HOT? TigerDirect Ultra X-Connect Dual 80mm Mod PSU: $25 400W & $37 500W

[Ghetto_Child]

Each PSUs is $17 shipping to montreal. Which one is better quality or most stable? I believe both are fine for my power requirements, P4 Northwood, 4 HDD RAID0+1, 2-3 DVD Writers, 2-3 case fans, 6-7 PCI/AGP cards.

Someone please post if you see a PM opportunity somewhere.

Ultra / X-Connect / 400-Watt / ATX / Dual 80mm Fan / Titanium-Blue / Modular Power Supply
Item Number: ULT33160
Availability: Usually Ships in 7 - 21 Days
Price: $24.97
AC INPUT 115V/230V 10A/6A 60/50Hz
DC OUTPUT +3.3V +5V +12V -12V -5V +5VSB
400W Max
Combined
Watts 30A 32A 16A 0.8A 0.3A 2A
400W
http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2240441&Sku=ULT33160
http://images.tigerdirect.ca/SkuImages/gallery/large/u10-9510-blue-a.jpghttp://images.tigerdirect.com/SkuImages/gallery/large/u10-9510-blue-d.jpg
http://images.tigerdirect.com/SkuImages/gallery/large/u10-9510-cables-j.jpghttp://images.tigerdirect.ca/itemdetails/ultra-x-connect/cable-list.jpg


Ultra / X-Connect / 500-Watt / ATX / Dual 80mm Fan / MS-Blue / UV Clear Sides / Modular Power Supply
Item Number: ULT33157
Availability: In Stock
Original Price: $97.59
Instant Rebate: - $60.62
Price: $36.97
AC INPUT 115V/230V 10A/6A 60/50Hz
DC OUTPUT +3.3V +5V +12V -12V -5V +5VSB
500W Max
Combined
Watts 28A 30A 34A 0.8A 0.3A 2A
500W
http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2240438&Sku=ULT33157
http://images.tigerdirect.ca/SkuImages/gallery/large/u10-9510-blue-a.jpghttp://images.tigerdirect.com/SkuImages/gallery/large/u10-9510-blue-d.jpg
http://images.tigerdirect.com/SkuImages/gallery/large/u10-9510-cables-h.jpghttp://images.tigerdirect.ca/itemdetails/ultra-x-connect/cables-glow-orange2.jpg

[Dark-Colonel]

Thats an awesome deal!

500-Watt is probably the better choice to get.

I have never had any experience or equipment by Ultra, but they do seem reliable in terms of reviews and user comments.

[Ghetto_Child]

Thanks for your feedback it's much appreciated. As far as power is concerned the 500W had my attention right away. The reasons I want to see everyone's opinion is in case the off chance that the stability or design/engineering quality of the 500W is worse than the 400W. You know how some reviews discover that an older or previous model in a line is better to get due to design flaws or changes in manufacturing.

[zickvon]

Stay away with that PSU.
I had that 500W one when they had it on sale last year. Cables are hard to bent, and connectors are very loose. The power connector fell off the HD a couple of times. And the worst is, the PSU stopped working after four months! Although it came with lifetime warranty, just don't want waste time and money on shipping it back for rma.

[ghostrider]

I have 3 of the 500 watt versions of this power supply and 2 of them have been running in my pc's for a couple years now with no problems (3rd is a spare which I have not needed). I know there are much better PSU's out there but for the price and the average pc user I think they are great.

The are a couple things you do have to watch out for and one is that they only come with a 20pin ATX cable and you will either have to buy the 24pin ATX cable separately or get an adapter for newer motherboards. The second problem I had was with my thermaltake case the hard drives are in sideways which did not leave me enough room to use Ultra's SATA cables. I just used the adapters that came with my motherboard and pluged them into a standard 4 pin cable.

Hope this is of some help.

[mojof1]

anyone know if this is available instore?
most of the time tigerdirect advertise something but is online only
they SUCK!!

[prod]

OMG, they are still selling that piece of crap????
I bought the 500w one about 3yrs ago for $20, thought it was a great deal. Turns out the sustained outputs of the main 12v and 5v lines are more like a modern 350w unit from a company like Antec. And I had to snap the plastic housing off the ends of a couple cables to get them bend and fit in my case. The ends plugged into the power supply popped out a few times.
Then, just after the warranty expired (You have to register on their website for the lifetime warranty), the thing blew up and luckily didnt take any other parts with it. Still nice and shiny though. :lol:
If anyone wants cables, or wants to try and fix it, I have it sitting here in the box. I will send it to you for $4 to cover shipping. Then maybe I will be able to form a subconscious block in my memory and forget this regrettable purchase.

[Ghetto_Child]

Prod just buy a new one of the same model, register your old one and send your old on in to fix. Then you'll have 2 working ones while still only claiming warranty on 1 (the last part is for being ethical about it).

Also what you bought 3yrs ago is highly unlikely to be the exact same engineering as one purchased today. Ultra has many 500W models and many 500W modular ones too so either your unit was defective or you got an older inferior design or you bought a different model number all together.

[Blitzo]

Prod just buy a new one of the same model, register your old one and send your old on in to fix. Then you'll have 2 working ones while still only claiming warranty on 1 (the last part is for being ethical about it).

Also what you bought 3yrs ago is highly unlikely to be the exact same engineering as one purchased today. Ultra has many 500W models and many 500W modular ones too so either your unit was defective or you got an older inferior design or you bought a different model number all together.

Or could he be in-fact correct? :lol:

[batye]

stay away from this PSU
I do repair of PC for the living
many problems with this PSU
my israely friend told me one secret:
"We are poor to buy cheap thing
as you end up paying too much."
stay away from this PSU
as you have hit and miss
depends on the batch of them
sometimes I ended up returng 20 of them back to my distributor
sometime 50% of them work great

[Ghetto_Child]

I have 3 of the 500 watt versions of this power supply and 2 of them have been running in my pc's for a couple years now with no problems (3rd is a spare which I have not needed). I know there are much better PSU's out there but for the price and the average pc user I think they are great...

Then what about this guy? 2 running for a couple years and a 3rd untouched as spare sounds successful to me. My power requirements as I've stated above is much lower than most other users. My current 340W system has 12A on the 12V rail and I run 3-4 PCI/AGP cards, 3 hard drives and 2 optical drives in my system. I'm using a 2nd gen P4 single core. I'm quite confident this will fit my needs for a while, I know how to test for voltage instability on the peripherals and I'll be doing a burn in on it immediately since I only turn off my PC once every 2-3months.

[Ghetto_Child]

I just found 3 Antec PSUs for $42-$67 and I'm wondering if the $42 Antec will give as much power as the $37 Ultra X-Connect 500W.

CanadaComputers.com currently has a flat fee shipping promotion starting at $7 for small and medium sized items so PSUs might be only $7 to ship. All have plenty in stock. DirectCanada.com has a $10 flat fee air shipping and free ground for orders $300+ up to 100lbs.


Antec Earthwatts 380W Power Supply ATX12V V2.0 Active PFC 80-PLUS 80MM Fan
Availability: In Stock
Usually ships in 1 to 2 business days.
$9.99 Air Shipping
Details:Shipping Weight: 5 lbs
SKU #: (10370AC1116)
Mft. Part #: EA-380
Our Price: $42.36 Canadian Funds
OUTPUT
+3.3V +5V +12V1 +12V2 +5V SB -12V
Max. Load 20A 20A 17A 15A 2.5A 0.8A
Min. Load 0.5A 0.3A 1A 1A 0A 0A
Load Reg. ±3% ±3% ±3% ±3% ±5% ±5%
Ripple V(p-p) 50mV 50mV 120mV 120mV 50mV 120mV
* Total: +12V output: 27A
* +5V and +3.3V
http://www.directcanada.com/products/?sku=10370AC1116&vpn=EA-380&manufacture=ANTEC
http://img.directcanada.com/images/ANTEC/EA-380/EA-380.jpghttp://img.directcanada.com/images/ANTEC/EA-380/EA-380_Box.jpg
http://img.directcanada.com/images/ANTEC/EA-380/EA-380_LB.jpg
http://img.directcanada.com/images/ANTEC/EA-380/EA-380_V.jpg

Antec EARTHWATTS POWER SUPPLY EA-380 380W ATX V2.0 APFC 80PLUS ROHS
Item Code: PSAT000322 Part Number: EA-380
Everyday Low Price: $50.99
Promotional Cash Price: $49.99
http://www.canadacomputers.com/main.php?do=ShowProduct&cmd=pd&pid=012265&cid=PS.808
http://www.canadacomputers.com/ProductImages/012265/537.jpg


Antec Earthwatts 430W Power Supply ATX12V V2.0 20/24PIN Active PFC 80PLUS 80MM Fan
Availability: In Stock
Usually ships in 1 to 2 business days.
$9.99 Air Shipping
Details:Shipping Weight: 4.75 lbs
SKU #: (1037134600F)
Mft. Part #: EA430
Our Price: $63.34 Canadian Funds
Output Voltage
Load Range Reg. Ripple Noise
Min Max
+5V 0.3A 20.0A ±5％ 50 50
+12V1 1.0A 17.0A ±5％ 120 120
+12V2 1.0A 17.0A ±5％ 120 120
-12V 0A 0.8A ±10％ 120 120
+5VSB 0A 2.5A ±5％ 50 50
+3.3V 0.5A 20.0A ±5％ 50 50
http://www.directcanada.com/products/?sku=1037134600F&vpn=EA430&manufacture=ANTEC

Antec EARTHWATTS POWER SUPPLY EA430 430W ATX V2.0 APFC 80PLUS ROHS
Item Code: PSAT000331 Part Number: EA430
Everyday Low Price: $66.99
Promotional Cash Price: $64.99
http://www.canadacomputers.com/main.php?do=ShowProduct&cmd=pd&pid=012266&cid=PS.808
http://www.canadacomputers.com/ProductImages/012266/280.jpg


Antec BASIQ POWER SUPPLY BP-500U 500W ATX 12V V2.01 APFC
Item Code: PSAT000304 Part Number: BP500U
Everyday Low Price: $61.99
Promotional Cash Price: $59.99
Output Voltage
Load Range Reg. Ripple Noise
Min Max
+5V 0.3A 30.0A ±5％ 50 50
+12V1 1.0A 18.0A ±5％ 120 120
+12V2 1.0A 18.0A ±5％ 120 120
-12V 0A 0.3A ±10％ 120 120
+5VSB 0A 2.5A ±5％ 50 50
+3.3V 0.5A 30.0A ±5％ 50 50
* +5V, +12V1, 12V2 and +3.3V maxload: 480Watts
* +5V and +3.3V combined output: 152Watts
http://www.canadacomputers.com/main.php?do=ShowProduct&cmd=pd&pid=011140&cid=PS.808
http://www.canadacomputers.com/ProductImages/011140/976.jpg
Made a hot deals thread about this one

[gkjogi]

i had a green 500w one. Its a good quality PSU. Spent good $115 on it too.

When it comes to connectors its other way around, if you plug unplug a lot... the metal parts inside the connector become too loose. My radeon would get power / loose power. Same with hard drives turning on and off since the connectors went loose.

[duster]

Ultra PSUs aren't very reliable...sorry

[FilipK]

They are not that bad....Some of them actually get good reviews, and they are usually fairly inexpensive

[cloneman]

does anyone other than tigerdirect sell "Ultra" branded products?

[sleep]

Stay away with that PSU.
I had that 500W one when they had it on sale last year. Cables are hard to bent, and connectors are very loose. The power connector fell off the HD a couple of times. And the worst is, the PSU stopped working after four months! Although it came with lifetime warranty, just don't want waste time and money on shipping it back for rma.

+1... bought 2, one DOA and the other one died in just 2 months.

[Ghetto_Child]

I'm trying to decide between the Antec 430W and the Ultra 500W. With the shipping they're both going to cost me the same, they both have same warranty but the Ultra has 34A on the 12V and the Antec has 30A max combined on the 2x12V.

I'm thinking the Ultra is 30A max too because the 380W and 430W Antecs have 324W and 360W max load on the combined 12V rails but both Antecs peak at 17A per 12V which works out to
2x17A=34A peak x 12V = 408W
360W/408W = 88.24%
324W/408W = 79.41% (technically this just misses 80 Plus certification but I guess it came out negligable).
88.24% of 34A = 30A
79.41% of 34A = 27A

Anyone knows what the efficiency rating on the Ultra 500W X-Connect is?

[sf1]

does anyone other than tigerdirect sell "Ultra" branded products?

actually directcanada has some v-series power supply they just don't call them ultra for some strange reason

[mrbiglund]

The antec earthwatts 380watts unit has the same amps for the +12v rail as the blue 500w ultra one. I wouldn't get the ultra, definitely go for the earthwatts. Also, the earthwatts ones are made by seasonic and is a much better build quality psu. Here go to this (http://jonnyguru.com/) site and do some reading to find out which psus are good. Psu is one of the most important parts of a computer and you don't wanta cheap out or make the wrong decision when getting a psu. Especially if you burn dvds etc., a good psu can make all the difference in getting quality burns.

[mrbiglund]

I'm trying to decide between the Antec 430W and the Ultra 500W. With the shipping they're both going to cost me the same, they both have same warranty but the Ultra has 34A on the 12V and the Antec has 30A max combined on the 2x12V.

I'm thinking the Ultra is 30A max too because the 380W and 430W Antecs have 324W and 360W max load on the combined 12V rails but both Antecs peak at 17A per 12V which works out to
2x17A=34A peak x 12V = 408W
360W/408W = 88.24%
324W/408W = 79.41% (technically this just misses 80 Plus certification but I guess it came out negligable).
88.24% of 34A = 30A
79.41% of 34A = 27A

Anyone knows what the efficiency rating on the Ultra 500W X-Connect is?

The antec 430watts unit has more amps for the 12v rail then does the Ultra 500watts unit. Ultra 500watts = 28amps max combined for 12v. The Antec Earthwatts = 30amps for the max combined 12v rail. Also, the antecs have only one rail for the 12v i don't know why they say they have 2 rails. Stupid advertising i guess. Here's (http://jonnyguru.com/review_details.php?id=51) a good review on the earthwatts series power supply.

[Ghetto_Child]

That's incorrect. The Ultra 500W has 34A on the 12V rail, tigerdirect made a mistake on their website because the ultra website says 34A http://www.ultraproducts.com/product_details.php?cPath=37&pPath=157&productID=162. Again when you factor in efficiency it should work out to 30A continuous.

The Antecs are definately 2x12V rails because the Antecs are ATXV2.0 certified. ATXV2 requires 2 seperate 12V rails.

ok I know what I'm going to do, I'll order this 500W and an antec and do a comparison myself of the actual output.

[7jaii]

TigerDirect is jokes man. Some good discounts on liquidation and discontinued items but it aint worth it. Bad or repackaged boxes, MIR that never arrives, can't return online purchase to stores. Whole list of reasons why I recommend supporting a local store that you trust.

TigerDirect has the worst MIR payout and was sued in the states. You feel great leaving the store paying full price on Boxing Day but 6 months later the rebate still hasn't arrived.