Page 4 - Minor Tests and Conclusion
Power supplies are interesting products -- because often, reviews of products in this category are conducted and tested in methods that make it difficult to distinguish one power supply from another. Many aspects have to be taken into consideration -- of which certain criteria consists of efficiency, noise, power ripples, and of course the ability to pull out the rated specifications. Because many cannot afford such equipment to obtain results regarding those aspects, articles covering power supplies often come out with less than adequate and acceptable information. As this is an product report -- not a review -- what we are doing is a close examination of the power supply, and the internal hardware and build. But what we can do for you is do some minor testing with the results we can present to you with, and let other review sites with professional equipment show you the actual test results.
Using our power supply tester which exerts minimal load on the power supply, the initial consumption was 17W as measured by our wall meter unit -- indicating that the basic load-free power consumption of the power supply is higher than average; although power supplies with this high output capacity is not too uncommon to have this reading. The OCZ EliteXStream 800W is a certified 80 Plus power supply, and many reviewers with professional testing equipment showed results of its efficiency hitting around OCZ's rating of 82% and some even beyond -- which is overall pretty good.
Voltages with minimal load is generally accurate, which is a basic requirement of power supplies out of the box. In this situation all are within 0.2V. The PG (Power Good) delay is also very good at 300ms from our tests.
The active power line correction worked well on OCZ's EliteXStream 800W power supply; our Seasonic PowerAngel reported a power factor of 0.97 (97%) to 0.98 (98%) -- not as good as the 0.99 you'd expect, but it's definitely within acceptable range.
Anyways, in regards to noise -- under regular load, the power supply is very quiet; quite similar to what you'd expect from Seasonic power supplies. While this is very subjective, I am quite a picky person on noise and the loudest component in my entire system is my hard disk. On a scale from 0-10 where 0 is the silent and 10 is the loudest, I would rate the OCZ EliteXStream 800W to be at 2.0/10 -- which is just slightly above the Seasonic units, in idle conditions. There's turbulence noise only when the fan spins up to a somewhat high RPM -- in idle conditions, there is a small clicking sound if you listen to the EliteXStream carefully at close range. As the load increases, the OCZ EliteXStream 800W's thermal sensor will detect it and increase voltage to the fan -- in which the higher the load, the more audible the fan is. Under our nominal load of around 180W to 220W this power supply is very quiet, you can almost count fan RPM by sight (Well, not really, but you get the idea). However, once you push it to over 50% capacity, the fan will start to kick in. Most people won't have a computer that uses that much power anyways, especially in idle conditions. Overall, in terms of noise, the OCZ EliteXStream 800W won't disappoint.
Special thanks to Andy over at OCZ for making this report possible.
Lots of connectors, lots of power, and not a lot of noise and heat -- the OCZ EliteXStream 800W is quite a sweet power supply. Sources indicate that the OCZ EliteXStream 800W tested with professional equipment gave excellent numbers in performance and efficiency. It makes it quite a winning combination; a quick check at retail price shows that the OCZ EliteXStream series offers surprising amount of bang for your buck!
Page Index
1. Introduction, Packaging, Specifications
2. Physical Look - Outside
3. Physical Look - Inside
4. Minor Tests and Conclusion
