Ultra X3 600w Power Supply @ [H]

FrgMstr

FrgMstr

Just Plain Mean
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Ultra X3 600w Power Supply - This 600 watt PSU makes our 5th Ultra power supply we have reviewed since March of 2007. While most have been award winners, our last 600 watt unit was not worthy of passing our testing suite. Is Ultra's new 600 watt up to the test?

Editor’s Note: It is sad to see Ultra somewhat repairing their reputation over the last year or so with fine high end power supplies, and then bring back a unit that is not suitable for the enthusiast user. And certainly, that is exactly the target market of the Ultra X3 brand. This is the same “600 watt” power supply we reviewed last March that gave the same lacking performance. Why is Ultra upgrading this unit to “X3” status and not upgrading the internals? Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Seeing product marketing like this certainly makes me question the entire brand.
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Harsh Kyle... but kind of true. Seems like Ultra makes decent 1kw PSU's, but to put out basically the same 600Watt that can't do full load and try to market it as a better more enthusiast-oriented PSU is lame. That's too bad. It really does make a nice 500Watt PSU it seems like. I like the cables.
 
That is kind of the issue with power supplies and why we do these reviews. The X3 1600w is a different platform from the X3 800w/1000w which is a different platform from the X3 600w. So users can't just go....ohhhh series X3 good, X-Pro 600w bad.
 
I have to wonder if they used the Andyson 500W for the X3 and X-Pro 600W. I mean, the Andyson X-Pro, X-Finity and X3 800W and the 1000W and 1600W perform so well, one has to wonder what went wrong with the 600W.

I can't wait to see if/when the X2 750W fails. ;)
 
jonnyGURU said:
I have to wonder if they used the Andyson 500W for the X3 and X-Pro 600W.
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I think you're probably right about that.

I noticed in the review 5V dropped to 3V or so before it shut down in test 4. I saw that happen with my X-Pro 600W when I crossloaded it too far towards 5V. Strangely enough, adding two hard drives restored stability... I wonder if the design doesn't have some funky voltage regulation issue like the first gen Powerstream had. Still, it works well for a 500W design ;)
 
Oklahoma Wolf said:
I think you're probably right about that.

I noticed in the review 5V dropped to 3V or so before it shut down in test 4. I saw that happen with my X-Pro 600W when I crossloaded it too far towards 5V. Strangely enough, adding two hard drives restored stability... I wonder if the design doesn't have some funky voltage regulation issue like the first gen Powerstream had. Still, it works well for a 500W design ;)
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The first X3 600w died with a lower 5v load (17A). That particular unit was unexpected at the time and it just blinked completely off with a pffftttt sound. No camera around for that one and it happened so fast I wouldn't have been able to catch it.
 
Paul_Johnson said:
The first X3 600w died with a lower 5v load (17A).
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Yeah, I didn't think you had it crossloaded. I just found it odd you ran into that issue as well without the crossload - OVP/UVP/OCP should have caught it and shut down the unit on both mine and yours.
 
Just for shits and giggles.. I think you guys should do more Video reviews..

That just rocks...

And once again... GREAT article...
 
jonnyGURU said:
Long story.

Paul knows I'm sort of doing a happy dance right now.
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Not a fan of Ultra eh? I understand... not really, but I'm sure you have your reasons, lol. :eek:

In any case, unless this was around ~$50-70, I would just stick with a Corsair or TT brand that can handle it's rated full load :cool:
 
I owned one of the original Ultra 500 W modular PSUs.

Nice to look at, but it emitted a strong, unpleasnat odor, and also would cause my monitor to go all wonky and also cause random system crashes,

Never again, Ultra anything.
 
trick_m0nkey said:
More use of you tube is a welcome sight. Thanks.
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At times I wish I could video some of the more interesting parts but rarely are failures predictable or as slow motion as this one. Normally I know they are gone when they either just shut down or the magic smoke comes out. At which time it is a bit to late to video. I'm sure you noticed this video looked and sounded rather unrehearsed as I was just winging it after grabbing the camera that was on the tripod in the next room.

Whenever we get cool stuff to video like the X3 1600w at full load or this we will so stay tuned.
 
Why am I not surprised? As i've said before, buy it for the lifetime warranty. Maybe it will improve on your next RMA. :D
 
Both of my Ultra PSUs failed (six months apart). The failure of the last one blew out the motherboard as the unit burst into flames. Everything was stock clocked, near zero load.

As someone else on this thread said, "Never again."
 
Unfortunate that companies do this sort of thing, but it's not unique for companies to build some REALLY NICE high end products, but produce really marginal stuff at the mainstream level.

A prime example of this is Chevy and it's cars. The Corvette is undeniably one of the best performing cars available under $50,000 US in the higher end of the car performance spectrum. Unfortunately most people won't get one, only a few enthusiasts, but Chevy gets a lot of media exposure from the Corvette. The rest of Chevy's car line is quite ordinary and some would say below average.

Oh well. If there weren't websites and/or magazines, etc, be it automotive, video equipment, computer equipment centered that test both the high end "dream" items as well as the more mainstream items, us consumers wouldn't have much objective evidence that certain products are subpar.

Shame on Ultra :mad:, but thanks to sites like HardOCP that do extremely detailed testing we know beyond a shadow of a doubt that not all of their X3 power supplies are worth purchasing.
 
chikinini said:
Why am I not surprised? As i've said before, buy it for the lifetime warranty. Maybe it will improve on your next RMA. :D
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LOL, or you could get a Corsair and not have the whole RMA thing to deal with;)

Thanks to [H] for the good review.

protias said:
It would have been fun to see it go *pop*. :p
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My first PS purchase was a Sunbeam PS and it was no fun, there was a loud pop, followed by sparks and smoke. Been using good PSs since.
 
Great review, put videos on every review. :cool:


Just called Ultra today, They're gonna replace my X2 550W UV with a X2 750W UV because they don't have it on stock. Thank you ultra for my 4th X2! lol:D:D
 
Ultra just replaced my x2 with this x3 600w. Glad that I'm selling this unit. Looks like more ps reviews for me in the near future. Thanks to [H] for all of the great reviews over the years.
 
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