Installation & Testing:

Inside the DD Torture Rack

4-PCI Express Power

When connecting the PSU, the longer cables were a big plus and made connecting components inside the DangerDen Torture Rack easy. It also made connecting components outside of the Rack just as easy. That's just one of the nice things about a case and PSU like this.

Nice Cable Lengths

The other handy feature are the four PCI Express power connectors. An ASUS 9800GTX 512MB Graphics Card was used in the test system which requires two connectors for power. Power hungry cards like this one make SLI a little resource consuming taking up all your connectors. Without a PSU like this, you'd need PCI Express power cable adapters and that means using up other cabling resources.

The Test System

For testing purposes, the system voltages were monitored my trusty industrial grade volt meter. I've tried using monitoring software, but there's almost always one glitch with at least one sensor. For instance, ASUS Suite, Speedfan, and HWMonitor software all reported different results. Using hardware to check voltages almost always ends up being the best way for accuracy. The main concerns are whether or not the PSU can handle 800 Watts full load and how stable the rail voltages are at that time as well as under normal use.

Most users who buy this PSU will have conservation, future peripherals, and upgrades in mind. Rarely do we all buy a PSU rated to provide power for what we exactly need. So, typical system use won't be putting the PSU under great stress. But, it's also important to see how the PSU performs under standard use as well.

I was not surprised to see the OCZ 800 Watt EliteXStream Power Supply do really well straight out of the gate. Each 3.3V, 5V, and 12V rail were well within specs with no voltage fluctuations. With my trusty meter set to pick up the most sensitive values, the 3.3V rail provided 3.41V, the 5V rail provided 5.09V, and the very large 12V rail provided 12.23V.

AMD Entertainment Booth

Standard system testing pretty much had no effect on the power rails. Whether it was two Gigabyte HD 3870 512MB graphics cards in Crossfire mode or a power hungry ASUS 9800GTX 512MB graphics card, the rails were steady and fluctuated a mere .01 Volt if at all. Even on the most sensitive setting, the meter revealed a .015 variance, if you want to even call it that. If it were a 1 or .1 volt change, then that might be something to monitor.

Using the Seasonic Power Angel, we can see just how efficient the power supply is during regular operations. Unfortunately, connecting the PA to the equipment used to load the PSU wasn't permitted. We can at least still see how well the PSU is expected to perform within your system.

Now, the cook off information. Can the PSU withstand an 800 Watt load? You bet your $160.00 it can! Testing the PSU scaled a little quicker since it wasn't necessary to check several 12 Volt rail values. At full load, the rail values were within specs reporting less than a .1 Volt variance. That means, the 12V rail reported in at 12.15 Volts from the average 12.23 Volts which is really good.

Tested & Fully Recommended

Just above 800 Watts, the PSU shut down before the PSU's rails could degrade to damaging levels exactly as it's designed to do. The PSU did this three times without fail or developing any issues. Without that over volt protection, components could be damaged. You got to admire a component like this since it leaves you feeling confident that it won't fail you if push it too far.

Conclusion:

When any of us purchase a PSU, and any other component for that matter, we're looking for the best bang for buck. The lights, bells, and whistles are important to some folks like modders, but not to everyone. As far as the OCZ 800 Watt EliteXStream Power Supply is concerned, it's a very clean, simple, and powerful unit. While it doesn't offer modular cabling, it does offers good, lengthy braided cabling. Despite its simplicity, the PSU is no ugly duckling.

Also, rather than fancy you with multiple 12 Volt rails, OCZ engineers saw fit to offer one massive, very reliable 12 Volt power rail. And the PSU holds true to its rated 800 Watts. That's a lot of power for any system whether it be running Triple/Quad SLI or several RAID drive arrays. There's plenty of power to go around and it's as rock solid a power supply as any extreme user could want. It's built to offer you a feasible power to cost ratio currently found for $150.00 and lower which makes it the current 800 Watt top choice.

When testing a power supply, the greatest questions I have are going to always be as follows. How well is the PSU designed? How stable are the power rails? Can it produce its rated wattage reliably? Some worthwhile attention has been given to its over all design right down to the circuits. The OCZ 800 Watt EliteXStream Power Supply is obviously very well designed to produce 800 Watts of power, maintain steady, reliable voltages, and protect your system by offering very clean power without fail. Add the 80 Plus efficiency feature and you have the 800 Watt Editor's Choice.

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