Posted:2006-04-12 By hardware psu review Number of View:13741
ULTRA PRODUCTS X-FINITY ULT-XF500
(500W) -ULTRA PRODUCTS X-FINITY
REVIEW
By :hardware psu review
Posted:2006-04-12
xtreview is your : Video card - cpu - memory - Hard drive - power supply unit source
Ultra Products X-Finity ULT-XF500 (500W)
Ultra Products is a new name in our reviews, but my search for the actual
manufacturer of the power supply yielded immediate results. It is the
Taiwan-based Wintech who is already well known to us by power supplies of the
MGE and SinTek brands. The unit can be identified as Wintech visually, too. No
other company uses bright yellow capacitors and blue transformer cores.
Ultra Products X-Finity ULT-XF500 (500W)
I noticed a funny thing about the box. If you put it on a side, the big
pretty slogan that reads “Limited Lifetime Warranty” transforms into an alarming
“Limited Lifetime”. :)
Ultra Products X-Finity ULT-XF500 (500W)
The PSU has a dark lacquered case and is cooled with a single 120mm fan. It can
work in 110 and 220V electric networks, but with a manual switch only. The
switch is to be found in quite an odd location: it is inside the computer when you install the power supply. This
makes sense, though, because you won’t need that switch after you’ve assembled
the computer. It’s even right to hide the switch from accidental presses since
the PSU would just go kaput immediately if the input voltage switch were set to
a wrong position.
Ultra Products X-Finity ULT-XF500 (500W)
Ultra Products X-Finity ULT-XF500 (500W)
The internal design of the PSU is quite typical, without any extras. There is
neither active nor passive PFC here (so, this version of the unit cannot be
supplied into Europe); the regulator is based on a KA7500 chip (it is an exact
analog of the TL494, one of the oldest PWM controllers). There are two 1000µF
capacitors on the PSU’s input. The bright colors of the different components are
typical of Wintech’s products.
There is a 25mm gap between the PCB and the front panel. Our colleagues from
Silent PC Review
suppose it has something to do with efficient cooling, but I’m inclined to take
a simpler view of the things. I think this gap is the consequence of Wintech
making all its power supplies using the same barebone. For example, the power
supplies from MGE Vortec and SinTek (both are manufactured at Wintech
facilities) have one 80mm fan besides the 120mm one, and the ULT-XF500 uses the
same PCB whose dimensions are meant for an additional fan. Moreover, Wintech
uses the same platform in PSUs that are cooled by 80mm fans only.
Ultra Products X-Finity ULT-XF500 (500W)
I couldn’t discover the manufacturer of the fan. It only bears an “Ultra”
sticker. A bit more than one third of the fan is covered with a piece of
translucent plastic. It is where the fan has contact with the external
perforated panel of the PSU.
Ultra Products X-Finity ULT-XF500 (500W)
Having a lower wattage in comparison with the above-described models, this PSU
has a higher allowable load on the +12V rail. It is 32A. The combined load on
the +5V and +3.3V is just a little over the requirements of the ATX12V 2.0
standard, in which this load was greatly reduced relative to the previous
versions.
The PSU offers the following cables and connectors:
Mainboard cable with a 24-pin connector (with a detachable 4-pin part); 47cm
CPU cable with an 8-pin EPS12V connector; 49cm
CPU cable with a 4-pin ATX12V connector; 50cm
Two graphics card cables with 6-pin connectors; 50cm
Two cables with four Molex connectors an one floppy mini-plug on each; 50cm
to the first plug and 15cm to each next plug
Two cables with two SATA power connectors on each; 61cm+15cm
Ultra Products X-Finity ULT-XF500 (500W)
Instead of separate wires, we have flat silver cables here. The manufacturer
claims such cables help to maintain proper airflows inside the system case, but
I doubt that airflows can be affected much by a simple change of the shape of
cables. I think the main advantage of FlexForce cables, as they are officially
dubbed, is of an aesthetic nature. They do have drawbacks, by the way. First,
you may find the lack of color-coding of the wires inconvenient. And second, a
flat cable can be bent in one direction only, so you may have some troubles
trying to lay them out neatly in the case.
The cross-load characteristic of this PSU is average. On one hand, the diagram
covers almost the entire range of loads allowable for this model, but on the
other hand, all the three voltages vary greatly and deflect rather far from
their nominal values under loads typical of modern computers.
At a load of 475W the voltage ripple was 40, 85, 26 millivolts on the +5, +12,
+3.3V rail, respectively. A low-frequency, 100Hz constituent accounts for the
most of the pulsation.
The fan speed management system works rather oddly in this power supply. The
speed is altogether constant at 1000rpm under loads of below 150W. It then grows
up quickly under higher loads, reaching 2100rpm. As a result, the PSU is quiet
under small loads, but audible under a load of 250-300W. Moreover, the plastic
sheet that partially covers the fan rattles as in some other power supplies from
Wintech. To solve this problem, tighten the screws that hold the sheet and add a
few drops of glue – or just remove that piece of plastic altogether!
The PSU is 81% efficient at best, which is a good, but not record-breaking
result. The power factor varies from 0.65 to 0.67 (as I said above, this unit
lacks any type of power factor correction).
The X-Finity ULT-FX500 has done as well in my tests as the other Wintech
units I’ve met. It is an average-quality product without any serious advantages,
but with acceptable parameters. The drawbacks of the ULT-XF500 in particular are
a strong 100Hz output ripple, lack of any type of power factor correction, and a
rapid increase of the fan speed at higher loads, which makes the PSU rather
noisy. If these drawbacks do not disturb you, you may be pleased with the
ULT-FX500, which is a good enough modern power supply.
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