To those of you asking why the once separate sections have been rejoined, it's rather simple. Apart from the power supply inside the box, you'll find a small manual, a power cable, and some mounting screws. That's it. There are no foam blocks to hold your supply delicately, or a box full of modular connectors. In essence, the X-Finity is a beefy supply for people who don't mess around. It's intended to be dropped into a system (or splayed out across a test bench in our case), then to have all of its connectors hooked up or tucked away. Simple, right? Before we delve into the roots that this supply will cast deep into your unwitting case, let's first pull back the protective wrapping and examine the supply itself.
Cast in a gunmetal grey casing with black fan grilles, the X-Finity 600w appears to be more like their ancient Single Rail model than the more modern 120MM fan fed X-Finities. That being said, just by picking the two up, you know first and foremost that there's a lot more power supply here than you bargained for. It's though that Ultra Products opted for the dual 80mm design once again in order to keep the air flowing over the massive heat sinks, as well as the two layers of power circuitry (that being bolted to the bottom and hanging from the top). For what it's worth, the Ultra Branded clear fans do their job well, and although they are a touch louder than we'd like (we could just hear their din adding to that of the test bench), they're a world quieter than what we've heard from Ultra's supplies in the past. As to the finish of the unit itself, it's quite smooth from a distance, but get up close and personal, and that smoky gunmetal grey looks as if it were burned on rather than sprayed. Granted, this sounds worse than it is, as the supply looks just great. Swinging around the unbroken sides (no windows here folks), we find that what you see out front, is much like what you see out back, well, that being with the exception of a mighty bundle of Flex Force cables held together by a zip-tie. As we tilt the unit to its base, we can find its output ratings, which are as follows:
| Max Output Current |
+5V |
+3.3V |
+12V1 |
+12V2 |
-12V |
+5VSB |
| 3A |
25A |
18A |
20A |
6A |
2.5A |
| Max Combined Wattage |
165W |
420W |
7.2W |
12.5W |
| 581W |
19.7W |
| 600W |
While these amperages may seem far from epic for many, keep in mind that this supply features much tighter regulation, higher quality parts and better airflow dynamics than the units which came before it, which should allow for nice, stable, clean operation, even when loaded to the brink of extinction. In order to supply the current and deliver the power, the X-Finity relies on a laundry list of features:
- Flex Force Cabling
- Dual Rail Technology
- Low Noise Operation
- 70% Efficiency, at full load
- Meets ATX 12V Version 2.2 and Below
- Short Circuit Protection
- In-rush Current Protection
- Thermal Overload Cutoff Protection
- MTBF of over 100,000 @ 25c.
Of course, no power supply would be complete without a way to bring in the power, and the X-Finity has plenty of connectors to do just so. One note however, we really wish ultra would stop including both 4-Pin and 8-Pin power, as it just makes for more wiring to tuck away. A more practical solution would have been to utilize an 8-Pin break-apart connector (much like how the ATX Connector is 20+4 Pins), in order to alleviate the mess another needless cable creates. On the plus side, they did ditch the Auxiliary connector though. That being said, let's delve into what's hanging off of that monstrous wire bundle.
- 1 20/24 Pin Motherboard Connector
- 1 4 Pin +12V Motherboard Connector
- 1 8 Pin EPS Motherboard Connector
- 2 PCI Express Power Connector
- 8 4 Pin Molex Connectors
- 2 4 Pin Floppy (Mini Molex) Connectors
- 4 SATA Connectors
As to the placement of these connectors, the 4 Pin Molexes can be found along two long strands capped with Floppy Power connectors on the end of each. The Four SATA Connectors can be found along two separate lines extending from the power supply can be found on their own separate lines. With all of the current output options laid out to us across the Molex connectors, it's time to see how the X-Finity held up to our torture tests.
