Cypher321 wrote on 2024-07-29, 01:09:

The other week I found a few sealed PSUs from the brand 'Ultra' at the Goodwill by work that I decided to pick up. They passed the weight test while I was at the store however I saw mixed opinions on the quality of them after taking the time to do some research.

Does anyone have any experience with this brand? I'm leaning towards returning them and sticking with my usual stock of Antec and CoolerMaster.

The attachment IMG_20240728_175946980_HDR~2.jpg is no longer available

This pretty much sums up what I've heard about them:

https://www.amazon.com/Ultra-XFinity-Switchin … 0/dp/B00FJNTHVG

I wouldn't put them in a build I cared about, personally. Ultra's products were made to look extra flashy to pull in customers while cheaping out on internals. I'm sure most were passable, but I doubt they've aged as gracefully as a better name brand unit. There's a good chance they were made during the end of the capacitor plague era as well, and I doubt Ultra used good quality caps that weren't affected by the plague... though I guess it's possible.

Still... it depends what you paid for them. If they were cheap they are most likely worth more as collector's items (or will be eventually) since the boxes are sealed and a TON of people bought these for their builds back in the day because of the looks. I don't know how long those were manufactured, but a brief look online puts the Ultra XFinity line as far back as 2006, so they COULD be almost 20 years old already, but the reviews on Amazon are a lot newer than that so it's hard to say for sure.

Ozzuneoj wrote on 2024-07-29, 01:45:

This pretty much sums up what I've heard about them: […]
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Cypher321 wrote on 2024-07-29, 01:09:

The other week I found a few sealed PSUs from the brand 'Ultra' at the Goodwill by work that I decided to pick up. They passed the weight test while I was at the store however I saw mixed opinions on the quality of them after taking the time to do some research.

Does anyone have any experience with this brand? I'm leaning towards returning them and sticking with my usual stock of Antec and CoolerMaster.

The attachment IMG_20240728_175946980_HDR~2.jpg is no longer available

This pretty much sums up what I've heard about them:

https://www.amazon.com/Ultra-XFinity-Switchin … 0/dp/B00FJNTHVG

I wouldn't put them in a build I cared about, personally. Ultra's products were made to look extra flashy to pull in customers while cheaping out on internals. I'm sure most were passable, but I doubt they've aged as gracefully as a better name brand unit. There's a good chance they were made during the end of the capacitor plague era as well, and I doubt Ultra used good quality caps that weren't affected by the plague... though I guess it's possible.

Still... it depends what you paid for them. If they were cheap they are most likely worth more as collector's items (or will be eventually) since the boxes are sealed and a TON of people bought these for their builds back in the day because of the looks. I don't know how long those were manufactured, but a brief look online puts the Ultra XFinity line as far back as 2006, so they COULD be almost 20 years old already, but the reviews on Amazon are a lot newer than that so it's hard to say for sure.

Ha! They got me! I was thinking how much of a l33t gamer I was going to be with all that flashy packaging.

They weren't cheap but they weren't super expensive either so I may just hold onto them while I figure out what to do with them. At the very least one of the units might make for some interesting stress testing to see how well they've held up all these years.

Thanks for the input!

Ultra units were okay from my memory. At least in a general sense. I dont recall anyone having any sort of major issues when they were new. At least not any more than anyone else.

The supplies were made by an OEM, I want to say super-flower. which is/was a decent OEM. Not great, not bad.

I also remember something about Ultra being one of the first to come out with modular units, and had a patent for quite a while.

Cypher321 wrote on 2024-07-29, 02:12:

Ha! They got me! I was thinking how much of a l33t gamer I was going to be with all that flashy packaging. […]
Show full quote

Ozzuneoj wrote on 2024-07-29, 01:45:

This pretty much sums up what I've heard about them: […]
Show full quote

Cypher321 wrote on 2024-07-29, 01:09:

The other week I found a few sealed PSUs from the brand 'Ultra' at the Goodwill by work that I decided to pick up. They passed the weight test while I was at the store however I saw mixed opinions on the quality of them after taking the time to do some research.

Does anyone have any experience with this brand? I'm leaning towards returning them and sticking with my usual stock of Antec and CoolerMaster.

The attachment IMG_20240728_175946980_HDR~2.jpg is no longer available

This pretty much sums up what I've heard about them:

https://www.amazon.com/Ultra-XFinity-Switchin … 0/dp/B00FJNTHVG

I wouldn't put them in a build I cared about, personally. Ultra's products were made to look extra flashy to pull in customers while cheaping out on internals. I'm sure most were passable, but I doubt they've aged as gracefully as a better name brand unit. There's a good chance they were made during the end of the capacitor plague era as well, and I doubt Ultra used good quality caps that weren't affected by the plague... though I guess it's possible.

Still... it depends what you paid for them. If they were cheap they are most likely worth more as collector's items (or will be eventually) since the boxes are sealed and a TON of people bought these for their builds back in the day because of the looks. I don't know how long those were manufactured, but a brief look online puts the Ultra XFinity line as far back as 2006, so they COULD be almost 20 years old already, but the reviews on Amazon are a lot newer than that so it's hard to say for sure.

Ha! They got me! I was thinking how much of a l33t gamer I was going to be with all that flashy packaging.

They weren't cheap but they weren't super expensive either so I may just hold onto them while I figure out what to do with them. At the very least one of the units might make for some interesting stress testing to see how well they've held up all these years.

Thanks for the input!

Eh, I may have been a little too hard on them. I remember reading negative things about them many years ago and they were never a top brand. Searching a bit more I see some good "professional" reviews from the time for different Ultra models. Some models received praise for being solid... but we're talking about power supply reviews from 2004-2007. Testing was far from refined at that point and even decent power supplies often weren't 80 Plus rated yet, so the more detailed reviews of PSUs at that point basically just have a chart that shows how close the 12v, 5v and 3.3v rails are.

So, yeah... they might be fine, or they might not be. I would lean more toward "not" based on my limited experience and what I have read, but I am not an authority on power supplies. 😀

I think the oem of these units might be Topower or Young Year... probably. Might have some rotting electrolythic capacitors. The brands that go bad in storage after 4- 5 years.

DAVE86 wrote on 2024-07-29, 09:32:

I think the oem of these units might be Topower or Young Year... probably. Might have some rotting electrolythic capacitors. The brands that go bad in storage after 4- 5 years.

Wintech. As reliable as the two you listed, although they had some weird designs at times.

Cypher321 wrote on 2024-07-29, 01:09:

The other week I found a few sealed PSUs from the brand 'Ultra' at the Goodwill by work that I decided to pick up. They passed the weight test while I was at the store however I saw mixed opinions on the quality of them after taking the time to do some research.

Does anyone have any experience with this brand? I'm leaning towards returning them and sticking with my usual stock of Antec and CoolerMaster.

The attachment IMG_20240728_175946980_HDR~2.jpg is no longer available

They have a bad reputation, that's undeniable, but I do find them interesting, maybe if you can spare the refund part of your plan and maybe test them out so we have more recent evidence of what these PSUs are about it would be great

According to the old 'PSU Review Database' their main OEM was Andyson, followed by ShenZhen RuiSheng Yuan (RSY) and a few ATNG, Sirtec & CWT.

PC Hoarder Patrol wrote on 2024-07-29, 11:34:

According to the old 'PSU Review Database' their main OEM was Andyson, followed by ShenZhen RuiSheng Yuan (RSY) and a few ATNG, Sirtec & CWT.

The units from Cypher's original post are Wintech OEM for the X-Finity, and RSY for the 400W V-Series.

Both seem solid enough but the capacitor choices are atrocious.

I have a 600W ultra I got for $40 on sale at Tiger Direct in 2008ish, ran 24/7 for 3 years with a crossfire setup in early 2010s, 2x4870 and it still seems to work great.

For all new old stock PSUs though, the caps no matter brand or quality, can age in storage, and will need to recover by load and power cycle before they get back to full capacity. Would recommend you plug in all the spindle HDDs that spin you can find, power it up like that, let it go half an hour, then power down, leave for an hour, then repeat before you plug into motherboard and try running a system.

BitWrangler wrote on 2024-07-29, 13:52:

I have a 600W ultra I got for $40 on sale at Tiger Direct in 2008ish, ran 24/7 for 3 years with a crossfire setup in early 2010s, 2x4870 and it still seems to work great.

For all new old stock PSUs though, the caps no matter brand or quality, can age in storage, and will need to recover by load and power cycle before they get back to full capacity. Would recommend you plug in all the spindle HDDs that spin you can find, power it up like that, let it go half an hour, then power down, leave for an hour, then repeat before you plug into motherboard and try running a system.

To add to that, before powering them on I would crack them open to be sure none of the caps are already swollen or leaking. If they are, there is no reason to test them any further without a recap.

The caps might look perfect initially and burst after a few hours usage.

Lots of good stuff here everyone. I decided to hang onto the PSUs 'for science' to see how they are. I'll be popping open the v-series PSU later today and will post some pictures of the innards.

swaaye wrote on 2024-07-29, 16:22:

The caps might look perfect initially and burst after a few hours usage.

I'm with you - I feel a recap is pretty much mandatory with these before I have the confidence needed to put any of them into a real system.