OCZ ProXStream 1000 Watt Power Supply

OCZ has been catering power supplies to the PC enthusiast ever since they began to offer power supplies in their product lineup.  They are most famous for their top performing memory modules.  When it comes to PC enthusiasts, they are looking for power supplies that stand out of the ordinary and offer great performance. Today, we look at the ProXStream line of power supplies.  Currently, only this 1000 watt model is in the series.

Upon opening the box, you will find the manual; which is not very detailed, a higher gauge power cable, and 4 screws. 

Here are some of the main features and specifications from the box:

The Power Supply:

The power supply features a graphite colored shell with the qualities of a mirror, which looks great.  There is a potential for finger prints to show up very well on this surface.  For a 1000 Watt power supply, it is nearly the size of a standard power supply, which is great.   

Looking at the side of the power supply, there is an OCZ label with their logo on it, the model number and a condensed specification list.  Note that there are four +12v rails, each supplying up to 20 Amps, which is good for peripherals requiring lots of power. It is also RoHS compliant. A search of the UL database show that this power supply is manufactured by FSP (Fortron Source).  It also appears to be based on FSP's 'Kingcraft' series of power supplies. 

The rear (inside of case) features a large slotted grill to allow for air to pass through the components.

The rear (outside of case) features an 80mm fan to cool off the entire power supply.  There is  no on/off switch (which I personally do not like, because if these is a need to shut off the computer, you would have to pull the plug from the wall or the power supply itself instead), and an AC Power Input.  This power supply offers a full range power circuit and Active PFC, so there is no need for a 110v / 240v switch. 

The Cables:

-A large bundle of cables can be found exiting the power supply

This power supply features the following cables:

-A 24-pin ATX power connector with removable 4 pin for backwards 20-pin compatibility.

-A 4-pin CPU ATX Power Connector

-An 8-pin EPS +12v connector

-4x  6-Pin PCI-Express Power Connectors

-6x Molex Power Connectors and 2x Floppy Power Connectors

-6x Serial ATA Power Connectors.

Cooling:

Cooling is handled by a single 80mm fan in this power supply. During testing, the fan was quite loud, making a quite noticeable sound inside my computer case.  This can be expected because there are so many components inside the power supply being cooled by a 'tiny' 80mm fan. During idle / less intensive tasks, the power supply was still quite loud, enough for its sound to overpower the cpu and system fans.  Compared to other 1000 watt power supplies, which use a 120mm+ fan, it is louder than most of them.

Inside the Power Supply:

* Taking this power supply apart will void the warranty.

Inside the power supply, there are medium sized heat sinks underneath the gold color plate that offer fins to cool down the voltage rectifiers.  There is a large high quality transformer that can be seen inside of the cut out square on the gold plate.   Deep inside, there are two Rubycon branded capacitors.

-There are two 'levels' in this power supply, which is typically done to fit a powerful power supply into a small enclosure.  This power supply would surely be longer if it was to be built on a single PCB.

The fan inside is a Protechnic Electric fan; Model MGT8012UB-R25 , with a maximum draw of 0.66Amps.  The high maximum draw indicates that this fan can get quite loud.

Testing:

For this power supply, the test system consists of the following:

-Antec Nine Hundred Case

-AMD Opteron 165 Dual Core Socket 939 CPU @ 2.9 GHz (1.62v)

-ThermalTake Blue Orb II Heat Sink

-DFI LANParty nF4 SLI-D

-2GB of Corsair XMS Platinum PC3200 Memory

-320GB x 4 Western Digital 16MB Cache Hard Drives

-2x nVIDIA GeForce 8800GTS Video Cards @ 625MHz Core / 1000 MHz Memory

-Sound Blaster Live! 5.1 Digital Sound Card

-Sony 16x DVD-RAM / 18x Samsung DVD-RAM Drives

-3x 120MM fans, 1x 200mm fan

-2x CCFL Lights

(Multimeter Results)

*For additional / larger pictures of the ProXStream 1000 Watt, Click Here

*Voltages are at 'Max Load', running 3DMark06 CPU Test 1 and 2 / Deep Freeze HDR test, and read with a Multi-Meter.

The results are excellent for this power supply, the voltages barely budged. Everything ran fine during testing; the system was stable and performed the tests as expected.  During the tests, the fan speed did increase and was quite loud during the Deep Freeze test; it's sound overpowered the rest of the fans in my testing case. When the system is idle or doing simple tasks, the fan was not as loud, but still could be heard.  I was not too impressed with the noise characteristics during the testing. Installation of this power supply was easy.  Overall, the OCZ ProXStream is a recommended power supply.   It is multi-gpu ready with a four 6-pin PCI-E power connectors.  It's server class internal components and build quality is also welcomed.  Unfortunately, it does not come with the new 6 + 2 Pin PCI-Express connector, which means that it is not prepared, if your graphics card requires a 6 + 2 Pin connector.  OCZ's 3 year warranty is also included with this power supply.  It is offered in online store for around $300.

Pros +

-Excellent Power Delivery and Stability

-Four 6-pin PCI-Express Power Connectors

-High Quality Components

Cons -

-Loud fan

Techaddicts.net would like to give this power supply a 8.5 out of 10 rating and the Techaddicts 'Recommended' Award for its excellent power delivery / stability and high quality components.

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