Page 3 - Physical Look - Inside
Opening the OCZ EliteXStream would break a warranty seal, ending the OCZ 5-year coverage. But still, we're going to take a look at the internal build of this product.
The Impervio-built OCZ EliteXStream 800W power supply packs quite a bit of components at first look, but a more detailed glance demonstrates to us how even inexperienced users can easily distinguish the different parts of the power supply. The initial filtering stage -- EMI filtering, array of coils, and X-caps are placed near the mesh of power supply housing. There is a pair of large, ribbed heatsinks; both painted black in color with one thinly placed over the three primary capacitors and the second one placed over the rectifier bridge, Y-caps and the such. This open design will not restrict airflow, and allow the bottom mounted 120mm fan to easily bring air across components inside the EliteXStream.
The primary side of the power supply. A vertically placed add-in PCB houses the active power factor correction (APFC) circuit. A massive toroid coil can be seen right next to the add-in board. A piece of clear plastic is placed along the side for protection. The base blue PCB of the OCZ EliteXStream 800W has all the components placed and soldered extremely cleanly; a closer look between the heatsink shows that the board is labeled for 800W, 900W, and 1000W -- meaning that a 900W version of the EliteXStream could arrive sometime soon.
The output power cables are sleeved, but not too far past the guard. That aside, the power cables are soldered very cleanly onto the board, it's a good indication of quality as we see quite a bit of power supplies doing a very dirty job in this segment because they expect no one to look in there. Next to it is a vertically oriented add-in PCB that houses all the OCP/OVP/OPPs. It is worth noting that the add-on PCB actually incorporates solid state capacitors -- this could prove quite valuable in the long run as electrolyte capacitors in this application could worn out faster under high heat.
The OCZ EliteXStream's 120mm cooling fan is plugged into the add-in board as well, as the PCB hosts a fan controller. Two cables are connected to two thermistors on the EliteXStream, which are in turn placed on both heatsinks. There are adjustable potentiometers for each voltage rail located on this PCB as well, but OCZ does not advertise them as user adjustable as the user cannot access this without voiding the warranty of the power supply unit.
OCZ's EliteXStream features a dual transformer design with three primary capacitors, as you can see in our photo above. The Hitachi electrolytic primary capacitors are each rated at 150°C, 330µF and 420V. Excellent Teapo capacitors are used for the secondary side.
The OCZ EliteXStream 800W utilizes a Protechnic Magic MGA12012HF-025 120mm fan, rated at 0.45A @ 12v. The maximum rotational speed is 1600RPM @ 38dBA. There are no posted numbers for CFM ratings, but the thick bladed fan looks like it's probably pretty good for this purpose -- applying proper pressure in a closely bounded area to most efficiently bring cool air into the EliteXStream. It would be nice if noise dampeners were placed between the fan and the casing to reduce vibrational noise of the fan.
Page Index
1. Introduction, Packaging, Specifications
2. Physical Look - Outside
3. Physical Look - Inside
4. Minor Tests and Conclusion
