Ultra V series?

[Pentium4]

Found a local Ultra ULT-350-P for $20. Is it worth that much? Looks decent for a 350....I've never owned an Ultra PSU before. I know they can be pretty hit or miss though.

[shovenose]

Not worth it. Lousy capacitors, mediocre design. But definitely a step up from other $20 units.

[Pentium4]

Does it have PFC or is the voltage selector on the inside so it looks like it has PFC? Oh it looks like they put it on the other side....and apparently they're made by Wintech. That's all I need to know right there....haha

[larrymoencurly]

I have a 350W and a 400W Ultra from 6-7 years ago, made by Wintech and with no PFC (voltage selection switch not visible at rear because it's on the front). They still work, and when I pulled several of their Canicon capacitors a couple of years ago, each measured low for ESR. But the first PSU sample had a fan that wouldn't start if the air temp was below 65-68F (fan controller set voltage too low; a kick start capacitor across its thermistor fixed that), and another sample had 1/8" solder balls embedded deeply in the insulation of some high voltage wires, and the circuit board was coated with flux (still gooey) on both sides. One of the 400W units had a small electrolytic capacitor in the low voltage side that almost touched the heatshrink on one of the 120VAC lugs, while the second unit had that capacitor laying flat against the circuit board, well away from the high voltage.

The instruction booklet for all the units had this misprint:

[370forlife]

Wintech is a company that is very hard to describe. Their units use outdated designs, but can do their labeled wattages, with poor quality soldering and capacitor choices. They often feature OCP and sometimes even Over Temp Protection. I would say this unit is worth a recap and cleaning up.

[Pentium4]

Originally Posted by 370forlife

Wintech is a company that is very hard to describe. Their units use outdated designs, but can do their labeled wattages, with poor quality soldering and capacitor choices. They often feature OCP and sometimes even Over Temp Protection. I would say this unit is worth a recap and cleaning up.

I don't know why but this made me chuckle. Looks like they have weak 12V though. I'm guessing the wattage rating is rated for peak and not continuous right? Didn't Wintech go out of business a few years ago?

@larry They still work? Did you recap them?

[370forlife]

Originally Posted by Pentium4

I don't know why but this made me chuckle. Looks like they have weak 12V though. I'm guessing the wattage rating is rated for peak and not continuous right? Didn't Wintech go out of business a few years ago?

@larry They still work? Did you recap them?

They hired good engineers, Ultra and Wintech brought the first consumer modular power supply to market, but their units were built to a price...a low one at that. Their engineers decided to design a unit that could do it's labeled wattage, which was more expensive, but made it more cost efficient by using lower quality parts. Now that's not to say they are really well designed, they were still designing to a low price, so they don't have the best ripple control nor best voltage regulation. But, they typically stay in spec and can do it for long periods of time.

And yes, wintech went belly up a while back. They tried to leave on a good note and design a decent power supply.

http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php...Story3&reid=92

All UCC capacitors, 87% efficiency, DC-DC, and this was back in 2008! DC-DC was pretty rare to find even in high quality power supplies back then. But it was still overrated, perhaps it was Apevia's fault for labeling it as a 900W, maybe Wintech lied about how much wattage it can do (though as shown in the review there are revisions for higher wattage versions, so I'll go with the former.)

[999999999]

Corsair Builder Series 430W, $20 delivered after rebate and coupon code (till 6/18 or they sell out):
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817139026

[larrymoencurly]

Originally Posted by Pentium4

@larry They still work? Did you recap them?

I never bothered recapping them because the Canicons measured low for ESR and weren't bloated. I bought the Ultras for their parts and to transplant the guts of a noisy Enermax into one (which I did recap -- some of its PC-tur caps have since bloated in storage).

A second misprint in the Ultra manual:



You'd think it couldn't go in backwards like that, but the plugs were undersized and the socket on a certain cheapo motherboard was oversized just enough to make it possible, without excessive force. I couldn't do that with any other PSU or mobo.

[ratdude747]

Originally Posted by Pentium4

Found a local Ultra ULT-350-P for $20. Is it worth that much? Looks decent for a 350....I've never owned an Ultra PSU before. I know they can be pretty hit or miss though.

I wouldn't. Having owned two of the 500W units, they suck. They have thin wire, crap caps, and IMHO lame-ass design. I ended up gutting one of them to fix the ultra-specific elements of a Ultra Xfinity 600W that after a tightly squeezed recap is a decent unit.

[shovenose]

Originally Posted by ratdude747

I wouldn't. Having owned two of the 500W units, they suck. They have thin wire, crap caps, and IMHO lame-ass design. I ended up gutting one of them to fix the ultra-specific elements of a Ultra Xfinity 600W that after a tightly squeezed recap is a decent unit.

XFINITY??? Hahahahaha

[ratdude747]

Originally Posted by shovenose

XFINITY??? Hahahahaha

There are a few theads on it... those being everell's ole bluebthread and my 5vsb mod thread.