that. I now have another PSU which is a Corsair, but it appears to struggle when I plug in lighting for my case...go figure. It makes me want to replace it with another Ultra.
 
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