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Product Application:

ATX Power Supply

Product Provided by:

OCZ Technology

Available at:

NewEgg.com

Estimated MSRP:

$179.99

Availability:

Now

Review by:

Joe

Edited by:

Paul

Review date:

5/27/2008

Crucial System Scanner
 

Testing:

To test the EliteXStream, we are going to use the following setup:

CPU: Q6600 @ 3.56GHz
Motherboard: DFI Lan Party P35-T2R
GPU: OCZ 8800GTX, 621MHz-972MHz
RAM: 4x1GB Crucial Ballistix, DDR2-1066, 2.23V
Case: Danger Den Torture Rack
Sound: X-Fi XtremeMusic
 Cooling: Swiftech H20-220 Compact
Hard Drives: 1x500GB Seagate Barracuda
2x150GB Raptor X

Voltages:

First off, we are going to measure voltage stability.  Previously, I would use SpeedFan's built in logging capability to capture the voltage readings in realtime, while applying various loads to the system.  This time, however, I am using OCCT's tool since it provides better resolution.  OCCT also provides its own loading tool for the CPU.  For the GPU, I used the 3DMark06 test "Deep Freeze", with 8xAA, 16xAF, at 1920x1200.  I randomly applied loads over the course of 120 minutes to see if I could get any significant variance. 

Here is the 12V rail over the course of two hours.   We can see exactly when the 3DMark06 runs occurred, as we see a 0.05V drop on the rail as soon as the benchmark goes into 3D.  Ideally, we would want to see a completely flat line, in reality you will see some variance under different loads.  .05V translates into a 0.4% variance. 

The 5V rail clocks in with absolute stability across the entire run. 

The 3.3V rail also shows some minor sagging at the same time the 12V rails do.  In this case, we are talking about a variance of 0.01V, so not a lot to worry about.  At the beginning and end of the run, where the system is idle, the rail rests a little higher than under load.   

Ideal   3.3V  5V  12V 
Measured 3.36V  5.11V  12.17V 
 

While software monitoring tools are good for tracking variances, they are not so good at accurately measuring the rails.  So, we use a DMM to measure the rails while idle, and we find everything is within spec.

Efficiency: 

  Idle  Load 
Corsair HX620 310 575 
OCZ EliteXStream  309 571

Next up, we compare the EliteXStream to my current standby, the Corsair HX620 and see which one is more efficient.  Power usage was measured at the plug with a Kill-A-Watt meter.  Idle is defined as being on the desktop, and load was achieved by running Prime95 V25.4 and 3DMark06 at max settings simultaneously.   Here we can see that the OCZ beats the Corsair by an hair in both Idle and Load measurements. 

Conclusion:

There has been a lot of speculation as to how OCZ power supplies might be changed once PC Power & Cooling was brought into the wings, and it appears that an OCZ unit is still of a different breed than PCP&C.  So far, we haven't seen OCZ turn their nose up at large fans like PCP&C does, though it is a shame that more OCZ units aren't modular.  The performance of the EliteXStream is quite good, the 12V rail moves a little bit but is well within spec.  Power efficiency is very good, even beating out the highly regarded Corsair HX620.  Noise is nonexistant, even at full load. 

Pros:

  • Great performance

  • Efficient

  • Lots of connectors

  • Quiet 

Cons:

  • Not modular 

Performance: 4 out of 5

Innovation:

3 out of 5

Quality:

4 out of 5

Stability:

5 out of 5
Aesthetics: 3 out of 5

Software/Drivers Pack:

N/A

Overclocking:

N/A
Value: 3 out of 5

Project Skill Level
(5 being most difficult)

3 out of 5

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