Ultra X3 800W Modular Power Supply

I’m not a huge fan of repeating myself, but I will.  Every time I review a power supply I give the same speech about how improtant a quality power supply is.  No matter if you have the most expensive hardware on the planet with the highest bandwith and most ram of anyone, anywhere… it’s absolute junk if you don’t have a quality PSU to keep it all going.  The processor is the brain, the motherboard is the nervous system, and the PSU is the food, metabolism, and that protein shake you drink every morning.

If you’ve noticed lately, everything is more power hungry than ever.  A decent video card now requires its own power source, and many people are Crossfiring the crap out of their systems, so that’s twice the original juice flowing through.  And now there are Blu-Ray drives, and you’ll probably want to keep your old DVD burner for a while, so now you have two optical drives.  Twice the power again.   Overclock, put in more RAM, a million fans, and all the gadgets that plug into your USB and suck away more energy.  Jeeze, people.  I hope you are all enjoying that hefty electric bill.

The good news is that the PSU companies are meeting (and in some cases, grossly exceeding) the power demands of today’s users.  One such case in point is today’s review subject, the Ultra X3 800Watt Power Supply.  It’s glossy black, it comes in an intimidating black and gold box (just like Sake), and has enough power to get you through the day without overdoing it.  But Ultra does make a 2000Watt as well, so if you feel like pulling the power from your entire block, you can.  Here’s the info on this black beauty:

All New X3 Modular Power Supplies
Ultra pulls out all of the stops for their latest power supply. By combining our “EE” (Energy Efficient) platform, which converts as much as 85% of AC power into DC power during typical loads, with a quiet 135MM ball bearing fan, our patented modular interface and our Limited Lifetime Warranty, Ultra clearly dominates the market with the new X3 power supply!

The X3 is super efficient, using less electricity than other power supplies when providing power to your computer and it generates less heat. Cooling is substantial yet silent by utilizing a thermostatically controlled 135MM ball bearing fan and a honeycomb cut exhaust grill. The X3 also has full range active PFC, which improves apparent power used by the computer. The modular interface allows you to only plug in the cables you actually require for your particular PC. The X3 is ready for even the most high end gaming rigs by providing up to four 6-pin PCI-e connectors, and the 800W and 1000W models provide the newest 8-pin PCI-e connector for the latest 300W graphics cards.

If the you’re looking for an efficient, quiet, powerful, modular power supply with a Lifetime Warranty, there’s no reason to look any farther than the Ultra X3!

Total Output Power:
800W (Full Load, Nominal Input Voltage)

Efficiency:
85% at Typical Load

Input
AC Input Voltage: 115V/230V
AC Input Frequency: 50-60Hz
AC Input Currents:

• 13A (RMS) for 115VAC input
• 8A (RMS) for 230VAC input
• Supports AMD and Intel Motherboards
• Low Acoustic Noise
• 135mm Fan
• Meets ATX Version 2.2, v1.3, and ATX 12V Version 2.2 Specifications
• Short Circuit Protection
• In-Rush Current Protection
• Thermal Overload Cutoff Protection
• MTBF > 100,000 Hours at Full Load,
• 0VAC and 25°C Ambient Condition
• FCC and UL Recognized

As you can see, it’s energy efficent, has gobs of power, and more modular cables than you know what to do with.  Or maybe you do.  Either way, The Ultra X3 has you covered.  And with a huge 135mm cooling fan that is extra quiet, you won’t have to worry about whether it is going to overheat and burn your house down.  Okay, maybe that was a little dramatic.  But think about it, isn’t it worth knowing you won’t end up extra crispy with a biscuit?

Let’s check out what comes in the box.  The outer box is really only covering four sides, with a flap on top that opens to show you what all is included and just how awesome their product is.  Once you remove this sleeve you have to peel away a plastic film to open the main box, which contains another box.  This is where all the modular cables and the power cord is.  Underneath this box is the X3 itself, wrapped in its own protective plastic bag and cushioned by foam block padding.  Once the wrapping is removed, you can see the shiny X3 in all its glory.  It glistens in the moon, it shines in the sun, it wiggles and jiggles.. erm.  No, that’s something else.  Okay, never mind that last part.

Inside that smaller box that was on top of the PSU, as I mentioned before, are all those wonderful little cables, just begging to power your stuff right up.  Here is a list of all the goods in the box:

	Ultra PSU Cable Goodies quantity cable length (inches) 1 24-pin Motherboard connector 19.5 1 4-pin +12v Motherboard connector 19.5 1 8-pin EPS connector 19.5 4 6-pin PCI-Express connectors 19.5 2 8-pin PCI-Express connectors 19.5 2 5-pin SATA cables (3 devices) 25.5 2 5-pin SATA cables (2 devices) 21.5 1 4-pin power cable (2 devices) 23.5 2 4-pin power cables (2 devices + 2 floppy) 29.5 1 4-pin power cable (3 devices) 23.5 1 4-pin power cable (1 device) 7.5 1 3-pin fan connector (3 devices) 25.5

I’m going to be testing this PSU against a couple other supplies on the market to see how it stacks up.  Here are the specs on the system I am going to use for testing:

• ECS Elitegroup PM6100 Motherboard (check prices here)
• 2GB Samsung DDR26400 RAM (check DDR2 prices here)
• 1TB Seagate 7200rpm SATA HDD (check Seagate HDD prices)
• Sapphire Radeon HD4670 Graphics Card (check prices here)
• Evercool Transformer 6 Heatsink w/ 120mm fan
• 2x 120mm cooling fans
• 1x HDD fan
• Linksys PCI WiFi adapter (check prices)
• USB motherboard and keyboard

Using CPUID’s HWMonitor, I took a snapshot of my system’s electricity usage.  I’m going to tax the crap out of my system by using Stressprime Ortho to give my RAM and CPU a little workout while running HDTach to spin up my HDD for a while.  Using a basic Radioshack multimeter I tested the rails and voltages of the PSU for consistency and variance.  At idle, I was getting a nice little 11.9v on the rail.  Even at full load I was still only getting a 11.87, which is very little fluctuation.  Stability is important when dealing with electricity.  The last thing you want is to fry your entire PC from an overload provided by your PSU.

	Ultra X3 800W vs. Corsair TX-750W 12v 12v variance 5v 5v variance 3.3v 3.3v variance Ultra X3 800W Idle 11.9 1% 4.92 2% 3.21 3% Corsair TX-750W Idle 12.3 1% 5.18 1% 3.29 1% Ultra X3 800W Load 11.87 2% 4.86 3% 3.15 5% Corsair TX-750W Load 12.32 1% 5.21 1% 3.29 1%

Ultra’s X3 rails are a little lower than Corsair’s rails, but from my experience Ultra usually has rails on the low end of the spectrum.  The variance differs from the Corsair as well, but stay within the acceptable 5% variance, but the Corsair remains rock-solid even under heavy load.

	Ultra X3 800W Power Supply Efficiency Testing amps volts amps volts amps volts 5v 6A 4.92 12A 4.89 16A 4.86 3.3v 5A 3.21 12A 3.18 16A 3.15 12v 8A 11.9 20A 11.89 40A 11.87 Total Wattage 141W (out) 165W (in) 334W (out) 412W (in) 602W (out) 758W (in) efficiency 85% 81% 79.5%

Our findings are actually a little different than Ultra’s, but the curve is similar.  We received an 85% efficiency at low load levels.  At midrange load levels, we received an 81% effiency rating, which is really what an enthusiast gaming PC will do when everything is maxed out.  It seems unlikely that even an average gamer will pull anywhere near this unit’s advertised 800 watts, unless you’re running triple video cards and peltier coolers.  Even at this extreme load, the unit barely hangs on to an 80% efficiency level.

Once again, at Idle I was getting a constistent 4.92 volts from the unit, going up only 1/10th of a degree during full load setting the maxed output at 5.0 volts.  Once again, little variance.  And then I tested the Idle state of our 3 Volt lines, coming out with a solid 3.2 volts.  After getting the PC up to full speed I was able to get a mirror image 3.2 volts out of the rail.  The full stress test barely moved the higher voltages at all, while the 3V line stayed normal.  Consistency does not seem to be much of a problem for this PSU to maintain.

What was weird to me was that the power on many PSUs goes down under load, instead of going up, but while I could not find any problems with my hardware after the loads and nothing seemed to mess up, I can’t find fault in having more than enough power under stressful situations.  The only rail that came anywhere close to the 5% variance was the 12v line, and that was under extreme load.  The rails aren’t as rock-solid as the Corsair PSU tested in this review, but are rather acceptable.

All in all, the Ultra X3 800W PSU is a very good unit, but not the best of the best..  The juice was consistent, it looks good, and it has a larger-than-normal cooling fan.  I’m always down with extra cooling.  It is a glossy black, which is where fingerprints become almost impossible to avoid, but a dry cloth will usually take care of that.  Performance wise, it competes well with others in the 800W range, but it doesn’t rule the roost.  I personally give this monster two thumbs up and would gladly trust my gaming machine to it any day of the week.

	REPORT CARD : Ultra X3 800W Power Supply category rating comments Quality 4 Rather well constructed, and decent quality parts Innovation 5 Modular cables are pretty much the de-facto standard for enthusiasts. Performance 3 It’It meets its 80% efficiency, even under load.  The rails are within acceptable limits and stable, but not rock-solid like some other PSUs Installation 4 Modular cables make it very easy to install and route. Value 2 Good quality power supply, but is a little high for the quality you get.  You can find better PSUs (Corsair and OCZ) for the same price or cheaper. FINAL VERDICT: 4 out of 5 stars