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Ultra Titanium Series


Date
: 04/5/05 – 05:39:40 AM

Author
:

Category
: Misc

Page 1 : Introduction

Manufacturer: Ultra Products
Price:
Varies depending on product

Around Overclockers Online, we know Ultra Products very well. They offer a wide range of products from cases down to the PC3200 Dual DDR Ram Kits.

Today, we will take a look at a series of products, which we will dub the Titanium Series from Ultra. This Titanium Series includes 3 different products; 80mm fans, a 120mm fan, and the X-Finity 500watt Power Supply, all of which are finished in a delicious titanium color paint! Let's take a closer look at what each of these have to offer separately, then put them all together!

Page 2 : Products/Details

Since the Titanium Series that we're talking about includes these three different products, the first two we will take a look at are the fans.

The 80mm fans come in a 3 pack for $29.99 and the 120mm fan comes in a single pack for $19.99. Each fan is equipped with a standard 3-pin plug to be used straight on your motherboard headers:

but there are also 3-pin to 4-pin molex adaptors as well as 4 fan screws for each fan

Once we take the fans out of their package, you can get a good view of how awesome these things look.

Page 3 : Products/Details Cont.

Also in this Titanium Series, is Ultra's X-Finity 500watt ATX Power Supply.

Although this power supply is not modular like the UV X-Connect recently reviewed, it still boasts some cool protection features.

In the specifications, the Ultra claims 'Low Acoustic Noise', however I never see any dB ratings anywhere, we'll have to see how it sounds when we test it out. This power supply runs for about $89.99 MSRP.

Let's take a closer look at it:

So we have a lot of cool equipment, let's see how it all looks in the case, and see how that power supply performs!

Page 4 : Testing/Installation

For this testing, I will be combining this Titanium Series, with Ultra's Glossy Black Dragon case.

Inside the case, we'll be running:

Once we get everything installed in the case, the fans and the power supply look very nice alongside the Glossy Black Dragon. I think if the inside of this case was also painted gloss black, then we would really have something to brag about!

So everything looks nice in the case, but how does this power supply perform? Let's take a look at the numbers:

As you can see from our data, the X-Finity is quite stable in a variety of situations. While doing the tests, as Ultra claims, the noise level is fairly low. But still with two 80mm fans you are going to be able to hear it.

The fans all run at some nice slow speeds, as you can see in the technical specs above. They also push a good amount of air for their speeds. However my prior fans had very similar specifications, and the temperature changes were minimal. In both situations with my previous fans, and the Ultra Titanium fans were able to maintain the case temperature was right at room temperature, about 23C.

Page 5 : Sleeving the X-Finity

We have this great looking X-Finity power supply, however the cables are still a sight for sore eyes. To spice up the overall looks of this power supply, we are going to use Ultra's UV Series Cable Sleeving kit.

I have never sleeved a power supply before, and this was a definite learning experience. Although there were not very detailed instructions included with the sleeving kit, it was fairly straight forward. The kit comes with:

The first step was to start cutting the sleeving the proper lengths for the cables. Some people recommend using a plastic cutting knife (which is an electric heated knife), or heating a knife or scissors over your stove, but what I did was simply cut the sleeving with your scissors, and then you can use a lighter to bond the ends together to prevent fraying.

Once you have the lengths cut, start sliding them down the cable and over your molexes and/or other connectors! If you have a small pair of tweezers or the tool that will actually remove molexes, take the molexes off and it will make the entire procedure much easier. I used the tie wraps to hold the sleeving taunt on the wires.

To finish this off even better, you can use the shrink wrap tubing. However when I tried to use it, with the available tools I had (a lighter), I could not get the shrink wrapping to shrink enough without burning it. This is definitely not pretty to go in your case. The best way is to use either a hobby heat gun, or even a blow dryer capable of putting out very hot air.

When comparing the two, the choice is obvious to me which I'd rather have in my case. Although sleeving is a challenging process, the ending product really looks great. You can opt to search for pre-sleeved type power supplies, or modular and pre-sleeved like Ultra's X-Connect power supply.

Page 6 : Conclusion

Overall this whole Titanium Series is pretty cool looking. If you're looking for an alternative to bright lights in your case, why not go for something sleek like titanium? Another very cool feature I like about the fans, is that their wires are shielded and bundled together. This gets rid of those ugly red, yellow, and black wires most fans have.

One thing I was disappointed with, is the X-Finity power supply. Although it is a very stable power supply, and has some nice protection features, the ugly wires really kill the awesome look of the titanium finish, and if you're going to spend $89.99 or even close to that, I would hope to have a cleaner solution. Sleeving the wires using Ultra's Cable Sleeving kit helps a lot, but if you don't want to sleeve your own you can check out the X-Connect Titanium which will definitely help with the cable situation. One of our own top reviewers Simon, has taken a look at the X-Connect in the past.

An awesome paint job can give a bland system that extra flair, and by pairing the Glossy Dragon, which already had an impressive paint finish, with these Titanium products from Ultra, you can get an sweet looking system! There are plenty of color combinations you can choose for any of these, from what we looked at today with titanium, to glossy black, green, and blue for the fans, and glossy black, blue, green and red for the power supply! So take your pick and have fun making your system look cool, and perform its best.

Positives
:
- Great alternative to bright lights
- Very sleek looking colors
- Decently quiet all around for fans and the power supply
- The power supply looks to be a great performer
- Fans have very clean wiring solution

Negatives
:
- Very pricey power supply
- Power supply has very cumbersome ugly wires which negate the nice looking unit without sleeving or some other wire control

Thanks to Ultra Products for making this review possible and their continual support.