OCZ PowerStream in depth: The changes made for the Overclocker...

     One of the very first things that anyone ever noticed about these new PSU's was the fact that it has adjustable line voltages. This kind of modification was developed a few years ago by a bunch of Iwill KK266 users that had low 5v line voltages which resulted in an unstable overclock under load conditions. What this group of enthusiasts did was bust open their Antec or Enermax power supplies and attach adjustable resistors to raise the resistance across the 5v line rail, which in turn created more voltage delivered to the motherboard's circuitry. The only problem wit this is that if you applied too much resistance to the 5V line it could kill a lot of hard drives, fan controllers, and even take out your motherboard or CPU, or both. We actually experienced a little bit of fan controller death with our modified Enermax just over two years ago. From a reviewers perspective, this is not a good thing, and any amount of condoning it results in large amounts of hate mail in our email boxes. What OCZ has done is create an over-voltage protection circuit so this does not happen to you. It can actually detect through the use of diodes that your are over the rate of current that your components can handle.

     The adjustable pots of the OCZ are easily accessible yet not too much so that practical jokers can't adjust them too easily :)

     Bad Evil overvoltage! :) The OCZ PowerStream works well in protecting your precious components through the use of simple LED's

This is what it should look like when its adjusted properly.

Oh the colors...Is this thing a work of art or what?

     OCZ also has what some may say an unparalleled fit and finish. This PSU is by far one of the nicest parts I have ever seen! Instead of the traditional hide your power supply, you can now install it knowing it's going to wow your buddies. With a smoked black chrome finish, there is no need for paint, and even though the PowerStream is chromed, it does not scratch very easily. There is one thing that needs to acknowledged from OCZ though, the wiring needs to be cleaned up a tad. Sure its nice to see they have loomed the wiring up fairly nicely, but it would be nice to see them go the extra mile to sleeve the wiring completely instead of just the video card and hard drive cables. Of course this can be a good thing, since most of the power supplies that I have seen thus far that are sleeved are not done correctly with about 4-6 in of wiring left over, which may make some just want to sleeve their own. Well we did just that with a sleeving kit from Vantec, and some heatshrink and plugs from A.C. Ryan.

Unsleeved with the exception of the ATX connector and 2 Molex plugs for the hard drive and video card.

Here are the two plugs with what looks to be RFI filters. They are sleeved with the continuing Black Charcoal theme.

     The sleeved ATX power connector. Notice that it is a 24 pin connector. A 20 pin is provided, although it would be nice to just have the 20 pin only, since the adapter comes unsleeved. With some careful use of zip ties we were able to hide the adapter.

The wonderful fit and finish of the PowerStream is nothing short of beautiful...

A glance at the backside of the OCZ PSU..