Need some advice... Ultra X-Connect Failing (Shocked?)

[just2cool]

So, this is actually my second Ultra. I participated in one of those $20 AR deals well over one year ago, and received a 500W X-Connect power supply. I liked the modularity of the device, and was pretty pleased for about 4 months until it completely died. None of the fans or LEDs would even turn on. I tried to short the power supply directly, but still no dice.

No problem. I'm used to hardware failing, so I sent it back. I ended up installing the new one without issue and it has been trouble free for 8 months...until today. Click-click-click goes one of my raptors. At first, I thought it was going bad since I'm VERY used to hard drives failing (that's a whole different conversation -- let's just say that I'm a IBM DeathStar victim). I tried rebooting, and then Windows said a whole bunch of file segments were unreadable and it wouldn't boot. Great...

But then I remembered how long I've had these drives and how reliable raptors are supposed to be. And at that point, I heard TWO of my raptors do the clicks at the same time...and then I knew it had to be my power supply. Turns out, that stupid little UV light inside of the power supply was noticeably dim at the time while my hard drives were busy shitting themselves. So, I turn off my PC, unhook all of my fans, my other 40GB IDE hard drive, and my CD drive...then boot up again. Windows loads fine and I ran a defrag on one a rather fragmented partition. It completed without any hesitation and my raptors have that nice... "growl" like they always do. Oh, and curiously enough, that stupid little UV light is at it's full brightness again. My system has been up now for several hours since, and my raptors have yet to hiccup.



Now, that being said, I am sick of these damn X-Connect PSUs. I don't even want to attempt to have it repaired or RMA'ed or whatever. Also, I don't care if it's modular or not. I just want to purchase something reliable.

Here's everything that I need to have powered:
Athlon 64 3500+
ATI Radeon 9700 Pro
3 WD Raptors
1 40GB Drive
1 CD Drive
3 Fans

That's all I need. I don't plan on ever changing my video card since I don't play games, so don't worry about accommodating for future upgrades. I'm a poor college student, so I'd prefer something reasonable in price (no more than $75ish shipped).

Also, when I do get this power supply, I'm getting rid of my RAID0 array and will instead divide things up accordingly on my 3 raptors (OS, Apps, Misc). I've finally reached the point where I don't give a shit about increased synthetic file benchmarks, and I'd rather have less of a chance of losing all of my data.

Thanks for your help!

 

[Bbq]

The original X Connect's were pretty shitty. Not a lot better than a generic psu. Every other line of psu is solid.

I suggest giving Ultra a call, and asking for them to swap the X-Connect for an X2 or X-Finity. Those are way better than any original x-connect.

 

[johnrea77]

I've had good luck with my two Ultra X2 550 PSU's (knock on wood)

 

[jonnyGURU]

My X-Connect is made by Wintech and it works great.

http://www.jonnyguru.com/forums/showpost.php?p=17294&postcount=12

I admit, it's not my main rig. But it's the one I do all of my hardware testing on and it runs 24/7.

Your X-Connect is probably a Youngyear.

Here's what you do so you don't have to spend any money....

Get another RMA. But INSIST that you get one of the "replacement skus" that start with "ULT33..." as opposed to "ULT31...." If you tell them it's the second one, they'll do it no questions asked. If you don't mind the FlexForce cables, you can ask for an X2 and if you're really nice, they should be able to do that at no additional charge.

FYI: The "31" SKU's are Youngyear, the 33's are Wintech. This only applies to X-Connnects. No other Ultra PSU's were every made by Youngyear ("31" part number or not.)

For example... this one is ULT33153:

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2974644&CatId=1079

This is the exact same unit, except it's ULT31556:

http://www.shentech.com/ult31556dh.html

 

[just2cool]

Upon digging up my RMA receipt...bingo.

Ultra X-Connect 500W ATX PS w/2 80mm UV Fans MS Bl (ULT31564)

Thanks for the insight as always, j. I'll be sure to try and get a ULT33XXX or, possibly, an X2 depending on how persuasive I can be.

 

[jonnyGURU]

Remember: Flys with honey. Flys with honey.