If you have not heard of Glacial you are not alone; they are a small but effective company that makes a nice line of products. Glacial is divided up into three divisions:
Glacial Tech – Is the main division and you can find most items under this heading with CPU coolers, chassis,  and case fans being the most prominent.
GlacialLight – Makes… well lights, from wind up flashlights to high output bulbs.
 GlacialPower – As the name suggests they make power supplies, all kinds of power supplies.
Today we have a power supply from GlacialTech (Power) on the table. This nice little PSU is dubbed the GP-AL-650A and has the tag line “The best power supply, the best cost performance for the gamer solution”. We will see if this claim can hold up.

Product: GlacialPower GP-AL 650A
Author: Sean Kalinich
Reviewed on: November 18th 2008
Manufacturer: GlacialPower (GlacialTech)
Spelling and Grammatical editor: Planetx64 Staff

{mospagebreak title=Packaging}
Packaging:
The Box the GP-AL-650A ships in is the standard PSU box with a handle on the top (making it look like a lunchbox). The box is understated and clean, specifications are easy to read and the graph (yes there is only one) showing off performance highlights is not hard on the eyes.

{mospagebreak title=Specifications and Construction}
Specifications and Construction:
Specs are taken from GlacialPower’s site:
ATX12V Version 2.2
Design with active PFC function
Dual +12V rails and +5Vsb capability 15 W
Full output power from 0°C to 50°C
Full protection features of SCP, OVP, OCP, OPP, OTP
Power efficiency meet Energy Star 80 plus program criterion
Fan speed control and delay shut down to extend components life time
Fan switch off (0 dBA) at low load and selectable between 8cm and 12cm
RoHS compliance and 2 yesr warranty
Manufactured with high reliability and in strict processes

The 650A is as the name implies a 650Watt PSU, it has an 80% efficiency rating  and also features the nice touch of having two 6-pin PCI-e plugs that can both convert to 8-pin.
There is no listed support for Crossfire or SLI on the box and with only 2 12v Rails and 2 PCI-E connectors it is a sure bet you would be getting either of these running in with high end cards. This makes the claim of being for the gaming solution a little off at this point.

The GP-AL650A has a large fan that spins on demand to keep things cool, during most of my testing the fan sat idle. It was not until my gaming testing that it started to spin. This would seem to indicate that the 650A is not a heat monger and probably would be at home in an SFF case or HTPC system.
One down side that I noticed right away is the lack of any kind of sheathing for the power connectors.
This makes keeping the cables clean and neat a problem, granted it is one that can be solved but annoying still.

{mospagebreak title=Performance}
Performance:
For testing the Glacial Power 650A for voltage and amperage droop I borrowed three Fluke 87V Digital Multimeters and connected them to the 12v (one for each rail in turn), 5v and 3.3v lines. Next I placed a P3 Kill A Watt wattmeter inline to test power draw from the wall.
After I had my test gear I needed to come up with methods for testing idle and load efficiency. Idle was easy I simply connected the test gear as listed above and turned on the system. For load testing I needed to make sure I covered all type of usage and did not concentrate on gaming only. For this I came up with 4 types of Load tests these are listed below.

Load -1 –This is really nothing more than a full 32MB run of Hyper Pi 0.99b. HyperPi uses the CPU, memory and hard drives causing a good amount of power usage. I will test for 3.3, 5, and 12 volt stability as well as seeing what the wattage use from the wall is. I will take a wattage measurement at each loop and then average this for the final wattage score. I will also take the Voltage reading at each loop and this will result in my average. Final numbers will be high, low and average for each reading.

Load -2 – For this test I will run a full render in LightWave 9.3 (x64) I will use Moonbase as the sample for rendering. I will take readings for Wattage, and voltage every 10 minutes and average these out. The same High, low and average will be recorded. Final numbers will be high, low and average for each reading.

Load-3 – Load test 3 will consist of a full defragmentation using O&O Defrag Professional Edition (Space) of the system drive. Again voltage readings will be done every 10 minutes.

Load -4 – Finally, the gaming tests. For this test I will run Crysis Warhead and then Bioshock for 1 hour each. Readings will be taken every 10 minutes and every level load. Final numbers will be high, low and average for each reading.
Settings for both games shown below:
Crysis Warhead – Resolution 1920×1200, no AA, all image quality settings set to Gamer

Bioshock – Resolution 1920×1200, all settings maxed out, DX 10 surfaces enabled V-Sync off.

Test System:
Intel QX9770 (3.2GHz 1600MHz FSB)
2GB (2x1GB) Kingston HyperX DDR3 1625
Asus P5E64 WS Evolution
150GB RaptorX Western Digital HDD
Sapphire HD 4850 X2
Sony DVD-RW
GlacialPower GP-AL-650A PSU.
Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate x64
I chose this configuration as I felt it would stress the GP-AL-650A but not push it over the edge.
The HD 4850 X2 is a power hungry card and requires the use of one 8-pin PCI-e connector and a 2nd 6-pin. This should cause a heavy draw on both 12v Rails. The rest of the system should also be able to determine if the 650A has what it needs to power a good gaming system.

Number for Voltage are represented as low/high. Single number indicate no fluctuation was noted for that line.

The GP-AL-650A, did pretty good, I was actually surprised that it was able to keep up with the HD 4850 X2. For most apps that just pushed the CPU all lines ran very close to idle specs with minimal fluctuation. When I started gaming the real stress began. I was very surprised to see the 12v lines drop as drastically as they did while power draw from the wall went way up. I was even more shocked to see Bioshock cause more of a drop than Crysis Warhead. This was more than likely due to the extra overhead from the DX10 surfaces and textures. The settings used for Crysis Warhead did not bring all DX10 textures and features into play.
Although the 12v drop was surprising it posed no issues in terms of performance or stability, I was able to play both games for more than an hour with no problems.

{mospagebreak title=Conclusion}
Conclusion:
The GalcialPower GP-AL 650A is a nice little PSU. It is not going to meet the needs of the enthusiast gamer or the person that wants SLI’d GTX 280s but it can run under some pretty heavy stress without faltering. Despite not being listed as SLI/Crossfire capable I feel that it could handle SLI or CF of cards that need only a single power connector (like the 4830 or 4850). This is especially true after seeing it take the punishment of the HD 4850 X2. The quite operating and low heat output will make this PSU perfect for any SFF system and will also be right at home in even a high end HTPC. Although these are rare if you are looking for a dependable hardworking PSU for your SFF gaming rig or HTPC and can find one I would certainly recommend grabbing it.
 

{mospagebreak title=Package} 

Product: NZXT Performance Power 600/800

Author: Jason Hambly

Reviewed on: August 26, 2008

Product Cost: $69.99(PP-600) / $129.99(PP-800)

Manufacturer: NZXT

Spelling and Grammatical editor: PlanetX64 Staff

Package:

NZXT ships these PSUs in a pretty standard cardboard box, the same that most PSUs would come in.  The outside has lots of specs and information regarding the units and adds a couple of pictures. If you give the box a shake you will notice my next concern.  There is no padding inside the box to keep the PSU from sliding around. The PP-800 is a little larger and has more wires coming out of it so it doesn’t move very much but the smaller PP-600 moves around quite a bit. A single small piece of foam would prevent this.

{mospagebreak title=Specs and Features} 

Specifications and Features:

Performance Power 600

Connectors:

1x Main ATX (24 pin)

1x 12V (4+4)

8x Molex

6x SATA

1x Floppy

2x PCI-E (1x 6pin, 1x 6+2 pin)

-Complying with Intel ATX/BTX Standard

-Gold-Coated Connectors

-Output Over / Under / Short / Overload Protection

-78% Efficiency at Load

-Smooth Matte Black Finish

-Industry Standard ATX 2.2V (PP-600)

-Low noise 120mm fan (PP-600)

-Two +12V Rails (PP-600)

-PCI-E 6/8 pin, SATA, EPS12V Ready

-SLI and Crossfire Ready including support for nVidia 8800GTX and ATI 2900HD

Performance Power 800

Connectors:

1x Main ATX (24 pin)

1x 12V (4+4)

8x Molex

6x SATA

1x Floppy

4x PCI-E (2x 6pin, 2x 6+2 pin)

-Complying with Intel ATX/BTX Standard

-Gold-Coated Connectors

-Output Over / Under / Short / Overload Protection

-78% Efficiency at Load

-Smooth Matte Black Finish

-Industry Standard ATX 2.91V (PP-800)

-Low noise 120mm and 80mm fans (PP-800)

-Four +12V Rails (PP-800)

-PCI-E 6/8 pin, SATA, EPS12V Ready

-SLI and Crossfire Ready including support for nVidia 8800GTX and ATI 2900HD

{mospagebreak title=Overview}

Overview:

Holding the NZXT PSUs in your hand you will see a pretty solid unit.  It is not the sharpest looking PSU but the matte finish will prevent you from leaving your fingerprints all over it during installation. The PP-600 and PP-800 are very similar in design, the PP-800 is slightly longer to allow for the 80mm fan that is not included in the smaller PP-600.  Neither unit has a modular design so you are stuck hiding all the left over cables inside your rig. The only cables that are sleeved are the 12V 4+4 and the 24pin main ATX connector.  One thing to note about the 24pin connector is that it is not a 20+4; the last four pins will not break away so anyone still rocking an old ass mobo will be out of luck.  The PCI Express cables are double ended so on the PP-600 there is only one cable for both of the PCI-E connectors; the second of which has the extra +2pins for an 8pin video card. The PP-800 has two cables similar to the one on the PP-600.  There are lots of Molex and SATA connectors.  With all hard drives using SATA connectors now there are almost too many Molex connectors still coming with PSUs.  An additional note on the PP-800 is that it is SLI certified for anyone planning on running two cards.

{mospagebreak title=Performance}

Test System:

Asus P5Q-Pro P45

Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 @ stock 3.16GHz

4GB G.Skill PC2 8500 DDR2-1066

BFG 8800GT OC 512MB

2x Seagate 7200.9 80GB in RAID 0

Razer Barracuda AC-1 Sound Card

Danger Den Water-cooling

Thermaltake Armor Chassis

Performance:

To test out the performance of these PSUs I ran several applications and a game all while measuring the draw from the wall using a P3 Kill A Watt meter and a digital multi meter to check the individual rails. The apps that I ran were Cinebench, 3DMark Vantage, HyperPi, RTHDRIBL, and the game was Bioshock.

First off is a straight up measurement of wattage and voltage at idle in
Vista.

	Wattage	3.3v	5v	12v1	12v2	12v3	12v4
PP-600	141	3.327	5.10	12.02	12.03	n/a	n/a
PP-800	146	3.398	5.16	12.16	12.17	12.15	12.15

The next app I ran was Cinebench followed by 3DMark Vantage.

To try and push the PSUs a little harder I ran HyperPi on both cores along with RTHDRIBL. RTHDRIBL (Real-time High Dynamic Range Image-Based Lighting) is a demo created a few years ago to show DirectX9 textures and Pixel Shader 2 real time HDR rendering.

	Wattage	3.3v	5v	12v1	12v2	12v3	12v4
PP-600	174	3.325	5.10	12.00	12.02	n/a	n/a
PP-800	183	3.397	5.15	12.14	12.16	12.13	12.14

Finally I played a bit of Bioshock to see what would happen.

	Wattage	3.3v	5v	12v1	12v2	12v3	12v4
PP-600	199	3.324	5.09	11.99	12.01	n/a	n/a
PP-800	204	3.395	5.15	12.14	12.15	12.11	12.12

As you can see from the charts above, both PSUs remained very stable while powering an average gaming machine.

{mospagebreak title=Conclusion} 

Price and Warranty:

These power supplies are available online and can be found for $69.99(PP-600) and $129(PP-800). NZXT offers a one year warranty for its power supplies.

Conclusion:

After running each power supply for a couple of weeks, I have nothing really negative to say about either of them. They both run very quiet and the power remained very stable.  Modular cables would have been nice but I can live without that for a reliable unit. The PP-800 is SLI certified so that is definitely a bonus for that model.  The PP-600 is priced very well at $69.99 and will allow just about any budget gamer to have a reliable PSU. They have a nice matte finish so you don’t need to worry about finger prints all over them after you wrestle it into your case. So overall for NZXT’s first shot at the power supply market I think they hit just the right spot.

In the past few years, many companies have been reinventing themselves. Making the attempt at going from entry level to high performance manufacturer all in an attempt at the gamer and enthusiasts wallet and seemingly never ending desire to buy whatever is the newest or best. CoolerMaster is one of these companies. They have moved away from boring cases and lackluster cooling products into a new realm of enthusiast aimed products. One of these is their new UCP (Ultimate Circuit Protection), which CoolerMaster says offers 88% efficiency. Will this be the PSU of choice? Or just more words printed on a box?

Product: CoolerMaster UCP 1100      
Author: Sean Kalinich
Reviewed on: August 9th 2008
Product cost: $349.99 (MSRP)
Manufacturer: CoolerMaster
Spelling and Grammatical editor: Planetx64 Staff

{mospagebreak title=Packaging and Features}
Packaging and Features:
The UCP 1100 arrived in a large box, much bigger than I was expecting. The outside has the usual images and descriptions, including the obligatory specifications table. Here is where things get a little different. The first one that grabbed my eye was the 100,000 hour MTBF (Mean Time Between Failures) this means that on average you should be able to run this PSU for 100,000 hours before having a failure of the system. For those of you not doing the math at home this is 4166.67 days or, 592.24 weeks or, 11.45 years. Not too shabby considering most PSUs have a MTBF of about 50-60,000 hours.  Now you may find a few that claim 100k MTBF but if you look closely you will see that the operational temp that you get that life span at is 25c or lower. CoolerMaster is claiming a 100k MTBF at 40c this is a more realistic number than the 25c range other companies are pushing.

The next thing that caught my eye was the 88% efficiency range. At a time when the goal is 80 CoolerMaster seems to be pushing for an even higher number.
One other nice feature CoolerMaster have thrown in is a handy selection of PCI-e connections; there are three PCI-e connectors that are both 8 and 6-pin. Instead of having a 2-pin add on they have individual 8 and 6-pin connectors on the line. The other three are 6-pin only.

But these are not the only things that stand out, CoolerMaster boast a few other goodies as well. Including:
Japanese Capacitors as well as Solid Capacitors
VRM(Voltage Regulation Module) Circuit offers high efficiency and Power density.
Independent VRMs for 5 and 3.3 Rails
Compliance with the newest Intel standard ATX 12V V2.3
Compliance with the newest SSI standard EPS 12V V2.92
Ultra-silent operation with intelligent 120mm fan speed control
Eco-design for energy and money saving by Active PFC.(>0.9) / high efficiency(>88%)
Power Failure Detector will light up when OVP /OCP / OPP / SCP / UVP /OTP occur
Soft-start circuit A protection mechanism that limits the input inrush current by delaying the actual power-on of the PSU to prevent damage to it.
Green mode PFC control circuit by intelligent PWM power conversion
By using a single 12V switching circuit design you get a more efficient AC to DC conversion which leads to an overall more efficient PSU

Specifications are as follows:

{mospagebreak title=Construction}
Construction:
The UCP 1100 is put together a little different than many PSUs out on the market today. Instead of the high gloss (and finger print magnet) surfaces or most CoolerMaster opted for a more rugged textured surface that not only prevents fingerprints and oil accumulation but also resists scratches and nicks.
The down side of this is that the PSU appears to be made of plastic to the casual glance. Once you get over that worry the UCP has a very rugged appearance and the large block letters “Ultimate” on the sides (they have rotated the label so that no matter how you mount it the word “Ultimate” will appear right side up on the left side.) give the UCP 1100 a very industrial look. Taking off the outer cover reveals a cleanly laid out interior. The majority of the wires usually strewn about the inside of a PSU are all carefully run along one side or run so as to be out of the way of the two rows of heatsinks covering the power regulators.  These are cooled by a large 120mm fan that during operation is almost silent. While inside the V8 system I was unable to hear it over the other fans in use, while outside the V8 the only noise was a slight sound of air movement caused by the blades of the fan.

Connectors, here I think is the only downside to the way CoolerMaster put the UCP 1100 together. Instead of opting for a modular setup they went with the traditional design and have all cables laid out in one large (almost 3” in diameter) bundle. This makes for a lot of cable management even in a system like the V8 I used. With the six PCI-e power cables you are more than likely going to have at least four of these to tuck out of the way. The other although less important issue is that CoolerMaster decided to use a different pin layout for the power cable to From the PSU to the Wall. The shape of the connector is rectangular and the pins are now horizontal, this means you cannot use a standard cord with this PSU. Other than these two annoying stumbles CoolerMaster have done a great job with the UCP 1100s design and construction.

{mospagebreak title=Performance} Performance:
There is no good way to test a PSU without a Load tester and an Oscilloscope, But as these products can run into the tens of thousands of dollars I was not able to test the UCP 1100 with them. Instead I tried to find the most efficient way to test normal usage (at normal ambient temperatures) to see if there is Voltage Droop, of if there is excessive power draw from the wall.
To test for voltage and amperage droop I borrowed three Fluke 87V Digital Multimeters and connected them to the 12v, 5v and 3.3v lines. Next I placed a P3 Kill A Watt wattmeter inline to test power draw from the wall.
After I had my test gear I needed to come up with methods for testing idle and load efficiency. Idle was easy I simply connected the test gear as listed above and turned on the system. For load testing I needed to make sure I covered all type of usage and did not concentrate on gaming only. For this I came up with 4 types of Load tests these are listed below.

Load -1 –This is really nothing more than a full 32MB run of Hyper Pi 0.99b. HyperPi uses the CPU, memory and hard drives causing a good amount of power usage. I will test for 3.3, 5, and 12 volt stability as well as seeing what the wattage use from the wall is. I will take a wattage measurement at each loop and then average this for the final wattage score. I will also take the Voltage reading at each loop and this will result in my average. Final numbers will be high, low and average for each reading.

Load -2 – For this test I will run a full render in LightWave 9.3 (x64) I will use Moonbase as the sample for rendering. I will take readings for Wattage, and voltage every 10 minutes and average these out. The same High, low and average will be recorded. Final numbers will be high, low and average for each reading.

Load-3 – Load test 3 will consist of a full defragmentation using O&O Defrag Professional Edition (Space) of the system drive. Again voltage readings will be done every 10 minutes.

Load -4 – Finally, the gaming tests. For this test I will run Crysis and then Assassins Creed for 1 hour each. Readings will be taken every 10 minutes and every level load. Final numbers will be high, low and average for each reading.

The system:
2 x Intel Xeon X5365 Processors (Quad Core 3.0GHz 1333MHz FSB)
Asus Z7S WS
4 GB (2x2GB) Kingston 667MHz FBDIMMs
3x Seagate Cheetah 15K.4 ST373454SS 74GB 15k RPM SAS HHDs (RAID 5)
3x 80GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST380815AS SATA II 3.0G HDDs (single drives)
LSI Logic LSI00118 PCI Express SAS MegaRAID 8344ELP 128MB
1 Sony DVD-RW
Asus Xonar D2
NZXT Sentry LX
Foxconn 9800GTX-512N
Microsoft Windows Vista x64 running on the RAID 5 Array.

Results:
After a few days of testing and retesting I was rather impressed. The UCP 1100 was able to handle my V8 system quite easily. Even under the heavy load from Lightwave 9.3 x64 and a full 40 frame render the power did not fluctuate. Although these days if a PSU did show signs of Voltage Droop, it would not be around for long. I was also pleased by the UCP 1100’s efficiency at the wall. I have run this V8 system with a few other PSUs and it was usually over the 525 Watt mark at the wall under load. Granted without specialized equipment I was not able to completely test the limits of this PSU but the results below should be sufficient to show the efficiency of the UCP 1100 even under the heavy requirements of the Dual quad core Xeon system. 

One of the nice things I noticed about the UCP 1100 is that the line voltage did not waver. There were no highs or lows. This PSU from CoolerMaster found a voltage and stayed there.
{mospagebreak title=Price/Warranty}
Price/ warranty:
The UCP 1100 is a top end PSU, as such it does have a top end price tag. Coming in at $349.99 (MSRP) it is going to take a big chunk out of your bank account.
But CoolerMaster is backing up this PSU with a very nice 5 year warranty on the UCP 1100.
This shows their confidence in the part and its performance as well.

Warranty information can be found on CoolerMaster’s site.

{mospagebreak title=Conclusion}
Conclusion:
I am not a big fan of PSU testing, without very specialized equipment for testing cross-loading, voltage ripple and, etc it is very hard to determine if a PSU really is going to live up to its claims. I feel that in the end I was able to devise a method for showing overall efficiency and performance. With this testing method the UCP 1100 showed itself to be a very nice unit, handling the power hungry Dual Xeon Quad Core system without breaking a sweat. The only down side to the UCP 1100 was the lack of modular cabling. This may put more than a few enthusiast off, yes the UCP performs amazingly but when faced with dealing with a mass of unused cables some may skip over the UCP for less efficient and powerful models. This is a shame as the UCP 1100 is one of the best PSUs I have ever hooked up to my V8. If you are looking for something to feed the power appetite of your own voracious system the CoolerMaster UCP 1100 should be at the top of your menu. 

Discussion Link

Product:  OCZ ModXStream 780W PSU
Author: Paul Mercer
Category: Enthusiast/ Gamer
Reviewed on: July 15th 2007
Product cost: MSRP $179.99
Manufacturer: OCZ Technology
Spelling and Grammatical Editors: Jason Hambly & Sean Kalinich
 

{mospagebreak title=Specifications}

Specifications:

780W & 900W Configurations       
OCZ PowerWhisper™ Technology       
Internal 120mm fan       
Blue LEDs       
3 year warranty backed by OCZ’s exclusive PowerSwap™ replacement program. No more endless return-for-repair loops!

Technical specifications       
150 x 140 x 86mm       
ATX12V v2.2 and EPS12V       
OCZ ConnectAll™ universal connectors (see product sheets)       
High efficiency
> 80% @ 115V (Typical load)
> 80% @ 230V (Typical load)       
Overvoltage/Overcurrent/Short-Circuit protection       
Active PFC       
MTBF: 100,000 hours @ 25C       
100~240Vac 10-5A 50/60Hz       
+3.3V(30A), +5V(30A), +12V1(20A), +12V2(20A), +12V3(20A), +12V4(20A) Maximum ratings are shown.

Part Numbers
780W – OCZ780MXS
900W – OCZ900MXS

{mospagebreak title=Packaging and Contents}

Packaging & Contents

The retail packaging of the OCZ ModXtreme stands out quite well when compared to some other manufacturers and is quite eye-catching.
The features of the OCZ ModXStream are clearly listed on the packaging along with the fact that this power supply comes with a 36 month “PowerSwap” warranty and a US. power cord.

Opening the box, shows the supply neatly packaged and protected with the main unit covered in bubble wrap.

Packaging 4.25/5.0

The unit itself is no bigger than a standard power supply, and because of the single (temperature controlled) 120mm LED fan rather than the 80mm variants found on some other units such as PC Power & Cooling, should remain fairly quiet during use.
Included with the 780W version of the OCZ ModXStream were the following modular cables:

Main 20+4pin ATX connector (hardwired)
2x 4+4pin 12V CPU (1x hardwired, 1x modular)
2x 6pin PCI-E Connectors (1x hardwired, 1x modular)
2x 3xSATA connectors (1x hardwired, 1x modular)
2x 2xMolex+Floppy (1x hardwired, 1x modular)

While the provided cables may be adequate for an average system, there are no 8 pin PCI-e cables and few Molex/SATA connectors. If (like me) you have a need for more than 6 SATA or 4 Molex plugs, you will need to use splitters.  After connecting a fan controller (2xmolex), a hard drive and an optical drive, I found I had to resort to using a splitter to connect my pump. 8-Pin PCI-e connectors may not have been important a couple of months ago, but times have changed and so have the power requirements of some of today’s modern graphics cards… unfortunately this also counts against the OCZ unit.

Cabling 4.0/5.0

The OCZ ModXStream is not as heavy as most other power supplies of over 700W, this can probably be attributed to the smaller heatsinks used inside.

The cover on this particular unit also seemed slightly loose, as I tapped lightly with my finger on the label side of the OCZ ModXStream, the casing rattled.

Opening up the OCZ ModXStream 780W and taking a closer look at the printed circuit board shows that this power supply is yet another that is actually designed and manufactured by FSP.

It was quite difficult to get clear pictures of all of the text on the PCB, but from the markings shown, it would appear that this same circuit board is used in a number of different models of varying power (albeit with a few changes to the components) from 400W all the way up to 1010W.

The Fan used in the OCZ ModXStream is a Protechnic Electric MGA12012HB-O25 rated at approximately 2500rpm @ 38dba.

The eagle-eyed out there may have also noticed that there are not enough connectors on the PSU for the cables supplied…
If you choose to use this power supply for a dual CPU (not dual core) and need to use both 12V CPU cables, this will only leave room for one PCI-e cable. This counts out the possibility of running an 8800GTX or Ultra card in such a system without having to resort to adaptors and/or splitters.
Lastly, it’s not really an issue at all, but I would have preferred the 20+4 pin main ATX connector to have clipped together rather than having to hold them together as I inserted the plug, the current method works, but there is room for error.

Looks 4.25/5.0

{mospagebreak title=Testing}

Test Setup:
• Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 @ 3.6GHz w/1.525V
• Asus P5N32-E SLi Motherboard
• Asus EN8800GTX @ 650/1602/2030 w/HR-03 Plus & Sharkoon 120mm Fan
• 4096MB (4x1GB) DDR2 @ DDR-1000 4-4-4-8 w/2.2V
• Creative SoundBlaster X-Fi XtremeMusic
• Fan Controller
• 5x120mm Fans
• 3x80mm Fan
• 1x70mm fan
• Laing D5 Pump
• 3x 80GB Hitachi DeskStar  7200RPM SATA2 HDD
• 1x 160GB Hitachi DeskStar 7200RPM SATA2 HDD
• 2 x 250GB Seagate 7200.10 SATA2 HDD
• 1 x Panasonic DVD-RW drive

To check the stability of the rails I connected a UNI-T UT60E multimeter to the relevant voltage rail and booted up the PC at stock speeds and settings. After a couple of minutes idling, a base reading was taken. The system was then overclocked and put under as much load as possible. Turning all fans up to high speed while simultaneously running Prime95 (Blend), RTHDRIBL, burning a DVD and running IOMeter. While under load, I used the logging capability of the multimeter to check the high and low peaks during the time tested. The procedure was then repeated for each individual rail.

As can be seen by the results gathered, the voltage rails of the OCZ ModXStream 780W are fairly stable with minimal fluctuations under load.

Without specialised testing equipment I was unable to stress the 780W OCZ ModXStream to its limits, including checking cross-loading, efficiency and seeing if the voltage ripple stays within ATX specs. However, the tests shown should be decent representation of an average-to-high end system with a bit of overclocking thrown in to boot.

Noise Levels:
During bootup and when idle, the 120mm fan of the OCZ ModXstream remained well behaved and was quite quiet. When load was applied, the fan would spin up accordingly, increasing noise levels slightly, but not as far as to become annoying or loud.
Unfortunately what did annoy me was the high-pitched whine/hiss that would come from the unit when the 8800GTX was loaded. As soon as RTHDRIBL or any other 3D app began stressing the GFX card, the noise would begin, and would cease the moment the software was stopped. This problem also seemed to be isolated to the OCZ unit, since the Enermax Galaxy that I had removed to do this testing did not exhibit similar symptoms.

Performance 4.0/5.0

{mospagebreak title=Price and Warranty}

Price & Warranty

The OCZ ModXStream is retailing for $179.99 at newegg.com or just under £95 in the UK. Compared to other PSU’s in its class, the price is fairly reasonable.

“All OCZ ModXStream power supplies come backed with an industry-leading three year OCZ PowerSwap Warranty for the ultimate peace of mind.”

The small catch is that you need to provide proof of purchase (don’t throw away those receipts) and have access to a credit card.
The PowerSwap warranty basically means that if your PSU develops a fault within the first 36 months, you can call OCZ and they will send you a brand new unit out the same day (if you are willing to supply your credit card details) rather than you having to return the PSU then have it tested, repaired etc. – all of which add to the total length of time it would take to get your PC working again.  You are then given a reasonable time limit to return your broken power supply. If the old power supply is returned in the allotted time, there is no charge made.

{mospagebreak title=Conclusion}
Conclusion

The ModXStream joins the “Stream” of other power supplies produced by OCZ, but unfortunately the particular unit I received fail to impress.
I’m hoping the problems I witnessed are only representative of the sample I have for testing, and that the quality of current retail units is better. But it is still disappointing that a PSU at this pricing level should have trivial problems like these, and as it is, I cannot award points for something that “might be”.
Promising plenty of power for the average system, and modular connections; this unit could be a decent addition to most home computer systems. And with a rated efficiency of over 80%, it might even save you a few pennies on the next electric bill.
Unfortunately with short cables, squealing under load, no support for the latest specifications and limited connectivity, the usefulness and lifetime of the product is questionable when it comes to frequent upgraders and hardcore users.

OCZ have said that they are listening to the comments of reviewers and users and have now stated:
"after taking into consideration the concerns raised about the lack of modular connectors, OCZ is planning a redesign for future productions of this model"

Scores

Packaging: 4.25/5.0
Looks: 4.25/5.0
Cabling: 4.0/5.0
Performance: 4.0/5.0
Final Score: 16.50/20

Pros
• Modular cables
• Looks good
• +80% rated efficiency

Cons
• Not enough cables
• Flimsy Case/questionable build quality
• Squealing/Whining when GFX under load

We would like to take this oppourtunity to thank OCZ for supplying us with the sample for testing.

Mushkin has been around since 1994 and are best known for their ?Enhanced?
memory modules. As Mushkin puts it, ?We got so good at building memory,
we decided to go on a power trip?. That is just what they did, expanding their lineup to include not only memory modules but also high end power supply units. With the enthusiast crowd finally getting
the word across that a generic PSU just doesn?t cut it in today?s
systems, the market for high end PSU?s for all of these users has taken
a huge jump and many companies are trying to capitalize on the
opportunity. Mushkin is the latest to jump into the PSU market and is
hoping to bring with it something that will catch some attention. 
Today I am looking at the Mushkin XP-650 650watt power supply unit. 
With its four 12v rails and modular design, let?s see if it belongs in
your case.

{mospagebreak title=Package and Specifications}
Package and Specifications: 

The Mushkin XP-650 comes in a simple yet very professional looking white and green box.  The sides list several features and specifications of the unit along with a couple of pictures.

Inside the box is another box, this inside box contains all of the cables for the PSU. Below the cable box is the unit itself, wrapped in a bubble wrap bag. There is plenty of open space between the unit and the outer box, but not so much that it will slide around inside.

Included in the box:

1x Mushkin XP-650 PSU
1x Instruction Manual
2x 6-pin PCIe Video Card Cables
2x 15-pinSATA HDD Cables (4 connectors per cable)
2x 4-pin Molex Cables (2 connectors per cable)
2x 4-pin Molex and 4-pin Floppy Cables (1 connector each per cable)
1x Package of 5 Velcro ties(multi colored)
Case Mounting Screws

Specifications:

Features:

{mospagebreak title=Appearance}
Appearance: 

The very first thing I noticed when I grabbed the box from the FedEx driver was the weight. I thought for a minute that there may have been two units sent, so I had to get it open fast.  However there was only one unit in the shipping box and man is it heavy.  Once opened I realized that the box containing all the cables was the cause for some of the weight.  These are not your normal sleeved cables, these have a heavy duty sleeving on them which gives them the added weight. The power cable is even coated in the same sleeving, a very nice touch.  The sleeving itself it very nice looking, it sort of has a Kevlar look to it. The only cables that do not match are the 4/8pin ATX12v connector, 20/24 pin ATX connector and the ground wire that Mushkin has chosen to include.  These three cables have a black plastic nylon mesh sleeving that you commonly find on many other units.  A nice feature about the 4/8pin  and  20/24pin cables is that the additional 4pin connectors have their own cables straight from the PSU allowing you to get them out of the way completely if they are not being used. They come from Mushkin, zip tied neatly against the main line so the additional cable does not cause extra clutter.

The cables were not the only reason for the heavy weight of the package.  The XP-650 itself is about an inch and a half longer than a standard PSU.  It has a very nice mirror finish and a 80mm fan on each end. The external fan is an LED fan with a green glow.  It is a nice change to see a color other than blue.  There are no vents on the sides of the PSU, the only air that can move through comes in through one fan and out the other.

Appearance: 4.6/5 

DFI LP UT SLI-DR Expert
AMD Opteron 165 @ 2.5
Corsair TwinX PT 2x512MB
2x Leadtek 7800GT TDH Extreme in SLI
LG Super-Multi DVD+-RW
2x Samsung 80GB SATA 3G in RAID 0
2x Seagate 750GB 7200.10 SATA 3G in RAID 0
1x Seagate 500GB 7200.9 SATA3G
Danger Den Water-cooling 

The following chart shows the results that were recorded during testing.

Each of the four 12V rails are assigned to the following:

+12V1 = 20/24pin ATX connector
+12V2 = 4/8pin +12V connector
+12V3 = PEG connectors
+12V4 = Molex, FDD, SATA connectors

One thing to note with the 12V rails is that they can not be loaded with 20A each all at once.  The maximum load at one time is 44A across the four rails.

Package and Specifications: 4.7/5
Appearance: 4.6/5
Performance: 4.8/5
Price/Warranty: 4.25/5
Overall: 18.35/20

The Mushkin XP-650 power supply receives our Best on the Planet Award.

Acknowledgements:
We would like to thank Mushkin for sending us this power supply for testing.

Introduction

You can?t seem to swing a cat now-a-days without hitting a modular
power supply. Everyone has one, and for good reason, they make messy
unneeded cables in your windowed case a thing of the past. If you?ve
got a side window in your case then you?ll know how much of a pain it
is to hide unsightly power cables that aren?t connected to anything.
Today we?re reviewing another modular power supply, the ELT500AWT
Liberty from Enermax. This is one of three in the Liberty series, the
others being the 400W model and the huge 620W model. So does this one
have anything to separate it from all of the others out there on the
market? We?re about to find out.

{mospagebreak title=Contents of Product}

Contents of Product

Contained in the ELT500AWT box are the following items:

One Enermax ELT500AWT Power Supply
One AC power cord
One user manual
Four Philips headed case screws
One cable pouch
Two PCI-E power cables
Two non-floppy modular cables (2 x Molex, 2 x SATA each)
Two inc-floppy modular cables (2 x Molex, 2 x SATA, 1 x floppy each)

{mospagebreak title=Specifications}

Specifications

Power Output

Technical Specs:

Input Power: 100 ~ 240 VAC, 50- 60Hz 7.5 ? 3.5A
Switches: Power switch on PSU and ATX logic control
Supports ATX/BTX/PCI Express/SATA and Dual Core systems
Protected by: OCP, OVP, UVP, OLP, SCP, OTP, Active PFC
80% power efficiency
Full support for Dual Core systems
Dual split 12v Rails
Intelligent fan speed control 

{mospagebreak title=Packaging}

Packaging (4 / 5)

The ELT500AWT comes in a white and grey cardboard box which is covered in information about the power supply, as well as two pictures of the unit itself. Information on the box includes its features and the input and output voltages it can take.

Upon opening the box you?re greeted with a pouch for holding the modular cables when they aren?t being used in your system, and the user manual. This pouch is a fantastic idea by Enermax, I?ve lost track of the amount of times I?ve built a system, come back to it a few months later to fit another component and then had to go scrabbling around in my ?box of computer junk? to try to find the rest of the modular cables I need to power the component. With the pouch you can keep all of your cables together in a easily recognisable case. The power supply unit sits at the bottom of the box covered in bubble wrap to stop it getting scratched, which is then covered in a cardboard protector. The AC power cord and the Philips screws, lay at the bottom of the box. 

{mospagebreak title=Noise}

Noise

The Enermax ELT500AWT follows the same route for cooling as many of the other power supplies on the market, using one large 120mm fan to suck air into the unit, instead of two smaller 80mm fans, one to suck air in and one to blow it out. This has the benefit of being able to rotate at slow speeds but still be able to push a large volume of air through the supply, making it very quiet when running. Unfortunately the single fan does have disadvantages, one of them being that because there is no active fan on the back to draw air out of the supply, dust accumulates faster in a single fan power supply, than in a dual fan.

Instead of adding a fan control dial on the back of the ELT500 AWT, such as the EG465AX-VE has, Enermax have decided to include a control wire which can be attached to the motherboard. This enables software monitoring of the fan.

Under testing, the noise from the Liberty was very low, from start up to heavy load during the benchmarking. This is a major plus as although in a standard system you?re unlikely to hear the power supply over the graphics card and processor fans, you may hear it in a quieter system such as a water cooled or acoustically dampened system. 

{mospagebreak title=Looks}

Looks (4.4 / 5)

The ELT500 AWT comes in a reflective black colour which would look good in any lit case, although finger prints also display effectively well. A gold coloured circular fan guard keeps fingers and cables from damage in the 120mm fan, which itself is covered by a golden sticker displaying the Enermax name.

Enermax have included two main venting points to allow airflow from the fan to cool the power supply and exhaust hot air out of the case. The first of these is a honeycomb grill design at the back of the case to allow air flow from the fan with as little resistance as possible. The second is a set of vents at the front of the unit next to the cables.

The 120mm fan is made from clear plastic so it is possible to see right through it to the gold heat sink inside.  

The cables in the ELT500 AWT are braided in an attractive black and gold braid which matches the colour scheme of the main unit. Although the braiding makes the cables thicker and more difficult to bend around it does make the inside of the case much more attractive. Each cable is terminated in a black plastic block which houses gold connectors.

The sockets for the modular cables to plug into on the power supply unit itself come in two colours. Red sockets are used for the PCI-E power cables, designed to power high end graphics cards. Black sockets are used for all other type of power connector.

Overall there are eight sockets, two red and six black, and unless you are running a lot of devices in your system, most of these will not be used. 

{mospagebreak title=Cabling}

Cabling (4.2 / 5)

Where as most manufacturers who make modular power supplies supply them with a whole plethora of cabling, Enermax have decided to take the opposite route with the Liberty, and only supply a few cables with loads of connectors on them.  The theory behind this is that most of your devices in the system that require power (CD/RW, HDDs, Floppy drive, etc) will be located in the same place in your system, so instead of running several cables to the same place in the case, you might as well only run one cable that has all of the needed connectors on it, and make the case look tidier.

This is a great idea in theory, but in practice, it runs into problems. The most major one of these being an over abundance of cables in one area. Having many connectors on one cable is fine if you have a lot of devices in your system, but if you only have one CD-ROM and a single hard drive and they are located in separate areas of your case, you?re still going to have to run two cables, and each of these cables is going to have at least three connectors dangling into the case looking unsightly.

Not all the cables in the Liberty are modular. The 24pin ATX connector is fixed to the power supply, with the additional 4 pins attached to the main 20pin block by a small plastic clip, so it can be snapped off for older motherboards. The dedicated 12v cable comes as an 8pin block which can be split into two 4pin connectors. The Liberty also has a small cable for monitoring the speed on the 120mm fan from your motherboard.

This design is followed by most manufacturers, the theory behind is going that all computers are going to require a ATX cable, and so if everyone requires it, why make it modular? Unfortunately the same problem applies to this design as the problem above. If you?re using an older motherboard with only a single 12v cable needed for the CPU, you?re going to have two additional 4pin cables dangling in the case looking ugly and serving no function.

{mospagebreak title=Performance}

Performance (4.7 / 5)

Test setup

• Antec Titan Server Case
• 2 x 120mm case fans
• 1 x 80mm case fans
• 2 x 4 inch cold cathode lights
• 1 x 12 inch cold cathode light
• Zalman 7000alcu heat sink fan
• AMD Athlon 3000+ (Socket 754) at 2152Mhz at 1.55volts
• MSI Neo FIS2R motherboard
• Crucial X850XT 256MB PCI-E graphics card
• 1024MB Kingston Hyper X PC3500 at 2.75v
• 2 x Maxtor DiamondMax 7200RPM drives (SATA) in RAID 0
• 1 x Maxtor DiamondMax 7200RPM drive (PATA)
• 1 x CD/RW drive
• 1 x DVD-ROM drive

Testing procedure:

All case lights and fans were turned on to their maximum settings. Cool ?n? Quiet was turned off so that the CPU was constantly running at 2152Mhz at 1.55 volts. The following tests were all run at the same time to ensure all devices on the system were drawing maximum power.

• Prime 95 was set to torture test the RAM (Stressed the RAM)
• ATI Tool was set to scan for artefacts (Stressed the Graphics and Processor)
• A 700MB file was transferred from the CD/RW drive to the Maxtor PATA drive (Stressed the CD/RW drive)
• A 3GB file was transferred from the DVD drive to the Maxtor RAID drives (Stressed the DVD drive)
• A 10GB file was transferred from the Maxtor RAID drives to the Maxtor PATA drive (Stressed the hard drives)

Voltage measurements were taken using an analogue multimeter. For comparison measurements from a Q-Tec 550W dual fan power supply were also taken with this setup.

Q-Tec 550W:

Enermax ELT500AWT 500W:

Unfortunately we didn?t have the hardware available to stress the 500W Liberty to its maximum performance. However the testing machine we did test it with, is a good representation of an average user?s system. A single middle of the range graphics card, average processor (overclocked), a gigabyte of RAM and a few hard drives.

The Liberty 500W barely fluctuated when put under load, which as any overclocker will tell you, is a very good thing. We have heard of users who have put this power supply under heavy load though and reported the same thing as us, the power supply stayed consistent under load.

{mospagebreak title=Warranty and Conclusion}

Warranty

It?s a sad fact of things, but sometimes components just die before their time is due. This can be caused by faults in the manufacturing process, shipping knocks, of simply environmental changes, but at the end user level, it makes no difference how it died, just that it?s dead, and you?re stuck with a very expensive paper weight.

Enermax supply a three year warranty on the ELT500AWT so if for some reason it does kick the bucket, you?ll be sure your hard earned cash won?t be going down the drain.

Conclusion

Once again Enermax have produced a power supply you would be proud of to have in your system. At 80% efficiency you won?t be paying a small fortune to run it either, which is a major plus in my books. Its great having a beast of a PC, but if it costs you a small fortune to run it every year then next year you won?t be able to afford another upgrade. The modular cables look good and having a pouch to keep them in when not in use is a great idea by Enermax, it means you don?t have to keep the box to hand in case you wish to add another component to your system.

The black and gold colour scheme should suit any case, and with the modular cables, your case won?t look like a jungle if you?re not using all of them.

Overall Enermax have created another well made power supply with good performance, that wouldn?t look out of place in any case.

Scores

Packaging 4 / 5
Looks 4.4 / 5
Cabling 4.2 / 5
Performance 4.7 / 5

Final Score : 17.3 / 20

Pros

• Modular cables
• Software monitoring of the fan
• Looks good
• 80% efficiency

Cons

• Only supplied with four modular cables (and the two PCI-E ones)
• Multiple connectors on one cable can look messy

We would like to thank Paul Chung at Enermax for providing us with this product for review.

Thermaltake is not a new name to any PC enthusiast. Made
famous by their PC enclosures, Thermaltake also builds air and water cooling
solutions along with power supplies. Tt has also recently teamed up with Radio
Shack to deliver a line of computer modding components. With an extensive line
of products it is no wonder Tt has made such a name for themselves.  Today we are looking at the Thermaltake
Purepower 600W PSU.  Let?s see if Tt can
impress us with this new unit.

{mospagebreak title=Package and Specifications}
Package and Specifications:
 

Package

Thermaltake ships the Purepower 600W in a sturdy cardboard
box with a handle on the top for easy carrying.The front of the box shows the
unit along with some of its features. The back side shows several pictures of
the unit and the many connectors that it offers, along with a list of the
features.

Once inside the box we see the mass of wires and PSU wrapped
in bubble wrap.  The PSU easily pulls out
of the box and the bubble wrap comes off without any hassle. Also in the box is
a user?s manual and an additional box containing the power cord and the
mounting screws.

Specifications:

Taken directly from Thermaltake.com

Features:

-Complies with SSI EPS 12V & ATX 12V 2.2 version
-Supports dual PCI Express and 24-pin detachable main power connector
-High efficiency (80%) with 0.99 Active Power Factor value
-Seperate 12V rails provide sufficient 52A for PC system
-PCI Express, SLI, Cross-Fire, and dual-core CPU ready
-Low noise 12cm ball bearing fan and mirror effect housing
-Gold-plated connectors for better conductivity
-Protections: OVP, UVP, Short-Circuit, Over-power, Overload,
and Over-temperature
-Safety / EMI Approvals: CB,CE, FCC, UL, CUL, TUV
certification
 

Package and Specifications: 4.5/5
 

{mospagebreak title=Appearance}
Appearance:
 

The Purepower 600W is a very nice looking PSU. Tt calls the
color Electroplate Black Nickel finish. It is a mirror finish that looks great
but loves finger prints. It is too bad that the PSU is usually hidden in the
corner of the case and can?t be seen very well. Everyone likes a nice, clean
looking case and lately many have been switching to modular PSUs that enable
you to only connect the wires that you need. The Purepower 600W is not modular so you will have to find a spot to
hide all the extra wires if you are not using them. All of the wires are
sleeved though so it does look a lot better than a mess of unsleeved cables.
There is only one fan on the Purepower 600W and it is a 120mm fan located
across the bottom of the unit. The external portion of the PSU is grated to
allow good air flow out of the case.

 

Appearance: 4.25/5 

{mospagebreak title=Installation}
Installation:
 

The Purepower 600W installed like any other PSU.  The only difference was trying to prevent
getting finger prints all over it. Rather than having separate cables for the 4 pin and 8 pin 12v
connectors; Tt uses a 4+4 pin connector. These two connectors clip together; I found these wanted to slide apart
a little while moving the cable into place, but were very secure once clipped
in place.  All of the wires were plenty
long to reach anywhere in the case. Even the 24 pin connector could reach
almost anywhere if needed.

{mospagebreak title=Performance}
Performance:

 

To test the performance of the Purepower 600W PSU I first
tested it on two different PCs. The first is an average system while the 2nd
is a much more power hungry dual-core/SLI/water cooled machine.  All voltages were recorded using a digital
multi meter.  Voltages were recorded in
the BIOS, idling in Windows, under load in Windows, and gaming.  To load the average system I used
Folding@Home, rthdribl video stress test, and ran the TV tuner on live TV.  To load the performance system I ran
Folding@Home on each core, and rthdribl video stress test.  Battlefield 2 was used for the gaming test on
each system.

Test Systems

 

Average System

DFI RDX200 CF-DR
AMD Athlon64 3000+

Venice
Corsair TwinX PT 2x512MB
Sapphire X1600 Pro
Seagate 7200.9 SATA3G
Pioneer DVR108 DVD+-RW

Performance System

DFI LP UT SLI-DR Expert
AMD Opteron 165
Corsair TwinX PT 2x512MB
2x Leadtek 7800GT TDH Extreme in SLI
LG Super-Multi DVD+-RW
2x Samsung 80GB SATA 3G in RAID 0
Seagate 7200.9 SATA 3G
Danger Den Watercooling

Average system at stock speed of 1.8GHz.

 Average system overclocked to 2.5GHz.

Performance system overclocked to 2.5GHz.

As you can see from the testing results the rails on the Purepower 600w are pretty rock solid. I was very impressed how well it handled the range of systems that I used it on. 

During testing I unintentionally tested the overheat
shutdown feature of the PSU. There was an issue with the PSU and the
fan would turn off once the PSU was cool enough but not turn back on
after the temperatures started to rise back up.
This turned out to be a bad unit, Tt replaced the first PSU with a
second and this problem went away. This is the only thing holding this unit back from a higher performance score. Even though we received a second unit that did not have this same problem I have to be cautious of it happening again.

Performance: 4.25/5

 

{mospagebreak title=Price/Warranty}
Price/Warranty:
 

The Purepower 600W PSU can be purchased online from many
retailers with a range of prices. According to Pricegrabber this PSU can be
purchased from $115 to $143. This is around what we have come to expect to pay
for a dependable PSU.  The days of
running a $20 generic PSU have come and gone.
 

Warranty

Thermaltake offers a three year warranty on all of their
products from the date of purchase. Tech Support and eRMA are both available
through Thermaltake?s website.
 

Price/Warranty: 4.25/5

 

{mospagebreak title=Conclusion}
Conclusion:

 

After running the Thermaltake Purepower 600W for a while in
each system, I can say that I am impressed with what I have seen. I was
skeptical as to how it would perform after hearing about subpar performance
from Tt’s PSUs in the past, but now having used one I will certainly look into
using them again in the future.  The
Purepower 600W looks great and works very well. The sleeved cables make it easy to keep your case looking clean and
tidy.  There are lots of connectors for
just about any setup that you may have, and then some. The unit ran very quiet
and stayed pretty cool.  Other than the fan problem which was solved with a new unit I am very happy with the Purepower 600w power supply.  I look forward to seeing what else Thermaltake offers in the future.

Pros:

- Three 12v rails
- 600 watts
- Looks great
- Very quiet 

Cons:

- 8 Pin 12v plug slides apart during installation
- Fan not restarting in our test unit 

Package and Specifications: 4.5/5
Appearance: 4.25/5
Performance: 4.25/5
Price/Warranty: 4.25/5
Overall: 17.25/20

Acknowledgements: 

We would like to thank Thermaltake for sending us this
power supply for testing.

OCZ PowerStream 600W PSU Review

 
An enthusiasts necessity or just another power toy for those who can afford it? This is the question I will be answering today about OCZ’s newest PSU the PowerStream 600 watt.

OCZ, rather than aiming at the mod builder who wants as many neon lights as his case will allow, has recognized place in the market for those of us who care about our power quality and efficiency. Today ladies and gentlemen I bring you one of the most sensible yet customizable PSU’s available, prepare to be dazzled.

The model I am testing today is the OCZ-600ADJ EU which is the European
version of this PSU. With new technologies always on the horizon, and
existing ones such as SLI and Dual Core processing becoming a part of
people’s upgrade plans owning a PSU of quality and reliability has
never been as important as it is today. No longer is the word dual RAID
seen as something only heard from your Twinkie eating cousin as many
members of this site own four or more Raptors as well as a couple of
large storage EIDE drives, add to that a X800XT or 6800Ultra GPU and
your 400-500W PSU suddenly seems less capable than it did last year.

{mospagebreak title=Packing} 

Packing 

The actual box design of the PowerStream is well thought out, my first impression of OCZ was of a company who bows to the l33t h4x0r community. That assumption was proven false with the level of detail which has gone into putting all the features onto the front of the box while still maintaining appealing artwork.

I must assume opening the PowerStream box is what it feels like unveiling a Rolls Royce as the PSU is so well packaged I can’t imagine many being damaged in transit. The PSU is cased in thick bubble wrap, while the power cord and range of coloured ‘slip on wire jackets’ are cased in a very strong shrink wrap, along with four mounting screws.

 As this is no ordinary PSU it requires a manual to explain how all the features work. Included in the package were three leaflets, yes you heard correct three paged fold out leaflets, with each leaflet covering; English, French and Dutch you would think I would be underwhelmed by their size. I wish every company could fit so much information into such small documentation, instructions on installing into a new case and replacing an existing PSU are included along with the mildly amusing ‘Please refer to X or Y manual for specific instructions’ which makes sense.

I found the adjustable power rail to be the best part of the included documentation by far, stating the minimum and maximum voltages achivable as well as handy tips and instructions on getting the most out of altering the voltages. One part of the instruction states that if your power lights all show you to be within the recomended safe zone not to alter the voltage range, this was when it struck me that there is absolutely no advertising in any of the packaging or documentation. Very unusual and to be honest most refreshing to see a company concentrate all it’s efforts into making the manual as compact and understandable as humanly possible. One last part of the documentation worth meantioning is that the PSU will turn itself off in the event of:

• Over current
• Over voltage
• Under voltage
• A short circuit 

No substitute for a good quality UPS but very impressive power safety technology none the less, a full list of voltages and situations in which the PSU will power down are listed in the documentation are also included.

With more bling than Mr.Diddy’s jewelry cabinet the PowerStream is very attractive for a PSU, a 100% chrome finish covers the PSU outer casing, this has made photographing the power supply very difficult as it’s so reflective you could comb your hair in it. Since in most cases (pardon the pun) the Powerstream will either be hidden or barely visable through a side door this makes little difference but a very attractive cover all the same, and all without the support of interior lights.

Packing: 5/5 

{mospagebreak title= Features} 

Features 

OCZ PowerWhisper? Technology OCZ PowerFlex? individually adjustable power rails with LED indicators.
OCZ ConnectAll? universal connector. (ATX, BTX, SATA, P4 and EPS12V)
ATX12V 2.01
OCZ PowerShield? power leads
ActivePFC
5 year warranty backed by OCZ?s exclusive PowerSwap? replacement program

175x150x86 mm
23 dBA @ 60% load
100~120Vac / 200~240Vac 10/6a

600W:
+3.3V(28A)
+5V(46A)
+12V1(20A)
+12V2(18A)

For cooling the OCZ PowerStream Comes with front and rear fans, putting my hand close to each it feels as though the interior fan is barley working, after feeling around the rear fan I felt the warm exit of hot air. Placing this PSU inside of my case has not altered temperatures, at first I admit to not being able to hear the PSU in operation at all, so I pulled it out of the case and even under full load one inch from my ear it was silent. This was contrary to my expectations, it is evident PowerWhisper technology is exactly as it states, maybe PowerWhisper would have been a more fitting name to this product as well.

Although I said that there are no interior lights on this PSU it does come with an exterior green light, the backlight emits a soft glow and does not contrast with my existing blue case lights.

The reason this PSU was createdis to comply with the ATX 2.01 standard ATX2.01 is the new thing, even if you don’t want it to be, there is no escaping it. All power supplies are starting to shift over to the new standard.

 Connectors!! The powerstream is loaded with connectors, Six molex connectors in all and two very special molex connectors made for a GPU/HDD, although that counts as eight if your graphics card uses the pci-e connector supplied and you don’t have a critical backup drive. The VGA/HDD leads also make use of OCZ PowerShield technology, aditionally two SATA connectors and two floppy connectors are supplied. Notice the rather fat band on the end of the VGA connector in the picture. This is designed to lower inbound and feedback RF interference, as taken from the OCZ site:

One of the most original ideas put into this model is the ability of clipping connectors together to make larger ones. The ATX power connector for example has a little four pin clip attachment which converts it into an ATX 2.01 power clip, much more simple than using an adapter.

ATX 2.01 requires two 12v rails, known as dual rails this PSU model has a 20A and 18A rail. The idea is that by using two rails you cut down on noise going across the wire and get more power because of it. As I do not own an ATX 2.01 motherboard I am unable to test for the difference but perhaps I will at a later date.

The two 12v rails also connect together to make an eight pin connector used in EPS12V sockets, the second 12v rail named P4+ doubles as a second pci-e power cable, useful in SLI setups. The Powerstream has six individual power rails to increase the signal as well.

Features 5/5

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Installation

On installing the PowerStream I was left scratching my head, being used to a more simple ATX layout I am more accustomed to the screws being aligned in a square formation. Yet again more surprises as the Powerstream is built to be installed into an ATX or BTX case. I personally use the Thermaltake Shark case, it is very versatile and it has a number of screw holes on it’s PSU mounting bracket. Lifting the PowerStream was easy as it only weighs 2 kg and does not need the support bar my case offers, infact I found that it will sit very firmly on only two screws.

The PowerStream comes with three rear lights and three blue voltage screws above them, if your rig needs more power on the 12v/5v/ 3.3v lines then you will hear the onboard case fans get slightly louder or softer and upon checking the rear of the PowerStream will see if they need to be adjusted.

The three colours are:

Yellow = Voltage too low – Case fans will appear softer than usual
Green = Voltage within range – Everything will sound normal
Red = Voltage is set too high -Case fans will sound louder than usual

It is not hard to set up the Powerstream. You should have everything working as you would with a reugular PSU. The ability to finely tune the voltages to suit your exact system gives this PSU the edge in many tests.

Installation: 5/5 

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Performance

To test the PowerStream I will be using two methods, software and hardware. For the software tests Speedfan 4.24 beta 18 will be my tool of choice, and for the hardware my brand new multimeter. Both tests will be run under the same conditions against my Magna 600w PSU, the Magna is perfect as a standard PSU for comparrison. It only costs around ?10 and is a good representation of the standard PSU (in this wattage range) most people would buy. All tests will be run on the final OEM version of Windows XP Professional x64

Test Rig

Athlon64 3500+
Gigabyte K8NS -939
Audigy 2 zs
1GB Crucial Micron Valueram in Dual Channel
Aeopen Aeolus 6800GT (AGP)
Western Digital Raptor 74GB
ThermalTake Shark with two internal 6" fans
Gigabyte Rocket Pro HSF

Software being used

Pariah in window mode
Bonic running einstein@home
WMP playing the right profile by The Clash (I had no banjo music off hand)
Win DVD 6 playing the film Dirty Harry
Windows Movie Maker creating a video from a series of games clips
Prime95 torture test

As the PowerStream can be adjusted to any voltage you may like I have set it as close as I could to the recomended voltages, the purpose of this test is to see how far I can stress both power supplies by using convetional means, I will try to replicate how the average power user stresses his rig. Each test will be run for thirty minutes to gain an acurate result.

Software Tests

For the software tests the Magna seemed to dip the most, where as the PowerStream stayed stable. This software although well made obviously still has a few bugs as the 5v lines were all over the place. I was a little worried about the Powerstream until the Magna started showing the same results, time for a more accurate piece of testing equiptment I think.

Magna 600w

Normal operation
+3.3v =3.26
+5v =4.01
+12v =11.71

Full load
+3.3v =3.22
+5v =2.96
+12v =11.66

OCZ PowerStream 600w

Normal operation
+3.3v =3.31
+5v =2.46-5.20
+12v =12.10

Full load
+3.3v =3.31
+5v =2.46-5.20
+12v =12.10

Hardware Tests

My multimeter is brand new and costs around ?60-70 so it is of decent quality for testing power supplies. The magna, when tested, was all over the place on the 12v and 5v tests but once I started to stress the PSU it dropped asyou would expect for a cheap PSU. It did hold up well in the 5V test. I would not recommend this hardware to overclockers or anyone who stresses their machine as the 12v and 3.3v tests showed it was very weak.

The PowerStream was quite the opposite, I was unable to stress it at all until I remembered a review in which the PSU was stressed by opening the optical drives. After opening the drives the PowerStream dropped by 1v for a split second, this drive has taken everything and is still running at the settings I configured. I was also happy to see the 5v readings to be accurate on both models.

Magna 600w

Normal operation
+3v =2.89
+5v =5.05 – fluctuating between 5.05/4/6
+12v =11.57/8

Full load
+3v =2.81
+5v =5.03
+12v =11.47

OCZ PowerStream 600w

Normal operation
+3v =3.33
+5v =5.07
+12v =12.04

Performance: 5/5

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Price 

Costing almost as much, in the UK, as a 3500+ this is a very expensive PS. You do get a good 5 year warranty and guarantee of fast replacement. $212 will buy you this excellent power supply if you can afford it. There are, however, cheaper alternatives for those who don’t need or want that much power. If you are not a hardcore enthusiast and have no interest in overclocking or watching your voltages then the ModStream may be a better buy. If you do want one of the most stable PSU’s on the planet then this is your buy and for those who can afford it once you plug it in you won’t want to replace this PSU for a long time. Simply put the PowerStream is worth it’s price. 

Price: 4.2/5 

{mospagebreak title= Conclusion}

Conclusion 

Coming with a host of features to improve your power quality and reliability, having easy to adjust connectors and being able to fit into any modern case with minimum hastle, the PowerStream is an amazing PSU. I was barely able to stress it and should you fill your case up with as much RAM as it can hold, a ton of hard drives, and dual SLI 6800Ultras, you would still be able to up the voltages from the back of the case. Simply put OCZ have spent a lot of time listening to the needs and wants of the overclocking and power user community, this PSU is the result of a lot of research and knowlege and it shows. The only downside I was able to come up with is the price, $212 or ?160 is a lot for any component especially a power supply, although you do get a very good 5 year warranty and guarantee that you will get a replacement as soon as possible. The 5 year warrenty takes the sting out of the price a little but it is still a lot of money to part with, if you can afford this PSU then you will be safe knowing that you have one of the most customizable and silent PSU’s around.

I would like to thank OCZ for sending us this amazing product for review as it will be used in my test rig from now on, as I stated at the start of the review I was sceptical of OCZ and thought their products were overpriced for their value, my view has now changed after testing the PowerStream and I would recommend it to anyone wanting a good solid PSU. For all the modders out there who are most likely thinking ‘I wish it had more lights’ there is also the ModStream which BTJ has tested and is an excelent alternative for those wanting a more asthetic rig.

Pros:

Dependable
Customizable
Utterly silent when all voltages are set to in range
Looks great for those wanting a more sensible PSU
The Warranty

Cons:

Expensive
Not a lot else

Final Score: 19.2/20

The OCZ PowerStream is awarded our best on the planet award