OCZ Power Supply Roundup

The OCZ CoreXstream 500W is designed for an entry level system, being priced at only £32.99 inc vat. We have never tested one of these power supplies before, so we were interested to see how it would handle.

Inside the box there is a regional specific power cable, a little user manual and some mounting screws. The power supply itself is protected inside a soft bubblewrap bag. This is not a modular power supply, although at this price it is hardly to be expected.

First impressions point to just how light this power supply is, it is featherweight and quite nicely finished considering. The paint work is not too deep however so it does scratch quite easily. It measures 150 x 140 x 86 mm.

All of the cables are hardwired into the chassis, not all of them are sleeved either.

A large 120mm fan is hidden behind the black grill. We will look at this shortly when we crack open the chassis.

The other side shows that this power supply is set at 230V. There is a vent here to help cooling and a power connector and switch at the side.

The OCZ CoreXStream 500W can deliver 444W via the dual +12V1/+12V2 rail.

Connectors are: 20+4 pin ATX, 1x 4+4 pin CPU, 1 x PCIe 6-pin, 1 x 6+2-pin PCIe, 2 x 4-pin Peripheral, 4 x SATA, 1 x Floppy.

Not an ideal power supply for a high powered gaming system, with only a single 6+2 pin PCIe cable and a 6 pin PCIe cable hardwired into the unit. Still, for a single HD7870 or HD7950 it should be fine. Only the main motherboard connector is sleeved, so it won't be the most attractive build either, if you are using a windowed chassis.

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