OCZ Z Series is the 80 Plus Gold-certified power supply family from OCZ, and so far they released an 850 W and a 1,000 W model. Let’s see if the 1000 W model will live up to the expectation.

So far we’ve reviewed two other 80 Plus Gold power supplies: Enermax MODU87+ 700 W and Seasonic X-Series 650 W.

The OCZ Z Series 1000 W is manufactured by Highpower.

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Figure 1: OCZ Z Series 1000 W power supply.

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Figure 2: OCZ Z Series 1000 W power supply.

OCZ Z Series 1000 W is very small for a kilowatt product, being 6 ¼” (160 mm) deep, using a 135 mm fan on its bottom and active PFC circuit, of course. This is the exact same size of the 850 W model, by the way.

The modular cabling system has eight connectors, four yellow for video cards and four black for SATA and peripheral power connectors. This unit comes with five cables permanently attached to the power supply. All cables use 18 AWG wires, except the main motherboard cable, which use thicker 16 AWG conductors.

 The cables included are:

• Main motherboard cable with a 24-pin connector (no 20-pin option), 21 ½” (55 cm) long (permanently attached to the power supply).
• One cable with two ATX12V connectors that together form one EPS12V connector, 24 3/8” (62 cm) long (permanently attached to the power supply).
• One cable with one EPS12V connector, 24 3/8” (62 cm) long (permanently attached to the power supply).
• Two cables with one six/eight-pin connector for video cards each, 24 3/8” (62 cm) long (permanently attached to the power supply).
• Four cables with one six/eight-pin connector for video cards each, 23” (58.5 cm) long (modular cabling system).
• One cable with three SATA power connectors, 24 3/8” (62 cm) to the first connector, 7 ¼” (18.5 cm) between connectors (permanently attached to the power supply).
• Three cables with three SATA power connectors each, 18 7/8” (48 cm) to the first connector, 7 ½” (19 cm) between connectors (modular cabling system).
• One cable with three standard peripheral power connectors and one floppy disk drive power connector, 20 7/8” (53 cm) to the first connector, 7 ¼” (18.5 cm) between connectors (modular cabling system).

The difference between the 850 W and the 1000 W here is the presence of two extra video card power cables (the ones permanently attached to the unit) on the 1000 W model; the rest is identical. Therefore this power supply brings enough cables for you to build a high-end system with up to three video cards that require two power connectors each and 12 SATA devices.

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Figure 3: Cables.

Now let’s take an in-depth look inside this power supply.