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Ultra modular 1kW PSU spy shots
Author: Wil HarrisPublished: 18th December 2006
Sneaky spy shot!
Now, it seems, the company is stepping up to the SLI mark with a 1 kW - that's 1000 W - power supply that, yes, is modular.
It sports a massive number of connectors on the back, including enough to power a couple of GeForce 8800 GTXs. High Five!
We sneaked these spy shots out of Ultra's HQ in Ohio. The product will be on the market to buy in the new year, just as we are getting ready to spend our Christmas money. How fortuitous!
The 1kW supply is 'energy efficient', according to the boffins at Ultra, and will also come in 800 and 600W variations.
Do you fancy a 1kW power supply that's modular to boot? Let us know over in the forums.
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Comments (40)
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(Might be worth a little Bit-Tech article Timmy)
Its stupid having the 24pin ATX lead modular.
And i really hope Ultra have a half decent supplier for these PSUs - the internals of their other PSUs aren't much better then your average generic PSU.
Why are graphics cards manufacturers so far behind CPU manufacturers in terms of energy efficiency and power consumption (come on, even Intel have improved power consumption of their CPUs)? Maybe that's another idea for an article? I'd certainly like to see GPU companies answer that one...
About the modulair design, I personally like it we everything is modulair. ATX is no need to be modulair but will help when building up your case.
And a bottomless wallet. 25p+ an hour to have a PC on is rediculous...
:) you'd need a special feed from the powerstation if it was 1000KW
OOPS HAHA ROFL
sorry, i wasnt thinking what i was saying, although, i was probably undecided as to whether to say 1KW or 1000W =P forgive me
ive tried 8 of them in the office, from 350W to 550W, all are pure crap. but u get what u pay for...
but hey, it could be just me...but i sure hope Ultra makes higher quality product in the future....
Indeed. The ignorance is astounding these days. I actually ended up in an arguement with an XS mod(sorry, I strayed, I promise I'll be faithfull, it won't happen again etc.) who was adament that a conroe system with a single 8800 should be specced out with a 700 or 800W PSU. 500W wasn't enough. 600W wasn't enough.
People seem to just add 300W per graphics card these days and some seem to add a similar ammount for their CPU, then add maybe around 50W for random other components they feel like adding in. Things are just getting silly.
If people were buying according to their needs then this 1KW PSU would be a complete failure for the company.
It doesn't use 1KW at all times. It just draws what it needs(most likely somewhere in the region of 150-300W for most of the people on here's machines). Of course efficiency comes into play, but you can have efficient lower power PSU's and inefficient high power ones, and vice versa.
Doesn't mean it won't sell though. A fool and his money are easily parted so they say. ;)
"What's your power supply?"
"1.1 jiggawatts!!!"
Yep if one actually calculates the amount of power an average system with the latest components it'll only need between a 400 and 550watt power supply. This is true so long as the supply is efficient, has good components, light or no resistance in the wires(modular power supplys add a bit not a lot though). HQ in Ohio eh never knew that.
We'll be using Mr Fusions and pouring our trash into it to power our machines.
-CollinstheClown
To be honest, even 500 is OTT by a big ammount in any single graphics card system. As bit-techs own review of the Nvidia 8800 showed, a high end conroe bench system with a single card only used about 315W at full load. Even adding copious numbers of disks and fans probably won't take even big single card systems over 400W. A second card might add, what, being generous 150W say. So we could say basicly even a dual 8800GTX system with a high end conroe, two gigs of ram, 3 hard disks, 2 optical drives, and say 5 120mm fans running with less than 600W of power at full load, and probably running with less than 300-400 at idle.
This 800W stuff is nowt but marketing. Only a tiny number of people are going to manage to reach those sorts of numbers.
The efficiency of this power supply is 80+ at 20, 50, and 80 % load. In this case, 200w, 500w, and 800w. I believe it's 80+ certified, meaning it will not drop below 80% efficiency unless you are going at it with an extremely small, or extremely large load, at which point it may drop to about 78-79.
it IS stupid having the 24 pin ATX lead modular. There are very few instances which you wouldn't use it.
As for the internals.. You really haven't seen them recently, have you? They have substantial guts, way bigger than your average power supply. The new X-Pro 600, is built by Andyson. Same manufacturer used by the Hiper Type R, the Sunbeam Nuuo, Aerocool, etc. This new one, I know for a fact is built from quality parts, good design, low ripple.
The original X-Connect, the worlds first modular power supply, on the other hand, was not so much. Made by Taiwan YoungYear, it would do what it's rated for, but there were some QC problems. The V-Series, is not exactly a steller PSU, but it's not marketted there. They are made for the budget user. They don't offer the performance of an X-Finity, but they provide enough juice, high quality construction, low ripple, and decent voltage regulation. They would work for about 99% of people. But keep in mind that Enthusiests aren't in that 99%.
The internals are good and solid. They do what they are rated for. Certain North American models do not feature Active PFC. That's about the only fault. Which isn't a big one in North America. They offer decent efficiency, quiet operation, low ripple, and will power what you want at a good price.
Planning ahead for the future. With the introduction of the 8800GTX's and the soon-to-be R600's, they really do take a lot of power to run. And if this keeps up, the next generation will take even more power. What about those who run dozens of drives? Each drive takes, on average, 2-3a on startup. Put in 10, and you're pulling more juice than some high end 600w power supplies can even provide.
But, if you buy it now and only run something like an athlon xp, I agree with the willy part.
Efficiency: Almost all ultra power supplies hover around the higher end of the 70's, low 80's. the X-Pro 600, is 80+ at ALL times. Much more efficient than many other power supplies.
Ripple: Proof? Ultra's don't have terrible ripple. They are well within ATX spec. It's not like, no ripple, but it will do everything it needs to.
Low amps: Which one? Almost all the ultra's, short the V series and the original X-Connect, have enough amps to run nearly anything on the market. X1900XT crossfire? No problem.
The V-series and Xconnect are two exceptions. The X-connect was made by an inferior OEM (Taiwan YoungYear), simply because their first choice did not make modular's at the time. The RMA rate for the original X-Connects was only slightly higher than the market norm. Under 3%, vs about 2% for the norm.
The V series is marketed toward the budget buyer. About 99% of people will have no problems with one, except that most of us here aren't part of that 99%.
How are they pure crap? Did you use speedfan and look at the voltages, which weren't exactly spot on 3.3/5/12, and decide that? Well, ALL power supplies do that. The rails WILL drop under load. Even the piece of crap most people like, called tagan. Which has solid innards, but suffers at crossload, ripple, voltage stability, efficiency, and the lack of Active PFC.
All ultra products are quite high quality, with one exception: The X-Connect from 2004. the V-series, X2, X-Finity, made by Wintact. x-Pro, Andyson. And the list goes on.
I don't work for Ultra. I just don't like seeing people dissing on them continuously simply because of the original X-Connect, or what someone else tells them. You don't HAVE to spend $500 to get a power supply from PC Power and rip off. They're high quality, but there's other power supplies on the market such as seasonic, seventeam, channelwell.. etc. Even the new silverstone Olympia 1kw, which is easily as good as the PC Power and Rip Off, provides great voltage stability, ripple, efficiency even.. And it's only $280.
Yep very true
(Then again I remember certain e-SATA adapters shipped with a *cough*asus*cough* motherboard having hot pins on the outside of your case, so I guess ultra can't be the only ones blatantly designing stuff like that. Seems kinda wrong though...)
If ati manages to release a halfway efficient card I would be happy, the 8800 is nice but its too hungry.
And I never had a bit of a problem with my x connect, and the cables glow with my cathodes. :D
the cables are flexible and cool looking
and glow blue under UV light
never had any problems with it
But 1kW is just insane... I really hope gpu-manufacturers will see the light in 2007, and make power-efficient videocards. My electricitygroups can only handle 3500W per group, which would mean that a PC under full load (for a dual 8800) would occupy nearly a third of my total W of once group.
...Do I need to start saving money for a miniature powerplant? Perhaps I can rent one :D
if your going to get 2x 7950 GX2 cards it be better to buy the 8800 GTS its far more power full then the 7950 GX2
going from an 7800 GT card to an 7950 will be an jump but the 8800 GTS be an better buy (haveing an 8800 does not mean you need vista unless you want DX10)
i sold my 7950 GX2 as fast as posable on ebay before it was worth nothing (8800 GTS is about £50 or the same price as the 7950 GX2 and about 25% faster then an 7950 to me second hand the 7950 is worth half the selling price now)
my 8800 GTX card every thing is smooth if nvidia had not made this card my mite of jumped ship and got an ATI card
---------------------------------
i could only see the use for an 1Kw PSU if i was useing 8800 GTX in SLI mode but realy my TK Toughpower 750W PSU (the 24p connectoer is not modular but the rest is) can handle 2 8800 GTX in SLI mode just have to use the 2x4p plug to PCI-E power plugs (why its 2x PCI-e is the spec i think for power on 1 power plug is 20A PSU cuts off if that is passed it so thay needed 2 of them for the last 2 amps {ATI card owners with switching off PSUs problem})
That's my point. I'm NOT in the market for a DX10 card, the GX2s are exotic, and getting cheaper by the day. That and it will be a long time before you NEED a DX10 card. Granted they're not the top of the performance / price curve, but there are other factors in play here.
As I explained further up the page, the cards really aren't that bad. Given that most people have been building with 500 or 600W systems the last couple of years, the majority of people should be able to do an SLI conroe system with ease on their current PSU. The lack of efficiency in these cards is overhyped imo. Considering the ammount of power in them they have pretty respectable power usage.
Hey Bbq...
It's Wintech, not Wintact. ;)
And it's not that Ultra's first choice of OEM didn't make modular PSU's. Remember: They were the first ones. It's that they WOULDN'T. Little did anyone know two or three years ago when we were using measly little Socket A Athlon 2500+ CPU's that Youngyear was such a.... well... let's just say they also make Aspire and some of Rosewill PSU's.
Jmping around from OEM to OEM does suck. Because it does put such a plethora of different quality products out there. And, unfortunately, it's the products that don't hold up well under fire (X-Connect) that gets remembered and not the ones that really do well (X2 550W.) That's just the nature of retail. :) Hopefully Ultra will stick with Andyson and three more years from now everyone will forget about the original X-Connect. :D
I dont think the fact that Ultra makes everything from entry level PSU's (V-Series) to battery chargers to MP3 players helps them much. But from what I understand, thats how they wedge their way into mass retail (Target, Circuit City, Wal Mart, etc.) C'est la vie.
Xbitlabs does some pretty thorough roundups.
I owned an 7950 before and the 8800 is plane smoother then the 7950 (I need an faster CPU now as my GPU is no longer the limit any more)
i not flaming just its an chose of card the 8800 GTS is priced about the same as an 7950 for an card that is an alot more performance then an 7950 does, DX9 performance of this card is insane, bit techs web site just reviewed an 8800 GTS and it works wonderful image quality on an 8800 has been fixed as well compared to older G70 and lower cards
You can also Dual view with the 8800 (as I am now agene I really missed doing that) as you can’t with the 7950 cards unless your turn off SLI mode then only 1 card works (as there is 2 cards per 7950)
There are no Linux/vista drivers for 8800 I think for this card yet is the only thing I think of why you not want one (ignoreing the DX10)
The G80 driver on nVidia's website don't work and the XP drivers on the CD don't work. I did a manual search for drivers from the CD and got the "Standard VGA" to change over to "GeForce 8800" but it still won't run 3DMark and I don't know if the cards are actually running SLI yet. :(
Here's to nVidia getting me some beta drivers before the end of the day.