Verdict: Explosive and inefficient

The Ultra XCONNECT is one of just a few sub-500W modular PSUs on the market today. Modular PSUs are great because you only have to connect the cables you need, which increases the airflow inside the case and saves you the hassle of tidying away unused cables.

Ultra rates the XCONNECT at 500W with a 20A 3.3V rail, 32A 5V rail and 28A 12V rail. There's no PCI-E connector, although you get eight Molex, one FDD and two S-ATA plugs. Even worse, the XCONNECT only sports 20-pin ATX and 4-pin ATX12V cables, so it won't work with modern 24-pin motherboards out of the box. It's cooled by two 80mm temperature-controlled fans, which start off reasonably quiet but get fairly noisy when the PSU is put under a lot of stress.

This PSU initially passed the 50, 75 and 100 per cent load tests, although it's very inefficient. At 100 per cent load, it had to draw 710W from the mains to produce 500W and blew up after just five minutes and ten seconds, failing miserably to meet the ATX spec, which states that 'should a component failure occur, the power supply should not exhibit a startling noise or excessive smoke'.

The XCONNECT can only really be classed as stable at 75 per cent load, which means it's really a 380W PSU, and not 500W. Even so, we'd recommend leaving it on the shelf.

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