Any PC enthusiast worth a damn knows that that power supplies are actually the heart and soul of a computer. Where a quality power supply will last for many rebuilds, a bad power supply can nuke the fridge and off your box merely when fancy strikes. Knowing how important it is to purchase a quality unit, today we’re going to take look at the Ultra X4 750W (ULT-HA750X) power supply to see if it has the chops to find a home in the rigs of snobs like us.
About Ultra
Ultra Products, a division of the Systemax group, is a Fletcher, Ohio-based computer parts manufacturer, importer and distributor. The company’s primary focus is on PC accessories, and offers a wide array of products including DRAM, computer cases, power supply units, cooling solutions and UPSes. As a little-known fact, Ultra is also the inventor of the modern modular power supply; the company conceived the idea for the X-Connect series of PSUs in 2004, and was later awarded patent #7,133,293 in 2006.
The story of Ultra Products goes back to 1991 with a Fletcher, Ohio-based PC Builder called MidWest Micro. Ultra was the brand name for the company’s white box personal and laptop computers sold through a product distribution division known as Infotel. Infotel and MidWest Micro were purchased by Global Industrial Products in 1997, where it continued to sell products under the Ultra name. By 1999, Global Industrial Products changed its name to Systemax and became a division of the Systemax Corporation. The “Ultra Products” name was expanded to include a range of LCD monitors.
By 2002, Systemax was the exclusive US importer of Chieftec computer cases. These chassis were used for OEM Systemax builds, and for DIY users through Tiger Direct’s retail outlet. After going on to found ChieftecUSA in 2002 to retain exclusive distribution rights of Chieftec cases, Systemax leveraged the Ultra brand and its relationship with Tiger Direct in 2003 to sell PC memory and budget graphics adapters. This relationship was later expanded to include light kits; hard drive, memory and CPU coolers; and flash memory readers.
This business arrangement proved to be quite successful and, in late 2003, ChieftecUSA became Ultra Products and expanded its sales to BNM stores like Fry’s Electronics and Microcenter, as well as a growing number of electronic retailers like Newegg. Ultra Products continues to operate in this capacity today, and manufactures a wide variety of parts including PSUs, heatsinks, flash memory, enclosures, cases and cables.
Specifications
Starting with its rated output, the ULT-HA750X is built around a single 12V rail capable of pushing up to 54A for a total of 648W. The +5V and +3.3V, meanwhile, can move up to 30A and 24A, respectively, for a combined total of 170W. The following table outlines the unit’s remaining output specifications.
To clarify, the combined wattage on the +5V and +3.3V rails mean that each one may theoretically be loaded to its maximum amperage, but they cannot be loaded to their maximum concurrently. Doing so would demand 229.2W, or about 60W more than the electronics behind the rails can provide. This is because today’s power supplies typically create the 3.3V supply by regulating down the 5V, a practice that is bog standard.
More importantly, the label also indicates that a load placed on all three rails may not exceed 729W. In other words, loading the +12V to its maximum leaves a little more than 80W for the remaining components. Again, this design is typical of modern power supplies, but it bears mentioning to practically define the number of devices that may be connected before compromising the power delivery to devices like your memory, PCI cards and motherboard ASICs.
Accessories and features
The ULT-HA750X ships from the factory with a lion’s share of modular cables, and offers the following connectivity:
- 1x 24-pin ATX mainboard
- 1x 8-pin EPS12V
- 1x 4-pin ATX12V
- 9x molex
- 2x floppy disk drive
- 11x SATA power
- 4x 6-pin PCIe
- 2x 8-pin PCIe
All cables measure 19-24″ from the power supply end of the cable to the first, or only connector down the chain.
Other perks include a silicone anti-vibration grommet, black zip ties, Ultra-branded Velcro straps, five standard case screws and five black thumb screws. We were especially pleased with the inclusion of the Velcro straps, as they are an attractive and easy way to perform additional cable management beyond the capabilities of the case.
Moving on to features of the supply, Ultra highlights the following qualities:
- Modular design: Every connector on the Ultra X4 series is modular. This improves cable management and airflow within your chosen case.
- 80 Plus certified: The X4 750W has received the 80+ Bronze certification, which guarantees a minimum efficiency of 82%. This means that the power supply should deliver to the system at least 82% of what it is drawing from the wall. The remaining 18% is shed away as heat. As an example: if your PC is demanding 400W of power, the PSU would be drawing a maximum of 485W from the wall (400/485=82.4% efficient). High power supply efficiency directly constitutes savings on your electric bill.
- Power protection: Short circuit protection (SCP), over voltage protection (OVP), over current protection (OCP), under voltage protection (UVP) and over temperature protection (OTP) work in concert to protect the PSU from damaging parts with shorted outputs, excess voltage, brownouts or excessively high temperatures. If the thresholds for any of these protections are triggered, the PSU will cut power to the system.
- Multi-GPU: ATI CrossFireX and NVIDIA SLI certified.
- Lifetime warranty: Register online or by sending in the included warranty card and receive a lifetime warranty.
- Reduced acoustics: With a 135mm/ dual-bearing fan and a silicon anti-vibration grommet, the Ultra X4 strives for silence.
- Active Power Factor Correction: A feature primarily for the sanity of power companies, A-PFC reduces the demand placed on your power company by over 30% through more efficiently drawing current from the mains. This mechanism has nothing to do with a power supply’s efficiency, which refers to how well a power supply converts that current to a form usable for your PC’s components. Note also that a unit without PFC does not typically increase your power bill; PFC only substantially reduces a certain type of power draw called “reactive power” that is not read on a residential power meter.
Design
Diving briefly into the subjective, we have to say that the Ultra X4 lineup is quite attractive. Replete with a matte black finish, an anodized brushed aluminum backplate for the modular connectors and a honeycomb ventilation grille, the ULT-HA750X’s physical design is subtle, but engaging. Small touches like the machine-embossed Ultra X4 logo, and a fan grille that uses strips of metal instead of wires helps to sell the cosmetics of this PSU as well.
Where the ULT-HA750X falls apart, however, is on the subject of its modular connectors. There’s nothing wrong with the mechanical interface of the connectors, but it would be nice if Ultra had thought to color-code some of them. For example, the 8-pin EPS12V connector for the motherboard sits right in line with another 8-pin connector designed for 6+2 PCIe cables. The 4-pin ATX12V connector, meanwhile, has a nearly imperceptible blue tone to it, but that could be a mismatched connector just as easily as it could be a concerted effort to color code.
(1) 24-pin ATX, (2) Molex, (3) SATA, (4) PCIe, (5) 8-pin EPS12V, (6) 4-pin ATX12V.
That said, it would be rather difficult for a user to plug a PCIe cable into the EPS12V connector on the Ultra, or vice versa, but stranger things have happened in the world of novice users, and an easy preventative measure wouldn’t hurt.
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