Legit Power Supply Reviews
OCZ PowerStream 520W PSU
| Manufacturer: | OCZ Technology |
| Product: | OCZ PowerStream 520 |
| Date: | Wed, Jan 19, 2005 - 12:00 AM |
| Written By: | Yves Toleno - |
| Price: | Current Pricing |
Packaging and Impressions
The OCZ PowerStream came in simple but attractive packaging that does its job. I would not recommend shipping this power supply with out more packaging as this box is not designed for it. The box has a nice graphic showing the power supply and it gives a rundown of the basic features and specifications on the back.
Once open you can clearly see that the power supply is sheathed in bubble wrap. The box also contains a short manual with installation information and the warranty, fat lot of good that will do me. Once the contents are spread out you can see the normal assortment of power supply items, four mounting case screws, zip ties, power cord, and a package of silica gel beads. OCZ also ships a 24pin to 20pin adapter for people who do not have server or BTX motherboards, which is most of us.
The outside of the PowerStream has a high gloss mirrored finish that looks fabulous. There is but one caveat, a finish this nice has the propensity to attract every finger smudge and scratch in existence. I highly recommend installing this power supply with some gloves or at least a bottle of Windex and some paper towels because if you have a window in your case you will see every little smudge. Also if you put this in a plain beige case with no window I will hunt you down and beat the hell out of you, this power supply needs to have some light. Besides, just think of what it can do for your sex life, when girls come over you can just point to your power supply and say “see how big it is.”
When OCZ said the PowerStream had ConnectAll universal connectors, they were not kidding. Rather than talk about all the standard connectors I want to talk about what is not standard. First the PowerStream supports BTX which means it has a 24pin power connector; this connector is also used on most new PCI-Express motherboards. The PowerStream also comes with a 8pin 12v auxiliary connector with the P4 connector attached. It also has the outdated, in my mind at least, ATX auxiliary connector that I have not seen used on any current motherboard. In what seems to be the new standard OCZ included SATA power connectors as well. The final pair of connectors I want to point out are the ones using OCZ Power Shield Technology. What OCZ has done is wrap the cables in a braided wire sheath and added an inductor to the end of the connector. The objective is to reduce any AC signals on these two power connectors. Removing any EMI interference should help the life of your hard drive or video card, though how much I don’t know. In the end the OCZ PowerStream has more than enough connectors, and length to meet the needs of just about any case I have ever used. There is some room for improvement here; OCZ could have sleeved all the cables, and they greatly increased the installation difficulty with all the connection options as well as extra cable length.
As they say looks are only skin deep so let’s pull out the screwdriver and void the warranty -- it's time to get inside this power house.