The Ultra X3 800 is slightly longer than a standard ATX power supply, measuring 7½" deep. There are certainly other power supplies that are bigger however, and I had no problems fitting it into my mid-tower case. Cable lengths were all good, plenty long enough to get where they were needed without having a large amount of slack left over. Having different length cables included in the bundle definitely helped to select the right one for each job. As stated previously, the FlexForce design allows the cables to bend easily which makes wire management a breeze. And being fully modular, you need only connect the cables for your specific hardware requirements.



Although I used the 8-pin +12v auxiliary CPU cable, I really like the fact that Ultra included two separate cables for that, rather than using the typical 4+4 design. Another feature I'm all in favor of is using standard molex connectors on the power supply itself, which allows you to connect those cables from either the long or short end. As an example of where this comes into play is connecting the short span from power supply to optical drive. One last item of note, this is the second Ultra power supply I've reviewed recently and both units have had connectors that were easy to insert and more importantly take apart. I can't tell you the number of times I've had problems lining up the pins or getting that connector out of the optical drive with other brands.

I've installed the Ultra X3 on my recently upgraded test system and will be using it to measure the 800's performance. While no means close to maxing out the load rating, this should represent what a typical mainstream gaming rig might consist of.

5200+ X2 Windsor @ 3.2Ghz
Biostar TForce 570 SLI
2 x 1Gb OCZ PC2-6400 Platinum
MSI NX8600GTS OC @ 700/2100
2 x 74Gb WD Raptors RAID0
DVD+RW, Floppy, Assorted USB & Fans

Voltage measurements are taken using a Fluke multimeter directly from the power supply connector. To load the system I'll be running two instances of Folding @ Home, Windows Defragmenter, a DVD+RW copy process and 3DMark06 simultaneously.



As the graph shows, voltages remained very constant between idle and load conditions. There was absolutely no fluctuation at all during the monitoring. I've reviewed many power supplies in recent years and I have to say the Ultra X3 800 is definitely one of the top, if not the top power supply as far as stability is concerned.

On to final conclusion.