![[H]ardOCP](/images/blank.gif){kind=small}
- Date:
- Friday , August 24, 2007
- Author:
- Paul Johnson
- Editor:
- Kyle Bennett
- Google +1
Ultra X3 1600w Power Supply
Ultra makes a huge statement with their 1600 watt rated power supply. This is so much power that we had difficulty fully load testing the PSU, but we did finally realize the 1600w rating. Yep, all 1600w without burning down the house and your household wiring is something you will want to take into very serious consideration.
Overview
The first thing we are going to look at with the X3 1600w is its packaging, accessories, and documentation. While none of these items is a real make or break item for a power supply the packaging quite often contains a lot of information about the product we are purchasing. The inclusion of an owner’s manual that provides actual information about our product is also of great help. Accessories are almost unnecessary with a power supply as the unit is self contained, unless it is modular, but there cases where a manufacturer can include useful accessories to make installation, routing and use more efficient.
The X3 1600w unlike the X3 1000w we reviewed some time ago comes in rather subdued black packaging. It does retain the rest of the X3 1000w packaging features including the box-in-a-box setup with the flip top that has the power label (which is reproduced below), efficiency (80% at typical load and nominal AC input), and general marketing bullet points on it. Also on the box, is the sticker for the FlexForce cables, and efficiency claims. The efficiency claim on this unit is interesting as in the user manual it indicates that the unit hits 80% efficiency at typical load. The included graph goes on to show that 80% is only achieved at ~50% load. This would seem to indicate that Ultra's suggested typical load with this unit is being defined as ~800w! Lastly, as we have discussed before there is a slight caveat to the Limited Lifetime Warranty Ultra advertises on the packaging in that it starts as a 3 year warranty until the product is registered as is explained on the website:
To ensure your complete satisfaction, all Ultra Products Power Supplies and Cases now carry a three year warranty that they will be free from defects in materials or workmanship. In addition, that warranty is upgradable to a LIFETIME warranty by simply registering online. Additionally, all our other products carry a one-year warranty which is also upgradable to a three year warranty. At Ultra, customer service is our most important mission. That’s why every Ultra product must meet the highest industry standards for quality and reliability. And our warranty program is second to none.
The Lifetime warranty is a good sign that Ultra believes in their product enough to commit themselves to supporting this product for a long time to come but it does not necessarily mean that the unit will be flawless.
Now interestingly enough, the packaging for the X3 1600w does not carry any multi-graphics card certifications, and none are mentioned in the manual or on Ultra’s product page. So a quick check of the SLIZone page and ATI CrossFire page were in order, but they too yielded nothing. As this product is relatively new and is not being launched with lots of press it could be that it hasn’t been submitted for certification yet. With hat all said the X3 1600w is billed as a single 12v rail 1600w power supply and if it can do all it is billed to, it will run any SLI or Crossfire setup going. Period.
I am going to start with the power label here since it is by far the star of this entire review. That 12v figure of 117A is not a typo, this unit is really billed as having 117A available on the 12v rail. That single 117A 12v rail is good for ~88% of the units total DC output if a user could ever find a way to load it that much. We also see that the unit is capable of an additional 160w on the 5v/3.3v rails. Now come the caveats to these impressive specifications. This unit is capable of 16000w DC only if you are using the 20A NEMA 5-20R AC cable and have a dedicated 20A circuit. If you do not, the unit has a normal 15A NEMA 5-15 cable with a circuit breaker in it to keep the unit from drawing more than 15A AC. This limits the DC output of this unit to ~1200w-1300w DC but was necessary for safety approval by UL. While some people might be able to find clever ways around these limitations, HardOCP cannot stress enough that users should not attempt to circumvent this restriction in any way.
Coupled with the units impressive DC output abilities we find it has 10 SATA connectors, 8 Molex connectors, 4 6pin PCI-Express connectors, and 2 8pin PCI-Express connectors. While this is impressive for most power supplies I actually feel a little underwhelmed by the connector count. The Enermax Galaxy DXX 1000w has more peripheral connectors and SATA connectors yet it is “only” a 1000w product. With a 1600w product I would think the unit could power more things than a mere 1000w unit. Then again with the fully modular interface Ultra uses it would be hard to add more connector points to the unit. In the end, the X3 1600w should be able to power anything you throw at it and for >99% of users it should have cables left over once you finish your build.
Once we open the packaging we find the same basic assortment we saw with the X3 1000w. There is the power supply itself, a box of cables, mounting screws, manual, and both power cords that were discussed earlier. The manual has been fleshed out some from the last Ultra product we saw and the consistency is much better. The manual is 11 pages and includes just about everything a user would need including the pinouts, power tables, installation instructions, physical specifications, efficiency graph, and an explanation of the two power cords. This is all very informative and an improvement over the last Ultra product we reviewed which is very gratifying as last time we had some issues with the documentations consistency.