Anyone use an Ultra X-Connect PSU?

[LANjack]

http://www.gameve.com/gve/Store/ProductDetails.aspx?sku=PS-ULTRA-001

Has anyone used any version of this PSU? The configurable power cords have always appealed to me; I really hate having a shiatstorm of extra cords in my case.

:up: or :down:

[Disposibleteen]

these seem to look very nice on the outside but when it gets down to it they arent so great, the heatsinks inside are tiny (those can be replaced though i guess) but the power output goes WAY down with more heat.

[Beenthere]

For $99 you can buy a quality, reliable 470W Silencer PSU that really does deliver 470W at normal PC temps not some bogus 500W PSU.


http://www.pcpowerandcooling.com/products/power_supplies/ultra_quiet/index.htm

http://www.pcpowerandcooling.com/pdf/Turbo-Cool_510_vs.pdf

[=[PULSAR]=]

I have one and I love it so much, the managable power cords are great. Seems to be a great PSU so far the 12V rail at the beginning was really high for some reason but after breaken it in the the 12V rail is like 12.4, 5V rail 5.2V and the 3V rail is 3.4. Measure with a multimeter so there accurate. The vcore voltage is very reliable and another great thing about this PSU is the cables they are shielded to lessen EMI in turn giving you better overclocks and stabilities on CPU, RAM, GPU, and HDD.

[LANjack]

For $99 you can buy a quality, reliable 470W Silencer PSU that really does deliver 470W at normal PC temps not some bogus 500W PSU.


http://www.pcpowerandcooling.com/products/power_supplies/ultra_quiet/index.htm

http://www.pcpowerandcooling.com/pdf/Turbo-Cool_510_vs.pdf


Money really isnt the issue.. it's the mass of freaking cords tangled everywhere. I'm looking for a solution to that.

Edit: Believe me, if PCP&C made a modular solution, I would buy it in a heartbeat, no matter the price.

[Oc2theSkY]

Well then it is your lucky day. You want modular pcp and c go here and take a look. Pricey, but you get what you pay for.

www.performance-pcs.com/catalog/index.php

[LANjack]

Sold. :up:

edit: And warrantied by pcp&c themselves. :D

[beau_zo_brehm]

i have one of those psu's, and it works great! asthetics are awesome, but it lives up on performance scale too. all of my rails are exact, or slightly above their rated specs.

[Aphex_Tom_9]

i have one of those psu's, and it works great! asthetics are awesome, but it lives up on performance scale too. all of my rails are exact, or slightly above their rated specs.
which one? the xconnect or the pc p c mentioned?

[Waisztarroz]

Curiously, the X-Connect PSU has been rated very well in all the reviews I have seen for it. They have all stated that its rails remain where they should within tolerance. These reviews are not from major sites, and one review I read sounded like it was basically quoting the manufacturer word-for-word. Still, you can look them over.

XYZ Computing (http://www.xyzcomputing.com/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=122&Itemid=2)
Overclockers Online (http://www.overclockersonline.com/?page=articles&num=199)
bit-tech (http://www.bit-tech.net/review/338/4)
Driverheaven (http://www.driverheaven.net/reviews/ultraxPSUreview/index.htm)
PimpRig (http://reviews.pimprig.com/power_supply/x-connect_500w_psu.php?page=1)

[Aphex_Tom_9]

Curiously, the X-Connect PSU has been rated very well in all the reviews I have seen for it. They have all stated that its rails remain where they should within tolerance. These reviews are not from major sites, and one review I read sounded like it was basically quoting the manufacturer word-for-word. Still, you can look them over.

XYZ Computing (http://www.xyzcomputing.com/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=122&Itemid=2)
Overclockers Online (http://www.overclockersonline.com/?page=articles&num=199)
bit-tech (http://www.bit-tech.net/review/338/4)
Driverheaven (http://www.driverheaven.net/reviews/ultraxPSUreview/index.htm)
PimpRig (http://reviews.pimprig.com/power_supply/x-connect_500w_psu.php?page=1)
i saw a lot of different reviews for it, they all had good things to say, but only a few reviewers were using overclocked systems, and none seemed to be heavily overclocking. those with mild oc's began seeing lower voltages, and i hear the units have no VR's inside for voltage adjustment, so if you need more power under heavier load, i bet they wont hold up as well.

[Waisztarroz]

i saw a lot of different reviews for it, they all had good things to say, but only a few reviewers were using overclocked systems, and none seemed to be heavily overclocking. those with mild oc's began seeing lower voltages, and i hear the units have no VR's inside for voltage adjustment, so if you need more power under heavier load, i bet they wont hold up as well.


Perhaps in a bit of idiocy, I ordered one along with the vapochill lightspeed a few days ago. I will not be home to test it out until a few weeks from now... at college right now. But once I get the chance to test it out with some new parts I will definitely know for sure what is up with it.

It definitely seems far too low in price for its claimed results, but I couldn't help it. Modular and that nice large claimed +12v rail... mmmmmmm. If it does what it claims I will feel spectacular about it. :)

If it breaks and takes hardware with it, then :mad: But at least the thing itself will be warrantied... uhhh

[Aphex_Tom_9]

Perhaps in a bit of idiocy, I ordered one along with the vapochill lightspeed a few days ago. I will not be home to test it out until a few weeks from now... at college right now. But once I get the chance to test it out with some new parts I will definitely know for sure what is up with it.

It definitely seems far too low in price for its claimed results, but I couldn't help it. Modular and that nice large claimed +12v rail... mmmmmmm. If it does what it claims I will feel spectacular about it. :)

If it breaks and takes hardware with it, then :mad: But at least the thing itself will be warrantied... uhhh
i eagerly await your results, im considering one in the future possibly. btw, if you look at that +12v rating, it's 34 amps right? 12x34 = 408 watts...that's not gonna happen, it's overrated. the psu is 500 overall, and that's the total of all the rails, there's no way that unit will hold up with a 34 amp draw on the 12v line

[Waisztarroz]

i eagerly await your results, im considering one in the future possibly. btw, if you look at that +12v rating, it's 34 amps right? 12x34 = 408 watts...that's not gonna happen, it's overrated. the psu is 500 overall, and that's the total of all the rails, there's no way that unit will hold up with a 34 amp draw on the 12v line

Will do, then. It may be a little while... if you see my thread in the AMD forum, you'll see that I'm awaiting nforce 4 before I put my phase change system together. Still, I could test the X-Connect in my current system, presently powered by a 430W Enermax.

Even my Enermax lists its power rating at lower than the sum of all the rails. I believe this may be standard practice... the Amperage ratings are the maximum possible draws, right? So if it had 34A it would have very little left for the +5V and +3.3V rails? I agree, it seems very unlikely that a power supply at that cost could handle so much +12v load. I am rather skeptic. I suppose I shall see when I put it to the test.

[Aphex_Tom_9]

yeah, what i really want to know is how it holds up under heavy vcore loads, i need a psu that can do that. i won a 600 watt pc power and cooling psu on ebay yesterday, which according to popular opinion, should be amazing, but you never know. even though the xconnect's maker is not highly esteemed, they may have something good here...

[beau_zo_brehm]

which one? the xconnect or the pc p c mentioned?

x connect, very simple, and it works great :)

[beau_zo_brehm]

here r some screenies on rails, voltages, and the OC im running it with.

[Piazza0028]

I bought an x-connect b/c I thought the modular cables were going to be awesome. Turns out I used all but one cable and they're so damn inflexible that my cables are still cluttered. Additionally, their stupid molex heads barely plug into anything. On my ePox 8rda3+, the (I don't know the technical names so bear with me) big power wire (24pin?) that plugs directly into the motherboard is directly next to the small one (4pin?) and the oversized molex's block them from going in. Same thing with my SATA drive and floppy, I had to bend the pins on my floppy drive so I could fit the power line in at an angle. I'm currently selling mine and picking up an OCZ Powerstream, and I plan to hide the wires, this seems much more efficiant than this garbage PSU. Sorry I can't comment on the rails as the sensors on my mobo are screwed up and won't tell me temps or voltages, so when I get around to it, I'm going to RMA it

[beau_zo_brehm]

I bought an x-connect b/c I thought the modular cables were going to be awesome. Turns out I used all but one cable and they're so damn inflexible that my cables are still cluttered. Additionally, their stupid molex heads barely plug into anything. On my ePox 8rda3+, the (I don't know the technical names so bear with me) big power wire (24pin?) that plugs directly into the motherboard is directly next to the small one (4pin?) and the oversized molex's block them from going in. Same thing with my SATA drive and floppy, I had to bend the pins on my floppy drive so I could fit the power line in at an angle. I'm currently selling mine and picking up an OCZ Powerstream, and I plan to hide the wires, this seems much more efficiant than this garbage PSU. Sorry I can't comment on the rails as the sensors on my mobo are screwed up and won't tell me temps or voltages, so when I get around to it, I'm going to RMA it

hmm... the only cable that has that bad of flexability is the 20 pin connector....

[Aphex_Tom_9]

the older ones have bad flexibility, the newer ones are more...supple

[Piazza0028]

damn, I certainly wish I had some supple ones, b/c mine are stiff as...
hi aphex, ocforums4life.

[Aphex_Tom_9]

damn, I certainly wish I had some supple ones, b/c mine are stiff as...
hi aphex, ocforums4life.
. ;)

[beau_zo_brehm]

umm... does n e one have an opinion on the rails i posted?

[Aphex_Tom_9]

umm... does n e one have an opinion on the rails i posted?
yes, use MBM5 and get a running record of the highs and lows so we can see what idle vs stress levels are.

[beau_zo_brehm]

yes, use MBM5 and get a running record of the highs and lows so we can see what idle vs stress levels are.

MBM5 isnt compatible with my motherboard.... lga775 :(

edit: nvm, it works fine... ill post them later

[Aphex_Tom_9]

MBM5 isnt compatible with my motherboard.... lga775 :(
ahhh...because a record of rails over time would be better than a static screenie. speedfan maybe?

[beau_zo_brehm]

ahhh...because a record of rails over time would be better than a static screenie. speedfan maybe?

no, mbm5 works, ill post screenies later

edit: ok, it kinda works... it dosnt support my mb, but gives somewhat accurate rails on everything but my cpu core and 3.3+ rail, it list them at 4.08 for some reason... i can still post the screenshot if ya want...

[Xerxes]

after dealing with an unknown amount of powmax p/s (company i work for used to sell them and still sells other products made by them, alot of them just as bad) there's no way i would buy one of their powersupplies, they've always had very dodgy q/a (though it looks like its somewhat better now).

on a side note, personally i rarely find a decent p/s review other than the one at silentpcreview.

[jinu117]

I actually had better experience with this X-connect than 2 OCZ-520W PSU... Of course, that doesn't say much in general scope yet... but something to mull over.

[Arkangyl]

I have a 500w X-Connect.

My impression of the thing is that it's decent. It powers my 6800 Ultra, AXP setup better than my 420w Foxcon (or whatever came with my Cheiftech case).

Honestly though I'd rather have an OCZ for a few reasons;

~the X-Conn's cables are B!TCH, the just are not that flexible, they look nice under UV light but the bottom line is that they just are nowhere near as felxible as sleeved cables, also the plugs are x-large so they really stick out
~no pots to adjust the rails, I know its a rareity but I want em
~I can see the voltages jump around a bit and I'm anal about that

However I still use it because I won it and it's definatly pretty damn good, I mean, I'd give it 8.5 / 10 and all

[Waisztarroz]

Well, I'm running my system now. It's a FX-55 overclocked to 3025MHz right now, 1gb of PC4400 gskill LE RAM, MSI neo2 platinum, ti4800 (waiting on an air cooler so I can remove my 6800GT from koolance... woops).

My rails on idle are roughly 3.28, 4.99, and 12.28~12.4 if MSI's probes are to be trusted. As soon as I start F@H it's more like 3.22, 5.05, and 11.9 or so. It changes a bit with load but still looks within tolerance. Once load is applied the voltages smooth out and basically remain consistent.

With the 6800GT in and my 5 hard drives it may look a bit different. We shall see!

By the way, is it possible those rails are preventing better overclocking?

[computerpro3]

they are made by powmax, and they are known to be crap.


I'd get a ups on your systems PRONTO if you're running one, me personally, I wouldn't let one within 999999999999999999999ft of my rig.

Look at SPCR and maximum pc's review (verdict: 4).


All those other reviews are pieces of :banana::banana::banana::banana:, there are only 4 or 5 sites that can do a real review with scope, ripple measurement, dedicated load testing, electrical analysis, a drop of the AC input and a rise of the ac input, etc, etc.

So far those are the only two real reviews of the unit I am aware of.

[Scout255]

The tech report review found nothing majorly wrong with the PSU, and they examined it much more indepth than any other site i've seen.

[computerpro3]

then I suggest you visit a better site :)

http://silentpcreview.com/article148-page1.html

[Scout255]

even on that sight that you mentioned the only major complaint they had on the powersupply was a lack of active PFC. I really don't see how this makes them pieces of excrement.

It may not be a high performance powersupply similar to OCZ units, but it's not as if it's going to blow your computer up or something.

[shadowing]

Dude... This power supply sux. Honestly, it does. It supplies big voltages at a steady rate. But there are drawbacks...

1. There's a weird smell whenever I used it.
2. It died after 2 months.

So my rating for this is... :down:

[spinboy]

Hmm, these are really crappy news for me :(.

I've just order one from preformance-pcs. And according to 5 reviews, the PSU is supposed to be good.

But just cuz yours is smelly and died after two months does not mean that mine will ;).
And if it can sufficiant and handle my OC then I will be a happy man and wont complain :).

[Scout255]

What Shadow is reporting is similar to what happened to maximum pc's supply. Perhapse it's just a few lemons. Atleast there is a 3 year warrenty with it.

[shadowing]

I also opened it up and voided my warranty. It is very odd. There's so much soldering clumped together at the bottom of the PSU board. I also found out that 2 of my capacitators had died...

So I still think it sux. I'd rather trust Antec.

[spinboy]

Hmm, but if 2 capacitors had died, wont the warranty cover that?
Sucks to hear these news :(. I hope my connect X wont be crappy.

[shadowing]

Yeah, me too. But since I already removed it anyways, I voided my warranty. But don't worry about it... I think they fixed it now. If they didn't... Show to you that you shouldn't trust a company that only gives out 1 year warranties unlike Antec....

[redstang308]

I also have a x-connect PSU and I have always had great luck with it, I would recommend it for OCing also,
I run a prescott 3.2 @ 4.1 with 5 Hdd's, 9800Pro, 3 CD-Roms, and an Enhiem Pump, Absolutly no problems. I will try to post numbers later.

[spinboy]

Ohh okey, that's a heavy load. Hope that I will be as lucky as you :)

[Scout255]

Yeah, me too. But since I already removed it anyways, I voided my warranty. But don't worry about it... I think they fixed it now. If they didn't... Show to you that you shouldn't trust a company that only gives out 1 year warranties unlike Antec....

As a slight correction, they now offer 3 year warrenties on the PSU's.
I believe you just have to fill out a form for it to take effect.

[shadowing]

Too late for me. I don't even have my warranty. The X-Connect delivers enough watts for overclocking, but it has a very very bad interior design. Usually the best ones have a lot of those beefy capacitators. But this one doesn't have a lot...

For those of you out there planning to get one, good luck with it and hopefully you get a better experience than I did.

The X-Connect may be the first to be modular, but I'd trust the Antec Neopower...

[Judaeus Apella]

I have an X-Connect.... and I also have this neat hand held steam cleaner.....

You know that warrenty void label? Well um... Im thinken of steaming it off, putting the sticker on some wax paper, adding some good heatsinks and fans, and if it fails or sucks, then I'll just undo everything and get mah money back sucka. :D

Of course I don't plan to put such a heavy load on it. I'm gonna seriously mod the hell out of a mini 200watt 1U psu and have it serve as the power supply for all my cooling systems. The X-Connect will just handle the System it self including a Neo2 mobo, AMD 3500+ (OCed), gig of OCZ EL Platinum Revision 2's (OCed), twin Plextors, twin Raptors, and a zip drive, and a PNY 6800 128 8x (OCed). The 1U will handle the 5 high cfm case fans and the CPU cooling. Im thinking about upgradng later to water cooling.

[computerpro3]

You're likely to kill yourself or at least your psu if you mess around with a psu's heatsinks, especially a cheapo one like the xconnect. They are LIVE and have the full current of the wall socket running through them, at high amperage. Not to mention they are likely soldered on to the componets.

Dude, it would just be cheaper to buy a real psu and save yourself the time/money/your life.

[Judaeus Apella]

LOL, you think Im stupid enough to work on it with it plugged in?

.....Dude...

*looks at you funny*

*long quiet pause*

I really really hope thats not how you do electrical work.... *takes away your screw driver*

If I can replace half the sockets and switches in my house, wire up a carpentry workbetch for high amp power tools, and fix half the apliances in my house, I can do something as simple as put some heatsinks on an X-Connect. Probably take me 10-15 mins, if I can find the right parts.

I DON'T WANT another PSU. The wires are all ready sleved and ready to go and everything. I'd rather add some heatsinks than sleeve all my power cables with UV cables or take the time to order all new ones, then attach them and heat shrink where they connect. Im also gonna put in some different fans to keep it nice and cool.

Hmmm.... you know what would be nice, is if oooo new thread!

[computerpro3]

LOL, you think Im stupid enough to work on it with it plugged in?

.....Dude...

*looks at you funny*

*long quiet pause*

I really really hope thats not how you do electrical work.... *takes away your screw driver*

If I can replace half the sockets and switches in my house, wire up a carpentry workbetch for high amp power tools, and fix half the apliances in my house, I can do something as simple as put some heatsinks on an X-Connect. Probably take me 10-15 mins, if I can find the right parts.

I DON'T WANT another PSU. The wires are all ready sleved and ready to go and everything. I'd rather add some heatsinks than sleeve all my power cables with UV cables or take the time to order all new ones, then attach them and heat shrink where they connect. Im also gonna put in some different fans to keep it nice and cool.

Hmmm.... you know what would be nice, is if oooo new thread!

LOL.

By making fun of me, you revealed your true knoelwedge about psu's. Current remains in the PSU long after you unplug it. There is still enough power to kill you days after you take it out. You have to have a way to drain the caps, and pressing the power switch on the front of the case doesn't always work. Figure out a way to discharge it, then you should be good.

And it's not as easy as you think. There will be soldering involved, unless you use adhesive to stick it on top of the existing heatsinks, which prolly won't work because of height clearance. You also have to be very sure not to short circuit anything (although in the x-connects spacious, un-filled interior it can't be that hard).

Quite honestly, given the substandard nature of the psu's innards, heatsinks aren't very likely to help at all anyway.

And you honestly think changing outlets is something to brag about? Whoa boy, guys better differ to his superiority, he can wire up a lightswitch! Dude, it's three screws, black to black, white to white, green to copper. Hot damn you're a hotshot now!

[JasonDTM]

^^^^ Yup, capacitors still have charge even when the main power source isnt present.. I got hit with something like 300v DC helping my dad work on one of his amplifiers.... :(

I took my X-Connect apart and put some higher CFM fans in it.

[PorkchopExpress]

Or maybe he thought that you knew that but was trying to reveal your true knowledge of PSU's, making himself feel better while reinforcing his own true knowledge by proving himself right about what you knew...

Zen like talk aside- I had originally purchased a connect x psu, and ended up RMA'ing it as my rails (measured with a dmm) were WAY too high, and smelled like a glue gun (burning plastic). The unit I got back still sported above average rails (3.45-5.3-12.5) but no longer has a funky smell. I still don't trust it and will be purchasing something else (not quite as insane as you, computerpro3, as my PC is a bit more tame).

With high quality cooling (and the draw that it takes), I wouldn't worry about killing the PSU, but the components attached to it. That's a lot of money riding on a cheapo PSU.