OCZ EliteXStream 800W PSU

Elite, leet or 1337? Stream or Xtreme?

Just to clarify, it is the Elite-X-Stream rather than any other variation, and although despite being Elite it's actually quite boring. The matt black steel enclosure could use a touch of flair to say the least. OCZ's logo is embossed on both sides, but it's difficult to see (and take photos of) and the 12cm fan can appear decidedly minuscule at a first glance.

The clean, subtle look might suit some going for a minimalist approach and in an all black case with black motherboard and graphics hardware it'll fit in perfectly, but in all honesty without a logo that's easier to read, you'd be hard pushed to tell it apart from a plain OEM box.

We initially thought that it's not very OCZ if we consider that the company loves selling big bling heatsinks, fancy memory and pre-painted notebooks. Then we were reminded that in fact every OCZ PSU looks like this, and while the GameXStream's appropriately have a blue LED in the fan, the EliteXStream does not because it's designed for a different market. Performance enthusiasts apparently prefer component quality over flashy bits, and that's actually a sentiment we can completely agree with.

Despite the black fan looking a wee bit widdly, there's a good reason for a 12cm one choice over something larger - many companies argue that the build quality of 12cm fans is higher because the process of manufacture is more tried and tested, unlike the newer 13.5cm and 14cm variants. As the fan is the only moving part in a PSU and the entire weight of the blades is on the single central axle, quality considerations should be paramount to reliability.


The honeycomb grill on the back is pretty standard, and OCZ also put a small square hole on the other side for the heat to escape from - obviously this is a critical area that required breathing room during testing. The fan grille is recessed and virtually flush with the top so it won't get in the way should a case have a PSU cage and in respect to other PSUs, the OCZ EliteXStream is a very normal 8.5cm x 15cm x 16cm so should fit easily into any ATX case.


There is no vibration reduction offered between the PSU and case like some other power supplies, like the Cooler Master Silent Pro, and the fan doesn't house grommets between itself and the metal surround either (however no one we know of else does this).

Since it houses PC Power & Cooling innards it's of no surprise that this is a single 12V rail design, and it provides a healthy 93 percent (at 744W) of the total 800W to the all important 12V rail. As a single rail design, some will argue that it puts more pressure on the single output, however since this way of doing things is PC Power & Cooling's bread and butter for many years we can safely assume it's reliable.