Ha! Kyle's Ultra-X died

Kyle, you should RMA the PSU and keep it as backup. That's what I'm doin' with mine.

Just incase anything happens, I always have a backup PSU.

And to Burningrave, do you get a kick of being a smart ass. Your comments just expose your true self, leaves nothing to the imagination.
 
n64man120 said:
I've got 2 things to say...

1) Why would you start a thread to publicly joke at and comment on the [H] God's PSU failure?
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Same reason that kid posted the xbox360 pics.
 
Sucks about the PSU.

Your stacker looks bitchin with those drive cages. Makes me want to buy one.
 
EnderXC said:
Sucks about the PSU.

Your stacker looks bitchin with those drive cages. Makes me want to buy one.
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Thanks bro. Those damn Vantec drive cages ROCK. Keep my drives nice and cool with little noise at all.
 
Spectre said:
Can I get an amen from the choir?

<chirp...chirp> Hmmmmm.......I need some more soul I think........
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Yeppers. Putting a multimeter on a PSU while it is plugged into a mobo does not a PSU review make.
 
No goofy titles under usernames for the offenders? No fun! :mad:

Really though, I can't believe you guys would come to Kyle's forum to make fun of...Kyle. Something there just doesn't logically add up. He puts his system at stake running an Ultra PSU for review purposes and you guys laugh a him when it goes down. What is this world coming to?
 
Yesterday while i was talking in the IRC chats over at nVnews a guy came on complaining about how his 500w X-Connect was on its last leg as well. It would be interesting to see just how many have died recently since they've been out on the market long enough to start really showing problems now. Has anyone gotten a quick RMA out of Ultra yet?
 
burningrave101 said:
Yesterday while i was talking in the IRC chats over at nVnews a guy came on complaining about how his 500w X-Connect was on its last leg as well. It would be interesting to see just how many have died recently since they've been out on the market long enough to start really showing problems now. Has anyone gotten a quick RMA out of Ultra yet?
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My RMA took no time at all. I haven't had problems with it, BUT I wasn't waiting for it to happen again. Being computer-less sucks. Needless to say, it's only sitting at home as a backup. I'm building a second PC and I'm planning to use a Sparkle PSU.
 
sac_tagg said:
No goofy titles under usernames for the offenders? No fun! :mad:

Really though, I can't believe you guys would come to Kyle's forum to make fun of...Kyle. Something there just doesn't logically add up. He puts his system at stake running an Ultra PSU for review purposes and you guys laugh a him when it goes down. What is this world coming to?
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Cant believe it :confused:
It's cuz they are stupid morons with computer god complexes.This site is the best on the net ...bottom line! But there are alot of members who feel the need to pimp their favorite computer products and question anyone who dares question them. It would be funny if it was'nt so pathetic.

Thankfully you learn who is helpful and seek them out when in need.
 
James54321 said:
Well I for one am thankful. I mean, I’m sorry to hear about your PSU, but your experience, along with the overwhelming majority of those experiences regarding Ultra PSU’s on the forums, prompted me to stay away from Ultras.

I’m also thankful that you are willing to try these Thermaltakes, because I’ve purchase three for various systems, and so far they are within acceptable parameters. Still, I hear folks trash-talking Thermaltakes as Thermalcrap and I have to wonder... so I guess time will tell.

Bottom line: I for one am thankful for [H]ard and other such review sites that are willing to take the risk so we don’t have to.

- James
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Thanks James! This is what we do, try it out and share our opinions.

I think doing this on my primary system is really the way to go, especially for things like a power supply that are so hard to really get a solid opinion of without a year of use under your belt. As for files and such, I have a live backup server that automatically captures all my changed files on the fly. Still, not fun having to fix something in middle of work, but it will give you that real world hold on a product. :)
 
Hey Boss

Im interested in that backup on the fly setup and I bet alot of other folks would be too.
If you got the time and all.
 
Ice Czar said:
Hey Boss

Im interested in that backup on the fly setup and I bet alot of other folks would be too.
If you got the time and all.
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I was thinking that exact same thing.
 
This is certainly not reassuring because I have Ultra X-Connect running under my hood...
I think it'd be more problematic if it blows up on me and take all my components with it...
Funny thing is my Ultra PSU is pretty much rock solid in voltage fluctuation. It only..

3.31v to 3.29 on load...
5.05v to 5.02 on load..
12.22v to 12.09 on load.

Most of them are within 1% range... I see no reason why this PSU is bad.. :(
 
PSUs have got to be one of the harder purchases to make. I've been pleased with my seasonic s12, and did a fair number of hours of reading before buying it, but some will knock it pretty hard against the really expensive units. I've recommended the seasonic line to others, only to be shot down with the whole "only trust my system to a big $$$$ PSU". Here I thought I was going the extra mile by getting a quality (again, just my own research) 430watt PSU, as opposed to a cheapo one. I haven't had any issues, and I really doubt a better PSU would yield higher OC's.

I'm curious though, when a PSU goes, what component typically fails? Is there a common failure to this line?
 
Apparently they tend to die a lot, or something like that...although until someone with the proper equipment to test the thing posts results, kinda hard to say much more than that.
 
mikelz85 said:
PSUs have got to be one of the harder purchases to make. I've been pleased with my seasonic s12, and did a fair number of hours of reading before buying it, but some will knock it pretty hard against the really expensive units. I've recommended the seasonic line to others, only to be shot down with the whole "only trust my system to a big $$$$ PSU". Here I thought I was going the extra mile by getting a quality (again, just my own research) 430watt PSU, as opposed to a cheapo one.
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Pass those guys my way....I'll take care of them. Seasonic is a great purchase and definately not a cheapo....there are very few better lines otu there than the S12.

I'm curious though, when a PSU goes, what component typically fails? Is there a common failure to this line?
Click to expand...

Depends on how the PSU dies.

As posted by gee:

It depends on what part of the power supply fails.

When the line section of the power supply has a failure - eg, input rectifier, PFC, main switching transistors, primary side drive, etc... usually the supply fails with a spectacular BANG but doesn't take any computer components with it.

If the output section of your power supply fails (secondary side rectifiers, magamp, output capacitors, control circuitry, etc)... normally you end up with a quiet but stinky failure, and dead computer hardware.

The Powmax supplies i've encountered invariably blow their primary side... the undersized transformer saturates, main transistor current goes too high, main transistors blow, and the supply drops dead without harming anything. This is the only good thing I can say about that company.

Deer supplies, with secondary side rectifiers stupidly-fucking-formed by soldering axial diodes to a metal heatsink... those almost always kill computers. I've seen holes blown in motherboard chipsets due to deer supplies...
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ashmedai said:
Apparently they tend to die a lot, or something like that...although until someone with the proper equipment to test the thing posts results, kinda hard to say much more than that.
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Several have the results were decidely mixed. (How is that jonny ;) )
 
Most dead PSUs I've seen, the rest of the system was intact. A few had damaged components, borked data on the hard drive, et cetera. IIRC most hardware and not just the power supply is engineered to be tolerant of power fluxuations (to a degree anyway). Not to say it can't explode spectacularly, just that it tends not to.

Deer's still around? I could swear the last one of those I saw was an AT supply, and like 4-5 years ago...
 
Spectre said:
As posted by gee:
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Our resident EE & SMPS Designer
(Electrical Engineer \ Switch Mode Power Supply)

ashmedai said:
Deer's still around? I could swear the last one of those I saw was an AT supply, and like 4-5 years ago...
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all over the place thier latest brand is SkyHawk (Eagle Tech)
 
ashmedai said:
Deer's still around? I could swear the last one of those I saw was an AT supply, and like 4-5 years ago...
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Deer produces such fine products as: Allied, Codegen, L&C, Logic, Foxconn, Mustang, Powerstar,Eagle, Foxlink, Mercury, Duro, Austin, Turbolink, Real Power.
 
Ice Czar said:
Our resident EE & SMPS Designer
(Electrical Engineer \ Switch Mode Power Supply)


all over the place thier latest brand is SkyHawk (Eagle Tech)
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SkyHawk... :mad: Bought a SkyHawk Alum Case/PSU Combo a few years ago off Egg along with almost all the other parts. Couldn't wait for my Antec to come from Multiwave to put it together, so I assembled, powered it on, and started installing everything. Finished the day happy, so I shut it down. Next time I power it up, I here the ominous pop and sizzle. Next thing I know, Modem is charred, PSU is smoking, Mobo is charred near the CPU/Power connector... what a way to blow $750, with the rest of the parts questionable at best... Thank god for Amex warranties...
 
Ice Czar said:
Hey Boss

Im interested in that backup on the fly setup and I bet alot of other folks would be too.
If you got the time and all.
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www.mirra.com

Backup in a box. Pulling 50GB of files off mine right now across the network with little more than a couple clicks of the mouse. :)
 
I have had the Mirra review half written for 3 months now, I really need to get it done. Thank goodness I had a backup on the review about the Mirra server on the Mirra server.... :eek:
 
well you could always send that my way boss I'll write a review immediately :p

jk

sweet

I was hopin for an opensource software suite or something
 
Dark Ember said:
Awesome! Thanks for the linkage Kyle!

Looking forward to your review as well. Sounds like it would be a good one though, if you had it half written 6 months ago and are still using the product...
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I will never be without something like this again. It ROCKS.

Actually is is just a small Linux box with a VIA ITX motherboard unit in it.
 
That mirra box looks interesting...but it's pretty pricey for backups use.

You can get Symantec's LiveState Recovery desktop edition for 66 bucks 10 licences (http://www.symantecstore.com/dr/sat...0023&xid=49999&DSP=&CUR=840&PGRP=0&CACHE_ID=0) a 300GB drive from the egg for 125 bucks, and an decent external USB 2.0 IDE box for about 40 bucks. $231 total.

LiveState will also let you completely recover an entire bootable drive image onto a new drive...something that mirra box can't do.

You'd have to carry the drive from machine to machine, but to save several hundred bucks it's worth it.
 
HTPC Rookie said:
You'd have to carry the drive from machine to machine, but to save several hundred bucks it's worth it.
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Open to interpretation...is it worth several hundred bucks if you have to do that EVERY DAY, and then wait for it to do each machine? Not to mention the Mirra apparently does it actively all the time, whereas your solution would do it incrementally every day/week/whenever.
 
"Sooner Or Later, Everything Put Together Falls Apart" Paul Simon

Been using the Aspire 500W see-thru dual fan thingy that came w/the case since some time last Fall just out of curiosity. How long will it last? What'll it take w/it when it blows, if it blows? (Yes. I am very aware of the PSU sticky.)
 
jstnomega said:
"Sooner Or Later, Everything Put Together Falls Apart" Paul Simon

Been using the Aspire 500W see-thru dual fan thingy that came w/the case since some time last Fall just out of curiosity.
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Holy EMI!

How long will it last?
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Noone knows for certain but http://www.hardforum.com/showpost.php?p=1027959378&postcount=10

What'll it take w/it when it blows, if it blows? (Yes. I am very aware of the PSU sticky.)
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Depends but http://www.hardforum.com/showpost.php?p=1027974612&postcount=69


;)
 
ashmedai said:
Open to interpretation...is it worth several hundred bucks if you have to do that EVERY DAY, and then wait for it to do each machine? Not to mention the Mirra apparently does it actively all the time, whereas your solution would do it incrementally every day/week/whenever.
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If you want on-the-fly backups, there's an even cheaper solution. It's called RAID 1. A drive and a cable.

If you want archival storage, LiveState is ideal. You do a full backup on each machine once, then incrementals on whatever schedule you choose.

The ability to put a brand new drive in a machine who's drive went belly up, put a CD in the drive, and restore your entire drive in minutes is what makes LiveState so worth the 66 bucks.
 
HTPC Rookie said:
If you want on-the-fly backups, there's an even cheaper solution. It's called RAID 1. A drive and a cable.
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RAID is NOT a backup solution. RAID can protect you from a drive failure but it will not protect you if anything harmful is written to the drive or if your data becomes corrupted. Such as the nature if you got a virus on the machine with a RAID1 array it would just copy that virus on over to the other drive and your data would still be screwed. RAID really has no business in the desktop user environment, its intended primarily for server usage to improve performance when transfering large amounts of data for backup. RAID0 will help improve your OS boot time and load times in some games somewhat but its nothing drastic in real world performance.

The best backup solution for an average PC user is just to have an extra hard drive that you keep copies of your files on whether it be an internal or external drive and also keep your critical data on CD/DVD/Flash. Most home users dont usually have a large amount of critical data that they can't just go download again if something catastrophic happened.
 
burningrave101 said:
RAID is NOT a backup solution. RAID can protect you from a drive failure but it will not protect you if anything harmful is written to the drive or if your data becomes corrupted. Such as the nature if you got a virus on the machine with a RAID1 array it would just copy that virus on over to the other drive and your data would still be screwed. RAID really has no business in the desktop user environment, its intended primarily for server usage to improve performance when transfering large amounts of data for backup. RAID0 will help improve your OS boot time and load times in some games somewhat but its nothing drastic in real world performance.

The best backup solution for an average PC user is just to have an extra hard drive that you keep copies of your files on whether it be an internal or external drive and also keep your critical data on CD/DVD/Flash.
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You're right on all counts. And you pointed out a reason that mirra box would suck just as bad as a RAID 1 setup for backups...it will copy that virus or whatever just as faithfully as a mirrored drive will. And you would not have an uncontaimated image to restore.

The LiveState is exactly what's needed for when you said "The best backup solution for an average PC user is just to have an extra hard drive that you keep copies of your files on..."

For 66 bucks (and whatever a good external USB box costs) more than just an extra drive and a cable, you have the ability to restore an entire drive, pristine and bootable, if you choose to. Or just certain folders, partitions, files, etc. And you can unplug it after the backup, so nothing bad could get on it.

"RAID really has no business in the desktop user environment, its intended primarily for server usage to improve performance when transfering large amounts of data for backup."

Sure it does, in the "real" world. For instance, we have a couple machines at work that are "key players". Machines like the only interface for the payroll system. It's not a server by any means, it sits on our HR person's desk. Should the primary drive fail, especially during a land-line xfer, which stays connected for hours at a time (the payroll service we choose for some reason refuses to go Web based) we don't get paid. Having a mirrored drive in there is reassuring. Both drives could get a virus or some other software problem, but that would be no worse than if there was only one drive in there.

We're right on the verge of jacking this PSU thread. ;)
 
HTPC Rookie said:
That mirra box looks interesting...but it's pretty pricey for backups use.

You can get Symantec's LiveState Recovery desktop edition for 66 bucks 10 licences (http://www.symantecstore.com/dr/sat...0023&xid=49999&DSP=&CUR=840&PGRP=0&CACHE_ID=0) a 300GB drive from the egg for 125 bucks, and an decent external USB 2.0 IDE box for about 40 bucks. $231 total.

LiveState will also let you completely recover an entire bootable drive image onto a new drive...something that mirra box can't do.

You'd have to carry the drive from machine to machine, but to save several hundred bucks it's worth it.
Click to expand...

Yeah, well if you looked a bit more into the Mirra features, you might find it does a bit more than just backup.
 
HTPC Rookie said:
If you want on-the-fly backups, there's an even cheaper solution. It's called RAID 1. A drive and a cable.

If you want archival storage, LiveState is ideal. You do a full backup on each machine once, then incrementals on whatever schedule you choose.

The ability to put a brand new drive in a machine who's drive went belly up, put a CD in the drive, and restore your entire drive in minutes is what makes LiveState so worth the 66 bucks.
Click to expand...


RAID 1 is all great till you have a power surge in the box that burns tons of stuff or a windows install that kills itself off. You can argue against Mirra all you want, but the fact is that it is easier and practically tranparent and can be operated and configured by a 5 year old. And it works.
 
And yes, I find it odd that for the last two days I am arguing issues with people that have NO HANDS ON EXPERIENCE with the product they are discussing. But of course they should know the product's value much better than someone that has been using it for a year...
 
Kyle I wasn't able to find this in Mirra's faq's specifically but do you know if it can be used as NAS as well?
 
Spectre said:
Kyle I wasn't able to find this in Mirra's faq's specifically but do you know if it can be used as NAS as well?
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Yes. There is some front end software, but basically it is a NAS device.
 
So it's like a fileserver, except instead of saving your files over the network you save them locally and it updates its copy when it sees a change. It's on your hard drive so you can get at it as quickly as any local file, it's on the pseudo-fileserver so other people that need at it can get at it as easily as something on a fileserver, and it's non-locally redundant so if the hardware you're experimenting with craps out you don't lose the article you were typing up. And low-maintainence is always a plus.

Obviously wouldn't be the best choice for all networks, but sounds like it suits the [H] offices pretty damn well.
 
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