Testing:::...

All testing was done with the power supply fitted in a functional system to ensure proper gounding. If additional ground wire was provided this was attached to the chassis via one of the motherboard mounting screws.

The system consisted of an Abit AI7 cooled by an Asetek Water Chill water cooling system and fitted with 1GB GeIL Ultra-X memory, an ATi Radeon X800 Pro. 160GB 7200RPM HDD and dual optical drives.

I was a bit jaded with the idea of trying to connect fans, lights and drives and kid myself I was getting any worthwhile load on the 12V rail so I decided to change the way I do my testing. Essentially what I have, crude though it is, is an array of six 50watt Halogen spots, each with a Molex connector arttached.

By plugging them in one at a time I can increase the load on the critical 12V line to 6x50watts, that's 300 watts in total. More importantly that gives me up to 24 Amps on the 12V rail, with the option to increase or decrease it if I like.

Low-Tech Test Rig

Despite comments I've heard about possible performance problems, and my concerns over the single supply to the PCB which powers all the connectors, the X-connect was one of the few power supplies I've tested that was able to "light all the lights" as they say in all tackiest game shows.

That's 300 watts, or if you prefer, 25 Amps of power being sucked down the 12V rail. The fan you can see below served a dual purpose in that it stopped me having to disable the alarm warning me the CPU fan had failed (thanks to using water cooling), and it also helped cool the bulbs.

Voltage readings were taken from as many points as possible with no direct peripheral connection and then averaged. Any significatn deviations were listed separately along with the source of the reading and if there are any you'll see them listed in the results.

Low-Tech Test Rig In Action

One problem I ecountered was that several of the power supplies I tested were happy running say four of the spots, but would trip if I tried to boot with them connected prior to hitting the power button. In these cases I had to boot the system and connect the bulbs once everything was up and running, so I've included information in the results chart about whether or not the power supply would allow the system to boot under load. Keep in mind though that even an additional 150 Watts is quite extreme when used in addition to a normal motherboard connection and while also running a Radeon X800 Pro as I was.

Here's how it all broke down:

The 25 Amp result probably needs a little explaining. Although I was able to add or remove the additional bulb to my heart's content without triggering a shutdown, the voltage, which was initially quite respectable at 11.40 Volts would immediately start to dip, finally bottoming out at around 10.20 Volts, before curiously starting to climb again, hitting 10.50 Volts again after around 2 minutes, 10.70 Volts after 3 minutes and about 10.80 Volts after 4 minutes. 11.40V is actually right on the limit of Ultra's claimed +/- 5% range but obviously this goes out of the window as it starts to dip. At 300 Watts however we're very close to the 12V limit of 336 Watts, particularly if we add to that the demands from the system components.

As time goes by I'll no doubt refine the testing procedure and add more results, but to start with here how the X-Connect compares to the ever impressive Tagan iX-eye 420Watt.

Noise Levels:

As somebody who has never been much troubled by PSU noise anyway I'm possibly not the best judge, but modern, thermally controlled PSU fans rarely get close to turning at full speed until they're under significant load, which more often than not means during a heavy gaming session, when thanks to headphones, speakers or simply being thoroughly engrossed in what you're doing, is when you're least likely to notice the noise anyway.

Certainly I heard nothing to concern me in terms of operating volume even fully loaded though I'd sooner know the cramped interior of my power supply was getting ample airflow anyway.

Conclusion

The We 'Dual Conclusions Concept' Explained: After discussing this concept with users as well as companies and vendors we work with, We have decided that where necessary we shall aim to introduce our 'Dual Conclusions Concept' to sum up our thoughts and impressions on the hardware we review. As the needs of the more experienced users and enthusiasts have increased, it has become more difficult to factor in all the aspects that such a user would find important, while also being fair to products that may lack these high end "bonus" capabilities but which still represent a very good buy for the more traditional and more prevalent mainstream user. The two categories we've used are:

The Mainstream User ~ The mainstream user is likely to put price, stock performance, value for money, reliability and/or warranty terms ahead of the need for hardware that operates beyond its design specifications. The mainstream user may be a PC novice or may be an experienced user, however their needs are clearly very different to those of the enthusiast, in that they want to buy products that operate efficiently and reliably within their advertised parameters.

The Enthusiast ~ The enthusiast cares about all the things that the mainstream user cares about but is more likely to accept a weakness in one or more of these things in exchange for some measure of performance or functionality beyond its design brief. For example, a high priced motherboard may be tolerated in exchange for unusually high levels of overclocking ability or alternatively an unusually large heat sink with a very poor fixing mechanism may be considered acceptable if it offers significantly superior cooling in return.

The Mainstream User ~

The X-connect is a great, very stable power supply that combines its slick looks with a surprisingly good level of performance. It probably offers more output than you're likely to need but if you have any plans for a modern graphics card any time soon it pays to opt for more rather than less power.

The ability to connect only the cables you need and thus improve the cooling and the cosmetics of your case is a real assett and one that shouldn't be underestimated, and should you decide to add a side window and a little lighting at some stage, the high gloss finish and UV reactive nature of the cables will just go on impressing.

Finding the X-Connect in the UK is just about impossible, we believe due to difficulties or delays in getting European certification for their PFC, but supplies should soon start arriving.

Not beauty and the beast, this beauty IS a beast.

	NA

We're always looking for ways to make our reviews fairer. A Right To Reply gives the manufacturer or supplier of the product being reviewed a chance to make public comments on what we've said. They can explain perhaps why they've done the things we were unhappy with or blow their own trumpet over the things we loved. It's easy for us to pick a product apart but sometimes things are done a certain way for very specific reasons.

Should Ultra decide to exercise their "Right To Reply", we'll publish their comments below: