Here is the review from Maximum PC:
ULTRA PRODUCTS X-Connect
A sexy-looking power supply with and ugly disposition
The Ultra X-Connect is like a bad first date. It?s sleek, intricate fan grille and shiny silver finish are immediately impressive, but after about 20 minutes, it clearly comes up short on inner beauty.
Ultra claims the X-Connect can continuously deliver 500 watts of power, but our load test proved otherwise. Everything seemed fine at first, with the X-Connect typically drawing around 350 watts from the outlet. But a few Minutes into the test, we witnessed extreme artifacting in 3Dmark03- a sign of an unclean power stream. At times, a few moving white lines were all that could be seen on an otherwise black screen. Soon thereafter, the power supply started to emit a strange and rather worrisome burning smell.
Concerned we immediately closed 3Dmark03 and shut down the computer, noticing that the Windows Desktop was also badly distorted. After letting the X-Connect cool off for a few minutes, we re-booted and the graphical distortion had vanished. Fire extinguishers in hand we tried running the load test a second time and quickly reproduced our earlier results.
In the voltage sag test*, the X-Connect was a mixed bag. We measured an initial voltage of 12.57v on the 12 volt power rail- the biggest deviation of any PSU in this roundup, and dangerously close to the 12.6v maximum tolerance of the ATX spec. It?s conceivable this could damage cheap or poorly designed hardware over time. On the other hand when we dropped the input voltage to 60v, the X-Connect maintained an output voltage of 11.54v. that?s high enough to avert a system crash.
The X-Connect ships with sturdy shielded power cables that glow under UV light, and extra cables can be disconnected to reduce case clutter. But active power factor correction- the ability to smooth out distortions in the current being drawn from your wall outlet- is absent, and the Ultra?s power factor rating of 63 percent is was the lowest of the round up.
MAXIMUM PC VERDICT- 4
+ CLASSIC ROCK
Sturdy, modular shielded cables and exceptional fit and finish.
-ELECTRIC SHOCK
Poor voltage accuracy, no active power factor correction, and it failed our load test.
$100,
www.ultraproducts.com
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