Ultra is the worst psu company ever!!!!!!

[I]

The problem is, we don't live in "I's world".

In "I's world":

- inferior parts are unacceptable and any component short of ideal should be rejected regardless of the cost. Absolutely no acceptable losses and the idea of a component failure is ludicrous.

There is no "I" world, there are specs and the core requirement of those specs is a guarantee of product ability.

- Every PSU of every grade and budget should hold to his standard of having rated to 1/4 of the actual max rating, should the unit be held to a redundant environment and the unit can be "redlined" to 100% of the max rating in continuous use with loss of redundancy.

You would do well to drop the attitude. The ENTIRE PURPOSE of specs is to MEET THEM. It's not an "idea", not a "pleasant suggestion", not a "pipe dream", it is a guarantee.

- The cost of the unit will not increase under these new guidelines, and manufacturers that attempt to pass the costs to the consumer will be kicked and banned from the industry.

None of this matters. It is required to meet it's specifications. Period. If it can't meet the specs they'd "like" to claim, when costing only $10 in parts, there's no "but we really really really wanna claim it", it is absolutely manditory it be spec'd according to it's actual capabilities under all specs combined or it's fraud and someone needs to go to prison.


Funny how you wouldn't accept this if your car manufacturer claimed a certain engine size, or your water heater couldn't deliver on it's rating, but suddenly with PSU you become confused.

 

[doolittle]

There is no confusion, 5 seconds on google told me the OP's unit is overrated and probably overpriced since it can be had for $70 shipped from ZZF. Personally I would have recommended against that since quality 500w units can be had for the same price and probably would choose the Enhance ENP-5150GH for $69 shipped @ ewiz as a better choice since it is a killer deal and would handle the OP's system without question.

You can argue the stated specs don't dictate which is of higher quality however only a small amount of research is needed to make an informed decision. Don't get me wrong it would be an extreme convenience if the stated specs were 100% accurate and reflected true performance - however the reality is, for many brands it is hit or miss depending on a particular model or not. In the case of Ultra brand it is sad the units below 750w do suffer from below spec performance and have component quality issues, however I will stand by my original statement it has to be analyzed on an individual per model basis. In case of the OP, it may be the XVS choice of component selection is suffering from a reduced performance and may very well be likely reason for failure but it is pure speculation at this point. I would not rule out utility issue since lesser quality units do not respond well to input variations.

I understand your arguments and if I applied them and recommended a global customer replacement to avoid potential problems, there is an unfortunate cost associated with that task and the fraud appears to be me, for attempting to sell them higher quality when it is not needed and I am merely increasing my sales margin at their expense.

 

[lotussama]

I have an Ultra X2 550W that came free with my Aluminus case (which I love).

It's been running for about 6 months now, I don't have a single complaint. It's quiet, the modular cables are great, and it runs my 1950 XT with no problem.

 

[jonnyguru]

Hmm, So they took an X2-550w (review link) and slapped a 600w label on it as well as cheaper caps. If you read JG's X2-550 review it is overstated itself so how can this 600w unit outperform it? shame, shame. Cooler Master did a similar stunt with their eXtreme Power 600W which marred their reputation slightly in a similar respect.

I had to pop in since you're using my name in vain. 😉

Nowhere in my review did I state the X2 was overstated. It held up 545.8W with a 35A load on the combined 12's with no problem at all. I was only disappointed that it didn't have APFC, it wasn't as efficient as a PSU should be and the 3.3V couldn't stand the punishment I was giving it. But nowhere did I ever state that the X2 was "overstated" at 550W.

And if you look at the Techgage review of the XVS 600W, Matt actually had the PSU loaded up to 588W. It did shut down after a while, but it turned out to be the fuse was not secure in it's holder. That's not something that would have anything to do with a PSU being "overstated." The connection at the fuse could have come loose at any time.

Oh... and BTW, the quality of capacitors doesn't dictate how much power a PSU can put out. 😉

If you have a defective unit, RMA it and get over it. But I think it's rather silly to sit here and put forth so much effort to put down a company you apparently know little about.

lol is all that I can say, and I know it's not contributing to the forum but that's funny.

I'm sure Ultra has a couple good products and a couple bad ones in the bunch. As far as I see it, if thing work they work and if they don't...send them back.

Too bad mines work but I dont like it. Ultra makes my house sound like if it was an airport.

Maybe yours doesn't work. Maybe the fan controller is a dud and the fan is spinning at full RPM. Have you thought of that?

 

[apt403]

You're everywhere!

 

[jonnyguru]

You're everywhere!

The cloning project was a success.

 

[Eurasianman]

Sorry to see that you had a bad experience. I got an Ultra X-Connect 500 WATT PSU back in December 2004. Up till this day, it still runs fine and quiet. Powered my old system for 1 1/2 years, 24/7, straight until I built my new computer (see sig). I occasionally use that computer from time to time and have had no problems.

It powered:
AMD Athlon 64 3200+ 2.2 GHz (Newcastle Core) S754
ASUS K8N-E Deluxe
2 x 512 MB Corsair XMS
1 x 1 GB Corsiar XMS
Seagate 80 GB HD
Maxtor 120 GB HD
Western Digital 200 GB HD
PNY GeForce 6800 AGP
Netgear PCI Ethernet card
Sony CD-RW
NEC DVD-RW
2 x 120mm Thermaltake Case Fans
Floppy Drive

Still runs today.

As an IT guy told me, there are over 1000 of the same parts manufactured in a given day. Do you honestly think that out of those 1000 parts, that they'll all be perfect?

I got an OCZ GameXStream 600 WATT power supply that I payed $130 on newegg in August 2006. 1 week after use, my computer shut down. Checked the voltages... the 12V rail was running 12.6V!!!

Got another OCZ GameXStream 600 WATT... SAME ISSUE!!!

Finally, they were nice and bumped me up to the 700 WATT version and no issues... however, it sickens me on this reviews that say the OCZ GameXStream 700 WATT PSU is quiet...

Let's see, 3 Antec 120 mm fans on low... 1 Yate Loon 120mm fan... Scythe 120mm fan... Leadtek 7900GS fan... OCZ GameXStream PSU fan...

Guess which one is the loudest... the OCZ GameXStream fan!!! I replaced it with a Yate Loon hoping it'd help.... NOPE!!!! Loudest fan in my system...

How do I know? I used a temporary Antec TruePower II 480 WATT PSU and my computer was dead quiet!!! However, every time I tried to play Far Cry... the computer would reboot.

Yea... point being... there's always going to be a bad "batch". I guess you just got one of the bad ones 🙁

 

[Guest]

Hey I am a big fan of your reviews! Keep them coming =)

 

[Guest]

Hey I am a big fan of your reviews! Keep them coming =)

 

[gahleon]

Ultra is a fantastic powersupply company. I will say that I wouldn't buy their ram or other things. Oh, they have some nice cases too at decent prices. Powersupplies, I have had 3. Two 500s and and x2 550 which is pushing the computer in the profile and it works fantastic. I can't complain at all. It is silent and it pushes great accurate power. You know if you drop a corsair, ocz, termaltake ect they will probably make morris code too. Dude, don't post shit when you don't know what you are talking about. Just because you had one bad experience with a product doesn't mean it sucks. That PSU could have been dropped in 30 different change of hands and on top of that it could be user error. No one here knows how good of care you took with it. I think the overwhelming majority of posters here say ultra psu's are good.

 

[im_thelumberjack]

I can't think of anything by Ultra that is of good quality.

 

[jonnyguru]

I can't think of anything by Ultra that is of good quality.

Ok. So it's safe to assume that you have limited experience with the brand?

Ultra is a fantastic powersupply company. I will say that I wouldn't buy their ram or other things.

Even though their RAM is actually made by PDP? Same company as Patriot?

Ok guys... I'm out. Enough FUD crushing for one day. I'm too busy and quite frankly, this site is too slow (I've double posted three times already.) I'll be back if my name comes up on Google again.

 

[clue69less]

You're everywhere!

The cloning project was a success.

Please publish the fine points of the cloning process on your web site. I'm overworked and could use some help. Plus, I would have someone to argue with where I'd always win.

 

[El_Hefe]

I replaced an old Antec 550W PSU that died after six months with an Ultra 500W PSU over 2 years ago.... and it's still running strong

Their new 1000W PSU looks good...
70A 12V
85% efficiency

 

[aztrekker]

Time to resurrect an old thread I agree Ultra PSU's are ok when they work but are a nightmare when you have to RMA them, I bought a 600W Ultra PSU in 2006 with the lifetime warranty, come this jan 2009 the PSU failed on me, I wmailed their support they told me I have to call, so I bought a phone, called them, and was told that yes it has a lifetime warranty, and thy will gladly warranty it but since I bought it from Frys Electronics (who is listed on Ultra's site as an authorized distributor) and not from one of their "sister" companies, that I would only be able to warranty it if I buy a brand new PSU (a newer higher wattage model because they dont make mine anymore) from them over the phone, wait for them to ship it, then ship the old one back ad if they deem it under warranty on inspection they will reimburse me on my card (which I dont own credit cards to begin with), not only that but their return policy on the new PSU is only 3 days,, so if I send the old one back by the time they recieve it the new one is out of the return period... I offered to fax the store receipt so they could verify the warranty and they told me negative that they have to "put a new order in the system to be abl to warranty the old one and that requires a credit card",,, talk about a shady policy

just my $.02