Until the last few years most people didn't
care what kind of power supply they had inside their computer.
As long as it worked and the computer worked, they were fine.
However this has changed, as the power supply is gaining new respect
as a very vital piece of hardware to ensure that the entire computer
is running well.
Ultra Products is a fairly new player in the
game of power supplies. While we have looked at a couple
of their units over the past year or two they have produced some
very nice power supplies. From the first one we looked at,
the X-Connect, which was a modular design, we have been impressed
by their designs.
Ultra X-Finity 500 Watt Power Supply
Ultra was nice enough to send us the 500w
version of their X-Finity series of power supplies. The
tech specs are located on
Ultras' website. However lets take a detailed look at
what they sent in the box.
The box itself is very eye
catching, in fact the front seems to be a little too busy for
me. The X in X-Finity seems to be trying to copy that
of the X-Men logo from the past few movies. The SLi logo
is odd in its placement, as it probably was stuck on after the
original box design. Otherwise all the basic information
is listed here. On the side of the box shown above we
see the different types of connectors that are included in this
power supply, none of which is out of the ordinary for a newer
power supply.
These two sides of the box
offer a lot more useful information on the power supply.
The first picture shows us what connectors there are and how
many Ultra gives you, very nice information to make sure the
power supply has enough connectors for your use. The other
picture provides us with the technical aspect of this power
supply, how the 500 watts are split between the different power
lines.
Now we open the box.
The first thing we see is the registration card, which proclaims
that you could win, but the only thing you 'win' is the longer
warranty. The overall packing of this box is good, with
everything snug in its place, and neatly tied down. The
other picture here shows what you get beside the power supply,
namely the 'manual' a pack of screws and the power cable none
of which is abnormal. The manual, which is only a few
pages long, offers basic connection suggestions and reiterates
the power capabilities of the power supply.
We finally arrive at the actual
power supply. Upon first glance two things caught my eye,
first the 120mm fan inside the power supply which looked remarkable
similar to the design from the Seasonic power supply I reviewed
a while ago; Second was the fact that the casing was very
reflective, as you can see in the second picture above.
The power ratings of the power supply show that the 5 and 3.3v
lines have a max combined wattage of 160w, and the two 12v lines
have a max of 384w, but the maximum for the positive lines is
only 481w, less than the combined wattage of the two sets of
lines.
Lastly there is the cables, which are an interesting
but very flexible cable, which allows for ease of custom installation.
The silver color with black ends matches the color scheme of the
power supply itself. Ultra calls these FlexForce cables,
as they are supposed to be easy to hide and provide better airflow.
Personally I found these cables very nice to use in the test case,
as I managed to get all the cables hidden away with only the barest
look of a cable at the actual power connector. Good design
job Ultra. However looks alone will not make a good power
supply, rather its how well the components inside work together
that make the difference. So lets see how this power supply
did in our testing.
System Specifications
| CPU: |
Intel Pentium D 820 |
| CPU Clock Speed: |
2.8GHz |
| Motherboard: |
Intel D945PSN (945P)
|
| Memory: |
Crucial Ballistix PC2-5300 (2*512MB)
|
| Memory Timings: |
4-3-3-12-1 |
| Memory Speed: |
533MHz (QDR) |
| Hard Drives: |
40GB Maxtor 34098H4; 200GB Maxtor 6Y200P0;
2*80GB Maxtor 6Y080M0
|
| Video Card: |
Gigabyte GV-RX18L256V-B (ATi
x1800XL) |
| Operating System: |
Windows XP Pro SP2 Direct X
9c |
| Drivers: |
Catalyst 6.2 |
| Cooler: |
Zalman CNPS7700-AlCu (Full
Speed) |
| Other Fans: |
2 * Vantec Stealth 120mm Fans |
80mm Fan |
| Case: |
Ultra Aluminus |
| Additional Accessories: |
Logitech Wingman Rumblepad |
2.5" Firewire Hard Drive
(Bus powered) |
| Power Supply: |
Enermax EG565P-VE (535w) |
Ultra X-Finity 500w (Titanium) |
| Software: |
VirtualDub 1.6.11 |
Folding@Home |
| |
3D Mark 2005 |
SpeedFan |
So how did we test this power
supply? We took a Seasonic
Power Angel power monitor and ran all the above mentioned
software at the same time to give us the maximum power usage
of the system. Using VirtualDub we ran a job of copying
the same video file to the same hard drive as its source, which
was each hard drive tested, 75 times for a 800MB video file.
The only minor point about this test is that the two Maxtor
SATA drives were in a RAID-0 array at the time. Two instances
of Folding@Home were run to make sure that CPU usage was
always at 100% for the dual core system. 3D Mark 2005
was run in a continuous loop at 800*600 with 6X AA and 16X ansiotropic
filtering enabled and the sound enabled. The voltages
were captured with SpeedFan and used for our results.
Sound was tested using our Radio Shack digital
sound meter from a distance of 2" in an open environment.
The overall power usage of this system was in the 270-285w range,
as I don't have SLi or Crossfire video cards, and the processor
is the lower power dual core CPU from Intel.
Test Results
Did the voltages fluctuate when we applied
a load to the system? What kind of variation did we see
from the standard set of voltages?
| |
Enermax EG565P-VE (535w)
|
Ultra X-Finity 500w (Titanium)
|
| |
Idle |
Load |
Idle |
Load |
| Memory Voltage: |
1.55-1.56 |
1.55-1.56 |
1.55-1.56 |
1.55-1.56 |
| CPU Voltage: |
1.27-1.3 |
1.24-1.27 |
1.28-1.3 |
1.28-1.3 |
| 3.3V: |
3.3-3.34 |
3.29-3.35 |
3.3-3.34 |
3.3-3.34 |
| 5v: |
5.15-5.17 |
5.1-5.2 |
5.15-5.17 |
5.15-5.17 |
| 12v: |
12-12.19 |
11.94-12.06 |
12-12.13 |
11.94-12.13 |
As a small point, the Enermax
power supply did use about 10-15w less power than the Ultra
power supply. Now what do these results show us?
The Ultra power supply provides the same voltages no matter
if there is a load or not, the only variation being the 12v
line which dipped to 11.94v from 12v.
Looking at the two power supplies in comparison
we can see a few things. First memory voltages aren't fluctuating
at all; second that the Enermax power supply seems to have a bit
more of a problem supplying stable voltages under load.
As a point both of these power supplies stay well within their
respective voltage specifications. The CPU voltage on the
Enermax goes as low as 1.24v under load, while the Ultras' CPU
voltage was at 1.28v under load, a significant amount if you are
overclocking your system. The Enermax gives a tighter range
with its 12v (load) numbers though its idle voltages have a larger
range than the Ultra. Overall the Ultra X-Finity provides
a tighter range of voltages on each power line, with the exception
of the 12v line(s).
So what did these two power supplies do in
the way of loudness, were they quiet enough to use in a HTPC or
would they be more at home in a server farm?
| |
Enermax EG565P-VE
(535w) |
Ultra X-Finity
500w (Titanium) |
| |
Minimum |
Maximum |
Minimum |
Maximum |
| Loudness (dBA): |
52 |
58 |
<50 |
52 |
We can see that both of these
power supplies are right at home in a HTPC, where silence is
key. The single 120mm fan on the Ultra power supply makes
it very quiet when it is at its lowest fan speed, and at its
maximum it doesn't make much more noise. The Enermax power
supply does very well considering it has two fans, one 92mm
and one 80mm. Overall the Ultra is the quieter of the
two power supplies by virtue of its single 120mm fan but both
wouldn't be out of place in a HTPC.
Conclusion
Power supplies are always an interesting test
subject, as they are fairly hard to test. But what have
we seen with this power supply?
First the packaging, fairly flashy but definitely
eye catching. The box wouldn't be something missed on a
store shelf as it does have a good presence, though I personally
don't like designs that have too much on them. The actual
power supply was a nice look, with a very reflective 'titanium'
finish, and similarly colored cables. The cables were a
joy to work with as they made routing the cables out of sight
very easy and painless, a definite plus for this power supply.
Performance was also pretty good. It
produced slightly more stable voltages than the comparison Enermax
power supply, especially in regards to the CPU voltage.
Though as a note the voltage data was taken using a software program
so it isn't the most accurate, though for a comparison between
two power supplies in the same settings it works just fine.
As for noise, well there wasn't really any to speak of, though
the Ultra was somewhat quieter than the Enermax.
Price is always something to be concerned
about, as if this product is priced much higher than the comparison
power supply that wasn't much worse, it wouldn't be worth the
money. In the case of our two power supplies the
Ultra is coming in about $15-20 (US) lower than the
Enermax power supply. Personally I purchased the Enermax
power supply myself, but looking at the results that the Ultra
X-Finity gives, its hard not to recommend it. The only reason
not to pick it up is if you want a modular power supply or need
more than 500w of power.
Hit
us up in the Forums
if you have any questions.
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