We loved this power supply. Why? Because it has exactly the same design of two other good high-end power supplies, OCZ GameXstream 700 W and Zalman ZM600-HP, but costs a lot less – only USD 85, on average, in the USA. For the average user this is a terrific buy. This unit not only costs less than competing 600 W products, but you will be also bringing home a 720 W power supply!
In fact OCZ could easily have labeled this product as a 700 W power supply and keep claiming 80% efficiency (during our overload tests we pulled 711 W from it and it kept 80% efficiency).
The only internal difference between OCZ StealthXstream 600 W and those other two high-end models are the rectifiers used on the +12 V output, capable of delivering less current (and thus power). But it is still enough for the majority of users. The other components are exactly the same.
There are, however, some external differences that may prevent you from buying this unit. It has only three SATA power connectors (the other two power supplies have six) and five regular peripheral connectors (GameXstream 700 W has six and ZM600-HP has seven) and it does not feature a modular cabling system. So if you are thinking of installing more than three SATA devices (i.e. hard disk drives and optical units) you’d better look for a different unit, unless you don’t mind using adapters to convert standard peripheral power connectors into SATA power connectors – which isn’t a bad idea at all, due to the lower cost of this unit.
For us to consider this a “perfect” product, we’d like to see efficiency higher than 80% when delivering 600 W, especially when this power supply could easily reach 85% efficiency under lighter loads.
Ripple and noise level was a little higher than competing products, but still inside specs, so this isn’t a real issue.
The only real flaw we saw on this unit was the absence of a MOV, a component in charge of removing spikes coming from the power grid.
Anyway, we think this is a terrific product for the average user, being a power supply with one of the best cost/benefit ratios around.
